The first NetHack (1987): Hack plus classes, spells, fountains, thrones and a Wizard who fights back.

NetHack 1.3d (Mike Stephenson and the NetHack team, 1987) is the first NetHack: Hack 1.0.3 extended with twelve classes (Archeologist to Wizard), spellbooks and spells, prayer, fountains, thrones, polymorphing yourself, new monsters and the Wizard of Yendor, who now comes back after you. The goal is unchanged: take the Amulet of Yendor from the bottom of the dungeon and return to the surface. Death is permanent.

• About the game
• Keyboard controls
• Saving your game
• Tips
• New player's guide
• Playing in the browser

About the game

NetHack 1.3d is Hack with classes, magic and gods added, and the ancestor of today's NetHack. Levels are kept when you leave them, there is no town, and most items are unidentified until you use them.

Keyboard controls

Essential keys

Saving your game

• Saving is automatic. The game is stored in this browser (IndexedDB) between your commands (at most every two seconds). Reloading the page continues from there.
• S saves and ends the session, as in the original; reload the page (or press Play again) to continue.
• When your character dies or you quit with Q, the save is deleted: death is final.
• Each browser keeps one game. New game deletes it and starts over.
• Export save downloads the save file; Import save loads one, also a save from the Mac version (save/save/501Name: user number, then the character name).
• Private/incognito windows and "clear site data" delete the stored game. Export first if it matters.

Tips

• New players do well with a Valkyrie or Samurai; the Wizard and Healer are weak in melee but start with spells.
• Keep your pet close; it fights for you and won't step on cursed items.
• Pray (#pray) when your hit points are very low, but not often: the gods need time between prayers.
• Quaffing from a fountain can grant a wish, but more often brings water moccasins or water demons. Dipping a long sword in one at level 5+ can make Excalibur (lawful characters).
• Search (s) at dead ends; engrave Elbereth (E, -) when in trouble.
• Never eat a cockatrice, and don't fight one bare-handed.

New player's guide

Your first steps

1. Answer n to "Shall I pick a character for you?" to choose one of twelve classes (a Valkyrie is easiest).
2. Look at your gear with i.
3. Explore with _, with your pet following. Walk into monsters to fight, pick things up with ,.
4. Search dead ends (s), then press > to walk to the stairs and go down.
5. Save with S; the next start continues the game.

Staying alive

• Rest (., or s) before going down.
• Leave floating eyes alone in melee.
• Keep food; pray when weak from hunger or at very low hit points.
• Try unknown potions and scrolls at full health with no monster around.

Playing in the browser

• The map is drawn with tiles, as in the Mac version. Tiles switches between the DawnLike and the NetHack tile set (the choice is kept in this browser). A− / A+ on the Map title bar (shown on hover) change the tile size.
• Keys: hjklyubn or the arrow keys move you (Home, PgUp, End, PgDn for the diagonals); capital letters run.
• Browsers keep a few shortcuts for themselves (Ctrl+W, Ctrl+T, Ctrl+N, and Cmd shortcuts on a Mac), so those never reach the game.
• If the game ever crashes, a message appears at the top; reload the page to continue from the last autosave.

About this version

• Based on NetHack 1.3d (1987) by Mike Stephenson and the NetHack team, from github.com/bhaak/NetHack-1.3d.
• Our changes (tiled window, auto-explore, stairs walking, command menu, inventory cursor and item menus, web build) are local to this port.
• Tiles: DawnLike by DragonDePlatino and DawnBringer (CC-BY 4.0); NetHack 3.6 tiles (NetHack General Public License).