2.2.1   The basics

As borrowed from a classic rgra post, there's not much that you actually have to do. Your one and only mission is to slay Morgoth on dungeon level 100. In order to get there, you need to go down a lot of stairs and kill Sauron on dungeon level 99. That's about it - everything else is optional. Of course, before you can kill Sauron you'll need lots of experience and good equipment, but by the time you get that deep you'll have both. Just see to it that you don't die along the way.

The one and most important thing you need to get in your head is that you can't possibly kill every monster on every level. Think of the game as forays into the dungeon from which you want to return with cool stuff; think of the shallower levels as obstacles you need to overcome on your way deeper into the dungeon; or whatever you like. Just never-ever think of it as a killing spree. Until you find Sauron, your task is to survive and eventually get to level 99.

The next point is that you don't need to fight any particular monster (other than the big two). Yes, there might be a rather impressive hoard in that vault – but if the monsters guarding it are too many or too fierce, well, just give it a pass. Angband offers an endless supply of monsters and treasure and everything. There will always be another day – provided you live to see another day. Sometimes you just have to bug out and run for your life.

So, let me recap, the vital points of Angband are:

• go down a lot of stairs
• kill Sauron (dl 99)
• kill Morgoth (dl 100)
• Quick start

From this point, the guide assumes that you are playing a fighting class (warrior, ranger, rogue or paladin) and race (Dunedain, High-Elf, Dwarf, Half-Orc, Half-Troll.) First, use the 'cost-based' stats selection, and create a character with 3 or 4 blows (Don't pick a class/race combinations, like Dwarf Ranger, that can only get 2 blows.)

First, set your stats to get maximum blows. If you have a combination with good dexterity, select 18/10 dexterity, and then set your strength to 17 or 18. Set your spell-casting stat to something low but usable (~12), and spend the rest on constitution. For a beginning character, constitution is least important, because it doesn't add significant HP until well above 18.

Example character:

 [Angband 3.5.0 Character Dump]

Name   Anar         Age            102          Self  RB  CB  EB   Best
Sex    Female       Height       5'11"   STR:     17  +1  +0  +0     18
Race   High-Elf     Weight    14st 0lb   INT:     10  +3  +2  +0     15
Class  Ranger       Turns used:          WIS:     10  -1  -2  +0      7
Title  Runner       Game             1   DEX:     18  +3  +1  +0  18/40
HP     14/14        Standard         0   CON:     10  +1  -1  +0     10
SP     0/0          Resting          0

Level                  1    Armor        [0,+2]    Saving Throw     49%
Cur Exp                0                           Stealth         Good
Max Exp                0    Melee        1d4,+2    Disarming        36%
Adv Exp               23    To-hit        23,+4    Magic Devices     55
                            Blows      2.0/turn    Perception   1 in 20
Gold                 139                           Searching        27%
Burden          18.5 lbs    Shoot to-dam     +0    Infravision    40 ft
Speed             Normal    To-hit        33,+4
Max Depth           Town    Shots        1/turn

2.2.2   Fighting Power

Buy a light weapon that gives you the maximum possible blows, with the highest dice available. This is generally a Rapier, Main Gauche, or Dagger. If these are not available, you may be better off quitting and restarting.

2.2.3   Plan to be deep

Always make sure to have a scroll of recall, even on your first trip into the dungeon. Monsters and items at dl 5 (250') and deeper are much (~100x) more valuable than items at dl 1. (The example above may be contrived, but it is representative.)

To survive deep(er) you will want:

1. Escapes

• 3+ ?Phase Door
• 1 ?Recall

2. Protection from secondary effects (confusion, blindness, poison)

• 1 !CLW (for identification and blindness)
• 1+ !CSW (for identification and confusion)

3. Buffing

• 1 !Hero (for protection from fear)

4. Ranged attack to soften up a (single) unique

• ~5 Flasks of Oil to kill dangerous and/or valuable monsters (throw oil for damage with the v command)
• ~10-20 Iron shots (or arrows for Rangers) to throw at non-dangerous monsters with annoying side effects (stat drainers and acid damagers that are between you and the stairs down). Shots can be reused; oil can't.
• Extra arrows for a Ranger, extra missiles for an Archer (shoot with the f command). Note that missiles will always break when your character is still level 1, so don't hesitate to buy a lot at start.

5. Armor

Don't bother buying armor - it's very expensive in comparison to AC. You will find it in the dungeon soon enough.

Your starting equipment will include more than enough food and illumination for the first trip down.

2.2.4   On Bad Luck

This is rule number one of Angband: don't take unnecessary risks. If you take enough low-probability chances of death, you'll never survive to fight Sauron. Such deaths are generally called 'stupid', but that's not always accurate. Sometimes it's just bad luck. But given enough chances, you are guaranteed to receive it. It's the trick to extremely fast dives: the fewer moves you make, the less chance any one of them will be fatal, even if on average, your individual moves are riskier than in slower play. But the strategy applies more generally: unless you are exceedingly careful in play, messing around long enough at any one depth guarantees that something bad will eventually happen.

2.2.5   Face-palm Tips

The preceding is good advice; however, it does not offer much more than generalizations, albeit valid, for the "intermediate" (?) player. The following is intended to state what many perceive to be blatantly obvious, hence "you did WHAT!" face-palm deaths. This really should be cleaned up and refactored, but placing here for now.

WARNING. I have yet to defeat Angband. This is a compilation of some of the better tips I've learned while trying to explore the depths... (to Level ~35). Additional advice would be greatly appreciated!

2.2.6   Surviving to clvl 31 / dlvl 36

Additional tips learned from various failed attempts. Still have not beat Angband, but making considerable progress of late, particularly with my (now) current character.

2.3.1   Issues and problems

2.3.2   Development

2.4.1   Command Summary

Commands are listed using the original keyset.

2.4.2   Newbie Guide for Multiplayer Angband

An Introduction to MAngband - by Warrior (warrior@mangband.org)

Before you read this guide, listen to this bit of advice:

"Don't get discouraged!! If you are new to mangband, you will die... A lot. But, as you get more experienced, you will become better at surviving and may even live to see level 20. Have fun!" - (Alex Dingle, maintainer 1998-2002)

3.1.1   Character Characteristics

Each character has three primary attributes: sex, race, and class. These are chosen at the beginning and which will stay fixed for the entire life of that character. The sex of your character is purely for flavour, but the race and class have many effects which are discussed in detail below.

Each character has a few secondary attributes: height, weight, and background history. These are randomly determined according to the sex and race of the character, and are only used to provide flavour to the character to assist in role playing. There is an opportunity to edit background history on the character screen.

Each character also has five primary "stats": strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, and constitution; they modify the abilities of the character in a variety of ways. Every stat has a numerical value, ranging from a minimum of 3, up to a normal maximum of 18, and even higher, into the "percentile" range, represented as '18/01' through '18/100': this is the maximum that can be achieved intrinsically, for any given stat. These stats can be modified further by equipment, race and class bonuses up to a maximum of '18/220'.

Each character also has several primary "skills": disarming, magic devices, saving throws, stealth, searching ability, fighting skill, and shooting skill, which are derived from the character's race, class, level, stats, and current equipment. These skills have rather obvious effects, but will be described more completely below.

Each character may have one or more "racially intrinsic skills", based on the race of the character. These may include special resistances, or abilities such as infravision.

Each character has a number of "experience points", which increases as the character defeats monsters and attempts new spells and uses new items. Characters also have a level, which is based on experience. The amount of experience required to gain a new level is dependent on the character race. Races with more intrinsic benefits require more experience to gain levels. As the experience rises, so does the level, and as the level rises, certain other abilities and characteristics rise as well. All characters start at 0 experience and at the first level.

Each character has some gold, which can be used to buy items from the shops in the town, and which can be obtained not only from selling items to the shops, but also by taking it from dead monsters and by finding it in the dungeon. Each character starts out with some gold, the amount of which is based on the character's social class (higher is better) and stats (less powerful characters start with more gold). Each character also starts out with a few useful items, which may be kept, or sold to a shop-keeper for more gold. However, especially valuable items will never sell for the full price, as each shopkeeper has a maximum that they are prepared to pay for any item. The more generous shopkeepers may buy your items for up to 30,000 gold pieces: but some are really stingy, and will pay no more than 5,000.

Each character has an "armour class", abbreviated to AC, representing how well the character can avoid damage. The armour class is affected by dexterity and equipment, so the concept includes both avoiding blows and being able to take blows without being hurt. Armour class on equipment is always denoted in square brackets, usually as a figure of '[X,+Y]' where X is the intrinsic AC of the armour in question, and Y is the magical bonus to armour class provided by that item.

Each character has "hit points", or hp, representing how much damage the character can sustain before they die. How many hit points a character has is determined by race, class, level and constitution, as follows: each race has a basic "hit dice" number - for instance, a Dwarf's basic hit die is 11, while a hobbit's is 7. This is modified by class: for instance, a warrior gets a +10 bonus to the hit die, while a mage gets a +1 bonus and a priest +2, so a dwarven warrior's total hit die will be (11+10)=21 - meaning that they get between 1 and 21 hit points per level. If they were a priest, his hit dice would be (11+2)=13, and get between 1 and 13 hit points per level. The hobbit mage would get only 1-8 hps per level. (All characters get the maximum at first level: thereafter it is a random roll of 1dX where X is the hit die number, when the character goes up in level.) This is further modified by constitution - a character with high constitution will get a flat bonus of a certain number of hit points per level (recalculated right back to level 1: if you gain an extra hit point per level, and you are 42nd level, you will suddenly be 42 hit points better off.)

Each character has spell points, or mana, which limits how many spells (or prayers) a character can cast (or pray). The maximum number of spell points is derived from your class, level, and intelligence (for spells) or wisdom (for prayers), and you can never have more spell points than the maximum. Spell points may be regained by resting, or by magical means. Warriors never have any spell points. If a character gains enough wisdom or intelligence to get more spell points, the result is calculated right back to first level, just as with constitution and hit points.

Lastly, each character has a base speed. Speed determines the amount of "energy" your character acquires in the game, and therefore how often you can take actions which use up energy (like moving or attacking). All beginning characters move at normal speed and the only way to increase speed is by magical means and equipment bonuses. Characters who are carrying too much weight will move more slowly. Extra speed is one of the most important boons in the game and therefore one of the rarest and most sought after.

3.1.2   Races

There are sixteen different races that you can choose to play in PWMAngband. Each race has its own adjustments to a character's stats and abilities. Most races also have intrinsic abilities. The bonuses to statistics and the experience penalty will be displayed next to the races as you move to select one.

Human

The human is the base character. All other races are compared to them. Humans are average at everything and tend to go up levels faster than any other race due to their shorter life spans. No racial adjustments or intrinsics occur to human characters. Humans do not have any infravision.

Half-Elf

Half-elves tend to be smarter and faster than a human, but not as wise or strong. Half-elves are slightly better at magic, disarming, saving throws, stealth, archery and searching, but they are not as good at hand-to-hand combat. Half-elves are immune to dexterity draining, and have weak infravision.

Elf

Elves are better magicians than humans, but not as good at fighting. They tend to be smarter and faster than humans, though not as wise or strong. Elves are better at searching, disarming, perception, stealth, archery and magic, but they are not as good at hand-to-hand combat. They are resistant to attacks involving bright light, are immune to dexterity draining, and have fair infravision.

Hobbit

Hobbits, or Halflings, are very good at shooting, throwing, and have good saving throws. They also are very good at searching, disarming, perception, and stealth; so they make excellent rogues, but prefer to be called burglars. They will be much weaker than humans, and not good at melee fighting. Halflings have fair infravision. They have a strong hold on their life force, and are thus resistant to life draining. Hobbits are very partial to mushrooms and can identify them when found.

Gnome

Gnomes are smaller than dwarves but larger than halflings. They, like the halflings, live in the earth in burrow-like homes. Gnomes make excellent mages, and have very good saving throws. They are good at searching, disarming, perception, and stealth. They have lower strength than humans so they are not very good at fighting with hand weapons. Gnomes have good infravision. Gnomes are intrinsically protected against paralysis and some slowing effects. Gnomes are excellent at using wands and staves and can identify them when found.

Dwarf

Dwarves are the headstrong miners and fighters of legend. Since dungeons are the natural home of a dwarf, they are excellent choices for a warrior or priest - or indeed, that combination of the two, the paladin. Dwarves tend to be stronger and tougher but slower and less intelligent than humans. Because they are so headstrong and are somewhat wise, they resist spells which are cast on them. Dwarves also have excellent infravision. They can never be blinded. Dwarves are excellent at digging, and can sense nearby buried treasure. They 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

Half-Orcs make excellent warriors and decent priests, but are terrible at magic. They are as bad as dwarves at stealth, and horrible at searching, disarming, and perception. Half-Orcs are, let's face it, ugly. They tend to pay more for goods in town. Half-Orcs do make good warriors and rogues, for the simple reason that Half-Orcs tend to have great constitution and lots of hit points. Because of their preference to living underground to on the surface, half-orcs resist darkness attacks. They have fair infravision.

Half-Troll

Half-Trolls are incredibly strong, and have more hit points than most other character race. They are also very stupid and slow. They will make great warriors and iffy priests. They are bad at searching, disarming, perception, and stealth. They are so ugly that a Half-Orc grimaces in their presence. Half-trolls always have their strength sustained, and they regenerate quickly like other trolls. Unfortunately, this regeneration also requires them to eat more food than other races. They have fair infravision.

Dunadan

Dunedain are a race of hardy men from the West. This elder race surpasses human abilities in every field, especially constitution. Their hardiness ensures that their constitution cannot be reduced. They have no infravision.

High-Elf

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 many thousands of years before returning to mortal lands. Because of this, they are far superior in terms of abilities when compared to their lesser Elven kindred. They can also see into the invisible world of ghosts and wraiths. However, they find new experience harder to come by than other races. Like normal Elves, they resist attacks involving bright light. They have good infravision and can even see cold-blooded invisible creatures.

Kobold

Kobolds are a race of small dog-headed humanoids that dwell underground. They have excellent infravision, and are intrinsically resistant to poisons of all kinds. They have a good dexterity and constitution. However, they are weaker than humans, and also not noted for great intelligence. Furthermore, they are ugly, and not trusted in town. And while their constitution makes them tough, it still cannot prevent the fact that they are not the biggest of creatures, and have few hit points.

Yeek

Yeeks are a race of small furry humanoids. They are very light, therefore they can fall like a feather. Also known as Weaklings, they have the lowest stats and hit points available to a race. Yeeks are average at everything and tend to go up levels much faster than any other race because of their very short life spans. No racial adjustments to skills occur to characters choosing yeek.

Ent

The Ents are a powerful race dating from the beginning of the world, eldest of all animals or plants who inhabit Arda. Spirits of the land, they were summoned to guard the forests of Middle-earth. Being much like trees they are very slow but strong and do not have to eat as often. As the Shepherds of the Trees, they can learn to sense the presence of others, such as animals at level 10, orcs at 15, trolls at 20, giants at 25, dragons at 30, demons at 35, undead at 40, all evil-minded creatures at 45, and even every minded creatures in a short range at level 50. At level 5 they learn to see invisible things. They accumulate experience very slowly. They make great fighters, priests and paladins. Unfortunately, as they're made almost exclusively of wood, they're also vulnerable to fire.

Thunderlord

Thunderlords are an old and powerful race of dragon hunters. They have an intrinsic telepathic vision of all nearby creatures, the radius expands as they gain levels. At level 5, they can spot dragons anywhere on a level. They even gain intrinsic basic resistances, fire at 10, cold at 15, acid at 20 and lightning at 25. Thunderlords have tamed the Great Eagles of Middle-Earth and use them in their hunts. They need a very long time to gain experience, as both bird and man need to gain levels. They need to eat often. Thunderlords can fall like a feather from birth.

Dragon

They are creatures legends are made of. Dragons have a great health, but need much more experience to advance in levels compared to humans. They have a bad stealth. They can fall like a feather and resist nexus intrinsically. The Dragon race is a very special race. Dragons evolve physically as they gain experience. At level 1, they start as newborn dragons. At level 5, the color of their scales is revealed and they polymorph into a baby dragon of that color. At level 15, they polymorph into a young dragon. At level 25, they polymorph into a fully grown dragon. At level 35, they become an ancient dragon. At level 45, they polymorph into a mighty wyrm. Finally, at level 50, they become an ancient wyrm. Dragons cannot wield any weapons; they get special melee attacks instead (biting and clawing) that increase in power as they gain levels. Starting at level 5, Dragons are able to breathe their corresponding element, but using this ability costs them hit points. At that level, they also gain the innate resistances and abilities of their type.

Hydra

They are also creatures legends are made of. They are average at everything and need much more experience to advance in levels compared to humans. Like Dragons, they evolve physically as they gain experience. At level 1, they start as regular hydras. At level 10, they gain an extra head and polymorph into a 2-headed hydra. At levels 15, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48 and 50, they also gain an extra head to evolve finally into a 14-headed hydra. Hydras cannot wield any weapons, but get extra dice on their barehanded attacks as they gain levels. They can breathe several elements (poison, fire, acid) as they gain the corresponding head, and get the innate resistances and abilities of their type (which also means they are all vulnerable to cold).

3.1.3   Classes

Once a race has been chosen, you will need to pick a class. The class is the character's occupation and determines stat bonuses, abilities, hit dice, and what spells (if any) the character can learn.

Warrior

A Warrior is a hack-and-slash character, who solves most problems by cutting them to pieces, but will occasionally fall back on the help of a magical device. Their prime stats are strength, constitution, and dexterity, and they will strike more blows with melee weapons than any other class. A Warrior will be excellent at fighting, shooting and throwing, but bad at most other skills. A warrior has bad stealth and cannot learn any spells.

Mage

A Mage must live by their wits. They cannot hope to simply hack their way through the dungeon, and so must therefore use his magic to defeat, deceive, confuse, and escape. A mage is not really complete without an assortment of magical devices to use in addition to his spells. They can master the higher level magical devices far easier than anyone else, and has the excellent saving throws to resist effects of spells cast at him. However, they are incredibly weak, getting few hit dice and suffering strong penalties to strength and constitution. Intelligence is their primary stat and at high levels they can cast many spells without a chance of failure. There is no rule that says a mage cannot become a good fighter, but spells are their true realm and they will get fewer blows with melee weapons than other classes.

