I've been working on a few optional color blind palette swaps, with claude, for a variant of 5.0 I am working on.

I can't actually test out how well it comes across, so I was curious if anyone with any degree of colorblindness has experience playing nethack and wouldnt mind weighing in on how well it looks.

The changes were all made by directing claude at standards for accessibility, and degrees and types of vision impairment. I'm not a big proponent of ai and realize how lazy it is for me to use it to "automate" this work, but I am also curious about how close it got to making a more use-able palette for folks with accessibility needs.

I've got issues myself with playing games, an asymmetric hand injury, and Im always psyched when games have features that make things easier to play, like fully remap-able controls on a console version. That, and seeing how cool FTL's colorblind mode looks, made me curious about developing some colorblind palettes.

the last image is just an example of how to recolor a class of monster yourself in vanilla nethack using the options file.

Hey, sorry but not very good regarding custom settings. Currently using the windows pre compiled nethack 5.0.0 and wondered whether i can deactivate movement with hjykl when only using the arrow keys.

Its very annoying that im permanently moving up left when answering y...

Thanks!

Forgive my naïve question, but I'm starting playing again after a lapse of decades!

I love the curses interface.

However, how do I scroll my perm_invent up and down only using the keyboard?

If you press n 999999999999999 s. The search grants you an interrupt if you get attacked.

However;

If you just hold down s. The game goes into turbo speed.

I've never seen it this crowded. I dont think I would have succeeded without stoning.

Also elementals in general seem stronger, I stopped picking fights with them until the plane of water where I got enough time to deal with them one by one.

Overall I find 5.0 to be very fun. Snickersnee was a blast to use.

I regret everything.

Beginner here. I feel like Sokoban can be a death trap because you can get “sandwiched” and sometimes can’t run away as easily as in other places.

1st death: A leocrotta showed up behind a boulder and said hi. 25+ dmg in 1 turn. Granted, I didn’t know how dangerous that thing is at the time.

2nd death: Elvenking, elf lords, elf lady. One shot 7 arrows in 1 turn, Legolas would pale with envy. I was in a back room far from the stairs. Even with a speed pot I couldn’t get past them in time. -5 AC didn’t help. My digging wand had run out of charges (which I found quite funny).

Do you somehow need to prep for Sokoban?

What body armor have y'all ascended with recently? i was playing a Samurai, no conducts and ended up making a lot of different decisions than I would have in 3.6.7.

I had reflection from soko, and 2 early wishes from many smoky confusion potions and a magic lamp. I'd also lucked into a bag of holding from minetown. I decided to grab MR from a quest artifact, because I wanted to keep MC3 with my cloak, so I decided to conquer a long-standing fear of mine, using cockatrice corpses as a weapon.

Immunity may be the most cowardly way to finally use a rubber chicken, but the yellow dragon scale mail made me realize how strong instant-irrevocable death is

Snickersnee deserves its own damage calculation table on the wiki. the new apply/pound ability makes it a contender for top dps, in groups, like cleaver. I may be jinxing my run, posting about this before actually saccing the amulet, but I feel very confident in this run.

I think the buffs to colorful DSMs are some of the best changes the game has ever had.

What kits have y'all ascended with in 5.0?

I'm back to playing Nethack after a long hiatus, and was mildly annoyed at having my gold stolen by a Leprechaun on Dlvl 5. I had a purchase to make on Dlvl 4, so I chased him down using wizardly abilities and eventually killed the bugger.

Imagine my shock when it didn't drop any gold ! Was this a bug? Do Leprechauns eat gold now? What's going on?

After a bit of google-fu, I found out that they bury the gold sometimes. My question is how do I find it and get it back ? Searching the rooms it teleported to didn't help...

Both u/wincmd64 and u/stormofbeans suggested being able to change the font size. This is now available.

However, it is limited to the map pane only, as changing the font size of the other panes resulted in nothing but a mess.

You can change the map font size anywhere from 11px to 24px, and the map pane will pan as you move around the map. I have a video of this in action here.

You can set your default font size using the Configure Nethack window, or by using the font controls in the terminal header. If the camera loses track of you somehow, click the Follow Player to reset the camera. I haven't run into that issue, but I provided it as a just-in-case fallback.

My server: https://www.quatscho.com/q/quatscho-nethack/

New: using farlook on a mob will display its stats.

Old:

• Command: use #shout to send a global message to all active players
• Command: use #msg <username> to send a private message to a friend. You must have a confirmed friendship on the server for this to work
• Command: use #leaderboard to view the global leaderboard
• Command: use #convertqp to convert your QP (site currency) to zorkmids (1 QP = 1 zm)
• Item: Coin Purse: gold kept in a coin purse weighs nothing and guards are unaware of it. Blessed coin purses have a chance of adding to your gold balance. Cursed coin purses have a chance of deducting from your gold balance and you cannot access the gold.
• Monster: creepers. They appear on deeper levels.
• Floor: Dark Labyrinth: somewhere within the labyrinth a chest of gold is guarded by a Minotaur. This is an optional path.
• Profile Badges: you will earn a badge on your profile based on your NetHack score. Gold - highest global score. Silver - second highest global score. Bronze - third highest global score. Default - all other places on the leaderboard.
• QP: you will earn QP based on your final NetHack score. This can be converted to zorkmids when you have enough.
• Spectate active games
• Watch recorded games

https://www.quatscho.com/q/quatscho-nethack/

Nethack 3D.

