ooms and corridors
in the dungeon are either lit or dark. Any
lit areas within your line of sight will be displayed; dark areas
are only displayed if they are within one space of
you. Walls and corridors remain on the map as you explore them.
ooms and corridors
in the dungeon are either lit or dark. Any
lit areas within your line of sight will be displayed; dark areas
are only displayed if they are within one space of
you. Walls and corridors remain on the map as you explore them.
Secret corridors are hidden. You can find them with the search
command (left-click yourself, or choose it from the context menu, or press 's').
Doorways connect
rooms and corridors. Some doorways have no doors; you
can walk right through. Others have doors in them, which may
be open, closed, or locked. To open a closed door, left-click it, use
the context menu, or press 'o'; to close it again, use the context menu or press `c'.
You can get through a locked door by using a tool to pick the lock with the `a' (apply) command, or by kicking it open (use the context menu or press 'k').
Open doors cannot be entered diagonally; you must approach them straight on, horizontally or vertically. Doorways without doors are not restricted in this fashion.
Doors can be useful for shutting out monsters. Most monsters cannot open doors, although a few don't need to (ex. ghosts can walk through doors).
Secret doors are hidden. You can find them with
the search command. Once found they are in all
ways equivalent to normal doors.
There is a special pre-mapped branch of the dungeon based on the
classic computer game ``Sokoban.'' The goal is to push
the boulders into the pits or holes. With careful foresight,
it is possible to complete all of the levels according
to the traditional rules of Sokoban. Some allowances are permitted
in case the player gets stuck; however, they will lower your luck.
To push a boulder, select push from the context menu.
In general, each
level in the dungeon will have a staircase going up to the
previous level and another going down to the next level. There
are some exceptions though. For instance, fairly early in the dungeon you
will find a level with two down staircases, one continuing into the dungeon
and the other branching into an area known as the Gnomish Mines.
Those mines eventually hit a dead end, so after exploring them (if
you choose to do so), you'll need to climb back up to the main dungeon.
When you climb a set of stairs, or trigger a trap which sends you to another level, the level you're leaving will be deactivated and stored in a file on disk. If you're moving to a previously visited level, it will be loaded from its file on disk and reactivated. If you're moving to a previously unexplored level, it will be created. Most random levels are created from scratch, some special levels are made from a template, and sometimes you'll find the remains of an earlier game (a ``bones'' level). Monsters are only active on the current level; those on other levels are essentially placed into stasis.
Ordinarily when you climb a set of stairs, you will arrive
on the corresponding staircase at your destination.
However, pets (see Monsters) and some other monsters will follow
along if they're close enough when you travel up or down stairs,
and occasionally one of these creatures will displace
you during the climb. When that occurs, the pet or other
monster will arrive on the staircase and you will end up nearby.