=== General Information === This document gives a brief introduction to Hengband. You will probably want to browse through all the "help files", especially the sections on available commands (see command.txt [b] and commdesc.txt [c]), before beginning any serious adventuring... The game of Hengband is a single player dungeon simulation. A player may choose from a number of races, classes and magic realms when creating a character (see birth.hlp [d]), and then "run" that character over a period of days, weeks, even months. Deep down inside, the real objective of the game is to increase your experience, and certain other characteristics, and also to collect useful items, to give you a decent chance against the great Serpent of Chaos, who lurks somewhere in the depths of the dungeon. ***** --- First Place to Go --- The player will begin his adventure on the town level where he may acquire supplies, weapons, armor, and magical devices by bartering with various shop owners. After preparing for his adventure, the player can descend into the dungeon where fantastic adventures await his coming! We recommend that you go to the Yeek cave next to your starting position in the town of Outpost. Although the King of Yeeks at the lowest level is a fierce enemy, the rest of the cave should be fairly safe. Once you complete this dungeon, you will be strong enough to leave Outpost in search of greater adventures. Carry lots of food and fuel, for the journey can be a long one. --- The Global Map --- [[[[G|Press the '<' key, and you see all of the world! Since this world is very large, it is convenient to go into global map mode by pressing the '<' key, and then return to local map mode by '>' key when you are at the destination. When in the wilderness, stay in safe grids such as roads or plains; seas and lava fields are best avoided for a while. Many towns and dungeons await you; good ones to explore early on include the orc caves and the Labyrinth. To the northeast of the town of Morivant, near the center of the map, is the dread dungeon of Angband. It is home to the Serpent of Chaos, whom you must kill in order to win the game. (see town.txt [f]) ***** --- Winning The Game --- Once your character has killed Oberon, who lives on level 99 (4950') in the dungeon, a magical staircase will appear that will finally allow you to reach level 100. The Serpent of Chaos 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 it has a habit of coming at you across the dungeon, to slay you for your impudence. The Serpent of Chaos cannot be killed by some of the easier methods used on normal creatures. The Serpent of Chaos, like all other "Unique" monsters, will simply teleport away to another region of the level if you attempt to use a spell such as destruction is upon it. The Serpent of Chaos, like some other monsters, cannot be polymorphed, slept, charmed, or genocided. Magical spells like Mana Storm and Orb of Draining are effective against it, as are some of the more powerful weapons, but it is difficult to kill and if allowed to escape for a time it will heal itself rapidly. If you should actually survive the attempt of killing the Serpent of Chaos, 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... When you are ready to retire, simply "commit suicide" ("^K") 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 a hoard of Cyberdemons... ***** --- Upon Death and Dying --- If your character falls below 0 hit points, he has died and cannot be restored. You can write last word for the World Score Board on the Internet. And then, tombstone showing information about your character will be displayed. You are also permitted to get a record of your character, and all your equipment (identified) either on the screen or in a file. If you wish, the record of your character will be send to the World Score Board. Whether your character is killed or you retire victorious, it will leave behind a reduced save file, which contains only the monster memory (see attack.txt#MonsterMemory [e]) and your option choices. It may be restored, in which case the new character is generated exactly as if the file was not there, but the new player will find his monster memory containing all the experience of past incarnations. ***** === Hengband on the Web === --- The official Hengband website --- (http://hengband.sourceforge.jp/en/) http://hengband.sourceforge.jp/en/ is the official Hengband website. It includes information on where to download the Hengband source code and current executables for most popular operating systems as well as information on current development issues. --- Hengband World Score Board --- (http://hengband.sourceforge.jp/en/score.html) The official Hengband website includes this score board. You can see hundreds of character records at here. And there is translated version of Japanese score board which includes over 5000 records already! --- Hengband BBS --- (http://6904.teacup.com/combatechizen/bbs) If you read and write Japanese, you can ask question and get various information from this BBS (Bulletin Board System). --- FTP Sites --- (ftp://clockwork.dementia.org/angband/Variant/Hengband/) Hengband sources and executables are uploaded to clockwork.dementia.org FTP site which include most variant of Angband. Links to the files are available at Thangorodrim. (http://www.thangorodrim.net) --- The Newsgroup (rec.games.roguelike.angband) --- The newsgroup is a forum for the discussion of all things relating to Angband and its variants (including Hengband) and is a good place to ask various questions about both game play and game design. Be sure to include '[Heng]' in your subject heading so people know your question is about Hengband. -- Original : (??) Updated : (??) Updated : Zangband DevTeam Updated : Hengband 1.5.4 ***** Begin Hyperlinks ***** [b] birth.hlp ***** [c] commdesc.txt ***** [d] charattr.txt ***** [e] attack.txt#MonsterMemory ***** [f] town.txt