About This Game

GnollHack transforms NetHack, one of the greatest and deepest games of all time, into a modern roguelike experience. Animated graphics, immersive sound, music, voiceovers, and a refined interface bring the classic NetHack formula to life. With extensive gameplay and accessibility improvements, GnollHack is a great way to start playing NetHack today!

The Legend Returns

For decades, NetHack has defined depth and complexity in gaming. GnollHack takes that foundation and improves it with modern design, accessibility, and immersion, without sacrificing what made the original great.

Endless Possibilities

Every run is unique. Procedurally generated dungeons, unpredictable encounters, and countless items ensure that no two adventures are ever the same. Win with strategy, creativity, and clever thinking, not with reflexes.

Designed for Modern Players

Clear visuals. Rich audio. Whether you're on a quick session or a deep dive, GnollHack fits perfectly into how you play today.

Depth That No Other Game Matches

Complex systems. Meaningful choices. Real consequences. GnollHack offers a level of depth and emergent gameplay that few modern games even attempt.

New to Roguelikes?

Start your journey with a non-permadeath mode, adjustable difficulty, and a learning curve designed to welcome you in, not push you away.

Love Modern Roguelites?

If you enjoy randomness, loot, and replayability, GnollHack offers deeper systems and smarter gameplay than most roguelites.

Hardcore Roguelike Fans

Permadeath. Deep mechanics. True challenge. This is the real deal: uncompromising and endlessly rewarding.

NetHack Veterans

Experience NetHack with expanded systems, new content, deeper progression, and a modern presentation, all while staying true to its roots.

• The definitive modern NetHack experience

• Deep, turn-based gameplay where every decision matters

• Animated graphics, sound effects, music, and voiceovers

• Procedurally generated dungeons with infinite replayability

• Expanded mechanics, items, monsters, and progression systems

• Multiple modes and difficulty levels for all players

• Completely free: no ads, no paywalls

Enter the dungeon. Become a legend.

Enabling Dedicated GPU

In the case your computer has multiple GPUs, GnollHack uses the integrated GPU by default. If you want to use the dedicated GPU, you must enable it as follows:

1. Open Windows Settings.

2. Go to System → Display → Graphics.

3. Add a desktop app and select "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\GnollHack\GnollHackM.exe".

4. GnollHackM should appear in the app list. Click on it to expand its options. Select High Performance as GPU preference.

Troubleshooting

If the game is stuck in the loading screen in the "Done loading" phase, you can fix the problem as follows:

1. Open Control Panel.

2. Click Clock and Region.

3. Click Region.

4. Select the Administrative tab and, in the Language for non-Unicode programs section, click Change system locale.

5. Select English (United States) as the current system locale and click OK.

Alternatively, you can download an MSIX installer for the game from GnollHack's GitHub releases page. Installing the game through it will also fix the problem.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

GnollHack includes Gnoll Overseer, an optional AI assistant that uses third-party generative AI models to answer players’ questions in a text chat. Players can ask about game mechanics or request help with their current game situation, which is shared with the AI as context only when they use the feature. Overseer only produces chat replies: it cannot take actions in the game or generate images, audio, or other in-game content. Its instructions restrict it to GnollHack topics, and it uses strict system guardrails and the AI providers’ safety filters to prevent harmful, offensive, or illegal responses.