The TunnelHack Guide: Concepts

Concepts

This section describes basic game concepts.

Concepts: Stat

Statistics. In TunnelHack, the primary statistics are ST (Strength), DX
(Dexterity), IN (Intelligence), and HP (Hit Points).

Concepts: Canibalism

A serious sin in TunnelHack. If you eat members of your own species (defined
as creatures that leave the same corpse you leave), you are breaking the
no-canibalism manditory "Conduct". Your score will be penalized.
Humans are not really good eating anyway, so this isn't normally a big deal.
Note that the definition of canibalism is not technically "eating humans":
some creatures that do not count as humans for murder purposes, such as the
Mad Confectioner or Zeius, leave corpses that it would be canibalism to eat.
Use common sense.

Sentient NPCs will not canibalize each other, although non-humans will
gleefully eat human corpses. (A behavior that Pets frequently exhibit, to
the disconsertion of some players.) Also, non-sentient NPCs may canibalize
each other.

It is not canibalism to eat a human if polymorphed into a non-human
creature. However, even if the creature that you polymorph into would have no
compunctions about eating its own species, that does not make it okay for you
to do so. If you are a pikachu, you must not eat pikachu corpses, and so on.

The Chromatic Cookie is a debugger corpse. If you are polymorphed into one,
you should not eat Chromatic Cookies.

Concepts: Leveling

Leveling is the process by which a character's Experiance Level increases.
When a creature levels up (non-player characters are able to gain levels as
well), its Stats increase.
Not all kinds of creatures can level up, and among those that do, the stat
increases and maximums vary. Although there is no limit to leveling (apart
from technical limits), the maximum stats a particular creature can achive are
capped. For instance, a pitiful Hamster could have a maximum IN of 10 even
if it reached level 100.

The level-up behavior of a species is described by its Leveling Class.
Understanding leveling classes is critical to effective Polymorphing and
helps in Pet selection.

Concepts: Level

The experiance level of a creature describes roughly how powerful it is
relative to a typical creature of its species. You start out at level 0. See
Leveling for information about gaining levels.

Concepts: Pet

The Science Student's Starting Pet

Pets are "Monsters" that follow you around, fighting your enemies and
attempting to help you. Usually it is killed by a Pyrex Elf in about fifty
turns. However, if you manage to keep your pet alive, it can become quite
powerful (by Leveling).

The starting pet is one of a Feral Cat, Dog, Pikachu, or Zergling.
Additional pets can be obtained in the game.

Concepts: HP

Hit points. An abstract measure (Stat) of a character's ability to avoid being
damaged by blows and endure physical injury.

Concepts: IN

A Stat measuring intelligence. The main affect on gameplay is in using
items.

Concepts: Resistance

Resistances prevent certain special effects from affecting a character.
There are fairly few resistances in TunnelHack: Resistance to Polymorphing,
Resistance to Chemical Attack, and Resistance to Bullets.
Resistance to Chemical Attack can be intrinsic to a species (for instance,
Pyrex Elfs]) or aquired by wearing a Lab Coat. Bullet resistance is aquired
by wearing a bullet-proof vest. Polymorph resistance is strictly a species
intrinsic, you can't get it by wearing armor.

Concepts: ST

A Stat measuring physical strength. It is directly involved in determining
how much damage a character does when attacking.

Concepts: Murder

Killing human beings. TunnelHack narrows the definition of murder, for game
purposes, to the killing of non-insane human beings in a way that a real-world
jury would belive. This means that killing a human while polymorphed into a
Gelatinous Cube, or fatally zapping one with a wand, is not considered murder.

You are "allowed" a fixed number of murders, determined at the beginning of
the game. If you commit more than this number, you will be convicted if you
win the game, a dishonor that will be noted in your score. The difficult part
is that the number of allowed murders varries from game to game, and,
furthermore, is not directly known to you! (It can be zero.)

Your allowed murders represent your lawyer's ability to argue that it was
self-defense or that you didn't do it. It is a "murder" to kill a hostile
human! (Better let your Pet finish off dangerous human adversaries.)

Concepts: Leveling Class

A character's Leveling Class determines what Stat increases the character will
get with Leveling up. It also sets the maximum stats for a species, and the
probability that IN, ST and DX will increase. (HP always increases on
leveling up, until it reaches the maximum.)

The Leveling Classes are Humanoid, Dragon, Pathetic Creature, Moderate Animal,
Fox, Beast, and Flayer.

A character that does not level up has no leveling class.

Concepts: DX

A Stat measuring dexterity. It affects chances to hit or dodge the attacks
of other creatures, and affects the use of some items.

Concepts: Conduct

A voluntary challenge undertaken by a player, to make the game harder.
(Despite the fact that it is already quite hard and has been beaten only
thrice in its existance - perhaps twice "in spirit", before it was possible to
actually win.) Some codes of conduct, such as eating only
vegetarian food, or not attacking peaceful creatures, are tracked by the game.
You are not expected to follow most conducts, but you will get considerable
score bonuses for completing the game with them. There are some conducts,
however, that are "manditory", as you will be penalized for breaking them.
These are attacking peaceful creatures, killing humans, and Canibalism. The
score penalties for the first two are fairly light, although Murder carries
additional risks.

Concepts: Experiance

Experiance, measured with Experiance Points, are gained for successful actions
(usually combat). If a character's experiance points are high enough, the
character will level up. (See Leveling)

Concepts: Polymorphing

To polymorph is to change species. (Go from being one type of creature to
another). TunnelHack has both controlled and uncontrolled polymorphing, both
through items.

Uncontrolled polymorphing is risky bussiness. Many creatures have stats worse
than even low-level characters, and some have low maximum stats (from their
Leveling Class) and will remain pathetic even if you level up extensivley in
the form of that creature. In previous versions of TunnelHack, uncontrolled
polymorphing was fairly safe, assuming you had enough Toxic Waste (from a
Flask) to continue polymorphing until got something good, but this is no
longer a very good idea unless the opportunity arises very early on: there are
many creatures that resist polymorphing, and not all of them are desirable
targets. (Many are non-leveling, as well.)

Controlled polymorphing (Done with Toxic Waste that has been mixed with the
yolk of the Pikachu's Striped Yellow Egg) turns the user into a specific
creature. (It is important to get the name exactly right when asked!)

Uncontrolled polymorphing is done with an ordinary flask of toxic waste
(chromatic fluid), or by a Conical Hat malfunction. (Even riskier!)
Not polymorphing (or not using controlled polymorph) is a Conduct.

When considering targets for controlled polymorphing, you should consider
inital Stats, Leveling, and Resistances (especially polymorph resistance or
non-eating, which would preclude your ever performing a controlled polymorph
again). Special Attacks are worth considering as well.

Concepts: Special Attack

A special attack is a behavior exhibited by the characters in the game,
generally associated with combat. There are many kinds. Some can be used by
the player after Polymorphing into the associated creature, others can't.
An example would be the Pikachu's thundershock.