Druid

A Druid is a lover of nature, and at one with the natural world. Druids have control of their environment and direct power over creatures, leading even to the ability to take their forms. Druid skills are moderate, and they have some fighting ability, especially when transformed. A druid will usually seek to shape the flow of events to their purpose rather than using devices or missiles, but at high levels they do gain access to potent nature-based magic. Druids rely on their wisdom, and have good saving throws.

Priest

A Priest is a character of holy devotion. They explore the dungeon only to destroy the evil that lurks within, and if treasure just happens to fall into their packs, well, so much more to the glory of their temple! Priests receive their spells from a deity, and therefore do not choose which spells they will learn. They are familiar with magical devices, preferring to call them "instruments of God", but are not as good as a mage in their use. Priests have great saving throws, and make passable fighters, better if they can find a blessed weapon. Wisdom is the priest's primary stat and at high enough levels they can cast many prayers without a chance of failure. Priests have poor stealth.

Necromancer

A Necromancer seeks to master the spirits of sentient creatures, creating servants of their own will. They have chosen a dark and wicked path, and run a continual risk of harm to their own body and mind. Necromancers love shadows and hate light, automatically shrouding themselves in darkness. Their spells require high intelligence, and frequently harm the caster or place them in danger. In return they achieve awesome power at high levels. The ultimate aim of the necromancer is to supplant the Dark Enemy and set up a tyranny in his place.

Paladin

A Paladin is a warrior/priest. Paladins are very good fighters, second only to the warrior class, but not very good at missile weapons. They receive prayers at a slower pace than the priest, but can use all but the most powerful prayers. A paladin lacks much in the way of abilities. Paladins have poor stealth, perception, searching, and magical device use. They have a decent saving throw due to their divine alliance. Their primary stats are strength and wisdom.

Rogue

A Rogue is a character that prefers to live by their cunning, but is capable of fighting their way out of a tight spot. The master of traps and locks, to the experienced rogue no device is impossible to overcome. A rogue has a high stealth enabling sneaking around many creatures without having to fight, or sneaking up and get the first blow. They can steal items from monsters, but need to be wary of being caught in the act. Rogues' perception is higher than any other class, and many times they will notice a trap or secret door before having to search. A rogue is better than the more fighting oriented classes with magical devices, but still cannot rely on their performance. Rogues can also learn a few spells, but not the powerful offensive spells mages can use, and there will always be a chance of failure even with the simplest spells. A rogue's primary stats are dexterity and intelligence.

Ranger

A Ranger is at home in nature, and good at turning the environment to good use. Rangers are good fighters, and one of the best of all the classes with missile weapons, especially bows. The ranger learns chiefly spells of survival and forest craft. A ranger has good stealth, good perception, good searching, a good saving throw, and is good with magical devices. Their primary stats are strength, wisdom and dexterity.

Blackguard

A Blackguard is a brawler of no principle, who lives for the joy of maiming and killing. Blackguards prefer heavy weapons and shields, and learn a few spells for the purpose of wreaking more destruction. Their lust for blood is legendary, with a blackguard in full cry nigh on impossible to kill. Blackguards scorn skills apart from slaughter, and require strength and intelligence (or rat-cunning) to thrive in the dungeon.

Sorceror

Sorcerors use intelligence primarily, determining how much mana they have to cast spells and how low their failure rate is. They are the all-around best magicians, having the most powerful spells. A high-level Sorceror can be very powerful, but getting there can be a difficult journey. On the downside, they are the worst fighters, being unable to use any weapon but a Mage Staff comfortably, and still unable to be anything even remotely approaching effective with it. A Sorceror has very few hit points compared to other classes, making survival difficult in the beginning. That's why this class is not recommended for beginners. Intelligence is the sorceror's primary stat.

Unbeliever

The full opposite of Sorcerors, Unbelievers so strongly despise magic that not only do they refuse to use magic spells, they refuse all training in the use of magic items, which leaves them almost totally incompetent when trying to use a magic item, although they can still quaff potions and read scrolls. Because they are so unattuned to magic, Unbelievers can prevent magical gates from opening around them, eventually extending to a complete suppression of teleportation abilities and all magic in the area around them.

Archer

Archers aren't good at fighting, but can deliever extremely high damage with their ranged weapons. They can die quickly too, however. Archers are to bows what warriors are to melee. They are the best class around with any bow/xbow/sling. An Archer is very bad at melee, being only better than the Sorceror. Wisdom and Dexterity are the archer's primary stats.

Monk

Monks are warriors who decide to fight barehanded. As they advance in levels, they gain some new martial arts techniques to hit their opponents more effectively. With levels, they also gain interesting abilities: at level 10, they learn to fall like a feather; at level 15, they become resistant to fear; at level 20, they become resistant to confusion; finally, at level 25, they learn to resist paralysis effects. They can't wield weapons, but get extra damage, defense and attacks per round as they advance in levels. However, they must wear light armor to stay unencumbered and fully benefit from their class bonuses.

Telepath

Telepaths are mindcrafters who use the powers of their mind to weaken or even kill creatures. They are weak in melee, although they can use weapons just like mages or priests. Wisdom is their primary stat.

Elementalist

Elementalists are spellcasters specialized in offensive spells. They share the same stats as mages, but get almost no support spells at all. They rely on the powers of the four elements (Air, Fire, Earth, Water) and can combine them to cast powerful Elemental spells. Elementalists have the innate ability to increase the power of their spells by studying them again each time they level. As masters of the elements, they gain intrinsic basic resistances as they level, fire at 10, cold at 15, acid at 20 and lightning at 25.

Summoner

A Summoner is the weakest of all classes you may choose. They have pathetic stats, no fighting abilities, and little spells to kill enemies with magic. However, all these weaknesses don't trouble them much, because they can summon creatures to help them in battle, and still gain some experience from their kills. Summoners use wisdom to cast spells and summon allies, and to determine how many of them they can control and how effectively they can control them.

Shapechanger

Shapechangers are fighters that get abilities from the forms they can mimic. Basically, Shapechangers will melee a lot with the benefits from their current form (resists, melee brands, defense, speed and damage boosts...). Some of those forms will provide innate spells and even breath attacks. Shapechangers get basic mana points to cast those spells (note that breath attacks, like for the Dragon race, don't cost mana, but hit points instead...).

3.1.4   Stats

After gender, race and class are selected, you will be able to decide what stat levels your character will have, by allocating a finite number of "points" between the five statistics. These points can be allocated by selection or with a random roller (as described below in the "Stat Rollers" section). Each race/class combination also has a recommended default setting for these statistics. Statistics can be permanently raised by various potions in the dungeon up to 18/100. They can also be temporarily drained by some monster attacks.

Strength

Strength is important in fighting with weapons and in melee combat. A high strength can improve your chances of hitting as well as the amount of damage done with each hit. Characters with low strength may receive penalties. Strength raises the amount of weight you can carry before being slowed. It also allows you to get extra blows with heavier weapons. Strength is one of the most important stats in the beginning of the game.

Intelligence

Intelligence affects the spellcasting abilities of spellcasters from the arcane and shadow realms: mages, rogues, necromancers and blackguards. Intelligence will affect the number of spells you may learn each level as well as the number of spell points you receive. Intelligence is the most important stat for mages and necromancers. A high intelligence may also improve your chances of successfully casting a spell. You cannot learn spells if your intelligence is 7 or lower. A good intelligence can also help with using magic devices, picking locks, and disarming traps.

Wisdom

The primary function of wisdom is to determine the ability of a priest or paladin to use prayers, and druids and rangers to use verses, just like intelligence affects spellcasting. Again, high wisdom will increase the number of mana points you have and increase the number of prayers or verses you can learn each level, while improving your chance of success. A good wisdom increases your saving throw, thereby improving your chances of resisting magical spells cast upon you by monsters.

Dexterity

Dexterity is a combination of agility and quickness. A high dexterity may allow a character to get multiple blows with lighter weapons. Dexterity also increases a character's chances of hitting with any weapon and of dodging blows from enemies. Dexterity is also useful in picking locks, disarming traps, protecting yourself from some of the thieves that inhabit the dungeons, and (for rogues) stealing successfully from others. If the character has a high enough dexterity, thieves will never be successful in stealing from them.

Constitution

Constitution is a character's ability to resist damage to his body, and to recover from damage received. Therefore a character with a high constitution will receive more hit points and also recover them faster while resting. Constitution is less important in the beginning of the game, but will be the most important stat at the end.

3.1.5   Skills

Characters possess some different skills which can help them to survive. The starting skill levels of a character are based upon race and class. Skill levels may be adjusted by high or low stats, and may increase with the level of the character.

Infravision

Infravision is the ability to see heat sources. Since most of the dungeon is cool or cold, infravision will not allow the player to see walls and objects. Infravision will allow a character to see any warm-blooded creatures up to a certain distance. This ability works equally well with or without a light source. However, some of PWMAngband's creatures are cold-blooded, and will not be detected unless lit up by a light source. All non-human races have innate infravision. Humans (including Dunedain) cannot gain infravision unless it is magically enhanced. Infravision does not increase with character level, and is purely dependent on race and on magical equipment.

Fighting

Fighting is the ability to hit and do damage with weapons or fists. Normally a character gets a single blow from any weapon, but with high enough dexterity and strength may receive more blows with lighter weapons. Strength and dexterity both modify the ability to hit an opponent. This skill increases with the level of the character. Inspecting a weapon will show you how quickly you can attack with it.

Shooting Ability

Using ranged missile weapons (and throwing objects) is included in this skill. Different stats apply to different weapons, but this ability may modify the distance an object is thrown/fired, the amount of damage done, and the ability to hit a creature. This skill increases with the level of the character.

Saving Throws

A Saving Throw is the ability of a character to resist the effects of a spell cast on him by another person/creature. This does not include spells cast on the player by his own stupidity, such as quaffing a nasty potion. This ability increases with the level of the character, but then most high level creatures are better at casting spells, so it tends to even out. A high wisdom also increases this ability. It is possible to get 100% saving throw, making you immune to many attacks.

Stealth

The ability to move silently about is very useful. Characters with good stealth can usually surprise their opponents, gaining the first blow. Also, creatures may fail to notice a stealthy character entirely, allowing a player to avoid certain fights. This skill is based upon race and class, but can be magically enhanced.

Disarming

Disarming is the ability to remove traps safely, and also includes picking locks on traps and doors. A successful disarming will gain the character a small amount of experience. A trap must be found before it can be disarmed. Traps are either physical or magical devices, so the character has two disarming skills. Dexterity modifies disarming of physical traps, and intelligence modifies disarming of magical traps. Both these abilities increase with the level of the character.

Magical Devices

Using a magical device such as a wand or staff requires experience and knowledge. Spell users such as mages and priests are therefore much better at using a magical device than say a warrior. This skill is modified by intelligence, and increases with the level of the character.

Searching (Perception)

Perception is the ability to notice traps without actively seeking them out. Rogues are the best at searching, but rangers are also good at it. This skill is based on race and class, and increases with character level.

3.1.6   Stat Bonus Tables

Stats, hit dice, infravision and experience point modifications due to race and class are listed in the following table. To get the total hit dice, add the "race" and "class" numbers: for instance, a Dwarf Priest has a hit die of 11+2=13 (i.e. they will get 1d13 hit points per level, adjusted for constitution).

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3.1.7   Ability Tables

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For character classes, there are two figures: the first figure is the base level of the skill, while the second figure (in parentheses) is the bonus that the character gains to this skill every ten levels. So, to find out the total skill value of any character's skills, add the race value to the class value, and then the bonus once for every ten levels that the character has.

Please note, however, that these numbers are only good for comparing characters to each other in the absence of other bonuses from high stats (strength bonus to-dam, dex bonus to-hit, wisdom bonus to saving throw, intelligence bonus to magical device usage, etc.) or wearing magical items.

3.1.8   Stat rollers

There are currently two different ways to determine the starting stats of your character - you can choose which one to use from the birth screen.

Point-based

The point-based method allows you to "buy" improvements to your basic stats by "spending" points on them. You have a fixed number of points to spend, and making small changes to a stat costs proportionally less than making large changes. This is the recommended birth method.

Standard roller

The standard roller is the traditional PWMAngband method of determining the starting stats for a character. It allows you to specify the order in which your stats will be rolled (from highest to lowest), and then repeated "rolls" random characters using PWMAngband's traditional stat-rolling system until minimum values of 17 for the first stat, 15 for the second stat and 12 for the third stat have been rolled.

3.1.9   Character Name

In general, the actual choice of a name is not important, but do keep in mind that it may have some effect on the game itself. For example, on some machines, the character name determines the filename that will be used to save the character to disk. The character name is used on the high score list.

You can play a dynasty of characters. If you use a Roman numeral at the end of your character name (like "Fred I" or "Pimplesnarg XVI"), the game will automatically increment the numeral each time you die (or win!).

3.2.1   Symbols On Your Map

Symbols on your map can be broken down into three categories: features of the dungeon such as walls, floor, doors, and traps; objects which can be picked up such as treasure, weapons, magical devices, etc; and creatures which may or may not move about the dungeon, but are mostly harmful to your character's well being.

Some symbols are used to represent more than one type of entity, and some symbols are used to represent entities in more than one category. The "@" symbol (by default) is used to represent the character.

Note that you can use a "user pref file" to change any of these symbols to something you are more comfortable with.

3.2.2   The Town Level

The town level is where you will begin your adventure. The town consists of ten buildings (each with an entrance), some townspeople, some houses that can be bought to store treasures and sell items to other players, and (sometimes) a wall which surrounds the town. It may contain streams of lava. The first time you are in town it will be daytime (or night time), but note that the sun rises and falls (rather instantly) as time passes.

3.2.3   Townspeople

The town contains many different kinds of people. There are the street urchins, young children who will mob an adventurer for money, and seem to come out of the woodwork when excited. Blubbering idiots are a constant annoyance, but not harmful. Public drunks wander about the town singing, and are of no threat to anyone. Sneaky rogues hang about watching for a likely victim to mug. And finally, no town would be complete without a swarm of half drunk warriors, who take offense or become annoyed just for the fun of it. (There are assumed to be other people in the town, but they are not represented on the screen as they do not interact with the player in any way.)

Most of the townspeople should be avoided by the largest possible distance when you wander from store to store. Fights will break out, though, 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.

3.2.4   Town Buildings

Your character will begin their adventure with some basic supplies, and some extra gold with which to purchase more supplies at the town stores.

You may enter any open store to buy items of the appropriate type. The price the shopkeeper requests is dependent on the price of the item. By default stores will not buy items from the player. If you choose to play with selling enabled, stores have a maximum value; they will not pay more than that for any item, regardless of how much it is actually worth.

Once inside a store, you will see the name and race of the store owner, the name of the store, the maximum amount of cash that the store owner will pay for any one item, and the store inventory, listed along with the prices.

You will also see an (incomplete) list of available commands. Note that some of the commands which work in the dungeon work in the stores as well, but some do not, especially those which involve "using" objects.

Stores do not always have everything in stock. As the game progresses, they may get new items so check from time to time. Also, if you sell them an item, it may get sold to a customer while you are adventuring, so don't always expect to be able to get back everything you have sold. If you have a lot of spare gold, you can purchase every item in a store, which will induce the store owner to bring out new stock, and perhaps even retire.

Store owners will not accept known harmful or useless items. If an object is unidentified, they will (if selling is enabled) pay you some base price for it. Once they have bought it they will immediately identify the object. If it is a good object, they will add it to their inventory. If it was a bad bargain, they simply throw the item away. You can use this feature to learn item flavors.

The General Store (1)

The General Store sells foods, some clothing, torches, oil, shovels, picks and basic ammo for launchers. All of these items and some others can be sold back to the general store for money. The general store restocks like every store, but the inventory types never change.

The Armoury (2)

The Armoury is where the town's armour is fashioned. All sorts of protective gear may be bought and sold here. The deeper into the dungeon you progress the more exotic the equipment you will find stocked in the armoury. However, some armour types will never appear here unless you sell them.

The Weaponsmith's Shop (3)

The Weaponsmith's Shop is where the town's weapons are fashioned. Hand and missile weapons may be purchased and sold here, along with arrows, bolts, and shots. As with the armoury, not all weapon types will be stocked here, unless they are sold to the shop by the player first.

The Temple (4)

The Temple deals in basic potions and scrolls, some approved priestly weapons, as well as prayer books.

The Alchemy shop (5)

The Alchemy Shop deals in all types of potions and scrolls.

The Magic User's Shop (6)

The Magic User's Shop deals in all sorts of rings, wands, amulets, staves, as well as magic books.

The (Expensive) Black Market (7)

The Black Market will sell and buy anything at extortionate prices. However it occasionally has very good items in it. With the exception of artifacts, every item found in the dungeon may appear in the black market.

The Tavern (8)

This is a place to stay safely. No monster will ever be able to enter the Tavern, and fights between players are prohibited in it.

The Bookseller (9)

The Bookseller holds supplies of the simpler books needed by magic users, and will buy the more advanced books which can be found in the dungeon.

Your Home (0)

This is your house where you can store objects that you cannot carry on your travels, or will need at a later date. Only available on no-wilderness servers.

3.2.5   The Wilderness

The wilderness is the area outside of the Town. It has more houses that can be bought (inside the "Suburb" area), some "public" buildings, and many monsters are roaming it. Be careful, as the Wilderness is really dangerous at night!

3.2.6   Within The Dungeon

Once your character is adequately supplied with food, light, armor, and weapons, they are ready to enter the dungeon. Move on top of the > symbol and use the "Down" command (>).

Your character will enter a maze of interconnecting staircases and finally arrive somewhere on the first level of the dungeon. Each level of the dungeon is fifty feet high (thus dungeon level "Lev 1" is often called "50 ft"), and is divided into (large) rectangular regions (several times larger than the screen) by permanent rock. Once you leave a level by a staircase, 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, of course, can use the stairs, and you may eventually encounter them again, but they will not chase you up or down stairs.

In the dungeon, there are many things to find, but your character must survive many horrible and challenging encounters to find the treasure lying about.

There are two sources for light once inside the dungeon. Permanent light which has been magically placed within rooms, and a light source carried by the player. If neither is present, the character will be unable to see. This will affect searching, picking locks, disarming traps, reading scrolls, casting spells, browsing books, etc. So be very careful not to run out of light!

A character must wield a torch or lamp in order to supply his own light. A torch or lamp burns fuel as it is used, and once it is out of fuel, it stops supplying light. You will be warned as the light approaches this point. You may use the "Fuel" command (F) to refuel your lamp (with flasks of oil), and it is a good idea to carry extra torches or flasks of oil, as appropriate. There are rumours of objects of exceptional power which glow with their own never-ending light.

