Detailed Features

👉 A comprehensive reference of all major mechanical changes, balance adjustments, and feature enhancements introduced in GnollHack.

📖 General

⚙️ Mechanics & Difficulty

• Difficulty Levels — Features 7 distinct Difficulty Levels. The chosen difficulty will show in the status bar before the dungeon level as a letter:

  Difficulty Level	Status Bar Letter
  Standard	s
  Experienced	e
  Adept	a
  Veteran	v
  Expert	x
  Master	m
  Grand Master	g

• Polymorph Balancing — Polymorph, polymorph traps, and polymorphing monsters (such as chameleons) always polymorph into in-difficulty forms. Polymorph control is also restricted to prevent transforming into out-of-difficulty forms.
• Rune Words — Added new protective runes: Gilthoniel prevents monsters from picking up items or looting containers in that square (does not work in Gehennom); Morgoth does the same and works in Gehennom.

🧬 Attributes & Health

🍖 Attribute Training

• Nutrition Training — Removed the attribute training system. Instead, you gain attributes by eating corpses and some fruits (a vegetarian option):

  Attribute	Food / Corpse Sources
  Strength 💪	Giants, Spinach
  Dexterity 🎯	Snakes, Monkeys, Bananas
  Constitution 🔋	Ogres, Pomegranates
  Intelligence 🧠	Mind flayers, Lichens
  Wisdom 🦉	Owlbears, Treants
  Charisma ✨	Nymphs, Avocados (no teleportitis anymore)

🩸 Health & Mana Regeneration

• Regeneration Rates — Players and monsters regenerate hit points at the rate of MaxHP/300 per turn (doubled by Regeneration) and mana at the rate of MaxMana/900 per turn (doubled by Replenishment).
• HP & Damage Scaling — Players and monsters generally have more hit points and deal more damage than in NetHack.
• AC Calculations — Players and monsters can have higher AC than in NetHack, because Dexterity increases one's AC.
• Attribute Bonuses — Attributes, like strength and dexterity, give out different amounts of bonuses than in vanilla NetHack. Check the Abilities (Shift+a) status screen for exact information.

⚔️ Combat & Controls

• Weapon Sets Swapping — Exchanging weapons with x has been greatly improved. You can wield a one-handed weapon and a shield in one set and a two-handed weapon in a second set, and swapping them is instantaneous.
• Two-Weapon Combat — Two-weapon combat does not use the second readied weapon set anymore. Instead, it is toggled directly by pressing Ctrl+x.

🔐 Containers & Items

• Water Safety Prompt — There is a warning prompt when you try to enter a water square.
• Bag Safety Prompt — There is a warning prompt when you try to put a container bag into another bag.
• Known Trap Safety Prompt — There is a warning prompt when you try to enter a known trap.
• Status Bar Clean-up — Gold and alignment are not shown on the status bar. You can check your gold by checking your inventory, and you can find your alignment in the character details page (}).
• Two-Handed Curses — You can use containers even when you wield a cursed two-handed weapon.

📖 Learn More

• Difficulty Levels — Detailed modifiers for difficulty ratings

👤 Player Character

📈 Progression & Stats

• Extended Level Cap — The Experience Level cap is increased to 50.
• Experience Curve — The experience curve has been streamlined; it requires only 204,000 experience points to reach level 30, compared to 100,000,000 in NetHack.
• Carrying Capacity — Characters can carry more than in NetHack.
• Dynamic Stats Update — Changes in Constitution immediately reflect in your maximum hit points, while changes in Intelligence and Wisdom immediately reflect in your maximum mana.

📖 Learn More

• Experience Level — Overview of progression and experience requirements

👹 Monsters

🧬 Monster Stats & AI

📊 Core Stats & AI

• Monster Attributes — Monsters have attributes like the player character (Strength, Dexterity, etc.).
• Monster Intelligence — Monsters are more intelligent than before and can use a wider variety of items.
• Fear Resistance — Undead and mindless monsters do not flee from battle and are immune to fear.
• Corpse Generation — All monsters except wraiths generate a corpse 100% of the time.

