Editing NetHack (section)

===Character death===
As in other roguelike games, ''NetHack'' features [[permadeath]]: expired characters cannot be revived.

Although ''NetHack'' can be completed without any artificial limitations, experienced players can attempt "conducts" for an additional challenge.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nethack.org/v343/Guidebook.html#_TOCentry_38 |title=NetHack 3.4.3: Guidebook for NetHack 3.4 |publisher=Nethack.org |access-date=2010-09-08}}</ref> These are voluntary restrictions on actions taken, such as using no wishes, following a [[vegetarian]] or [[vegan]] diet, or even killing no monsters. While conducts are generally tracked by the game and are displayed at death or ascension, unofficial conducts are practiced within the community.

When a player dies, the cause of death and score is created and added to the list where the player's character is ranked against other previous characters.<ref>{{Cite web|title = GameSetWatch @ Play: Thou Art Early, But We'll Admit Thee|url = http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2006/10/_play_thou_art_early_but_well_1.php|website = www.gamesetwatch.com|access-date = 2015-11-09|archive-date = 6 March 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160306032222/http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2006/10/_play_thou_art_early_but_well_1.php|url-status = dead}}</ref> The prompt "Do you want your possessions identified?" is given by default at the end of any game, allowing the player to learn any unknown properties of the items in their inventory at death. The player's attributes (such as resistances, luck, and others), conduct (usually self-imposed challenges, such as playing as an atheist or a vegetarian), and a tally of creatures killed, may also be displayed.

The game sporadically saves a level on which a character has died and then integrates that level into a later game. This is done via "bones files", which are saved on the computer hosting the game. A player using a publicly hosted copy of the game can thus encounter the remains and possessions of many other players, although many of these possessions may have become cursed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hearse.krollmark.com/ |title=Hearse |access-date=2008-12-15}}</ref>

Because of the numerous ways that a player-character could die between a combination of their own actions as well as from reactions from the game's interacting systems, players frequently refer to untimely deaths as "Yet Another Stupid Death" (YASD). Such deaths are considered part of learning to play ''NetHack'' as to avoid conditions where the same death may happen again.<ref name="arstech roguelikes"/>

''NetHack'' does allow players to save the game so that one does not have to complete the game in one session, but on opening a new game, the previous save file is subsequently wiped as to enforce the permadeath option. One option some players use is to make a backup copy of the save game file before playing a game, and, should their character die, restoring from the copied version, a practice known as "save scumming". Additionally, players can also manipulate the "bones files" in a manner not intended by the developers. While these help the player to learn the game and get around limits of permadeath, both are considered forms of cheating the game.<ref>{{cite book | title = Role-Playing Game Studies | chapter = Single-Player Computer Role-Playing Games | first1 = Douglas | last1 =  Douglas | first2= Jon | last2= Peterson | first3 = Martin | last3= Picard | pages = 107–129 | publisher = Taylor & Francis | date = 2018 | editor-first1 = Sebastian | editor-last1 = Deterding | editor-first2 =  José | editor-last2= Zagal | isbn = 978-1317268314}}</ref>