Few games are as legendary, or as ruthless, as NetHack. First released in 1987, this free, open-source roguelike has been quietly humbling players for nearly four decades. The premise is classic: descend through the Mazes of Menace, retrieve the Amulet of Yendor from the depths, and carry it back to the surface to ascend to demigodhood. Simple to describe. Almost impossibly hard to do.
NetHack’s reputation rests on its staggering interactivity. There’s a running joke that “the DevTeam thinks of everything,” because the game so often accounts for whatever wild idea you try. Dip a weapon in a fountain. Scratch a word in the dust to scare off a monster. Coat your armor in something a passing creature can’t stand. The systems interlock in thousands of ways, and discovering them is the whole game.
It’s a cornerstone of our list of the best free roguelike games for PC, and one of the most influential games ever made, the direct ancestor of a huge chunk of the genre.
Is NetHack Free?
Yes, completely and forever. NetHack is free and open source, released under the NetHack General Public License. There’s no cost, no ads, and no microtransactions, and there never have been. The NetHack DevTeam has maintained and refined it for decades, and it’s still being updated today.
You have options, too. Download it free from the official site for Windows, Mac, or Linux, or don’t download it at all. Public servers let you play NetHack online over a browser or terminal connection, with your progress saved on the server. Either way, it costs nothing.
Gameplay & Features
NetHack is a traditional roguelike to its core: turn-based, played on a grid, procedurally generated, with permadeath that means a single mistake can end a run hours deep. You choose a role (from the mighty Valkyrie and Wizard to the famously punishing Tourist), a race, and an alignment, then descend floor by floor into the dungeon.
By default it’s rendered in ASCII, letters and symbols standing in for monsters and items, though graphical tilesets exist if you’d rather. Don’t let the plain look fool you. Beneath it sits one of the deepest games ever built, where the interactions between items, monsters, terrain, and your own actions run bottomless. Expect to die a lot, consult the wiki often, and slowly fall for it.
- Thirteen distinct roles plus races and alignments, each shaping a wildly different run.
- Legendary emergent depth, the game accounts for an absurd range of creative actions and item interactions.
- Procedurally generated dungeons crowned by the Amulet of Yendor and the climb to the Astral Plane.
- Classic ASCII display with optional graphical tilesets, plus free online play on public servers.
For more of the genre’s finest free entries, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup streamlines the formula, and Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead takes it to a post-apocalyptic survival extreme.
PC System Requirements
NetHack might be the most undemanding game on this entire site. It’s an ASCII game with roots in the 1980s, so it runs on anything with a screen, and you can even play it in a browser without installing a thing. There’s no official spec sheet, so the figures below are a practical guide.
| Component | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 7 or later (also macOS and Linux) | Windows 10 or later |
| Processor | Any CPU | Any CPU |
| Memory | 64 MB RAM | 256 MB RAM |
| Graphics | Any (text-based display) | Any |
| Storage | 20 MB available space | 20 MB available space |
How to Download & Play NetHack for Free
There’s more than one free way to play. Here’s the simplest:
- Head to the official NetHack website and download the version for your operating system.
- Install or unzip it. No account is needed. Choose a graphical tileset front-end if you’d prefer sprites over ASCII.
- Pick a role, race, and alignment, and start your descent.
Want zero setup? Play free on a public server such as alt.org, straight from a browser or terminal, with your saves stored online. For more ways to find free games safely, see our guide to the best free PC game download sites.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is NetHack free?
Yes, completely. It’s free and open source under the NetHack General Public License, with no ads, no microtransactions, and no paid version.
Is NetHack hard?
Notoriously. It’s cryptic and brutally difficult, and permadeath means mistakes are permanent. It’s also endlessly rewarding, and the community wiki is a huge help for newcomers.
Can I play NetHack online?
Yes. Public servers let you play for free in a browser or terminal with no download, and your progress is saved on the server.
Does NetHack have graphics?
By default it uses ASCII characters, but optional graphical tilesets and front-ends add sprites if you’d prefer a more visual look.
