# Unused symbols

Printable ASCII characters

~

!

@

#

$

%

^

&amp;

*

(

)

_

+

space

`

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

0

-

=

{

}

 |

Qq

Ww

Ee

Rr

Tt

Yy

Uu

Ii

Oo

Pp

:

"

[

]

\

Aa

Ss

Dd

Ff

Gg

Hh

Jj

Kk

Ll

?

;

'

Ctrl

Zz

Xx

Cc

Vv

Bb

Nn

Mm

,

.

/

&lt;

&gt;

Alt

The ASCII characters 6, 7, 8, and 9 are not used to represent anything in NetHack by default. However, you can use the keys 0–9 to specify a numeric prefix for a command or in a menu.
Some players change the "monsters" option in the options file to take advantage of one of these unused symbols. A default line looks like:

OPTIONS=monsters:abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ@ '&amp;;:~]

One alternative is:

OPTIONS=monsters:abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ@8'&amp;;:~]

which uses "8" for ghosts and shades. This makes them generally easier to see, especially when using telepathy or other means of detecting monsters that would otherwise display a blank glyph unless you move the cursor over its square (e.g. using m to cycle through visible monsters while far looking).

Historical uses
8 was used as the glyph for Medusa in some early versions of NetHack – from NetHack 2.2a through to NetHack 2.3e
9 was used as the glyph for the generic giant in some early versions of NetHack – from NetHack 1.3d through to NetHack 2.3e

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-343}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.