
  ******  *          High adventure in a   *  world of magic and cold steel   *
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                                      **
   Version 1.0.0                *     **
   April, 2007                   ******

                               The Sangband Manual
                                 (revision #22)
                              Author:  Leon Marrick



     Sangband is a complex, single-player dungeon adventure game in which you, the player, control a character in the Pits of Angband.  During the course of your adventures, you may learn long-forgotten secrets, collect wondrous objects, and battle terrible foes.  Perhaps, if you are very skilled, you may even defeat the Dread Enemy himself:  Morgoth, Lord of Darkness.

     But only if you are very skilled indeed.

     Sangband is a variant of Angband, which is a variant of Moria, which is a descendant of Rogue.  Its primary inspiration is the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, among the greatest wordsmiths of the English language.  You will also notice some Dungeons and Dragons conventions, ancient and religious mythology, and the fables and lore of the European Middle Ages.




============================== Table of Contents ==============================

1.  Overview of the Game
 1.1  Loading and Creating Characters
 1.2  The Novice's Guide
 1.3  Interfaces (brief descriptions)
 - The title screen
 - The main screen
 - The character screen
 - The skills screen
 - The help screen
 - The options screen
 - The knowledge screen
 - The death interface

2.  Your Character
 2.1  Races
 2.2  Character Attributes
 - Basic Attributes
 - Vital statistics
 - Abilities
 - Conditions
 2.3  The character screen (in detail)
 2.4  Skills
 - The price of skills
 - Oaths
 - List of skills
 2.5  Talents
 - List of talents
 2.6  Object Forging
 - Supplies
 - Forging Wargear
 - Infusion of Wargear
 - Alchemy

3.  The World of Sangband
 3.1  Symbols on your Map
 3.2  The Town
 - Buying and selling
 - Getting quests
 3.3  The Dungeon
 - Terrain features and traps
 - Mining
 - Light
 - Food and regeneration
 - Stealth
 - Level feelings
 - Precognition messages
 - Searching and detection
 - The passage of time
 3.4  Monsters
 - Monsters are worth experience
 - Monster information
 - Monster attributes
 - Player ghosts
 3.5  Objects
 - Learning about objects
 - Object information
 - Inventory, equipment, quiver
 - Object types
 - Object enhancement
 - Object destruction
 - Cursed objects
 3.6  Object Attributes
 - Damage dice and plusses
 - Adjustments to stats and abilities
 - Weapon attributes
 - Immunities
 - Resistances
 - Survival attributes
 - Character qualities
 - Curses and other nastiness

4.  Combat and Magic
 4.1  Non-magical combat
 - Quick review
 - Melee (weapons)
 - Melee (unarmed)
 - Shooting
 - Throwing
 - Getting good at combat
 - Details
 4.2  Burglary
 - Locking doors, stealing
 - Monster traps
 - Sneaking in the dark
 4.3  Defence
 4.4  Magic
 - The four realms of magic
 - Spellcasting
 - Getting good at magic
 - Spell projection types
 - Hindering your foes
 - Magical devices

5.  Interacting with the Game
 5.1  List of commands
 5.2  Basic command information
 5.3  Command descriptions
 5.4  Interfaces
 5.5  Options
 5.6  Inscriptions
 5.7  Macros and Keymaps
 5.8  Preferences
 5.9  Visuals, colors, and multimedia

6.  Saving, Loading, Winning, Cheating, and Dying

7.  Appendices
 Appendix A:  List of Internet resources
 Appendix B:  File structure
 Appendix C:  History of the game
 Appendix D:  Copyrights




============================ Overview of the Game =============================


     This section briefly describes creating a character, playing your first game, and the most important information displays.  To learn more about these things, consult the sections on your character and on interfaces.



====== Loading and Creating Characters ======

Automatic and manual loading:
     The game will automatically load any savefile named "player", or any specified on the command line.  If it can find the file "lib/save/global.svg", it will load the savefile of your last living character.

     If none of these methods works, the game will show a savefile management screen.  Using this interface, you can start a new character or load any available savefile.

Loading or birth:
     If the savefile loaded contains a living character, you may begin the game where you left off or choose another character by typing 'C'.  If the character in the loaded savefile is slain, or no (valid) savefile was loaded, or you asked to play a new game, you go to the character creation display.

Creating new characters:
     You first choose a gender:  Males weigh slightly more than females, but this is not very important.
     You then choose a race.  This has a major effect on almost all character abilities and special attributes.  See the section on races for more details.

     You may also set birth options at any time by pressing '='.  Active options are displayed on screen.

Rolling up:
     If you set the "Allow specification of minimal stats" option, you choose the minimum acceptable vital statistics (stats) for your character.  Be careful not to ask for too much.  You enter stats as numbers:  16, 17, 18, 18/10, 18/20, and so on.

     Once you have done this, you are presented with another display showing more information about your character.  You also see this display whenever you press 'C'.  Reroll by pressing "r", or build up stats using points, until satisfied.

     You then give your character a name and begin play.



====== Game Tutorial:  The Novice's Guide ======


     When you begin the game, you start out in a town with stores happy to sell you whatever they stock and you can afford.  Visit the stores and stop by your very own home (the symbol '8'), where you can safely stash all sorts of useful gear for later use.

     Look at the left side of the screen, where all the most important info about you is displayed.  Reading from the top, you'll see your name, present title, unspent experience, and money on hand.  Your race (almost) never changes, but you can gain more experience points by killing monsters and more gold by selling the loot they drop.
     Below these are the six vital statistics:  Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma.  Near the bottom, you will see your armor class, hit points, and (if you learn magic) your spell points.  Armor class shields you from direct damage.  Hitpoints are your life wrapped up in a number, so run from anything that drops them too low, too fast.

     Get familiar with some of the commands you have available to you, either by reading the help, or by experimenting, whichever you prefer.  If you mistype, the game will offer to bring up a list of commands.
     To exit this tutorial, hit escape.  When ready to continue, type '?' to open up help, then press '1', then '2'.

     Okay, time to get playing!  Type '$', and the skills screen appears.  You have earned just enough experience to choose some basic skills; it is a smart idea to do this before entering the dungeon.  The best choice for a new player is a point or two in either Wrestling or Karate, and a point or two in either throwing or slings.
     Pick up either some throwable flasks of oil (General Store) or a sling and some shots (Weapon Smith), some light armor (Armory, General Store), and - if you can afford them - one or two phase door scrolls and potions of cure light wounds (Temple, Alchemy Shop).  Once you've earned a little money, invest in a lantern and a shovel or pickaxe.  Now, 'w'ear a torch, your armor, and your weapon.
     See that down staircase '>'?  It's the entrance to the deadly, lucrative dungeon.  Head down (Once on top of the staircase, type '>').
     Once you do that, you will find yourself in a dungeon of rooms and corridors.  Since you have already wielded a light source, you can see, even if you are not in a magically lit room.  Go off and explore the dungeon.  When your light grows dim, re'F'uel it.  When you get hungry, 'E'at some of the food your character started out with.
     When you meet your first monster, pepper it with sling shots (press 'f' to fire) or throw flasks of oil or boulders (press 'v' to throw) until it reaches you, and hit it (move into it) until it's dead.  If your HPs drop too low, quaff a potion of cure light wounds, read a scroll of phase door, or run away.
     When you get enough money and objects to sell, go back up to the town.  If you have questions, the '?' key is there to help.

Have fun!



====== Interfaces (brief descriptions) ======

--- The title screen ---

     When you start up the game, a title screen appears, bearing the game logo, a dragon image, and some credits.  Also on this screen are the three most important Sangband resources:
     The Sangband home page at "http://www.runegold.org/sangband/" contains the current source and executables, special files, helpful comments, hints, and links, and the latest Sangband news.
     Sangband changes maintainers every so often.  The current one is Leon Marrick.  If you want to send him comments, or make sure your bug report gets heard, use the email shown on the website.
     The Angband Forum is at "http://angband.oook.cz/forum/"; it's filled with helpful folks.  If you want to talk about Sangband or ask for help, there's the place to go.


--- The main screen ---

     Once you clear the character display, you find yourself looking at the main screen.  This is divided into four parts:

1)   The message line is located at the top of the screen; here all sorts of messages are shown.  If in the heat of combat you skip past one too many, you can display it again by pressing control-P.
2)   The left side of the screen is used to display important information.
3)   Most of the screen displays your surroundings.  You can take a closer look by pressing 'l'ook (or e'x'amine).
4)   The bottom line of the main screen shows various status displays, such as your speed, ailments, depth, and so on.

     You play the game in the main screen.  For more details on the things you can do, consult the section on commands.


--- The character screen  ('C') ---

     The character information display you see when first starting the game can be recalled by typing 'C'.  Here you can review your attributes, change names, and save character dumps to file (which appear in the "lib/user" directory).


--- The skills screen  ('$') ---

     When you collect enough experience, you can spend it on skills by typing '$' to open up the skills advancement screen.


--- The help screen  ('?') ---

     The online help system is available by typing '?'.  You can also learn more about the symbols you see on screen by typing '/', then the symbol you wish to learn more about.


--- The options screen  ('=') ---

     You can adjust the way the game looks and behaves by typing '=' to enter the options screen.


--- The knowledge screen  ('~') ---

     Detailed listings of known artifacts, objects, and monsters are available through the knowledge menu, which you access by typing '~'.  Here you can also review the high score listings, what you have stashed in your home, and see how many monsters you've killed and what quests you are assigned.


--- The death interface ---

     If you should die, you will see a tombstone and be able to check out your slain character one last time.  Here you can:
- display the character screen and see your possessions,
- review the final messages,
- save information in a character dump,
- see the high score table, and
- fully identify individual items.




=============================== Your Character ================================


====== Races ======

     There are eleven different races that you may choose among, representing most of the speaking peoples found in Tolkien's books, plus Gnomes and Giants.  Races differ in abilities, and tend to be better at some skills than at others.

Human:
     A flexible and adaptive race, humans are found all over Middle-Earth, from desert Harad to icy Horodwaith.  They have no special adjustments to stats and learn all skills at an average rate.  This, combined with their solid hitpoints, makes them effective adventurers.  Humans have no infravision.  They probably get the best prices in stores, on average.

Elf:
     Known as the Elder Race, and as the First-Born, Elves are famed for their knowledge and craftsmanship.  They are somewhat lighter, weaker, and less robust than humans, but have superior wisdom and intelligence, learn magic more easily, and are somewhat better at most basic skills.  They are fond of bows, somewhat weak in melee, and have no infravision.  They resist light inherently.

Hobbit:
     Hobbits are shy, retiring folk with enough good sense to share.  They live in homes with circular entranceways built partially underground, and are the smallest of all the races.  Although they have few hitpoints, they are highly resistant to magic and can sometimes endure ailments that would lay other races low.  They are fairly poor at melee combat, but good at most other skills.  In particular, nobody can match a hobbit slinger or burglar.  Hobbits are stealthy, perceptive, and have innate infravision.  They sustain dexterity inherently.

Gnome:
     Gnomes are the pudgy pranksters of the dungeon; if they can kill something in a humorous way, so much the better.  They may be small and ugly, but can outbargain and outwit just about anyone.  They are among the frailer races, and not powerful in combat, but are good at magic, unmatchable with devices, and -- most importantly -- are immune to paralyzation.  Gnomes are highly intelligent and have innate infravision.

Dwarf:
     Dwarves are the headstrong miners and fighters of legend.  They are strong, wise, tough, and resistant to magic; although not very good at casting spells, they make excellent priests and smiths.  They are better than average at melee combat, but don't know the first thing about bows.  Dwarves have good innate infravision and -- a major advantage -- can never be blinded.  They do have one big drawback, though:  Dwarves are loudmouthed and proud, singing in loud voices, arguing with themselves for no good reason, screaming out challenges at imagined foes.  In other words, dwarves have a miserable stealth.

Half-Orc:
     The bastard offspring of humans and orcs, half-orcs are ugly, strong, and have very bad attitudes.  Their magic is a little suspect, as are most of their skills, but they know how to fight and can take as much damage as they dish out.  Half-orcs have innate infravision and, like orcs themselves, resist darkness and its effects.

Half-Troll:
     Half-trolls are built like blocks of granite; no other race can match their strength, their hitpoints, or their powers of recovery.  Their combat prowess is fearsome, they throw boulders with deadly force, their stomach capacity is remarkable, and their skin becomes ever-stronger over time.  Unfortunately, they have poor general skills, need to eat a lot, and have a hard time in stores.  Half-trolls will be bad at anything that requires heavy thinking.  They have innate infravision and always have their strength sustained.

Dunadan   (easier to win with -- 20% penalty to score):
     Dunedain are a race of hardy men from the West.  This elder race surpasses the abilities of other humans in every field and has superior vital statistics.  Despite these great advantages, they learn just as quickly as other humans do, which makes them a great choice for players whose other characters die too quickly.  Dunedain always have their constitution sustained.

High-Elf   (easier to win with -- 20% penalty to score):
      High-Elves are descended from those among the Elves who heard and answered the call from the Valar at the very beginning of time, before the sun and moon were made, and lived in the Blessed Realm for long ages before returning to mortal lands.  They are masters of all skills, and are agile and intelligent, although their wisdom is a little suspect.  No other race is quite as good at magic.  Despite these great advantages, they learn just as quickly as other elves do, which makes them a great choice for players whose other characters die too quickly.  High-elves are able to see the unseen, and have innate resistance to light.

Dark-elf:
     Some elves prefer the darkness to the light, caverns to forests, sorcery and necromancy to the magic of nature.  Dark-elves are extremely intelligent, make very good magicians, and can even hold their own in melee, but are not nearly as good with missile weapons as are other elves.  Some of their other skills are also weak.  They do, however, learn forging quickly and well.  Dark-elves always have their intelligence sustained.

Giant:
     Eight feet tall, nine, even ten feet tall they stand, and thick and broad in proportion.  Giants have more hitpoints than any other race and make formidable wrestlers.  Their high strength and constitution make them decent fighters, especially with clubs and thrown objects, good tunnelers, and they can readily learn magic or object-creation.  Unfortunately, all those tales about the naivete and clumsiness of giants have a large grain of truth to them.  No other race is less perceptive than a giant, and none is more easy to spot.


Racial Adjustments:

               STR  INT   WIS   DEX   CON   CHR  Hit Dice  Infravision
 Human          0     0     0     0     0     0     10        0
 Elf           -1    +2    +1    +1    -2    +1      8        0
 Hobbit        -2    +1    +1    +3    +2    +1      7        3
 Gnome         -1    +2     0    +2    +0    -2      8        3
 Dwarf         +2    -2    +2    -2    +2    -2     11        4
 Half-Orc      +2    -1    -1     0    +2    -3     11        3
 Half-Troll    +4    -4    -1    -3    +3    -4     12        3
 Dunadan       +1    +1    +3    +2    +3    +2     10        0
 High-Elf      +1    +3    -1    +3    +1    +3     10        0
 Dark-Elf      -1    +3     0    +2    -2    -1      8        2
 Giant         +3     0    -2    -2    +2    -1     13        0

     All racial stat adjustments act as modifiers to your maximum internal stats.  A Half-Troll, for example, can raise his internal strength to 18/140, but his dexterity only to 18/70.


Racial Abilities:

             disarm  device   save  stealth  percep  melee  missile  throw
 Human         5       5       5       5       5       5       5       5
 Elf           7       7       7       8       7       3       7       7
 Hobbit        9       7      10       8      10       1       7       7
 Gnome         8      10       5       6       6       2       5       5
 Dwarf         3       5       9       3       5       8       4       4
 Half-Orc      3       3       3       4       4       6       3       5
 Half-Troll    1       1       3       4       3       9       1       6*
 Dunadan       6       8       7       6       8       7       7       7
 High-Elf     10       9       8       7       9       5       9       9
 Dark-Elf      9       8       5       7       7       4       5       5
 Giant         2       4       5       3       1       5       4       4      

     Abilities are ranked on a comparative scale ranging from 1 to 10.
* Half-trolls are bad with thrown weapons, though.


Racial Aptitudes:

               Hum  Elf  Hob  Gno  Dwa  HlO  HlT  Dun  HiE  DkE  Gia
 sword          10   11   12   12   10    8    9   10   10    9   11
 hafted         10   13   13   12    9    9    7   10   12   13   10
 polearm        10   12   14   12    8    9    9   10   11   11   10
 crossbow       10   11   11   10   10   10   10   10   10   11   13
 bow            10    8    9   10   14   10   13   10    8    9   13
 sling          10   10    7   10   13   10   15   10   10   10   13
 throwing       10   10    8   10   12   10    8   10    9   11   10
 wrestling      10   14   15   14    9   10    9   10   12   13    7
 karate         10    8   10   10   12   13   15   10    8   11   13

 spell level    10    9   11    9   11   11   12   10   10    8   10
 mana           10    9   10    9   10   11   11   10    9    8   10

 wizard         10    9   11    8   12   12   13   10    9    9   11
 piety          10   11   11   10    8   11   11   10   11   10   12
 nature         10    8   10   10   12   15   10   10    8   14    9
 dominion       10   11   11    9   10    9    9   10   10    9   10

 device         10    9   11    8   10   12   16   10    9    8   11
 burglary       10   10    7   10   12   10   12   10   10    9   14

 perception     10    9    8    9   11   11   12   10    9    8   15
 stealth        10    8    7   10   15   10   13   10    8    9   15
 disarming      10   10    7   10   10   10   12   10   10   11   13
 dodging        10    9    8   10   10   10   20   10    9   10   15
 saving throw   10   10    8   10    8   11   12   10    9    9   11

 forge weapon   10   12   11   11    7   10   11   10   12    8    9
 forge bow      10   10   11   11   11   11   11   10   10    8   12
 forge armor   10   12   11   11    7   10   11   10   12   11    9
 alchemy        10   11   12    8   14   13   11   10   11   10   13
 infusion       10   10   13    9   11   13   13   10   10    7   13
               Hum  Elf  Hob  Gno  Dwa  HlO  HlT  Dun  HiE  DkE  Gia


     Higher values mean that the skill is more expensive to raise.
     For the non-magical combat skills, magical device, perception, stealth, and disarming, a higher value also means that improving the skill has a somewhat smaller effect on your ability.  Elves, for example, are innately better at karate than are dwarves.



====== Character Attributes ======

--- Basic Attributes ---

Score:
     Sangband uses a scoring system.  You get points by defeating unique (named) opponents.  The lower your total skills, the higher the score you get for a given victory.  Your score never goes down:  Investing in skills after defeating an opponent only has an effect on the points you get for future victories.
     Because there are relatively few limits on skill advancement, you can become very strong indeed before you fight opponents.  However, those who buy fewer and less expensive skills to build their character get better scores.

Approximate equation:
     (250 * monster_depth * monster_depth), divided by
     (level of each skill, times the base cost of that skill, all summed 
     together) 

     - Plus:  +100% for defeating Morgoth, or +50% for defeating Sauron
     - Plus:  square_root(gold / 1000).
     - Choosing some difficulty options and races affects your score.

Experience:
     As you kill monsters, learn about objects by using or eating them, cast spells and pray prayers for the first time, disarm traps, and unlock doors (listed in descending order of importance), you gain experience.  Once earned, experience can be spent on skills.

Power:
     Your power depends on the level and base cost of your skills.  The primary effect of this is to increase hit points, but it also has other effects.  The maximum power level is 100.

Gold:
     Gold is amazingly handy, because everything stores sell can be yours with enough of the stuff.  Characters start out with an amount of gold determined by stats (lower is better, except charisma, where higher is better).  Social class greatly influences starting gold (higher is better).
      Within the Pits of Angband lies more gold than you will ever find, more seams of treasure than you will ever dig, and more monsters carrying loot than you will ever kill.

Hitpoints:
     Your hitpoints are your life wrapped up in a number; if they ever drop below zero, you die.  Resting will restore hitpoints, but you should always have some quicker way to heal yourself on hand.  Your maximum hitpoints depends on your overall power and race, plus a constitution bonus (which can be considerable).  It also varies according to skill:  Those who have taken the Oath of Iron have the most hitpoints, Oath-bound magic-users have the fewest, and all other characters fall somewhere in between.

Spellpoints:
     If you use magic, you will also have spellpoints, or mana.  Your maximum mana depends on your magic power skill and your intelligence (if you are using sorcery and necromancy) or wisdom (if you are using natural or holy magics).  Ways to recover mana faster than by resting are rare and greatly desired.
     Mana goes down if you wear heavy armor, or are in any shape other than your normal one.

Armor Class:
     Armor class (AC) makes you harder to hit in melee, and reduces the damage you take from almost all monster blows.  You can raise it by equipping more and better armor, by increasing your Dexterity, and by activating various temporary effects.  As time passes, you will find this value rising past 100, even to 150 and above at very high levels.

Fame and Titles:
     As word of your accomplishments spreads, you earn new titles.  Titles describe what skills you're especially good at.
     You can also gain fame, especially by fulfilling quests.  The higher your fame, the better the rewards you get from the Inn.

Luck:
     On rare occasions you can become unlucky.  Unlucky characters meet nastier monsters and less interesting treasure.  Although there is no way to magically restore lost luck, it slowly recovers as you continue to explore the dungeon.
     If you want to keep careful track of your luck, you can go into options -> screen layout -> left panel, and activate the "luck" display.


--- Vital Statistics ---

     You have six primary statistics, or stats.  Each of them has important effects, and how you juggle equipment to boost some stats at the expense of others can greatly help or hinder your adventuring.  Deep in the dungeon, potions exist that can permanently raise your stats.

Values for stats:
     Stats range from 3 to 18/220.  The progression of stats goes from 3 -> 17, 18, 18/10, 18/20 -> 18/220.  A value of 18/19 is the same as 18/10.
     The lowest any stat can go is 3, a level that greatly reduces any abilities that stat influences.  The lowest "safe" figure for most stats is 7, but you can't expect any significant bonuses until the stat reaches 18 or higher.  Once you get a stat that high, further increases will greatly enhance your abilities, eventually making it possible to slay some truly formidable monsters.  Stats top out at 18/220.
     Stats depend on your internal stats, the equipment you are wearing, your shapechange, and various temporary conditions.

Strength:
     Strength is critical to fighting effectively in melee and with missile weapons.  Increases in Strength increase damage, allow you to get more blows with heavier weapons, and boost the effectiveness of shield bashes.  Strength also improves your tunneling ability, allows you to bear more weight without being slowed down, and to wield heavier weapons effectively.

Intelligence:
     Intelligent characters use magic devices, pick locks, and disarm traps more effectively.
     If you are using sorcery or necromancy, intelligence is your primary stat.  It controls how many spells you may learn, the amount of mana you have, and your spell failure rate.  If you are using holy or natural magics, wisdom controls all of these things.

Wisdom:
     Wise characters have a better chance of resisting magical spells cast upon them by monsters.  Wisdom is a priest or druid's primary stat.

Dexterity:
     Dexterity is a combination of agility and quickness.  A high dexterity may allow you to get multiple blows with lighter weapons, and will significantly increase your chances of hitting with any weapon and dodging blows from enemies.  Dexterity is also useful in picking locks, disarming traps, and protecting yourself from some of the thieves that inhabit the dungeon.  It affects your rate of recovery from stuns.

Constitution:
     Constitution determines your ability to resist physical damage and disease, and your rate of recovery from poison, disease, and cuts.  It makes a great difference to the amount of hitpoints you have and the speed at which you recover them, and so is a vital stat for any character.

Charisma:
     Charisma represents a character's ability to influence others.  A character with a high charisma will receive better prices from store owners, whereas a character with a very low charisma will be robbed blind.


Intrinsic Modifiers:
     Learning any magic realm increases its spell stat by 2.  If you also take the Oath associated with that realm, this bonus increases to 4.  Taking the Oath of Iron increases the combat stats, and good wrestlers and users of Karate get bonuses to strength and dexterity.


--- Abilities ---

     In addition to your stats, certain basic abilities define your character.  They depend on race, stats, and skill level, and may be powerfully influenced by wielded equipment and temporary conditions.  You can most effectively keep track of your abilities by using the Character screen.

Melee Ability:
     The higher your melee ability, the more frequently you will hit in hand-to-hand combat and the more critical hits you will get.  Your race, dexterity, melee weapon or barehanded skill, plusses to Skill on equipped items (except for other weapons), and temporary effects are all factored into the skill value displayed on your character screen.  This also holds true for missile and throwing ability.

Shooting Ability:
     The higher your shooting ability, the more frequently you will hit with missile weapons and the more critical hits you will get.

Throwing Ability:
     All sorts of things, from flasks of oil, to boulders, to potions and mushrooms, can be thrown effectively.  The higher your throwing ability, the more frequently you will hit with thrown objects, and the more damage and critical hits you will get with special throwing weapons.

Saving Throw:
     The higher your saving throw, the more likely you are to resist the side effects of monster blows and spells, traps, your own magic (when it fails), and mental attacks.  Saving throw depends on race, wisdom, and your magic resistance skill.

Stealth:
     The ability to move silently about is very useful.  If your stealth is good enough, you can avoid fights, get in the first blow, and fight monsters one at a time.  Stealth depends on race, your stealth skill, and equipped objects.

Disarming:
     The higher your disarming ability, the more quickly and safely you can pick locks and disarm chests and traps.  Race, your disarming skill, dexterity, intelligence, and equipped objects all affect this ability.

Magical Devices:
     Determines how likely you are to successfully use magical devices and most activatable items - dragon scale mail being the exception.  Race, magical device skill, intelligence, and equipped objects all affect this ability.  You need a lot of skill to handle high-level wands, staffs, rods, rings, and amulets, and also a fair amount for most other activatable items.  Confusion, hallucination, blindness, stunning, fear, berserk rage, and necro rage all reduce your ability to use magical devices.

Perception:
     The better your perception, the more likely it is that you will see traps and secret doors automatically or by searching for them.  Perception depends on race, perception skill, and equipped objects.
     Note that this ability has no direct relationship to your ability to sense objects or hear monsters.

Infra-vision:
     The higher your infravision, the further away you can see warm-blooded creatures, even when invisible or not lit.


--- Conditions ---

     Your character may benefit or suffer from many different conditions.  The most important ones are displayed on the bottom row of the main screen.  We describe them as they are displayed, from left to right.

Hunger:
     You need to eat every so often.  If you eat too much, you become bloated and slow down.  If you eat too little, you become hungry (no special effects), weak (slower recovery), feel faint (pass out every so often), and finally starve (take damage every turn).

Temporary conditions:
  Paralyzed : You cannot do ANYTHING until the effects wear off.
  Wounds    : Instead of recovering battle damage, you take additional damage 
              every turn.
  Stunning  : Your combat and spellcasting abilities decrease - slightly when 
              stunned, considerably when heavily stunned.  If you are too 
              heavily stunned, you can be knocked out!
  Blindness : You cannot see most monsters, it is harder to learn about objects 
              or what's around you, and get only vague information when many 
              things happen.  You often miss monsters, and cannot cast spells 
              or read scrolls.
  Confusion : You move and attack in random directions, cannot cast spells or 
              read scrolls, and have difficulty using magical devices.
  Hallucination : You see weird stuff everywhere, cannot target anything, cannot 
              cast spells or read scrolls, and have difficulty using magical 
              devices.
  Poison    : Instead of recovering battle damage, you take additional damage 
              every turn.
  Disease   : Similar, but is harder to recover from.
  Fear      : You cannot attack monsters in melee, and find it slightly more 
              difficult to use missile weapons, throw things, cast spells, or 
              use magical devices.
  Recall    : You are about to teleport to the surface, or to the deepest level 
              of the dungeon that you have ever visited.

     There are many other temporary conditions, most of which are explained by the objects or spells that cause them.

State:
     You can sometimes be in one of several different states.

