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"alignment gain from "you feel partially absolved" sacrifice"

Your alignment record refers to your standing with your god. It is often simply called alignment, but it is not the same as lawful/neutral/chaotic-status. Its initial value is 0 for Cave(wo)men, Priests, Tourists, Valkyries, and Wizards, and 10 for Archeologists, Barbarians, Healers, Knights, Monks, Rogues, Rangers, and Samurai. Its maximum is initially 10, and its upper bound increases by 1 for every 200 game turns. It has no lower bound. The value can not be found precisely (except in wizard mode), but enlightenment or a stethoscope can give you a clue. Additionally, your quest leader will not permit you to go on your quest if your alignment record is below 20. This means you cannot enter the quest before turn 2000, which may or may not be a problem for speed ascenders.

Your alignment record gradually increases as you kill monsters, and decreases when you do actions your god does not approve of.

Checking your alignment[]

Enlightenment by a wand or potion include a statement of your alignment. You can also apply a stethoscope to yourself.

Alignment statement Alignment range
"You are piously aligned." 20 or higher
"You are devoutly aligned." 14 to 19
"You are fervently aligned." 9 to 13
"You are stridently aligned." 4 to 8
"You are aligned." 3
"You are haltingly aligned." 1 to 2
"You are nominally aligned." 0
"You have strayed." -3 to -1
"You have sinned." -8 to -4
"You have transgressed." -9 or lower

Ways to alter your alignment[]

In this table, MAX means your maximum alignment, which is 10 + (turns / 200). This chart does not include the (large number of) monsters that you will get one or more alignment points for killing. Many of the following can have other effects as well, such as on luck or your god's anger, but for brevity these are not shown here.

Generally, for a character not attempting a pacifist conduct, who has not irritated his god, your alignment will be very close to the maximum.

Alignment Class Adjustment Cause
Chaotic Chaotic Any -MAX/2 As a chaotic with negative alignment and positive anger, sacrificing at a non-coaligned altar and converting
* Any Any -MAX/8 Killing one of the friendlies around your quest leader
* Any Any up to -15 Killing a peaceful monster of a type which is "Always Peaceful." (see below)
* Any Any -15 Killing your pet (stacks with -3 for displacing into trap)
* Any Any -5 Killing a peaceful creature without angering it (as opposed to in one attack)
* Any Any -5 Angering a coaligned priest
NC Non-chaotic Any -5 As a non-chaotic, sacrificing a member of your own race
* Any Any -5 Attempting to change alignment at an altar a second time
* Any Any -2 Killing a coaligned priest
A SpecialA Archaelogist -3 As a lawful Archaeologist, digging up a grave
* Any Any -3 Displacing your pet into a trap (stacks with -15 for killing) (some trap types do not count, e. g. polymorph traps)
* Any Any -3 Sacrificing your pet (if it died tame)
* Any Any -1 Praying on a non-coaligned altar, at a time when praying does not annoy your god
Lawful Lawful Any -1 As any other lawful (non-Archeologist?), digging up a grave
K SpecialK Knight -1 As a Knight, attacking a fleeing or sleeping monsters ("You caitiff!")
K SpecialK Knight -1 As a Knight, eating while satiated ("You feel like a glutton!")
K SpecialK Knight -1 As a Knight, digging down in a shop ("You feel like a common thief.")
S SpecialS Samurai -1 As a Samurai, attacking a peaceful creature ("You dishonorably attack the innocent!")
S LawfulS Samurai -1 As a lawful or Samurai, attacking with a poisoned weapon
M SpecialM Monk -1 As a Monk, eating meat ("You feel guilty.")
A SpecialA Archaelogist -1 As an Archaeologist, breaking a historic statue ("You feel guilty about damaging such a historic statue.")
* Any Any -1 Sacrificing an identified fake Amulet of Yendor
NN Non-neutral Any -1 As a lawful human or a chaotic demon, genociding something
* Any Any -1 While riding, having your steed drown in water or lava
* Any Any -1 Angering a peaceful creature
* Any Any -1 Contributing 0 gold to a coaligned priest ("Thou shalt regret thine action!")
Lawful Lawful Any -1 As a lawful, stealing from a shop (reversed if shopkeeper is later made peaceful)
Lawful Lawful Any -1 As a lawful, choosing not to pay for damage to a shop
Lawful Lawful Any -1 As a lawful, lying when asked your name by a vault guard
Chaotic Chaotic Any -1 As a chaotic, casting a heal spell on a pet or peaceful creature
Chaotic Chaotic Any +1 As a chaotic, being seduced by a foocubus
NN Non-neutral Any +1 As a chaotic human or a lawful demon, genociding something
* Any Any +1 Praying successfully, with alignment 1 or less and a minor trouble
* Any Any +1 With alignment below -5, contributing 200*level to 400*level to a priest, getting clairvoyance
Chaotic Chaotic Non-rogue +1 As a chaotic non-rogue, stealing from a shop (reversed if shopkeeper is later made peaceful)
Chaotic Chaotic Any +1 As a chaotic, choosing not to pay for damage to a shop
Lawful Lawful Any +1 As a lawful, untrapping a monster (probability about 5-15%, depending on luck)
Lawful Lawful Healer +1 As a lawful or Healer, casting a heal spell on a pet or peaceful creature
* Any Any +2 Angering a non-coaligned priest
* Any Any +2 Killing a non-coaligned priest
* Any Any +2 With alignment positive, donating more than 600*level to a coaligned priest, which is more than half your visible gold, and this hasn't happened in the past 5000 moves
* Any* Any +3 Freeing a prisoner during your quest
Chaotic Chaotic Any +5 As a chaotic, sacrificing a member of your own race
* Any Any +5 Sacrificing a non-coaligned unicorn on a coaligned altar
* Any Any up to +15 Killing a hostile monster of a type which is "Always Peaceful" (see below)
* Any Any +MAX/4 Killing your quest nemesis
* Any Any +MAX/4 Killing a priest of Moloch
Lawful Lawful Any +MAX/2 As a lawful with negative alignment and positive anger, sacrificing at a non-coaligned altar and converting
* Any Any set to -MAX/2 Killing your quest leader
* Any Any set to -1 Sacrificing a coaligned unicorn on a non-coaligned altar (A conversion is likely to follow)
* Any Any set to 0 With alignment negative, donating more than 600*level to a coaligned priest, which is more than half your visible gold, and this hasn't happened in the past 5000 moves
This page is based on a spoiler by Matthew Lahut, available at http://www.steelypips.org/nethack/pray.html

