The November Nethack Tournament


2020 ARCHIVE

General Rules

Use your common sense: don't hack into the game servers, don't deliberately corrupt or leak memory or otherwise try to crash or hang up the game, don't abuse the RNG, and don't be a jerk.

For now, bots are banned as well. If they're unbanned at some point in the future, they will still be disallowed from impersonating a human (playing on an account registered to a human) or cybernetically enhancing a human clan (playing in a clan that contains humans).

However, anything within the normal execution of the game is fair game. This includes farming, scumming, abusing program bugs, reading other characters' dumplogs, viewing ttyrecs of your own or others' games, using interface enhancers like InterHack, and hanging out on IRC to see if the gray stone you picked up in Mines' End gets livelogged as the luckstone.

Digging for victory is fine, of course, but please make sure to set !bones in your rc file so that you don't leave useless bones and throw away other players' interesting bones on your way down.

Clans

To create clans, invite players to your clan, and accept invitations to others' clans, go here.

Clan size is capped at 12, and a clan is not allowed to have more than 12 pending invitations. The scoring is designed so that adding new clan members, however inexperienced, cannot hurt the clan overall.

At November 10th at midnight UTC, clan membership will become frozen; people can still leave or be kicked out of clans, but cannot create new clans or join new clans.

Scoring

The primary way to score points is by ascending. Ascensions start out at 50 points each, but repeated ascensions of the same role scale down in points according to Z-score rules.

Z-score rules make the second ascension worth 1/2 as much, the third 1/3 as much, the fourth 1/4 as much, and so on. Fractional points will be rounded down. Ascending a role for the second time will earn 25 points instead of 50. The third will earn 16. The fourth 12. However, ascending a different role will earn the full 50 points. (There aren't any fractional points anywhere else in the tournament either. All the bonus point calculations described below round down in the same manner.)

New in 2020: Z-score was previously applied based on role/race combinations, and is now based only on role, just like how the NetHack Scoreboard calculates Z-score.

Clan Scoring

Clans' games also use Z-scoring on roles for repeated ascensions, but bonus conduct, speedrun, or streak points earned on ascensions are not affected by this and merely add into the total clan score. For example, if player A in a clan ascends a valkyrie with no frills and player B ascends another valkyrie and gets 10 bonus points for it being part of a streak, the clan earns 85 points (50 and 25 for the two valkyrie ascensions, 10 for the streak bonus). It doesn't matter which player ascended first.

Many of the trophies which can be earned individually can also be earned collectively by a clan, for the same amount of points. If an individual earns one of these trophies on their own, their clan will also get the trophy.

Trophies

Various accomplishments across one or multiple games earn you trophies, which come with an associated boatload of points. To see how to earn these, go to the Trophies page and hover over them; they will show up as a tooltip. Some trophies need a bit more explanation and are covered below.

The Great and Lesser Race/Role

The Great Race/Role are a set of multi-ascension trophies, and gives extra credit for playing all of the interesting character combinations for a given race or role. Gender does not matter. Alignment does not matter for The Great Race, but it does for The Great Role. Only starting alignment is counted - tricks with changing your alignment in-game won't work.

The Great Human is a special case, and requires you to play only those roles which must be human, as shown in the table below. The required Monk can be of any alignment.

Similarly, there is no such thing as the Great Knight, Samurai, or Tourist, because only a single race and alignment combination can be played with these roles.

These may be achieved by individual players or by clans working together.

Below is a table of requirements for each race or role:

Trophy Number of Ascensions Requirements Points Earned
The Great Orc 4 Bar, Ran, Rog, Wiz 200
The Great Gnome 5 Arc, Cav, Hea, Ran, Wiz 250
The Great Dwarf 3 Arc, Cav, Val 150
The Great Elf 3 Pri, Ran, Wiz 150
The Great Human 4 Kni, Mon, Sam, Tou 200
The Great Archeologist 4 Hum-L, Hum-N, Dwa-L, Gno-N 200
The Great Barbarian 3 Hum-N, Hum-C, Orc-C 150
The Great Caveperson 4 Hum-L, Hum-N, Dwa-L, Gno-N 200
The Great Healer 2 Hum-N, Gno-N 100
The Great Monk 3 Hum-L, Hum-N, Hum-C 150
The Great Priest 4 Hum-L, Hum-N, Hum-C, Elf-C 200
The Great Ranger 5 Hum-N, Hum-C, Elf-C, Gno-N, Orc-C 250
The Great Rogue 2 Hum-C, Orc-C 100
The Great Valkyrie 3 Hum-L, Hum-N, Dwa-L 150
The Great Wiz 5 Hum-N, Hum-C, Elf-C, Gno-N, Orc-C 250

The Lesser Race/Role works identically to the Great, but instead of ascending, you must instead complete a game with each required character combination where you successfully retrieve the luckstone from the bottom of the Mines AND retrieve the prize from the end of Sokoban.

