The NetHack Home Page

Beginner's Tips

Only few tips for beginners have ever been translated to World Wide Web format. Most are available in plain ASCII format only. If you would like to find things out for yourself, you can read these files without the danger of being spoiled. The following are available (all files are for versions preceding version 3.3.1: see the latest news page for that version):

The "official hints" for 3.3.0 comprise the NetHack manual (ASCII). There are also manuals for other programs that may come with your copy of the game: Recover, the Dungeon Compiler, the Level Compiler, and the Data Librarian.

A plain text version of the Guidebook for version 3.3.0 is available. It is also available in PDF and PS format.
If you are still playing version 3.1.3, you can get the Guidebook here for the Atari (in hypertext format); for the Amiga (in AmigaGuide or in standard format (35 kByte)); or in LaTeX format. Note that the Guidebook hasn't changed much from version 3.1.3 to version 3.3.0, so even if you are playing the current version, you might still be interested in one of the older non-ASCII versions.
The NetHack FAQ (also available in ASCII).
The Roguelike Games FAQ. If you want to have a look at other FAQs, you could have a look at the list of Usenet FAQs.

If you are a beginner at playing NetHack, and don't want everything told to you at once, you really should have a look at the tips for beginners, provided by Mikko Saari. There is a local copy of this file, in case his site is down. This file was written for version 3.3.0.
Commonly used abbrevations on rec.games.roguelike.nethack (ASCII).
Hints for beginners for versions 3.2 and earlier (ASCII).
A Word 6.0 file which contains all monster and item descriptions from the NetHack 3.2.1 "nhdata" file.
A Word 6.0 file which contains all help files contained in the NetHack 3.2.0 "nhdata" file.
A short overview of the various gods (for version 3.1.3) (ASCII).
A short list of the monsters that appear in NetHack, version 3.1.3 (ASCII).
A guide to the sources of NetHack: their structure and how to interpret them (written for version 3.1.3, but this shouldn't have changed a lot) (ASCII).
A review of the major NetHack 3.1.3 variants (does not include Slash yet) (ASCII).
Three files with tips on how to install the X11 windows variant on your system (file 1, file 2, and file 3), written for version 3.1.3, but possibly still valid (ASCII).

There is a very active newsgroup where NetHack is discussed: rec.games.roguelike.nethack. If you subscribe to this group, be warned that you will not only see beginner's tips there, but also a lot of spoilers. If you don't want to see any spoilers, don't subscribe to this group! But if you have any specific questions, don't hesitate to subscribe and ask them.