Starting Guide for Beginners

👉 Welcome to the Starting Guide for Beginners. This guide will help you understand the basics of GnollHack, choose your first character, and survive the dangerous depths of the dungeon.

GnollHack, like NetHack, is a dungeon-exploration role-playing game where you descend to the bottom of the dungeon, gathering items, experience, and new skills. Your goal is to complete the main quest — to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor from the sanctuary of Moloch and return it to your god. On the way, you will meet many dangerous monsters (such as the Medusa whose mere gaze will turn you to stone), traps, and puzzles until you have achieved your goal.

🗺️ Part 1: Starting Your Journey

💀 Permadeath

The modern version of GnollHack has two modes for permadeath:

Mode Description
🟢 Modern Mode You respawn at a certain altar upon death. This is the default mode and highly recommended for beginners.
🔴 Classic Mode Death is permanent. Once dead, you will need to start the game again from the beginning.

🔗 Learn More

🌟 Difficulty

We recommend that you start playing GnollHack using the Standard difficulty. On Standard difficulty, monsters are slightly weaker, and you start with helpful resources.

🔗 Learn More

🎭 Part 2: Character Creation

Your character is defined by three main choices: Class (Role), Race, and Alignment.

🛡️ Classes (Roles)

GnollHack features the same classes as NetHack. They are often called roles.

Class Combat Style Alignment Description
Archaeologist Miscellaneous Lawful, Neutral A lightly armored explorer, who starts with a pick-axe and a touchstone. Often considered difficult to play.
Barbarian Melee Neutral, Chaotic A strong melee warrior, who starts with poison resistance.
Caveman Melee Lawful, Neutral A strong melee warrior that uses basic weapons, such as clubs and slings. He can practice cannibalism without divine punishment.
Healer Spell-Caster Neutral A lightly equipped physician, who starts with lots of money, healing spells, healing items, and a wand of sleep.
Knight Melee Lawful A heavily armored warrior, who is able to ride on his horse and use a lance for jousting his enemies. Follows a special conduct of honor.
Monk Miscellaneous Any A martial artist with movement spells. Cannot wear body armor or a shield and is restricted to vegetarian food. Gains resistances as they level up.
Priest Spell-Caster Any An armored zealot skilled in clerical and healing spells. Can naturally identify an item's blessed/uncursed/cursed status on inspection. A lawful Priest can cast Celestial spells, a neutral Priest Nature spells, and a chaotic Priest Necromancy spells.
Ranger Ranged Neutral, Chaotic A lightly armored archer, who is adept at ranged combat, searching, and disarming traps.
Rogue Melee & Ranged Chaotic A lightly armored and cunning thug skilled at both melee and ranged combat, poison, and disarming traps. Can backstab fleeing monsters.
Samurai Melee & Ranged Lawful A strong melee warrior, who is also adept at ranged combat. Some item names show up in Japanese.
Tourist Miscellaneous Neutral A lightly equipped wanderer starting with darts, a golf bat, and an expensive camera. Usually considered a hard class.
Valkyrie Melee Lawful, Neutral A strong female melee warrior, who starts with cold resistance and stealth.
Wizard Spell-Caster Neutral, Chaotic A mighty spell-caster proficient in arcane and enchantment spells. Starts with a considerable amount of magic items and spells.

🧑 Races

GnollHack features 5 races with different attributes and special abilities.

Race Playable Classes Max Attributes Alignment Special Abilities
Human Any All: 18 (Str 18/100) Any None.
Dwarf Archaeologist, Caveman, Knight, Valkyrie Dex: 20, Con: 20, Int: 16, Wis: 16, Cha: 16 Lawful Infravision. Most dwarves are peaceful.
Elf Priest, Ranger, Wizard Con: 16, Int: 20, Wis: 20 Neutral Infravision. Most elves are peaceful.
Gnoll Barbarian, Caveman, Healer, Priest, Rogue, Ranger Dex: 19, Con: 19, Int: 16, Wis: 16, Cha: 16 Neutral, Chaotic Smell rotten food, triple nutrition from tripe, immune to lycanthropy. Most gnolls and dwarves are peaceful.
Orc Barbarian, Ranger, Rogue, Wizard Str: 18/50, Int: 16, Wis: 16, Cha: 16 Chaotic Poison resistance, infravision, unpunished cannibalism. Most orcs are peaceful.

⚖️ Alignment

GnollHack has 3 alignments to choose from. Not all alignments are available to all classes and races.

Alignment Conduct Rules Peaceful Monsters
Lawful Cannot murder peaceful humans or use poisoned weapons. Penalties for "evil" actions like genociding. Angelic beings, dwarves, titans.
Neutral Cannot murder peaceful humans. Gnomes, some animals.
Chaotic Mostly no penalties for committing "evil" actions. Some chaotic monsters, like orcs.