3.2.7   Objects Found In The Dungeon

The mines are full of objects just waiting to be picked up and used. How did they get there? Well, the main source for useful items are all the foolish adventurers that proceeded into the dungeon before you. They get killed, and the helpful creatures scatter the various treasure throughout the dungeon.

Several objects may occupy a given floor location, which may or may not also contain one creature. However, doors, rubble, traps, and staircases cannot coexist with items. As below, any item may actually be a "pile" of up to 40 identical items. With the right choice of "options", you may be able to "stack" several items in the same grid.

You pick up objects by moving on top of them. You can carry up to 23 different items in your backpack while wearing and wielding up to 13 others. Although you are limited to 23 different items, each item may actually be a "pile" of up to 40 similar items. If you take off an item, it will go into your backpack if there is room: if there is no room in your backpack, it will drop onto the floor, so be careful when swapping one wielded weapon or worn piece of armor for another when your pack is full.

You are, however, limited in the total amount of weight that you can carry. As you approach this value, you become slower, making it easier for monsters to chase you. Your weight "limit" is determined by your strength.

Many objects found within the dungeon have special commands for their use. Wands must be Aimed, staves must be Used, scrolls must be Read, and potions must be Quaffed. You may, in general, not only use items in your pack, but also items on the ground, if you are standing on top of them. At the beginning of the game, all items are assigned a random 'flavor'. For example potions of 'cure light wounds' could be 'red potions'. If you have never used, sold, or bought one of these potions, you will only see the flavor. You can learn what type of item it is by selling it to a store, or using it (although learning by use does not always apply to magic devices). Lastly, items in stores that you have not yet identified the flavor of will be labeled '{unseen}'.

Chests are complex objects, containing traps, locks, and possibly treasure or other objects inside them once they are opened. Many of the commands that apply to traps or doors also apply to chests and, like traps and doors, these commands do not work if you are carrying the chest.

One item in particular will be discussed here. The scroll of "Word of Recall" can be found within the dungeon, or bought at the alchemist in town. All classes start with one of these scrolls in their inventory. It acts in two manners, depending upon your current location. If read within the dungeon, it will teleport you back to town. If read in town, it will teleport you back down to the deepest level of the dungeon which your character has previously been on. This makes the scroll very useful for getting back to the deeper levels of Angband. Once the scroll has been read it takes a while for the spell to act, so don't expect it to save you in a crisis. During this time the word 'recall' will appear on the bottom of the screen below the dungeon. Reading a second scroll before the first takes effect will cancel the action.

You may "inscribe" any object with a textual inscription of your choice. These inscriptions are not limited in length, though you may not be able to see the whole inscription on the item. The game applies special meaning to inscriptions containing any text of the form '@#' or '@x#' or '!x' or '!*', see 'customize.txt'.

The game provides some "fake" inscriptions to help you keep track of your possessions. Weapons, armor and jewellery which have properties you don't know about yet will get a '{??}' label. Wands, staves and rods can get a '{tried}' label after use, particularly if they have an effect on a monster and were tested in the absence of monsters.

It is rumored that rings of power and extra rare spell books may be found deeper in the dungeon...

And lastly, a final warning: not all objects are what they seem. The line between tasty food and a poisonous mushroom is a fine one, and sometimes a chest full of treasure will grow teeth in its lid and bite your hand off...

3.2.8   Cursed Objects

Some objects, often objects of great power, have been cursed. There are many curses in the game, and they can appear on any wearable object. Curses may have a negative (or sometimes positive) effect on an object's properties, or cause bad things to happen to the player at random.

You can choose to wear the object in spite of its curses, or attempt to uncurse it using magic. A warning: failed uncursing leads to the object becoming fragile, and a fragile object may be destroyed on future curse removal attempts. It is up to you to balance the risks and rewards in your use of cursed items.

3.2.9   Mining

Some treasure within the dungeon can be found only by mining it out of the walls. Many rich strikes exist within each level, but must be found and mined. Quartz veins are the richest, yielding the most metals and gems, but magma veins will have some hoards hidden within.

Mining is rather difficult without a pick or shovel. Picks and shovels have an additional magical ability expressed as '(+#)'. The higher the number, the better the magical digging ability of the tool.

When a vein of quartz or magma is located, the character may use his pick or shovel and begin digging out a section. When that section is removed, he can locate another section of the vein and begin the process again. Since granite rock is much harder to dig through, it is much faster to follow the vein exactly and dig around the granite. Eventually, it becomes easier to simply kill monsters and discover items in the dungeon to sell, than to walk around digging for treasure. But, early on, mineral veins can be a wonderful source of easy treasure.

If the character has a scroll, staff, or spell of treasure location, they can immediately locate all strikes of treasure within a vein shown on the screen. This makes mining much easier and more profitable.

Note that a character with high strength and/or a heavy weapon does not need a shovel/pick to dig, but even the strongest character will benefit from a pick if trying to dig through a granite wall.

It is sometimes possible to get a character trapped within the dungeon by using various magical spells and items. So it can be a good idea to always carry some kind of digging tool, even when you are not planning on tunneling for treasure.

There are rumors of certain incredibly profitable rooms buried deep in the dungeon and completely surrounded by permanent rock and granite walls, requiring a digging implement or magical means to enter. The same rumors imply that these rooms are guarded by incredibly powerful monsters, so beware!

3.2.10   Traps

There are many traps located in the dungeon of varying danger. These traps are hidden from sight and are triggered only when your character walks over them. If you have found a trap you can attempt to Disarm it, but failure may mean activating it. Traps can be physical dangers such as pits, or magical runes or inscriptions which will cause an effect when triggered. Your character may be better at disarming one of these types of traps than the other.

All characters have a chance to notice traps when they first come into view (dependent on searching skill). Some players will also get access to magical means of detecting all traps within a certain radius. If you cast one of these spells, there will be a 'Dtrap' green label on the bottom of the screen, below the dungeon map.

Some monsters have the ability to create new traps on the level that may be hidden, even if the player is in a detected zone. The detection only finds the traps that exist at the time of detection, it does not inform you of new ones that have since been created.

3.2.11   Staircases, Secret Doors, Passages, and Rooms

Staircases are the manner in which you get deeper or climb out of the dungeon. The symbols for the up and down staircases are the same as the commands to use them. A < represents an up staircase and a > represents a down staircase. You must move your character over the staircase before you can use it.

Most levels have at least one up staircase and at least two down staircases. You may have trouble finding some well hidden secret doors, or you may have to dig through obstructions to get to them, but you can always find the stairs if you look hard enough. Stairs, like permanent rock, and shop entrances, cannot be destroyed by any means.

Many secret doors are used within the dungeon to confuse and demoralize adventurers foolish enough to enter, although all secret doors can be discovered by stepping adjacent to them. Secret doors will sometimes hide rooms or corridors, or even entire sections of that level of the dungeon. Sometimes they simply hide small empty closets or even dead ends. Secret doors always look like granite walls, just like traps always look like normal floors.

Creatures in the dungeon will generally know and use these secret doors, and can often be counted on to leave them open behind them when they pass through.

3.2.12   Level and object feelings

Unless you have disabled the option to get feelings you will get a message upon entering a dungeon giving you a general feel of how dangerous that level is.

The possible messages are:

• 1 - "This seems a quiet, peaceful place"
• 2 - "This seems a tame, sheltered place"
• 3 - "This place seems reasonably safe"
• 4 - "This place does not seem too risky"
• 5 - "You feel nervous about this place"
• 6 - "You feel anxious about this place"
• 7 - "This place seems terribly dangerous"
• 8 - "This place seems murderous"
• 9 - "Omens of death haunt this place"

This feeling depends only on the monsters present in the dungeon when you first enter it. It will not get reduced to safer feeling as you kill monsters neither will it increase if new ones are summoned. This feeling also depends on your current dungeon depth. A dungeon you feel nervous about at 2000' is way more dangerous than a murderous one at 50'.

Once you have explored a certain amount of the dungeon you will also get a feeling about how good are the objects lying on the floor of the dungeon.

The possible messages are:

• 1 - "there is naught but cobwebs here."
• 2 - "there are only scraps of junk here."
• 3 - "there aren't many treasures here."
• 4 - "there may not be much interesting here."
• 5 - "there may be something worthwhile here."
• 6 - "there are good treasures here."
• 7 - "there are very good treasures here."
• 8 - "there are excellent treasures here."
• 9 - "there are superb treasures here."
• $ - "you sense an item of wondrous power!"

The last message indicates an artifact is present and is only possible if the preserve option is disabled (if preserve is enabled, an artifact will guarantee a feeling of 5 or better).

You may review your level feeling any time by using the ^F command. You may also consult it by checking the LF: indicator at the bottom left of the screen. The first number after it is the level feeling and the second one is the object feeling. The second one will be ? if you need to explore more before getting a feeling about the value of the treasures present in the dungeon.

3.2.13   Winning The Game

If your character has killed Sauron (a difficult task), who lives on level 99 (4950') in the dungeon, a magical staircase will appear that will allow you to finally reach level 100. Morgoth lurks on this level of his dungeon, and you will not be able to go below his level until you have killed him. Try to avoid wandering around on level 100 unless you are ready for him, since he has a habit of coming at you across the dungeon, the Mighty Hammer 'Grond' in hand, to slay you for your impudence.

If you should actually survive the attempt of killing Morgoth, you will receive the status of WINNER. You may continue to explore, and may even save the game and play more later, but since you have defeated the toughest creature alive, there is really not much point. Unless you wish to listen to the rumors of a powerful ring buried somewhere in the dungeon, or a suit of dragon scale mail that resists everything... There are even rumors of creatures of pure evil lurking in the deepest levels of the fortress of Angband...

When you are ready to retire, simply kill your character (using the Q key) to have your character entered into the high score list as a winner. Note that until you retire, you can still be killed, so you may want to retire before wandering into yet another horde of greater demons.

3.2.14   Upon Death and Dying

If your character falls below 0 hit points, they have died and cannot be restored... unless you're playing on a server allowing "ghost" characters and didn't choose the "no ghost" option at birth. In this case, your character becomes a "ghost": all worn and carried items are dropped on the floor and the character is teleported away from death scene, fully healed and able to pass walls like a regular pass wall monster. At this point, you have three options: you can leave all your possessions behind, float all your way up to the town and go revive at the Temple at the cost of half your acquired experience; if other players are around at your time of death, you can ask a fellow player to come to the level where you died, kill the monsters that killed you and revive your character using a Scroll of Life (note that you still lose half of your experience when resurrecting this way); finally, you may decide to discard your dead character and start a new one (which is probably the best thing to do when your character is still low level).

3.3.1   Attacking and Being Attacked

Attacking is simple in PWMAngband. If you move into a creature, you attack it. You can attack from a distance by firing a missile or by magical means (such as aiming a wand). Creatures attack in the same way. If they move into you, they attack you. Some creatures can also cast spells from a distance, and others can use various breath weapons (such as fire) on you from a distance.

Creatures in walls can not be attacked by wands or other magic attacks normally stopped by walls, nor can they be shot at with bows and arrows. Tunnelling into the wall (using the "tunnel" or "alter" command) will allow you to attack any creature in the wall with your main weapon. This applies to creatures which "pass through" walls: if they "bore through" walls, the wall is no longer there, and the creature can be targeted normally.

If you are wielding a weapon, the damage for the weapon is used when you hit a creature. Otherwise you get a single punch which does minimal damage.

You may wield one weapon for melee combat, and also one missile launcher (bow, crossbow or sling). You may also wear one amulet (around the one and only neck of the character), two rings (on the two "ring" fingers, i.e. the third finger of each hand: a magic ring does not function when worn on any other finger, nor may two be worn on the same finger), one light source, and a full set of armor - body armor, shield, helmet, gloves, boots and a cloak. Digging tools can be used from the tool slot. Any or all of these items may provide powers to the character in terms of bonuses to-hit, to-damage, to-armor class, or to other stats.

Firing a missile (while wielding the appropriate launcher) is the only way to get the "full" power out of the missile. You may of course throw an arrow at a monster without shooting it, but you will find the effects will not be what you had hoped.

Hits and misses are determined by ability to hit versus armor class. A hit is a strike that does some damage; a miss may in fact reach a target, but fails to do any damage. Higher armor classes make it harder to do damage, and so lead to more misses. Characters with higher armor classes also receive a damage reduction. This is not true for monsters, whose AC only affects the character's difficulty to hit them.

If you wish to see how much damage your weapon will do, you can Inspect it. You will find the number of blows and how much damage you would do per round, including information on whether your weapon damages other types of monsters differently.

3.3.2   Monster Memories

There are hundreds of different creatures in the pits of Angband, many of which have the same letter symbol and color on the screen. The exact species of a creature can be discovered by looking at it. It is also very difficult to keep track of the capabilities of various creatures. Luckily, PWMAngband automatically keeps track of your experiences with a particular creature. This feature is called the monster memory. Your monster memory recalls the particular attacks of each creature (whether or not technically a monster) which you have suffered, as well as recalling if you have observed them to multiply or move erratically, or drop treasure, etc. Otherwise you would simply have to take notes, which is an unnecessary bother.

If you have killed enough of a particular creature, or suffered enough attacks, recalling the monster memory may also provide you with information not otherwise available, such as an armor class, hit dice, spell types, frequency of spell casting, or the amount of damage for breaths or spells. These attacks will be color coded to inform you of whether or not you currently resist a specific attack. Red or orange means you do not resist it, yellow means you partially resist it, and green means you resist it or are immune. If you attack a monster with specific elemental attacks you will learn if the monster resists that element or if they are immune. There are other magical means to learn about monster's abilities that don't require you to actually experience the attacks.

3.3.3   Your Weapon

Carrying a weapon in your backpack does you no good. You must wield a weapon before it can be used in a fight. A secondary weapon can be kept by keeping it in the backpack, and switching it with the primary weapon when needed. This is most often used when switching between two weapons, each of which provides a rare power that the character needs at two separate times.

Weapons have two main magical characteristics, their enchanted ability to hit and their enchanted ability to do damage, expressed as '(+#,+#)'. A normal weapon would be '(+0,+0)'. Many weapons in PWMAngband have bonuses to hit and/or to damage.

PWMAngband assumes that your youth in the rough environment near the dungeons has taught you the relative merits of different weapons, and displays as part of their description the damage dice which define their capabilities. Any damage enchantment is added to the dice roll for that weapon. The dice used for a given weapon is displayed as 'XdY'. The number X indicates how many dice to roll, and number Y indicates how many sides they have. A '2d6' weapon will thus give damage from 2 to 12, plus any damage bonus. The weight of a weapon is also a consideration. Heavy weapons may hit harder, but they are also harder to use. Depending on your strength, dexterity, character class, and weapon weight, you may get attacks more quickly: high dexterity and strength and low weapon weight are the main factors. Warriors may get up to a maximum of 6 attacks per round; pure spellcasters are limited to only 4; other classes may get up to 5. Your attacks per round with a weapon are displayed as a decimal, e.g. 2.3 or 3.4 etc. The fractions take the form of unused energy which is carried over to your next turn.

Missile weapons, such as bows, have their characteristics added to those of the missile used, if the proper weapon/missile combination is used, and then the launcher multiplier is applied to the total damage, making missile weapons very powerful given the proper missiles, especially if they are enchanted. Like weapons, Inspecting ammunition will tell you how much damage you will do with your current missile launcher.

Finally, some rare weapons have special abilities. These are called ego weapons, and are feared by great and meek. An ego weapon must be wielded to receive the benefit of its abilities. It should be noted that some of these items are considerably more powerful than others, and generally the most powerful items are the rarest. Some items will have an obvious effect, like an increase in infravision, or extra strength. These effects will be noticed as soon as you wield the item. Other effects, like most resistances, will need to be learned. You can learn them by either suffering an appropriate attack, or by using magical means of identification.

Some of the more common ego weapons are described at the end of this file.

3.3.4   Your Armor Class

Your armor class (or AC) is a number that describes the amount and the quality of armor being worn. Armor class will generally run from about 0 to 200, though exceptionally good armor can improve even on the latter figure.

The higher your armor class, the more protective it is. A negative armor class would actually help get you hit. Armor protects you in three manners. First, it makes you harder to be hit for damage. A hit for no damage counts as a miss, and is described as a miss. Second, good armor will absorb some of the damage that your character would have taken from normal attacks. Third, acid damage is reduced by wearing body armor (but the armor may be damaged instead). It is obvious that a high armor class is vital for surviving the deeper levels of Angband.

Armor class values are always displayed between a set of square brackets, as '[#]' or '[#,+#]'. The first value is the base armor class of the armor. The second number is the magical bonus of the item, which is only displayed if known, and will always have a sign preceding the value. These plusses can be determined by wielding the armor in combat and being hit. Note that a few rings, amulets, and weapons also have the '[+#]' notation, indicating that they provide an armor bonus. Many pieces of heavy body armor will also have a '(-#)' (in normal brackets) before the '[#,+#]', which indicates that the weight of the armor decreases your chances of hitting monsters. This can range from nonexistent for very light armor to '(-8)' for the heaviest armor!

3.3.5   Monster status effects

You will find some spells and items which can affect monsters in ways which do not involve directly dealing them damage. These are 'status effects'. They are listed with their effects below. These status effects will either work on a monster type or they won't; some monsters resist particular effects but not all do.

Hold Monster:

Paralyses a monster until you hit them. Increases chance of player getting a critical hit. Normal duration 3-8 turns.

Stun Monster:

Reduces the monster's melee accuracy and damage by 25%. 1 in 10 chance that the monster will miss the turn. Increases chance of player getting a critical hit. Normal duration 5-10 turns.

Confuse Monster:

Monster spells fail 50% more often. Monster at least 40% more likely to miss target with spells/ranged attacks. Monster ball & bolt spells sometimes go in the wrong direction. 30% chance of erratic movement, more when more confused. Increases chance of player getting a critical hit. Normal duration 5-10 turns.

Slow Monster:

-2 speed, more if more slowed. Normal duration 10 or more turns.

Sleep Monster:

Puts monsters to sleep, but they can wake up again quite easily.

Scare Monster:

Monster will run away. Monster spells fail 20% more often.

Disenchant Monster:

Monster spells fail 50% more often. Normal duration 5-10 turns.

Haste Monster (bad effect):

+10 speed.

Blind Monster:

Monsters cannot cast spells. Monsters move erratically. Increased chance of critical hit. Normal duration 5-10 turns.

Monsters can also suffer from two status ailments, poison and bleeding:

Prevents regeneration. 1 hp loss per turn. Normal duration 5-10 turns.