The Great Race/Role is worth fifty additional points for each character combination it requires (as shown in the table above), and The Lesser Race/Role is worth five additional points for each character combination it requires. Like other trophies, these can also be earned collectively by a clan.

Achieving a Great Race or Role does not necessarily imply that you also deserve the same Lesser Race or Role, since it is possible to ascend without completing Sokoban and/or retrieving the Mines' End luckstone. As such, they are scored independently of each other.

New in 2020:Ascending without Killing (insert monster here)

These trophies are fairly straightforward for the most part, but one bit of clarification is needed: in order to achieve the trophy, you can't let the specified monster die by any means, like how it works in Junethack. Merely abstaining from killing them personally while your pets or conflicted monsters finish them off will not earn the trophy.

Ascending with Conducts

Conducts consist of point multipliers which are applied to a base score of 50 points (earning less than 50 points due to Z-scoring won't affect your conduct bonus points). Ascending with more than one conduct is harder, so it multiplies the multipliers together for a bigger bonus.

The exact formula for conduct bonus points is 50 × ((multiplier1 × multiplier2 × ...) − 1)

Conduct Multiplier
Zen 1.8×
Pacifist 1.6×
Nudist 1.6×
Foodless 1.5×
Illiterate 1.3×
Vegan 1.3×
Permahallucinating 1.2×
Weaponless 1.15×
Atheist 1.15×
Artifactless 1.1×
Vegetarian 1.1×
Genocideless 1.1×
Elberethless 1.1×
Wishless 1.1×
Survivor 1.05×
Petless 1.02×
Permadeaf 1.02×
Artifact wishless 1.02×
Polyselfless 1.02×
Polyobjectless 1.02×
Bonesless 1.01×
Swapchestless* 1.01×

* Never remove an item from a swap chest. Inserting items does not break the conduct.

For conducts that necessarily imply other conducts, such as Vegan and Vegetarian, the multiplier for the less stringent conducts are not counted. For example, a foodless ascension only earns the 1.5× for foodless, and the multipliers for vegan and vegetarian are not factored in.

Turncount Speedrunning

Games that are won in under 20,000 turns score additional bonus points equal to 500,000 divided by the turncount of the game. For instance, a game that finishes in 5,000 turns will score 100 bonus points, whereas a game that barely finishes in 20,000 turns scores 25 points. No points are awarded for games longer than 20,000 turns.

Streaking

A streak is a series of consecutive winning games by the same player. Because you can have multiple in-progress games on multiple servers, the rule is that the first game started after a win is the candidate for continuing a streak. Winning or losing non-candidate games will not affect the streak whatsoever.

For those familiar with DCSS tournaments, these rules are the same as theirs.

Games that are part of a streak get a multiplier for score that increases with the length of the streak. The multiplier is retroactively awarded: ascending the third game in a row and extending a 2-streak into a 3-streak will apply the higher multiplier equally to all three games. The streak multiplier also multiplies bonus points for speedrunning and conducts.

Streak multipliers are:

Length Multiplier
2 1.1×
3 1.2×
4 1.3×
5 1.4×
6+ 1.5×
The base points for your ascension are assumed to be a generic 50; this prevents role-based Z-score point reduction from devaluing the streak.

The exact formula for the amount of streaking bonus points added to an ascension is (50 + conduct bonus points + speedrun bonus points) × (streak multiplier − 1)

Achievements

Achievements are worth 1 point each, across all games (if you get the same achievement in two or more games, you still only get 1 point for that achievement counting towards your individual score.) If you get all possible achievements and the All Achievements trophy, each achievement counts for 2 points instead.

Achievement-related points are counted towards your individual and clan score directly, and are not multiplied by any streak you may have.

Below is a listing of every achievement a player can earn in-game, and a description of that achievement and what needs to be done to earn it.

