# GnollHack — user reviews > 26 indexed App Store user reviews of GnollHack by Hyvän mielen pelit ry, rated 4.70/5 from 103 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gnollhack/id1626979951/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gnollhack/id1626979951.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 87 · 4★ 10 · 3★ 3 · 2★ 0 · 1★ 3 ## Newest reviews (7 of 26) ### 5/5 — Such a fun game! *2024-11-08* I love how in depth this game is, and it’s completely free! What a bargain! ### 5/5 — NetHack but for modern days *2024-08-23, version 1.79* Loving it, it’s got all the trademarks of NetHack but with small QoL changes to make it enjoyable on a phone. ### 5/5 — Great! *2024-03-28, version 1.57* Really fun and intuitive port of the classic roguelike - definitely try it!! ### 5/5 — A Worthy Addition *2023-09-22* Pros: fun, excellent controls for a touchscreen, saves properly Cons: Addictive! An excellent variation on the venerable NetHack family, though compared to its predecessors it's significantly easier on Standard. I may have to put this away until I can succeed at the OG. It's also addictive, tempting me to stay up late on worknights and ignore my other projects! If I could, I'd rate this 4.5 stars, as the game did generate a level with no > and wouldn't let me leave by < or ^, but surprisingly I was able to recover a version pretty close to the corrupted level. ### 5/5 — Great revision of Nethack *2023-07-30* Nethack is one of my fav games of all time and this is a really great revision of this game. ### 5/5 — Great Nethack Variant *2023-05-06* Great nethack variant for the iOS. Controls take some getting used to but do a great job once you do. All the classes and races you want and Gnolls! What more could you ask for? ### 5/5 — Great Nethack variant *2023-04-12* This game is a fantastic iOS implementation of Nethack. It has easily the most playable, least clunky interface of any NH variant I’ve played, and I’ve played a lot of them. The graphics and animations look really good, and voice acting bits are a very nice touch. The gameplay includes all of the best core features from Nethack, and many of the rest of the features as well. I’m running it on a 6th generation iPad, and it does crash occasionally due to the older hardware, but I’m sure if I tweak the settings I can fix that. Even when it does crash, the recovery is very good with very little lost data. This is absolutely worth playing for any fan of traditional Roguelikes. 5 stars and an Amulet of Yendor. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Massive Disappointment *2026-08-09* The game and its mechanics are what you expect from a nethack adaptation. Unfortunately I was working my way through a Grandmaster, classic 40+ hr run (~200k turns) and put my phone down to consider my latest failed but luckily non-fatal attempt to make it through Gehennom. I then came back to my phone and was told I had been corrupting my save/cheating: a message along the lines of 'Trickery! Your save may have been corrupted.' - with a line like that, I am not sure who is to be assumed to be performing the trickery. In any case, my character was instantly killed after I received the message. What an immense disappointment to have a game that requires so much effort, research, and double-checking erase your run without much double-checking on the part of the devs; clearly this has been an issue for many years, and I made the poor decision to ignore the warning signs: %/ Frequently while shifting from playing the game to receiving text messages, calls, or to go to your browser for information about the game (which is absolutely required, if you do not want to play hundreds if not thousands of games), the game will seize up and the menus will not respond and you may have to restart the app. %/ Other reviews here made this clear, but I personally had 3 or 4 runs that fell into a crashing loop before the run that has lead to this review. The monumental disappointment here coming from the shear size of the time investment poured into this last run. I chose to play the game on Grandmaster, classic mode because it didn't really feel like a challenging game at lower difficulties. I expected to win or lose due to the merit of my own decisions in the game, not the poor quality control of the developers. It's really unfortunate that my playing this game is ending with this review. **Developer response:** The game does have pretty extensive guards against save file corruption, but they never can be 100% proof. The game normally launches a background service for saving the game upon app switch and the like, giving normally enough time to enable successful save given sufficient disk space. The app also has an automatic backup and restore feature, but one of the situations not covered by the normal automatic backup restore is trickery, which you encountered, an original NetHack tampering detection but commonly a result of some type of corruption, which seems to be the case here. In any case, you might be able to recover your run by exporting save files using a button from About > Manage Files, unzipping them to a folder, finding the relevant backup save file with .bak extension, removing the .bak extension from the file, zipping the save file, and importing the zip back with import saved game button in About > Manage Files. This makes the file non-scoring, but should