  Rest      : You are resting (doubles the rate at which you recover HPs and 
              mana).
  Repeat    : You are repeating an action (like tunneling).
  Sneaking  : You are sneaking around (greatly improves your stealth, but slows 
              you down)
  Crossing  : You are traversing rough or difficult terrain

Speed:
     The faster you are, the less time you take to perform all kinds of actions.  It is vital not to become too slow.  As you descend into the dungeon, you need to find ways to hasten yourself temporarily and permanently.
     A speed of +10 is double speed ("fast"), and one of +20 is triple speed ("very fast").  A speed of -10 is half speed ("slow"), and one of -20 is one third speed ("very slow").
     Permanent speed bonuses add to your base speed.  Temporary effects may increase or reduce speed by 10.

Depth:
     How deep in the dungeon you are.  This display may be colored:  Greys indicate relative safety, whites normal conditions, yellow-orange-red indicate increasing danger or rewards, and violet means that you are on a special level.



====== The character screen (in detail) ======

     The character information display allows you to review attributes, change names, and save character dumps to file.  The save character to file command saves the character screen, character background, inventory and equipment, skill levels, and the contents of the home.

     This interface has four modes, which you may cycle through by typing 'h'.


--- Main character screen ---

First Row:
- Name, title, gender, and race

- Age : in years
- Height : in feet and inches or centimeters
- Weight : in pounds or kilograms
- Either social class (affects starting gold) or your greatest victory.

- Your base (undrained) vital statistics (stats) and sometimes their drained values

Second row:
- Maximum hitpoints
- Current hitpoints
- Blows/Round : the number of blows you get per turn in hand-to-hand combat
- + to Skill : bonus to melee Skill
- Deadliness (%) : the melee damage you do is adjusted by this percentage.
     If you are using martial arts, you instead see a guess at the average damage you've done recently.

- Power : affects hitpoints and some other things
- Score : how well you are doing in the game.  Always starts at zero.
- Unspent experience : the experience you've earned that you haven't yet spent 
  on advancing skills
- Gold : money on hand (in gold pieces)
- Max Depth : the furthest you've ventured down in the dungeon, and your recall 
  depth

- Maximum mana (spellpoints)
- Current mana
- Shots/Round : the number of shots you get per turn
- + to Skill : bonus to missile Skill
- Deadliness (%) : the missile damage you do is adjusted by this percentage.

- Melee : your hand-to-hand combat skill (inherent skill, plus bonuses)
- Shooting : your missile combat skill (inherent skill, plus bonuses)
- Throwing : your throwing skill (inherent skill, plus bonuses)
- Digging : your ability to dig through rock
- Saving Throw : your resistance to magic
- Stealth : how naturally quiet you are
- Perception : your ability to find traps and hidden doors
- Disarming : your ability to disarm traps and unlock doors
- Magic Device : your ability to use staffs, wands, rods, and activations
- Dodging : how good you are at automatically dodging melee blows and missiles
- Fame : how famous you are
- Infravision : how far you can see warm-blooded creatures, even when invisible 
  or in darkness

     Descriptions of abilities go from awful -> very bad -> bad -> poor -> iffy -> fair -> good -> very good -> excellent -> superb -> heroic -> legendary.  They improve as the abilities themselves do, but may decrease as you rise in power or descend into the dungeon.  A given disarming skill is much more impressive at 500' than at 3000'.


--- History display ---

     This is like the main display, except that the list of abilities is replaced with a character history.


--- Attributes screen ---

     Lists most of the non-combat attributes that equipment may posses.  Shows only known or obvious properties.

Vital Statistics:
     In the top-center of this display are listed the internal values (the permanent ones you have before any modifications) for your stats, any adjustments through equipment items, any through character race, skills, and conditions, the adjusted stats, and their drained values (if different).
     Modifiers to stats are light green if the object does not also sustain that stat and green if it does.  If the object sustains a stat without affecting it, a green 's' is displayed.

Numeric Modifiers:
     The top-right and top-left of this screen shows other numeric modifiers.
- Stlth : Stealth
- Invis : Invisibility
- Aware : Awareness
- Disar : Disarming
- Devic : Magical Device
- Speed : Speed
- Infra : Infravision
- Tunnl : Tunneling
- Save  : Saving throw
- Mana  : Mana (spellpoints)
- Light : Light radius

Attributes:
     The bottom of the screen displays most other non-combat attributes.  White '+' and colored '*'s indicate the presence of the attribute; colored 'X's indicate that this attribute is canceled (you cannot have it).
- Fire  : plus = resist fire, star = immunity to fire
- Cold  : plus = resist cold, star = immunity to cold
- Elec  : plus = resist electricity, star = immunity to electricity
- Acid  : plus = resist acid, star = immunity to acid
- Pois  : plus = resist poison
- Fear  : plus = resist fear
- Blind : plus = resist blindness
- Confu : plus = resist confusion
- Light : plus = resist bright light
- Dark  : plus = resist darkness
- Sound : plus = resist sound
- Shard : plus = resist shards
- Nexus : plus = resist nexus (teleportation and alteration magic)
- Nethr : plus = resist nether (necromantic power)
- Chaos : plus = resist chaos (alteration, disorder, and unmaking)
- Disen : plus = resist disenchantment
- Food  : plus = slow digestion
- Feath : plus = feather fall, no falling damage
- Shine : plus = shining object.  +1 to total light radius
- Regen : plus = faster regeneration of hitpoints and mana
- ESP   : plus = telepathy (see all nearby monsters with minds)
- SeeIn : plus = see invisible
- FrAct : plus = free action (no paralyzation, protection against slowing)
- HLife : plus = hold life (you lose less to drain-exp attacks)
- NFuel : plus = object requires no fuel
- Steal : plus = requires feeding
- NoMag : plus = forbids the use of magic
- Telep : plus = random teleportation
- Aggra : plus = aggravation (monsters immediately wake up)
- Drain : plus = slow but continual exp-draining
- Curse : plus = curse, yellow star = heavy curse, red star = perma-curse


--- Combat screen ---

     Lists most of the attributes that affect combat.  The left row displays attributes that affect melee, the right, those that affect shooting.

- Blows       : adjustments to melee blows
- Might       : adjustments to missile weapon multiplier
- Shots       : adjustments to shooting speed
- Add Skill   : adjustments to hit chance
- Deadliness  : adjustments to the damage percentage bonus
- Slay Animal : bonus when attacking animals
- Slay Evil   : bonus when attacking evil creatures
- Slay Undead : bonus when attacking the undead
- Slay Demon  : bonus when attacking demons
- Slay Orc    : bonus when attacking orcs
- Slay Troll  : bonus when attacking trolls
- Slay Giant  : bonus when attacking giants
- Slay Dragon : bonus when attacking dragons
- Acid Brand  : bonus against creatures not resistant to acid
- Elec Brand  : bonus against creatures not resistant to electricity
- Cold Brand  : bonus against creatures not resistant to cold
- Fire Brand  : bonus against creatures not resistant to fire
- Pois Brand  : bonus against creatures not resistant to poison
- Blessed     : melee weapon may be used by pious characters
- Vorpal      : gets more critical hits
- Impact      : throws monsters back, bonus against rocky creatures
- Tunneling   : tunneling weapons get a bonus against rocky creatures
- Light       : bonus when attacking creatures susceptible to light
- Throwing    : plus = good for throwing, star = perfect balance
- Two-handed  : plus = usually needs two hands, star = always does



====== Skills ======

     You can normally raise as many skills as you have the experience to afford.  The major exception is that you need to choose between becoming a pure spellcaster, a pure burglar, a spellcaster/fighter/burglar, or a pure fighter.  Any of these, however, can become great at object-creation.


--- The Price of Skills ---

Striking a balance:
     You should strike a balance between focusing on too few skills (the cost to raise skills goes up rapidly with level) and too many (which fritters away your hard-earned exp).  Raising too many skills that depend on objects (most kinds of combat or forging, say) can also cause real problems with managing your inventory; you won't have enough space for everything.
     As mentioned before, the fewer times you raise skills to defeat a given opponent, the higher your score.

Minimum experience:
     The minimum experience required to raise skills goes up with character power, but the experience you get from killing monsters increases very rapidly as you descend into the dungeon.

Practice:
     The price to raise certain skills goes up if you haven't used that skill much.  For example, if you've never used edged weapons, and suddenly raise your Swordsmanship skill 20 points, you can expect to pay considerably over the odds.  This is an excellent reason not to raise a skill too far, too fast.  This only applies to skills that directly earn you experience - any of the combat skills, burglary, disarming, magic, and magical devices.
     You practice skills whenever you gain experience and whenever you do physical damage to a monster.
     When a skill is more difficult to raise because of lack of practice, the skills screen will display its cost first in grey, then in yellow, orange, and red.

Reduction in cost for similar skills:
     If you raise a skill, the cost to raise any similar skills up to that level is reduced.  For example, if you raise Swordsmanship to 30, then also raising Jousting to 30 costs 1/2 the exp it would normally.  This reduction also applies to the second skill's effect on your score and on character power.  Therefore, raising Swordsmanship and Jousting costs a combined total of 18 for all purposes.


--- Oaths ---

     The most powerful warrior arts and the most awesome magics require intense commitment.  This commitment is represented by Oaths.  Taking an Oath is binding; you can never retract it.  You can never take more than one Oath.

The Oath of Iron:
     The Oath of Iron is the greatest of commitments; none who refuse to take it can learn the most powerful warrior arts.  Inductees can spread their blows out among weaker monsters, can handle heavy weapons with ease, have better combat stats, get the most bonuses to missile might and shooting speed, the most hitpoints, and have access to several very powerful talents.  However, they can learn no realm of magic, and cannot raise their magical device skill past 50.
     You gain access to the Oath of Iron by raising a combat skill to level 45 or above (the exception being Slings, in which you need 55).

The Magic-users' Oaths:
     Each realm of magic also has an Oath.  Wizards may take the Oath of Sorcery, Priests subscribe to the Covenant of Faith, Druids join Yavanna's Fellowship, and Necromancers bind themselves to the Black Mystery.  You gain access to the magic-user Oaths by choosing that realm of magic, and then navigating to the specialist skill for that realm (wizardry, holy alliance, etc.).
     Spellcasters that have taken the Oath associated with their realm cast spells at full power, have another +2 bonus to their spell stat, and eventually get plenty of mana.  However, they also are worse for their skill in all kinds of non-magical combat, have a hard time with heavy armor, and get fewer hitpoints.  Spellcasters that haven't taken any special Oath have only a few of these limitations, but get 40% less mana, and cast spells at 75% maximum strength.

Joining the Burglars' Guild:
     If you have not taken any other Oath, and attain a skill of 20 in Burglary, you may join the Burglars' Guild.  This lets you take fullest advantage from further increases in Burglary (otherwise the effect of a skill above 20 is halved).  Most of the advantages to joining the Guild depend on your Burglary skill, but all Brothers and Sisters of the Guild get monster awareness bonuses, which make it safer to navigate darkened rooms.  They also get a +2 bonus to Dexterity, an increase to critical hit chance when fighting or shooting out of a darkened area, and can (if skilled at fighting) attack multiple weaker monsters at once.
     The most important disadvantage to joining the Guild is simply that you cannot take any other Oath, placing the most powerful magics and warrior techniques out of your grasp.  You get slightly fewer hitpoints than a normal character.  Also, shopkeepers are more wary of you:  your charisma drops by 2 (in addition to the penalty for learning how to steal).


--- List of Skills ---

Swordsmanship   (cost - 12):
     Determines hit chance and critical hits with swords and other bladed weapons.  Allows characters to wield heavier weapons without penalty and handle two weapons at once more effectively.
     Bladed weapons are relatively light and easy to use.  Many a hero of old has chosen them; their battle-blades still exist.  However, most swords do not have the raw power that the greater hafted weapons and polearms possess.
     Swordsmanship reduces the cost of other skills:  Jousting by 1/2, Clubbing by 1/4.

Clubbing   (cost - 12):
     Determines hit chance and critical hits with blunt weapons.  Allows characters to wield heavier weapons without penalty and handle two weapons at once more effectively.
     Hafted weapons tend to be heavy, sometimes very heavy, but potentially do more raw damage than either swords or polearms.  They are also effective against monsters that resist edged weapons (swords and polearms).  Critical hits with blunt weapons occasionally stun monsters.
     Clubbing reduces the cost of other skills:  Swordsmanship by 1/4, Jousting by 1/4.

Jousting   (cost - 12):
     Determines hit chance and critical hits with pole-mounted edged weapons (spears, axes, halberds, quarterstaves, etc.).  Allows characters to wield heavier weapons without penalty and handle two weapons at once more effectively.  Increases any armor bonus that polearms provide (bonus can be up to five times normal).
     The more powerful polearms often require two hands to use, a real disadvantage.  However, many polearms grant significant bonuses to armor class, and critical hits with polearms directly rob monsters of energy.
     Jousting reduces the cost of other skills:  Swordsmanship by 1/2, Clubbing by 1/4.

Archery - Xbows   (cost - 9):
Archery - Bows   (cost - 9):
Archery - Slings   (cost - 7):
     Determines hit chance, critical hits, and power and number of shots with crossbows, bows, and slings.  Crossbows get higher missile multipliers, bows get extra shots, and slings get both.  Characters that have taken the Oath of Iron get the most bonuses and specialist spellcasters get the fewest.  Slingshot are considered blunt weapons, and are therefore a good backup for characters who rely on bladed melee weapons.  Arrows and bolts are considered to be edged.
     Archery - Xbows and Archery - Bows reduce the cost of the other by 1/3rd, and of Archery - Slings by 1/6th. 
     Archery - Slings reduces the cost of both Archery - Xbows and Archery - Bows by 1/6th.

Throwing   (cost - 9):
     Determines hit chance with any thrown object.  Increases the damage and/or power of many kinds of thrown potions.  With special throwing weapons, determines chance of critical hits and damage multiplier.  This skill can make carrying around flasks of oil, mushrooms, or boulders quite handy, and allow you to turn potions you wouldn't want to drink and well-balanced weapons into deadly missiles.

Wrestling   (cost - 10):
     Affects hit chance and damage when wrestling.  Sufficient increases in this skill increase strength and also dexterity, allow you to bash doors and chests with greater force, tunnel more rapidly, and recover from stuns more quickly.  Good wrestlers get an HP bonus of up to 50.
     Wrestling requires that you not wield a weapon (You can carry a shield, however).  This combat method doesn't work on non-material beings unless you are blessed, and will hurt you if you try it on highly poisonous or acidic creatures, elementals, or vortexes, but is fully effective against monsters that resist edged and/or blunt weapons.  Wrestling does a lot of damage and sometimes allows you to rob monsters of energy by throwing them to the ground.  You need to be quite strong to be a truly effective wrestler.
     If you are a good enough wrestler, and have taken the Oath of Iron, you can turn your skin to stone (65) or go into a berserk fury (80) at will.  Very skilled wrestlers who are not wielding a weapon get special immunities:  free action at a skill of 86, resist sound and stunning at 92, and resist confusion at 98.

Karate   (cost - 10):
     Affects hit chance and damage when using karate.  Sufficient increases in this skill increase dexterity and also strength, allow you to dodge better and become slightly more stealthy, and recover from stuns more quickly.
     Karate requires that you not wield a weapon (You can carry a shield, however).  This combat method doesn't work on non-material beings unless you are blessed, and will hurt you if you try it on highly poisonous or acidic creatures, elementals, or vortexes, but is fully effective against monsters that resist edged and/or blunt weapons.  Karate does a fair amount of damage and often inflicts momentary stunning, confusing, or slowing.  You need to be quite dexterous (and also strong) to be a truly effective user of karate.
     If you are good enough at karate, and have taken the Oath of Iron, you can sometimes go into a brief trance-like state (90) in which you are highly resistant to damage.  Very skilled karate users who are not wielding a weapon get special immunities:  free action at a skill of 86, resist sound and stunning at 92, and resist confusion at 98.

Spellcasting   (cost - 16):
     Determines the level of spells that can be cast and the raw power of most spells.

Magical power   (cost - 12):
     Determines the maximum amount of mana you have to spend on magic spells.  Specialist spellcasters can raise this skill to the maximum, spellcasters that have not taken an Oath cannot raise it above level 50, and non-spellcasters cannot raise this skill at all.

Wizardry   (cost - 6):
     Determines spell failure chance and reliability for wizards.  Allows you to learn about base monster mana faster, and even be able to make good guesses about current mana (especially for well-known monsters).  Protects against mana draining attacks.
     If you are not a wizard, learning wizardry grants access to a few of the spells that wizards use as talents:  detect magic (40), semi-controlled teleportation (70), and mana recovery (75).

Holy Alliance   (cost - 6):
     Determines prayer failure chance and reliability for priests.  Yields warnings (above about level 55) of demonic creatures, up to and including real-time detection.  Provides a substantial degree of protection from their blows, increases critical hit chance*.  Eventually increases intrinsic light range (this is the only way to get a light radius of five).  Reduces the damage you take from light, and eventually renders you invulnerable to holy orbs.  Controls the duration and effectiveness of protection from evil spells.  Improves your chance of sensing cursed and blessed items.  You cannot learn both Holy Alliance and Blood Dominion.
     If you are not a priest, learning holy alliance also gives you two special talents:  sense evil (30) and restore stats (75).

* The extra critical hit chance and protection granted by Holy Alliance, Nature Lore, and Blood Dominion is greatest for those who have taken the Oath of Iron, middling for those without a magic realm, and relatively low for magic-users.

Nature Lore   (cost - 6):
     Determines lore failure chance and reliability for druids, and their ability to forecast the weather.  Yields warnings (above about level 55) of natural creatures, up to and including full real-time detection.  Provides a substantial degree of protection from their blows, increases critical hit chance.  Makes you learn about any monster faster.  Improves personal protection and hit chance in forested terrain.  Improves your ability to learn about mushrooms.
     If you are not a druid, learning nature lore also gives you two special talents:  detect animals (25) and mend self (50).

Blood Dominion   (cost - 6):
     Determines ritual failure chance and reliability for necromancers.  Yields warnings (above about level 55) of undead creatures, up to and including full real-time detection.  Provides a substantial degree of protection from their blows, increases critical hit chance.  Reduces the damage you take from darkness, and makes it much less likely that you will get the Black Breath.  You cannot learn both Holy Alliance and Blood Dominion.
     If you are not a necromancer, learning blood dominion also gives you two special talents:  sense undead (25) and restore experience (85).

Magical Device   (cost - 15):
     Determines success rate with magical devices and all activatable items except dragon scale mail, and increases their power when used.  Makes recharging less likely to blow up items.  Allows you to learn the true effects of magical devices and activatable items more quickly and to automatically sense charges (70).

Burglary   (cost - 12):
     Allows you to steal objects from monsters, lock doors, and get highly effective sneak attacks against sleeping monsters and backstabs against fleeing ones.  Renders you far more silent in all kinds of non-magical combat, and allows you to set deadly traps for unwary monsters.  Burglars become worse with heavy melee weapons but much better with light ones as their skills improve.  If you raise Burglary to the point at which you can steal (level 4), shopkeepers start to mistrust you; your Charisma drops by 2.  You must join the Burglars' Guild to get the full effect of increasing your skill past 20 (otherwise it is halved).
     Burglary reduces the cost of other skills:  Disarming by 3/4, Stealth by 1/3, Dodging by 1/3.
     Burglary grants three talents:  Detect and Nab objects (40), poison ammo (55), and hit and run (70).  It also grants three special abilities:  stealing (4), locking doors (7), and trap-setting (10).
                         See the section on burglary.

Perception   (cost - 7):
     This talent improves your ability to find traps and hidden doors.  A relatively small investment in it gives you hints on unidentified object quality much more often (this is very useful, and a good reason to pay attention to this skill early).  It also improves the chance to get full numerical data on the power of magical devices and activatable items and to automatically sense charges.  
     Perception biases all sort of sighting and awareness rules in your favour.  For example, it allows you (above about level 18) to sometimes "hear" unseen monsters nearby.  Take this skill high enough, and you will start to get precognition messages (which can be extremely helpful for a truly skilled character).  Perception can even help you find essences.
    Perception grants one talent:  Sense area (55).

Stealth   (cost - 6):
     Decreases the amount of innate noise and also most kinds of directed noise you make.  When you are deliberately "sneaking", when your skill is high relative to dungeon depth, or when you are moving about in total darkness, the effects of this skill are maximized.  Increases the power of various camouflaging and concealment magics.  Most importantly, stealth makes it more likely that monsters will be generated asleep and reduces the rate at which they enter the dungeon.
     Stealth reduces the cost of Burglary by 1/3rd of its own cost.
     Stealth grants two talents:  Sneaking (10) and superstealth (75).

Disarming   (cost - 4):
     Improves your ability to safely disarm traps and chests and unlock doors.  The higher you raise it compared to dungeon depth, the more likely that you will get guaranteed safe disarming (magic, in contrast, is always slightly chancy), and be able to automatically avoid any trap you walk onto unawares.  A skill of 100 provides perfect disarming and protection.  With very high skill (or high skill relative to current depth), you can sometimes loot traps as you disarm them!
     Disarming reduces the cost of Burglary by 3/4ths of its own cost.

Dodging   (cost - 6):
     Improves ability to retain spellpoints when wearing heavy armor.  Gives you a guaranteed armor class even if you are wearing no armor.  Is the most important factor in your ability to dodge missiles, both magical and physical, and some kinds of traps.  Also gives you protection against melee attacks (especially attempts to steal).
     Other factors can help or hurt your dodging ability and, in extreme cases, make the game act as though you had no skill at all.  See the talent "dodging" for how to maximize your dodging ability.  Your character screen takes all factors into account.
     Dodging reduces the cost of Burglary by 1/3rd of its own cost.

Spell resistance   (cost - 6):
     Increases your saving throw against magical and mental attacks (blinding, confusion, paralyzation, etc.).  Attention paid to this skill can save your life...

Weaponsmithing   (cost - 10):
     Once you raise it to 15, allows you to forge melee and throwing weapons from components found in the dungeon.  Note:  you also need to be moderately skilled in using the weapon type you are making to get good results.
     Weaponsmithing reduces the cost of Bowmaking by 2/5ths.

Bowmaking   (cost - 10):
     With a skill of 15, allows you to forge missile weapons and missiles from components found in the dungeon.  Note:  you also need to be moderately skilled in using the weapon or ammunition you are making to get good results.
     Bowmaking reduces the cost of Weaponsmithing by 2/5ths.

Armor forging   (cost - 14):
     With a skill of 15, allows you to forge armor from components found in the dungeon.  Armor forging is very powerful, because there are almost no object qualities that cannot be had with enough skill, good enough components, and a dash of luck.

Alchemy   (cost - 8):
     Allows you to create potions, scrolls, rings and amulets.  You need a skill of 10 to create potions and scrolls, and a skill of 35 to create rings and amulets.

Magical infusion   (cost - 13):
     Infusion is among the most powerful of skills, because it allows you to use magical essences to control the powers that armor, weapons, and missiles get, pack essences into potions that explode violently when thrown, and make more potions and scrolls using a given number of essences.  You need an infusion skill of 10 to infuse forged items.
     A relatively high Magical infusion skill is essential for reliably finding essences, especially deep in the dungeon (Perception also helps a little).  You cannot search for essences at all unless you have a Magical Infusion skill of 10 or higher.
     Infusion grants one talent:  Recharging with essences (30).



====== Talents ======

     The game will notify you of any new talents you get as you raise skills.

     Typing '[' brings up a list of talents.  If you have at least one talent, you can browse (get extra information about) it by typing '*', or mark it (get notification when it is again available for use) by typing '!'.


--- List of Talents ---

Turn skin to stone:
     Increases your armor class substantially.  Requires a wrestling skill of 65 and the Oath of Iron.

Berserk fury:
     Drives you into a berserk fury, which greatly increases your strength, melee skill, and hitpoints, but hinders archery and throwing, reduces your armor class, and leaves you exhausted.  Requires a wrestling skill of 80 and the Oath of Iron.

Resist damage:
     Lets you go into a brief trance-like state in which you take only 2/3rds damage from all forms of attack.  Requires a karate skill of 90 and the Oath of Iron.

Learn about monster:
     Gives you partial information about a single monster, especially about attributes that would determine which weapon you might use against it.  Requires the Oath of Iron.

Detect magic:
     Reveals most kinds of magical items nearby, which is very helpful for finding concentrations of neat loot.  This talent does not reveal essences.  Requires a wizardry skill of 40.  Wizards use a spell instead.

Phase warp:
     Semi-controlled teleport.  At levels not much above the minimum, is only slightly better than a phase door, but at high levels, gives good control of movement.  Requires a wizardry skill of 70.  Wizards use a spell instead.

Tap magical energy:
     Allows you to regain mana by tapping magical devices (especially staffs and wands).  This can be a very useful ability indeed, because ways to magically recover mana are rare.  Requires a wizardry skill of 75.  Wizards use a spell instead.

Sense evil:
     Detects evil monsters (even invisible ones) nearby.  Requires a holy alliance skill of 30.  Priests use a prayer instead.

Restore stats:
    Instantly restores all of your vital statistics to maximum.  Requires a holy alliance skill of 75.  Priests use a prayer instead.

Sense animals:
     Detects natural creatures (even invisible ones) nearby.  Requires a nature lore skill of 25.  Druids use a technique instead.

Mend self:
     Reduces cuts, stuns, blindness, poison, and disease.  Requires a nature lore skill of 50.  At very high skill levels, allows you to heal yourself rapidly.  Druids use a technique instead.

Sense undead:
     Detects all undead monsters nearby.  Requires a blood dominion skill of 25.  Necromancers use a ritual instead).

Restore experience:
     Restores your skills.  This talent is very powerful, but you need a blood dominion skill of 85 to use it.  Necromancers use a ritual instead.

Sense charges:
     Those skilled with magical devices often automatically sense charges on wands and staffs.  If this automatic sensing fails, this talent guarantees success.  Requires a magical device skill of 70.

Detect and Nab objects:
     Does either of two things:  1) Detects objects and gold in the current room and/or in line of sight, 2) Fetches an object in line of sight to you, even if a monster is on top of it.  The maximum weight of the object goes up with skill.
     Requires a burglary skill of 40.

Poison ammo:
     Allows you to use certain mushrooms and potions to poison ammunition; such missiles do extra damage to all monsters not resistant to poison.  Requires a burglary skill of 55.

Hit and run:
     Casts a spell around you; when you next hit a monster in melee, or steal from it, you will execute a phase door.  The neat thing is that the monster gets no chance to retaliate.  Requires a burglary skill of 70.

Predict weather:
     Druids rely on this talent to tell them what the weather is like.  The accuracy of weather predictions goes up with perception skill, and down as you descend into the dungeon.  A druid needs to wait some time between forecasts, but may get automatic reports when the weather changes (again, depending on perception skill and dungeon depth).

Sense area:
     Magically maps the local area, revealing walls and floors (but not objects or monsters).  Requires a perception skill of 55.  Eventually gains extended range.

Sneaking:
     When you use this talent (or type the 'S' (or '#') key), you start to sneak around.  This slows you down but makes you more stealthy (depends on stealth skill).  Also, the higher your Burglary skill, the more likely that you will get especially deadly sneak attacks (much more effective than the ordinary sleeping monster bonus) on sleeping monsters.  Requires a stealth skill of 10.

Superstealth:
     Temporarily makes you partially invisible.  Power depends on stealth and is in addition to any equipment bonuses to invisibility.  Requires a stealth skill of 75.

Recharging:
     Allows you to use essences to recharge wands, staffs, and even rods.  This method is riskier to you than normal recharging, but is much less likely to blow up the item you are working on.  Of course, you have to find the right kind of essences first.  Requires a magical infusion skill of 30, and a magical device skill of 30.

Weapon forging:
     Allows you to create weapons using components.  Requires a weapon forging skill of 15.  Increases in skill greatly improve your ability to make powerful weapons.

