User:Qwip

I've been playing NetHack on and off since early 2006. All games have been played locally since I often play during particularly boring conference calls at work.

I've never ascended.

I try to play with a different character name every game. If my character doesn't have a name I like, I can't be bothered to care about the character during the somewhat boring first few levels. I maintain a text file with names that I've collected, so that I have a good name to use when my next character dies. My favorite character name was Nat Heck. He died a quick death early in my hacking career. :-(

Spoiler Philosophy
I originally started playing with the intentional of avoiding all spoilers.

Then I amended my philosophy to reading spoilers only for those things that I'd already encountered. Of course, I naturally ended up reading about other stuff too. For example, I had heard about the fake amulet and the vibrating square, yet I've never seen either. I also thought that my character at least ought to know what skills were learnable and what the maximum skill levels were.

And by reading more, and reading John Harris' @Play columns, I came to slowly accept that being "spoiled" was nearly required in a game like NetHack. Although I did spend some time and zorkmids trying to see many (all?) of the Oracle's major consultations.

Now when I play, I immediately open up this wiki as a guidebook for what intrinsics each corpse might provide.

Neutral Human Valkyrie, XL 15
I feel like I'm finally starting to play patiently and intelligently. (Having a generous RNG helps, too!)

Early in my game (Dlvl4?), I dipped some cursed potions to dilute them in a fountain and summoned a hostile water demon -- which then proceeded to summon more water demons. Instead of attacking and dying, I used Elbereth liberally until I could escape the room to the relative safety of a hallway while my pets (horse and dog) received all the wet aggro. Once my pets were killed off, I was cornered in a hallway between summoned water demons just 3 squares from a shopkeeper's door. Standing still on a dusty Elbereth, I started trying on each of 4 uncursed, but unidentified rings. I knew this would be the end of Etrusca unless I found the Ring of Conflict. The 4th ring caused "The water demon hits the water demon" messages to spam across the screen. After a few rounds of minding my own business amid the fracas, I was able to get into the shop and take off the ring. When 2 more demons approached the doorway of the store, I was able to stand 1 square away from the shopkeeper and put the =oConflict back on to let him dispatch the final demons.

I felt triumphant at the outcome of that battle and my ability to succeed in what previously had seemed an insurmountable situation.

The RNG has been very good to me:

 * found wand of wishing in sokoban (2 ?oCharging (oops, didn't see first 1 appear in inventory when I engrave ID'd the wand), default +2GDSM, holy water, with 1-2 wishes left?)
 * found 2 luckstones and 4 touchstones (1 blessed) in gnomish mines
 * found a magic whistle
 * got BoH from sokoban, and another cursed one from a bones file
 * found 2 cloaks of magic resistances (1 from a bones file on Dlvl12 that suggested what type of cloak it was)
 * found 1 blessed scroll of identify that identified all of my inventory items
 * found amulet of reflection in jewelry store

The RNG has been stingy with altars though:

 * Between Dlvl1 and 15, only altar is in Minetown, and it's cross-aligned. So I had to wish for holy water.

Artifacts:

 * I found excalibur in a bones file, but I'm the wrong alignment and my god is angry at me (prayed too soon) so I've left it in my closet for now.
 * Since I don't yet have a co-aligned altar, I haven't begun to sacrifice.

Special Levels:

 * I found (and sacked) Fort Ludios for the first time.
 * I found the Rogue Level for the first time -- and my quest portal is there, too!

Pets
Dog = dead

Dog = dead

Horse = dead

Dog ==> Lich ==> Trapper :-(

Cat ==> QueenBee = died at Fort Ludios

Cat ==> Centaur ==> QueenBee = died at Fort Ludios

Dog ==> PitFiend (and saw him fall in a pit in Ludios. lol)

Horse ==> Gold Golem :-\

Cat ==> Vampire (now a Vampire Lord w/ AC: -18!)

Plans for Etrusca

 * 1) Complete quest level
 * 2) delve down 1-2 more Dlvls looking for an altar
 * 3) if no altars found, wish for a uncursed figurine of a white unicorn to convert the minetown altar. (I'm pretty confident that Priest of Odin is no match for "VampiraKitty"!)
 * 4) sacrifice most of the lizard corpses I've been keeping with me (are they still sacrificeable...?)