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 while doing so. 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.

💀 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.

🌟 Difficulty

We recommend that you start playing GnollHack using the Standard difficulty.

🛡️ 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.
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.

🎒 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.

🕹️ Commands in Modern UI

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.

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

GnollHack can be played using keyboard shortcuts on desktop. If you are playing on mobile, you can skip this section.

Basic Commands

Key	Command	Key	Command
Alt-s	Save the game	o / c	Open / Close a door
Alt-q	Quit the game	k	Kick (doors, chests, enemies)
/	What is (identify map symbol)	O	Options
?	Help	C	Chat
A	Abilities and stats	< / >	Go up / Go down stairs
Alt-c	Commands menu	n + [num] + [cmd]	Repeat action (e.g. n 20 s to search 20 times)
Enter	Next message	.	Wait one turn
Ctrl-p	Previous messages	Ctrl-y	Yell for pets to come
s	Search (find traps/doors)

Basic Movement

You normally use the number pad for movement. If your keyboard lacks a number pad, you can use the arrow keys for cardinal movement and the following keys for diagonal movement:

• 1: Southwest
• 3: Southeast
• 7: Northwest
• 9: Northeast

Item Basics

Key	Action	Key	Action
i	Check inventory	x	Change between readied weapon/armor sets
w	Wield weapons	l	Open a container
W	Wear armors	a	Apply an item
T / Alt-t	Take off armor	r	Read a scroll or a spellbook
P	Put on items (rings, amulets)	z	Zap a wand
R	Remove items (rings, amulets)	q	Quaff a potion
,	Pick up items	p	Buy items at a shop
d / D	Drop item / Drop multiple items	Alt-x	Check item stats

👕 Armor Class and Magic Cancellation

Wearing armor gives you Armor Class (AC), which makes it more difficult for monsters to hit you. Lower AC is better. Wearing armor also gives you Magic Cancellation (MC), which gives you a chance to resist special attacks of a monster, such as lycanthropy or level draining. MC does nothing against spells. Magic Resistance, which you can gain from some items, gives you immunity to many spells.

🔍 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: Shopkeepers 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.

⚔️ 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 (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 (up to -30).
• Autopickup: You automatically pick up fired missiles by default to save time.

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.
• Autopickup: You automatically pick up thrown weapons by default.

Polearms

Polearms can hit 2 squares away (one square is 5'x5'). This is a safe way to kill monsters with dangerous melee attacks, like sea creatures.

• Use the Polearm command or Apply (a) the polearm to attack two squares away.

Two-Weapon Fighting

You can strike with both hands by using the 2-Weapon command (Ctrl-x). A yellow '2Weap' sign will appear. In this mode, you suffer a significant penalty to hit and damage unless your skill in two-weapon fighting is high.

🍗 Eating

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, 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 (except Nymphs).
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).
Lizard corpses: 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).

🪄 Spell Casting

Spells in GnollHack require a material component. You must first Mix the spells (X), which gives you a number of castings. Then, you can Cast the spells (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

Key	Action
X	Mix (prepare) spells
Z	Cast prepared spells
r	Read spellbooks
Alt-z	Manage spells and check their effects
S	Increase skill levels in a spell school
.	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.

📈 Skills

You gain 1 skill slot every time you level up. You can spend them by pressing S. You must first train a skill by successfully hitting with a weapon or casting a spell before you can level it up.

Skill Level	Cost to Upgrade	Benefit
Unskilled → Basic	1 slot	Allows spell casting; removes weapon penalties.
Basic → Skilled	2 slots	Magic: +100% cast chance, lower mana cost. Weapons: +Hit/Damage.
Skilled → Expert	3 slots	Maximum bonuses for both magic and weapons.

When you can spend skill slots, a green skill icon or "Skill" text will appear on your screen.

🙏 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 on dungeon level 1.

• Identify 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 level 4 and about 70–85% at high levels.
• Holy Water: Drop uncursed potion 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.