Armor forging:
     Allows you to create armor using components.  Requires an armor forging skill of 15.  Increases in skill greatly improve your ability to make powerful armor.

Bowmaking and Fletchery:
     Allows you to create bows and ammunition using components.  Requires a bowmaking skill of 15.  Increases in skill greatly improve your ability to make powerful bows and missiles.

Alchemy:
     Allows you to create potions, scrolls, rings, and amulets using bottles, parchments, and essences.  Requires an alchemy skill of 10.  Increases in skill greatly improve your ability to make powerful weapons.

Dragon-breathing:
     If you are in dragonform, you can use this talent to consume essences and breathe them out in powerful breaths.  The amount of damage you do depends on your total power and on the type of essence you choose (the more likely the breath is to be resisted, the more damage it does).
     Of course, you have to find a way to turn into a dragon first...


--- Other skills-based abilities ---

Dodging Ability:
     Dodging skill is the most important factor in overall dodging ability, as shown on your character screen.  However, several other things can make a big difference.

Conditions:  When paralyzed, blinded, confused, hallucinating, or stunned, your dodging ability is greatly reduced.  An extremely high dodging skill (above 95) allows you to ignore most of these conditions.

Dexterity:  You need a Dexterity above 7 to dodge much at all.  Each point above this increases your potential dodging (assuming you have the skill).

Weight:  Carrying too much relative to your strength reduces your dodging ability, and wielded shields are by far the worst offenders.  However, increases in dodging skill boost the percentage you can carry without penalty.

Special:  Some spells increase dodging ability temporarily.  Burglars moving in the dark get a bonus.  It is hard to dodge in the water.



====== Object Forging ======


--- Supplies ---

     When using an object-forging talent, you usually need some kind of input.  You can only create weapons, armor, and missiles in the town (except in ironman mode).

Components:
     Components of metal come in several different types; the higher level the component, the more powerful the weapon, armor, or missiles that can be forged from it.  Certain components add special qualities to the items they create; mithril is unusually light, adamantium unusually heavy, and both ignore acid and fire.

Bottles:
     You need empty bottles to create potions.  You start saving empty bottles as soon as you get your alchemy skill up to 10.  Bottles come in several varieties; the higher level the bottle, the less likely potions made from it will shatter when frozen.

Parchments:
     You need blank parchments to create scrolls.  You start saving parchments as soon as you get your alchemy skill up to 10.  Parchments come in several varieties; the higher level the parchment, the less likely scrolls made from it will burn or be destroyed by acid.

Essences:
     Essences are foci of concentrated magic; they slowly gather near objects and monsters with strong attributes of a particular type.  Every poisonous snake on a newly created level has some chance of having attracted an essence of poison, fire-branded weapons might have attracted essences of fire, and potions of cure critical wounds might have attracted essences of healing.  Objects and monsters generated while you are exploring the level cannot have attracted essences, because they haven't stayed in one place long enough.
     Essences cannot be detected with magic; you have to find them the old-fashioned way, by thoroughly investigating places where you think they might be.  The higher your Magical Infusion (and also Perception) skills, the more essences you will find.  Essences are more numerous but harder to spot deep in the dungeon.  Once you find an essence, you pick it up by moving onto it.  It automatically goes into a special pouch slot in your equipment; you may 'I'nspect or e'x'amine this pouch to see what essences you have.


--- Forging Wargear --- 

What you need:
     Weapon, armor, and missile forging all compete for the same kind of input:
components.  The more skilled you are, and the better the component you choose, the greater the maximum power of the object you create.
     You also need some moderate skill in using any weapon you forge, or it will be less powerful.  For example, if you don't have any throwing or clubbing skill, then you cannot make such powerful throwing or blunt weapons.

Object types:
     The actual power of the forged item greatly depends on your choice of base object.  Melee weapons and body armor can have a lot of attributes; other kinds of armor and missile weapons have somewhat less, and ammunition has only a few.  Also, the higher level and more powerful the base object, the fewer extra attributes it gets.

Reducing failure chance:
     Forging may fail, and when it does, things go boom.  You reduce your failure chance by increasing your skill, using higher quality components, and choosing low-level base object types (daggers versus executioner's swords).

     You can give your forged items names by inscribing them.


--- Infusion of Wargear ---

     When you forge wargear with essences in your pouch, you will be asked if you want to use essences to directly alter your forged item.  If you say yes, you see the "Add essences" screens.  There are four screens:  Sustain/Slay, Resist, Qualities, and Bonuses.  You navigate among them by typing '<' and '>'.  Pressing RETURN starts the forging.  Pressing ESC cancels everything.

Investing essences:
     On all screens, you see a list of object attributes (such as Resist Cold or Sustain Strength), each followed by an indication of the essence type and the minimum amount needed to get it.  If you have at least the required amount of essences of that type, the essence type is displayed in grey.  Otherwise, it is shown in dark grey.  You navigate to the attribute you want by typing '8' and '2', then invest essences by typing '+' and '-'.  As you invest essences, the number invested appears, colored grey, white, light blue, blue, and violet as your likelihood of success increases.  Investing the minimum gives you a 30% chance of success.  Investing until the indicator is violet (quite expensive) gives you a 90% chance of getting that attribute; this is the highest possible.

Applying bonuses:
     On the bonuses screen, you also need to specify which bonus you plan to apply, as objects may have up to three.  Usually, however, you just need to adjust the first one (by typing '+' and '-').  Navigate to the attribute you want, and type '4' and '6' to change to the bonus you want (usually the first).  Once you have assigned that attribute a non-zero bonus, you can then invest essences (by typing '+' and '-').  Note that the cost of bonuses depends greatly on the size of bonus you ask for.  Asking for a bonus of 3 is more expensive then asking for 3 different bonuses of 1.

Be careful:
     Object infusion can be extremely powerful, but you have to be careful.  The greater the percentage of total power you try to specify using essences, the more likely it is that the forging will fail, and that you will lose everything.  Infusion skill helps a lot with this.  The infusion screens display a "Potential" indicator; it changes colors from green to light green, white, yellow, orange, red, and dark grey as things get increasingly dangerous.
     Again:  forging is very, very chancy.  Magic-using smiths and alchemists are notorious for rearranging the landscape.  If you fail, just remember that there are lots more essences and components waiting to be found.


--- Alchemy ---

Making potions (requires a skill of 10):
     Potion-creation requires essences and bottles.  You can only make potions that you are aware of and whose essence cost you can meet.  The higher your alchemy skill, the higher the maximum level of potions you can make.
     Alchemy can fail, and when it does, the potion you are working on explodes violently.  You increase your success rate by choosing low-level potions, high-level bottles, and by raising your alchemy skill.
     You can often make more than one potion using a given number of essences; the amount depends on the value of the potion and your infusion skill.  Making more than one potion at a time is especially risky, but increases in infusion skill help.

Alchemy - making scrolls (requires a skill of 10):
     Scroll-creation is very similar to potion-creation except that you use parchments instead of bottles.

Alchemy - making rings and amulets (requires a skill of 35):
     Making rings and amulets needs both components and essences.  The level of object you can make depends on alchemy skill and component quality.  Failure chance depends on the level of the item you are trying to create and on your skill.

Infusion - making potions of essences:
     Requires an Infusion skill of 15.  Uses the same talent as ordinary potion-making (so you also need enough Alchemy skill to make potions).
     Potions of essences ("magical grenades") can do a lot of damage, whether you throw them, quaff them, or use them in traps.  Damage depends on the number of essences you pack in and on your Infusion skill.  The type of essences you use also has an effect:  the basic elements do the most damage, the esoteric magics do the least.  If you pack too many essences in, and fail to use a sturdy enough bottle, your potion might explode...

     Average damage:
     skill * 1.4 (up to 140) for one essence
     skill * 2.2 (up to 220) for two essences
     skill * 2.8 (up to 280) for three essences

     Note:  You can make multiple potions of essences at one time.  Unlike the case when making ordinary potions, there is no extra risk to doing this.




================================= The World ==================================


====== Symbols on your Map ======

Special
   @   The character

Features that do not block line of sight
   .   A floor space                    1   Entrance to General Store
   .   A trap (hidden)                  2   Entrance to Armory
   ^   A trap (known)                   3   Entrance to Weapon Smith
   ;   A glyph of warding               4   Entrance to Temple
   '   An open door                     5   Entrance to Alchemy Shop
   '   A broken door                    6   Entrance to Magic Shop
   <   A staircase up                   7   Entrance to the Bookseller
   >   A staircase down                 8   Entrance to your Home
   .   Water (blue)                     #   Lava (red)

Features that block line of sight
   #   A secret door                    #   A wall
   +   A closed door                    %   A mineral vein
   +   A locked door                    *   A mineral vein with treasure
   +   A jammed door                    :   A pile of rubble
   +   Tree (green)

Objects
   !   A potion, flask, or bottle       /   A pole-arm
   ?   A scroll, book, or parchment     |   An edged weapon
   ,   A mushroom (or food)             \   A hafted weapon
   -   A wand or rod                    }   A missile launcher
   _   A staff                          {   A shot, arrow, or bolt
   =   A ring                           (   Soft armor
   "   An amulet                        [   Hard armor
   $   Gold or gems                     ]   Misc. armor
   ~   Lights and chests                )   A shield
   `   Junk, Sticks, Skeletons, etc.    &   (unused)
   *   An essence                       +   A gemstone
   %   A component                      #   A boulder

Monsters
   $   Creeping Coins                   ,   Mushroom Patch
   *   Storm                            +   Giant Gemstone
   |   Weapon mimic (also /, \, [, ])   #   Rock monster
   !   Potion mimic                     ?   Scroll mimic
   &   Major Demon                      ~   Animated torch, fish, etc.
   a   Giant Ant                        A   Angelic being
   b   Giant Bat                        B   Bird
   c   Giant Centipede                  C   Canine (Dog)
   d   Dragon                           D   Ancient Dragon
   e   Floating Eye                     E   Elemental
   f   Feline                           F   Flies and Dragon Flies
   g   Golem                            G   Ghost
   h   Humanoid                         H   Hybrid
   i   Icky-Thing                       I   Minor Demon
   j   Jelly                            J   Snake
   k   Kobold                           K   Killer Beetle
   l   Giant Louse                      L   Lich
   m   Mold                             M   Mummy
   n   Naga                             N   (unused)
   o   Orc                              O   Ogre
   p   Human                            P   Giant Human(oid)
   q   Quadruped                        Q   Quylthulg (Pulsing Flesh Mound)
   r   Rodent                           R   Reptile/Amphibian
   s   Skeleton                         S   Spider/Scorpion/Tick
   t   Townsperson                      T   Troll
   v   Vortex                           V   Vampire
   w   Worm or Worm Mass                W   Wight/Wraith
   x   (unused)                         X   Xorn/Xaren
   y   Yeek                             Y   Yeti
   z   Zombie                           Z   Zephyr Hound

     Any of these symbols may be changed using preference files, accessed using the command '%'.  You may review what a symbol means by typing '/'.



====== The Town ======

     You begin your adventures in the town.  It consists of eight buildings, each with a shop entranceway (and one also with an inn), and is well populated.  The first time you are in town it will be daytime, but the sun rises and sets as time passes.  Nighttime in the town can be dangerous...

Townspeople:
     Most townsfolk go about their daily tasks, paying little or no attention to you unless provoked.  However, there are slippery-fingered thieves and armed killers that you need to avoid.  Fights do break out, so be prepared.  Since your character grew up in this world of intrigue, no experience is awarded for killing the town inhabitants, though you may acquire treasure.


--- Stores ---

     You enter buildings by walking onto their entranceways, which (in text mode) are represented by numbers from 1 to 8 or the '+' sign.
     A new display then replaces the old.  For most buildings, you see the name and race of the store owner, the name of the store, and the maximum number of gold pieces that the store owner will pay for any one item.  Below it is displayed the inventory; if it is numerous, you may display another page by typing space.  Near the bottom of the screen is displayed a list of commonly-used commands.
- 'g' or 'p': get/purchase an item.
- 'd' or 's': drop/sell an item.
- 'I': inspect an item (reveals any known special properties, reads spellbooks)
- ESC:  leave the store.

The General Store:
     Sells foods, drinks, cloaks, robes, torches, lamps, oil, shovels, picks, spikes, and ammunition for missile launchers.  Buys items of these types (except robes) and some others.

The Armory:
     Buys and sells every kind of armor except cloaks.

The Weaponsmith's Shop:
     Buys and sells melee weapons, missile launchers, and ammunition.

The Temple:
     Buys and sells blunt weapons, healing and restoration supplies, and various other holy items.

The Alchemy Shop:
     Buys and sells potions and scrolls.

The Magic User's Shop:
     Buys and sells rings, amulets, wands, rods, and staffs.

The Bookstore:
     Buys and sells spellbooks.

Your Home:
     Here you may store objects that you cannot carry on your travels or will need later.  You may check the contents of your home when in the dungeon by using the '~' command.

The Inn (named):
     Offers quests for especially dangerous foes.


--- Buying and Selling ---

     Store owners have individual personalities; often their names are a valuable hint.  Some can offer a great deal of money, but never seem to hold any sales; others cannot pay nearly what your valuable items are worth, but often give great deals.  The price of items that change hands depends on their base cost, how well your and the store owner's races get along*, your Charisma, and the innate greediness of the store owner.

     * Everyone likes his or her own race best.
     * Humans will trade with anyone, and nobody really hates them.
     * Dwarves and orcs are at war; dwarves and elves don't much get along.
     * Nobody loves a Half-Orc or Half-Troll but another orc or troll.

     Stores never have everything in stock; as time passes, their inventory slowly changes (but only when you are in the dungeon).  Store owners fully identify everything you sell them; you also become aware of objects of that type.

Bargaining:
     Price also depends on one factor more:  your skill at bargaining.  The shopkeeper will immediately go to his final price on low-priced items, but for more valuable things, you need to haggle a little.  As you glance over a store's inventory, you will notice that some prices are in grey rather than white; they are items that you should bargain for.
     If you are selling something, a typical haggling session starts with the shopkeeper assuring you that a good price is something like 50-70% of what the item is really worth.  You demand maybe twice or three times this, and the bargaining begins.  You bring your price closer to the shopkeeper's offer, and he then does the same for you.  The best way to change a price is to enter "-20" or "+20", instead of retyping a new figure.  After some rounds, you and the shopkeeper will meet somewhere in the middle.
     The key to success is to change your price neither too little (which will insult the shopkeeper) nor too much (which is a sign of inexperience, and will be taken advantage of).  Some shopkeepers like to haggle more, other are impatient and demand good offers, but you have always have enough leeway to succeed.
     If you've gotten the shopkeeper to admit his final price, and you close the sale, your reputation with him goes up.  If you accept a bad deal (no "Final offer"), your reputation goes down.  The higher your reputation as a haggler, the more items that the shopkeeper will just go straight to his final price on (he knows he can't fool you).  It is quite possible to get a shopkeeper to immediately offer the final price on just about everything.
     Just be careful not to antagonize the shopkeepers too much.  You have to work at it, but you can get any shopkeeper mad enough to throw you out of the store.  When this happens, you can't get back in for quite some time, perhaps three or four days.  Fortunately, shopkeepers are forgiving souls:  as time passes, they will forget any unhappiness you've caused them.  Shopkeepers also forget an insult every time you buy or sell anything; if you want to get back in the Temple's good graces, buy some potions of Cure Light Wounds.  One at a time.

     There is an option to auto-haggle, but be warned:  Those who blithely accept the shopkeeper's prices pay a markup.  The higher the value of the item, the higher that markup; it is nothing for anything under 250 gold and up to 33 percent for really expensive things.

Stores can upgrade their inventory:
     Every time you buy something new, especially something valuable, from a store, it has more money to spend on items it wouldn't normally carry.  As time passes, and you continue to patronize particular stores, you will notice two things:  firstly, the shopkeepers will start paying special attention to you, and secondly, that they will begin to stock a few unusual items.  It takes quite a while, but stores can significantly upgrade their inventory over time.
     Be aware that shopkeepers mark up the prices of these unusual items.  For valuable things, this markup can be considerable.

Investing in stores:
     You can also give shopkeepers money directly by investing in their store.  Use the '*' command, then type 'I' to invest money.  In addition to making the store more likely to stock nice stuff, investing in stores also improves the shopkeeper's attitude, and may make him forget any bad bargains.

Shopkeepers can retire and be replaced:
     Shopkeepers do retire, but only very rarely.  The new shopkeeper benefits from all of the money you've spent at the store, and has a good (but not perfect) idea of how good a haggler you are.
     If you completely buy out a store's inventory, the shopkeeper may offer to retire.  He'll demand a fortune, though.


--- Getting quests ---

    You take on quests by going to the Inn and choosing one from the list.  As you succeed in more quests, and take on greater challenges, the rewards for success can become great indeed.
     When you accept a quest, you have lots of time to prepare for it.  However, once you enter the quest level, you cannot leave for any length of time without running a risk of failing the quest.  Failure reduces your prestige, and you may get poorer rewards from the quest-givers until you recover their respect.

     Be warned:  If you are not a really good player, "moderate" and "difficult" quests can get your characters killed fast!



====== The Dungeon ======

     All levels other than 0 (or zero feet) lie within the dungeon.  Each level of the dungeon is fifty feet high, and is divided into large rectangular regions (several times larger than the screen) by impenetrable walls.  Once you leave a level, you will never again find your way back to that region of that level, but there are an infinite number of other regions at that same depth that you can explore later.  Monsters move about just as you do, and you may see them again.


--- Terrain ---

     The following terrain types affect movement, combat, or both.  Because they less frequently take advantage of terrain, monsters benefit more from favorable and suffer less from unfavorable terrain than your character does.

Rubble:
     Greatly slows down any creature that cannot bore or pass through rock.  Ends LOS, stops missiles, bolts, and beams, and reduces the radius of ball spells.  Grants the character and monsters within it some protection from melee, ranged, or magical attacks.  Rubble may dissolve to normal floor.

Water:
     Cannot be passed by fiery, earthbound monsters, slows down other most other monsters.  Slows you down, and cannot be crossed if you are carrying too much.  You and your enemies are easier to hit when in water, and most spells (especially water-based ones) gain in strength.  It is hard to dodge in water.  However, fire-based spells become much less powerful, so find a lake if you battle Smaug.  Water may evaporate.

Lava:
     Can be passed by any character, but inflicts substantial fire damage (less for players with feather fall - they're light on their feet).  All monsters other than fiery or strong flying creatures will not cross.  Water and cold-based spells suffer and fire-based spells become more powerful against a target in lava.  Lava may freeze to rubble or normal floor.

Trees:
     Slows down characters not familiar with druidic techniques, and all non-natural monsters that neither fly nor pass through rock.  Ends LOS, stops missiles, bolts, and beams, and reduces the radius of ball spells.  Grants the character and monsters within it some protection from melee, ranged, or magical attacks.  Trees can burn.

Permanent walls:
     You can dig through most walls but some are impenetrable.  The dungeon is surrounded by these kinds of walls and some special rooms are made of them.

Staircases:
     Staircases allow your character to ascend or descend from one level to another, and are represented by "<" (up) and ">" (down).  Each level has at least one up staircase, and two down staircases, unless it is the home of Sauron (level 99/4950') or Morgoth (level 100/5000'), whom you must kill before staircases will appear.  Otherwise, the staircases are guaranteed, but they may be difficult to find.  Once you leave a level, you can never return to it.  If you found an artifact, identified it, and left it on the level, it is permanently lost.  Watch out for spells and traps that can suddenly force you off the level.

Secret doors:
     Many secret doors exist in the dungeon, and may lead to anything from a new section of the dungeon level to an empty closet.  As your familiarity with the dungeon grows, you will know where many secret doors are likely to be.  Secret doors always look like granite until found.  You find hidden doors using the 's'earch command, or magic.

Locked and stuck doors:
     Doors may be locked or stuck; getting through them may not be easy.  Your disarming skill makes all the difference to your ability to handle locks, but you can also bash doors down, take a pickaxe to them, or blast them open with magic.
     Monsters are also slowed down by doors; you can earn yourself valuable time by jamming or locking them.

Open doors:
     Open doors (if unbroken) may be closed.  If a monster is in the way, you instead attempt to slam the door:  The monster gets a free turn, then you attempt to close the door.  If you succeed, the monster retreats out of the way and loses a turn.

Traps:
     Traps also await you in the dungeon.  They look like normal terrain until found, too often by your being caught by one.  They start out weak and easy to disarm, but can get truly nasty further down...
     You find hidden traps by using the 's'earch command.  Many characters can also use magic and everyone can use the appropriate magical device.  Be warned: although magical disarming is convenient, it is never a sure thing.

Rooms:
     The Pits of Angband contain many kinds of rooms, including some that house hordes of monsters, contain extraordinary items, or are filled with deadly traps.  Some special rooms, known as vaults, are extremely dangerous and lucrative.

Mining:
     There is much treasure in the walls of the dungeon, just waiting for an industrious adventurer to come and dig it out.  Once you can afford it, and if you can handle the weight, bring a shovel or pick along.  Your ability to tunnel depends on strength, weapon weight, and any special digging bonus the weapon provides.  Your success depends on these factors and the strength of the wall:  granite is very hard, quartz is hard, magma is soft, and rubble is very soft.
     As you get richer, the treasures in the wall won't seem so appealing anymore, but keep an item or spell of tunneling handy.  Not only do all sorts of special vaults lie deep below the surface, some completely enclosed by solid rock, but smart adventurers deliberately alter the dungeon to make the most dangerous breathers and summoners manageable.


--- Exploring ---

Light:
     Your character must have some source of light in order to see, unless the area around him is magically lit.  Depending on the items he has equipped, he may have a light radius of one (torches with low fuel), two (a lantern or well-fueled torch), or more, up to a rarely-attained maximum of five.  Never risk being without light ... unless you know what you are doing.
     A torch or lantern (usually) burns fuel, and may be refilled (use the 'F'uel command) with other torches or flasks of oil respectively.  It is rumoured that other light sources exist which never need replenishing.  Light sources can be lit or doused (use the '(' command).   When lit, they will illuminate the surrounding area, even when placed on the floor.  They will automatically light up when equipped, and will neither shed light nor use fuel in your backpack.
     In addition you may get access to spells which permanently light up areas of the dungeon; these can be truly handy, because a monster you can see coming is much less dangerous.

Darkness:
     But darkness can be useful too.  Unseen monsters are harder to hit with physical attacks, and take less damage from spells (because you can't aim at them precisely).  You, likewise, are harder to hit if in and surrounded by darkness, and will take less damage from ranged attacks.  Depending on your skills, staying in darkness may yield other advantages as well.

Food and Regeneration:
     Never risk being without food.  You must eat every so often in order to avoid starvation.  The speed at which you consume food depends on your race (trolls and giants need to eat a lot) and the items you wear.
     The speed at which you regenerate is doubled when you are resting (so rest in place instead of staying in place whenever possible), and is also affected by various object attributes and temporary conditions.

Noise:
     Characters make a certain amount of noise all the time; this innate noise decreases as stealth improves.  Moving more quickly increases noise somewhat because you perform more actions in a given period of time.  Resting, sneaking, and (if you have any stealth skill) moving in the dark all reduce base noise substantially.
     To base noise is added extra noise.  Every time you engage in combat, cast most kinds of spells that hurt monsters, bash a door or a chest, kill a monster, or wreck the dungeon, you make extra noise.  Extra noise dies down over time.
     Sleeping monsters will be disturbed by noise, especially if you are nearby and/or are in line of sight.  You may deliberately make noise by using the Bash command.

Searching and Detection:
     The dungeon is full of secret doors and hidden traps.  Perception skill is crucial for automatically finding traps and secret doors as you move around, especially deep in the dungeon where they become very hard to find.  You can also actively hunt for hidden things by typing 's' to search for a turn.   This is much more effective and requires less perception skill.  However, the most powerful way to reveal traps and secret doors is magic:  spells exist that make finding doors and avoiding traps a easy task.
     The one thing that no magic spell can find for you is essences.  Once your Magical infusion skill is at least 15, you start to notice essences, both automatically and by deliberately searching.  As you descend into the dungeon, be sure to keep raising your Magical infusion skill (raising Perception helps also, but not as much), because high-level essences are much harder to find.

Level Feelings:
     Spend enough time on a given level and you will get a message describing it.  The more interesting the choice of adjectives, the more dangerous and lucrative the level is likely to be.  At the same time, the depth indicator located at the bottom-right corner of the main screen will change color.  Whites and yellows indicate relatively quiet levels, but oranges and reds mean danger and rewards.
     Things that boost level feelings include:  out of depth monsters (small effect), out of depth uniques (larger effect), out of depth objects, artifacts and other powerful kinds of objects, and very unusual rooms.
     You will occasionally get the message "You feel there is something special about this level.", indicating that this is either a quest level, or that there is an active player ghost lurking there.  Artifacts and special rooms do not make a level special.

Precognition Messages:
     If your Perception skill is great enough, you will start to get "precognition" messages indicating the presence of many of the individual monsters, objects, and special rooms that boost level feelings.  Unlike level feelings, they appear immediately.  The higher you raise your Perception, the more specific - and accurate - these messages become.


--- The Passage of Time ---

     Both monsters and characters gain energy each turn and use it to perform actions.  Any creature that moves at normal speed gains 10 energy per game turn; any monster move and most character actions take 100 energy.  Some monsters move at double speed and you can too, if you quaff a Potion of Speed.  Actions still take the same amount of energy, but they and you gain twice the energy each turn.  Further down, monsters lurk that move even faster, and rare items exist that allow you to keep pace.  If you can, avoid being slower than your foes.

An abbreviated speed-to-energy table:

(very slow creatures can get as little as 1 energy per turn)
  -20 speed:  3 energy
  -15      :  4
  -10      :  5
   -5      :  6
  normal   : 10
   +5      : 15
  +10      : 20
  +15      : 25
  +20      : 30
  +25      : 35
  +30      : 38 (energy only goes up very slowly above +30 speed)

Regeneration and recovery:
     Every 10 game turns, you regenerate some hitpoints and mana (unless you are ill or wounded), and get hurt by cuts and poison.  Temporary conditions count down, rods recharge, and light sources use fuel.  Every 100 game turns, you digest some food.  Every hundred thousand game turns equals one day; the town spends half that time in darkness and the other half in light.
     Every 10 game turns, every monster on the level gets a chance to recover from all temporary conditions.  Every 100 game turns, monsters regenerate hitpoints.



====== Monsters ======

Monsters are worth experience:
     Defeat a monster, and you will gain experience.  The amount you gain depends on the base monster value (which goes up rapidly deeper in the dungeon).  This is divided by your own total experience value:  the combination of spent plus unspent experience, ranging from 1 to 100.  Note that raising skills has no effect whatsoever on this value.

Your Monster Memory:
     When you see a monster for the first time, all you know are its physical attributes and whatever information the monster description may provide.  As you fight and kill monsters, use various attacks on them, probe them with magic, and get killed by them, you learn more about their strengths and weaknesses.
     You recall this memory in one of two ways:  'l'ooking at / e'x'amining the monster and then pressing 'r' for recall, or by pressing '/' and typing the monster's letter.
     Unlike object memory, monster memory can be passed on even after your character dies, by loading his savefile and creating a new character.

The Monster Health Bar:
     A good way to keep track of a specific monster is to target it.  When you do so, its health bar appears on the left side of the main screen, just below the hitpoint and mana indicators.  Similar health bars are also used when looking around and when displaying the closest monsters.
     The health bar uses several colors to tell you more about the monster.  Frightened - violet, Confused - brown, Stunned - light blue, Sleeping - dark blue.  Otherwise - dark and light green when healthy, and yellow, orange, and red when wounded.
     The health bar is bracketed in green when you have direct line of fire to the monster, in white when monsters block your line of fire, and grey when walls or something else non-passable does.

