=== The Dungeon === Although Hengband contains an extensive town level featuring multiple towns and a large wilderness area, the bulk of your adventuring will take place in the dungeon. Symbols appearing on your screen will represent the dungeon's walls, floor, objects, features, and creatures lurking about. In order to direct your character, you will enter single character commands (see command.txt [b]). ***** === 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. It will not be necessary to remember all of the symbols and their meanings. The "slash" command ("/") will identify any character appearing on your map Note that you can use a "user pref file" to change any of these symbols to something you are more comfortable with. --- Features that do not block line of sight --- [[[[w|.| Floor [[[[r|'| Open curtain [[[[w|.| A trap (hidden) [[[[w|<| A staircase up [[[[w|^| A trap (known) [[[[w|>| A staircase down [[[[u|.| Dirt [[[[U|<| A shaft up [[[[g|.| Patch of grass [[[[U|>| A shaft down [[[[G|:| Flower [[[[v|>| Dungeon entrance [[[[g|:| Brake [[[[y|>| Quest entrance [[[[B|.| Swamp [[[[v|*| Mirror [[[[B|~| Shallow water [[[[y|;| A rune of protection [[[[b|~| Deep water [[[[R|;| An explosive rune [[[[o|~| Shallow lava [[[[B|*| Section of the Pattern [[[[r|~| Deep lava [[[[b|*| Section of the Pattern [[[[B|^| Cold zone [[[[U|1| General Store [[[[b|^| Heavy cold zone [[[[s|2| Armoury [[[[o|^| Electrical zone [[[[w|3| Weaponsmith's Shop [[[[y|^| Heavy electrical zone [[[[g|4| Temple [[[[U|~| Shallow acid puddle [[[[b|5| Alchemy Shop [[[[u|~| Deep acid puddle [[[[r|6| Magic Shop [[[[G|~| Shallow poisonous puddle [[[[D|7| Black Market [[[[g|~| Deep poisonous puddle [[[[y|8| Home [[[[D|#| Dark pit [[[[o|9| Bookstore [[[[U|'| An open door [[[[v|0| Museum [[[[u|'| A broken door [[[[B|+| Other building [[[[w|+| Closed glass door [[[[v|+| Other building [[[[w|#| Glass wall --- Features that block line of sight --- [[[[w|#| A granite wall [[[[G|#| A tree [[[[s|%| A magma vein [[[[o|^| Mountain chain [[[[w|%| A quartz vein [[[[U|+| A door [[[[w|#| A secret door [[[[R|'| Curtain [[[[o|*| Treasure in wall [[[[w|:| A pile of rubble ***** === Within The Dungeon === Once your character is adequately supplied with food, light, armor, and weapons, he or she is 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 titanium walls. 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. So be careful that you have found all the treasure before you leave a level, or you may never find it again! The monsters, of course, can use the stairs, and you may eventually encounter them again. 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 and take it safely back to the town to sell. There are two sources for light once inside the dungeon. One is permanent light which has been magically placed within rooms. The other is light sources carried by the player or monsters. 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 and more. So be very careful not to run out of light! A character must wield a torch or lamp in order to supply his or her 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 lantern (with flasks of oil) or your torch (with other torches), so it is a good idea to carry extra torches or flasks of oil, as appropriate. There are rumors of objects of exceptional power which glow with their own never-ending light. ***** === Objects In The Dungeon === The dungeons are full of objects just waiting to be picked up and used. How did they get there? Well, the main sources 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. Most cursed items are placed there by the joyful evil sorcerers, who enjoy a good joke when it gets you killed. One item in particular will be discussed here. The scroll of "Word of Recall" can be found within the dungeon, or bought at the temple in town. 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 (usually) of the dungeon which your character has previously been on. This makes the scroll very useful for getting back to the deeper levels of Hengband. The return floor is usually the deepest floor you've been to, but you can change the return floor by going back to a shallower floor and reading a scroll of "Word of Recall". A scroll of "Word of Recall" will take some time to take effect after your character reads it, so don't expect to use it as an instant escape from a crisis. If your character reads another such scroll before the first has taken effect, the second cancels the first and your character will not be teleported. A more complete description of Hengband objects is found elsewhere in the documentation (see object.txt [c]). ***** === Mining === Much of the 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 hordes 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. A pick or shovel also has plusses to hit and damage, and can be used as a weapon, because, in fact, it is one. When a vein of quartz or magma is located, the character may wield 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. At a certain point, it becomes more cumbersome to dig out treasure than to simply kill monsters and discover items in the dungeon to sell. Early on, however, mineral veins can be a wonderful source of easy treasure. If the character has a scroll, staff, or spell of treasure location, he or she can immediately locate all strikes of treasure within the veins 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 or shovel 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 titanium 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! ***** === 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. In Hengband, stairs will go up or down one level. Shafts will go up or down two levels at a time. Each level has at least one up staircase and at least two down staircases. There are no exceptions to this rule. 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 titanium walls, and the doors into shops, cannot be destroyed by any means. Many secret doors are used within the dungeon to confuse and demoralize adventurers foolish enough to enter. But with some luck, and lots of concentration, you can find these secret doors. 