# Beginner

This page is a stub. Should you wish to do so, you can contribute by expanding this page.

Being a beginner is a condition of a single NetHack character. Characters that have never achieved 2000 score points (1000 if a wizard) are classified as beginners. It causes otherwise unique messages given by scrolls, spells, and potions to default to "You have a strange feeling for a moment, then it passes" ("normal feeling" if hallucinating), which hampers their identification.
The following events are affected by this:

Performing gold detection when there is no gold on the level
Performing non-blessed food detection when there is no food on the level (or blessed when already detecting dangerous food)
Performing object detection when there are no objects on the level
Performing non-blessed monster detection when there are no monsters on the level
Attempting to detect traps (with a crystal ball or cursed/confused scroll of gold detection) when there are no traps on the level
Reading a scroll of enchant armor while not wearing any armor
Reading a scroll of destroy armor while not wearing any armor, confused or not
Reading a scroll of enchant weapon while not wielding any weapon
This is a condition experienced by all players; each character (regardless of a player's history) is initially a beginner.

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 Information on this page may be out of date.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.