Extra monster health bars:
     You can display additional monster health bars on the left side of your main screen or (in most interfaces) in separate windows.  Consult the options section for more details.

Monster attributes:
     The special attributes of monsters can make all the difference to the danger they pose to you.  Some of the more interesting are listed and described.

  Hitpoints : Some monsters die easily, others can withstand almost anything.
  Armor : Some monsters are easy to hit with melee blows or missiles, others 
       very difficult.
  Awareness : Some monsters will stay asleep even if you dance in front of them, 
       others are ever vigilant.  The distance that monsters can perceive you 
      (if you are not in line of sight) also varies greatly.

  Color : The color of a monster can be a valuable hint; different kinds 
       of power and magic are associated with particular colors.
  Multi-hued : Changes colors randomly.  Often you can tell what a dragon 
       can breathe by watching it flicker.
  Invisible : Cannot be seen with normal sight.
  Warm-blooded : Some monsters can be seen with infravision, others can not.
  Telepathy : Some monsters are always visible with telepathy, others are 
       rarely visible, and others still never visible.
  Uses symbol : Appears exactly like whatever terrain it is on.
  Shining : Can be seen even in shadow

  Groups : Monsters may appear in groups, or have escorts.
  Multiply : Some monsters breed explosively!

  Drops : Monsters may drop anything from nothing at all to large quantities 
       of marvelous objects.
  Experience : The experience you get from killing monsters varies greatly.

  Regenerate : Recovers battle damage unusually quickly.
  Evasive : Monster is especially hard to hit with melee blows, missiles, or 
       bolt spells.
  Clouds : Monster constantly releases clouds of venom, fire, etc. around it.  
       Approaching such creatures is especially hazardous.

  Bash Door : Most monsters (but not all) can either bash down or open doors.  
       Everyone can close doors, and some characters can lock or bar doors to 
       delay their foes considerably.
  Pass Wall : Ghosts and some other creatures can float right through ordinary 
       walls.
  Flying : Can float or fly over hostile terrain or monster traps.

  Hurt by ... : Monsters can be especially susceptible to light, rock remover, 
       fire, or cold.
  Resistant to ... : Monsters can be especially resistant to edged and/or blunt 
       weapons, any or all of the elements or poison, or any of the esoteric 
       magics.
  Cannot be ... : Monsters can be immune to fear, slowing, stunning, sleeping, 
       or confusion.

  Spells : Monsters may fire physical missiles, breathe, cast spells to hurt and 
       hinder you, blink and teleport you and themselves, heal and cure and 
       restore themselves, haste themselves or other monsters, summon more 
       opponents, and many other things!
  Casting speed : Be careful of monsters that cast spells very often, especially 
       if they also move quickly.
  Smart : Monsters can be skilled at choosing spells, somewhat skilled, or 
       unskilled.
  Breath Powerfully : Dragon breaths lose less power with range.
  Archer : Can fire physical missiles most of the time.
  Morgul-Spells : Poisonous missiles, and cold, poison, and darkness spells 
       become much more nasty.
  Spells of Udun : Fire become Hellfire, a dreadful combination of darkness and
       fire.

  Blows : Monsters can do great damage and inflict nasty effects in melee.  A 
       few monsters never miss.


Detecting monsters:
     There are many ways to find out if monsters are nearby.  Bright light reveals all but invisible creatures; if you can light up an area, you are much less likely to be surprised.  Many spells and magical devices, and some talents detect monsters, and you may perhaps be able to find and wear an item that grants telepathy.
     A number of skills can also be very helpful here, as they allow you to sense nearby creatures.  The effect of each skill is given below.

     Nature Lore:  powerful detection of natural creatures
     Holy Alliance:  powerful detection of demonic creatures, some ability 
          to sense evil at high level
     Blood Dominion:  powerful detection of undead creatures
     Wizardry:  some detection of magic-users with mana at high level

     Stealth:  If you are in pitch darkness, gives you a significant bonus 
          when listening for monsters
     Perception:  perception skill may reveal invisible creatures adjacent 
          to you, and at high level this skill can help you hear distant 
          monsters not mentioned above
     Burglary (Guild):  general bonus to hearing and sensing ability


Player Ghosts:
     Player ghosts vary from game to game depending on the name, sex, race, and spell realm of the adventurer or legendary Hero whose bones file was used during ghost creation.  Should your character die, information about him will often be added to a new bones file, inside the folder /lib/bones, and a future game might bring him back from the dead...
     Should a ghost be slain, he may vanish forever, or he may re-emerge later in a new, more powerful form!



====== Objects ======

     The mines far below the surface are full of objects just waiting to be picked up and used.  The treasures of long-forgotten kingdoms, dragon's hoards, heirlooms, wizard's stashes, and the plunder from every age of the world unite with the scattered earthly possessions of all the foolish adventurers who died before you to offer unimaginable wealth for those bold enough to seize it.


--- Learning about objects ---

Learning about objects:
     When you begin the game, most objects are unknown to you, and an important task is to learn more about them so that you can use them reliably.  The standard way to learn about an object is to identify it, but scrolls of Identify and Staffs of Perception don't come cheap.  They also don't work on everything; mushrooms cannot be identified with magic.

Full identification:
     Some items have special powers.  Ego-item descriptions usually tell you everything, but artifacts are known only by legend.  A number of items (usually artifacts and ego-items) may have random powers.  To learn absolutely everything about an object, read a scroll of *identify* on it.  Such scrolls are rare and expensive; if you don't have access to one, try using the object a lot and inscribing it.
     Fully identified objects have light blue indexes, identified objects have white, and unknown objects grey.

Scanning wargear automatically (Pseudo-ID):
     The first time you walk over a weapon, missile, or piece of armor, you examine it for anything unusual.  Your ability to learn about wargear depends on your perception skill, modified by any bonuses to awareness granted by equipped items.
     When you wear or wield such an item, you examine it again, this time more closely and with a greater chance of success.  Given a decent perception skill, you have a pretty good shot at learning something.  Be careful though:  Objects may be cursed and need special magic to remove!

Scanned objects are marked with the following inscriptions
   Item description               low perception          high perception
   average item:                  "unknown"               "average"
   item with plusses              "good"                  "good"
   ego-item (weapon of flame)     "good"                  "excellent"
   artifact (unique item)         "good"                  "special"
   cursed artifact                "cursed"                "terrible"
   cursed ego-item                "cursed"                "worthless"
   cursed ordinary object         "cursed"                "cursed"
   failed to learn anything       "unknown", no message appears

     Once you equip the weapon or armor, and if it is actually better (or worse) then the inscription claims, you will eventually learn more about it as you use it in battle.  An ego-item that was originally marked "unknown" will first be revealed as "good", then as "excellent".
     Characters who have taken the Oath of Iron are especially good at scanning wargear, and (if their perception skill is fairly high) will be able to instantly identify any weapon or armor they equip.

Sensing other wearable objects:
     You can often learn about rings and amulets by putting them on, and, if that doesn't work, by wearing them for a while.  This also gives you experience.  However, rings and amulets are often cursed...

Learning about magical devices:
     You can learn the name of magical devices that you successfully use; when you do, you get experience.
     If your perception and/or magical device skills are good enough, you can learn about the charges on wands and staffs, especially low-level ones.  Bonuses to awareness also work here.
     Use most magical devices often enough, especially if your perception and magical device skills are high, and you will eventually learn more about the damage they do or the power they have.  You may check this information by using the 'I'nspect command.

Learning about potions and scrolls:
     There are three ways to learn about potions and scrolls:  You can sell them, identify them, or learn about them by using them.  Learning by using is risky but highly rewarding.  Not only do you get a lot of experience this way (if the object is unsensed), but many scrolls and potions are more powerful when you read or quaff them unaware (and unsensed).  If you quaff unaware every potion that attacks stats, and every one that improves them, your total stat gain will improve by about 4.

Learning about mushrooms:
     You must eat mushrooms in order to learn about them.  There are some very useful 'shrooms out there, but also some truly nasty ones...


--- Object information ---

     'I'nspecting a specific object will pop up a special display that tells you useful things about the object kind, legends and lore, and specific object attributes.
     Known attributes of equipped items are displayed in the character screen display (type 'C' to bring up the character screen, then press 'h' to cycle through the information).  This interface is helpful when you want to optimize your equipment.
     All object types that you are aware of are listed in the knowledge menu ('~'), option 5: "Known objects".


--- Inventory, equipment, quiver ---

Your inventory (backpack) and equipment (your person):
     You pick up objects by moving on top on them (if you have the "auto_pickup" option on), or by using the 'g'et command.  You may carry up to 23 different items or piles of items, and have 12 areas of your body where wearable equipment may go.  Press 'i', and you see the contents of your backpack; press 'e' and you see what you are wearing.  Both listings toggle open and closed when you press the space key.  Items on the floor display in similar fashion.
     When choosing items, you switch between inventory and equipment by pressing '/', and switch between the floor and either of these two by pressing '-'.
     Carry too much weight, and you will begin to slow down, making it easier for monsters to kill you.  The point at which your load thus hinders you depends on your strength.

Your quiver:
     Your equipment includes a quiver, which may hold up to ten different kinds of ammunition or throwing weapons.  Once placed in the quiver (using the wield command), they normally sort in the quiver slots just as they do in the backpack.  You may lock items into a specific slot, and make shooting and throwing a lot more convenient, by inscribing it with inscriptions similar to "@1", or "@f1".  Wherever you store them, ammunition and throwing weapons still take up space; you lose an inventory slot for every 99 missiles (or fraction thereof), or every 19 throwing weapons, that you place in the quiver slots.  Ammunition and throwing weapons on the floor will automatically combine with similar items in the quiver, which makes cleaning up after a big fight much easier.


--- Object types ---

Wands:
     Known wands stack, combining their charges.  Such a stack may be heavier, but can be recharged more safely and effectively.  A wand must be recharged every so often.

Staffs:
     Staffs never stack unless in stores.  If stacked, the number of charges that they display is prefixed by a quantity indicator (e.g. "(2x 13 charges)", which shows that each of two staffs have 13 charges.  Staffs may be bulky, but they have lots of charges, recharge well, and are highly durable.

Rods:
     Rods always stack.  A stack of rods with at least one charging member will show an appropriate inscription.  When zapped, a rod is "timed out" for a given number of turns.  Unlike wands and staffs, rods recharge automatically.  Each recharging rod in a stack contributes to the total recharge rate; if three out of five rods are charging, the stack's total timeout period will decrease by three per normal player turn.

Chests:
     Chests are difficult and dangerous to open, as they usually contain both traps and locks.  If you succeed, you may be rewarded handsomely.  If your disarming skill is so poor that the chest refuses to open, you can bash it into submission.  Of course, bashing does break things...

Scroll of Word of Recall:
     The Scroll of Word of Recall deserves special mention.  Read in the dungeon, it brings you back to the town.  Read in the town, it takes you as deep in the dungeon as you have ever gone.  This spell takes a little time to take effect, so don't expect it to save you in a crisis.  Should you mistakenly read a Scroll of Word of Recall, you may cancel it by reading another.

Ego-Weapons and Armors:
     Some rare weapons and armors have special abilities.  These are called ego items, and are feared by great and meek.

Dragon Scale Mails:
     These extremely rare pieces of armor come in many different colors, each protecting you against the relevant dragons.  They also occasionally allow you to breathe as dragons do!

Artifacts:
     There are rumours of incredibly rare, unique artifacts which are even more powerful than ego items.  Some artifacts are standard, and you may already know of their fame, while others will certainly be unfamiliar to you and will need to be fully identified (*identified*).
     Artifacts cannot be destroyed, although they can be disenchanted.  Once you find an artifact, and either sell it or identify and leave it behind, you lose it forever.
     A small number of artifacts, known as Set Items, are designed to be used in conjunction with related items.  Equipping an entire set of these items will grant the wearer additional bonuses and abilities.  Item sets generally consist of two items, but may include more.  You may 'I'nspect an identified artifact to see whether it belongs to a set.


--- Object enhancement ---

     Weapons and armor may have bonuses to Skill, Deadliness, and armor class; it can be very useful indeed to increase these values by reading scrolls of Enchant Weapon and Enchant Armor.
- The higher the plusses are above the object's normal values, the harder it 
  is to raise them further.
- The larger the pile of objects you try to enchant, the more likely it is that
  you will fail.  However, ammunition and throwing weapons are unusually easy 
  to enchant.
- You can sometimes break curses on objects and even turn them into ego-items
  by enchanting them.


--- Object destruction ---

     Objects may be damaged or destroyed on the floor, in your backpack, and (sometimes) even damaged while you are wearing them.

- Acid destroys armor, weapons, missile launchers, ammunition, scrolls, 
  parchments, staffs, and chests.  It may damage equipped armor that does not 
  ignore acid.
- Electricity destroys rings, amulets, wands, and (on rare occasion) rods.
- Fire destroys torches, arrows, missile launchers, hafted weapons and polearms, 
  gloves, boots, cloaks, shields, soft body armor, spellbooks, scrolls, parch-
  ments, staffs, and chests.
- Frost, sound, and shards destroy potions and empty bottles.  Force can also 
  destroy them, but only when they are on the floor.

- Many other types of magic can blow objects on the floor around, destroy them, 
  or even change ("polypile") them.

- Equipped items with plusses can be disenchanted.
- Magical devices can be destroyed by failed recharges.


--- Cursed Objects ---

     Many cursed items exist in the Pits -- either left behind as the result of failed attempts to create magical items, or deliberately placed by gleeful evil sorcerers who enjoy a good joke when it gets you killed.  These horrible objects look perfectly innocent, but will detract from your character's stats or abilities if worn.  In most cases, you cannot remove them without breaking the curse first.  In fact, some are so badly cursed that even this will not work, and more potent methods are needed.
     If you wear or wield a cursed item, you will immediately feel deathly cold, and the item will be marked "cursed".  On rare occasion, the item will transform into something truly dangerous.
     Shopkeepers will refuse to buy any item that is known to be cursed.



====== Object Attributes ======


     All combat methods other than Karate and Wrestling require equipment, and all benefit greatly from various qualities that your equipped items may possess.  Defence is similarly equipment-dependent.


--- Damage Dice and Plusses ---

Example 1:  A Dagger (1d4) (+6,+4)

Damage Dice:
     All objects have damage dice, which express how much damage they do when thrown.  For example, if you throw this dagger, it will do 1d4 damage (one die with four sides).  Melee weapons (like this one) also use their damage dice in hand-to-hand combat.

Bonus to Skill:
     The dagger above increases melee Skill by 6.  This bonus improves your chance to strike a monster and the number and quality of critical hits.  Except for certain rare gloves, armors seldom have bonuses to Skill.  Some have small penalties.

Bonus to Deadliness:
     The dagger above increases melee Deadliness by 4.  This increases the damage of every blow you land.  Except for certain rare gloves, armors seldom have bonuses to Deadliness.


Example 2:  a Pair of Hard Leather Boots [3, +8]

Bonus to Base Armor Class (AC):
     All armors have bonuses to base AC.  The boots shown increase this value by 3.  Some weapons also have bonuses to base armor class, usually because they help keep monsters further away from you or parry blows.

Bonus, Plus to Armor Class (AC):
     Armor of unusually good quality or that is magical also increases your plus to AC.  These boots add an additional 8 to AC, giving them a total bonus of 11.  Only rare weapons do the same.



--- Basic object attributes ---

Armor Class:
     Armor Class, or AC, lessens your chances of being hit by any monster blow, and also reduces the pure damage hits inflict.  AC reduces cutting and stunning from melee attacks, and your chances of being hit by thrown physical objects (such as boulders or arrows).  It has no effect on magic.



--- Adjustments to Vital statistics and Abilities ---

Stat Bonuses:
     Any kind of wearable item may affect one or more stats.  See the section on your character to find out more about what altering a stat does.

Sustain Stats:
     Any kind of wearable item may sustain one or more stats.  This ensures that the attacks of your foes never lower that stat.

Stealth:
     Certain cloaks, boots, and (more rarely) other items lessen the amount of noise you make when moving around the dungeon.  This is very handy for avoiding fights and getting in the first hit.  Stealth also reduces the noise you make in combat, but the effect is less noticeable.

Awareness:
     Some rings, headgear, and various other items improve your chances to reveal secret doors and find traps before they find you, allow you to "hear" unseen monsters near to you, and make it somewhat more likely that you will successfully pseudo-ID objects.

Infravision:
     Some headgear and (more rarely) other items increase the range at which you can see warm-blooded creatures, even those that would otherwise be invisible.

Tunneling:
     Some gloves and weapons allow you to dig through rock more effectively.  All special digging tools have a bonus to tunneling.

Speed:
     Boots, rings, and other items that hasten you are rare and powerful, for a fast player can perform several actions in the time it used to take to do just one.  Players moving at speed -10 are half as fast as normal, at +10 are twice as fast as normal, and at +20 are three times as fast as normal.  The maximum useful speed is (roughly) +35.

Invisibility:
     You can become partially invisible; the greater your invisibility rating, the more likely it is that most monsters will move about randomly instead of attacking you.  This is true especially if you stay quiet and do not aggravate them.  Invisibility from equipment and temporary sources combine, and characters in and surrounded by pitch darkness are harder to see.  Many monsters, however, are hard to fool; the undead, invisible creatures, uniques, and hurt, nearby, or wary monsters are especially watchful.

Disarming:
     Increases your ability to disarm traps and chests and unlock doors.

Devices:
     Certain amulets and gloves improve your chance of using magical devices and activatable items.  Note that they do not increase damage or enhance effects; only increasing your Magical Device skill does that.

Save:
     Improves your resistance to magic and various hindrance attacks.

Mana:
     Increases your mana.

Light Radius:
     Pushes your light radius outwards.  Only the best light radius applies.


--- Weapon Attributes ---

Damage bonuses  (only the best applies):
 Slay Evil     :  +10 against evil 
 Slay Animal   :  +10 against animals    (weapons of Slaughter Animal get +15) 
 Slay Orc      :  +10 against orcs and orc-like creatures 
 Slay Troll    :  +18 against trolls 
 Slay Giant    :  +18 against giants 
 Slay Undead   :  +18 against undead     (weapons of Dispel Undead get +27) 
 Slay Demon    :  +18 against demons     (weapons of Smite Demon get +27) 
 Slay Dragon   :  +18 against dragons 

 Brand Acid    :  +10 against everything not resistant to acid 
 Brand Elec    :  +14 against everything not resistant to electricity 
 Brand Fire    :  +14 against everything not resistant to fire 
 Brand Cold    :  +14 against everything not resistant to cold 
 Brand Pois    :  +14 against everything not resistant to poison 

 Impact        :  +14 against rocky creatures
 Tunneling     :  +14 against rocky creatures (if bonus to tunneling is >= 1)
 Light         :  +14 against creatures susceptible to light

 Kill Dragon   :  +27 against dragons
 Brand Flame   :  +22 against everything not resistant to fire
 Brand Venom   :  +22 against everything not resistant to poison

Blows:
     Gives you extra melee blows.

Extra Shots:
     Rare missile launchers may allow the player to shoot more quickly than normal.  Each shot takes a fraction of a turn, making your target appear to move in slow motion.  Those skilled with bows and slings get innate extra shots.
     The amount of time you take to fire a shot is 200 / shots.  The value for shots is usually 2, so a shot normally takes 100 energy (one turn).

Extra Might:
     Rare missile launchers have a greater than normal missile damage multiplier.  For example, a "Sling of Extra Might (x3)" multiplies damage, not by two like lesser slings, but by three.  The true missile weapon multiplier is never known for sure until the object is identified.

Throwing:
     A number of weapons can be thrown effectively; you can determine which ones by 'I'nspecting them.  Such weapons get various bonuses when thrown, but eventually break if used in melee.

Perfect Balance:
     Some weapons can be thrown with unusual force, adding 50% to the amount of damage done (before any slay/brand bonuses) should it hit.

Vorpal (Concussive):
     Vorpal (or Concussive) weapons get lots of critical hits, and reduce the effect of monster resistances.

Blessed:
     Blessed weapons may be used by pious characters without penalty.

Impact:
     Weapons of impact do +14 damage to rocky creatures and will often force opponents back.

Tunneling:
     Weapons that grant a bonus (at least +1) to tunneling do +14 damage to rocky creatures.

Light:
     Weapons of permanent light do +14 damage to creatures susceptible to light.

Two-handed Wield Required:
     Glaives, Halberds, Quarterstaff, and all digging tools require two hands to wield.

Two-handed Wield Desired:
     A fair number of large, powerful weapons must be wielded in two hands unless the player has amazing strength (normally around 18/130 - 18/160, depending on weapon weight).


--- Immunities ---

     If you should ever be fortunate enough to find a piece of equipment that grants immunity to an element, you will take no damage from that element.  Be warned that immunity does not extend to your backpack; the stuff you are carrying in inventory can still be destroyed on rare occasions.

Immunity to Acid:
     You take no damage from acid.  Worn items will not be affected by acid.  Staffs, missiles, weapons, armor, and scrolls in your backpack become highly resistant to destruction.

Immunity to Electricity:
     You take no damage from electricity.  Rings, wands, and rods in your backpack become highly resistant to destruction.

Immunity to Cold:
     You take no damage from cold.  Potions in your backpack become highly resistant to destruction.

Immunity to Fire:
     You take no damage from fire.  Spellbooks, scrolls, staffs, and burnable weapons, missiles, and armor in your backpack become highly resistant to destruction.


--- Resistances ---

     Resistances from equipment cannot be combined; you either have it or you don't.

Resist Acid:
     You take one-thirds damage from acid.  Staffs, missiles, weapons, armor, and scrolls in your backpack become a little more resistant to destruction.  Your equipment is attacked by acid half as often.

Resist Electricity:
     You take one-thirds damage from electricity.  Rings, wands, and rods in your backpack become a little more resistant to destruction.

Resist Cold:
     You take one thirds damage from cold.  Potions in your backpack become a little more resistant to destruction.

Resist Fire:
     You take one-thirds damage from fire.  Spellbooks, scrolls, staffs, and burnable weapons, missiles, and armor in your backpack become a little more resistant to destruction.

Resist Poison:
     You take one thirds damage from poison.

Resist Light:
     The damage you take from light is reduced.  You cannot be blinded by bright light.

Resist Darkness:
     The damage you take from darkness is reduced.  You cannot be blinded by darkness.

Resist Sound:
     The damage you take from sound is reduced.  You cannot be stunned by sound or by a few other kinds of distance attacks.

Resist Shards:
     The damage you take from blasts of shards is reduced.  You cannot be cut by shards.

Resist Nexus:
     The damage you take from nexus attacks is reduced.  You cannot be randomly teleported or altered by nexus, and will sometimes resist being warped around by gravity.

Resist Nether:
     The damage you take from nether is reduced.  You cannot lose experience to nether.

Resist Chaos:
     The damage you take from chaos is reduced, and you are immune to all the nasty things chaos can do to you.  This resistance does not make you resistant to confusion.

Resist Disenchantment:
     Rarest of all the resistances, this reduces damage from disenchantment attacks and renders your equipment immune to disenchantment.

Ignore acid, electricity, fire, and cold:
     Some objects cannot be damaged or destroyed by elemental attacks.


--- Survival Attributes ---

Resist Fear:
     Renders you fearless.

Resist Blindness:
     Protects you from being blinded.

Resist Confusion:
     Makes you incapable of being confused.  Also reduces damage from blasts of confusion.


--- Character Qualities ---

Slow Digestion:
     Reduces your need to consume food.

Feather Fall:
     Renders pit traps and trap doors harmless, makes walking on lava a bit less dangerous, and reduces some effects of gravity and wind attacks.

Light:
     Some weapons and helms shine with inner light.  Wearing any number of such objects will increase your illumination radius by one.

Regeneration:
     Players who regenerate recover hitpoints twice as quickly as normal, and mana 3/2rds as quickly.  They also need to eat more.

Telepathy (ESP):
     It is not easy to acquire this, but players who do can see intelligent monsters nearby.  Mindless monsters never appear, and semi-intelligent monsters only appear occasionally.

See Invisible:
     Allows you to see and target monsters invisible to ordinary sight.

Free Action:
     Protects you from paralyzation and most slowing attacks.  Because paralyzation can instantly kill you, keep an eye out for this important survival aid.

Hold Life:
     Offers a high degree of protection from attacks (but not items) that lower skills.

No Fuel:
     Some light sources shine eternally.


--- Curses and other Nastiness ---

Soulsteal:
     Some weapons need to be fed with the blood of your foes.  If they hunger, and you do not feed them, they will suck away your lifeforce.

No Magic:
     A few objects are so unmagical that you cannot cast spells while using them.

Random Teleportation:
     Some foul rings, amulets, and boots randomly take control of your movement and whisk you around the dungeon.

Aggravate:
     Aggravation effectively reduces your stealth to nil, immediately waking up all monsters nearby.  Some rings and amulets possess curses that aggravate, and some weapons and armors are so powerful that no creature can ignore them.

Drain Exp:
     Objects that drain experience are perilous, because they slowly but surely erase your accumulated memories.  Of course, you can keep killing monsters to replace the experience which you lose.

Hidden Curse:
     Certain rare weapons and armor bear foul magics so well concealed that they only reveal themselves when you wear the item.  When activated, a hidden curse hideously transforms the object into something quite dangerous.

Light (ordinary) Curse:
     Many wearable objects have light curses.  A scroll of Remove Curse will purge all ordinary curses from equipped items.

Heavy Curse:
     The curses on some objects are less easy to remove.  If a ordinary scroll of Remove Cure fails, find and read one of *Remove Curse*.

Permanent Curse:
     There is a great and terrible Ring, seen by perhaps one character in ten thousand, that can never be removed once put on.




============================= Combat and Magic =============================


====== Non-magical Combat ======

     Without using magic, you may attack monsters in hand-to-hand (melee) combat, by using missile weapons, or by throwing objects at them.


--- Quick Review (any kind of weapon) ---

1) Sabre (1d7)
   1 die rolling 7.  The average damage of a die with 7 sides is 4.
   (seven plus one, divided by two, is four).

2) Gets a critical hit (an average critical hit might add two extra dice).
   3 dice rolling 7, each with an average value of 4.

3) If you get special damage multipliers (from, say, your missile launcher),
   apply to the average value of the damage dice you roll.

4) Roll three dice, each with an average of 4, to get an average damage of 12.

5) Player has a Deadliness value shown on his character screen of 50%.
   12 + 50% bonus  -->  12 + 6  -->  average damage of 18.

6) Finally, the special bonus for troll slaying weapons against trolls is added.
   18 + 16 bonus  -->  average damage of 34.

     Missile and throwing weapons work exactly the same way, except that the first benefit from a launcher multiplier and the second from a special thrown weapons multiplier.


--- Melee (weapons) ---

Number of Blows:
     On the left side of your character screen is displayed the number of blows you can get per turn.  If your weapon is too heavy for you to wield properly, you get one blow.  Otherwise, you get between two and six blows, depending solely on weapon weight, Dexterity, and Strength.  It is possible for items to give you extra blows.

Your Weapon:
     All weapons have damage dice displayed after their name (1d4, 2d5, etc.); they are its single most important attribute, the expression of what is like to wield in battle.
     Edged weapons, pole-mounted weapons, and blunt weapons each use a separate skill.  You may 'I'nspect the weapon to learn what skill it uses.

Combat Skill:
     You need to have enough Skill to hit monsters regularly; do what it takes to keep it high.  All equipped items - other than your missile launcher and ammunition - can affect your melee Skill.  Many other factors can make you better or worse in combat, but the display on your character screen tracks almost all of them.

Critical Hits:
     Your total combat Skill not only allows you to even hit a monster, but also determines how often you get critical hits.  Critical hits are vital for any serious fighter using any weapon, especially ones rolling few dice.  You know you just got a critical hit when you get any combat message other than "you hit the {monster name}".
     In melee, critical hits add between two and five dice; in archery or when using throwing weapons, they add between one and three.