3.3.6   Non-melee attacks and resistances

The player may at some time gain access to non-melee attacks, and many monsters also have them. Perhaps the most famous of this type of attack is dragon breath, but monsters may also cast spells at the player, and vice versa. This damage generally is not affected by armor class, and does not need a hit roll to hit the player or monster being aimed at.

Some attacks are purely magical: attack spells which blind, confuse, slow, scare or paralyze the target. These attacks are resisted by monsters of higher level (native to deeper dungeon depths) and characters with a high saving throw - saving throws being dependent on class, level and wisdom. There are also available resistances to fear, blindness, confusion and stunning, and the power of "free action" prevents magical paralysis and most slowing attacks (the player may still be paralyzed by being "knocked out" in melee or by a stunning attack, but this is very rare and can be prevented with protection from stunning.) There are monsters that can cause status effects such as blindness, paralysis or confusion through their melee attack. Since this is a physical effect and not a mental one, the player will not get a saving throw. However, having resistance to that effect will prevent the negative status in all cases. It should also be noticed that most unique monsters automatically pass their saving throws, and some monsters are naturally resistant to confusion, fear and sleep. Some monsters may have spells that 'cause wounds' that can be deadly if successful but do no damage if the saving throw is passed.

Some melee attacks by monsters may drain a stat, as can some traps: this is prevented by having that stat sustained. Drained stats are temporary and can be restored on gaining a new character level or consuming rare items found in the dungeon.

Some monsters may cast spells that teleport the player character. There is no saving throw, except to those that would actually teleport him up or down one dungeon level. Having resistance to nexus will also prevent being level-teleported, but will not help against normal teleportation spell attacks. The player may teleport monsters in the same way, with a spell, wand or rod. No monsters, even Morgoth himself, can resist this teleportation. Yet...

Other attacks are usually element-based, including the aforementioned example of dragon breath. Many monsters can breathe various attacks or cast bolt or ball spells, and the player may also have access to bolt and ball spells (or breathe like a dragon, in some rare circumstances). The player, and the monsters, may be resistant to these forms of attack: resistance is handled in different ways for the player and the monster, and for different attack forms.

Bolt spells will hit the first monster (or the player) in the line of fire; ball spells may centre on a target which may be hiding behind other targets. Ball spells and breath weapons affect an area: other monsters caught in the blast take reduced damage depending on their distance from the centre of the blast. Breath weapons are proportional to a fraction of the monster's current hit points and drop off in power with distance from the monster, with a maximum cap on the damage (which is higher for the most common of such attacks, owing to the fact that the resistances are also easier to find). Bolt and ball spell damage is calculated differently - often (but not always) relative to character or monster level.

In the case of fire, cold, lightning, acid and poison, if the monster has resistance to a player attack of this kind it will take almost no damage. If the player has one or more permanent sources of resistance, they will take 1/3 of the damage they would normally take: if the player has a temporary source of resistance (whether from potion, spell or item activation), this will also reduce the damage to 1/3 of its normal level, allowing the character to take only 1/9 damage if they have both permanent and temporary resistance. Having more than one source of permanent resistance confers no extra bonus, and using more than one source of temporary resistance increases only the duration of the resistance: in both cases, either the resistance is present or it is not. But one permanent resistance and one temporary resistance are both effective simultaneously.

Elemental attacks also have a chance to damage wielded equipment or destroy items in the character's inventory. Fire attacks destroy scrolls, staves, magic books and arrows. Acid attacks destroy scrolls, staves, arrows, bolts and can damage armor. Electricity attacks can destroy wands, rods, rings and amulets. Cold attacks can destroy potions. Items in your inventory get a saving throw, and they are unharmed if they pass it. Having resistance to the element will make an item less likely to be destroyed. Items on the floor that get caught in an elemental ball or breath are automatically destroyed without a saving throw. Weapons, armor and chests can also be destroyed if they are lying on the floor, but cannot be harmed if they are in your pack.

The character may also gain immunity to fire, cold, lightning and acid if he is fortunate to find any of the few items that provide these immunities: immunity means that no damage is taken, and the character's equipment is also totally protected. Immunities are EXTREMELY rare.

Another attack that the player will come into contact with all too often is the soul-chilling nature of the undead, which can drain the character's life experience. Some monsters have a life-draining melee attack, others may cast ball or bolt spells or, in extreme cases, breathe the very force of the netherworld (shortened by the game to "nether".) There are two powers which are of assistance in this case: that of "hold life" will prevent 90% of all experience drains, and in the other 10% of cases, the amount of experience lost will be reduced by 90%. That of "resistance to nether forces" will provide resistance to nether bolts, balls and breaths, reducing the damage and preventing any experience drains from these attacks, but has no effect on melee "hits to drain experience". Monsters caught in the blast from a nether ball or breath will take damage proportional to distance from the centre of the attack, except for undead who are totally immune. The player may find wands or rods of Drain Life, which similarly are ineffective on those undead creatures which have no life to drain: however, the real player equivalent attack spell is the priest/paladin spell of "Orb of Draining", a ball spell which does damage to all monsters, double damage to evil monsters, and is resisted by none.

Other attack forms are rarer, but may include: disenchantment (both in melee or by a monster breath), chaos (breath or melee, which if unresisted will cause the player to hallucinate and be confused, and may drain life experience), nexus (which may teleport the player to the monster, away from the monster, up or down a level, or swap over two of the player's "internal" stats), light and darkness (which will blind a character unless they have protection from blindness or resistance to light or dark), sound (which will stun a character without sound resistance or protection from stunning), crystal shards (which will cut a non-resistant character), inertia (which will slow a character regardless of free action), gravity (which will blink a character, also stunning and slowing), force (which will stun the character), plasma (which will stun), time (which may drain experience regardless of hold life, or drain stats regardless of sustains), water bolts and balls (which may confuse and stun, and do considerable damage from high-level monsters), ice bolts (which may cut and stun, and damage potions), and mana bolts and balls (the latter usually known as Mana Storms.) Magic missiles are included in the "mana" category, whether cast by the monster or the player.

In addition items on the ground are especially vulnerable to elemental effects. Potions on the ground will always be destroyed by cold, shards, sound and force. Scrolls, staves, books, and non-metal gear will always get destroyed by fire or plasma. Scrolls, staves, and all non-mithril gear will be destroyed by acid. Rings, amulets, wands and rods will be destroyed by lightning and plasma. And finally nearly everything will be destroyed by a mana storm if left on the ground.

Some attacks may stun or cut the player. These can either be spells or breath attacks (sound, water balls) or from melee. A stunned character receives a penalty to hit and is much more likely to fail a spell or activation. If a character gets very stunned, they may be knocked out and at the mercy of the enemies. A cut character will slowly lose life until healed either by potions, spells or natural regeneration. Both stunning and cut status are displayed at the bottom of the screen.

There are resistances available to chaos, disenchantment, confusion, nexus, sound, shards, light and darkness: all of these will reduce the damage and prevent side-effects other than physical damage. With these resistances, as with nether resistance, damage is a random fraction between 1/2 and 2/3.

It should be noted that not all of these are actually vital to completing the game: indeed, of the above list, only fire, cold, acid, lightning, poison and confusion resists are regarded as truly vital, with blindness, chaos and nether the next most desirable. Some attack forms are not resistible, but thankfully these are rare: resist shards will prevent all other magical attacks which cut (namely ice bolts), and confusion resistance will prevent confusion by a water bolt or ball, but there is no resistance to the physical damage caused by these following attacks: inertia, force, gravity, plasma, time, ice, water, mana. There is no resistance to any of the side-effects of a time attack, or indeed to anything but the stunning effects of a gravity attack.

3.3.7   A note on speed

Monsters which do not move at normal speed generally move "slowly" (-10 to speed), "fairly quickly" (+5), "quickly" (+10), "very quickly" (+20) or "incredibly quickly" (+30). (It will surprise nobody that Morgoth is one of the few monsters in the last category.) This is further adjusted by the fact that any non-unique monster may have a random adjustment from (-2) to (+2) to its own speed.

Generally, (+10) is exactly double normal speed, and (-10) exactly half. (+20) is about three times normal speed, but after that there is less noticeable improvement as speed goes higher - for instance, (+30) is not quite four times normal speed, and higher values than this are largely irrelevant. The player may find items which can be worn or wielded that provide speed bonuses: these may include boots of speed, rings of speed and a few very rare artifacts. Boots will provide a random 1d10 to speed: rings of speed may be bigger than that - generally the best that the player will get is two just over (+10), but individual rings of up to (+23) speed have been known.

Separate from the question of permanent speed (as determined by the player's speed items and the monster's natural speed) is that of temporary speed. The player may cast a spell of haste-self, or use a potion, staff or rod of speed or use an artifact activation to speed him temporarily: or a monster may cast a haste-self spell, or be affected by another monster "shrieking for help" or the player reading a scroll of aggravate monster. In all cases, (+10) speed is added temporarily to the affected monster or player. Using two or more sources of temporary speed is cumulative only in duration - one cannot get from normal speed to (+20) using a potion and a spell of speed. Spells of temporary slowing (including monsters breathing inertia or gravity) are handled the same way, with exactly (-10) being subtracted from the player or monster's speed temporarily, for the duration of the spell or breath's effect.

3.3.8   Ego weapons and armor

Some of the ego weapons that you might find in the dungeon are listed below. This will give you a small taste of the items that can be found. However if you wish to discover these items on your own, you may not wish to continue. Ego weapons are denoted by the following "names":

3.4.1   Original Keyset Command Summary

3.4.2   Roguelike Keyset Command Summary

Note: 'BKS' is equal to the BACKSPACE key.

3.4.3   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, and 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 which might be caught by the operating system as explained above.

Pressing backslash (\) before a command will bypass all keymaps, and the next keypress will be interpreted as an "underlying command" key, unless it is a caret (^), in which case the keypress after that will be turned into a control-key and interpreted as a command in the underlying PWMAngband keyset. The backslash key is useful for creating actions which are not affected by any keymap definitions that may be in force, for example, the sequence \ + . + 6 will always mean "run east", even if the . key has been mapped to a different underlying command.

The 0 and ^ and \ keys all have special meaning when entered at the command prompt, and there is no "useful" way to specify any of them as an "underlying command", which is okay, since they would have no effect.

For many input requests or queries, the special character 'ESCAPE' will abort the command. The '[y/n]' prompts may be answered with y or n, or 'escape'.

3.4.4   Selection of Objects

Many commands will prompt for a particular object to be used. For example, the command to read a scroll will ask you which of the scrolls that you are carrying that you wish to read. In such cases, the selection is made by typing a letter of the alphabet (or a number if choosing from the quiver). The prompt will indicate the possible letters/numbers, and you will also be shown a list of the appropriate items. Often you will be able to press / to switch between inventory and equipment, or | to select the quiver, or - to select the floor. Using the right arrow also rotates selection between equipment, inventory, quiver, floor and back to equipment; the left arrow rotates in the opposite direction.

The particular object may be selected by an upper case or a lower case letter. If lower case is used, the selection takes place immediately. If upper case is used, then the particular option is described, and you are given the option of confirming or retracting that choice. Upper case selection is thus safer, but requires an extra key stroke.

3.5.1   Inventory Commands

Inventory list (i)

Displays a list of objects being carried but not equipped. You can carry up to 23 different items, not counting those in your equipment. Often, many identical objects can be "stacked" into a "pile" which will count as a single item. Each object has a weight, and if you carry more objects than your strength permits, you will begin to slow down. The amount of weight you can still carry without being overencumbered, or the amount of extra weight you are currently carrying is displayed at the top of the screen.

Equipment list (e)

Use this command to display a list of the objects currently being used by your character. The standard body (which all races currently have) has 13 slots for equipment. Every equipment slot corresponds to a different location on the body, and each of which may contain only one object at a time, and each of which may only contain objects of the proper "type". For the standard body these are WEAPON (weapon), BOW (missile launcher), RING (ring) (two of these), AMULET (amulet), LIGHT (light source), BODY_ARMOR (armor), CLOAK (cloak), SHIELD (shield), HAT (helmet), GLOVES (gloves), BOOTS (boots), TOOL (digger, tool). You must be wielding/wearing certain objects to take advantage of their special powers.

Quiver list (|)

Missiles that you carry will automatically be put in your quiver. The quiver has 8 slots; it also takes up inventory space, so every 40 missiles will reduce your number of inventory slots by 1.

Drop an item (d)

This drops an item from your inventory or equipment onto the dungeon floor. If the floor spot you are standing on already has an object in it, PWMAngband will attempt to drop the item onto an adjacent space. Doors and traps are considered objects for the purpose of determining if the space is occupied. This command may take a quantity, and takes some energy.

Drop gold ($)

This drops gold from your purse. This command may take a quantity, and takes some energy.

Ignore an item (k) or Ignore an item ('^D')

This ignores (or destroys) an item in your inventory or on the dungeon floor. When ignored, the game will sometimes prompt you whether to ignore only this item or all others like it. If the second option is chosen, all similar items on the floor and in your inventory will be ignored. To view all items regardless of whether they are ignored, you can use K to toggle the ignore setting on and off. This command takes some energy.

Wear/Wield equipment (w)

To wear or wield an object in your inventory, use this command. Since only one object can be in each slot at a time, if you wear or wield an item into a slot which is already occupied, the old item will be first be taken off, and may in fact be dropped if there is no room for it in your inventory. Wielding ammunition will add it to an empty slot in your quiver and prompt you to replace a type of ammunition if your quiver is already full. This command takes some energy.

Take off equipment (t) or Take off equipment (T)

Use this command to take off a piece of equipment and return it to your inventory. Occasionally, you will run into a cursed item which cannot be removed. These items normally penalize you in some way and cannot be taken off until the curse is removed. 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. You may also remove ammunition from your quiver with this command. This command takes some energy.

3.5.2   Movement Commands

Moving (arrow keys, number keys) or (arrow keys, number keys, 'yuhjklbn')

This causes you to move one step in a given direction. If the square you wish to move into is occupied by a monster, you will attack it. If the square is occupied by a door or a trap you may attempt to open or disarm it if the appropriate option is set. Preceding this command with CTRL will cause you to attack in the appropriate direction, but will not move your character if no monster is there. These commands take some energy.

Walk (W) or Walk (-)

The walk command lets you willingly walk into a trap or a closed door, without trying to open or disarm it. This command requires a direction, and takes some energy.

Run (.) or Run (,)

This command will move in the given direction, following any bends in the corridor, until you either have to make a "choice" between two directions or you are disturbed. You can configure what will disturb you by setting the disturbance options. You may also use shift plus the "roguelike" direction keys (roguelike keyset), or shift plus the "original" direction keys on the keypad (both keysets, some machines) to run in a direction. This command may take an argument, requires a direction, and takes some energy.

Go up staircase (<)

Climbs up an up staircase you are standing on. There is always at least one staircase going up on every level except for the town level (this doesn't mean it's easy to find). Going up a staircase will take you to a new dungeon level unless you are at 50 feet (dungeon level 1), in which case you will return to the town level. Note that whenever you leave a level (not the town), you will never find it again. This means that for all intents and purposes, any objects on that level are destroyed. This includes artifacts unless the "Create characters in preserve mode" option was set when your character was created, in which case the artifacts may show up again later. This command takes some energy.

Go down staircase (>)

Descends a down staircase you are standing on. There is always at least one staircase going down on each level, except for "quest" levels, which have none until the quest monster is killed. Going down a staircase will take you to a new dungeon level. See "Go Up Staircase" for more info. This command takes some energy.

3.5.3   Resting Commands

Stay still (with pickup) (,) or Stay still (with pickup) (.)

Stays 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 naturally bypasses the "ignore" settings: to pick up things with ignore settings activated, use the "Get objects" command. This command takes some energy.

Get objects (g)

Pick up objects and gold on the floor beneath you. You may pick up objects until the floor is empty or your backpack is full.

Do autopickup ('^A')

Pick up objects you would normally pick up automatically.

Rest (R)

Resting is better for you than repeatedly staying still, and can be told to automatically stop after a certain amount of time, or when various conditions are met. In any case, you always wake up when anything disturbing happens, or when you press any key. To rest, enter the Rest command, followed by the number of turns you want to rest, or * to rest until your hitpoints and mana are restored, or & to rest until you are fully "healed". This command may take an argument (used for the number of turns to rest), and takes some energy.

3.5.4   Stealth Commands

Toggle stealth mode (S)

Only Rogues are able to use this command. When first pressed, the message "Stealth Mode" will appear at the bottom of the screen. You are now taking two turns for each command, one for the command and one to act carefully. This means that you are taking twice the time to move around the dungeon, and therefore twice the food. Stealth mode will automatically turn off if you are disturbed. You may also turn off stealth mode by entering the Stealth Mode command again.

3.5.5   Alter Commands

Tunnel (T) or Tunnel ('^T')

Tunnelling or mining is a very useful art. There are many kinds of rock, with varying hardness, including permanent rock (permanent), granite (very hard), quartz veins (hard), magma veins (soft), and rubble (very soft). Quartz and Magma veins may be displayed in a special way, and may sometimes contain treasure, in which case they will be displayed in a different way. Rubble sometimes covers an object but is easy to tunnel through, even with your bare hands. Tunnelling ability increases with strength and weapon weight. If you have a digging tool in your tool slot, the game will automatically use this to dig. This command requires a direction, and takes some energy.

Open a door or chest (o)

To open an object such as a door or chest, you must use this command. If the object is locked, you will attempt to pick the lock based on your disarming ability. If you open a trapped chest without disarming the traps first, the trap will be set off. Opening will automatically attempt to pick any door locks. You may need several tries to open a door or chest. This command requires a direction, and takes some energy.

Close a door (c)

Non-intelligent and some other creatures cannot open doors, so shutting doors can be quite valuable. Furthermore, monsters cannot see you behind closed doors, so closing doors may allow you to buy some time without being attacked. Broken doors cannot be closed. This command requires a direction, and takes some energy.

Disarm a trap or chest, or lock a door (D)

You can attempt to disarm traps on the floor or on chests. If you fail, there is a chance that you will blunder and set it off. You can only disarm a trap after you have found it. The command can also be used to lock a closed door, which will create a hindrance for monsters. Even if many monsters will be able to pick the lock or bash the door down, it will often take them some time. This command requires a direction, and takes some energy.

