Saving and loading your character should be easy. So, sadly, is getting him killed. Winning is a little harder, but the novice player can take advantage of various cheats to improve his chances down in the dungeon.

Saving your Game

Saving your game is usually easy. You can use the save game command, or (on some systems) a menu option. If you cannot save your game, you probably have one of two problems:

1. The folder "lib/save" does not exist. Create this directory and any others that are missing.
2. You are using a multi-user machine and do not have write permission to that file or directory.

Loading your Game

DOS, UNIX

The game will automatically look for savefiles in the "lib/save" directory. It will first try to load any file that you specify with the "-u" command line option. It will then try to load any file named "PLAYER" (capitalization may or may not be ignored).

Macintosh, Windows

You choose the menu option "file -> open", which allows you to load savefiles from almost any directory. With suitable use of option files, the Macintosh can also save to almost any directory.

Loading dead characters

If you load a dead character, the game will start up with the character birth interface. The new character inherits the monster knowledge of his ancestor.

Savefile compatibility report

Angband loads files from Angband 2.9.0 and later. To use earlier savefiles, import it into Angband 2.9.3, resave, and then open it up with the current version.

Winning The Game

Once you have killed Sauron, who lives on level 99 (4950') in the dungeon, a magical staircase will appear that will allow you to finally reach level 100. Morgoth lurks on this level of the dungeon, and you will not be able to go below his level until you have killed him. Try to avoid wandering around on level 100 unless you are ready for him, since he has a habit of coming at you across the dungeon, the Mighty Hammer 'Grond' in hand, to slay you for your impudence.

Morgoth cannot be killed by some of the easier methods used on normal creatures. Morgoth, like all other unique monsters, will simply teleport away to another region of the level if you attempt to use a spell such as destruction upon him. He also cannot be polymorphed, slept, charmed, or genocided. Magical spells like Mana Storm and annihilation are effective against him, as are some of the more powerful weapons, but he is difficult to kill and if allowed to escape for a time will heal himself rapidly.

If you should actually survive the attempt of killing Morgoth, you will receive the status of WINNER. You may continue to explore, and may even save the game and play more later, but since you have defeated the toughest creature alive, there is really not much point. Unless you wish to listen to the rumours of a powerful ring buried somewhere in the dungeon...

When you are ready to retire, simply "commit suicide" (using the "Q" key) to have your character entered into the high score list as a winner. Note that until you retire, you can still be killed, so you may want to retire before wandering into a room with 95 Death Molds crammed inside...

Upon Death and Dying

If your character's hit points fall below zero, he dies. The dreaded tombstone will appear, and you may check out his attributes and possessions one last time.

Your character will leave behind a reduced save file, which contains only the monster memory and your option choices, both of which new characters may use. It is very helpful to know something about the monster that slew your ancestor!

Cheating Death

One of the most important things about this game is that your character's life is so important. Let him die, and you start over from scratch. This is one of the secrets to this game's fascination; anyone who cheats death is really not getting the full experience, and any Morgoth-slayers yanked from the jaws of death are not full winners. But what if your characters seem to die all the time (like mine!), and you really want to keep playing with the same guy? Well, the game has a few answers for that too. You may cheat death by:

• Toggling on the "cheat death" option. This keeps your character ticking, and is even kind enough to give you a running tally of your deaths by setting the character's age to zero when first used, and increasing it by one each time thereafter. Trying to keep this number low is a great way to learn the game.
• Making backup savefiles.
• Aborting the game just as the tombstone appears or before.