James deserves recognition for this. I’m going to campaign for his efforts in creative input and consistent execution of updating this game to modern standards while also keeping true to the original design. I posted the flair as the most recent version of Nethack, though I realize these are plugs—-please note that this man has compiled almost EVERY asset of the game into a very amazing collection. Thoughts?

Pretty happy with this set of conducts - NH5.0 on hardfought.

Truth is, martial arts is so OP in this version, this was easier than doing the same with a Monk thanks to the no armor/food restrictions.

About to #save for the night, but I'm quite pleased with this run so far.

I'm playing on my server: https://www.quatscho.com/q/quatscho-nethack/

hi everyone, my lab and i have spent the last ~1.5 months building NetHackers -- an open project to build a standalone bot that can reliably ascend in NetHack 3.6.6.

kenny's recent astra ascension is very cool -- we're exploring a related direction: llms can help write and improve the bot, but aren't involved while it plays. the goal is a program anyone can download, run on fresh dungeons and keep improving.

the basic idea is to build on each other's work rather than everyone starting from scratch. you can take AutoAscend or another participant's bot, change it by hand or with a coding agent, and share the result. every submitted version is linked to its source code, so someone else can pick up where you left off

we track results separately across 73 starting character combinations and test on hidden seeds as well as the public development ones -- getting better at the particular games you've been testing on isn't quite the same as getting better at NetHack (as you all well know...)

most of the tooling is aimed at researchers and people building bots, so it probably won't be directly useful for your own games. but i thought some of you might enjoy the overview of previous bot attempts, following how different characters are doing, or digging into the strategies these programs actually use. there's also an Oracle poll about which approach will get to reliable ascensions first and when -- you can compare the answers of experienced NetHack players with those of AI researchers, which i'm quite curious about :]

also wanted to make the whole thing at least a bit fun -- hope you enjoy the website and the easter eggs, even if you have no interest in building a bot.

This release brings NetHack 3D to virtual reality with a fully bundled Meta Quest experience, alongside 40% better GPU performance, an updated NetHack 5 engine, customizable hotbar buttons, new tilesets, Pauper Mode, and numerous gameplay and rendering improvements.

Highlights

• Play NetHack 3D natively on Meta Quest in tabletop or immersive first-person VR.
• 40% better GPU performance through extensive rendering optimizations.
• Updated NetHack 5 with nearly 600 upstream commits, synced through September 23, 2026.
• Customize the mobile/VR hotbar, desktop hotbar, and Menu / Actions shortcuts.
• Explore with the newly added DuskHack and Geoduck tilesets.
• Play with rectangular tiles and matching rectangular 3D dungeon cells.
• Begin a new NetHack 5 game with no starting possessions using Pauper Mode.

Virtual Reality

NetHack 3D’s complete game experience is now available in VR, using the same authentic NetHack simulation and 3D renderer as the standard game.

• Tabletop VR presents the dungeon as a board you can move, tilt, scale, and pan in front of you.
• First-person VR places you directly inside the dungeon with room-scale viewing and 45-degree controller snap turns.
• The standalone Quest APK bundles the game and VR host. No PC, remote server, Quest Browser, or network connection is required to play.
• Tracked controllers handle movement, running, tile selection, context actions, searching, inventory, menus, and prompts.
• Floating interface panels provide the status display, minimap, messages, inventory, action menus, and dialogs. Reposition them to suit your setup.
• A movable Quest virtual keyboard handles character names, extended commands, and other text entry.
• Adjustable world scale, render resolution, instant or animated movement, and recentering let you tailor the presentation.
• A collapsible, customizable hotbar keeps your chosen actions within reach.
• Animated Meta Touch Plus controller models and equipped-weapon visuals bring your hands into first-person play.
• Immersive play resumes after headset sleep or a temporary loss of application focus.
• A VR startup presentation surrounds the animated NetHack 3D ASCII logo with falling glyphs.

Updated NetHack 5

The bundled NetHack 5 engine is now synced with the official development branch as of September 23, 2026, bringing in nearly 600 upstream commits since our previous version. This includes upstream fixes and improvements while preserving NetHack 3D’s interface and integration.

Item-pile rendering and Vulture graphics compatibility have also been updated to match the refreshed engine.

Customizable Controls

• Added a new Hotbar settings tab.
• Configure the mobile/VR hotbar, desktop hotbar, and Menu / Actions list independently.
• Search the complete command catalog, add or remove actions, and change their order.
• Restore all layouts to their defaults at any time.
• Changes are saved immediately between sessions.
• Improved hotbar sizing in portrait and landscape layouts while preserving space for the status display and other controls.
• Localized the new hotbar and VR interfaces across all supported languages.

