In this post I’m going to go over some of the standard commands that some people may not know of (especially if you haven’t read the Guidebook in a really long time). I don’t mean that nobody uses them, just that they are not as obvious as the main ones. Most work the same in the variants, but I’m not sure that all of them do – I confirmed that “X” doesn’t work in Nitrohack.
Also, see the excellent command cheat sheet (PDF) at the Nethack wiki.
: and ; – identify. : is used to see what’s directly under your character. ; will let you move the cursor to an item or monster nearby, and pressing ; again will identify it
^ – identify trap
/ – tells what another symbol represents
& – will tell you what some other command means (if you know the letter but forgot what it will do)
g(direction) – will move in that direction until something interesting is found
Q – get a throwing item ready in your quiver
x (lowercase) – this will exchange your current weapon with the alternate one (such as a bow)
f – fire your readied throwing weapon (arrows, dagger, etc)
I – instead of the entire list of your inventory, this will bring up the categories. Allows you to choose just one type of item to list
D – lets you choose what to drop from a list of all item categories
* – lists all equipped weapons, armor, rings, amulets (but not other items)
+ – lists all spells you know
alt-e (enhance) – view and raise your skills. New players may not realize it, but skills with weapons don’t automatically go up. You get 29 enhancements, one per level, which can be spread among your weapons and spell groups
V – display history of your progress in the game
Ctrl-X – player info (gives name, starting and current race, role, gender and alignment, and also lists the 3 gods for your role alongside their respective alignments)
X – change to “nonscoring explore mode”. Just what it says: it won’t keep your score that game, but in return, you will be asked to confirm, whenever something might cause your character’s death. (The game asks for confirmation)
One Day, I Will Ascend 