Deadliness:
     Deadliness acts as a percentage bonus to damage.  You may inspect your current bonus on the character screen.  High-level characters may have bonuses of 200% displayed on their character screens, and therefore triple the damage they do with the Deadliness multiplier alone.  All equipped items can affect your Deadliness.

Brands and Slays:
     Some remarkable weapons do extra damage to various kinds of monsters; a Dagger of Fire, for instance, would do extra damage to creatures not immune to fire.  Slays, in contrast, do extra damage to particular monster races, so wield that Mace of Orc Slaying if you come upon any orcs.  Only the best applicable quality is used; they do not combine.
     Bonuses from slays and brands are applied after all other damage adjustments, except monster resistances.


--- Melee (unarmed) ---

Unarmed Combat:
     The unarmed combat methods, Karate and Wrestling, are known as martial arts.  When using a martial art, you always get two blows.
     They are effective against almost all sorts of monsters, are relatively inexpensive to learn, and really come into their own against monsters that seem to resist everything.  But be warned!  You need to be blessed (Scrolls of Blessing work) to do damage to non-material beings, and touching certain kinds of monsters can be quite painful...
     You can get (temporary) slays and brands with martial arts.  You can also get critical hits on occasion, especially if you have skill in Piety, Blood Dominion, or Nature Lore, or get vorpal blows or sneak attacks.  Bonuses (and penalties) to Skill from non-weapon equipment count when using martial arts, but bonuses to Deadliness do not.

Damage Display:
     The melee section of your character screen changes when you use a martial art.  Instead of displaying Skill and Deadliness, it shows the approximate average damage you did with your last ten or twenty hits.  If your skill, strength, or dexterity change significantly, you have to engage in combat to get more accurate figures.

The Martial Arts:
     Wrestling depends on your skill and strength.  Raise both high enough, and you can do a large amount of pure damage.  Wrestlers can often throw or tackle their foes, robbing them of energy (and thus effectively slowing them down).
     Karate depends on skill, dexterity, and (to a lesser degree) strength.  While it doesn't do as much direct damage as wrestling, no other combat method can hinder your foes quite as much.  Given enough skill, you can stun, slow, or confuse your foes - and a hindered monster may soon enough be a dead one.

Special abilities:
     Most scrolls, potions, spells, or talents that grant extra powers or abilities to melee are fully effective when used with martial arts.


--- Shooting ---

     Ranged fire with missile launchers is a non-magical method of doing damage at a safe distance.

Setting up to Shoot:
     Slings shoot shots and seeker shots, bows shoot arrows and seeker arrows, and crossbows shoot bolts and seeker bolts.  Simply equip the weapon and keep plenty of ammunition to hand.

The Quiver Slots:
     Ammo is best kept in special quiver slots.  You may "wield" up to ten different piles of ammo, then fire them just as you would those in the backpack.  Ammo in the quiver will use space in your backpack.

Shooting:
     You shoot at a monster by typing 'f' (or 't' in the rogue-like command set), then selecting a missile you would like to fire.  This activates the targeting interface described in the section on commands.

Number of Shots:
     On the right side of your character screen is displayed the number of shots you can get per turn.  The number of shots depends on skill, plus any bonus shots that the weapon provides.  Extra shots are not fired all at once; instead, each shot takes less time, making monsters appear to move in slow motion.

Your Launcher:
     All launchers have a multiplier to damage:  for example, a Longbow (x3) would multiply the normal damage of the ammo it fires by three.  This multiplier is applied before the brand/slay bonus and after everything else.

Brands and Slays:
     Ammunition occasionally possesses the same kinds of slays and brands found on melee weapons.  Missile launchers are also capable of imparting slays and brands.


--- Throwing ---

     Throwing objects requires less skill than using missile weapons, and can be an important combat method.  For novice adventurers, throwing flasks of oil and boulders can be a life-saver, and there are rumours of objects deep in the dungeon that can do large amounts of damage when thrown.  All objects have damage dice, but most do not display them.  If you think an object should do nasty things to your foes, it's certainly worth trying to throw it at them, just to see if anything happens.

Getting ready to throw:
     To throw an object, you use the 'v' command and select any item in your backpack, on your person, or on the floor.  This activates the targeting interface described in the section on commands.

Number of throws:
     You may never throw more than one item per turn.

Hitting more often:
     Get close to what you're aiming at, especially when your skill is relatively low.  Improve your throwing skill, and wear things (rings, for example) that increase your overall combat Skill.

Special throwing weapons:
     A boulder with damage dice of 10d9 does an average of 50 damage.  It gets no Deadliness bonuses from equipment, no slays or brands, and cannot get critical hits.
     However, special throwing weapons (weapons like throwing knives and javelins that are designed for throwing), get the following advantages:
- They benefit from all Deadliness bonuses other than those granted by your melee and missile weapons.
- They may have slays or brands.
- They not infrequently get critical hits.
- They get a special damage multiplier.  This ranges from 2 to 10, depending 
  on throwing skill and whether you are a specialist spellcaster, a specialist 
  warrior, or anyone else.  Perfectly balanced weapons (marked "well-balanced") 
  increase this multiplier by 50%.
- They seldom break when thrown (just be careful not to use them in melee).

Potions:
     Another way to make good use of a high throwing skill is to hurl potions at your foes.  The damage they do (or the power they have) depends on potion type and your throwing skill.



--- Getting good at combat ---

     Non-magical combat can be very powerful, but only if you work at it.  You increase the damage you do by:

1) Raising your base damage dice.  Increasing the number of dice both adds damage and makes the attack more reliable (because the damage done is more likely to be close to the average).  Increasing dice sides adds damage without affecting reliability.

2) Increasing your total combat Skill.  This may mean
- increasing your melee or missile skills,
- getting better plusses to Skill from equipment,
- wielding a lighter weapon,
- choosing a weapon that your race prefers, or
- using spells and objects that temporarily enhance your abilities.
     This last can make all the difference when fighting tough monsters.

3) Getting more critical hits.  Critical hits are important; the fewer base dice your weapon or ammo has, the more important they are.  It is possible to double the average damage you do with critical hits alone.  You can get more criticals by:
- raising your total Skill,
- attacking sleeping monsters (especially if you are sneaking),
- increasing your piety, nature lore, or blood dominion skills, or
- wielding vorpal weapons.

4) Increasing your Deadliness.  Deadliness may not seem powerful at first, but it can eventually triple the damage you do on every blow.  Once you get your base damage and critical hits up high enough, Deadliness can make you formidable.

5) Having the right slay or brand for the job.  If you're serious about melee, have more than one weapon on hand.  Also, watch out for monsters that resist either edged or blunt weapons (virtually no monster resists both).

6) Taking the Oath of Iron.  The advantages include:
- better bonuses to missile weapon multiplier and shooting speed.
- better thrown weapon multiplier.
- better critical hit bonuses from piety, nature lore, and blood dominion.
- better wrestling and karate damage.
- heavy weapons are much easier to handle.
- no limits to combat-related skill increases.


--- Winning "unwinnable" fights ---

     Some monsters are simply too tough to just clobber; fortunately, there are scrolls, potions, mushrooms, and magical devices that can turn a losing battle into a major victory.  If your enemies seem too tough to kill now, maybe they won't be after you've enhanced yourself, hindered them, and chosen the right battlefield.


--- Details ---

Monster Susceptibilities:
- Susceptible to fire
     Bonus to damage of fire brand is increased by 50%.
- Susceptible to cold
     Bonus to damage of frost brand is increased by 50%.

Monster Resistances:
- Resistant to edged weapons (common to rocky, bony, and metallic monsters)
     Swords, polearms, arrows, and bolts do no damage on almost 2/3rds of hits.
- Almost immune to edged weapons (common to rocky and metallic monsters)
     Swords, polearms, arrows, and bolts do no damage on about 5/6ths of hits.
- Resistant to blunt weapons (common among incorporeal beings)
     Hafted weapons and sling shots do no damage on almost 2/3rds of hits.
- Almost immune to blunt weapons (common among incorporeal beings)
     Hafted weapons and sling shots do no damage on about 5/6ths of hits.

Vorpal/piercing and concussive weapons reduce the effect of the above monster resistances.


Noise-making:
     Combat is noisy.  The stealthier your are, and the higher your burglary skill, the less extra noise you make.

Wielding two weapons:
     You can wield two weapons of the same type (edged, blunt, or pole-mounted weapons), as long as both require only one hand to wield and, together, they are relatively light (depends on your strength).  When wielding two weapons, your total Skill drops significantly (depending on total weapon weight).
     If you wield two weapons, you get one chance to hit with each weapon.  For each blow, you first attempt to hit with your primary weapon (the one held in your sword arm) and, if that misses, your secondary weapon.  If one weapon runs out of blows, you continue with the other until it, too, has expended them all.  Your total number of blows does not increase.  Your digging ability is the better of that granted by either weapon.
     Wielding two weapons is particularly helpful against evasive creatures, and against those who resist edged or blunt weapons.

Special shield bonuses:
     Most melee weapons fit comfortably in one hand, keeping your shield arm free.  If you have a shield on your arm, you can automatically take advantage of opportunities to bash, gain a significant amount of standard protection (shields have a high base armor class), and sometimes even deflect non-magical missiles or partially protect against shards.

Shield bashes:
     When fighting hand-to-hand, you will occasionally get in a shield bash if you are wearing a shield on your arm.  The frequency of shield bashes depends on dexterity, melee combat skill, and the level of monster you are fighting.  Characters with no magic realm get in more shield bashes, as will those who do little damage in melee otherwise.  The effectiveness of shield bashes depends mostly on shield size and weight, with a bonus for strength.  When you bash a monster, you will inflict damage, and possibly stunning or even confusion.  You may also stumble, and lose normal melee blows.

Two-handed weapons:
     Some weapons require two hands (but many of these can be wielded in one hand by very strong players).  Any shield worn is transferred to your back.  This negates base armor protection and removes the special shield abilities described above, but has no effect on magical protection, resistances, or other attributes.

Ranged fire inaccuracy:
     Distance from the target has a significant effect on the accuracy of ranged fire and throwing.  You may need to get quite close to hit tough monsters, especially if your skill is relatively low.  Inaccuracy and obstructions can make aiming into diagonal slits (and in some cases around multiple sharp corners) very difficult.  Firing out of a slit yourself, however, is advantageous.

Special Notes:
     In order to attack a creature that you can't see in a wall or door, you must issue the Tunnel or alter adjacent grid command.



====== Burglary ======

     Various special burglary actions can be used by typing the '+' (alter) key, and then moving towards a monster (to steal), a passable grid (to set a trap), or a door (to lock it).  Burglars cannot use most of these abilities when shapeshifted.

Stealing  (requires a skill of 4):
     All monsters that yield items or gold when killed may also be a source of similar loot to thieves.   The most lucrative targets are those monsters that drop good or even excellent treasure, but they tend also to be unusually difficult to steal from.  Increasing your Burglary skill, choosing sleeping monsters, moving in darkness, becoming more dextrous, and finding ways to become invisible will all improve your chances.  Stealing soon after your previous attempt, stealing from thieves, or from wary monsters will all reduce your chances.
     There are few things more satisfying than making off with some arrogant wizard's hat.  But theft is not all fun and games.  Every time you steal, the monsters get warier.  Steal too often in a short period of time, and you may very quickly get hunted down.

Locking doors  (requires a skill of 7):
     Burglars may lock closed doors; locking a door makes it more difficult for monsters to open.  The power of the lock increases with skill.


--- Monster Traps ---

Trap-setting  (requires a skill of 10):
     Of all the many things that only burglars can do, setting traps is the most important.  Depending on your burglary skill, you may have between one and six traps active at any one time.  It takes three turns to set up a trap (this is normally automatic but, if disturbed, you'll have to issue the command a few times).
     You then load the trap with one or more objects by typing '+', and moving towards an existing monster trap.  Traps may be loaded with melee weapons, missile weapons, potions, scrolls, wands, staffs, rods, or anything that can be thrown.  You can only load the trap with one kind of object; the two exceptions to this are that you need to supply a missile weapon with suitable ammunition, and that you can pack in boulders to your heart's content.
     The damage traps do depends on your burglary skill and on the objects you use.  A skilled burglar can make traps which use magical devices that he cannot understand, wield weapons that he cannot lift, and fire missiles with deadly accuracy regardless of combat skill.

Monsters and Traps:
     A trap is like getting a free chance to do damage without being in harm's way.  The damage of most items other than scrolls and ordinary thrown objects varies depending on burglary skill.
     Whenever a monster enters the grid containing the trap, several things can happen.  Firstly, ghosts and evasive monsters get a (large) chance to ignore the trap entirely.  Secondly, smart monsters get a chance to disarm the trap, and all non-ghostly monsters get a chance to smash it.  If the trap is neither avoided nor destroyed, it goes off.  Monsters become wary of traps if they see one activate; you are well advised to place them in the darkness.
     A single non-perfectly balanced weapon will get melee blows, a missile launcher will fire one or more shots, a potion will smash, a scroll will be read, a charged wand, staff, or rod will activate, and anything else will be thrown.
     Most weapon attributes (Skill, Deadliness, multipliers, slays, brands, and number of blows or shots, but not critical hits) are treated much as they are in normal combat.  Traps are great ways to use powerful weapons that you have no training for; a Mace of Burning can do real damage!


--- Burglars and Combat ---

Light Weapons, Sneak Attacks, and Backstabs:
     Burglars are better with light weapons than anyone else.  With them, they can get quite significant bonuses to combat Skill.  Conversely, their penalty for heavy weapons goes up with skill until it is twice the normal amount.  Martial arts are unaffected.  Your character screen display takes all of this into account.
     Burglars get extra bonuses against sleeping monsters.  If they go into sneaking mode and melee a sleeping monster, they may sometimes be able to land sneak attacks, which act as unusually powerful critical hits.  Note:  You cannot sneak-attack a monster, then use a wand of sleep monster on it, then sneak attack it again.
     Burglars can also backstab fleeing opponents (this acts as a general increase to hit chance).


--- Sneaking in the Dark ---

     Most characters have trouble exploring in the dark, as they need light to find objects, see monsters, and know where the walls are before bumping into them.  However, alternative solutions exist to all of these problems.  If you raise your Burglary, Perception, and Stealth skills high enough to get access to the "Detect and Nab Objects", "Sense Area", and "Sneaking" talents, and your Disarming skill higher than the current dungeon level, your only remaining problem will be monsters.  While no certain method is available for spotting monsters without light, characters with good Perception and Stealth skills can "sense" and "hear" most of the monsters in a totally darkened room.  Guild-Burglars have an advantage here.
     Although sneaking in the dark can be very dangerous (you can't read a scroll of Teleport, for example), a character skilled at Stealth becomes much quieter, and a character skilled in Burglary is more deadly in combat, better at theft, and a much better dodger, especially if he is both in and surrounded by darkness.  All characters take only 2/3rds damage from magic and missiles if in and surrounded by darkness.



====== Defence ======

Healing:
     If your hitpoints drop below zero, you die.  Always have something to quickly restore them.

Escaping:
     A trapped adventurer is a dead adventurer.  Always have a way to get out of trouble.

Detecting:
     The best defence is being prepared.  Know your enemies, and know where they are.

Defending against pure damage:
     Your armor class (AC) reduces the chance that most kinds of melee attacks (except gazing and stealing) will hit you.  It reduces the pure damage inflicted by most melee attacks (acid, electricity, fire, frost, and poison attacks being the exceptions), and makes it less likely that they will stun or cut you.  It also protects against shots, arrows, bolts, boulders, missiles, and certain kinds of traps, but not against magic.
      Each piece of armor has a base AC value and possibly also a magical bonus.  Add the two together, and you have the total protective value of the item.  For example, a Chain Mail (-3) [14, +6] increases your AC by 20.  Note the "(-3)".  It is a (small) penalty to melee Skill; heavy armor restricts your movement slightly.
     Special note:  shields worn on the back have a base AC value of zero.

Cuts, poison, and stunning:
     Many monsters can inflict special kinds of physical damage on you, such as opening wounds, poisoning, or stunning.  After you start earning a little money, plow some of it back into potions or mushrooms of cure wounds, and keep them handy at all times.  If a monster manages to heavily stun you, get away fast!

Character-hindrance:
     There are many monsters capable of casting spells to blind, confuse, slow, and paralyze you, plus quite a few other nasty tricks not mentioned here.  Free Action eventually becomes critical to your survival and you should keep stuff that fixes blindness and confusion on hand.  Your Saving Throw protects against these and other attacks.

Elemental and magical attacks:
     Acid, Electricity, Fire, and Cold are the basic elements; many monsters use them.  Because the maximum damage they can do to you is very high, becoming resistant is important.  Unlike with other attack types, you can resist, double resist, and be immune to the elements.  Double resistance is the combination of a permanent resistance (from equipment) and a temporary one (from a spell).  Temporary resistances are also known as oppositions.  Immunity to any of the elements is hard to get.
     Poison is deadly and not so easy to resist.  You can double-resist (resist and oppose) poison.
     There are many kinds of magical attacks; most can be resisted, some can not.  Those capable of doing the most damage are darkness, chaos, and nether.

     For more detail, see the section on object attributes.

Reductions of Experience and Stats:
     Even when your character is starting out, there are rare traps and monsters capable of lowering his stats and attacking his skills.  In addition, a strong, unresisted elemental attack can occasionally lower a stat.  Slowly, these dangers increase until it becomes very important that you find objects that provide hold life and sustain at least your critical stats.

Theft:
     Nobody is more annoying than a thief.  You've just found that cool spellbook or nifty weapon and now it's gone.  You can gain a significant degree of protection from theft by increasing your dodging skill and your dexterity, and can always collect your stuff from the thief's corpse.  Unfortunately, thieves are smart enough to stash away the money they take from you.

Rumours:
     It is rumoured that certain undead possess a very deadly touch...
     The same rumours whisper that Athelas has remarkable curative properties...



====== Magic ======


--- The Four Realms of Magic ---

Wizardry:
     Wizardry is the magic of power:  the power of the elements, of chaos and confusion, of nexus and planar travel, and of pure mana.  Wizards can befuddle their enemies, vanish into thin air, and wield all sorts of esoteric powers.  Wizardry can be tricky to use, however; miscast spells can unleash all sorts of wild magic.
     Special realm skill:  Wizardry

Piety:
     Piety is the channeling of divine force; those allied to Heaven have extraordinary powers to heal and Judge.  They wield light against the darkness of evil, the darkness of ignorance, the darkness of the hidden and unknown.  The pious can dispel and banish, wield holy fire, and expose the very minds of their enemies to the untrammeled might of God.
     Pious characters can only wield blunt (hafted) and blessed melee weapons effectively.  If they chose to wield any other kind of weapon, they get a penalty to melee skill, a reduced light radius, and their prayers are more likely to fail.
     Special realm skill:  Holy Alliance

Druidic Lore:
     Druids and druids alone understand the lore of nature; the earth, the sea, and the sky are at their beck and call.  They wield the elements like no other magic-user can, and alter the weather itself to enhance their powers.  Druids may shapeshift into many marvelous forms, wither their foes, and have powers to heal and recover second only to the pious.
     Special realm skill:  Nature Lore
     See the sections on weather and shapeshifting below.

Necromancy:
     Black hexes and red blood, foul rituals:  dread, terrible necromancy.  Users of the Dark Arts wield night, nether, life-draining and dispelling, pure mana, poison, and mental powers to crush all who stand against them, and can ritually enhance their powers to achieve horrific strength.  Great in power although necromancy is, it can be very dangerous when cast incautiously.  A necromancer is well advised to pay attention to his saving throw.
     Special realm skill:  Blood Dominion
     See the section on shapeshifting below.


--- Spellcasting ---

     The magics of the major realms are found in books, seven for each realm.  Three are readily available in stores, the other four are harder to find.

Getting spell information:
      You may browse books of your realm.  When browsing, you may get more information about individual spells that are not too high-level by pressing their letter.  Spells that you have cast successfully will display any power or damage information.  This information usually updates to reflect temporary conditions (weather being the major exception), so you get up-to-date information on the approximate current power of your spells.
     Be aware that the true usefulness of some spells only becomes apparent with much experimentation.

Gaining new spells:
     You learn new spells by pressing 'G', choosing a spellbook with unlearnt spells that are not too high level for you, and (unless you use holy magics) choosing a spell.

Casting spells:
     You may cast any learnt spell that has a spell level less than or equal to your Spellcasting skill.
     You cast spells by typing 'm' or 'p', choosing a spellbook, and then a spell.  If you don't have enough mana to cast that spell, the failure chance is increased, you may lose a point of constitution, and you may faint dead away (especially if you didn't have nearly enough mana).  Having chosen a spell, you then try to cast it.  Failing means that priests and druids just lose their turn (and their mana), but wizards may unleash wild magic and necromancers get attacked by the dark forces they failed to bind.

Mana:
     Your mana depends on your magic power skill and your spell stat.  All spellcasters lose a percentage (not a fixed amount) of mana for wearing heavy armor; specialist spellcasters are most affected.  You can reduce this penalty by increasing your dodging skill.

Spell failure chance:
     Your spell failure chance depends on the spell itself (some spells are inherently hard to cast), the minimum skill required to cast the spell, your spell stat, and your special magic-user skill.  Your special magic-user skill also has an important effect on the reliability of many spells.  
     Those using wizardry or necromancy suffer if they wear gloves that do not provide free action, increase dexterity, or enhance magic mastery skill.  Priests suffer likewise if they wield an unblessed edged weapon.  Stunning (especially if heavy), fear, and lack of mana all make magic harder to use.

Weather:
     The knowledge of weather is an art, not a science.  However, it is believed that values for wind, temperature, and humidity are generally near average with only occasional extremes.  It is also rumoured that each of these three components of weather affect two kinds of druidic magic; one benefits from low values, another benefits from high ones.  In contrast, attempting to use techniques in unfavorable weather works poorly, if at all.
     Druids have a talent that allows them to forecast the weather.  Weather forecasting becomes more accurate with Nature Lore skill, and less accurate as you travel further below the surface.

Shapeshifting:
     There are two kinds of shapechanges.  Druids (and necromancers) can take on the form of various creatures for as long as they like.  Certain other magics and elixirs can also change your shape, but their effects last only for a short time.
     In all cases, you can return to your normal form by typing ']'.  You lose a third of your mana whenever not in your normal form, and your magical device skill usually drops, but you often gain some infravision.  Various effects can be checked by using the Character screen.
  Goat    : Slow digestion, can eat almost anything safely.
  Bear    : Hard hitter, tough and strong.
  Mouse   : Weak, but incredibly stealthy.  Never aggravates.  Perceptive.
  Hound   : Telepathy.
  Cheetah : Fast and dexterous but not very strong.
  Lion    : No fear, excellent bare-clawed fighter.
  Dragon  : Good fighter, bonuses to various stats.  Can breath using essences.
  Ent     : Strong, wise, resist poison and cold, free action, see invis, great
            at tunneling.  Cannot have feather fall, cannot be immune to or
            resist fire, lousy dexterity.
  Troll   : Extreme regeneration and toughness.  Dumb.  No feather fall.
  Bat     : Fast but weak.  Infravision, feather fall, and resist blindness.


--- Getting Good at Magic ---

1)   Take a spellcaster's Oath to tap the full power of a realm.  You take an Oath by selecting the special realm skill in the skills screen, and typing '*'.

2)   Use the right magic for the monster.  Most combat spells are resisted by some monster races; some actually do extra damage against certain foes.

3)   Use spells in the right tactical settings.  Many magics only reveal their true usefulness in particular environments; these often differ greatly from those that may be familiar to you from other games of this type.

4)  Be aware of special conditions.  Druidic magic relies heavily on the weather; if conditions are sufficiently adverse, natural magic just fizzles out.  Wizards, Priests, and Necromancers all also have magic that works best when cast repeatedly, or when other spells are cast previously, or when a lot of light exists nearby.  The spell comments will mention such matters.

5)  Test unfamiliar spells.  All attack and hindrance magics are known to be effective, but the best way to use them may not be easy to discover.  In general, the more random or resist-able the spell, the more powerful it can be when used appropriately.


--- Spell Projection Types ---

     The names of spells and magical devices sometimes give you information about what areas they affect and what shapes they take.

"Bolt", "Missile"
     Fires a magical bolt in a direction or at your chosen target.  Are stopped by the first monster or wall in their way; monsters in walls take full damage.  Some also "Beam" upon occasion.

"Beam", "Spear", "Lance", "Line", "Spark"
     Fires a beam of magic in the direction you choose, or towards your target.  They are quite useful because they do full damage to every monster in a straight line.  Wands and Rods of Light work this way.  A few beam spells ("spark") have short ranges.

"Arc", "Cone", "Breath"
     Fires an arc, centered in the direction of the target.  These are relatively short-range spells, because arcs lose energy as they expand.  Monsters in walls take no damage.  All monster breaths are arcs.

"Ball", "Storm"  (storms have a larger radius)
     If you target a specific monster, such spells explode centered at that location.  Otherwise, they travel in the direction you choose, and explode as soon they hit a monster or wall, or reach their maximum range.  Monsters in walls take no damage.  These spells only do full damage to the single grid at the center of the explosion, but can affect monsters that can't see you.  Many monster spells are balls.

"Orb", "Sphere"
     Orbs are ball spells that do full damage to every grid they affect, and usually have small explosions.

"Dispel", "Confuse/Slow/Frighten/etc. Monsters"
     A fair number of spells affect all monsters in line of sight (no walls, rubble, or trees between you and them, up to a range of 20).

{various}
     Ball spells that center on you do full damage to all adjacent grids.  Ball spells can take the form of starburst explosions; they do full damage to all grids they affect, but are less likely to hit grids further away from the center.
     There are also many different kinds of special projections, such as walls of fire, beam storms, seeking vortexes, lingering clouds, and so on.

Special notes:
     Monsters that you cannot see take half damage from magic, for the same reasons that make non-magical combat less effective against them.  Monsters that are only partially visible take two-thirds damage from magic.


--- Hindering your foes ---

     If it looks too tough to kill, perhaps you can knock it down a bit.  There are few monsters that cannot be hindered in some way if you work hard enough at it.

 Sleep:
     Sleeping monsters can't hurt you - until they wake up again. 
 Slow:
     If you can slow a monster, you are well on the way to killing it.
     Slowed monsters eventually return to normal speed. 
 Stun:
     Bashing, strong electrical attacks, and some other things can stun
     monsters, reducing their spellcasting and melee ability. 
 Confuse:
     Monsters may be confused by bright light (blinding), confusion attacks,
     or spells of confuse monster.  They move randomly about and cannot cast
     any spells until the effects wear off. 
 Fear:
     Most monsters can be frightened.  Those that are will attempt to teleport
     away (if they have such a spell) or run.  Monsters slower than you will
     charge and go down fighting if nearby. 
 Mana:
     Wait for the monster to run out of mana; most monsters have a limited
     amount of mana.  It may take a long time for them to run out, but once
     they do, they'll need a while to recover.  Be aware that some monsters
     can magically recover mana.


--- Magical Devices ---

     Wands, staffs, and rods are an important part of many adventurers' arsenals, and some specialize in their use.  In addition to these items, certain rare rings and amulets can be 'A'ctivated and there are rumours of weapons and armor with extraordinary powers.
     If you depend on magical devices much, it is important to have a high enough magical device skill.  This applies especially to magical devices that hinder monsters.

Getting exact damage information:
     If you use magical devices often enough, you will eventually get the message "you feel you know more about...".  'I'nspect the object, and you may very well see extra numerical information about damage, etc.  This takes a lot of the guesswork out of using staffs, wands, and rods to fight your battles.

Recharging:
     Wands and staffs have to be recharged every so often.  The failure rate of recharging depends on item type (wands are more fragile than staffs), item level, your magical device skill, and the power of the recharging spell you are using.  A high magical device skill makes magical recharging much safer.