📁 Monster Classification

• Class Letters — Some letter changes: Gnomes are now in 'g', lesser undead in 'z', and greater undead in 'Z'. Zruty is now in 'Y'.
• New Classes — New monster class Gnoll 'G', including Gnolls and Flinds.
• Copyright Replacements — For copyright reasons, there are now tentacled ones, gazers, and underworld hulks instead of mind flayers, beholders, and umber hulks.

☠️ Special Attacks & Resistances

🐍 Instadeath & Strangling

• Strangling Attacks — Couatls, mariliths, and constrictor snakes have now a strangling attack, which kills the target in 6 turns.
• Non-Fatal Drowning — Drowning attacks are no longer instadeath.
• Purple Worm Swallowing — Purple worms do not instakill pets and monsters anymore.

🪄 Summoning & Petrification

• Summoning Adjustments — The Summon Nasties monster spell has been heavily nerfed, and demons summon other demons more seldomly.
• Petrification Rules — A cockatrice is more dangerous, petrifying you on a successful hit if it passes MC; however, cockatrice corpses are less dangerous, needing to pass MC to petrify a monster.

💀 Touch of Death

• Spell Limitation — Mage spell casters cannot cast Touch of Death anymore (this includes the Wizard of Yendor).
• High Priest Attacks — High Priest class clerical spell casters can cast Touch of Death (and magic resistance does not protect against it; death resistance is required instead).
• Death's Touch — Death resistance is also required against the Grim Reaper Death's touch of death.

⚔️ Combat Mechanics

📈 Difficulty & Scaling

• Difficulty Formulas — Monster difficulty level is calculated dynamically based on SQRT(damage_per_turn * effective_hit_points). You can inspect difficulty using /.
• Monster Scaling — Monsters range in difficulty levels between 0 and 200, though the upper limit is not capped.

🏆 Experience Points

• Experience Calculations — Killing monsters grants experience equal to about 1 + monster_difficulty_level ^ 2.
• Encounter XP — Monsters appearing in an encounter give out extra experience depending on the difficulty of the encounter.

🤺 Fleeing & Covetousness

• Covetousness Removal — Covetousness has been removed from all monsters except the Wizard of Yendor, whose recovery and stealing behaviors have been nerfed.

📖 Learn More

• Monsters — Overview of monster classes and bestiary list
• Wizard of Yendor — Boss guide for the Wizard of Yendor
• Death — Guide to Death and death resistance

🐾 Pets

🧭 Behavior & Pathing

• Pet Pathing Engine — Pets use the built-in travel pathing engine, preventing them from getting stuck on the other side of the map.
• Stand Ground — You can command pets to stay put to prevent them from eating corpses.
• Aggression Scaling — Pets will attack high-level monsters but are in danger of being killed by them. Pets do not attack peaceful monsters.

⚙️ Pet Interaction

• Equipment Management — You can give items to your pet and tell it to wear, drop, or undress them.
• Riding Tweaks — Riding as a non-knight is easier, and the pet loses tamedness slower.
• Hiring Mercenaries — You can hire some peaceful monsters for a gold fee to join your party.
• Discussion Option — You can chat with pets and peaceful monsters to ask them to join your party.

📊 Statistics & HUD

• HUD Status Lines — Pet hit points and other statistics are shown on status lines 4-8.
• HP Inspection — You can check your pet's hit points by using /.
• Better Notifications — Better messaging is displayed when your pet is hungry.
• Dungeon Food — More food is generated for your pets in the dungeon (e.g., grass/carrots in garden rooms for horses).

📖 Learn More

• Understanding Pets and Hirelings — Guide to managing taming, feeding, and companions
• Riding — Info on pet riding requirements and skill levels

🏪 Shopkeepers, Priests, and the Oracle

🏪 Shopkeepers & Merchants

• Item Identification — Shopkeepers can identify unknown items for a gold fee.
• Anti-Theft AI — Shopkeepers have been trained to spot pets trying to steal items from their shops.

