JackFrost2012 said:
The game is pretty frickin' hard. I expect to finally ascend sometime around 2014.
Here's an idea for you - I've been playing off and on since 1998, and I've only been close to ascending once. You can clean out the entirety of the dungeon and be ready to steal the amulet, but even then your odds are not very good. The elemental planes are unbelievably difficult.
EDIT 2: Some other questions. Is there a way to open a locked door beyond simply kicking the hell out of it?
A pickaxe or equivalent can probably destroy it. A key (or skeleton key) can open it. A credit card can sometimes open it. Actually, keys are very useful to have since most of the time they seem to be skeleton keys, and you can lock doors for protection if need be.
Opening doors and locked doors works out your dexterity, too (bashing down doors works out strength)
What's the best way to ID potions and scrolls - drink and read them yourself, or toss and give them to enemies to see the effects?
The very best way involves having casual knowledge of the potion or scroll FAQ. However, if you don't want to go that far:
-Potions have unique "results" when thrown against a wall. It can be hard to tell what it does based on the results though. Drinking is somewhat safe provided you know its uncursed or blessed, and that you've dipped a unicorn horn in it (the really nasty potions turn into something safe if you do that). There are still some risks, but not many.
I always like to lock myself in a small-medium room when I'm trying to ID potions, just in case. If you're not unicorn horn dipping, going blind without telepathy is a quick way to die, and a locked room provides fairly good protection. (If you want telepathy, eat the corpse of one of those giant eyeballs. Then, if you wear something over your eyes (or are blind) you can see any monster with a brain).
One exception is the smoky potion - if its blessed (or you really want to roll the dice), drink it. There is always a chance of a Genie appearing, and if it really likes you (far more likely with blessed), it will grant you a wish. If it sort of likes you, it is merely a pet, if it's indifferent, it just wanders on its own, and if it hates you, well, good luck.
-Scrolls, well, damn, just using them is way too risky. If they're blessed, you MIGHT be okay, but usually it's bad news in all circumstances.
The best way to identify scrolls is with a scroll of identify - but if you don't have that, try dumping all of your scrolls on a shop floor so you can check their values. The cheapest ones are usually identify - so try using any extremely cheap scrolls you have and hope for the best.
Just in case there is a scroll of flame, you would be wise to put away any flammable goods, potions, or other scrolls into a bag (or drop at your feet if you don't mind risking teleportation).
Try to bless scrolls of identify once you know what they are to really speed up the identification process. An experienced Nethack player, once they have 5+ blessed scrolls of identify, starts moving any spare chests/boxes near the stairs on a given level, then gathers ALL of the spare equipment they can find. The idea from there is to basically hold as much unidentified stuff as you possibly can (do it all at once so you're not moving around like a sloth) and then using the blessed scroll (which has a high chance of identifying everything at once).
Is it worth taking a chance on equipping un-IDed equipment, or is the risk of something cursed binding to you too great?
There is nearly a 40% occurance of cursed equipment in the game, so don't blindly equip stuff unless your AC is already terrible (8+). To check for curses, either drop on an altar (black flashes mean cursed, white/gold flashes are blessed, no effect means uncursed), get it identified, or try placing it somewhere a pet would have to walk on it. If the pet refuses to step on the spot for a long time or "grudgingly" does so, it's cursed.
The only exceptions I would make would be for tattered cloaks (almost always cloaks of displacement, which means even mild AC penalties are fine), or for items you've taken off enemy bodies that YOU KNOW have a good effect. (If you see a gnome "seems to be moving faster" that tells you they either have a potion of speed, wand of speed, or boots of speed)
With anything else, the risk is too high, really. The helm of opposite alignment is cursed and has a very obvious and dangerous effect. There are dunce caps (annihilates your intelligence), gauntlets that basically make you clumsy, and if you wear a cursed stackable item (ie: tshirt => armor => cloak or ring => gauntlet) you can't take off anything underneath it.
What good are statues of enemies for?