Achievement Description
Ringing in My Ears Get the Bell of Opening
Feel the Burn Enter Gehennom
Emerging into the Light Get the Candelabrum of Invocation
Weighing of the Heart Get the Book of the Dead
Bell, Book and Candle Perform the Invocation Ritual
My Preciousss Get the Amulet of Yendor
From the Dungeon They Came Enter the Elemental Planes
The Halls of the Gods Enter the Astral Plane
Are You Feeling Lucky Get the luckstone from Mines' End
Boulder Pusher Finish Sokoban
Anti-Stoner Kill Medusa
Back to Civilisation Step onto the Minetown altar
Sage Advice Consult the Oracle
The Archetypal Hero Get admitted to the Quest
Musical Mastermind Learn the passtune
Indulgences Buy protection from a priest
Part-time Statue Survive stoning
The Blob Survive sliming
Captain Ahab Survive being grabbed by a sea monster
Furry Little Problem Cure lycanthropy
New Lease on Life Cure deathly illness
The Royal Treatment Sit on a throne
It'll Turn Up Later Drop a ring in a sink
Nine for Mortal Men Doomed to Die ... Again Kill all nine Nazgûl
Furious Kill all three erinyes
Orthodoxy Convert an altar
Always Talk to the Wise Old Man Chat with Izchak
Isaac Newton Get fruit by kicking a tree
Dungeon Economics Buy or sell something at a shop
Stop, Thief! Be chased by the Keystone Kops
Wash it Clean Uncurse an item in a fountain
Well-Read Learn a level 5+ spell
Pet Whisperer Tame a monster by feeding it
Beast Master Tame a monster without using food
The Chosen One Get crowned
Go Forth and Smite Receive an artifact gift from your deity
Some Watery Tart Be gifted Excalibur
Hand Crafted Make a dragon scale mail
A Little Light Larceny Get robbed by a nymph
Pot of Greed Have your purse lightened by a leprechaun
The Birds and the Bees Dally with a foocubus
The Most Dangerous Game Catch a monster in a trap set by you
Minetown Avenger Kill every orc in Orctown
All Clear Kill all hostiles in the Big Room
Liberated Get yourself unpunished
It's Called That For a Reason Come to earth by levitating over a sink
Diamond in the Rough Identify a gem with a touchstone
Scribe Write a scroll with a magic marker
First Edition Write a book
Dragon Rider Ride a dragon
Motherhood Lay an egg
Shimmer Fireproof an item
They Like Shiny Things Throw a gem at a unicorn
Reincarnation Cancelled Tin a troll
Kill it Twice Destroy a ghost
Only Mostly Dead Revive a corpse
Buffy Destroy an undead with #turn
Wasn't a Meal, Wasn't Ready, And You Shouldn't Have Eaten It Eat a military ration
Have Fun Storming the Castle Blow up the Castle drawbridge
Insert Quarter to Continue Get life-saved
What It Was Made For Kill a appropriate monster with a Bane weapon
Buried Treasure Dig up a grave not in a graveyard
Holy War Kill a priest of Moloch
Movers and Shakers Cause an earthquake
Snake Charmer Pacify a snake with a flute
Dragonslayer Kill a dragon
Tin Foil Hat Dodge a brainsucking attack
Right Back at Ya Hit an enemy with a thrown boomerang
It Burnsss Deal silver damage to a silver-hating monster
Arrakis Make a crysknife
Kop Training Program Kill a monster with a rubber hose
Obligatory Pointy Hat Put on a cornuthaum as a wizard
Hobbit Skin Wear a mithril coat
The Words of the Prophets Read 3 random graffiti
Are You Still Pudding Farming Split a pudding
Wearable Snack Wear a meat ring
Frozen Treats Loot an ice box
Pygmalion Create a monster from a figurine
Nerd Read a spellbook while wearing lenses and a T-shirt
Recharged Charge an object
Get Your Kicks Kick an item embedded in a wall or rock
Spiderman Grab an item with a grappling hook
More Light Refill the Candelabrum after it burns out after the Invocation
Balanced Diet Eat one of each type of produce in one game
Smorgasbord Eat every type of food in the game
Fill 'Er Up Fill an oil lamp with a potion of oil
Curse the Darkness Identify a potion of oil by applying it
Bright Light, Bright Light Kill gremlin with any light source
Chemistry 101 Alchemize two potions in an established recipe
Get Your Gas Mask Kill a monster with a stinking cloud
Escape to Discworld Read a Terry Pratchett novel
Near Death Experience #chat to Death while carrying a Terry Pratchett novel
Mineralogist Identify every type of valuable gemstone