🎒 Part 3: Survival Fundamentals

🎒 Essential Survival Tips for Beginners

If you are new to GnollHack, these essential tips will help you survive the early game:

  • 🐶 Rely on Your Pet: You start with a pet (a little dog, kitten, or pony). Let your pet fight monsters for you in the early levels. It is stronger than you initially and will grow in power as it eats the monsters it defeats.
  • 🐌 Take Your Time: GnollHack is a turn-based game. Nothing happens until you make a move. If you are in a dangerous situation, stop and think about your options, inventory, and spells.
  • 🚪 Use Doors Wisely: If you are low on health, find a room, close the door, and rest (. key) until you recover.
  • 🔍 Explore Fully: Try to explore the entire level and find all items before descending to the next floor.
  • ⚠️ Beware of Cursed Items: Never equip an item you haven't identified unless you are prepared to be permanently stuck with a cursed item.
  • ⚖️ Watch Your Weight (Encumbrance): Carrying too many items will make you Burdened, Stressed, or Strained. This slows you down significantly, making you an easy target for fast monsters. Drop heavy items you don't need in a safe spot, such as a chest.
  • ✍️ Engraving "Elbereth": You can use the Engrave command (keyboard shortcut: Shift+e) to write the word Elbereth on the floor. Many monsters are frightened by this word and will refuse to attack you in melee while you stand on it. You can write in the dust using your fingers, or use a hard item for a more permanent engraving.

🕹️ Commands & Interface

You can find some of the available commands in the bottom command row. There's also a More Commands icon, which opens a command launcher. GnollHack has plenty of commands available, so don't be overwhelmed by them but learn them at a steady pace.

💡 Tip: You can control the number of available commands through the Simple Command Layout option in the settings. If you disable it, you will get more commands than in the simple mode.

⚔️ Part 4: Combat & Mechanics

🛡️ Armor Class and Magic Cancellation

Wearing armor gives you defensive and magical protections:

  • Armor Class (AC): Makes it more difficult for monsters to hit you. Lower AC is better (e.g., -5 AC is much better than 10 AC).
  • Magic Cancellation (MC): Gives you a chance to resist special monster attacks, such as lycanthropy or level draining. MC does nothing against spells.
  • Magic Resistance: Gain immunity to many spells from specific items.

🔗 Learn More

🔍 Item Identification

Items in GnollHack can be blessed, uncursed, or cursed. If you wield a cursed weapon or put on a cursed wearable item, it will stick to you and you cannot remove it. Items can also have many hidden negative effects. Therefore, it is highly recommended to identify items before you use them.

  • 🐕 Pet Testing: Drop an item on the ground. Pets will not step over cursed items, and if they do, the game will state they do it "reluctantly".
  • ⛪ Altars: Dropping items on an altar will immediately identify their blessed/uncursed/cursed status. A black flash means cursed, no flash means uncursed, and an amber flash means blessed.
  • 📜 Scrolls & Wands: You can read a scroll of identify or zap a wand of identify to identify one or more items.
  • 🏪 Shops: Shopkeeper will identify items for a fee. Experienced players can also guess an item's identity based on its shop price.
  • 🏛️ Oracle: The Oracle will identify items for a fee.
  • 🪨 Touchstones: You can apply an uncursed or blessed touchstone on a gem to identify it.

🔗 Learn More

  • Items — List of item categories and properties
  • Shops — Guide to shops, item pricing, and shopkeeper behaviors
  • Temple — Details on temples, priests, and altar services

⚔️ Combat

Melee Combat

If you try to move to a square occupied by a monster, you will attack it with your melee weapon.

Ranged Combat with a Launcher

You can fire missiles to 8 basic directions. You need to wield a matching launcher (e.g., a bow for arrows, a crossbow for bolts, a sling for sling stones).

  • Swapping: Click Swap (shortcut: x) to change weapon sets. It is best to keep your melee weapon in one set and your ranged weapon in the second set. This will not cost you a turn.
  • Quivering & Firing: Use the Quiver command (Shift+q) to prepare ammo. Use Fire (f) to shoot.
  • Range & Accuracy: You get to-hit penalties depending on the range. Firing at melee range gives a massive to-hit penalty (-40, or -32 for crossbows).
  • Autopickup: You automatically pick up fired missiles by default to save time.

ℹ️ Note: Keyboard shortcuts on this wiki are written in lowercase notation. A single letter (e.g. e) represents the normal key. Combination shortcuts are written with a plus sign + and lowercase letters (e.g. Shift+e, Alt+e, Alt+Shift+e).

Ranged Combat with Throwing Weapons

You can throw items to 8 basic directions. The throwing distance is listed in the item's examine information.

  • Throwing: Use the Throw command (t) to throw a weapon from your inventory.
  • Accuracy: Throwing weapons at melee range gives a large to-hit penalty (-40).
  • Autopickup: You automatically pick up thrown weapons by default.

🔗 Learn More

  • Weapons — Overview of weapon categories and quality tiers

🍗 Eating & Nutrition

You become hungry over time. You should eat the corpses of monsters you slay (unless you are a vegetarian monk). Most corpses rot quickly, so eat them immediately. If you eat a rotten or tainted corpse, you will become deathly sick and die within a few turns unless you Pray (Alt+p) to your god.

