June Nethack Tournament 2025

Started with 3.4.3 because I enjoy going back to the old days.  My
Wizard was L15 and a bit on the weak side, so I took advantage of the
Drain for Gain technique to raise my stats.  When I was satisfied, I
quaffed my blessed restore ability only to find that that doesn't
restore lost levels in 3.4.3!  Cost me a day of leveling, but
confirmed that restore ability is as useless in 3.4.3 as I always
assumed it was!

While working my way through the variants checking the boxes, I had a
promising 3.7 game so I played it through.  I liked some changes, not
a fan of others.  In particular, the new Gehenom is definitely less
tedious and more interesting, similar to what Spork did.  Monsters
definitely hit harder late game, and I used just about all of my
healing potions by the end of the game where normally they would just
sit in the bag.  The wish nerfing/spreading is not to my taste though.
Just before the start of tournament, it was changed so that WoW are
always 0:1 and only recharge to 1:1.  The other wishes were moved to
Orcus (lamp or marker), Vlad (guarantee throne wish but so many bad
side-effects that not usable), and when picking up the Amulet (use it
then or lose it).  Basically, by the time you get those other wishes,
you have already mostly beaten the game.

Bleeko the Chaotic Elvish Wizard
2025-06-05: Ascended in 41563 turns
hardfought.org, version 3.4.3

Bleeko the Neutral Human Barbarian
2025-06-14: Ascended in 36812 turns
hardfought.org, version 3.7.0-127 WIP