Prize Inside! Get a spellbook by breaking a randomly-generated statue
Ding-a-Ling Summon a nymph by ringing a cursed bell
Best Friends Forever Take your starting pet to full adulthood
Diver Dive into a moat or pool and retrieve an item from the bottom
Ceiling Clinging Commute Ride a wumpus over water
How Much Wood? Kill or tame a woodchuck
Storm the Gates of Heaven Kill an Archon
Shifty Tame a shapeshifter in any way
Cat Lady Tame seven “f” in the course of one game
Collapse the Wavefunction Open the box containing Schroedinger's Cat
I'm Free! I'm Free! Free a prisoner
Pet Rescue Free a pet from a trap that you didn't create yourself
Spam, Spam, Spam Read a scroll of mail
Superfood Gain strength by eating royal jelly
You Are What You Eat Gain an intrinsic by eating a corpse (or tin or glob)
The Art of the Deal Bankrupt a shopkeeper by getting all their money
Distinction Without Difference Polymorph a pet using a polytrap
Transgender Put on an amulet of change
Father Figure Hatch an egg not laid by you and have it come out tame
Hello, Nurse! Get a nurse to heal you or raise your max HP
It's The Pits Kill something while you are stuck in a pit
Never Saw It Coming Kill invisible monster without see invisible
Shafted Fall down a shaft
Potions of Booze Cost More Than That Get two bits for an ale from a priest
Horatius at the Bridge Extinct soldiers or Keystone Kops
Who's That Pretty Girl in the Mirror, There? Deflect a nymph with a mirror
Money Talks Bribe a demon lord with at least 25000 gold
Breaking and Entering Enter a vault
Who Was That David Person Anyway? Enter a treasure zoo
Absolute Monarchy Enter a throne room
They're After Me Lucky Charms Enter a leprechaun hall
Hive Mind Enter a beehive
Day of the Dead Enter a graveyard
Team a Headquarters Enter an anthole
Halt, Who Goes There? Enter a barracks
Dungeon Ecology Enter a swamp
Statue Showcase Enter a cockatrice nest
Asmodead Kill Asmodeus
Fly Swatter Kill Baalzebub
That Wand is Mine Kill Orcus
Squish Squish Kill Juiblex
Demogorgone Kill Demogorgon
Yee-No-Go Kill Yeenoghu
Geryon-Slayer Kill Geryon
Dispater-Dispatcher Kill Dispater
Conqueror of Death Kill Death
Curer of Pestilence Kill Pestilence
Feeder of Famine Kill Famine
Under New Management Change your alignment by any means
Heisenberg Become uncertain about your position or velocity
Who You Gonna Call? Get scared by a ghost
Groundhog Day Return to a forgotten level
Tainted Dip an item in unholy water
Hydrochloric Dissolve iron bars with acid
Predictably, Nothing Happens Break an identified wand of nothing
Neutralized Cancel a monster
Magivore Gain a magical intrinsic by eating a piece of jewelry
Rope-a-Dope Kill a monster with a thrown aklys
Panacea Neutralize a harmful potion with a unicorn horn
Hulk Smash Kill a monster with a heavy iron ball
Croesus Competitor Finish a game carrying at least 50000 gold
Croesus Buyout Finish a game carrying at least 100000 gold
Palantir Successfully apply a crystal ball
Peak Condition Raise all attributes to at least 18
Those Who Came Before Sight another player's bones pile
Imitation Bones Step onto the Rogue level fake bones pile
Replacement Goldfish Cast create familiar
Pop the Question Give a ring of adornment to a succubus
No Soup For You! Get expelled from the Quest
Discerning Palate Gain intrinsic food appraisal
Playerbanebane Kill a soldier ant
Banishing Spells Not Included Summon a demon lord
Tastes Like Chicken Eat chickatrice or cockatrice meat
Dust to Dust Wrest one last charge from a wand of wishing
Teetotaler Neutralize a potion of booze with an amethyst
Spooky Scary Skeletons Get scared by the rattling of a skeleton
Ocean's Eleven Enter Fort Ludios
I Did It For The Money Kill Croesus
Gullible Lie to a vault guard about your name
Luck of the Grasshopper Reach +13 Luck
Murphy's Law Reach -13 Luck
Looking Slick Grease a piece of armor
Watch Your Footing Step onto the vibrating square
The Grand Tour Visit each high altar on the Astral Plane
Friends Not Food Receive the Quest with vegetarian conduct intact
Animal Rights Activist Receive the Quest with vegan conduct intact
Anti Gulp Receive the Quest with foodless conduct intact