Statues aren't very useful - in fact, they are somewhat dangerous. Try to pickaxe statues (rare chance of a scroll or book being revealed, or on the Medusa floor, something better).
Eventually a monster statue returns to life, which can be bad news depending on the monster.
Figurines, on the other hand (which look just like statues in tilemode) are great! You can actually use figurines - if they are blessed, the figurine turns into a pet. Neutral = ambivalent, Cursed = enemy. ANY enemy in the game (except the Wizard and maybe one other exception) can be your pet, so sometimes it can be really handy. (Most people prefer Archon pets since they can phase through solid material). A nasty/fun trick for pets is to force them onto a polymorph trap.
What's with all the sinks and fountains? Should I be dipping items in them, praying to them, drinking from them, or what?
Sinks: Drop rings down them. This is a great way to figure out what they do. Basically, if you know a ring is safe to put on, try it on - if it has no visible effect (turning you invisible, making you hungry, speeding up HP restoration), take it off, and dump it down a sink for a somewhat descriptive answer. You lose the ring for good, though, so identify is always a better choice. One exception is the ring of searching (auto-searches while you move), which bounces back out of the sink every time ("you found it!")
If you are a strong weapon user and have 7+ levels on you, you might want to kick a sink. Every sink contains 1 ring - the other possibilities include black puddings (kill for experience) or succubi (dangerous, kill em quick!). Never, ever drink from a Sink though. There is a chance of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles effect (polymorph).
Fountains: Two different things to do - one is to dip useless scrolls or potions in order to clear them up (be careful, lots of negative monster type effects are possible, although polymorph is not), and the other is rather special:
You need to be lawful, experience level 5 or higher, and dip an ordinairy long sword. 1/6 chance the sword turns into the Blessed Rustless Uncorroded Damageproof Excalibur (which has autosearching while you wield it!). If you're not lawful, this method just abuses your wisdom.
Most named weapons in the game are really powerful and rare, but beside excalibur there two other weapons you can get fairly easily:
Orcrist (Great against Orcs): Find an an Elven Broadsword and #name it Orcrist.
Sting (Great against Orcs, gives you warning): Find an Elven Dagger and #name it Sting.
Try not to make these items unless you need them, though. Named weapons are considered artifacts, and with each artifact spawned by Nethack, the odds of any others being found decreases.
Bonus Tip: If you ever "feel you get better" with a weapon, the game is just saying you should press ALT+E and increase your proficiency.
What class would you recommend for beginners?
Priests: Sort of like red mages. They fight okay with a mace, can learn magic fairly easily, and automatically know if an item is cursed/uncursed/blessed. If you ever get tired of trying to ID armor and just want to get your AC down low, this is a great class to play.
Monk: They don't need weapons and are fairly well off once you find them some better cloth equipment. There are harsh luck/god hits if you let them eat corpses or meat, but I usually let them eat the eyeball corpse anyway and then just wait for my prayer timeout. They carry lots of food to start. If you ever find gauntlets of power (Strength = 25) these guys can really kick ass. Monks also gain a lot of intrinsics on their own, and excercise wisdom while fasting.
When I get tired of those classes, I find the Valkyrie or Barbarian are great brawlers. With the Barbarian in particular, try getting two weapons and then using #twoweapon for twin fisted combat.
For race, consider the following:
Humans: no advantages, possible to hit 18 on all stats without help.
Orcs: strength advantage, intelligence/charisma hit, which means everything is expensive. Orcs also have infravision, poison resistance, and are exempt from cannibalism or eating domesticated animals.
Elves: constitution hit, wis/int advantage, infravision, sleep resistance at lv4. Obviously subject to cannibalism penalty if you eat other elves.
Dwarves: Infravision, wis/int/cha hit, con/dex advantage.
Gnome: Infravision, can hit 19 STR.
Basically, stick to humans. Gnomes seem to be better but you could starve to death in the gnomish mines if you can't eat any of the thousands of gnomes you kill there. Elves are a good choice for magic users, though.