========================== Interacting with the Game ==========================

====== List of commands ======

     This game supports two different command sets:  Original and Roguelike.  The original keyset takes advantage of the number pad and frees up more space for macros on a regular keyboard.  If you lack a numberpad, however, the roguelike keyset is likely to be the better choice.


--- Original keyset ---

   Walk    7  8  9         Run     7  8  9         Alter    7  8  9
           4     6         Shift + 4     6         Ctrl  +  4     6
           1  2  3                 1  2  3                  1  2  3

 a  Aim a wand                           A  Activate an artifact
 b  Browse a book                        B  Bash a door or Yell
 c  Close a door                         C  Character description
 d  Drop an item                         D  Disarm a trap/Desanctify a glyph
 e  Equipment list                       E  Eat some food
 f  Fire an item                         F  Fuel your lantern/torch
 g  Get objects on floor                 G  Gain new spells/prayers
 h  (unused)                             H  (unused)
 i  Inventory list                       I  Inspect an item
 j  Jam a door                           J  (unused)
 k  Destroy an item                      K  (unused)
 l  Look around                          L  Locate player on map
 m  Cast a spell or pray a prayer        M  Full dungeon map
 n  Repeat last command                  N  (unused)
 o  Open a door or chest                 O  (unused)
 p  Pray a prayer or cast a spell        P  (unused)
 q  Quaff a potion                       Q  Save and quit (or retire)
 r  Read a scroll                        R  Rest for a period
 s  Search for traps/doors               S  Start/stop sneaking
 t  Take off equipment                   T  Dig a tunnel
 u  Use a staff                          U  (unused)
 v  Throw an item                        V  Version info
 w  Wear/wield equipment                 W  (unused)
 x  (unused)                             X  (unused - switch weapon macro)
 y  (unused)                             Y  (unused)
 z  Zap a rod                            Z  (unused)
 !  Interact with system                ^A  (special - debug command)
 @  Interact with macros                ^B  (unused)
 #  (unused)                            ^C  (special - break)
 $  Advance skills                      ^D  (unused)
 %  Interact with visuals               ^E  Toggle choice window
 ^  (special - control key)             ^F  Repeat level feeling
 &  Interact with colors                ^G  (unused)
 *  Target monster or location          ^H  (unused)
 (  Light or douse a light source       ^I  (special - tab)
 )  Take a screen shot                  ^J  (special - linefeed)
 {  Inscribe an item                    ^K  (unused)
 }  Uninscribe an item                  ^L  (unused)
 [  Use talents                         ^M  (special - return)
 ]  end shapechange                     ^N  (unused)
 -  Walk (flip pickup)                  ^O  (unused)
 _  (unused)                            ^P  Show previous messages
 +  Alter grid                          ^Q  Show quests
 =  Set options                         ^R  Redraw the screen
 ;  Walk (normal pickup)                ^S  Save and don't quit
 :  Take notes                          ^T  (unused)
 '  (unused)                            ^U  (unused)
 "  (unused)                            ^V  Repeat last command
 ,  Stay still for one turn             ^W  (special - wizard mode)
 <  Go up staircase                     ^X  Save and quit
 .  Run                                 ^Y  (unused)
 >  Go down staircase                   ^Z  (special - borg command)
 \  (special - bypass keymap)            |  Change barehanded combat method
 `  (unused)                             ~  Check knowledge
 /  Identify symbol                      ?  Help

              TAB   Rest in place macro
         F1 - F12   Unused (available for macros)
     Print Screen   Take a screenshot (in some ports)

Mouse commands (not available in all ports)
 - left double-click:  Look around
 - right click:        Display interface preferences (where available)


--- Roguelike keyset ---

   Walk    y  k  u         Run     y  k  u         Alter    y  k  u
           h     l         Shift + h     l         Ctrl  +  h     l
           b  j  n                 b  j  n                  b  j  n

 a  Aim a rod                            A  Activate an artifact
 b  (walk - south west)                  B  (run - south west)
 c  Close a door                         C  Character description
 d  Drop an item                         D  Disarm a trap/Desanctify a glyph
 e  Equipment list                       E  Eat some food
 f  Force (bash) a door or Yell          F  Fuel your lantern/torch
 g  Get object on floor                  G  Gain new spells/prayers
 h  (walk - west)                        H  (run - west)
 i  Inventory list                       I  Inspect an item
 j  (walk - south)                       J  (run - south)
 k  (walk - north)                       K  (run - north)
 l  (walk - east)                        L  (run - east)
 m  Cast a spell or pray a prayer        M  Full dungeon map
 n  (walk - south east)                  N  (run - south east)
 o  Open a door or chest                 O  (unused)
 p  Pray a prayer or cast a spell        P  Browse a book
 q  Quaff a potion                       Q  Save and quit (or retire)
 r  Read a scroll                        R  Rest for a period
 s  Search for traps/doors               S  Jam a door (Spike)
 t  Fire an item                         T  Take off equipment
 u  (walk - north east)                  U  (run - north east)
 v  Throw an item                        V  Version info
 w  Wear/wield equipment                 W  Locate player on map (Where)
 x  Examine area                         X  (unused - switch weapon macro)
 y  (walk - north west)                  Y  (run - north west)
 z  Zap a wand                           Z  Zap (use) a staff
 !  Interact with system                ^A  (special - debug command)
 @  Interact with macros                ^B  (alter - south west)
 #  Start/stop sneaking                 ^C  (special - break)
 $  Advance skills                      ^D  Destroy item
 %  Interact with visuals               ^E  Toggle choice window
 ^  (special - control key)             ^F  Repeat level feeling
 &  Interact with colors                ^G  (unused)
 *  Target monster or location          ^H  (alter - west)
 (  Light or douse a light source       ^I  (special - tab)
 )  Take a screen shot                  ^J  (alter - south)
 {  Inscribe an item                    ^K  (alter - north)
 }  Uninscribe an item                  ^L  (alter - east)
 [  Use talents                         ^M  (special - return)
 ]  end shapechange                     ^N  (alter - south east)
 -  Walk (flip pickup)                  ^O  (unused)
 _  (unused)                            ^P  Show previous messages
 +  Alter grid                          ^Q  Show quests
 =  Set options                         ^R  Redraw the screen
 ;  Walk (normal pickup)                ^S  Save and don't quit
 :  Take notes                          ^T  Dig a Tunnel
 '  Repeat last command                 ^U  (alter - north east)
 "  (unused)                            ^V  Repeat last command
 ,  Run                                 ^W  (special - wizard mode)
 <  Go up staircase                     ^X  Save and quit
 .  Stay still for one turn             ^Y  (alter - north west)
 >  Go down staircase                   ^Z  (special - borg command)
 \  (special - bypass keymap)            |  Change barehanded combat method
 `  (special - escape)                   ~  Check knowledge
 /  Identify symbol                      ?  Help

              TAB   Rest in place macro
         F1 - F12   Unused (available for macros)
     Print Screen   Take a screenshot (in some ports)

Mouse commands (not available in all ports)
 - left double-click:  Look around
 - right click:        Display interface preferences (where available)



====== Basic Command Information ======

Canceling a Command:
     Virtually all commands can be canceled at any point before execution by hitting the ESC key.

Command Counts:
     Any command that can be repeated, or that can manipulate more than one object, can take a count.  By default, most that do are automatically given a count of 99.  Although most commands that usually need a quantity will ask for one, for other commands a quantity is only sometimes desired.  Hence command counts.  For example, to tunnel into a wall exactly 50 times, you would type a zero ("0"), then "50", followed by a return.  Then use the tunnel command.  All commands that use quantities will stop if you are disturbed, accomplish your intended task, hit any key, or when the count expires.

Doing More with Less Effort:
     The section on making macros describes how to:
- quickly switch to a shovel or backup weapon,
- fire a missile or cast commonly used spells with a single keystroke,
- prevent accidental use of valuable equipment,
- and many other things

Interfaces:
     See the "interfaces" section for more details about powerful and complex commands.


====== Command Descriptions ======

     Command names are followed by one or two characters:  The first is that used in the original keyset; the second, that used in the roguelike keyset (if different).


--- Object commands ---

Inventory list (i) :
     Display a list of objects in your backpack.

Equipment list (e) :
     Display a list of objects you are currently wielding, wearing, carrying in your quiver, or otherwise have immediately to hand.

Drop an item (d) :
     Drop an item from your inventory or equipment onto the floor.  If the grid you are standing on has 20 objects already, or cannot hold objects, the object will wind up nearby.  This command takes half a turn.

Destroy an item (k) / (Ctrl-D) :
     Destroy an object in your inventory or on the dungeon floor.  If the "verify destroy" option is ON, you must verify this command.  This command takes a full turn.

Wear/Wield equipment (w) :
     Wear or wield an object in your inventory or from the floor.  Since only one object can be in each slot at a time, if you wear or wield an item into a slot that is already occupied, the old item will first be taken off.  If there is no room in your inventory, it drops to the floor.  This command takes a full turn.

Take off equipment (t) / (T) :
     Take off a (uncursed) piece of equipment and return it to your inventory.  If there is no room in your inventory for the item, your pack will overflow and you will drop the item after taking it off.  This command takes half a turn.

Switch primary and secondary weapon (X) :
     Exchange whatever weapon you have wielded with the first weapon in your inventory inscribed {@0} or {@w0}.  This is very handy for swapping in and out shovels.  This command takes a full turn.


--- Movement Commands ---

Stay still -- with normal pickup (,) / (.) :
     Stay in the same square for one move.  If you normally pick up objects you encounter, you will pick up whatever you are standing on.  You may also use the "5" key (both keysets).  This command takes a full turn.

Walk -- with normal pickup (;) :
     This command activates every time you press a direction key; it moves you one step in the given direction.  This command takes a full turn.

Walk -- flip pickup (-) :
     Walk.  If you normally pick things up, don't.  Otherwise, do.  This command takes a full turn.

Run (.) / (,) :
     This command is very useful for rapid dungeon exploration.  It will move you in the given direction, following any bends in the corridor, until you either have to make a choice between two directions or are disturbed.  Most players run by holding down Shift and pressing a direction key.

Go up staircase (<) :
     Ascends an up staircase.  Going up a staircase will take you to a new dungeon level unless you are at 50 feet (level 1), in which case you will return to the town.  This command takes a full turn.

Go down staircase (>) :
     Descends a down staircase.  Going down a staircase will take you to a new dungeon level.  This command takes a full turn.


--- Special Action Commands ---

Get objects (g) :
     Pick up objects and gold on the floor beneath you.  Picking up gold takes no time, and objects take 1/10th of a normal turn each (maximum time cost is a full turn).  You may pick up objects until the floor is empty or your backpack is full.

Rest (R) :
     You recover from wounds twice as quickly by resting than by repeatedly staying still.  This command can be told to stop automatically after a certain amount of time, or when various conditions are met.  In either case, you always wake up when anything disturbs you, or when you press any key.
     After typing 'R', use "*" to rest until your hitpoints and mana are restored, and "&" to rest until you are fully "healed".  This command may accept a command count (used for the number of turns to rest), and takes a full turn.

Easy rest (TAB) :
     Actually a macro, this command automatically makes you rest until your HPs and mana are restored or you are disturbed.  It is included to cut down on wrist stress and allow more effective waiting.

Search (s) :
     Search for hidden traps, secret doors, and essences in nearby spaces.  More than a single turn of searching will be required in most cases.  This command can take a count, which is useful if you are confident of finding something eventually, since the command stops as soon as anything is found.  This command takes a full turn.

Toggle sneaking mode (S) / (#) :
     If you have a stealth skill of at least 10, allows you to start and stop sneaking.  See the talent "sneaking" for more details.


--- Dungeon Alteration Commands ---

Tunnel (T) / (Ctrl-T) :
     Dig through barriers, mine treasure found in wall seams, and otherwise alter the dungeon to your liking.  This command may take a count and requires a full turn.

Open a door or chest (o) :
     Open a door or chest.  If locked, you will attempt to pick the lock based on your disarming ability.  If you open a trapped chest without disarming the traps first, they will activate.  Some doors will be jammed shut and may have to be bashed open.  This command takes a full turn.
     You may set the "easy_open" option to open doors that you walk into.

Close a door (c) :
     Close a door.  Some monsters cannot open doors, so shutting them can be quite useful.  If a monster is in the way, you instead attempt to slam the door:  The monster gets a free turn, then you attempt to close the door.  If you succeed, the monster retreats out of the way and loses a turn.  
     Broken doors cannot be closed.  This command takes a full turn.

Jam a door (j) / (S) :
     Jam a door (so that it needs to be bashed down).  Many monsters can simply open closed doors, and can eventually get through a locked door.  You may therefore occasionally want to jam a door shut with iron spikes.  Each spike used on the door will make it harder to bash down the door, up to a limit of eight.  This command takes half a turn.

Bash a door (B) / (f) :
     Bash down jammed doors.  Your door bashing ability increases with strength and weight.  Bashing open a door can (briefly) throw you off balance, makes a lot of noise, and sometimes ruins the door.  All doors can be bashed; jammed or spiked doors will not open any other way.  You may also bash chests.  This command takes a full turn.

Disarm a trap or chest / Desanctify a glyph (D) :
     You can attempt to disarm known traps or glyphs on the floor or on chests.  If you have a disarming skill close to the trap level, disarming by hand will be safer than using magic; otherwise, magic is preferable.  If you fail to disarm a trap, there is a chance that you will blunder and set it off.  This command takes a full turn.

Alter (+) :
     This special command allows the use of a single keypress to select any of the dungeon alteration commands above (attack, tunnel, bash, open, disarm, close), and, by using macros or keymaps, to combine this keypress with directions.
     For burglars, it also allows stealing, door-locking, and setting traps.  This command takes a full turn.


--- Spell and Prayer Commands ---

Browse a book (b) / (P) :
     Open a readable book and read the spells.  You may select spells by pressing their index letter; as you do, extra information appears (unless the spell level is greater than your spellcasting skill).  This command takes no time.

Gain new spells or prayers (G) :
     When you are able to learn new spells or prayers, the word "Study" will appear on the status line at the bottom of the screen.  You then issue this command and choose a book with unlearnt magics.  Pious characters get a prayer at random; characters of all other realms may choose.  This command takes a full turn.

Cast a spell or Pray a Prayer (m and p) :
     Cast a known spell or prayer.  This command takes a full turn.


--- Player Manipulation Commands ---

End/Default shapechange (]) :
     Return to your normal state if you have previously transformed yourself into any creature.


--- Object Manipulation Commands ---

Eat some food (E) :
     Eat some food or a mushroom.  This command takes a full turn.

Fuel your lantern/torch (F) :
     You can refuel lanterns with flasks of oil and torches with other torches.  In general, two flasks will fully fuel a lantern and two torches will fully fuel a torch.  This command takes half a turn.

Light or douse your light source (left-parenthesis) :
     Light sources illuminate the nearby dungeon when lit; most also use fuel.  You can choose between saving fuel or getting light to see.  This command takes half a turn.

Quaff a potion (q) :
     Drink a potion.  This command takes a full turn.

Read a scroll (r) :
     Read a scroll.  Most scrolls which prompt for more information can be aborted (by pressing escape), which will stop reading the scroll before it disintegrates.  This command takes a full turn.

Inscribe an object ({) :
     Inscribe an object.  The inscription appears inside curly braces after the object description.  The inscription is limited to the particular object (or pile) and is not automatically transferred to all similar objects, unless the "Merge Inscriptions when Stacking" option is on.

Uninscribe an object (}) :
     Remove the inscription on an object.  This command will have no effect on inscriptions added by the game itself (such as "{cursed}").


--- Magical Object Commands ---

Activate an object (A) :
     You have heard rumours of special wearable items deep in the Pits, ones that can let you breath fire like a dragon or light rooms with just a thought.  Should you ever be lucky enough to find such an item, this command will let you activate its special power.  This command takes a full turn.

Aim a wand (a) / (z) :
Use a staff (u) / (Z) :
Zap a rod (z) / (a) :
     Uses the indicated kind of magical device.  This command takes a full turn.


--- Throwing and Missile Weapons ---

Fire an item (f) / (t) :
     You may fire ammunition if you are wielding a missile weapon that uses it.  See the non-magical combat section for more information.  This command takes a full turn unless you are using a weapon of extra shots.

Throw an item (v) :
     You may throw any object carried by your character.  See the non-magical combat section for more information.  This command takes a full turn.

Targeting Mode (*) :
     Aim directly at a specific monster or grid.  See the interfaces section for more information.


--- Information Commands ---

Help (?) :
     Brings up the on-line help system.

Inspect object (I) :
     Display extra information about a specific object.  If you know nothing about the object, you see generic information about the object kind.  If you have identified or otherwise know the object, a object description will also often appear.  If you have fully *identified* an object, you will recall all the special object attributes.  This command takes no time.

Character Description (C) :
     Display extra information about your character.  From this screen, you can change names, review attributes, or save your character information ("character dumps") to file.

Look around (l) / (x) :
     Look around at nearby monsters (to determine their type, health, and carried objects) and objects (to determine their type).  It can also be used to find out what objects (if any) are under monsters or traps, what terrain a monster is in, and what is under the player.  See the interfaces section for more information.  This command takes no time.

Check knowledge (~) :
     This command allows you to display
  - high scores
  - known artifacts
  - known monsters
  - monster kill count
  - known objects
  - contents of your home
  - quests.

Identify Symbol (/) :
     Find out what a character represents.  For instance, by pressing "/", then ".", you will learn that the "." symbol stands for a floor.  If you press return, you'll see a list of special uses for this command.
     If you ask about a type of monsters, such as 'r' - rodents, and you have knowledge of any, the game will offer to show monster recall.  Type 'y' to display monsters sorted non-unique then unique, 'l' to list by level, 'k' or 't' to list by number of kills, and any other key to cancel.  The list will normally start at the monster closest to your current depth.
     You may also use this command to ask about all monsters (type Control-A), unique monsters (Control-U), non-unique monsters (Control-N), or killed monsters (Control-K).
     This command takes no time.

Full screen map (M) :
     Show a map of the entire dungeon on screen.  Only the major dungeon features will be visible because of the scale, so even some important things may not show up.  This command is particularly useful in locating where the stairs are relative to your current position, or for identifying unexplored areas of the dungeon.  This command takes no time.

Locate player on map (L) / (W) :
     Scroll the map view around, looking at all sectors of the current dungeon level, until you press escape, at which point the map will be re-centered on the player if necessary.  To scroll the map around, press any of the direction keys.  The top line will display the sector location, and the offset from your current sector.  This command takes no time.
     This command also has another use:  it automatically adjusts the map panel to give you a better view in your direction of travel.  If worried about offscreen monsters with nasty ranged attacks, this is one way to protect yourself.

Game Version (V) :
     Learn what version of the game you are playing.


--- Message Commands ---

Repeat level feeling (Ctrl-F) :
     Displays your feeling about the dungeon level.  If you are currently on a quest, a description of it will also appear.  This command takes no time.

View previous messages (Ctrl-P) :
     Shows you all the recent messages.  You can scroll through them or exit with ESCAPE.  This command takes no time.

Take notes (:) :
     Allows you to take notes, which will then appear in your message list (prefixed with "Note:").  This command takes no time.


--- Saving and Exiting Commands ---

Save and Quit (Ctrl-X) :
     Save your character to file and exit the game.

Save (Ctrl-S) :
     Save the game but don't exit it.  Use this frequently (or turn on the autosave option) if you are paranoid about having your computer crash (or your power go out) while you are playing.

Save and Quit, or Retire (Q or Ctrl-K) :
     Save your character to file and exit the game.  If you have defeated Morgoth, use this command to retire.


--- Preferences Commands ---

Interact with options (=) :
     Set and review options.  See the options section for more information.

Interact with macros (@) :
     Create, load, and save macros and keymaps.  See the macro and keymaps section for more information.

Interact with visuals (%) :
     Change, load, and save visual preferences that determine how objects, monsters, and dungeon features display.  See the visuals section for more information.

Interact with colors (&) :
     Change the basic colors used by the game.  This command only works on some systems.  See the visuals section for more information.


--- Extra Commands ---

Toggle Choice Window (Ctrl-E) :
     Toggle the display in any sub-windows (if available) that are displaying your inventory or equipment.

Redraw Screen (Ctrl-R) :
     Update the screen to adapt to various changes in global options, and redraws all of the windows.  It is normally only necessary in abnormal situations, such as after changing the visual preferences or changing display modes.

Save screen shot (right-parenthesis) :
     Save a "snap-shot" of the current screen to a file.  You may choose "text" (plain text, most suitable for the newsgroup), "forum" (output with vBulletin markup codes which can be pasted into posts on the Angband Forum), or "html" (for websites and other purposes).  The screenshot will be saved in your user directory.
     In some ports, you also have the option of taking graphical screenshots by typing the Print Screen key.  This has the disadvantage of producing larger image files, but the advantage of showing exactly what's on your screen (graphics, sub-windows and all) at any moment, even when the game is not waiting for a command.

Repeat last command (Ctrl-V), also (n) / (') :
     Repeat the previous command, selecting the same objects, spells, etc., you choose last time.  For example, if you have just Read a Scroll, chose a Scroll of Enchant Object, and chose your Longsword as the object to enchant, this command will do all these things again with a single keystroke.


Special Keys:
     Certain special keys may be intercepted by the operating system or the host machine, causing unexpected results.  In general, these special keys are control keys; often you can disable their special effects.

     It is often possible to specify "control-keys" without actually pressing the control key, by typing a caret ("^") followed by the key.  This is useful for specifying control-key commands that might be caught by the operating system.

     Pressing backslash ("\") before a command will bypass all keymaps, and the next keypress will be interpreted as an underlying command key.  The backslash key is useful for creating macro actions which are not affected by any keymap definitions that may be in force.  For example, the three-character sequence "\.6" will always mean "run east", even if the "." key has been mapped to a different underlying command.

UNIX-specific notes:
     If you are playing on a UNIX or similar system, then Ctrl-C will interrupt the game.  The second and third interrupt will induce a warning bell, and the fourth will induce both a warning bell and a special message, since the fifth will quit the game, after killing your character.  Also, Ctrl-Z will suspend the game, and return you to the original command shell, until you resume the game with the "fg" command.  There is now a compilation option to force the game to prevent the "double ctrl-z escape death trick".  The Ctrl-\ and Ctrl-D and Ctrl-S keys should not be intercepted.

Windows-specific notes:
     If you playing on Windows, you may need to turn off num lock in order to run.  If you are playing a IBM port under Windows, and see what appear to be very strange colors, right-click on the executable, go to "Program Properties -> Screen -> Usage, and make sure that the program runs in full-screen mode.




====== Interfaces ======


--- Conventions ---

     When you have entered most game interfaces, you can expect common commands to do logical things.

Scrolling lists and reading text:
  Get/leave help:   '?'
  Forward (slow):   '8', 'k', Return  (hold down the shift key to go faster)
  Forward (norm):   '6', 'l', '+', '=', space
  Forward (fast):   '3'
  Backward (slow):  '2', 'j'
  Backward (norm):  '4', 'h', '-', '_'
  Backward (fast):  '9'
  Cancel:           Escape  (shows previous file, if any)
  Show text:        '&'  ('!' toggles case sensitivity)
  Find text:        '/'  ('!' toggles case sensitivity)
  Jump to a line:   '#'
  Display a file:   '%'

Indexed lists (help navigation, selecting stuff):
     Type the index corresponding to the item you want.  If you have a keymap or macro active on that letter or number (not a recommended practice!), type '\' to bypass it.
  Get help:         '?'
  Forward:          arrow keys
  Backward:         arrow keys
  Action:           Return (usually)

Setting options or selecting stuff:
     See instructions for details, but the following keys usually work the same way.
  Get help:         '?'
  Accept/Cancel:    See instructions
  Forward:          '8', 'k', arrow keys, Return
  Backward:         '2', 'j', arrow keys
  Increase:         '+', '=', sometimes also '6' and 'l'
  Decrease:         '-', '_', sometimes also '4' and 'h'
  Movement:         '>', '<', '6', '4'  (only some interfaces need this)
  Set to Yes/On:    'y'
  Set to No/Off:    'n'
  Toggle:           '5', 't'


--- Objects ---

Walking over objects, Picking them up:
     Moving and picking up objects happen in separate turns.  Whenever you walk onto objects, you have the option of spending additional time (1/10th turn per object) to pick them up.

     There are three different ways of handling objects you walk on; you choose the one you prefer by setting a pair of options.

Maximal information:  Set the option "query_floor" to ON.
Minimal distraction:  Set "always_pickup" and "query_floor" to OFF.
Automatic pickup:  Set "always_pickup" to ON and "query_floor" to OFF.

Selecting Objects:
     You may select objects in your backpack (your inventory), on your person (your equipment), or on the floor underneath you.
  space, *) Display or hide a list
  /)        Toggle between inventory and backpack
  -)        Use objects on the floor
  .)        Select the first object on the floor
  a-z)      Select the object with that index letter
  A-Z)      Select the same object, but only once you verify your choice
  0-9)      Select a specific object (if inscribed or in the quiver)


--- Targeting ---

The Targeting command:
     The target command ('*') makes it possible to set up a location or fix a monster as the point which you want future missiles and spells to aim for.  Some other commands also allow use of the targeting interface (normally by typing '*').  However you begin targeting, you have a number of options available to you.
  ESCAPE)  Exit targeting mode.  Cancel target.
  p)       Return to the player.
  o)       Start looking at all grids (exact control).
  m)       Start looking only at monsters (if any monsters are around).
  +)       Look at next monster or interesting grid.
  -)       Look at previous monster or interesting grid.
  r)       (If cursor is on a monster) recall monster information.
  t)       Target grid or monster.
  Space    See monster's carried objects (if looking)
  Return   Continue looking

     If you have the "use old target by default" option on, be careful about clearing targets on the floor when done.

Targeting -- line of fire:
     Line of fire (LOF) is reflexive:  if you can hit it with bolts or missiles, it can hit you -- and vice-versa.  However, you (and your foes) have wider fields of view, and can see many things that can't be hit directly.  The monster health bar serves as a handy indicator:  When a monster is not in LOF, its health bar is bracketed in grey.  If it is in LOF, it will be bracketed in green if you can fire upon it directly with arrows or bolts, and white otherwise.
     If using targeting mode to aim a missile, you are not allowed to select a monster not in direct line of fire (although you can target its grid by typing 'o', then 't').

Targeting -- mouse interaction:
     In some ports, you may use the mouse to make looking around and targetting more convenient.  Left double-click engages looking/targetting.  When targetting, left double-click sets a target.



====== Options ======

Various concepts mentioned below:
  "disturb"    : Cancel any running, resting, or repeated commands
  "flush"      : Forget any keypresses waiting in the keypress queue, including
                 any macros in progress
  "fresh"      : Display any pending output on the screen

Options you may want to change to your preferences include:
- Roguelike commands, if you are used to the commands used in certain other
  roguelike games.
- Checking that the hitpoint warning is non-zero can save your character's life.
- Set the delay factor to two or more if you want to see pretty ball
  explosions and whatnot.
- Playing around with the lighting options in the Visual Interface section
  can be a lot of fun.

Saving options:
     The current options are automatically stored in your savefile when you next save the game.  You only need to save options explicitly if you want future characters started 'from scratch' (not from a previous character) to use your preferred defaults.
- {savefile name}.prf  : affects only that character
- {race name}.prf      : affects all characters of that race
- user.prf               : affects all of your future characters

     The rules on usage do not fully apply to other kinds of preferences because only options are saved in savefiles, but the same file names work the same way in all cases.


--- Birth Options ---

     You may only change birth options when starting up a new character.

Allow specification of minimal stats          [birth_autoroll]  (on) :
     Allows you to specify minimum stats when creating a character.  Characters are randomly generated until one is found to meet your requirements.