Alter (+)

This special command allows the use of a single keypress to select any of the "obvious" commands above (attack, tunnel, open, disarm), and, by using keymaps, to combine this keypress with directions. In general, this allows the use of the "control" key plus the appropriate "direction" key (including the roguelike direction keys in roguelike mode) as a kind of generic "alter the terrain feature of an adjacent grid" command. This command requires a direction, and takes some energy.

Steal (s)

This command allows you to steal gold or items from other players. Stealing is usually disabled on most of the servers. If allowed, a failed attempt at stealing will make the offended player automatically hostile. This command also allows rogues to try and steal gold or items from sleeping monsters. Stealing works better when the player is stealthy and faster than the target monster. A failed theft will wake the monster. This command requires a direction, and takes some energy.

Drink from a fountain/fill an empty bottle (_)

When standing on a fountain square, this command allows you to interact with the fountain. Dried out fountains will produce no effect. If you carry empty bottles, the command will allow you to fill one empty bottle and generate a random potion. If you don't carry empty bottles, or if you don't want to fill a bottle, the command will allow you to drink from the fountain. Drinking from a fountain will produce a random potion effect, which will range from very good to very bad. Sometimes, other effects may be experienced. This command has been extended to allow filling empty bottles from water tiles. This command takes some energy.

3.5.6   Spell Commands

Browse a book (b) or Peruse a book (P)

Each class has books it can read and books it cannot; except for fighters, who cannot read any books. When this command is used, all of the spells contained in the selected book are displayed, along with information such as their level, the amount of mana required to cast them, and whether or not you know the spell.

Gain new spells (G)

Use this command to actually learn new spells. When you are able to learn new spells, the word "Study" will appear on the status line at the bottom of the screen. If you have a book in your possession, containing spells which you may learn, then you may choose to study that book. Most classes may actually choose which spell to study, but if you are a priest or paladin, your gods will choose a prayer for you. There are five books of each realm, but hybrid classes - paladins, rogues, rangers and blackguards - can only cast a limited amount of spells from them. Higher level books are normally found only in the dungeon. This command takes some energy.

Cast a spell (m)

To cast a spell, you must have previously learned the spell and must have in your inventory a book from which the spell can be read. Each spell has a chance of failure which starts out fairly large but decreases as you gain levels. If you don't have enough mana to cast a spell, you cannot cast the spell. Since you must read the spell from a book, you cannot be blind or confused while casting, and there must be some light present. Use this command when your character is turned into a ghost (after dying, if the server allows the feature). Unlike spells and prayers, undead abilities use experience as "fuel". If you don't have enough experience to invoke an undead power, your character is destroyed permanently. Shapechangers that polymorph into a form that can cast spells are able to use this command. If you don't have enough mana to cast a monster spell, you cannot cast that spell. This command takes some energy.

Project a spell (p)

Sometimes you may want to cast a spell, aiming it at a specific friendly player. This command requires a direction and can use a target. This command takes some energy.

3.5.7   Monster Spell Commands

Use dragon breath attack (y) or Use dragon breath attack (f)

Only Dragons or Shapechangers that polymorph into a form that can use breath attacks are able to use this command. Unlike spells and prayers, breath attacks use hit points as "fuel". If you don't have enough hit points to invoke a breath attack, your character dies. This command takes some energy.

Polymorph into a monster (V)

Only Shapechangers are able to use this command. Press * to display a list of available forms, or enter a number to polymorph into the form corresponding to this number. More info can be available through the Knowledge Menu (see below the "Check knowledge" command) about monsters and kill counts. This command takes some energy.

3.5.8   Object Manipulation Commands

Eat some food (E)

You must eat regularly to prevent starvation. There is a hunger meter at the bottom of the screen, which says "Fed" and gives a percentage in most circumstances. If you go hungry long enough, you will become weak, then start fainting, and eventually, you may well die of starvation (accompanied by increasingly alarming messages on your hunger meter). It is also possible to be "Full", which will make you move slowly; more slowly the fuller you get. You may use this command to eat food in your inventory. Note that you can sometimes find food in the dungeon, but it is not always wise to eat strange food. This command takes some energy.

Fuel your lantern/torch (F)

If you are using a lantern and have flasks of oil in your pack, then you can "refuel" them with this command. Torches and Lanterns are limited in their maximal fuel. In general, two flasks will fully fuel a lantern. This command takes some energy.

Quaff a potion (q)

Use this command to drink a potion. Potions affect the player in various ways, but the effects are not always immediately obvious. This command takes some energy.

Read a scroll (r)

Use this command to read a scroll. Scroll spells usually have an area effect, except for a few cases where they act on other objects. Reading a scroll causes the parchment to disintegrate as the scroll takes effect. 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 some energy.

Inscribe an object ('{')

This command inscribes a string on an object. The inscription is displayed 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. Under certain circumstances, PWMAngband will display "fake" inscriptions on certain objects ('cursed', 'tried', 'empty') when appropriate. These "fake" inscriptions remain all the time, even if the player chooses to add a "real" inscription on top of it later. In addition, PWMAngband will place the inscription '??' on an object for you if the object has a property (or "rune") that you have not learned yet. This inscription will remain until you know all the runes on the object. An item labeled as '{empty}' was found to be out of charges, and an item labeled as '{tried}' is a "flavored" item which the character has used, but whose effects are unknown. Certain inscriptions have a meaning to the game, see '@#', '@x#', '!*', and '!x', in the section on inventory object selection.

Uninscribe an object (})

This command removes the inscription on an object. This command will have no effect on "fake" inscriptions added by the game itself.

Toggle ignore (K) or Toggle ignore (O)

This command will toggle ignore settings. If on, all ignored items will be hidden from view. If off, all items will be shown regardless of their ignore setting. See the customize section for more info.

3.5.9   Magical Object Commands

Activate an object (A)

You have heard rumors of special weapons and armor deep in the Pits, items that can let you breathe 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 ability. Special abilities can only be used if you are wearing or wielding the item. This command takes some energy.

Aim a wand (a) or Zap a wand (z)

Wands must be aimed in a direction to be used. Wands are magical devices, and therefore there is a chance you will not be able to figure out how to use them if you aren't good with magical devices. They will fire a shot that affects the first object or creature encountered or fire a beam that affects anything in a given direction, depending on the wand. An obstruction such as a door or wall will generally stop the effects from traveling any farther. This command requires a direction and can use a target. This command takes some energy.

Use a staff (u) or Zap a staff (Z)

This command will use a staff. A staff is normally very similar to a scroll, in that they normally either have an area effect or affect a specific object. Staves are magical devices, and there is a chance you will not be able to figure out how to use them. This command takes some energy.

Zap a rod (z) or Activate a rod (a)

Rods are extremely powerful magical items, which cannot be burnt or shattered, and which can have either staff-like or wand-like effects, but unlike staves and wands, they don't have charges. Instead, they draw on the ambient magical energy to recharge themselves, and therefore can only be activated once every few turns. The recharging time varies depending on the type of rod. This command may require a direction (depending on the type of rod, and whether you are aware of its type) and can use a target. This command takes some energy.

3.5.10   Throwing and Missile Weapons

Fire an item (f) or Fire an item (t)

This command will allow you to fire a missile from either your quiver or your inventory provided it is the appropriate ammunition for the current missile weapon you have equipped. You may not fire an item without a missile weapon equipped. Fired ammunition has a chance of breaking. This command takes some energy.

Fire default ammo at nearest (h) or ('TAB')

If you have a missile weapon equipped and the appropriate ammunition in your quiver, you can use this command to fire at the nearest visible enemy. This command will cancel itself if you lack a launcher, ammunition or a visible target that is in range. The first ammunition of the correct type found in the quiver is used. This command takes some energy.

Throw an item (v)

You may throw any object carried by your character. Depending on the weight, it may travel across the room or drop down beside you. Only one object from a pile will be thrown at a time. Note that throwing an object will often cause it to break, so be careful! If you throw something at a creature, your chances of hitting it are determined by your plusses to hit, your ability at throwing, and the object's plusses to hit. Some weapons are especially designed for throwing. Once the creature is hit, the object may or may not do any damage to it. Note that flasks of oil will do some fire damage to a monster on impact. If you are wielding a missile launcher compatible with the object you are throwing, then you automatically use the launcher to fire the missile with much higher range, accuracy, and damage, than you would get by just throwing the missile. Throw, like fire, requires a direction. Targeting mode (see the next command) can be invoked with * at the 'Direction?' prompt. This command takes some energy.

Targeting Mode (*)

This will allow you to aim your ranged attacks at a specific monster or grid, so that you can point directly towards that monster or grid (even if this is not a "compass" direction) when you are asked for a direction. You can set a target using this command, or you can set a new target at the "Direction?" prompt when appropriate. At the targeting prompt, you have many options. First of all, targeting mode starts targeting nearby monsters which can be reached by "projectable" spells and thrown objects. In this mode, you can press t (or 5 or .) to select the current monster, space to advance to the next monster, - to back up to the previous monster, direction keys to advance to a monster more or less in that direction, r to "recall" the current monster, q to exit targeting mode, and p (or o) to stop targeting monsters and enter the mode for targeting a location on the floor or in a wall. Note that if there are no nearby monsters, you will automatically enter this mode. Note that hitting o is just like p, except that the location cursor starts on the last examined monster instead of on the player. In this mode, you use the "direction" keys to move around, and the q key to quit, and the t (or 5 or .) key to target the cursor location. Note that targeting a location is slightly "dangerous", as the target is maintained even if you are far away. To cancel an old target, simply hit * and then 'ESCAPE' (or q). Note that when you cast a spell or throw an object at the target location, the path chosen is the "optimal" path towards that location, which may or may not be the path you want. Sometimes, by clever choice of a location on the floor for your target, you may be able to convince a thrown object or cast spell to squeeze through a hole or corridor that is blocking direct access to a different grid. Launching a ball spell or breath weapon at a location in the middle of a group of monsters can often improve the effects of that attack, since ball attacks are not stopped by interposed monsters if the ball is launched at a target.

Target friendly player ('left-paren')

This command allows you to aim your ranged attacks at a specific friendly player. If more than one target is available, the most wounded teammate is chosen.

Target closest monster (')

This will allow you to aim your ranged attacks at the closest valid target.

3.5.11   Looking Commands

Full screen map (M)

This command will show a map of the entire dungeon, reduced by a factor of nine, on the screen. Only the major dungeon features will be visible because of the scale, so even some important objects may not show up on the map. This is particularly useful in locating where the stairs are relative to your current position, or for identifying unexplored areas of the dungeon. Using this command while in the wilderness (or in Town) will also display a small-scale map of the level.

Locate player on map (L) or Where is the player (W)

This command lets you scroll your map 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, simply press any of the "direction" keys. The top line will display the sector location, and the offset from your current sector.

Look around (l) or Examine things (x)

This command is used to look around at nearby monsters (to determine their type and health) and objects (to determine their type). It is also used to find out if a monster is currently inside a wall, and what is under the player. When you are looking at something, you may hit space for more details, or to advance to the next interesting monster or object, or minus (-) to go back to the previous monster or object, or a direction key to advance to the nearest interesting monster or object (if any) in that general direction, or r to recall information about the current monster race, or q or escape to stop looking around. You always start out looking at "yourself".

Inspect an item (I)

This command lets you inspect an item. This will tell you things about the special powers of the object, as well as attack information for weapons. It will also tell you what resistances or abilities you have noticed for the item and if you have not yet completely identified all properties.

List visible monsters ([)

This command lists all monsters that are visible to you, telling you how many there are of each kind. It also tells you whether they are asleep, and where they are (relative to you).

List visible items (])

This command lists all items that are visible to you, telling you how of each there are and where they are on the level relative to your current location.

Full wilderness map ('^W')

This command will show a metamap of the world, relative to your current position on the world map. This is particularly useful in locating where the Town is relative to your current position, or for identifying unexplored areas of the wilderness. Note that using this command while in the dungeon will have the same effect as using the command in the Town.

3.5.12   Message Commands

Repeat level feeling ('^F')

Repeats the feeling about the monsters in the dungeon level that you got when you first entered the level. If you have explored enough of the level, you will also get a feeling about how good the treasures are.

View previous message ('^O')

This command shows you the most recent message.

View previous messages ('^P')

This command shows you all the recent messages. You can scroll through them, or exit with ESCAPE.

Enter chat mode (:)

This command allows you chat with other players.

Use chat command ('^Z')

This command allows to interact with chat channels. You can open, close, or navigate through different chat channels to customize the pool of connected players you wish to interact with.

Describe object ('^D') or Describe object ('BACKSPACE')

This command allows you to display a description of any object in your inventory in the chat window.

3.5.13   Player House Commands

Buy a house ('H') or Buy a house ('£')

Allows you to purchase a house to store extra objects once your inventory is full. You must stand in front of the house door, outside of the house to do so. Use the same command to sell a house once you don't have any use for it anymore. This command may also be used to view your own shop inventory if used in front of the house door, inside of the house.

3.5.14   Game Status Commands

Character Description (C)

Brings up a full description of your character, including your skill levels, your current and potential stats, and various other information. From this screen, you can use the file character description command to save your character status to a file. That command saves additional information, including your background, your inventory, and the contents of your houses.

Check knowledge (~)

This command allows you to ask about the knowledge possessed by your character. Currently, this includes being able to list all known "artifacts", "uniques", and "objects". Normally, once an artifact is "generated", and "identified", it becomes "known" to the player. The "uniques" are special "unique" monsters which can only be killed once per game. Certain "objects" come in "flavors", and you must determine the effect of each "flavor" once for each such type of object, and this command will allow you to display all "known" flavors. This command will also list all ego items discovered, all known monsters (and their powers and abilities), all terrain features, the top players (highscore list), all items worn by party members, the character history (in-game achievements), and all houses owned by the player.

Access party menu (P) or Access party menu (!)

This command allows you to create, delete, or manage parties. Use this command to add/remove players from a party, or to change hostility status toward other players.

Display connected players (@) or Display connected players ('^V')

This command allows you to see who's currently connected to the same server.

Interact with keymaps (%)

This command allows you to interact with kemaps. Same as pressing '=' then 'k'.

See abilities (#)

This command allows you to see player abilities.

3.5.15   Saving and Exiting Commands

Save and Quit ('^X')

To save your game so that you can return to it later, use this command. Save files will also be generated (hopefully) if the game crashes due to a system error. After you die, you can use your savefile to play again with the same options and such.

Quit (Q)

Kills your character and exits PWMAngband. You will be prompted to make sure you really want to do this, and then asked to verify that choice. Note that dead characters are dead forever. This command is also accessible by pressing '^C'.

3.5.16   User Pref File Commands

Interact with options (=)

Allow you to interact with options. The "window" options allow you to specify what should be drawn in any of the special sub-windows (not available on all platforms). See the help files 'customize.txt' and 'options.txt' for more info. You can also interact with keymaps under this menu.

Interact with keymaps - option submenu

Allow you to interact with keymaps. You may load or save keymaps from user pref files, or define keymaps. You must define a "current action", shown at the bottom of the screen, before you attempt to use any of the "create macro" commands, which use that "current action" as their action.

Interact with colors - option submenu

Allow the user to interact with colors. This command only works on some systems. NOTE: It is commonly used to brighten the 'Light Dark' color (eg. Cave Spiders) on displays with bad alpha settings.

Enter a user pref command (")

Allow to enter a single user pref command.

Enter Dungeon Master menu (&)

Only the Dungeon Master of a given server can use this command. It will help this "meta-character" manage the server in many ways: change levels, add/remove buildings, summon/banish creatures, generate vaults and items at will, modify player attributes...

3.5.17   Help Commands

Help (?)

Brings up the PWMAngband on-line help system. Note that the help files are just text files in a particular format, and that other help files may be available on the Net. In particular, there are a variety of spoiler files which do not come with the standard distribution. Check the place you got PWMAngband from or ask on the Angband forums, angband.oook.cz, about them.

Identify monster (/)

When used with a symbol that represents creatures, this command will list you all creatures from the class of creatures the symbol stands for. When used with a monster name (even partial), it will list all creatures that match that name.

3.5.18   Extra Commands

Toggle Choice Window ('^E')

Toggles the display in any sub-windows (if available) which are displaying your inventory or equipment.

Redraw Screen ('^R')

This command adapts 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 attr/char mappings, or enabling "graphics" mode.

Save screen dump ())

This command dumps a "snap-shot" of the current screen to a file, including encoded color information. The command has two variants: html, suitable for viewing in a web browser; forum embedded html for vBulletin, suitable for pasting in web forums like http://angband.oook.cz/forums.

Get a quest ('^Q')

This command allows players to do some random quests. Each quest will be in the form of "Find and kill n monsters of the (foo) race." Each quest has a time limit, and will give a nice reward if completed.

Socials ('^S')

This command allows players to display some predefined messages in the message window. Messages will be broadcast to all players in the immediate vicinity of the sender.

Center map ('^L') or Center map (@)

This command allows to center the map on the player.

Use an item (U) or Use an item (X)

This command allows players to use any item that can be fired, eaten, drunk, read, used, aimed, zapped or activated. This command may require a direction (depending on the type of the item, and whether you are aware of its type) and can use a target. This command takes some energy.

3.5.19   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, and 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 which might be caught by the operating system as explained above.

Pressing backslash (\) before a command will bypass all keymaps, and the next keypress will be interpreted as an "underlying command" key, unless it is a caret (^), in which case the keypress after that will be turned into a control-key and interpreted as a command in the underlying PWMAngband keyset. For example, the sequence \ + . + 6 will always mean "run east", even if the . key has been mapped to a different underlying command.

The 0 and ^ and \ keys all have special meaning when entered at the command prompt, and there is no "useful" way to specify any of them as an "underlying command", which is okay, since they would have no effect.

For many input requests or queries, the special character ESCAPE will abort the command. The '[y/n]' prompts may be answered with y or n, or 'ESCAPE'.

3.6.1   User Interface Options

When setting the user interface options, there are a handful of commands to make it easier to get to a well-known state for all of those options. They are: 's' to save the current selections so that they will be used as the starting point for future characters, 'r' to reset the current selections to the defaults for a new character, and 'x' to reset the current selections to the PWMAngband maintainer's defaults for the user interface options.

Rogue-like commands rogue_like_commands

Selects the "roguelike" command set (see "command.txt" for info).

Use old target by default use_old_target

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.

Always pickup items pickup_always

Automatically picks up items when you walk upon them, provided it is safe to do so.

Always pickup items matching inventory pickup_inven

Like pickup_always, but picks up an item only if it is a copy of an item that you already have in your inventory.

Notify on object recharge notify_recharge

This causes the game to print a message when any rechargeable object (i.e. a rod or activatable weapon or armour item) finishes recharging.