enable you to continue the game from the point of last successful save. If you encounter such panics or crashes again, please feel free to notify us via our Discord server, for example. ### 1/5 — Crash fest *2026-01-06* If you like games that crash every 2 mins, this is the game for you. **Developer response:** Would you mind letting us know which device you are using so we can investigate this further? You can send us email to gnollhack@hyvanmielenpelit.fi. Also, please make sure that you have free disk space availble. If it is a memory issue, closing other background apps may also help. ### 1/5 — Great game. Don’t play it. *2023-07-29* First off: yup, neat nethack variant. Good graphics, some fun additional content. The sound is neat too. Don’t play it. Because here is what will happen. You will start a game in classic mode. And you’ll play for a while and then put down the phone, or switch out to the web browser, or whatever, and GnollHack doesn’t save when you do that. So when your phone needs a little more memory for the browser, it will kill GnollHack, and the next time you try to load that game it will say that it crashed and try to do an emergency restore. This will work. The first time. Even the fifth time. And then, when you’ve just found a really good weapon and a belt of fire giant strength and are ready to take on Ludos, it won’t work, and bang, your game is gone forever. So you’ll start a game in the “keep my last save around” mode, even though it isn’t eligible for achievements. And you will try to remember to save your game every time you switch apps on your phone. Or lock your phone. And mostly you’ll succeed, so you will only lose a few hours of play during your next run. And then you’ll have a character who is very nearly ready to go get the amulet, all spiffed up and everything. And that night the app will auto-update and the next day you’ll start it and it will say “sorry all your saved games are incompatible with this version here I will helpfully delete them for you.” This is a fun game that is well-suited to desktop play. It could be a great game on mobile too, but the dev responsible for this version of it refuses to put in the extra work necessary to make this a mobile game. As it is, it’s a rage-fest. **Developer response:** We have noted the auto-update behaviour in the popup when you exit the game. So, it is adviced to disable auto-updates as long as you are playing GnollHack, or your saves can become incompatible. However, even if this happens, you can downgrade your installation using these instructions: https://github.com/hyvanmielenpelit/GnollHack/wiki/iOS-Releases This behaviour is unfortunate, but the save game compatibility issues come from NetHack, on which GnollHack is based. Every other NetHack variant also has this issue, but they do not have Android and iOS ports, so modern auto-update is no concern to them. Resolving this issue is a major technical issue, to which we have no solution at the moment. Therefore, we have decided just to inform players to disable auto-update and if an acciedental upgrade happens, you can always downgrade and continue playing. ### 3/5 — Great game but there’s bugs *2024-04-27* Can’t save my current file because of a message that comes up any time I try to save that says “trickery” and tels me “game over” **Developer response:** Please make sure that you have your have a reasonable amount of disk space, say at least 1 GB, available on your device. It seems that a file is missing from the directory when the game is trying to make the save file, or something of the similar kind. ### 4/5 — Please roll back the difficulty hikes *2026-07-02* Thanks for fixing the UI bug, but I’ve noticed that the latest build has seriously amped up some annoying things which were probably meant to increase difficulty, but just frustrate me as a person with ADHD. The enemy curse items spell apparently has been buffed to pass MR/MC and is used more often, resulting in lots of trips back to the temple. This kind of annoyance is supposed to be reserved for the endgame when the WoY is annoying you, now it’s the whole game and that’s not fair. More treasure chests are trapped, and trapped chests are a pain because you have to doff your rings, hide your wands, stash your flammable items and potions and etc. just to open the chest safely. Having to do this for every single locked chest in the entire dungeon (not just Gehennom/castle/maze) is also frustrating. There should also be guaranteed instances of each type of service in the main dungeon because if you roll the orc town, you may not have ready access to them until you get to the castle and Orcus Town. Some stuff like the temples are essential, and I had to quit a game once I got the Candelabrum because there were no candles left thanks to the orc town putting Izchak out of business. **Developer response:** The fix is on the way, and is currently waiting for Apple’s store review, so hopefully it gets to the store as soon as possible. UPDATE: The fix is out now. ### 4/5 — Fix UI bug in Build 140 *2026-06-22* Build 140 introduces a bug which causes the touch to travel interface, and any other action which requires touching the map, to stop working when you change floors unless you close and reload the app. I do not know what triggers the bug but it persists across sessions and phone reboots. Once it happens, it affects all saved