Alignment gains from killing monsters[]

Normal alignment changes from killing monster are determined by the function set_malign(mtmp). Note that this is applied after the above modifiers. So if you kill your quest leader, your alignment is actually set to ((-MAX/2) - 20).

Monster alignment (malign) is defined for each monster in monst.c. It is largely independent of monster difficulty. In the table below, we always use the absolute value of malign.

The alignment gain is calculated when a monster is generated[1]. It is recalculated whenever a monster is tamed[2] or becomes peaceful.[2][3] It is not recalculated when peaceful or tame monsters become hostile,[4] with the exception of the high priest of Moloch if he is angered when entering the temple in Moloch's Sanctum.[5]

who change
quest leader -20
unaligned monsters (Rodney, priests of Moloch) +20 if hostile; 0 if peaceful (the Valley of the Dead priest)
"always peaceful"[6] (shopkeepers, aligned priests) -3 * max(5, malign) if peaceful, +3 * max(5, malign) if hostile (hostile priests on the astral plane)
"always hostile"[7] monsters (a very large list) 0 if co-aligned; max(5, malign) otherwise.
co-aligned monsters -3 * max(3, malign) if peaceful, max(3, malign) if hostile
all other monsters malign

Examples[]

  • Vlad the Impaler: 0 if you're chaotic (co-aligned, always hostile); +10 otherwise (Vlad's alignment is -10[8])
  • A lichen, a newt, or Death: +5 if you are lawful or chaotic (neutral, always hostile); 0 if you are neutral
  • A gnome or a Air elemental: 0 (neutral, can be peaceful)
  • The Minetown priest: -15 (always peaceful, priest alignments are 5, 0, -5)
  • A peaceful golden naga, and you are lawful: -16 (-1 for attacking a peaceful monster, -3 * the naga's alignment of 5[9])
  • A hostile golden naga, and you are lawful: +5 (the absolute value of the monster's alignment)
  • A peaceful golden naga, and you are not lawful: +4 (-1 for peaceful, +5 for the naga's alignment)
  • A hostile golden naga, and you are not lawful: +5 (naga's alignment)

As long as you are killing monsters and commit no major violations (killing quest leader, pet, priest), you can safely assume that your alignment is positive. If you need to raise your alignment quickly, kill easy always-hostile monsters: fungi, insects, non-pet canines and felines.

Source code references[]

  1. makemon.c, line 1067 example of set_malign called at monster generation
  2. 2.0 2.1 tamedog in dog.c taming (or making peaceful for untameable monsters) causes alignment gain to be recalculated
  3. reward_untrap in trap.c monsters made peaceful by untrapping have alignment gain recalculated
  4. setmangry in mon.c angering monsters does not change alignment gain
  5. priest.c, line 352 the high priest of Moloch's alignment gain is recalculated if you anger him by entering Moloch's Sanctum
  6. Monflag.h#line131
  7. Monflag.h#line130
  8. monst.c#line2019
  9. monst.c#line1778
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