[pimeys]

Or do what I did when I played this as a child: read the spoilers. Then start with Valkyrie, get the Mjollnir, wand of wishing, and a dragon scale mail as fast as possible. And a bag of holding and you get pretty far.

It's a fantastic game if you have a bit of imagination. The possibilities are endless and it's so rewarding to ascend finally.

[Der_Einzige]

Much as chess frustrated the great game masters like bobby fischer for being too easily "gamable" with opening books, I find that the mods for games like nethack, i.e. SLASHEM et al, make it where even if you try to spoil it, the massive amount of new content combined with the relative lack of documentation force you to git gud.

[MarsIronPI]

I've always heard that one of the enjoyable experiences of Nethack was figuring things out for yourself, so I've never read spoilers. I'd like to know what others think.

[barbs]

I'm going to quote myself from a blog post I wrote back in 2012:

> Nethack is incredibly difficult, and near impossible to win without some knowledge. Whilst it could be argued that one could attain this knowledge through trial and error, it would take many many playthroughs to make any headway, even if you played in the invincible “Wizard” mode. Whilst I would recommend the use of spoilers if you wish to make progress in the game and discover what it has to offer, I wouldn’t suggest reading up on absolutely everything to give yourself an advantage. My general rule of thumb was to look something up when I came across it. I still found the game incredibly challenging, as I was placed in situations that I couldn’t predict or prepare for, and I still had that thrill of discovery and amazement.

https://marzzbar.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/awesome-game-exper...

[buescher]

> My general rule of thumb was to look something up when I came across it.

That is good advice. Nethack “spoilers” are more like being let in on an “in-joke” than being told the solution to a puzzle or the ending of an M. Night Shyamalan movie.

[ForOldHack]

Die. Die?

[thaumasiotes]

> I've always heard that one of the enjoyable experiences of Nethack was figuring things out for yourself, so I've never read spoilers. I'd like to know what others think.

You're crazy. All that does is prevent you from playing the game.

[wavemode]

> I've always heard that one of the enjoyable experiences of Nethack was figuring things out for yourself

Ehhh. I guess "enjoyable" from a masochism perspective? Nethack has a lot of very specific mechanics and hazards that aren't explained to you.

If you're just looking to explore, then by all means dive in. But if you're trying to finish the game (or even just, make something resembling meaningful progress towards doing so), you realistically probably never will without either reading guides or putting in thousands of hours wandering and dying.

To put it in perspective - many people have played the game with guides for years without ever beating it.