Show flavors in object descriptions show_flavors

Display "flavors" (color or variety) in object descriptions, even for objects whose type is known. This does not affect objects in stores.

Center map continuously center_player

The map always centres on the player with this option on. With it off, it is divided into 25 sections, with coordinates (0,0) to (4,4), and will show one section at a time - the display will "flip" to the next section when the player nears the edge.

Disturb whenever viewable monster moves disturb_near

Disturb the player when any viewable monster moves, and also whenever any monster becomes viewable for the first time. This option ignores the existence of "telepathy" for the purpose of determining whether a monster is "viewable".

Show damage player deals to monsters show_damage

Shows the damage that the player deals to monsters for melee and ranged combat in the messages.

Color: Illuminate torchlight in yellow view_yellow_light

This option causes special colors to be used for "torch-lit" grids. Turning this option off will slightly improve game speed.

Color: Shimmer multi-colored things animate_flicker

Certain powerful monsters and items will shimmer in real time, i.e. between keypresses.

Color: Player color indicates low hit points hp_changes_color

This option makes the player @ turn various shades of colour from white to red, depending on percentage of HP remaining.

Color: Show unique monsters in purple purple_uniques

All "unique" monsters will be shown in a light purple colour, which is not used for any "normal" monsters - so you can tell at a glance that they are unique. If you like the idea but don't like the colour, you can edit it via the "interact with colors" option.

Show walls as solid blocks solid_walls

Walls are solid blocks instead of # for granite and % for veins. Veins are coloured darker than granite for differentiation purposes.

Show walls with shaded background hybrid_walls

Walls appear as # and % symbols overlaid on a gray background block. This overrides solid_walls.

Use sound use_sound

Turns on sound effects, if your system supports them.

Show effective speed as multiplier effective_speed

Instead of showing absolute speed modifier (e.g. 'Slow (-2)' or 'Fast (+38)'), show the effective rate at which the character is moving (e.g. 'Slow (x0.8)' or 'Fast (x4.1)').

3.6.2   MAngband options

Use orange color for torch-lit grids view_orange_light

This option causes special "torch-lit" grids to be displayed in "orange" instead of "yellow".

Use special color for party leader highlight_leader

This option activates a special color scheme for party leaders, so that party members can quickly determine who's the leader and follow that player in the dungeon easily.

Disturb whenever map panel changes disturb_panel

This option causes you to be disturbed by the screen "scrolling", as it does when you get close to the "edge" of the screen.

Always say Yes to Yes/No prompts auto_accept

Allows to say "yes" to any "[y/n]" prompt without having to press a key.

Freeze screen after detecting monsters pause_after_detect

This option causes detected monsters to stay displayed on the screen until the player presses a command. If the option is off, the screen will be automatically refreshed after one turn has passed.

Wrap long messages in sub-windows wrap_messages

This option displays long messages on multiple lines instead of single lines in sub-windows.

Compare equipment when examining items expand_inspect

This option displays extra information about the currently equipped item in the slot corresponding to the item that is examined.

3.6.3   Birth options

The birth options may only be changed when creating a character or using the quick restart option for a dead character. When setting the birth options, there are a handful of commands to make it easier to get to a well-known state for all of the birth options. They are: 's' to save the current selections so that they will be used as the starting point for future characters, 'r' to reset the current selections to the defaults for a new character, and 'x' to reset the current selections to the PWMAngband maintainer's defaults for the birth options.

Force player descent birth_force_descend

Upwards staircases do not work. All downward staircases, including the one in town, transport the character one level below the previous maximum depth. Recalling from the dungeon works and brings the character to the town. However, recalling from town brings the character one level below the previous maximum depth. The character cannot recall from quest levels until the quest is complete, however you will be warned before descending into a quest level. Any status effects that sometimes teleports the character up and sometimes teleports them down will always choose down. When combined with the option for word of recall scrolls to have no effect, this recreates the previous "ironman" option.

Word of Recall has no effect birth_no_recall

Word of Recall scrolls have no effect. When combined with the option to force player descent, this recreates the previous "ironman" option.

Restrict creation of artifacts birth_no_artifacts

No artifacts will be created. Ever. Just how masochistic are you?

Show level feelings birth_feelings

With this option turned on, the game will give you hints about what a new level has on it. With this option off, these hints will not be shown.

Increase gold drops but disable selling birth_no_selling

Shopkeepers will never pay you for items you sell, though they will still identify unknown items for you, and will still sell you their wares. To balance out income in the game, gold found in the dungeon will be increased if this option is on.

Start with a kit of useful gear birth_start_kit

Start with items, a useful option for new players, or ones that wish to descend immediately into the dungeon. If turned off, the character will start with additional gold with which to purchase starting gear.

Restrict the use of stores/home birth_no_stores

The stores are all closed. The home is someone else's, and locked. You can keep nothing but what you carry with you, and get nothing but what you find in the dungeon. No selling items, or buying mushrooms of vigor... Not recommended for new players, or indeed for sane players.

Death is permanent birth_no_ghost

This option, not recommended for non-advanced players, prevents dead characters from turning into ghosts. Death is final, like in most single player roguelikes.

Play as a fruit bat birth_fruit_bat

Turns you into a fruit bat at birth, giving you +10 speed at the cost of 40% of your maximum HPs. This makes the early game a lot easier and the end game a lot harder. Not available if you play a Dragon.

3.6.4   Advanced options

Get out of icky screens when disturbed disturb_icky

This causes the game to leave "icky" screens when the character is disturbed, as if the ESC key was pressed. Very helpful to avoid being killed while consulting knowledge screens, setting options or creating keymaps.

Active auto-retaliator active_auto_retaliator

If this option is on, a player is able to auto-attack any monster when there is only one monster around the player. If this option is off, or when there are more than one monster around the player, a player need to target a monster first in order to attack it repeatedly (by moving into that monster or using the target command).

Disturb whenever monsters bash down doors disturb_bash

Disturb the player when any monster bashes a door on the level.

Activate fire-till-kill mode fire_till_kill

This option enables repeat casting and shooting until there are no more enemies on the screen (or the player is disturbed).

Risky casting risky_casting

Allow the player to cast spells while not having the required amount of mana at the risk of damaging constitution and getting paralyzed.

Use single items from floor instantly quick_floor

This option enables instant using of single items on the floor instead of displaying a menu with one item.

Hide terrain description on status line hide_terrain

This option hides terrain description on status line.

Disable Enter menu disable_enter

This option disables the Enter menu.

Sort monsters by experience in the monster list sort_exp

This option sorts monsters by experience instead of depth in the monster list.

Display monsters in ASCII ascii_mon

This option displays monsters using ASCII symbols instead of tiles when using a tileset.

Nonmoving monsters disturb running disturb_nomove

Disturb the player when trying to run in line of sight of a nonmoving monster.

Disturb when effects end disturb_effect_end

Disturb the player when any effect ends.

Confirm recall out of non-reentrable dungeons confirm_recall

This option triggers a confirmation message when recalling from a dungeon with an entrance level lower than the current character level.

Hide controlled monsters in monster lists hide_slaves

This option hides controlled monsters in monster lists.

3.6.5   Window flags

Some platforms support "sub-windows", which are windows which can be used to display useful information generally available through other means. The best thing about these windows is that they are updated automatically (usually) to reflect the current state of the world. The "window options" can be used to specify what should be displayed in each window. The possible choices should be pretty obvious.

Display inven/equip

Display the player inventory (and sometimes the equipment).

Display equip/inven

Display the player equipment (and sometimes the inventory).

Display player (basic)

Display a brief description of the character, including a breakdown of the current player "skills" (including attacks/shots per round).

Display player (extra)

Display a special description of the character, including some of the "flags" which pertain to a character, and a breakdown of the contributions of each equipment item to various resistances and stats.

Display player (compact)

Display a brief description of the character (also available on the main window).

Display map view

Display an overhead view of the entire dungeon level.

Display messages

Display the most recently generated "messages".

Display monster recall

Display a description of the monster which has been most recently attacked, targeted, or examined in some way.

Display object recall

Display a description of the most recently examined object.

Display monster list

Display a list of monsters you know about and their distance from you (also available via the '[' command).

Display status

Display the current status of the player, with permanent or temporary boosts, resistances and status ailments (also available on the main window).

Display item list

Display a list of items you know about and their distance from you.

Display chat messages

Display chat messages in a separate sub-window. This will only work when selecting "Term-4" (or "Chat Window") as the chat window.

Display spell list

Display the list of all spells that have been learned by the player.

Display special info

Display special recall screens in a separate sub-window.

3.6.6   Left Over Information

The hitpoint_warn value, if non-zero, is the percentage of maximal hitpoints at which the player is warned that they may die. It is also used as the cut-off for using the color red to display both hitpoints and mana, and as a trigger for the time bubble slowdown effect.

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.

The ignore_lvl value, if non-zero, is the quality level of items that are considered "junk items" by the player. It can range from 1 (worthless items) to 4 (all items except artifacts). This value can be set for nine different categories of items: jewelry, dragon scale mails, melee weapons, missiles that can be fired, missiles that can be thrown, other wearable items, books, junk items and other consumable items.

The lazymove_delay value, if non-zero, will allow the player to move diagonally by pressing the two appropriate arrow keys within the delay time. This may be useful particularly when using a keyboard with no numpad.

3.7.1   User Pref Files

User pref files are PWMAngband's way of saving and loading certain settings. They can store:

• Altered visual appearances for game entities
• Inscriptions to automatically apply to items
• Keymaps
• Altered colours
• Subwindow settings
• Colours for different types of messages
• What audio files to play for different types of messages

They are simple text files with an easy to modify format, and the game has a set of pre-existing pref files in the lib/customize/ folder. It's recommended you don't modify these.

Several options menu (=) items allow you to load existing user pref files, create new user pref files, or save to a user pref file.

3.7.2   Ignoring items

PWMAngband allows you to ignore specific items that you don't want to see anymore. These items are marked 'ignored' and any similar items are hidden from view. The easiest way to ignore an item is with the k (or ^D) command; the object is dropped and then hidden from view. When ignoring an object, you will be given a choice of ignoring just that object, or all objects like it in some way.

The entire ignoring system can also be accessed from the options menu (=) by choosing i for Item ignoring setup. This allows ignore settings for non-wearable items, and quality and ego ignore settings (described below) for wearable items, to be viewed or changed.

There is a quality setting for each wearable item type. Ignoring a wearable item will prompt you with a question about whether you wish to ignore all of that type of item with a certain quality setting, or of an ego type, or both.

The quality settings are:

worthless

Weapon/armor with negative AC, to-hit or to-dam, or item with zero base cost.

average

Weapon/armor with no pluses no minuses, or any other non-magical item.

good

Weapon/armor with positive AC, to-hit or to-dam, but without any special abilities, brands, slays, stat-boosts, resistances, or magical items.

non-artifact

This setting only leaves artifacts unignored.

3.7.3   Inscribing items

Inscriptions are notes you can mark on objects using the { command. You can use this to give the game commands about the object, which are listed below. You can also set up the game to automatically inscribe certain items whenever you find them, then save these autoinscriptions to pref file by using = then t.

Inscribing an item with '=g':

This marks an item as 'always pick up'. This is sometimes useful for picking up ammunition after a shootout. If there is a number immediately after the 'g', then the amount picked up automatically will be limited. If you have inscribed a spellbook with '=g4' and have four or more copies in your pack, you will not automatially pick up any more copies when you have the 'pickup if in inventory' option enabled. If you have three copies in your pack with that inscription and happen to find a pile of two copies, you'll automatically pick up one so there is four in the pack.

Inscribing an item with ! followed by a command letter or *:

This means "prevent me from using this item". '!w' means 'prevent me from wielding', '!d' means 'prevent me from dropping', and so on. If you inscribe an item with '!*' then the game will prevent any use of the item. Say you inscribed your potion of Speed with '!q'. This would prevent you from drinking it to be sure you really meant to. Similarly, using !v!k!d makes it very hard for you to accidentally throw, ignore or put down the item it is inscribed on. Some adventurers use this for Scrolls of Word of Recall so they don't accidentally return to the dungeon too soon.

Inscribing an item with @, followed by a command letter, followed by 0-9:

Normally when you select an item from your inventory you must enter the letter that corresponds to the item. Since the order of your inventory changes as items get added and removed, this can get annoying. You can instead assign certain items numbers when using a command so that wherever they are in your backpack, you can use the same keypresses. If you have multiple items inscribed with the same thing, the game will use the first one. For example, if you inscribe a staff of Cure Light Wounds with '@u1', you can refer to it by pressing 1 when (u)sing it. You could also inscribe a wand of Wonder with '@a1', and when using a, 1 would select that wand. Spellcasters should inscribe their books, so that if they lose them they do not cast the wrong spell. If you are mage and the beginner's spellbook is the first in your inventory, casting 'maa' will cast magic missile. But if you lose your spellbook, casting 'maa' will cast the first spell in whatever new book is in the top of your inventory. This can be a waste in the best case scenario and exceedingly dangerous in the worst! By inscribing your spellbooks with '@m1', '@m2', etc., if you lose your first spellbook and attempt to cast magic missile by using 'm1a', you cannot accidentally select the wrong spellbook.

Inscribing an item with ^, followed by a command letter:

When you inscribe an item with ^, the game prevents you from doing that action. You might inscribe '^>' on an item if you want to be reminded to take it off before going down stairs. Like with !, you can use * for the command letter if you want to game to prevent you from doing any action. This can get very annoying!

3.7.4   Showing extra info in subwindows

In addition to the main window, you can create additional windows that have secondary information on them. You can access the subwindow menu by using = then w, where you can choose what to display in which window.

You may then need to make the window visible using the "window" menu from the menu bar (if you have one in your version of the game).

There are a variety of subwindow choices and you should experiment to see which ones are the most useful for you.

3.7.5   Keymaps

You can set up keymaps in PWMAngband, which allow you to map a single keypress to a series of keypresses. For example you might map the key F1 to "maa" (the keypresses to cast "Magic Missile" as a spellcaster). This can speed up access to commonly-used features.

To set up keymaps, go to the options menu (=) and select "Edit keymaps" (k).

Keymaps have two parts: the trigger key and the action. These are written where possible just as ordinary characters. However, if modifier keys (shift, control, etc.) are used then they are encoded as special characters within curly braces {}.

Possible modifiers are:

K = Keypad (for numbers)
M = Meta (Cmd-key on OS X, alt on most other platforms)
^ = Control
S = Shift

If the only modifier is the control key, the curly braces {} aren't included. For example:

{^S}& = Control-Shift-&
^D    = Control-D

Special keys, like F1, F2, or Tab, are all written within square brackets []. For example:

^[F1]     = Control-F1
{^S}[Tab] = Control-Shift-Tab

Special keys include [Escape].

The game will run keymaps in whatever keyset you use (original or roguelike). So if you write keymaps for roguelike keys and switch to original keys, they may not work as you expect! Keymap actions aren't recursive either, so if you had a keymap whose trigger was F1, including F1 inside the action wouldn't run the keymap action again.

Keymaps are written in pref files as:

A:<action>
C:<type>:<trigger>

The action must always come first, `<type>` means 'keyset type', which is either 0 for the original keyset or 1 for the roguelike keyset. For example:

A:maa
C:0:[F1]

PWMAngband uses a few built-in keymaps. These are for the movement keys (they are mapped to ; plus the number, e.g. 5 -> ;5), amongst others. You can see the full list in pref.prf but they shouldn't impact on you in any way.

To avoid triggering a keymap for a given key, you can type the backslash (\) command before pressing that key.

3.7.6   Colours

The "Interact with colors" options submenu (=, then v) allows you to change how different colours are displayed. Depending on what kind of computer you have, this may or may not have any effect.

The interface is quite clunky. You can move through the colours using n for 'next colour' and N for 'previous colour'. Then upper and lower case r, g and b will let you tweak the color. You can then save the results to user pref file.

3.7.7   Interface details

Some aspects of how the game is presented, notably the font, window placement and graphical tile set, are controlled by the front end, rather than the core of the game itself. Each front end has its own mechanism for setting those details and recording them between game sessions. Below are brief descriptions for what you can configure with the standard Windows and SDL front ends.

4.1.1   Angband Version Information

Detailed information about current and previous versions can be found at http://angband.github.io/angband. Also additional information can be found at the Angband forums (http://angband.oook.cz).

This file was last updated for Angband 3.1.2 and remains here mainly for historical purposes.

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, being 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 summarised in this file.

Please be sure to read the 'Copying and licence information'.

4.1.2   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 targeted 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.

During the last half of 1994, Ben Harrison had been playing with the Angband source, primarily to investigate the possibility of making some kind of automatic player for Angband, like the old "rogue-o-matic" program for the game "Rogue". The difficulty of compiling a version for the Macintosh, and the complexity of the code, prevented this, and so Ben began cleaning up the code in various ways for his personal use.

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 made his code available, calling it "Angband 2.7.0", and by default, taking over as the new maintainer of Angband.

Angband 2.7.0 was a very clean (but very buggy) rewrite that, among other things, allowed extremely simple porting to multiple platforms, starting with Unix and Macintosh, and by the time most of the bugs were cleaned up, in Angband 2.7.2, including X11, and various IBM machines. Angband 2.7.4 was released to the "ftp.cis.ksu.edu" site, and quickly gained acceptance, perhaps helped by the OS2 and Windows and Amiga and Linux ports. Angband 2.7.5 and 2.7.6 added important capabilities such as macros and user pref files, and continued to clean up the source. Angband 2.7.8 was released to the major ftp archives as the first "stable" version in a year or so, with new "help files" and "spoiler files" for the "online help", plus a variety of minor tweaks and some new features.

After Angband 2.7.8 was released, Ben created a web site to keep track of all the changes made in each version (though a few may have been missed), and acquired the use of a new development ftp server to supplement the official "mirror" server. This web site is now permanently located at the Official Angband Home Page (http://www.thangorodrim.net/). Unfortunately, the next six versions were numbered Angband 2.7.9v1 to Angband 2.7.9v6, but really each were rather major updates. Angband 2.8.0 and 2.8.1 were released using a more normal version scheme. Angband 2.8.2 and 2.8.3 add a few random features, clean up some code, and provide graphics support and such for a few more platforms.

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. Meanwhile, an "unofficial" version by Robert Ruehlmann, incorporating three popular patches (the "Easy Patch" by Tim Baker, for opening doors and disarming traps without specifying the direction: Greg Wooledge's "Random Artifacts" patch: and Keldon Jones's "Optional Monster AI Improvement"), named "2.8.3h", was gaining popularity.