⛪ Priests & Altars

• Altar Services — Priests can bless/curse items and heal the player character for a gold fee.

🔮 The Oracle

• Oracle Services — The Oracle can identify items and provide enlightenment.

📖 Learn More

• Shopkeeper — Overview of shopkeeper behavior, services, and inventory
• Priest — Guide to alignment services, blessings, and altar usage
• Oracle — Details on consultation and identification fees

📈 Skills

⚔️ Weapon & Spell Skills

• Combined Skills — Weapon skills have been combined into 14 distinct skill groups instead of 28, and they grant more bonuses.
• Critical Hits — Weapon skills increase your chance to score a critical hit (causing double damage).
• Revised Schools — Revised spell school skills.

🪤 Traps & Prestige Skills

• Disarm Trap Skill — Added a Disarm trap skill that can be trained. Untrapping traps grants items (magical traps usually give wands).
• Martial Arts — Martial arts is a prestige skill that you can improve after reaching Expert in Bare-handed combat. It requires 2, 3, 3, 4, and 4 skill points at Basic, Skilled, Expert, Master, and Grand Master levels.
• Status Indicator — The game shows when you have unused skill points in the status bar.

📖 Learn More

• Skills — List of all weapon, spell, and auxiliary skills

🎖️ Roles

🥋 Role Enhancements

• Monk Buffs — The Monk can do martial arts kicks using k, making boots of kicking highly valuable.
• Revised Intrinsics — Most roles have revised intrinsics per level.

🏁 Starting Equipment

• Tourist Starter — The Tourist starts with a +2 golf club because darts cannot be thrown in melee range anymore.
• Bags & Containers — All roles start with a bag. Rogues start with a bag of treasure hauling and wizards with a bag of wizardry.

📖 Learn More

• Character Classes — Detailed list of roles, starting items, and traits

🎒 Items

💎 Equipment Enhancements

✨ Mythic & Legendary Affixes

• Mythic Prefix & Suffix — Non-magical equipment can spawn with special mythic properties (e.g., demon slaying). Read Mythic and Legendary Items.

💎 Weapon Quality Tiers

• Item Quality Classes — Weapons can spawn in different quality tiers. See Exceptional, Elite, Celestial, Primordial, and Infernal Items for details:

  Quality Tier	Base Damage Multiplier
  Normal	1x
  Exceptional	2x (Double base damage)
  Elite	3x (Triple base damage)
  Celestial	4x (Quadruple base damage)
  Primordial	4x (Quadruple base damage)
  Infernal	4x (Quadruple base damage)

👕 Extra Equipment Slots

• Robe Item Slot — Robes can be worn over armor and under cloaks (the game selects the better AC/MC).
• Miscellaneous Items — Added a new Miscellaneous item class ('8') and 5 new slots (e.g., belts and ioun stones).

🧪 Item Mechanics & Categories

• Reagents Category — Added a new Reagents item class ('9') used for spellcasting.
• Unicorn Horns — Unicorn horns have charges and cannot cure attribute point damage, but they work 100% of the time (uncursed horn cures 1 condition; blessed horn cures 2).
• Panther Caps — Gain blind telepathy by eating a panther cap (good for vegetarians).
• Wands of Polymorph — Nerfed so that blessed/uncursed/cursed wands affect 7/4/1 items per use.
• Ring of Conflict — Conflict-granting items have charges and are no longer permanent. The Ring of Conflict is now The Ring of Conflict (has charges), scroll of conflict is single-use, and the horn of chaos applies a temporary debuff.
• Wands of Cancellation — Wands can also be applied to items to enchant or cancel them.
• Magic Resistance Nerf — Magic resistance does not shield against death attacks, magic missiles, or striking, and it does not reduce elemental damage to half.
• Gold Weight — Gold weighs 10x more, but the bag of treasure hauling reduces gold weight to 1/32.

⚔️ Ranged & Melee Combat Tweaks

🏹 Ranged Combat Penalties

• Melee Launcher Penalty — Launchers and thrown weapons used in melee range (1 square) receive a to-hit penalty of -40 (-32 for crossbows).

