NetHack

I have 10 NetHack ascensions to my name. All have been either Valkyries or Samurai, which is kind of sad, but I can't play much else (as evidenced by past games on my NAO account).

  1. Valkyrie
  2. Valkyrie, ascended August 18, 2006
  3. Valkyrie, ascended late November 2006
  4. Valkyrie, ascended August 22, 2007
  5. Valkyrie, ascended February 17, 2008
  6. Valkyrie, ascended May 30, 2008
  7. Samurai, ascended December 19, 2008
  8. Valkyrie, ascended July 4, 2009
  9. Samurai, ascended September 26, 2009
  10. Samurai, ascended March 27, 2010

Ascension #1

My first ascension was played with XNethack, which is a graphical version of NetHack meant for people frightened of the alphabet. I would guess that at least half of the game was played by my brother, while I merely wandered about, hoping not to die.

The game was played locally, and I neglected to obtain a dump log or any screenshots, so all that remains is the memory.

Ascension #2

My first ascension on NAO. By this time, I had discovered that ASCII Nethack is much, much more fun.

I would estimate that I played about 2/3 of this game, as I had my brother rescue me several times (for example, when I overenchanted my cloak of magic resistance so it went *poof*, then angered a peaceful golden naga into making my helm of brilliance go *poof*) and do the ascension for me.

Ascension #3

My first time participating in the /dev/null tournament. I lost several extremely promising games (such as the one where I petrified myself with a cockatrice corpse on my way to kill the Wizard, which merited this graphic), but one game made it.

This time, my brother only helped me with the slaying of the Wizard, the obtaining of the Amulet, and the running through the Astral Plane.

Ascension #4

My second ascension on NAO. It was a fairly typical game: this time, I nearly starved twice because I hadn't bothered to carry any food. I got several bonus wishes from smoky potions (full healing). And I actually did the ascension by myself... discounting the turn-by-turn advice of my brother, which I followed religiously.

Ascension #5

My third ascension on NAO. It was the first game I played entirely by myself; my brother was not even virtually present while I fumbled my way through the ascension run.

Thanks to this game, I learned never to forget my ring of levitation in my Castle stash. Went down to the Valley of the Dead, only to find I was stuck on the wrong side of the trapdoors leading into the Castle. I eventually found enough wands of cold to freeze the moat and retrieve my ring.

Ascension #6

Fourth on NAO. My second game without RL assistance, so while I had a better idea of what to expect, the ascension was still very intense.

This game was notable for its lack of floating eyes; I finally gained intrinsic telepathy from a mind flayer near the bottom of Gehennom.

Things I learned from this game: never use holy water for the sake of using it (nearly ran out), and never take having a brain for granted. I lost half my memories to a mind flayer while entering the temple in Moloch's Sanctum. Needless to say, it was a bit late to remap the entire dungeon before the ascension run, so getting to the Elemental Planes took a bit longer than I would have liked.

Ascension #7

Fifth on NAO, third solo ascension. My very first non-Valkyrie ascension: in a radical departure from the Valkyrie, I played a Samurai.

Killed Ashikaga Takauji for the second time ever. (The first game I killed him ended with drowning when an electric eel took out my ring of levitation. What would have been the second game I killed him ended when he bisected me with his Tsurugi of Muramasa. This third attempt at the quest, I took no chances, and used my randomly generated wand of wishing to acquire a wand of death.)

The rest of the game was fairly normal. The ascension run was going well at first. After the Invocation, I levelported to the Sanctum and landed about five squares from the temple door. The Wizard and mysterious force gave me minimum trouble; even the Elemental Planes went smoothly. Things got bad in the Astral Plane.

Nethack doesn't have to be a fast-paced game. You can relax between turns, take a deep breath, and think about what needs to be done. Which is why I was frantically hacking and slashing everything in sight, panicking as my HP dropped into the red zone, freaking out as Pestilence made me Ill, and losing it completely when my cursed unicorn horn made me hallucinate. In the end, I had to try all three altars before I found the lawful one, I used two potions of full healing (first time I've ever brought any on my ascension run, and first time I've ever needed them), and I have never been so sure I would die. But at least I made it.

Ascension #8

Another Valkyrie. This game is notable mainly because I took my sweet time (ascended after 161,901 turns), resulting in a somewhat excessive 639 HP and 819 alignment. I was hoping that this would be my first wishless game, but I couldn't find a ring of levitation anywhere, so I gave up and wished for one before starting the ascension run.

Ironically, in the beginning, I almost hoped I would die so I could start a new game. The problem was in Minetown — I was trying to get Excalibur, so I dipped my long sword into a fountain. Enter a water demon, who promptly summoned another, and another, and another, until finally Juiblex appeared. I fled. It was many, many turns later before I was able to take him out. It did not help that all my weapons were rusted and useless; I'd dipped every long sword I found until finally realizing that Excalibur must have already been generated. Sure enough, after I cleared out the demon nest in Minetown, I found the bones file where the bloody sword had been waiting all along. To add insult to injury, I'd already spent hours sacrificing monsters to get Grayswandir. But it worked out for the best, Grayswandir + katana beats Excalibur + silver saber hands down.

Mid-game went well, with the exception of two mind flayers. The ascension run was probably the easiest it's ever been, although once again, I carried far more stuff than I could ever use (e.g. 27 potions of holy water). The Riders died very obligingly when whacked, so despite having to try all three altars, I didn't completely freak out. I was even composed enough to wield my blessed pancake before offering the Amulet.

Ascension #9

My second Samurai. Quite an easy game (relatively, of course): first time I've had a wand of death to use on Ashikaga Takauji, never saw an arch-lich, never had my brains eaten, etc. I also got two wishes from smoky potions of full healing, which was cool, although I had been trying to go wishless and once the wish was offered, I was unable to resist.

Between this game and the last, it has become apparent that potions of full healing are very good to have in my ascension kit. I suspect they saved my life a couple times; those air elementals and priests are vicious. The Riders continue to be total wimps. I think I'm getting overconfident, but while I was stunned, Famine had ample opportunity to do some serious damage, but was content with shriveling my body (not that I noticed any shriveling happening). I took out Death in one hit. Steve the Chieftain* was not only more dangerous, but far more durable as well.

* My favourite is still Michael the Speleologist.

  • Dump log — note the wielded blessed pancake
  • Screenshot — Vlad the Impaler (why do I always take screenshots of him anyway? he's pretty routine)
  • Screenshot — Master mind flayer and regular mind flayer ganging up on me
  • Screenshot — Another mind flayer summoned a master lich before I could kill him
  • Screenshot — Said master lich proceeded to summon Geryon
  • Screenshot — I could not find the vibrating square; ended up hacking the level to bits
  • Screenshot — "You see here a papyrus spellbook"
  • Screenshot — Coaligned altar

Ascension #10

Third Samurai. My hopes of playing wishless were crushed since there were no bags of holding, only two scrolls of gold detection, no rings of levitation or levitation boots, only one ring of free action (which I lost down a sink while identifying it), no scrolls of charging, and no magic markers in the entire game. Not to mention the complete lack of general stores, bookstores, and potions stores, so no price-IDing ever happened; I ended up in the Castle reading random scrolls with my fingers crossed.

Other than that, the game went quite well. I had a moment of panic in the Astral plane when Michael the Necromancer turned out to have Vorpal Blade, very nearly ending my game in YASD. Luckily I took him out with a wand of death before he beheaded me.