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.

And with the greater amount of user-customizability that is now possible, it was inevitable that SOMEBODY would eventually go and actually do something with it. Jonathan Ellis started customizing the user-editable text files in the 'edit' directory for his own personal use - originally, only by fixing bugs and inconsistencies (less powerful monsters being worth more experience per kill than more powerful ones, dragons doing a decent amount of damage in melee, monsters with two claws and one mouth getting one claw and three bite attacks, and so on).

At first, this was all that could really be done with it: adding new monsters and items was impossible, as the limits were fixed. And so only three new monsters made an appearance, each of them replacing an existing monster in the order: and one new artifact - "The Palantir of Westernesse". Gameplay balance could be tweaked somewhat, by changing the level, power and rarity of certain items and monsters: and some changes were made, mostly with the attempt to reduce the notorious "triple whammy" effect of needing poison, confusion and nether resistance (or over 550 hps, if without nether resistance) all at once, straight after passing 2000', forcing excessive scumming before this depth or risking unavoidable instant death: and then having nothing left to do but dive straight to 4000' and scum for speed items, missing out on some of the most interesting depths of the dungeon. This problem, at least, could be addressed, but actual new things were less easy to add...

That all changed with Angband 2.9.1, which for the first time moved the limits themselves to a separate user-editable file, and allowed more monsters and items to be created without removing the old ones. At the same time, a patch by Matthias Kurzke was incorporated which allowed the creation of new ego-items. Various new powers, for the player and monsters, were added to the game - but no items or monsters yet had these powers (resist fear, poison brand, lose charisma, summon greater demons, and so on): indeed, arguably it could be said that the game had not even adjusted properly to Ben Harrison's fractional speed system (Angband 2.7.0) or the addition of the other attack forms such as shards, sound, chaos, nexus and so on (even before Ben.)

The Official Angband Home Page (http://angband.github.io/angband) serves not only as the most up to date description of Angband, but also lists changes made between versions, and changes planned for upcoming versions, and lists various email addresses and web sites related to Angband.

4.1.3   Some of the changes between Angband 2.6.1 and 3.0.6

It is very hard to pin down, along the way from 2.6.2 to 3.0.6, exactly what changes were made, and exactly when they were made. Most releases involved so many changes from the previous release as to make "diff files" not very useful, since often the diff files are as long as the code itself. Most of the changes, with the notable exception of the creation of some of the new 'main-xxx.c' files for the various new platforms, and a few other minor exceptions generally noted directly in comments in the source, were written by Ben or Robert, either spontaneously, or, more commonly, as the result of a suggestion or comment by an Angband player.

The most important modification was a massive "code level cleanup" for 2.7.x, largely completed in 2.7.8, that made all other modifications much simpler and safer. This cleanup was so massive that in many places the code is no longer recognizable, for example, via "diff -r", often because it was rewritten from scratch.

The second most important modification was the design of a generic 'z-term.c' package, which allows Angband to be ported to a new machine with as few as 50 lines of code. Angband 2.9.3 thus runs without modification on many machines, including Macintosh, PowerMac, Unix/X11, Unix/Curses, Amiga, Windows, OS2-386, DOS-386, and even DOS-286.

It would be difficult to list all of the changes between Angband 2.6.1 and 3.0.6, because many of them were made in passing during the massive code level cleanup. Many of the changes are invisible to the user, but still provide increased simplicity and efficiency, and decreased code size, or make other more visable changes possible. For example, the new 'project()' code that handles all bolts, beams, and balls, the new 'update_view()' code that simplifies line of sight computation, or the new 'generate()' code that builds new levels in the dungeon. Many changes have been made to increase efficiency, including the new 'process_monsters()' and 'update_monsters()' functions, and the new 'objdes()' and 'light_spot()' routines. The generic 'z-term.c' package yielded efficient screen updates, and enabled the efficient use of color.

The most visible (to ordinary players) changes that happened as a result of Ben Harrison's maintainership were:

• a far greater degree of user-customizability as shown by the 'info.txt' files
• the "fractional" speed system, with +10 in the new scheme equalling +1 in old money
• object stacking, the ability to have more than one object in a square: first tried in 2.7.9, completed in 2.8.2.

It should also be pointed out at this point that the far cleaner nature of Ben's code as compared to previous versions has given many other people the opportunity to base code for their own Angband variants on it. And so a plethora of new variants have appeared, many of them far more different from Angband now than Angband ever was from Moria, and yet still based on Ben's coding ideals for Angband.

For Angband 2.9.0, the first few new visible features were a random artifact generator (originally developed from a variant by Greg Wooledge), an option to improve monster AI (believed to have originally started out life in a patch written by Keldon Jones), and a patch to allow easier handling of opening and closing doors and disarming traps (by Tim Baker). For Angband 2.9.1 has also come such things as the ability to increase the size of the editable text files and thus the number of monsters, artifacts, items, ego-items and vaults in the game (many new vaults were written by Chris Weisiger, some by others, and the number of vaults in the game at this time was doubled), and much greater customizability of ego-items has become possible thanks to a patch written by Matthias Kurzke. It is also now possible to add new character races to the game, and to edit the shopkeepers with respect to their greed, tolerance of haggling and reactions to the character based on his race. Angband 2.9.2 adds support for poison branded weapons to the game. Angband 2.9.3 made the character class itself customizable to an extent.

4.1.4   A Posting from the Original Author

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 aggravate 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

4.1.5   Previous Versions (outdated)

4.1.6   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

4.1.7   MAngband Version Information

Make sure to visit the Official MAngband Home Page (http://mangband.org/) for the most up to date information about MAngband.

Lists of changes made between versions, newbie and strategy guides, documentation references, live information, forums and much more about the MAngband community available here: https://mangband.org/docs

MAngband was created by Keldon Jones, in 1997. At that time, the latest Angband version was 2.7.9, which was a lovechild of Ben Harrison, who rewrote an insanely large amount of code, unifying and refactoring things, bringing several diverging codebases (the EMX port, the Amiga port, the Windows port, etc) back into fold. Of particular note was a "Z-Term" interface, which created a proper abstraction layer on top of different display frontends. From then on, porting Angband to a new platform was a matter of writing a main-xxx file, implementing 10-20 functions, responsible for initializing windows, drawing text on screen, plotting graphics and playing sounds. We're still using this idiom in the 2020s.

When Keldon Jones set out to make a multi-player version, he had split the Angband code into two parts, the client and the server. The server would, naturally, process all gameplay-related things, like dungeon generation and monster turns, while the client would allow players to interact with the world. There is a common misconception, that MAngband client is just a glorified dumb terminal, not too different from 'telnet'.

That is not true at all. The client retained all the interface bits of the Angband program, like item query and directional prompts, the ability to read and write user preferences files, the macro system and all that jazz. MAngband client did not ever send raw keystrokes to the server, each command and interesting action was assigned to a network packet, each with it's own schema. Upon receiving those, the server did not transfer those to keystrokes either, but did required, command-specific, processing.

One very fortunate bit of Ben Harrison's refactor was the fact, that each interface element that required redrawing on screen was assigned each own "redraw flag". For example, when player's hit points were updated, say, due to a monster attack, a special bit flag "PR_HP" was set. At some point, after each dungeon turn, the game would check if that flag is set. Then, and only then, would it call the appropriate "prt_hp" function to actually plot new values onto the screen.

This allowed Keldon Jones to "hook into" this system. He did not have to hack each and every function to inject new network code. Instead, at the appropriate time, the server would check, if "PR_HP" was set. If it was, it meant that it's time to re-send those values to the client! The various functions and parts of code that were actually responsible for setting those flags remained identical to Angband. On the client-side the same flags were set once a network update was received. Then, the drawing-to-screen proceeded as usual.

(Preempting ahead, this ingenious solution allowed us to port large bits of Angband code from later versions, without changing anything! This whole process of placing network stuff in-between Angband stuff is now known as "Keldonizing", and MAngband, generally tries to follow this principle).

Another fortunate thing was the separation of each game command into "cmd_xxx" and "do_cmd_xxx" functions. The "cmd_xxx" functions were responsible for getting player input, and checking for errors. The "do_cmd_xxx" functions were performing the actual action. For example, pressing 'E' would invoke 'cmd_eat' function, which would query the player, "Which item?". After picking a strip of beef jerky, the "do_cmd_eat" function would handle all necessary things, like restoring her hunger level, and removing said strip from her inventory.

As you might've already guessed, the "cmd_xxx" functions went to the client and the "do_cmd_xxx" functions went to the server! In-between, Keldon injected his network layer stuff, so that a network packet would transmit player's intent. It would be appropriate to note here, that a "command queue" concept was introduced. Similar to the "keyboard queue" on the client, this server-side queue would hold all requested commands, and only execute the related "do_cmd_xxx" functions once the player would have enough energy.

"Energy" was another concept already present in Angband. As different monsters had different "speed" ratings, the turn order was always shifting around. A monster, or a player, would only be able to act as they had reached enough. A full-turn action would require 100 energy, a half-turn action would require 50 energy. Depending on monster/player speed, each tick would add a different amount to the counter. Thus, fast monsters could reach the desired "100" value faster. Therefore, turning such turn-based game into "real-time" was relatively straight-forward: you just run ticks on a timer, and add appropriate energy, already balanced well, by speed.

Finally, the "amount of energy needed to perform full-turn action" was also hacked upon. Each dungeon level got assigned a pre-defined factor, so that the deeper players went, the slower the game would play.

And thus, the transition to real-time was made, without compromising any of the Angband concepts. I would also add, that since that time, several other online roguelikes were made out of the MAngband codebase, and they all rely heavily on this.

Finally, a concept of "ghosts" was introduced. This gave players a chance to avoid permadeath, and to continue playing even after death. Ghosts could float up from the dungeon and resurrect themselves at the temple (shop '4') losing 50% of their experience. Along those lines, PvP (player-versus-player) combat was added, making it a true multi-player roguelike.

Keldon Jones wrote many other fine things, which would be too numerous to list. You might want to examine the CHANGELOG file to see some of his patch notes. However, I believe that the most important thing he did, was providing us with a template, so that we could turn any roguelike game into a multiplayer/real-time experience. We owe it all to him.

After about a year of hacking on MAngband, Keldon Jones went on to create other interesting things. True to Angband tradition, a new maintainer had to be chosen. Keep in mind, that beside taking care of the codebase, a MAngband maintainer is also responsible for hosting the "flagship" server, so that people could actually play the game.

Alex Dingle was responsible for turning this proof-of-concept game into a proper MMO. Things like player houses, wilderness, ability to resurrect other players by reading a Scroll of Life, proper XP sharing between party members, healing prayers for priests and paladins (along with an option to target friendly characters and not just monsters/hostile players), ensuring that things like "slow monster" spells actually affect other players, multitude of interface improvements, DM menu and admin characters, the list goes on and on.

Most of the MAngband "traditions" come from this era (years 1998-2002, version 0.5.4D to 0.7.0). The most important technical achievement was the switch to proper TCP/IP, leaving UDP/IP and the various hacks on top of it behind. A lot of fine-tuning to the game speed and command handling was done to make the gameplay as smooth as possible for a real-time game.

And don't forget that casting polymorph onto other players now turned them into fruitbats :-)

During the Alex Dingle's reign, lots and lots of patches were added by Crimson, who had been an invaluable contributor, and was a natural choice to be the next maintainer.

Robert L. Seifer, aka Crimson, maintained a rolling-release policy, so that the game was constantly being updated on the live server. Due to this fact, the version history is a bit muddied during his era.

There was a huge list of bugs, server crashes and other problems that persisted from the very early days of MAngband, dating back to Keldon era. Most of those were now addressed, players would no longer encounter empty items or crash the server by sending wrong item indexes.

In addition, Crimson maintained an "Ironman" variant, similar to Angband ironman challenge. Closer to the end of his reign, this variant was folded back into MAngband codebase, making it a server option.

An IRC channel #mangband was also maintained by him and a first ever IRC-to-game bridge was deployed. This allowed people on IRC to chat with players in the game and vice-versa.

Crimson also added audit code, which tracked all player-to-player item/gold transactions, to prevent abuse and "cheeze".

At the very end of his time, a SVN repository was created, to hold the code in a proper version-controlled system. As he was looking for the next maintainer, he wanted to make sure the code history would get preserved.

Graham King (aka Jug) became the 4th maintainer. During his reign, a "MAngband Project Team" was formed, which finally turned MAngband development into a true open-source process. This was another milestone, that changed the way MAngband was developed forever.

From now on, bugs would be tracked on an issue tracker (trac), changes and patches would be accepted from all over the world in a timely fashion, and all discussions related to the future of the game would happen "in the open", and not over private emails between maintainers and contributors.

He has also cleaned up the source code significantly, removed rogue bits of code that crept in from PernMangband, removed the dedicated console protocol in favor of telnet (thus nuking a specialized "console" program), simplified the IRC bridge interface (allowing for a very easy way to write new bridges and bots), introduced online highscores and brought an unseen-before stability to the server. The "stable" version of 1.1.0 became a cornerstone, which allowed us to host server instances uninterrupted for years.

For the first time ever, new code from upsteam Angband has began to pour back into MAngband. Angband development has been sporadic, with huge downtimes, but during that time a new dev.team (led by takkaria) took over, so there were a lot of new and exciting improvements, which MAngband absorbed. That included new monsters and spells from Angband 3.0.6, along with several new game mechanics and re-balancing.

Most importantly, the band, that has formed under his command, worked long and hard to release 1.1.0, fixing over 100+ critical bugs, in a true team effort. A set of guidelines was formed (what "MAngband is and isn't", "how to work with issues", "how to format commits") which is still serving us.

At around 2013, the development was moved from svn to git, and trac was dumped in favour of github issues. All commit history and ticket history was preserved. This was also Jug's doing, and has saved us from bitrot doom.

After releasing 1.1.0 the MAngband Project Team decided it's time for a major rewrite, that would simplify and improve lots of important aspects of the game, to make modding and future work easier. One of the driving ideas was to allow variant development that doesn't break protocol compatibility ("generalizing" parts of the protocol).

This long haul took about 10 years, culminating, finally in the release of 1.5.0 version. There have been around 2000 commits, and 1000 closed issues, so it would be pointless to list it all here. Thankfully, all that is documented in our source repository and the closed ticket/issues.

Among interesting changes, was the move to automake/autoconf build system (instead of custom Makefiles for each platform), addition of virtually all Angband features (to a certain date), complete rewrite of the lower-level network layers and the introduction of Time Bubbles, which, in my mind, add the last missing piece to the whole "online roguelike" concept. That's also the version that finally added custom House Building.

4.1.8   PWMAngband Version Information

Make sure to visit the Official PWMAngband Forum (http://www.mangband.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=9) for the most up to date information about PWMAngband.

Lists of changes made between versions and documentation about the new features can be found on the PWMAngband forum.

4.1.9   A Note from the Maintainer

I have been playing MAngband and TomeNET since 1999, enjoying both of these multiplayer variants of Angband. Unfortunately, I was frustrated with the minimal amount of races and classes of MAngband (which is actually a basic multiplayer variant of Angband), and the overgrowing complexity/sillyness of TomeNET (which is already based on an Angband variant, ToME).

In 2007, the MAngband community made the MAngband source code easily available through a svn repository, with a development website allowing to track any change in the source code. This was the basic framework I was waiting for to start my own variant. So in April 2007, I started to implement basic features from TomeNET 3.x into the MAngband code: races, classes, monsters, objects... (check the whole story here: http://www.mangband.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1020).

And finally PWMAngband was born! Since that time, I have continued to implement new features (and fix bugs...), while adding the new improvements from both vanilla Angband and MAngband.

4.1.10   Previous Versions (milestones)

• PWMAngband 0.9.9 : 06/30/2007 (Angband 2.x + MAngband 0.7.3)
• PWMAngband 1.0.0 : 01/28/2008 (Angband 3.0.6 + MAngband 1.0.0)
• PWMAngband 1.1.0 : 05/30/2008 (Angband 3.0.6 + MAngband 1.1.0)
• PWMAngband 1.1.1 : 08/23/2008 (Angband 3.0.6 + MAngband 1.1.1)
• PWMAngband 1.1.2 : 04/30/2009 (Angband 3.0.6 + MAngband 1.1.2)
• PWMAngband 1.1.3 : 03/05/2010 (Angband 3.0.9 + MAngband 1.1.2)
• PWMAngband 1.1.4 : 05/05/2010 (Angband 3.1.0 + MAngband 1.1.2)
• PWMAngband 1.1.5 : 10/30/2010 (Angband 3.1.1 + MAngband 1.1.2)
• PWMAngband 1.1.6 : 01/27/2011 (Angband 3.1.2 + MAngband 1.1.2)
• PWMAngband 1.1.7 : 05/20/2011 (Angband 3.2.0 + MAngband 1.1.2)
• PWMAngband 1.1.8 : 11/26/2011 (Angband 3.3.x + MAngband 1.1.2)
• PWMAngband 1.1.9 : 09/17/2012 (Angband 3.4.x + MAngband 1.1.2)
• PWMAngband 1.1.10 : 04/22/2014 (Angband 3.5.x + MAngband 1.1.2)
• PWMAngband 1.1.11 : 01/05/2016 (Angband 4.0.x + MAngband 1.1.2)
• PWMAngband 1.1.12 : 12/24/2017 (Angband 4.1.x + MAngband 1.1.2)
• PWMAngband 1.2.0 : 03/01/2019 (Angband 4.1.x + MAngband 1.1.4)
• PWMAngband 1.3.0 : 09/28/2019 (Angband 4.1.3 + MAngband 1.4.0)
• PWMAngband 1.4.0 : 09/08/2020 (Angband 4.2.x + MAngband 1.4.0)
• PWMAngband 1.5.0 : 09/10/2021 (Angband 4.2.x + MAngband 1.5.x)

5.1.1   The data files

constants.txt

This file contains game values such as carried item capacity, visual range and dungeon level and town dimensions.

object_base.txt

This file contains the names and common properties of the basic object classes - scroll, sword, ring, and so on. All objects have an object base. Each object base is assigned a 'tval' - a numeric index. The tvals are defined in list-tvals.h. While adding new object bases is possible, it is unlikely to do much without deeper changes to the game.

object.txt

This file contains the names, properties and description of all the object types that appear in PWMAngband. New object kinds can easily be added to this file, or existing ones edited. Each object defined by this file has an object base, and is also allocated another numeric index called an 'sval'. A tval-sval pair completely identifies an object - since the tval and sval are saved to savefiles, removing or adding objects is likely to render existing save files unusable.