🗡️ Melee & Ammunition

• Polearms Range — Polearms hit all adjacent squares (range of SQRT(8)) at all skill levels.
• Ammo Breaking — Uncursed ammunition has only a 1/20 chance of breaking; blessed ammunition never breaks.

📖 Learn More

• Items — List of item classes and categories
• Artifacts — Database of quest and sacrifice gift artifacts

🗺️ Dungeon

🚪 Special Rooms & Lairs

⛪ Starting Rooms

• Starting Altars — Your starting room features an altar of your god and a stash containing 2 to 3 random items.

🌿 Gardens & Libraries

• Garden Rooms — Rooms filled with fruits where you can dig (Ctrl+g) for roots and chop trees for lumber.
• Library Rooms — Rooms containing spellcasting monsters.

🐉 Dragon Lairs & Mimic Shops

• Dragon Lairs — Rooms filled with dragons and ancient dragons.
• Orc-and-the-Pie Rooms — Two new variations of this classic puzzle room.
• Deserted Shops — Shops populated by mimics and a boss mimic that drops the Wand of Identify.

⛲ Fountains & Dungeon Layout

⛲ Fountain Varieties

• Fountain Safety — Fountains are safer to drink from; negative effects occur only on lower dungeon levels. Added new fountain types (poison, healing, mana, power). The original fountain is now the magic fountain.

🗺️ Dungeon Restructuring

• Doom Shorter — The Dungeons of Doom branch is slightly shorter.
• Gehennom Shorter — Gehennom is slightly shorter and lacks mazes except on special levels.
• New Branches — Several new dungeon branches have been added.

📖 Learn More

• Dungeon Layout — Comprehensive guide to branches, levels, and layouts

🔮 Spells

🔮 Spell Preparation & Casting

🧪 Mixing & Casting Requirements

• Spell Levels — Features 14 spell levels (Minor Cantrip, Major Cantrip, and levels 1–12).
• Material Components — Most spells require material reagents to prepare.
• Spell Castings — Mixing a spell grants a pool of casts (ranging from 1–100 depending on the spell).
• Cooldowns — Spells can have a cooldown timer.
• Casting Stats — Spells use casting attributes (Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, or combinations).
• Mana Reduction — Spell school levels reduce the mana cost of spells.

📈 Spellcasting Success Chance

• Spell Casting Chance — The casting success chance is calculated using the following modifiers:

  Modifier	Effect	Conditions / Details
  Magic School Level	+100%	Per level in the school
  Spell Level	-50%	Per spell level
  Attribute Score	+15%	Per stat point in active attribute (INT, WIS, or CHA)
  Armor Penalty	-	Applies to somatic spells only
  Item Bonus	+	From staves/magic items (does not affect restricted schools)

📕 Spellbooks & Management

📕 Spellbook Mechanics

• Spell Expiry — Spells cannot be forgotten over time.
• Spellbook Crumbling — Spellbooks crumble to dust upon successful reading.
• Reading Safety — Failed spellbook reading does not paralyze the player character.

⌨️ Spell List Management

• Spell Hotkeys & Removal — You can hotkey spells or remove them from your active spell list by pressing +.

📖 Learn More

• Spells — List of all spell classes and spellbooks
• Spell Casting — Guide to spellcasting requirements and modifiers

🏆 Scoring

🏆 Scoring Calculations

• Scoring Calculations — GnollHack has its own scoring model, and your current score is calculated in real-time and displayed on the status bar. Scoring differs significantly from NetHack:

  Score Contributor	Included in GnollHack?	Included in NetHack?
  Delving Depth	✅	✅
  Achievements	✅	❌
  Difficulty Level	✅	❌
  Turn Count	✅ (Ascension only)	❌
  Conducts	✅ (Ascension only)	❌
  Gold	❌	✅
  Gems	❌	✅
  Artifacts & Amulets	❌	✅

📖 Learn More

• Scoring — Detailed breakdown of points, multipliers, and achievements