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. Doors can be broken down by bashing them. Once a door is bashed open, it is forever useless and cannot be closed. ***** === Dangerous Terrain === While all of the dungeon can be dangerous, there is some terrain that will harm an adventurer just by standing upon it. While an adventurer may have a source of resistance or immunity to limit or entirely avoid that damage, another way to deal with that terrain is to magically levitate over it. Shallow or deep water is more common and is usually safe to enter, but entering deep water while carrying too much can lead the character to flounder, losing hit points until the character either leaves the deep water or dies from drowning. Shallow or deep lava flows often appear deep in the dungeon and can be found in some mountainous parts of the wilderness. Even a brief foray into a lava flow can be deadly for an ill-prepared adventurer. Moreover, deep lava flows can cause drowning if the character is carrying too much. The harmful effects from lava can be relieved or avoided by wearing a source of fire resistance, fire immunity or levitation. Cold or extremely ("heavy") cold zones are rarely seen in the dungeon, but they'll cause damage by freezing to any adventurer who enters or remains upon them. The damage can be alleviated by wearing a source of cold resistance or levitation. Electrical or high voltage ("heavy") electrical zones are also rarely seen, but they'll cause electrical damage to characters who enter or remain upon them. The damage can be alleviated by wearing a source of electrical resistance or levitation. Shallow or deep acid puddles often appear deep in the dungeon. Entering or remaining in them will cause acid damage. In deep puddles, a character can drown if carrying too much. Wearing a source of acid resistance, acid immunity, or levitation can alleviate the harmful effects of the puddles. Shallow or deep poisonous puddles often appear deep in the dungeon. Entering or remaining in them will cause immediate poison damage as well as lingering poison damage even after leaving the puddle. In addition, a character carrying too much can drown in a deep puddle. Wearing a source of poison resistance or levitation can alleviate the harmful effects of the puddles. ***** === Level Feelings === Once you have been on a particular dungeon level for a while, you will receive a 'feeling' prompt representing what your intuition tells you about the quality of objects and the difficulty of the monsters found on that level. You may check this prompt again at any time after receiving it by pressing 'Ctrl-F'. The actual 'feeling' prompt is generated based on a number of factors. Things which increase the feeling level include the presence of vaults and certain other special rooms, out of depth objects and monsters and objects of a certain quality (for example, ego items, artifacts and other objects that are considered 'great' (see objects.txt)). The feeling may change, with more perceptive adventurers picking up the change earlier. Defeating powerful monsters of picking up powerful items can calm the feeling for a level. In Hengband, the nastier the feeling prompt, the better the level. From worst to best, the prompts are as follows: 'What a boring place...' 'This level looks reasonably safe.' 'You don't like the look of this place.' 'You feel your luck is turning...' 'You feel nervous.' 'You have a bad feeling...' 'You have a very bad feeling...' 'This level looks very dangerous.' 'You nearly faint as horrible visions of death fill your mind!' If your personality is 'Lucky' or you have the mutation of 'white aura', the prompts will be changed as follows: 'What a boring place...' 'This level can't be all bad...' 'You like the look of this place...' 'You feel your luck is turning...' 'You feel strangely lucky...' 'You have a good feeling...' 'You have a very good feeling...' 'You have an excellent feeling...' 'You have a superb feeling about this level.' Hengband also uses two other feeling prompts to denote special things. If you have not yet been on a level long enough to qualify for a prompt and press 'Ctrl-F', you will be given the prompt: 'Looks like any other level.' If you are playing in non-preserve mode, you may also occasionally receive the following prompt: 'You feel there is something special about this level.' A special feeling means one of two things, there is either a special room or vault on the level or there is an artifact on the level. As you get deeper on the dungeon, special feelings become increasingly less common for special room and vaults and are only commonly given when an artifact has been generated. Note it is possible that there could be both a vault and an artifact or more than one artifact on a special level so you should never leave a special level without fully exploring it unless your character's continued survival is in question. ***** === Random Quests === During character generation, you will be asked to input the number of random quests you wish to participate in. You may choose any number from 0 to 10. Random quests are always of the type 'Kill an out-of depth unique monster'. There is a limit to the number of levels a random quest monster may be out-of-depth, but these quests can still be very dangerous. Random quests appear on level 6, 12, 24, 38, 44, 50, 56, 62, 76 and 88. On entering a random quest level you will be told what the quest monster is (for example, 'Beware, this level is protected by Gachapin'). On random quest levels, no down staircases are generated until the last monster is killed which means that you cannot continue further into the dungeon until you have completed your quests. When you kill the quest monster, the down staircase will be created and the monster will drop an item of 'excellent' quality or above. This is true even of monsters that do not normally drop items. If the quest monster is too strong for you, simply run away using up staircase or recall. In such case, the quest will be treated as 'failed' and you cannot challenge that quest never again. -- Original : (??) Updated : (??) Updated : Zangband DevTeam Updated : Hengband 1.0.11 Updated : Hengband 3.0.0Alpha15, English translation backwardsEric ***** Begin Hyperlinks ***** [b] command.txt ***** [c] object.txt