---
title: "My Best Nethack Game (So Far)"
date: 2022-11-24T09:13:15-05:00
categories: ["Games"]
tags: ["Nethack", "Roguelikes", "Video Games"]
resources:
  - name: wishing
    src: wishing.png
    title:
  - name: oracle
    src: oracle.png
    title:
---

I just finished my best ever game of Nethack. I earned 31,118 points as a level
9 Valkyrie.

Some highlights:

I got all the way to the bottom of the Mines, fought several vampires and
trolls, but somehow completely missed the luckstone. I did pick up a grey stone,
but it ended up being a touchstone.

I got a Wand of Wishing! I was zap testing wands in Minetown and the game asked
me for a wish! I had no idea what to wish for -- it was my first time getting a
wish 😱 -- but I had been watching [Adeon's Nethack speedrun][adeon] at the 2017
Roguelike Celebration and remembered him wishing for some absurdly qualified
dragon scale mail, so I ended up with a *+2 uncursed silver dragon scale mail*
that brought my AC down to -10. It saved my butt later on when I ran into a
bunch of winter wolf pups because it reflected their cold beams.

{{< figures/image name=wishing >}}

Later on in the mines, I stepped on a polymorph trap that transformed me into an
ice dragon. That transformation caused my dragon scale mail to fuse into my
body.  When the transformation ended, I was left with simple dragon scales,
which were still silver, but no longer had the big defense bonus. Boo. :( I did
get to lay two eggs that hatched into baby ice dragons. Baby dragons are
ravenous and indiscrimate.

The baby dragons killed the Oracle. Whoops.

{{< figures/image name=oracle >}}

In the oracle level, I tried to dip my long sword into the fountains around the
Oracle, hoping to find Excalibur. Just a few turns before, I'd fought a
gelatinous cube that corroded my sword. I didn't notice at the time though, so
dipping went horribly wrong... Not only did my corroded long sword become
*thoroughly rusted*, it also eventually became cursed. Oddly enough, that sword
was still the best weapon I had, and I used it to the very end. I need to figure
out how to replace weapons that get degraded like that.

I solved Sokoban with some help from the Nethack wiki for the first time. The
puzzles are hard but I enjoyed thinking through them. The monsters in there,
especially in the upper levels are *hard*: multiple elementals, several packs of
winter wolf pups, yetis, apes, and a zruty. I got through the last level and
discovered a mimic blocking the hallway to the zoo. It killed me.

Near the end, I was testing amulets and put on an Amulet of Changing that caused
me to switch genders. Boo.

It's in my [logfile][logfile] now too.

[adeon]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIB0y_kwFuY
[logfile]: {{< ref "nethack" >}}