games. **Developer response:** The fix is on the way, and is currently waiting for Apple’s store review, so hopefully it gets to the store as soon as possible. UPDATE: The fix is out now. ### 4/5 — Good game *2025-12-23* Great rogue like game but need a to adjust the money system and make easier to identify items ### 4/5 — Really enjoying it, even though it constantly crashes. *2025-08-19* A fun take on the old, old school computer dungeon crawler. ### 4/5 — Good core but awkward controls *2025-05-21* I love any game that lets me play as a Gnoll (though with a name like gnollhack, I hope you’ll be expanding the number of classes that can be a gnoll 👀). I was pleasantly surprised that the player character actually has animations, and the elven bard song actually being a sung song was a nice treat. My only major issues right now is the control scheme. Tapping where you want to go in a portrait oriented game feels clunky, and I'd prefer the option for an 8-direction button pad for movement. A lot of the menus feel like they have a lot of extra button presses required to confirm things, and I think there's a lot of places where the ux could be streamlined. ### 5/5 — NetHack Re-Vamped *2026-08-08* Incredible roguelike. I have played tons of NetHack, a classic. This has far more quality of life and plays very smoothly on mobile. I have ascended 10 roles in it. I love the spell casting, the new equipment slots, and all the new items/qualities. I recommend if you’re new to NetHack to play on a lower difficulty. But if you’re familiar with NH play on Expert. Thanks for this amazing game. ## Most praised reviews (9 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — NetHack for people who don’t hate themselves. *2026-06-27* *hit send* ### 5/5 — A True Roguelike That Teaches You as You Play *2026-04-12, version 2.119* This game hooked me in a way I didn’t expect. My very first run started with my pet dying early, and it genuinely felt like the game was impossible to continue. But that’s exactly where this roguelike shines — it rewards you for not giving up. If you slow down, avoid rash decisions, and actually learn how the systems work, the game opens up in amazing ways. Experimenting with potions, testing items, checking curse status at temples, figuring out how pets behave, learning when to take risks and when to hold back — all of it matters. The depth is real, and every run teaches you something new. And that's just playing as Valtari Dwarf. There's so many other classes styles of play. It's the kind of game you could play indefinitely just differently every time. What impressed me most is how well all this complexity works on mobile. The controls are intuitive, the UI is clean, and nothing feels watered down. It’s a true roguelike with real consequences, real discovery, and real satisfaction when things finally click. ### 5/5 — Discord!!! *2026-03-30* I've searched everywhere but I can't find any link to the player community. Do you have Discord or something like that? ### 5/5 — best iphone game *2026-01-15* I hated iphone cuz it never got anything fun but this game got me so hooked. this is literally what ive been searching for in modern games ### 5/5 — Full old-school roguelike game *2025-12-28, version 2.83* If you like Angband, Nethack, or ADOM, you will like this game. ### 5/5 — Great game *2025-10-10* Seems to be the best/most accessible traditional roguelike on IOS, not only not needing to use SSH but also having a great UI, especially by roguelike standards. My only complaint is that I had a couple casual save games be corrupted on load with panic/msg history issues but that was before the latest update, so hopefully this new one fixed it. **Developer response:** The save game corruption problem should have been mostly fixed in the newest version (2.74 / Build 78) by giving the app more time to save the game when switching apps. ### 5/5 — Thank you for continuing the legacy *2025-09-26* This is 100% the way to experience nethack. Users new and returning will play more games thanks to GnollHacks modernization. Being able to switch between apps and come back to my game is everything I’ve ever wanted. The controls are great and well thought out in my opinion, I never used to clear entire floors but now it’s a quick breeze with tap controls. In original nethack it was hard to see if a path continued or was a wall (not possible in iNethack2). I’m consistently surprised with the graphics, with each enemy and item having its own sprite, and characters having voice lines! Main characters say their actual names! The tourist class attack animation is my favorite thing ever. I wish I had the words to articulate how much I appreciate the work put into GnollHack, from QOLs to social features like run sharing and replays, I am infinitely grateful to the developers for keeping the legacy of the roguelike going, for free, without ads, AND open source! Wow! Please consider sponsoring the developers! Sponsoring is a legally preferred way to donate for the immense amount of work done (and ongoing) for your enjoyment pleasure! Oh, and did I mention you can be a Gnoll? Gnolls are awesome! ### 5/5 — Incredible Roguelike *2025-09-03* Best roguelike I’ve ever played. Greatly appreciated the GUI placed on top of Nethack ### 5/5 — 11/10 *2024-11-30* IMO The best roguelike available on the app store. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-27.*