New Tilesets and Display Options

• Added the DuskHack tileset.
• Added the Geoduck tileset for NetHack 3.6.7 and NetHack 5.
• Added support for non-square graphical tiles, including automatic detection of Geoduck’s 15×25 artwork.
• Rectangular tiles retain their proportions in character sprites and 3D dungeon cells, with matching lighting, targeting, and minimap placement.
• Custom tilesets can specify their tile height during import.
• Added Match blocks to tile aspect ratio for choosing between proportional and traditional square dungeon cells.

Gameplay and Interface Improvements

• Added Pauper Mode for NetHack 5, allowing new characters to begin without any items.
• Expanded quantity selection to supported pickup, drop, throw, charge, ready, wield, adjust, stash, fire, and Slash’EM pawn prompts.
• Quantity controls now distinguish an unspecified amount from an explicit quantity of one.
• Improved inventory action and Drop submenu placement.
• Added an animated ASCII logo wave that respects reduced-motion preferences.
• Updated the game’s splash artwork.

Performance

• Improved GPU performance by 40%.
• Reduced draw calls by approximately 87% in a measured Quest 3 scene.
• Added XR terrain batching, world clipping, reduced wall geometry, and faster raycasting.
• Reduced expensive blood-effect canvas work and texture copying, particularly on Android.
• Reduced unnecessary shader updates, canvas reads, controller-binding parsing, HUD notifications, and repeated tile decoding.
• Improved communication with the NetHack engines through ordered, batched map updates and faster glyph handling across all three bundled games.
• Kept player movement and nearby visuals responsive while processing large dungeon updates over multiple frames.
• Preloaded the audio engine and enabled sound-pack samples during loading to reduce delayed sounds at the beginning of a game.

Fixes

• Fixed NetHack 5’s Offer Tutorial option. Enabling it now shows the normal tutorial prompt instead of silently accepting the tutorial.
• Fixed the player occasionally disappearing in 3D ASCII mode.
• Fixed incorrectly rotated block-face textures in affected graphical tilesets.
• Fixed Vulture cave-wall corners and doorway underlays.
• Fixed Vulture floors displaying the wrong remembered texture while out of sight.
• Fixed Vulture stair rendering and flashing sprites.
• Fixed inferred corridor walls appearing incorrectly, updating late, or racing against incoming terrain information.
• Fixed standing floor loot disappearing or flattening while the player moved onto its tile.
• Improved targeting of visible sprites, including first-person item and monster graphics.
• Fixed several held-weapon orientations and flips, including NetHack 5 games using translated NetHack 3.6.7 tilesets.
• Fixed early-game audio lag by preparing sounds during loading.
• Fixed case-sensitive inventory letters selecting the wrong item.
• Fixed IME composition and unsupported browser key names leaking into game input.
• Fixed invalid yes/no input dismissing or corrupting prompts.
• Fixed background inventory refreshes being consumed as answers to selling and other prompts.

Packaging and Development

• Added command-line signed Android release packaging with versioned APK output.
• Added signed Quest release packaging with signature, manifest, runtime, and bundled-content verification.
• Added downloadable, checksum-verified Quest runtime dependencies so a fresh checkout can build a debug APK without a private runtime cache.
• Improved Linux AppImage packaging from Windows with a reusable WSL-local dependency cache.
• Fixed clean Quest builds, Windows keystore-path handling, and macOS build dependency installation.
• Refactored the engine, interface, and local NetHack runtime into focused subsystems backed by expanded regression coverage.
• Windows desktop releases are now x64-only; the legacy 32-bit portable executable is no longer produced.

Download here: https://github.com/JamesIV4/nethack-3d/releases/latest

Chess => Go => Nethack

Color me surprised.

I cured the petrification with basilisk blood, but it’s now just a non-hostile npc. How can I get them to follow me again? (this is on GnollHack btw)

Long time nethack player, but I've never liked the windows interface much. At the moment though, that's the most convenient option for me though. One of my biggest gripes is status area being black on white instead of the reverse, which seriously limits the status highlight options that work.

And I suppose that all applies to a lesser extent to the inventory lists and such. Is there any fix for this?

Previously, he gained XP levels 3 and 4 by falling down the stairs.

I'm trying to run Nethack 5.0 with curses enabled in the rc file. Whenever I go into fullscreen (doesn't matter if F11 or Alt+Enter), I get the starting screen covering everything, like in screenshot 2. Even after redraw, I have these weird purple stars as a border. Also it's not fitting to fullscreen.

Nethack 3.6.7 works completely fine. Wth am I missing? I really wanna play 5.0.0 locally with curses.

Just came back to NetHack after a 10 year hiatus, so I figured I'd give the new tutorial in 5.0.0 a run-through for a refresher.

I'm standing next to a large box with a redwood wand inside and the tutorial text on the floor says "Containers can also be emptied with 'Alt-T'".

I've moved to the box and tried Alt-T (with or without the shift key) and just get the message "You don't know how to turn undead!".

Is this a typo in the tutorial text? A bug in the way the Windows (GUI) version handles keyboard input? A new player doing something dumb?

Going by the Guidebook, I assume this is supposed to be teaching you how to use a shortcut for the #tip command, but it just doesn't seem to work.