Restrict the use of stairs/recall             [birth_ironman]   (off) :
     Can never go up.  Can never use recall until you win the game.  No stairs are ever placed under you when you change levels.  Adds 40% to score.

Ironman Play:
     "Go down into the dungeon.  Return with Morgoth's Crown or not at all."
In Ironman mode, you can never go up any staircase, and can never return to the surface by any means, until victorious.  If by accident you do, you must immediately return to the dungeon.
     Some forms of Ironman play require that you visit no stores before going into the dungeon, or that you must use a down staircase as soon as you see it ("crash-dive ironman"), but they are variants on the basic theme.

Lock the doors of stores and the home         [birth_no_stores]  (off) :
     Cannot use any stores or your home.  If you are not playing ironman, adds 15% to score.

Do not create artifacts                       [birth_no_artifacts]  (off) :
     No artifacts will appear.  Adds 10% to score.

No stairs back the way you came               [birth_no_return_stair]  (off) :
     Never generate a staircase back to the level you came from, even if you used a staircase.  If you are not playing ironman, adds 5% to score.

Monsters exploit players weaknesses           [birth_smart_cheat]  (off) :
     Allow monsters to know what spell attacks you are resistant to, without having to learn them by trial and error, and to use this information to choose the best attacks.  Adds 7% to score.


--- Option Set #1:  Game Behavior ---

Rogue-like commands                           [rogue_like_commands]  (off) :
     Selects the "roguelike" command set, which uses eight of the letter keys to move the character about.  This command set can be really useful if you have no number pad, and some people just naturally prefer it.  However, the original command set has considerably more unused keys available for macros and keymaps.

Verify destruction of objects                 [verify_destroy]  (on) :
     Gives you an "are you sure" message when you try to destroy an object.

Pick things up by default                     [always_pickup]  (off) :
Display things before picking them up         [query_floor]  (on) :
     When "always_pickup" is on, the game assumes you want to pick up any object you encounter.  If "query_floor" is off, you pick up objects automatically.  Otherwise, you are shown a list and prompted to pick up.
     When "always_pickup" is off, the game assumes you want to pick things up selectively.  If "query_floor" is off, you get a one-line description of the object or pile.  If "query_floor" is on, you see a full list, including weights.  In either case, you can start picking things up by typing "g".

     When standing still, you are never charged extra time for picking up objects.  When walking, you always take a second partial turn to pick up objects; each object picked up takes 1/10th of a turn.

Never haggle in stores                        [never_haggle]  (off) :
     You never haggle in stores, regardless of the markup the shopkeeper asks (which is very little or nothing on inexpensive stuff, but can be as great as 33% on extremely valuable items).

Use old target by default                     [use_old_target]  (off) :
     Forces all commands which normally ask for a direction to use the current target if there is one.  Use of this option can be dangerous if you target locations on the ground, unless you clear them when done.

Run past stairs                               [run_ignore_stairs]  (on) :
     Ignore stairs when running.

Run through open doors                        [run_ignore_doors]  (on) :
     Ignore open doors when running.

Run past known corners                        [run_cut_corners]  (off) :
     Cut sharply around known corners when running.  This will result in faster running (which matters if you are fleeing), but may cause you to run into a lurking monster.

Merge inscriptions when stacking              [stack_force_notes]  (on) :
     Force otherwise identical objects to merge, even if one has an empty inscription and the other does not.  The resulting stack keeps the non-empty inscription.

Merge discounts when stacking                 [stack_force_costs]  (off) :
     Force otherwise identical objects to merge, even if they have different discounts.  The resulting stack keeps the largest discount.

Allow quantity specification                  [allow_quantity]  (on) :
     Prompt for a quantity when necessary, instead of defaulting to a single object.  If you prefer to enter command counts before commands instead of typing quantities when prompted, turn this option off.

Change savefile names                         [change_save_names]  (off) :
     When you start a a new character, a "base name" is created from the full name.  It is used for the savefile, character-specific preference files, and character dumps.  The base name normally does not change after birth, but if this option is on, it will change whenever you rename your character.
     Traditionally, the Macintosh port allowed base names to change after birth and most other ports did not.

Allow accents in output files                 [xchars_to_file]  (on) :
     Accents in your character name or other text will be preserved in various output files such as character dumps.  They will be saved using your system's character encoding.  If this option is off, character dumps will be saved in plain ASCII; this is recommended for newsgroup posts.


--- Option Set #2:  Disturbance and Warning ---

Disturb whenever any monster moves            [disturb_move]  (on) :
     Disturb the player when any visible monster moves, appears, or disappears, whether in line of sight or out of it.  This increases safety, but may cause trouble when you have telepathy and are trying to rest.

Disturb whenever map panel changes            [disturb_panel]  (on) :
     Disturbs you when the map panel shifts.  This slows down your exploration, but makes it easier to avoid leaving a detected area.

Disturb whenever player state changes         [disturb_state]  (on) :
     This option causes you to be disturbed whenever the player state changes, including changes in hunger, resistance, confusion, etc.

Disturb whenever boring things happen         [disturb_minor]  (on) :
     This option causes you to be disturbed by various minor things, including monsters bashing down doors, beginning to run out of fuel, and changes in the weather.

Alert user to critical hitpoints              [alert_hitpoint]  (on) :
     Make a noise and flush all pending input when your hitpoints reach the hitpoint warning.  Make certain you also adjust the hitpoint warning.

Ring bell on error                            [ring_bell]       (on) :
     Make a bell sound when errors occur (such as typing an invalid key).

Activate quick messages                       [quick_messages]  (on) :
     Allows the use of any keypress as a response to the "(+)" prompt, except when you are badly wounded.

Compress messages in savefiles                [compress_messages]  (off) :
     Compress the savefile, saving only the most recent player messages.  This can cut the size of the savefile substantially, but will result in the loss of message information.

Flush input on various failures               [flush_failure]  (on) :
     This option forces the game to flush all pending input whenever various failures occur, such as failure to cast a spell, failure to use a wand, etc.  This is very useful if you use macros, as it will prevent you from walking towards monsters when your spells fail.

Flush input whenever disturbed                [flush_disturb]  (on) :
     This option forces the game to flush all pending input whenever the character is disturbed.  This is useful if you use macros that take time, since it will prevent you from continuing your macro while being attacked by a monster.

Delay on failure                              [delay_failure]  (on) :
     The game pauses for a fraction of a second whenever various failures occur, such as failure to cast a spell, failure to use a wand, etc.  This helps prevent you taking unplanned steps (and thus wasting a turn in the middle of a battle).

Colored messages when hit hard                [colored_hit_msg]  (on) :
     The harder you are hit, the more colorful the damage message will be.

Special colors for hurt character             [colored_hurt_char]  (on) :
     Your character symbol will change color depending on your health.


--- Option Set #3:  Visual Interface ---

Map remembers all seen grids                  [remember_seen_grids]  (on) :
     Memorize all floor grids that have ever been lit up by you.  This gives you a visual record of which areas you have explored on the current level.

Use special colors for torch-lit grids        [torch_light]  (on) :
     If the option "floor_lighting" is also on, floor grids that are only lit by your own light source or light sources on the floor will appear yellow.  If the option "wall_lighting" is on, walls may be colored in the same way (if some terrain prefs are tweaked).  Turning this option off will slightly increase the speed of the game.

Use special colors for field of view          [sight_light]  (on) :
     If the option "floor_lighting" is also on, those floor grids that you can see directly appear bright, and all other known grids appear darkened.  If the option "wall_lighting" is on, walls will be colored in the same way.  Turning this option off will slightly increase the speed of the game.

Use special colors for wall grids             [wall_lighting]  (on) :
     If either the option "torch_light" or "sight_light" is on, wall grids will change color depending on lighting conditions.  Turning this option off will slightly increase the speed of the game.

Use special colors for floor grids            [floor_lighting]  (on) :
     If either the option "torch_light" or "sight_light" is on, floor grids will change color depending on lighting conditions.  Turning this option off will slightly increase the speed of the game.

Highlight the player with the cursor          [highlight_player]  (off) :
     Place the visible cursor on the player.  This looks fine on terminals, but not on most graphical displays.

Flush output after various things             [fresh_after]  (off) :
     Flush all output not only after every player command, but also after every round of processing monsters and objects, and after every message.  This maximizes your information, but may slow down the game (especially on slower machines) and on faster machines you cannot see the results anyway.

Don't hide traps when objects pile on them    [traps_display_on_top]  (on) :
     Traps display on top of objects, and you need to look at the grid to determine if any objects are underneath.  If this option is not selected, objects hide traps.

Show dungeon level in feet (or meters)        [depth_in_feet]  (off) :
     Display dungeon depths in feet (meters if the "use_metric" option is used) instead of levels.

Show labels in equipment listings             [show_labels]  (on) :
    Display "labels" (what an object is being used for) for objects in all equipment listings.

Show weights in all object listings           [show_weights]  (on) :
     Display weights (in pounds or kilograms) of objects in all inventory, equipment, store, and home listings.

Show flavors in object descriptions           [show_flavors]  (on) :
     Display "flavors" (color or variety) in object descriptions and information screens, even for objects whose type is known.  This does not affect objects in stores.

Use Metric (SI) measurements                  [use_metric]  (off) :
     Display a variety of measurable quantities using metric measurements.  Conversions are:  3 meters ~ 10 feet, 1.0 kilograms ~ 2.2 pounds.

Menus pop up when selecting various things    [always_show_list]  (on) :
     If selecting anything from a list, that list will automatically pop up.

Move old messages to sub-window automatically [message_to_window]  (off) :
     If this option is on, and a sub-window is set to display messages, messages will be automatically pushed off the main screen to the sub-window, instead of manually through keypresses.  However, at present this option will still work if the sub-window is closed or moved off-screen, so use with caution!


--- Option Set #4:  Screen Display ---

Window Flags:
     Some platforms support multiple windows, which can display all sorts of useful information.

  inventory:         Display the character's inventory (and equipment when
                     requested).
  equipment:         Display the character's equipment (and inventory when
                     requested).
  character screen:  Display the main character screen.
  equip attributes:  Display the character screen's equipment attributes
                     section.
  visible monsters:  Display visible monsters.  The names of those that have 
                     killed at least one of your ancestors are in red, those 
                     that have never been seen before by this character are in 
                     light blue, uniques are in violet, and other monsters are 
                     in white.
  nearby objects:    Display objects in line of sight.
  messages:          Display recent messages and notes.
  overhead view:     Display an overhead view of the dungeon.
  monster recall:    Display a description of the target monster.
  object recall:     Display a description of the most recently selected
                     object.
  list of commands:  Display the most commonly-used commands for quick reference.


Screen Layout:

Show more things (like text) in tall display:  (off) :
     Various interfaces, such as stores, lists, and help, appear in the tall (46+ row) display.  This option is most helpful to those with large screens.

Show the largest map the screen will allow:  (on) :
     Maximizes dungeon size at the expense of a slightly less "clean" appearance.

Minimum vertical view distance:    (2) :
     Fully documented on-screen, but note that this allows you to get "center on player".

Minimum horizontal view distance:  (4) :
     Fully documented on-screen.


Customized left panel rows :
     Below the monster health bar on the left side of the main screen is empty space suitable for displaying information that's important to you.

  (blank line)   : Useful for spacing out information

  Health         : Shows the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. closest monster.  Very useful 
                   to see offscreen breathers!  Uses the same colors and 
                   brackets as the main health bar.

  Kill Count     : Number of monsters you've killed

  Score          : Current score

  Fame           : Fame.  Same as that displayed on the character screen

  Time           : How much time your character has spent alive.  Deliberately 
                   does not show minutes -- the passage of time is "fuzzy".

  Luck           : How unlucky are you?  Green is normal luck, yellow, orange, 
                   and red indicate trouble.

  Regeneration   : How rapidly do you recover hitpoints and mana?
                   red -> orange -> yellow -> white (normal) -> light green -> 
                   green -> light blue -> blue -> violet

  Quest Status   : Appearance and number of quest monsters

  Active Target  : Last known direction and distance of your target monster or
                   location.  Especially helpful if you have the option "use 
                   old target by default" set.

  Realm-Specific : Temporary conditions gained through magic, such as priestly
                   blessing.  Especially useful for Wizards, Priests and 
                   Necromancers.

  Attack Modify  : Elemental and vorpal blows, temporary bonuses to shots, hit 
                   and run, etc.

  Oppositions    : What elements (acid, elec, fire, cold, pois) do you tempor-
                   arily oppose (over and above any equipment resistances)?

  Fear/Bold/Hero : Are you afraid, bold (immune to fear), heroic, or berserk?

  Protection & ..: Are you blessed, shielded, protected from evil, resistant 
                   to damage, and the like?

  Weather        : What is the weather like?  Extremely useful for Druids.
                   humid:  'D' for dry, 'W' for wet.  Uses the colors yellow -> 
                           brown -> white -> grey -> white -> green -> blue
                   wind :  'S' for still, 'B' for blowing.  Uses the colors
                           violet -> blue -> white -> grey, and back again
                   temp :  'C' for cold, 'H' for hot.  Uses the colors blue ->
                           white -> grey -> white -> yellow -> orange -> red

  Noise          : How much noise are you making?  colors are dark grey -> grey
                   white -> yellow -> orange -> red.  Also notes aggravation.

  Invisibility   : Are you invisible (makes you harder to find and to hit), and 
                   if so, how strongly are you hidden from normal sight?
                   slate-> white-> light blue-> blue-> violet


--- Option Set #5:  Difficulty and Assistance ---

Allow character to avoid death                [beginner_play]  (off) :
     You can cheat death.  If you do, your score will be placed in "()"s.  This is, in truth, a cheat, but many people find it helpful when first learning the game.

Know complete monster info                    [cheat_know]  (off) :
     You can know all about monsters.  Score is reduced by 33%.


--- Miscellaneous Options ---

User Interface:
     Some ports of this game allow you to specify various user interface and multimedia preferences, such as turning on and off graphics and sound.

Hitpoint warning:
     If non-zero, is the percentage of maximal hitpoints (x10) at which you start to get special warnings and cannot use most keys to clear messages.  It is also used as the cut-off for using red to display both hitpoints and mana, and (if the "colored hurt char" option is active) for displaying your character in red.

Delay Factor:
     The "delay_factor" value, if non-zero, will slow down the visual effects used for missile, bolt, beam, and ball attacks.  The actual time delay is equal to "delay_factor" squared, in milliseconds.  A value of five works well on many machines.

Autosave:
     You may set the game to save your character every so often by using the autosave option.  Tweak the timer to control the frequency of autosaves.


--- Options Commands ---

Load a user preference file:
     Reads user preferences (including options) from a file you choose.  Normally used when preferences don't load automatically, and you want to rewrite them to a file that will.

Save options to a file:
     Saves options to file.  See the preferences section for help on what filename to use (the file "user.prf" usually works).  Because options are automatically saved when you save the game, you only have to do this if you want to set up a default set of options for multiple adventurers.



====== Inscriptions ======

     You use the '{' and '}' keys to inscribe and uninscribe objects.  The inscription on an object can have all sorts of effects.

To designate a main and backup weapon:
     Inscribe both with "@w0".  The 'X' command will replace whatever melee weapon you are wielding with another so inscribed.  You may also inscribe these or other weapons with "@w1", etc., and wield weapons 0, 1, 2 and so on as desired.

To have a given command always use the same spellbook:
     Inscribe it with "@m#", or "@p#", replacing the '#' with whatever character you desire.  This allows you to set up macros to cast a spell knowing that it will never choose the wrong book.  Similar inscriptions make archery very convenient, and allow you to always use a given magical device with the same keystrokes.

     In general, if you inscribe anything with @{any command}{any character}, you can issue the command, and type the character, to use the first legal inscribed object.

To automatically use a given object with a given command:
     Inscribe the object with "@X*", where 'X' is the letter of that command in the underlying keyset.

To prevent accidental use of an object with any command:
     Inscribe it with "!x", where 'x' is the letter you type to issue that command.  If you are very paranoid, inscribe it with "!*"

To learn when an object that recharges automatically is ready for use:
     Inscribe it with "!!".  This is handy for everything from your Rod of Trap Detection to dragon scale mail.

To automatically pick up an object:
     Inscribe it with "=g".  Especially useful for anything you throw or fire.

To give a object a special name:
     A shovel inscribed "#named 'Deepdelver'" will be called "a Shovel named 'Deepdelver'".  One inscribed "@w0#'Deepdelver'" will be called "a Shovel 'Deepdelver' {@w0}".  This part of the inscription should always go last.

Inscriptions for fun and profit:
     Try inscribing the first monster killed by a weapon, hidden object abilities, and where you found the item or who dropped it.

Automatic inscriptions:
     The game also inscribes objects automatically.  Some of these inscriptions will disappear when the item is identified, and you may overwrite others.

  "broken"         :  Object is broken in some way.
  "cursed"         :  Object is cursed.
  "empty"          :  Object has no more charges (and you know this).
  "indestructible" :  Object cannot be destroyed.
  "tried"          :  Used an object, didn't learn anything about it.
  "50% off"        :  Object is worth 50% less than normal.



====== Macros and keymaps ======

--- Quick Tutorial ---

     Necromancers are forever casting spell "a", Magic Bolt, in spellbook "a", Beginner's Curses.  In both keysets, that's "maa", plus "." to target the nearest monster.  Wouldn't it be nice if you could do all this with a single keypress?  You can.
     Choose an unused command (we shall pick "'" by way of example).  Bring up the macro/keymap screen by typing "@".  Press "8" to create a keymap, and the game will ask you for a trigger.  Type "'".  You then shift to the action field, where you input all the commands you want "'" to perform when pressed.  In this case, you would enter:  "maa.", and press return.
     Now save your new keymap by typing "6", and either allow the game to choose your character's name for the preference file, or (if you want all of your characters to use the same keymap) save to "user.prf".

     This is only the beginning.  What you can do with a spell, you can do with arrows, Rods of Trap Location, resting, activating stuff, talents, searching; all sorts of command combinations can profitably be macroed.  Macros and keymaps are even more flexible when used in combination with object inscriptions.
     In all cases, you remember the exact series of keypresses you need to issue, pick an unused trigger key, and fill in the action field.


--- Basic information ---

Macros:
     Macros allow you to use a single keypress to activate a series of keypresses.  They fire off in almost all cases:  when the game is waiting for a command, is showing a menu, is asking you to enter text, etc.  The only time they don't activate is when you already have a macro active.
     You may use any key as a macro trigger, but it is recommended that you not use ordinary letters.  You fill out the action field with the same commands you normally use.

Keymaps  (sometimes known as "command macros"):
     Keymaps only fire off when the game is waiting for a command.  You may not use special keys (like F1-F12) as keymap triggers, and must use underlying commands in the action field (a list of such commands is supplied below).

Effects of one on the other:
     Macros are often affected by keymaps; you may bypass keymaps in macros by putting a "\" before any action key.  Keymaps are never affected by macros.


--- Examples ---

     Macros are so handy that players (Jim Lyon in particular) have compiled lists of helpful tricks.

To clear any pending messages:
     Insert some "\e"s (escapes) before and/or after your keymaps and macros.  Be careful about skipping past important info!  If you want to be a little more careful, use "\s"s (spaces) instead.

To learn how to represent any key:
     Some keys cannot be entered simply as numbers or letters.  To figure out how to include the escape key in an action, for example, you bring up the macro/keymap screen, type 3: Query a macro, and press escape (ESC) when asked for a trigger.  This will tell you that an escape is represented by "\e".

Rest as needed:
     Keymap a trigger key to "R*\r".  This is also helpful when waiting for a monster to approach, because you recover mana and HPs twice as quickly than when staying in place.  Sangband already has a macro of this type, mapped to TAB.

Fire ammunition from quiver slot 0 (zero) at the closest monster:
     Macro a trigger key to "f0." ('f', '0', period).  If you get too many messages afterwards, you can also add some '\s's.

Activate the Phial:
     Macro a trigger key to "Af\s\s".

Destroy an item or a pile on the floor:
     Macro a trigger key to "099\rk-.y".  This expands to
  '0'  - enter a command count.
  '99' - enter the maximum possible quantity.
  '\r' - press return.
  'k'  - issue the kill command (in the roguelike keymap, this would be ^D).
  '-'  - choose the floor.
  ','  - choose the top floor item (never chooses anything in inventory).
  'y'  - confirm the kill.
  '\e' - stop destroying things.


--- In Depth ---

Not all keys can be entered as simple numbers or letters:
  \e     : escape  (useful for clearing the message line)
  \r     : return
  \n     : newline (is normally treated the same as return)
  \s     : space (' ')
  \\     : backslash  ('\')
  \^     : caret ('^')
  ^X     : control-X  (other control keys use the same system)
  \x80   : character in position 0x80 (in hex:  decimal equivalent would be 128)

Listing of underlying commands:
     Underlying commands are usually the same as those in the original keyset, but there are important exceptions:

  Underlying command     Original keyset     Roguelike
  5                      ,                   .
  .                      .                   ,
  ;1  (move = ';')       1                   b
  ;2                     2                   j
  ;3                     3                   n
  ;4                     4                   h
  ;6                     6                   l
  ;7                     7                   y
  ;8                     8                   k
  ;9                     9                   u
  Q                      ^C                  ^C
  w0                     X                   X
  ^V                     n                   '


--- Adding accents ---

     On some systems, you may include accents and special characters in your
character's name and in various other places by using encodes.  Encodes start
with an open bracket ( [ ) and end with a close bracket ( ] ).  Between the
brackets is either a two-character set or a name.  Two character sets always
specify the accent, then the letter itself.

  `  grave accent      '  acute accent       ^  circumflex       ~  tilde
  "  umlaut            *  ring (circle)      /  slash (as in o-slash)

     Therefore, typing ['a] will get you a-acute.



====== Preferences ======

     Information about options, usage of extra windows, command macros, and keymaps can all be stored in preference files.  In addition, you can customize the game in many other ways and save these preferences to file.


--- The priority order of preference files ---

     Whenever the game starts up, and whenever it creates or loads a character, it opens various preference files and modifies various things according to instructions in them.  The preference files below are listed in descending order of priority:  anything in higher files overrides anything in a file below it.

     Be aware that these rules apply only for this variant.

"/lib/user/{base name of character}.prf"
     May contain options, color definitions, attr/char remappings (what monsters, objects, and features look like), and many other things.  Anything in this file is guaranteed to override anything in any other file.
     What is the "base name" of your character?  It is the name of your character, usually with non-alphabetic, non-numeric characters translated to '_'s, and (on IBM/DOS) shortened to eight characters.  You may check the base name by trying to save macros or keymaps.

Your character's savefile
     Always contains your current options and window settings.  Never contains macros, keymaps, or visual preferences (these all need to be saved in an external file).  Options saved in a savefile will (usually) remain active even after the character dies and is reborn.  The major exception is the cheating options:  they are reset.

"/lib/user/human.prf" (replace "human" with your race)
     Used to store race-specific preferences.  It is best to edit this file after saving it.  Race names are as expected, except that "half-troll" becomes "h-troll" on some systems.

"/lib/user/warrior.prf" (replace "warrior" with your magic realm)
     Used to store realm-specific preferences; especially valuable for tweaking custom side panel rows.  It is best to edit this file after saving it.  Realm names are "warrior", "wizard", "priest", "druid", and "necromancer".

"/lib/user/user.prf"
     Any preferences that you want to apply to all of your characters should go here.


     Many players need no other preference files and can stop reading here.


"lib/pref/user.prf"
     This file is loaded just before the one above it.  Links to system-specific user-preference files, which tend to be used by porters to customize the game in ways that they think users of their system will appreciate.

"lib/pref/tiles.prf":  The visual preferences file.
     Is the gateway to all attr/char remappings and therefore controls what everything looks like on screen.  Each of the below files controls game visual appearance in a specific display mode; some link to system-specific sub-files.
     ".../ascii.prf":  Pure ASCII text display mode
     ".../font.prf":  Extended text display mode
     ".../chargraf.prf":  Pseudo-graphical font display mode  (not currently used)
     ".../graf16-g.prf":  Adam Bolt graphics (for everything) display mode
     ".../graf16-f.prf":  Adam Bolt graphics (plus font) display mode
     ".../graf32-g.prf":  David Gervais graphics (for everything) display mode
     ".../graf32-f.prf":  David Gervais graphics (plus font) display mode

"lib/pref/pref.prf"
     This is the source of most default settings except for char/attr remappings.  It contains the default values of options, the keymaps for the original and roguelike keysets, and the default inventory colors.  Links to the file "message.prf", which controls the colors of messages.  Links to system-specific general preference files (pref-{sys}.prf).  These contain system-specific keymappings and allow the game to recognize your keyboard.

     message.prf:  Message colors.  Each message can be assigned to a type; each type may have one or more sounds and a color associated with it.


--- Writing your own preference files ---

     All preference files use a common system to store information.  You must be careful of two things:
1) Make sure that the file will actually be loaded.  It needs to be one of the files mentioned above, or be called by one of those files.
2) Watch out for automatic preference dumps.  If you try to edit anything between the special markers, your changes will be lost.  The solution is to skip past all the automatic stuff and put your changes at the bottom, below the last marker.

List of preference file instructions:

%:user.prf
     Open up the file "/pref/user.prf" or "/user/user.prf" and read it.  If both files exist, rules in the latter have priority.

R:0:w/@
     The monster, with index 0 (zero), will be white ('w'), and be represented with a '@'.

K:50:v/~
     The object, with index 50, will be violet ('v'), and be represented with a '~'.

K:60:+10:+14
     The object, with index 60, will use the graphical tile at row 10, column 14 (the plus means "add 128 to the number").

F:1:w/250:y/250:s/250
     The feature, with index 1 (ordinary floor), will normally be white (color 1), and be represented by the character in ASCII position 250 (a centered dot).  Under torchlight, it will glow yellow.  When darkened, it will be slate grey.

L:247:+2:+15
     The flavor, with index 247 (Black Spotted mushroom), will use the graphical tile at row 2, column 15.

E:90:r
     Tval 90 (wizard spellbooks) will display in the inventory and other listings in light red ('r').

A:R*\r
     The next key listed will be mapped to this set of actions (can be either a keymap or a macro).

C:0:x
     The previous action listed is a keymap, is active in the original keyset (set 0), and will be activated by typing 'x'.

P:1:^O
     The previous action listed is a macro, is active in the roguelike keyset (set 1), and will be activated by typing 'control-O'.

V: 1:w:White:            0:255:255:255:  1
     The color in position 1 is requested by typing 'w', is called "White", has a kvalue of 0, a red value of 255, a green value of 255, a blue value of 255, and translates to color 1 (itself) in 16-color mode.

X:rogue_like_commands
     The "rogue_like_commands" option will be off.

Y:rogue_like_commands
     The "rogue_like_commands" option will be on.

W:2:10:1
     Window #2 (the first sub-window), will display window display #10 (display list of commands), and be active (1) as opposed to inactive (0).

M:1:w
     Message type 1 (standard hit message) will appear white.

D:5
     The delay factor will be 5 (5 * 5 = 25 milliseconds).

H:3
     The hitpoint warning will be at 30%.

a:1:1000
     Autosave is on; games will be saved every 1000 turns.

t:1:0:0:2:4
     The main window will use the standard (short) display, we will not be using the special (tall) display to display help and other things, the dungeon map will not be fitted precisely to screen, the number of rows from the vertical edge at which the map scrolls will be 2, and the number of rows from the horizontal edge at which the map scrolls will be 4.