ego_item.txt

This file contains the names, properties and description of ego items, which are magically enhanced weapons and armour. New ego items can be added or removed at will, although removing or changing one with an instance currently in the game might cause problems.

artifact.txt

This file contains the names, properties and description of artifacts, which are unique items - only one of each will ever be generated. If you are considering major changes, new artifacts are one of the most visible signs of a change of theme. Regardless, new artifacts are easy and fun to design.

names.txt

This file contains lists of words which are used to generate names for random character names, random artifacts and scrolls. Again, in the case of a change of theme, this is a good way of displaying the new theme.

activation.txt

Activations are used for artifacts and some regular objects, and could be used for ego items (see Cloaks of Lordly Resistance). Some standard artifacts from artifact.txt have activations, and random artifacts may have any activation from this file chosen for them. Activations can be made up of any effects (see list-effects.h and effect-handler-xxx.c).

flavor.txt

Items such as potions and wands are assigned a flavor per object kind, different in each game. There need to be at least as many flavors for each flavored object base as objects with that base.

monster_base.txt

Monster bases are the monster equivalent of object bases - classes of monster like orc, troll or vampire. This file contains the properties common across all monsters in each of these classes.

monster.txt

This contains the detail of all monster races, each of which will have its monster base properties plus additional ones. Some monsters are unique, and once killed will never reappear.

monster_spell.txt

All the spells that can be cast by monsters (and are referred to in the 'spells:' lines in monster.txt) are defined in this file. As with activations, monster spells are built up from effects.

pain.txt

This file contains the various messages that are given to describe how a monster responds to attack.

pit.txt

Dungeon levels can contain pits - rooms full of a particular selection of monsters. This file defines these selections. They can also be used, for example, to generate partial or complete dungeon levels with themed monsters.

class.txt

This file completely defines how player classes work, including all details of castable spells. There are some class-specific properties hard-coded, which are referred to via the 'flags:' lines, and appear in list-player-flags.h.

p_race.txt

This file defines all player race characteristics. Race-specific code is handled as for classes.

body.txt

Every player race has a body, which defines what equipment they can use. Currently there is only one body, which all races use, but this is easily changeable for significant effect.

history.txt

This file is for creating the player background found on the character screen. If a new race is introduced, a selection of background information for it will need to be added.

hints.txt

This is simply a list of general pieces of advice that shopkeepers will give to their customers.

quest.txt

This file defines the quest monsters (Sauron and Morgoth) and where they appear. This currently can't easily be changed, as there are still hard-coded aspects of the quests.

terrain.txt

This file defines the kind of terrain which can appear in PWMAngband, and its properties. Current terrain can be changed (with possibly large effects), but removing it without code changes is likely to break the game. Adding new terrain will have no effect by itself, because there is no mechanism for it to appear.

trap.txt

This defines all traps, door locks and runes. Actual trap effects appear in list-effects.h and effect-handler-xxx.c.

room_template.txt

This is a list of templates for interesting-shaped rooms which appear in the dungeon. These can easily be changed and new ones added.

vault.txt

Similar to room_template.txt, this handles vaults, which are very dangerous and lucrative rooms.

dungeon_profile.txt

This file contains fairly technical details about the different types of dungeon level which can be generated. The actual generation routines are in gen-cave.c; the information here consists of parameters for generating individual levels, and for how often given level types appear.

store.txt

This details the shop owners and their relative generosity.

blow_effects.txt

This defines effects to the player caused by monster attacks. The simplest monster attacks just deal damage, but others can affect the player's status, stats or inventory.

blow_methods.txt

This details the different ways monsters can attack (hit, claw, etc.). It affects the messages the player gets, and also whether the blow can stun or cut the player.

brand.txt

This details how weapon brands work.

slay.txt

This details how weapons can be more effective against certain monsters.

curse.txt

This file contains all the different curses that can be applied to objects. It includes what type of object they can be applied to, random effects they can cause, and how they change an object's properties.

object_property.txt

This file gives details about what properties an object can have (apart from basic combat and armor class). Every property has a code which is used in the game to refer to that property in some way. This means it is not possible to add new properties to this file and expect to have any effect, but it is possible to change how existing properties work.

object_power.txt

This file contains formulas for calculating power of objects (used in determining prices and generating random artifacts). You should only change this file if you understand the way they are used (defined in obj-power.c).

player_timed.txt

This file defines some of the properties of timed effects (such as haste and confusion) that can apply to the player. It chiefly contains the messages on changes in these effects, and player attributes which prevent the effects. To add new timed effects or change the way existing ones operate, you will have to alter list-player-timed.h and probably other files, and re-compile the game.

projection.txt

This file contains a lot of the defining information about projections - effects which can be produced at a distance by player or monsters, and affecting player, monsters, objects, and/or terrain. In particular, this file defines details of the effects of elemental attacks (such as fire or shards) and the effectiveness of corresponding player resistance. New projections have to be included in list-projections.h, and the code to implement their effects put in other source files - project-obj.c for effects on objects, and other similarly-named files.

realm.txt

This contains a small amount of information about the current magic realms.

summon.txt

This contains definitions for the types of monsters that can be summoned. Adding a new summon type is not yet possible, because the summon spells are hard-coded in list-mon-spells.h.

dungeon.txt

This file contains the list of dungeons.

socials.txt

This file contains the list of simple role-playing messages.

town.txt

This file contains the list of towns and their coordinates on the metamap.

town_bree.txt

This file contains the layout for the town of Bree.

town_gondolin.txt

This file contains the layout for the town of Gondolin.

town_lothlorien.txt

This file contains the layout for the town of Lothlorien.

town_minas_anor.txt

This file contains the layout for the town of Minas Anor.

town_umbar.txt

This file contains the layout for the town of Umbar.

town_feat.txt

This file contains the symbols used to describe the layout for the above towns.

wild_feat.txt

This file contains the list of available terrain types in the wilderness. Order must match entries in list-wild-feats.h.

wild_info.txt

This file contains the layout for the metamap.

dragon_breed.txt

This file contains information about dragon breeds.

5.1.2   Making Graphical Tilesets

You can make new graphical tilesets for PWMAngband or customize existing ones. In this section we'll dive into how tilesets are defined and describe how to set one up from scratch. First, we'll enumerate the steps required and then we'll break down each step in detail.

1. Create a directory to contain the tileset's files: (ex. lib/tiles/foo)
2. Register the tileset in lib/tiles/list.txt
3. Create an empty bitmap image large enough to hold your tileset
4. Store the empty bitmap image in your tileset folder
5. Author one or more .prf files to inform Angband how to use your tileset
6. Create a Makefile in your tileset folder

First you need to create a directory to contain your tileset's files. Put the directory in lib/tiles and choose a name for the directory that is lower-case and generally matches the naming convention of the other tilesets you see there. Once the directory has been created, the next step is to decide how big the tiles will be in pixels and then create a blank PNG image large enough to hold all of the tiles (be sure to enable alpha transparency). As an example, Shockbolt's tileset uses 64x64 pixel tiles. It also uses the special alpha blending flag so it can use double-height tiles (64x128) for large or tall monsters. Its dimensions are 8192x2048 but the tileset is not completely full. More tiles can be added without increasing the size of the image as new objects are added to future releases of PWMAngband. This should be kept in mind as packing your tileset into the smallest possible image size may not be the most maintainable solution. Be sure to name the image file after the tile size, for example 64x64.png. Use the base size even if you are enabling double-height tiles.

The only file you'll need to edit outside of your tileset's directory is lib/tiles/list.txt. list.txt contains a registry of which tilesets to load as well as some information about the size of the tiles and any special flags to set. The format of the file is documented in list.txt's header. Specifically, you will be defining the name of the tileset, which directory contains the tileset's files, how big the tiles are in pixels (i.e. 64x64), the name of the main preference file for the tileset and some additional flags which have to do with alpha blending. Not all tilesets need to set extra flags.

Now that the basic setup is complete you need to tell PWMAngband how to interpret your tileset image. You need to map each tile in your image to a specific element in the game so that PWMAngband knows which tiles to show for which ASCII characters. This process can be done incrementally because PWMAngband will continue to show the default character symbols in-game for objects that have not yet been mapped. This is especially helpful for verifying that your tileset has been setup correctly before beginning to map things out in earnest. It also means that if new objects are added to the game that you have not mapped into your tileset, the game will still be playable with your tileset, albeit the displayed ASCII character may appear incongruous with your styling. Mapping tiles to game elements is done in text files called preference files which have the extension '.prf'.

The first thing to understand about mapping game elements in preference files is that everything that can be displayed in the game has a name, or in the case of flavors, an ID number. The names for each type of thing can be referenced from the data files as mentioned above. The table below is a quick reference for where to find names of things and how to form IDs correctly to reference them.

Player pictures are referenced differently than other types of objects. They use a special query syntax that checks to see what kind class the player is as well as the gender in order to determine which picture to show. The query to select which tile to show for a female elf ranger would be:

?:[AND [EQU $CLASS Ranger] [EQU $RACE Elf]  [EQU $GENDER Female] ]

Here, the query is checking to see if the player is a female Half-Elf and would use the assignment on the next line of the preference file only if this is true.

Some types of objects such as terrain can use different tiles based on their state. In the case of terrain, the terrain can have different images for when it is lit by a torch, or dark. these are selected by appending another colon and a specifier to the name. For example, this would be the name of a torch-lit up staircase:

feat:up staircase:torch

It is possible to specify the same tile be used for all possible states of a terrain feature by using an asterisk. This example identifies any unknown terrain tile (a tile the player hasn't lit or otherwise seen yet):

feat:unknown grid:*

Given the full name of an object the last thing to do is to specify which tile from the tileset to use. Tile locations are given in a coordinate system using pairs of hexadecimal numbers. The coordinates start from 0x80:0x80 and increment from there. The pairs translate directly to the top and left most pixel of the corresponding tile from the graphics file, so the top left pixel of the first tile on the top left of the graphics file would be specified as 0x80:0x80 (the pixel at x:0 y:0). The next tile immediately to the right of the that one would be 0x80:0x81. The tilesheet is sliced into rows and columns based on the tile size you specified in list.txt. So given a tile size of 64x64 pixels, the tile at 0x80:0x81 would be located in the graphics file at pixel x:64 y:0. Remember, the coordinates in the preference files are in hexadecimal, so the next number after 0x89 would be 0x8A. The next number after 0x8F would be 0x90 and so on. To map an object to your tileset you will add one complete line to the file per object. This example maps the tile at 0x81:0x81 to the terrain feature 'quartz vein' when the quartz vein is lit by torch light:

feat:closed door:quartz vein:torch:0x81:0x81

Before going any further, it is advisable to map a single object in your preference file, then start the game up, select your tileset and make sure you see your mapped tile in game. If this worked, then you are ready to design and map the rest of your tiles. A quick example would be to map a tile for your home in the town to the first tile position in your graphics file:

feat:Home:*:0x80:0x80

It's possible to have more than one preference file by using a sort of include syntax that causes other preference files referenced from your main preference file to also be read. It is also possible to place comments in your preference files to help you keep track of where different kinds of objects are mapped. Any text on a line after a # symbol is ignored. Shockbolt's tiles make great use of this and define a well organized set of mappings using three files with comments for each logical section of objects to be mapped:

# This is a comment
%:other-stuff.prf  # Load another preference file

Once you have a working tileset and functional understanding of how tilesets are managed and organized, it would be a good idea to study Shockbolt's tileset and follow the examples there in order to produce a high-quality tileset that you will be proud to share with others.

5.1.3   Larger changes

If changing data files is not enough for you, you will need to change actual game code and recompile it. The first place to look is in the compiled data files, some of which have already been mentioned:

Beyond this, you will have to have some knowledge of the C programming language, and can start making changes to the way the game runs or appears. Many people have done this - there are over 100 variants of Angband: http://angbandplus.github.io/AngbandPlus/ Should you get to this point, the best thing to do is to discuss your ideas on the Angband forums at http://angband.oook.cz. The people there are typically keen to hear new ideas and ways to play.

5.2.1   How to build all libraries required to run the WIN client

Just follow the instructions given in the WIN.txt file located in the /src directory. This will generate the ZLIB and LIBPNG libraries using the WIN.bat file in the same directory. For Embarcadero C++ 7.20, follow the instructions given in the WIN.txt file located in the /bcc32c subdirectory instead.

5.2.2   How to build all SDL libraries required to run the SDL client

Just follow the instructions given in the SDL.txt file located in the /src directory. This will generate the SDL, FREETYPE, SDL_TTF, SDL_IMAGE, LIBMAD and SDL_MIXER libraries using the SDL.bat file in the same directory. For Embarcadero C++ 7.20, there is no easy way to compile the SDL libraries due to incompatibility between the code and the compiler. There will be thousands of compile errors that you'll have to fix manually.

5.2.3   How to build the PWMAngband client

This is done by running the client.bat file in the /src directory. This will generate the mangclient_gcu.exe, mangclient_sdl.exe and mangclient.exe executable files corresponding to the GCU, SDL and WIN client. For Embarcadero C++ 7.20, run the client.bat file located in the /bcc32c subdirectory instead.

5.2.4   How to build the PWMAngband server

This is done by running the server.bat file in the /src directory. This will generate the mangband.exe executable file corresponding to the server. For Embarcadero C++ 7.20, run the server.bat file located in the /bcc32c subdirectory instead.

The clean.bat file will delete all generated binaries in case you want to recompile everything from scratch.

5.2.5   How to build the HTML manual from the help files

Just follow the instructions given in the make.txt file located in the /docs directory. This will generate the Manual.html file using the make.bat file in the same directory.

5.2.6   How to build the PWMAngband setup

This is done by running the setup.bat file in the /src directory. This will generate all the files required to run PWMAngband.

The cleansetup.bat file will delete all generated files in case you want to regenerate everything from scratch.

5.3.1   Level Commands

Static your current level

Makes the current level permanent, as if there were players on it.

Unstatic your current level

Resets the current level, as if there were no more players on it.

Enter manual design (new level)

Wipes the current level and makes it suitable for editing.

Enter manual design (same level)

Makes the current level suitable for editing without starting anew.

Exit manual design (create town)

Saves the modifications on the current level and checks if it's suitable for a town.

Exit manual design (create level)

Saves the modifications on the current level and checks if it's suitable for a normal level.

5.3.2   Building Commands

Set Feature

Defines the feature for building commands.

Place Feature

Places the feature at the current location.

Draw Line

Draws a line of the feature from the current location.

Fill Rectangle

Fills a rectangle of the feature from the current location.

Build Mode On

Starts placing the feature while moving around.

Build Mode Off

Stops placing the feature while moving around.

5.3.3   Summoning Commands

Depth

Summons a monster from a specific depth.

Specific

Summons a monster from a specific race.

Mass Banishment

Banishes all monsters while moving around.

Summoning mode off

Stops banishing all monsters while moving around.

5.3.4   Generation Commands

Vault

Generates a vault at the current location.

Item

Generates an item at the current location.

Random artifact

Generates a random artifact at the current location.

Random artifact (reroll)

Rerolls a random artifact at the current location.

True artifact

Generates a true artifact at the current location.

5.3.5   Player Commands

Self

Changes the Dungeon Master's permissions.

By Name

Changes another player's permissions.

5.3.6   Visual Commands

Display PROJ_XXX types

Displays bolts, beams and balls for each projection effect.

5.3.7   Manage XBM orders

Previous

Selects the previous order.

Next

Selects the next order.

Cancel order

Cancels the selected order.

5.3.8   Debug Commands

Perform an effect (EFFECT_XXX)

Performs an effect given by name and parameters.

Create a trap

Creates a trap at the current location.

Advance time

Advances time by 1 to 12 hours.

Write a map of the current level

Writes out a map of the current level as an HTML file.

5.4.1   The Game

As you probably know if you're reading this, PWMAngband is a roguelike game set in a high-fantasy universe. The game world is made up of levels, numbered from zero ("the town") to some maximum depth. Levels are increasingly dangerous the deeper they are into the dungeon. Levels are filled with monsters, traps, and objects. Monsters move and act on their own, traps react to creatures entering their square, and objects are inert unless used by a creature. The objective of the game is to find Morgoth at depth 100 and kill him.

5.4.2   Data Structures

There are three important top-level data structures in PWMAngband: the 'chunk', the player, and the static data tables.

5.4.3   The Z Layer

The lowest-level code in PWMAngband is the "Z" layer, which provides platform-independent abstractions and generic data structures. Currently, the Z layer provides:

Code in the Z layer may not depend on files outside the Z layer.

5.4.4   Key Abstractions

Certain game-specific abstractions are important and widely used in PWMAngband to glue the UI code to the game engine. These are the command queue, which sends player commands to the game engine, and events, which indicate to the UI that the state of the game changed.

5.4.5   Files

PWMAngband uses three types of files for storing data: gamedata files, which contain the game's static data, pref files, which contain UI settings, and save files, which contain the state of a game in progress.

5.4.6   Control Flow

The flow of control through PWMAngband is complicated and can be very non-obvious due to overuse of global variables as special-behavior hooks. That said, this section gives a high-level overview of the control flow of a game session.

5.5.1   Conventions

ReStructuredText leaves much freedom in the syntax - in our help files we try to stick to consistent conventions as in the following.

==============
Document title
==============

Sub-document title
==================

Section title
-------------

Subsection title
****************

5.5.2   Inline help parser syntax

As to the time when this documentation was last updated, the online help parser programmed into PWMAngband does the following:

• ignore colons (|)
• ignore paragraphs starting with .. (including their trailing blank line)
• recognize link targets (.. _something) and be able to open a file to the right position using them.
• recognize "menu" links for the online help navigation. Links are given with the following format (g is the hotkey here):

.. menu:: [g] option.txt

5.5.3   Tricks

Sometimes it is tricky to get a thing to display in the correct way in both the online help and the compiled RST. This is often due to the complex interaction between backslashes and backticks in RST. In particular, in several places we need to use in RST a syntax such as

``D``\isarm

If this appeared directly in the help file, then the online help parser would display a spurious backslash character \ before the i letter. It would be quite complicated to instruct it to parse backslashes using the full RST syntax. Instead, we adopt the following workaround: we write

this is a paragraph containing the word |``D``isarm| just in the middle

and later in the file we define a substitution directive

.. |``D``isarm| replace:: ``D``\isarm

Magically this works, since the online help parser skips pipes.