# Rogue level

Rogue level

Location

Level 15–18 of theDungeons of Doom

Bones

Yes

Mappable

Yes

Teleportable

Yes

Diggable floor

Yes

Diggable walls

Yes

NetHack is a roguelike game, but there is one special level that is more like Rogue than the others. This Rogue level is a reincarnation of the original Rogue. The welcoming message you receive is: You enter what seems to be an older, more primitive world.
This special level is guaranteed somewhere in each dungeon, between levels 15 and 18 inclusive of the main dungeon. Here is a list of traits from the older Hack and Rogue games that you can also find in the Rogue level of NetHack.

The level consists of a 3&nbsp;×&nbsp;3 grid, each cell of which may contain a room or a corridor node.
All monsters are represented as uppercase letters.
NetHack achieves this by not spawning any lowercase-letter monsters at this special level. It is still possible to bring lowercase-letter monsters like pets from other levels to this level.
Doors, represented by + (plus sign), act like open doorways, meaning that you can not walk diagonally through them. There is no way to close or destroy these doors.  Magical locking will turn them into secret doors instead.[1]
There are no DECgraphics or color. Rogue and Hack lacked these features. NetHack, at least when playing the tty port, disables these options during the special level.
IBMgraphics has an interesting effect. Especially for DOS users, NetHack replaces several characters with the ones used in a DOS port of Rogue. See IBMgraphics §&nbsp;Rogue level for more information.
Stairs are represented as % (percent sign).
Hack uses &lt; (left angle bracket) and &gt; (right angle bracket), like NetHack normally does.
In Rogue, there was always one stairway: down if you had not found the Amulet of Yendor, or up if you had found it. Hack and NetHack introduced an innovation where old levels were saved to disk, allowing you to freely travel up and down. Thus, the roguelike level of NetHack contains two percent signs.
Food is represented as : (colon).
Hack uses % (percent sign).
Since NetHack uses : (colon) for food and corpses at this level, some players might mistake these things as newts or other lizard-like monsters.
Monsters do not leave corpses[2] nor death drops.[3] Rogue did not implement corpses. Troll corpses brought to the level can still rise, however.
Armor is represented as ] (right square bracket).
Many players don't even notice the difference because NetHack uses the similar-looking [ (left square bracket).
Zorkmids and gold pieces are represented as * (asterisk) instead of $ (dollar sign).
Hostile monsters are unable to tunnel through rock.[4] (This is perhaps related to bug C343-4.)
When selecting dungeon features at the farlook or travel command prompt, the keys work as usual. For example, stairs are &lt; and &gt; despite display as % etc.
Astral vision's illumination as granted by The Eyes of the Overworld does not seem to work here, possibly due to a bug, or possibly intentionally to remain true to Rogue.
There will also be a named ghost on this level, guarding a fake bones pile, possibly including a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor. By default the ghost will be named after one of the creators of Rogue, either Michael Toy, Kenneth Arnold, or Glenn Wichman, but the ghost's name can be changed using the environment variable ROGUEOPTS. For example, if the variable is set to name=X, then the ghost's name will be X. The loot being guarded by the ghost includes:

d7 food rations (75% chance)
either a mace (enchantment +1 to +3) or a two-handed sword (enchantment −1 to +3)
a +1 bow
25 to 34 +0 arrows
either a ring mail (enchantment +0 to +2) or a plate mail (enchantment −1 to +3); 1⁄3 chance of being rustproof
an identified cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor (50% chance)
Each of these items except the food and the amulet has a 75% chance of being cursed. In Rogue, the player's starting weapon was a mace, which accounts for its presence here.
The Rogue level is eligible to leave bones files, and may contain the quest portal.

Contents

1 Variants

1.1 SLASH'EM
1.2 UnNetHack

2 References

Variants
Some variants may elect to remove the Rogue level entirely in order to maintain gameplay variation and avoid player confusion.

SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, the Rogue level is removed.

UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, the Rogue level is removed starting in version 5.3.2 to make more space for levels within the dungeon and maintain variation.

References

↑ src/lock.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 953

↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 2016

↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 2295

↑ src/monmove.c in NetHack 3.6.1, line 800

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