?:{text}
     A conditional expression.  If true, allows another line to activate.  The tests include
  AND     - logical AND
  IOR     - inclusive OR
  EQU     - (string) equals
  NOT     - logical negation
  LEQ     - (string) less than or equal to
  GEQ     - (string) greater than or equal to
  [,]     - group expressions
  $GRAF   - 3-letter graphics abbreviation in "graf-***.prf" (graf-old, graf-new)
  $PLAYER - current character name
  $RACE   - current character race
  $SYS    - 3-letter system abbreviation in "pref-***.prf" (pref-ami, mac, win,...)
     See the usage in "lib/pref/pref.prf", etc.


====== Visuals, colors, and multimedia ======

Interact with Visuals:  (command: '%') :
     You may adjust the character and attribute (color) used to display objects, monsters, and terrain features.
  1) Update your preferences with a specific user preference file.
  2) Save your current monster visuals to file.
  3) Save your current object visuals to file.
  4) Save your current terrain visuals to file.
  6) Change monster visuals.
  7) Change object visuals.
  8) Change terrain visuals.
  0) Reset visuals to their last saved values (undo all changes).

     When changing visuals, you may type the following keys:
  n: Advance one (wrap around if at the end)
  N: Go back one (wrap around if at the beginning)
 ^n: Jump to a specific item  (the '^' means Control-)
  a: Change to the next color (wrap around if at color 15)
  A: Change to the previous color (wrap around if at color 0)
 ^a: Specify color
  c: Change to the next character in the ASCII sequence (wrap around if at 255)
  C: Change to the previous character (wrap around if at 0)
 ^c: Specify character

     A good way to get used to the interface is to choose option 6:  change monster visuals, note that the first "monster" is your character, and change it from a white '@' to something silly.  Leave, see how weird you look, come back, and press '0' to reset the visuals.


Interact with colors:  (command '&') :
     In the interact with colors display, you have three options available:
  1) Load colors from file.
  2) Save colors to file.
  3) Modify colors.

     In the modify screen, you navigate between colors by typing direction keys.  When at the color you want to change, you then use the following keys.
  i: Give the color a unique index character (so it can be requested)
  n: Give the color a name
  k: No effect (the game auto-calculates this value)
  K: No effect
  r: Increase the red in this color (wraps around at 255)
  R: Decrease the red in this color (wraps around at 0)
  g: Increase the green in this color (wraps around at 255)
  G: Decrease the green in this color (wraps around at 0)
  b: Increase the blue in this color (wraps around at 255)
  B: Decrease the blue in this color (wraps around at 0)
  v: Assign the color specific red, green, and blue values.

     When making new colors, you should first give the color an index character (it must be unique; the game will correct you if you use a character that belongs to another color), and then type a name (such as "White").  When you have done this, you can then immediately see the color changes you make.

     Note that color 0 (black) should not be changed.  If your system can only display 16 colors, your changes to colors above #15 will not have any effect.

     After changing colors, you may leave the modify screen for the main colors screen, and choose option #3: Save colors to file.  The colors will be saved at the end of the file "lib/pref/color.prf", and will take immediate effect.  You may then use the new colors for monsters, objects, etc.




================ Saving, Loading, Winning, Cheating, and Dying ================


     Saving and loading your character should be easy.  So, sadly, is getting him killed.  Winning is a little harder, but the novice player can get special assistance to improve his chances down in the dungeon.


--- Saving your Game ---

     Saving your game is usually easy.  You can use the save game command, or (on some systems) a menu option.  If you cannot save your game, you probably have one of two problems:
1) The folder "{game}/lib/save" does not exist.  Create this directory and 
   any others that are missing (see the list of files elsewhere in the docs).
2) You are using a multi-user machine and do not have write permission to 
   that file or directory.


--- Loading your Game ---

   The game can load savefiles using several methods.  In order, it:
1) Loads any file that you specify with the "-u" command line option.  This 
   only applies to some ports.
2) Loads the first file specified in "save/global.svg", but only if that 
   character is alive.
3) Loads any file named "PLAYER" (capitalization may or may not be ignored).
4) Shows you a savefile management screen, allowing you to choose files 
   listed in "global.svg", type in another filename, or start a new character.

Location of the savefile directory:
- On single-user systems, it is {game directory}/lib/save/.
- On multi-user systems, it is within a game-created folder in your user directory.

Dead characters:
     If you load a dead character, the game will flash a message telling you that it is using the slain adventurer's monster memory.  You then create a new character.

Savefile compatibility report:
     Sangband loads files from Sangband 0.9.9 and later.


--- Winning The Game ---

     Victory is slaying Morgoth, Lord of Darkness, before he or any of his minions slay you.  He rules his empire far deep in the Pits, at 5000 feet, one hundred levels below the sunlit surface.  Barring your way to him at 4950' is Sauron, creator of the One Ring, whose power bears comparison with Morgoth himself.

     Vanishingly few adventurers ever return to the surface with the Iron Crown of Morgoth, wrath-blackened cage of the Silmarils.  Few ever wield the Hammer of the Underworld, that dreadful maul which pulps an Ancient Dragon in a blow.  People have played this game for a decade and more without a single victory.  If you win -- are victorious without cheat, assistance, or subterfuge -- tell the tale on the forum to those who have yet to taste that triumph!


--- Upon Death and Dying ---

     If your character's hit points fall below zero, he dies.  The dreaded tombstone will appear, and you may check out his attributes and possessions one last time.

     Your character will leave behind a reduced save file, which contains only the monster memory and your option choices, both of which new characters may use.  It is very helpful to know something about the monster that slew your ancestor!


--- Cheating Death ---

     One of the most important things about this game is that your character's life is so important.  Let him die, and you start over from scratch.  This is one of the secrets to this game's fascination; anyone who cheats death is really not getting the full experience, and any Morgoth-slayers yanked from the jaws of death are not full winners.  But what if your characters seem to die all the time (like mine!), and you really want to keep playing with the same guy?  Well, the game has a few answers for that too.

     You may cheat death by toggling on the "cheat death" option.  This keeps your character ticking, and you get a running tally of your deaths on the character screen.  Trying to keep this number low is a great way to learn the game.




================================= Appendices ==================================


====== Internet Resources ======


http://angband.oook.cz/forum/
     The Angband Forum.  It also covers all her variants, including Sangband.  Lots of friendly people.  You may post character dumps there and ask for and offer advice.

http://www.runegold.org/sangband
     The Sangband home page.  Contains the current source and executables, and various interesting things like screenshots and news updates.

http://angband.oook.cz/index.php
     The major Angband website, including official and unofficial news, discussion, information, and various nifty utilities.  Go to "http://angband.oook.cz/ladder.php" to see the top scores for many variants of Angband.

rec.games.roguelike.angband
     The Angband discussion group on usenet.

http://www.thangorodrim.net/angband.html
     A large, but slightly outdated, site that used to be the official Angband portal.

http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/games/Angband/
     The largest repository of Angband files (somewhat outdated).

http://angband.oook.cz/code
     Put a code on the bottom of your posts that describes exactly how you play Angband.  Lots of fun.

http://www.mirc.com/
     If you like interactive chat, there is a channel dedicated to Angband.  Go to this link, download mirc, and use it to connect to one of the Worldirc servers (note:  You do have to use a worldirc server).  Then join the channel #angband.  You'll know you've got it right when you see other people (the channel is always occupied).



====== File Structure ======


     This appendix lists most, but not all, of the files in the basic release (your version will vary slightly).

{base game directory} 
readme.txt  :  Startup information, changes, notes, credits, copyrights
 /docs
 /lib

{/docs directory}
compile.txt :  Basic compilation information (source release only)
changes     :  Recent changes.  See the website for older changes.
manual.txt  :  The game manual

{/lib directory} 
/apex 
/bone 
/data 
/edit 
/file 
/help 
/info 
/pref 
/save 
/user 
/xtra
     Some of these directories contain a file named "delete.txt", which is included to make sure that directories are preserved.

{/lib/apex directory} 
scores.raw   : The high score list

{/lib/bone directory} various bones files created when characters die

{/lib/data directory} data files created when the game starts up

{/lib/edit directory} 
artifact.txt  :  User-editable information about artifacts 
ego-item.txt  :  User-editable information about ego-items 
limits.txt    :  Maximum sizes of various arrays 
monster.txt   :  User-editable information about monster races 
object.txt    :  User-editable information about objects 
quest.txt     :  User-editable information about quests 
store.txt     :  User-editable store information tables 
terrain.txt   :  User-editable information about terrain features 
vault.txt     :  User-editable information about special rooms

{/lib/file directory} 
a_cursed.txt  :  List of names for cursed random artifact armors 
a_normal.txt  :  List of names for normal random artifact armors 
dead.txt      :  The dreaded black screen of death 
names.txt     :  Names to recombine for random artifacts 
news.txt      :  The splash screen 
smeagol.txt   :  What Smeagol says 
smeagolr.txt  :  What Smeagol says when he's frightened 
victory.txt   :  The victory screen 
w_cursed.txt  :  List of names for cursed random artifact weapons 
w_normal.txt  :  List of names for normal random artifact weapons

{/lib/help directory}  Help files

{/lib/info directory}  Various information and spoiler files

{/lib/pref directory} 
Standard preference files.  See the section on preference files.

{/lib/save directory} Saved games 
global.svg  :  A list of savefiles that the game will load automatically.

{/lib/user directory} 
Personalized preference files.  See the section on preference files.

{/lib/xtra directory} 
/font      : Fonts used in (at least) the SDL and Windows ports
/graf      : bitmapped graphics tiles, the background image
/music     : A selection of tunes to play to
   jukebox.cfg : the music configuration file.
/sound     : basic sounds for various actions
   sound.cfg : the sound configuration file.



====== History of the Game ======


--- The History of Sangband ---

     Skills Angband, or Sangband for short, is the oldest variant of Angband still active; many long-time players remember it with great fondness.  It was among the first roguelikes anywhere to introduce skills, shapechanges, fully-fledged natural and necromantic realms, and special character talents.  Whole webpages have been devoted to its features, and many a game developer has been influenced by them.

     Sangband grew out of Chris Petit's interest in developing a version of Angband with a skills system rather than character classes.  It was first released March the 3rd, 1994, using the Angband 2.5.x codebase as modified in Bangband (another of his variants).  When Chris Petit graduated, development stopped for about a year at version 0.8.5 (released April 29th, 1994).
     After that, Michael Gorse took over the project, re-releasing version 0.8.5, then taking the game up to 0.9.3 between 1995 and 1997.
     Julian Lighton happened to stumble across Sangband, and (aided by Greg Wooledge) found himself fixing bugs as he found them.  First he made them available on a website, then decided he had too much free time and took over Sangband officially, releasing 0.9.4 in 1997 and 0.9.5 in 1998.  His work sorted out the major game bugs and updated the code to Angband 2.8.3.
     In 2001, he passed the maintainership to Leon Marrick, who had played Sangband almost since the beginning (first bug report in '95) and modeled parts of his own variant on it.   Scott Yost released beta 15, making a number of helpful changes and bug fixes.
     (more history between 2001 and the present will appear later)


--- The History of Angband ---

This file was last updated for Angband 3.0.1.

Make sure to read the Forum ("http://angband.oook.cz/forum/") for the most up to date information about Angband.

Angband has an incredibly complex history, and is the result of a lot of work by a lot of people, all of whom have contributed their time and energy for free, rewarded only by the pleasure of keeping alive one of the best freeware games available anywhere.

The version control files, if they existed, would span more than ten years time, and more than six different primary developers.  Without such files, we must rely on simpler methods, such as change logs, source file diffs, and word of mouth.  Some of this information is summarized in this file.

Please be sure to read the copyright information at the end of this file.


Brief Version History:

First came "VMS Moria", by Robert Alan Koeneke (1985).

Then came "Umoria" (UNIX Moria), by James E. Wilson (1989).

Details about the history of the various flavors of "moria", the direct ancestor to Angband, can be found elsewhere, and a note from Robert Alan Koeneke is included in this file.  Note that "moria" has been ported to a variety of platforms, and has its own newsgroup, and its own fans.

In 1990, Alex Cutler and Andy Astrand, with the help of other students at the University of Warwick, created Angband 1.0, based on the existing code for Umoria 5.2.1.  They wanted to expand the game, keeping or even strengthening the grounding in Tolkien lore, while adding more monsters and items, including unique monsters and artifact items, plus activation, pseudo-sensing, level feelings, and special dungeon rooms.

Over time, Sean Marsh, Geoff Hill, Charles Teague, and others worked on the source, releasing a copy known as "Angband 2.4.frog_knows" at some point, which ran only on Unix systems, but which was ported by various people to various other systems.  One of the most significant ports was the "PC Angband 1.4" port, for old DOS machines, which added color and various other significant changes, only some of which ever made it back into the official source.

Then Charles Swiger (cs4w+@andrew.cmu.edu) took over, sometime in late 1993, cleaning up the code, fixing a lot of bugs, and bringing together various patches from various people, resulting in several versions of Angband, starting with Angband 2.5.1 (?), and leading up to the release of Angband 2.6.1 (and Angband 2.6.2) in late 1994.  Some of the changes during this period were based on suggestions from the "net", and from various related games, including "UMoria 5.5", "PC Angband 1.4", and "FAngband".

Angband 2.6.1 was primarily targetted towards Unix/NeXT machines, and it required the use of the low level "curses" commands for all screen manipulation and keypress interaction.  Each release had to be ported from scratch to any new platforms, normally by creating visual display code that acted as a "curses" emulator.  One such port was "Macintosh Angband 2.6.1", by Keith Randall, which added support for color, and which formed the basis for the first release of Angband 2.7.0.

In late 1994, Charles Swiger announced that he was starting a real job and would no longer be able to be the Angband maintainer.  This induced some amount of uproar in the Angband community (as represented by the Angband newsgroup), with various people attempting to form "committees" to take over the maintenance of Angband.  Since committees have never given us anything but trouble (think "COBOL"), there was very little resistance when, on the first day of 1995, Ben Harrison made his code available, calling it "Angband 2.7.0", and by default, taking over as the new maintainer of Angband.

Between then and 1999, Ben Harrison transformed Angband, becoming (in many people's minds) the most important contributor to the game since Robert Koeneke.  The first and most important change he made was a massive code-level cleanup.  This, combined with the development of a generic, OS-independant interface, allowed simple porting to many new and existing platforms (including X11, IBM machines, OS2, Windows, Amiga, and Linux), and made possible the explosion of variants that adds such vigor to the game today.

  Major changes made in this period include:
- macros and keymaps
- user preference files
- user-customizable template files for monsters, objects, ego-items,
  artifacts, vaults, and terrain features.
- more powerful and efficient line of sight, lighting, grid refresh,
  and spell projection code
- better string-handling
- new or rewritten inventory and equipment management, monster processing,
  object creation and effects, and a whole lot more.

After the release of Angband 2.8.3 Ben's free time was more and more occupied by his work.  He released a beta version of Angband 2.8.5, introducing many new features, but couldn't give as much attention to maintaining the game as he wanted to.

So in March 2000, Robert Ruehlmann offered to take over Angband and started to fix the remaining bugs in the Angband 2.8.5 beta.  The resulting version was to be released as Angband 2.9.0.  Further bugfixes and a couple of new features - including many in the realms of user-customizability, with greater control over ego-items, player races and classes, monsters, items and artifacts - have led to the current version.


Contributors (incomplete):

Peter Berger, "Prfnoff", Arcum Dagsson, Ed Cogburn, Matthias Kurzke, Ben Harrison, Steven Fuerst, Julian Lighton, Andrew Hill, Werner Baer, Tom Morton, "Cyric the Mad", Chris Kern, Tim Baker, Jurriaan Kalkman, Alexander Wilkins, Mauro Scarpa, John I'anson-Holton, "facade", Dennis van Es, Kenneth A. Strom, Wei-Hwa Huang, Nikodemus, Timo Pietilä, Greg Wooledge, Keldon Jones, Shayne Steele, Dr. Andrew White, Musus Umbra, Jonathan Ellis


A Posting from the Original Author of Moria:

From: koeneke@ionet.net (Robert Alan Koeneke) Newsgroups:
rec.games.roguelike.angband,rec.games.roguelike.moria Subject: Early history of Moria Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 04:20:51 GMT

I had some email show up asking about the origin of Moria, and its relation to Rogue.  So I thought I would just post some text on the early days of Moria.

First of all, yes, I really am the Robert Koeneke who wrote the first Moria.  I had a lot of mail accussing me of pulling their leg and such.  I just recently connected to Internet (yes, I work for a company in the dark ages where Internet is concerned) and was real surprised to find Moria in the news groups...  Angband was an even bigger surprise, since I have never seen it.  I probably spoke to its originator though...  I have given permission to lots of people through the years to enhance, modify, or whatever as long as they freely distributed the results.  I have always been a proponent of sharing games, not selling them.

Anyway...

Around 1980 or 81 I was enrolled in engineering courses at the University of Oklahoma.  The engineering lab ran on a PDP 1170 under an early version of UNIX.  I was always good at computers, so it was natural for me to get to know the system administrators.  They invited me one night to stay and play some games, an early startrek game, The Colossal Cave Adventure (later just 'Adventure'), and late one night, a new dungeon game called 'Rogue'.

So yes, I was exposed to Rogue before Moria was even a gleam in my eye.  In fact, Rogue was directly responsible for millions of hours of play time wasted on Moria and its descendents...

Soon after playing Rogue (and man, was I HOOKED), I got a job in a different department as a student assistant in computers.  I worked on one of the early VAX 11/780's running VMS, and no games were available for it at that time.  The engineering lab got a real geek of an administrator who thought the only purpose of a computer was WORK! Imagine...  Soooo, no more games, and no more rogue!

This was intolerable!  So I decided to write my own rogue game, Moria Beta 1.0.  I had three languages available on my VMS system.  Fortran IV, PASCAL V1.?, and BASIC.  Since most of the game was string manipulation, I wrote the first attempt at Moria in VMS BASIC, and it looked a LOT like Rogue, at least what I could remember of it.  Then I began getting ideas of how to improve it, how it should work differently, and I pretty much didn't touch it for about a year.

Around 1983, two things happened that caused Moria to be born in its recognizable form.  I was engaged to be married, and the only cure for THAT is to work so hard you can't think about it; and I was enrolled for fall to take an operating systems class in PASCAL.

So, I investigated the new version of VMS PASCAL and found out it had a new feature.  Variable length strings!  Wow...

That summer I finished Moria 1.0 in VMS PASCAL.  I learned more about data structures, optimization, and just plain programming that summer then in all of my years in school.  I soon drew a crowd of devoted Moria players...  All at OU.

I asked Jimmey Todd, a good friend of mine, to write a better character generator for the game, and so the skills and history were born.  Jimmey helped out on many of the functions in the game as well.  This would have been about Moria 2.0

In the following two years, I listened a lot to my players and kept making enhancements to the game to fix problems, to challenge them, and to keep them going.  If anyone managed to win, I immediately found out how, and 'enhanced' the game to make it harder.  I once vowed it was 'unbeatable', and a week later a friend of mine beat it!  His character, 'Iggy', was placed into the game as 'The Evil Iggy', and immortalized...  And of course, I went in and plugged up the trick he used to win...

Around 1985 I started sending out source to other universities.  Just before a OU / Texas football clash, I was asked to send a copy to the Univeristy of Texas...  I couldn't resist...  I modified it so that the begger on the town level was 'An OU football fan' and they moved at maximum rate.  They also multiplied at maximum rate...  So the first step you took and woke one up, it crossed the floor increasing to hundreds of them and pounded you into oblivion...  I soon received a call and provided instructions on how to 'de-enhance' the game!

Around 1986 - 87 I released Moria 4.7, my last official release.  I was working on a Moria 5.0 when I left OU to go to work for American Airlines (and yes, I still work there).  Moria 5.0 was a complete rewrite, and contained many neat enhancements, features, you name it.  It had water, streams, lakes, pools, with water monsters.  It had 'mysterious orbs' which could be carried like torches for light but also gave off magical aura's (like protection from fire, or aggrivate monster...).  It had new weapons and treasures...  I left it with the student assistants at OU to be finished, but I guess it soon died on the vine.  As far as I know, that source was lost...

I gave permission to anyone who asked to work on the game.  Several people asked if they could convert it to 'C', and I said fine as long as a complete credit history was maintained, and that it could NEVER be sold, only given.  So I guess one or more of them succeeded in their efforts to rewrite it in 'C'.

I have since received thousands of letters from all over the world from players telling about their exploits, and from administrators cursing the day I was born...  I received mail from behind the iron curtain (while it was still standing) talking about the game on VAX's (which supposedly couldn't be there due to export laws).  I used to have a map with pins for every letter I received, but I gave up on that!

I am very happy to learn my creation keeps on going...  I plan to download it and Angband and play them...  Maybe something has been added that will surprise me!  That would be nice...  I never got to play Moria and be surprised...

Robert Alan Koeneke koeneke@ionet.net


Posted by Geoff Hill on the Angband newsgroup on 2004-10-31:

Well, Alex and Andy are the true fathers of Angband. And probably
Andy most of all. He's a talented coder, and I *think* (I could ask
him, perhaps!) that Angband was partly driven by him looking for a
challenge. By this, that he found Nethack a little easy, so wanted a
beefed up hack type variant, and (U)Moria seemed a good base.

And he (and I to a lesser intent) were heavily involved in Warwick LP
Mud and it was a creative time in the games world - the internet was
still fairly fresh - we were using the Joint Academic Network (JANET)
and it is a wonder that anyone ever completed their education!

Andy, to the best of my knowledge, has not ever completed Angband,
although I have heard he has been playing Z (its been a while since I
asked).

When Andy and Alex graduated it was left playable and about 2/3 of the
release it became. Sean and I picked it up from then. I think Sean
was more of a driving force, because he wanted to move it forward to
release. In my case I was just keen to tinker the game balance (I was
the completion specialist, I guess) and add and amend some things.

So we added about 1/3 of the artifacts, monsters, vault types. Added
high resists (up until then we only had the elements). Added new
breathe types. Tweaked game balance. Tweaked player races and added
race special abilities. The most time consuming part was rewriting (or
in some cases writing from scratch) the monster descriptions. It took
me forever! And it is difficult to be creative at 4am after a night
in the bar. Qllqllzuup is witness to that (drunk when that one was
done!).

Some of the artifacts from that time are remarkably untested at
release. I still think of that '1/3' as being 'new' ones and not the
true artifacts, I guess because I had a hand in writing them. So,
ones like Deathwreaker, Tulkas, Bladeturner etc are relatively untried
before release.

One area that Sean and I had a difference in opinion was in the
'Tolkien' element. I felt that it should stay more true to the
Angband theme, and he was less bothered about that. I disagreed with
him putting in Gabriel, Azriel etc as frankly I felt they had no part
in a Tolkien based world. But, no matter, Azriel has made a point of
killing me ever since to put me straight ;-).

Sean and I released it to the wider world (with the help of Charles
Teague? I am not sure when he became involved, I would perhaps have to
ask Sean for more background asI am still in touch with him). Charles
may have become involved after release, or before, I am not certain.

At that point it was only set up to make on a SunOS system, so I
suspect that many people who are better coders than me then went mad
converting it to their own systems.

I suppose if one wanted to tweak the background paragraph with any of
the above, you could, but it is largely correct as it stands. Perhaps
for completness at Sean and I's involvement it could say

'Sean Marsh and Geoff Hill took Angband over when Alex and Andy
graduated from the University of Warwick. They updated Angband with
some much needed depth, and worked remotely with Charles Teague to
release it to the community. ' and then as before about frog-knows.
Charles was not at the Uni, of course. I forget his location, as we
only ever emailed him.
The existing paragraph somewhat suggests that Sean and I released a
'copy' known as frog-knows. I suppose in some respects it was the
first variant of Angband but as it was the only version release it
became vanilla?
If so, that is ironic really, given comments earlier in this thread...



====== Copyrights ======

                          VMS Moria Version 4.8
Version 0.1  : 03/25/83
Version 1.0  : 05/01/84
Version 2.0  : 07/10/84
Version 3.0  : 11/20/84
Version 4.0  : 01/20/85

Modules :
     V1.0  Dungeon Generator      - RAK
           Character Generator    - RAK & JWT
           Moria Module           - RAK
           Miscellaneous          - RAK & JWT
     V2.0  Town Level & Misc      - RAK
     V3.0  Internal Help & Misc   - RAK
     V4.0  Source Release Version - RAK

Robert Alan Koeneke               Jimmey Wayne Todd Jr.
Student/University of Oklahoma    Student/University of Oklahoma





                        Umoria Version 5.2 (formerly UNIX Moria)
Version 4.83 :  5/14/87
Version 4.85 : 10/26/87
Version 4.87 :  5/27/88
Version 5.0  :  11/2/89
Version 5.2  :   5/9/90

James E. Wilson, U.C. Berkeley
                 wilson@ernie.Berkeley.EDU
                 ...!ucbvax!ucbernie!wilson

Other contributors:
D. G. Kneller         - MSDOS Moria port
Christopher J. Stuart - recall, options, inventory, and running code
Curtis McCauley       - Macintosh Moria port
Stephen A. Jacobs     - Atari ST Moria port
William Setzer        - object naming code
David J. Grabiner     - numerous bug reports, and consistency checking
Dan Bernstein         - UNIX hangup signal fix, many bug fixes
and many others...




Copyright (c) 1989 James E. Wilson, Robert A. Keoneke
  This software may be copied and distributed for educational, research, and
  not for profit purposes provided that this copyright and statement are
  included in all such copies.

Umoria Version 5.2, patch level 1

Angband Version 2.0   Alex Cutler, Andy Astrand, Sean Marsh, Geoff Hill,
                      Charles Teague.

Angband Version 2.4   : 05/09/1993

Angband Version 2.5   : 12/05/1993 Charles Swiger

Angband Version 2.6   : 09/04/1994 Charles Swiger

Angband Version 2.7   : 01/01/1995 Ben Harrison

Angband Version 2.8   : 01/01/1997 Ben Harrison

Angband Version 2.9   : 10th April 2000 Robert Ruehlmann



Copyright (c) 1997 Ben Harrison, James E. Wilson, Robert A. Koeneke

This software may be copied and distributed for educational, research, and not for profit purposes provided that this copyright and statement are included in all such copies.  Other copyrights may also apply.


--- The Sangband copyright ---

Sangband   0.1 - 0.8.5  : Jun 28, 1994  Chris Petit

Sangband 0.8.5 - 0.9.3  : Apr 04, 1997  Michael Gorse (mgorse@wpi.edu)

Sangband 0.9.4 - 0.9.5  : Jul 14, 1998  Julian Lighton (jl8e@fragment.com)

Sangband 1.0.0          : May 26, 2007  Leon Marrick

Copyright (c) 2007  
Leon Marrick, Ben Harrison, James E. Wilson, Robert A. Koeneke

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License.  Parts may also be
available under the terms of the Moria license.  For more details, see
"/docs/copying.txt".


--- The Sangband Manual Copyright ---

The Sangband Manual is copyright (c) 2007 Leon Marrick (-LM-) and others.

     Redistribution of unaltered copies of this document is permitted without restriction.  Distribution of altered copies is permitted without restriction as long as the alteration does not significantly alter the content (For example, translation and conversion to another format is permitted.).  Distribution of all other altered copies is permitted as long as credit for previous authors is maintained, the contact information is replaced with that of the alterer, and redistribution is not further restricted.


Informal Bibliography
     This work draws upon the following sources:

The Umoria 5.5.2 documentation
     Probable authors:  Robert Alan Koeneke and/or James E. Wilson

The Angband 2.0 documentation
     Probable authors and revisors:  Alexander Cutler and/or Andy Astrand

The Angband 3.0.3 documentation
     Authors and revisors:  Ben Harrison, Robert Ruehlmann, and others.

The Oangband 0.5.2 documentation
     Authors and revisors:  Leon Marrick, Bahman Rabii.

The Angband Macro FAQ
     Author:  Jim Lyon

The Angband FAQ, parts 1 and 2
     Authors and revisors:  Jason Holtzapple, Ben Harrison, James Andrewartha