No Help from Above Receive the Quest with atheist conduct intact
Wax On Wax Off Receive the Quest with weaponless conduct intact
Thou Shalt Not Kill Receive the Quest with pacifist conduct intact
Me No Do Words Good Receive the Quest with illiterate conduct intact
Lost My Transmutation License Receive the Quest with polypileless conduct intact
True to Form Receive the Quest with polyselfless conduct intact
Self Sufficient Receive the Quest with wishless conduct intact
Leave the Artifacts to the Gods Receive the Quest with artifact wishless conduct intact
Feeling Your Way Receive the Quest with zen (permablind) conduct intact
Going Commando Receive the Quest with nudist conduct intact
Make Love, Not War Receive the Quest with genocideless conduct intact
No Help From The Floor Receive the Quest with Elberethless conduct intact
It's A Wonderful Trip Receive the Quest with permahallu conduct intact
Silent World Receive the Quest with permadeaf conduct intact
Keep Your Fancy Toys Receive the Quest with artifactless conduct intact
New Dungeon, Never Occupied Receive the Quest with bonesless conduct intact
Extradimensionally Challenged Receive the Quest with swapchestless conduct intact
Fur Allergy Receive the Quest with petless conduct intact
Death Isn't So Cheap Receive the Quest with survivor conduct intact
It's Dangerous To Go Alone! Take This Put an item into a swap chest
The True Dungeon Masters Chat with an active devteam member
There Is No Spoon Finish the task the devteam requires of you
DIRGE Instakill an enemy with poison
Gender Bender Change gender two or more times
The Deathly Hallows Wield a wand of death while wearing an invisibility cloak and amulet of life saving
Indiana Jones Disarm a monster with a bullwhip
Pilgrim Visit every type of aligned altar
Wanton Waste Break an identified, charged wand of wishing
Poseidon Kill a sea monster with a trident
It's 4:20 Somewhere Stone a monster
Orpheus Activate a drawbridge with the passtune
Michelin Guide Identify both sources of food detection
All You Ever Wanted Get a wish from every wish source
Touch It With A 10 Foot Pole Kill a floating eye with a polearm
Jeweler Identify all rings
Mikado Identify all wands
King of Bling Identify all amulets
Bookworm Identify all spellbooks
Scholar Identify all scrolls
Alchemist Identify all potions
Fashionista Identify all non-obvious cloaks, helms, boots, and gloves
Minesweeper Disarm all land mines in Fort Ludios without blowing any up
Hyperliterate Read every readable item in the game
Civilized Cooking Open a tin with a tin opener
007 Unlock something with a credit card
Bob Ross Release a picture-painting demon from a camera
Got No Talent Scare something by playing music
Cookie Monster Read a fortune without eating its cookie
Say Hello To My Evil Friend Have a non-guaranteed demon lord gated in or summoned
Death onna Stick Kill a member of 25 different monster species
Bring out your Dead Kill a member of 50 different monster species
Diverse Death-Dealer Kill a member of 100 different monster species
Grim Reaper Kill a member of 200 different monster species
Gotta Kill 'em All Kill a member of all eligible monster species
Learn the Alphabet Kill a member of each species from a to z
Make your Mark Engrave with an athame
One Hit KO Deal a monster its maximum HP or more of damage (minimum 20)
Drink It To The Next Level Level up by drinking from a sink
Why Won't You DIE Already Kill the Wizard of Yendor 20 or more times
You're About To Die, You Scrub Get a special message saying you're about to die, you scrub
Six Pack Stock an ice box with 6 or more potions of booze
Bar Brawler Kill a monster with HP damage by smashing a bottle on it
Extreme Omnivore Eat an object from every common, edible object class
Extinctionist Lite Genocide 20 or more monster species
Dudley's Hero Extinct newts
Ice Jesus Walk on top of lava unharmed
Rare Loot Acquire an athame that was generated in the inventory of a lich
Boy Scout Complete Sokoban without incurring any penalties for rule-breaking
Sounds Hollow Reveal a secret door with a stethoscope
DO YOU WANT TO DO THIS BRO? BECAUSE IT'S THUNDERDOME TIME! Defeat the NPC from the NPC Deathmatch quest