What to Eat and What to Avoid

🟢 Safe / Beneficial 🔴 Dangerous / Harmful
Normal animals: Jackals, sewer rats Cockatrices: Do not eat or touch without gloves (instant petrification)
Fruits: Good vegetarian food Zombies & Mummies: Always rotten
Mushrooms: Some are safe, ⚠️ others poisonous Bats: Makes you stunned
Acidic corpses: Safe, but you lose a few HP Teleporting monsters: Gives teleportitis
Wraith corpses: Grants an experience level Shapeshifters: Makes you polymorph
Floating Eye / Panther Cap: Grants blind telepathy Your own race: Unless you are a Caveman or Orc (cannibalism)
Lizards: Cures petrification, never rots  

⚠️ Warning: Do not eat when you are overly satisfied. You might choke and die!

ℹ️ Note: Some monsters are poisonous. You need poison resistance to eat them (e.g., kobolds).

🔮 Part 5: Magic, Skills & Religion

🪄 Spell Casting

Spells in GnollHack require a material component. You must first Mix spells (Shift+x), which gives you a number of castings. Then, you can Cast spell (Shift+z).

Spell success depends on your experience level, the spell's level, your magic school skill, your attributes (Int/Wis/Cha), and the armor you wear (heavy armor penalizes casting).

Spell Commands and Their Keyboard Shortcuts

Key Action Use
Shift+x Mix spells Prepare spells.
Shift+z Cast spell Cast prepared spells.
r Read Read spellbooks.
Alt+z View spell Manage spells and check their effects.
Shift+s Skills Increase skill levels in magic schools.
. Target yourself Target yourself when casting.

Spells range in levels from minor cantrip (c), major cantrip (C), to levels 1–12. You do not forget spells over time. You usually need at least Basic skill in a magic school to cast its spells. Fighter-type classes that have no access to magic schools have little reason to learn spells, except maybe some cantrips.

🔗 Learn More

  • Spell Casting — Detailed spellcasting mechanics, somatic armor penalties, and casting chances

📈 Skills

You gain 1 skill slot every time you level up. You can spend them by using the Skills (Shift+s) command. You must first train a skill by successfully hitting with a weapon or casting a spell before you can level it up.

ℹ️ Note: Magic school skills are an exception: they have a minimum experience level requirement when they can be increased, meaning you do not necessarily need to train them by casting spells—attaining a certain experience level is enough.

There are 6 levels of proficiency for skills: Unskilled, Basic, Skilled, Expert, Master, and Grand Master. Note that not all classes can reach the maximum level in every skill.

When advancing a skill, the cost in skill slots varies depending on the type of skill being upgraded. The benefits of higher skill levels generally include improved hit/damage bonuses for weapons, and a +100% cast chance with lower mana cost for magic schools per level (removing penalties at Basic).

Normal Weapons, Dual-Weapon, Two-Handed, and Wands

Advancement Cost
Unskilled → Basic 1 slot
Basic → Skilled 2 slots
Skilled → Expert 3 slots
Expert → Master 4 slots
Master → Grand Master 5 slots

Magic School Skills, Dodge, Shield, Digging, Riding, and Disarm Trap

Advancement Cost
Unskilled → Basic 1 slot
Basic → Skilled 1 slot
Skilled → Expert 2 slots
Expert → Master 2 slots
Master → Grand Master 3 slots

Bare-Handed Combat and Martial Arts

Advancement Bare-Handed Cost Martial Arts Cost
Unskilled → Basic 1 slot 2 slots
Basic → Skilled 1 slot 3 slots
Skilled → Expert 1 slot 3 slots
Expert → Master 2 slots 3 slots
Master → Grand Master 2 slots 4 slots

When you have enough trained experience and available skill slots, a green skill icon or a green "Skill" text will appear on your screen to notify you.

🔗 Learn More

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

🙏 Praying and Altars

Praying

You can Pray (Alt+p) to your god for help in emergencies (low health, sickness, petrification).

🛑 Caution: It is not always safe to pray! There is a "prayer timeout" delay. The first safe time to pray is usually turn 301, and you must wait 50–1000 turns between prayers.

Altars

Altars are extremely useful and can belong to any alignment. There is always an altar of your alignment in the starting room on dungeon level 1.

  • Identify Blessedness of Items: Drop items on any altar to check their blessed/uncursed/cursed status.
  • Sacrificing: Offer (Alt+o) fresh monster corpses on an altar of your alignment to please your god. This can increase your luck or gift you powerful Artifact weapons. A wand of create monster is very useful here.
  • Converting Altars: If an altar is the wrong alignment, sacrificing on it might convert it to your god. The chance to convert an altar is 50% at experience level 4 and about 70–85% at higher experience levels.
  • Holy Water: Drop uncursed potions of water on your altar and pray. They will become holy water. You can dip (Alt+d) items into holy water to bless them or remove curses.

🔗 Learn More

  • Praying — Divine assistance, luck mechanics, and safety guidelines
  • Sacrifice Gifts — Artifact weapons granted by gods for offerings

📚 Further Reading

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