# iNethack2 — user reviews > 134 indexed App Store user reviews of iNethack2 by Future Shock Software LTD, rated 4.39/5 from 137 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/inethack2/id962114968/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/inethack2/id962114968.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 95 · 4★ 22 · 3★ 8 · 2★ 3 · 1★ 9 ## What do users think of iNethack2? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🎮 Faithful port of classic NetHack game - 📱 Well-designed touch interface for mobile - 🎨 Multiple tileset options available - ♾️ Infinite replayability and depth - 🆓 Free to play with no paywalls - ⚙️ Customizable controls and shortcuts - 💾 Automatic save functionality - 🔄 Regular updates and active maintenance - 🎯 Accessible for both new and veteran players - 📊 Impressive complexity and game mechanics **Cons** - 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes - 💾 Game files corrupted or lost unexpectedly - ⌨️ Limited external keyboard support - 🎮 Clunky movement controls - 🖱️ Double-tap sensitivity issues - 📱 Mobile interface not fully optimized - 🔤 Chinese pinyin keyboard input causes crashes - ✨ Missing visual effects and animations - 🎨 Outdated graphics and UI design - 🔍 Visibility issues in corridors **Commonly reported bugs** - Game crashes when using inventory (I command) - Crashes on Plane of Water during save restore - File corruption errors when switching apps - Game freezes with Chinese pinyin keyboard input - Crashes when equipping rings - Crashes when dropping items - Crashes when accessing discoveries list - Cannot open level files error (501mobile.50) - Game unrecoverable after certain actions - Double-tap causes unintended character movement - Floor tiles not rendering in corridors - Crashes on iOS 11+ when dropping items - Waiting for logfile access message loops - Game crashes immediately on startup for some users **Most requested features** - Separate button labels from command values - External Bluetooth keyboard support - Directional pad for movement - Swipe-based movement controls - Character name customization - Pet naming functionality - Partial item stack management - Cloud save synchronization across devices - iPad Magic Keyboard support - Japanese language localization - Toggle for sparkle effects - Multiple simultaneous game saves - NetHack version 3.6+ support - Slash'Em port for iOS - Voice over support for accessibility - Options file editing capability - Discoveries list access without crashes ## Newest reviews (18 of 134) ### 4/5 — Great potential; needs mobile-friendly interface. *2026-04-03, version 2.1.5* Great game. I almost love this mobile version of the game if not for the lack of easy controls, which makes it basically unplayable. Every action takes so long to scroll through a menu and find. Better controls would make a huge difference. This could be fixed by making it so that keyboard shortcuts only show up when you are able to use them. That way, the controls you need are always on screen. Movement controls are very difficult, and it’s very easy to miss-click and have the character move a mile and die of hunger. Adding 8 large movement arrows would be very helpful. Alternatively, allowing the character move in the direction of swiping the screen would fix this. Simple changes like this would make the game infinitely more playable. I wish the mobile controls were better. It would I would honestly play this game on mobile all the time if it were better. I really hope this gets improved. Thanks for reading. Please improve the mobile interface. ### 4/5 — Get rid of the Orc level at mine town *2026-01-21, version 2.1.5* Its called the Gnomish mines for a reason. Whoever added that really did this game a huge disservice. Part of getting to Mine Town is so you can go shopping. Get rid of Orc Town and it will be 5 stars ### 4/5 — A bug *2025-05-27, version 2.1.5* Any keyboard input in Chinese pinyin keyboard cause the game to freeze and crash ### 4/5 — Love it, it’s almost perfect *2025-04-24, version 2.1.5* Nearly perfect port of nethack, but please let me turn off the sparkles, the fire plane is pain 😭 ### 5/5 — 大好きなタイプ *2025-01-11, version 2.1.2* please japanese❤️ ### 5/5 — I love nethack *2024-10-13, version 2.1.2* I love nethack and have for years but it can’t seem to start lately. It just crashes immediately. I miss it. ♡ Phenomenal game and app. Just stopped working for me. Edit: reinstalled. Works like a charm. Bless the people who keep this game alive. ### 5/5 — Super old, super hard, super fun. *2023-11-14, version 2.1.2* There is so much to learn in this game, from dealing with countless monsters to finding all sorts of strategies to find the Amulet of Yendor and win the game, there is plenty to keep you coming back for more, who knows when I and others will beat it, but with a classic roguelike such as this, it will never get boring. ### 5/5 — Been playing since it was released. *2023-09-16, version 2.1.2* The new nethack engine upgrade was a surprise! Glad to see activity that keeps this canonical RPG game alive on iOS. ### 5/5 — Very solid but needs better iPad Magic Keyboard support *2023-07-14, version 2.1.2* A lot of care has gone into this port but it doesn’t seem to support the Magic Keyboard on iPadOS. It would play great if you could use the Magic Keyboard and not have to tap the screen when prompts come up. ### 5/5 — Cool 👍 *2023-06-27, version 2.1.2* Thank you for bringing this project to iPhone. But I noticed one minus, visibility is not displayed in the corridors. Still missing some animation. In the original version on the computer, you can see how a dagger or an arrow is flying in your direction, this is not here, everything is too sharp. It still lacks the ability to highlight additional messages, such as messages that are displayed after pressing the "/" button. For those who have not figured out how to change the graphics, it changes in the phone settings, in these settings you find NetHack in the list of programs and select the graphics there. ### 5/5 — Best game on iOS *2023-06-21, version 2.1.2* the best value for money in terms of hours of enjoyment (well... +/- inf really, but even then). This game put the fear of IRL death back in me cause what if I never ascend. Trying to get it done after disallowing myself the wiki, and I'm very glad to've found this. The guys who played this game back in the day are gods of gaming, every game dev company making fantasy should give the option to play a few days of nethack tournament every year instead of working to inspire creativity and fun, seriously. Love this game. ### 2/5 — Disappointing *2023-06-05, version 2.1.2* To be fair, I haven’t played that long, but so far I’ve encountered two problems: (1) a lack of customization— you can’t choose your character name (and the name it assigns your character isn’t even a name, it’s “Mobile User”, which completely kills immersion), and there’s no apparent equivalent for the config file on desktop that lets you set certain default things like your preferred pet (and their name), the name of the custom fruit, and autopickup settings; and (2) incompatibility with a Bluetooth keyboard. One could argue that these are minor things that aren’t relevant to the game as a whole. However, they interfere with the experience for me, so I think I’ll stick to playing on desktop until / unless they get resolved. ### 5/5 — Great update to 3.6.6! *2023-05-07, version 2.1.2* Thanks very much. I’ve playing this port on or off for years, and it’s great. Very surprised and happy to see the update to 3.6.6. Great work. Update: sometimes when I look at the discoveries list under the name, Tab, the app crashes. ### 5/5 — FIXED!?! *2023-04-28, version 2.1.2* Ok so I started playing on this app a year and a half ago and the version then was quite buggy. I had an Archaeologist that got to the Astral Plane before the whole game glitched out and became unplayable and unrecoverable. I put it down for a good while, but of course I couldn’t resist picking it back up again. But now in the past month, with their new updates from 3.4.3 to 3.6.7, I have fully ascended 2 different characters, an Arc and a Priest. No noticeable or game damaging bugs can be spoken of from my runs. If that’s the case, this may now be the best app on here. Spread the word. ### 5/5 — Best port ever, perfectly playable *2023-03-24, version 2.1.2* There are still a few minor things: You don’t see the wands effects or explosions. Maybe there’s a setting somewhere. The upstairs and downstairs in the Chozo tile set are the same icon and that makes it difficult to use. Previous versions I had some crashes, started back at the beginning of the level which was fine. Thank you so much! ### 5/5 — amazing game *2023-03-22, version 2.1.2* thank you for the updates , i really love this game and this port is really easy to use and play with!! ### 5/5 — Still Great *2023-03-19, version 2.1.1* iNetHack is one of very few games that I install on every new iDevice. It’s a great port of a legendary game and well maintained by its developer. If you like roguelike games but never heard about NetHack, you should really give it a shot. It’s one of the best games of its genre! ### 5/5 — Worst graphics I have ever seen *2023-03-15, version 2.1.0* But it’s nethack, so it’s great. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Unusable on Mac *2026-02-14, version 2.1.5* Keeps freezing - a pity! ### 1/5 — Crashes constantly *2023-02-08, version 2.0.8* This game crashes WAY too often. ### 1/5 — A little help would help. *2022-12-02, version 2.0.8* Not worth the olf fashioned effort to figure out. I see why it’s free. Deleted. ### 1/5 — Crashes, cannot finish *2022-09-15, version 2.0.8* The game itself is amazing of course, but this port crashes and corrupts saves reliably. You cannot ascend, I can’t even get past the castle before it crashes unrecoverably. ### 1/5 — Game keeps crashing *2022-06-16, version 2.0.8* Game keeps crashing on me, would love if that would get fixed. Everything else on the game is amazing! ### 1/5 — Closes Game *2018-11-29, version 2.0.7* The game closes when I try to climb a set a set of stairs. ### 1/5 — Great port but crashes repeatedly at the worst time! *2018-07-05, version 2.0.7* I love this port of Nethack. The UI changes for iPhone are fairly smooth and make the game fairly easy and intuitive. BUT... When you’re in the endgame on the Plane of Water, the saved game restore crashes pretty consistently. That means if you’re in the Plane of Water and leave the app and come back, you get messages like “game file corrupted” and several more messages before “game couldn’t be resumed”. If you are lucky, closing the app and re-opening will restore the game properly. If not, your gnomish ranger with three pet Archons has just vanished into the ether. Until this bug is fixed, one star from me. And recommendation to players: don’t enter the Plane of Water unless you’re prepared to finish the game in one sitting. PS. This bug - crashing in the Plane of Water - can be easily replicated in Wizard Mode. I’m using an iPhone 7 Plus. ### 1/5 — Mr *2016-05-24, version 2.0.4* Glitched out for me. ### 1/5 — N'importe quoi *2015-08-30, version 2.0.1* Je ne sais pas si c'est un bug ou si le jeu est vraiment comme ça, mais je joue un @ qui se déplace sur un décor horriblement moche suivi d'un logo étranger et parfois attaqué par un smiley bisou... ### 2/5 — Intolerable flaws *2023-10-18, version 2.1.2* Decent app except for 2 huge flaws - you can’t play multiple games at once, and you’re forced to play 3.6. I want 3.4.3 on iPad back! I won’t accept both these major flaws. No more nethack for me I guess. I’ve been playing since 1990. Such a shame. 😭 ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — NetHack is The Ultimate RogueLike *2026-03-28, version 2.1.5* Turn into a dragon. Be female (or become female). Lay eggs. Hatch a dragon army that calls you mommy. They grow up and leave the nest. You find them many turns later and they murder you. Then you discover your grave 20 games later and they kill your reincarnation. “Do you want your possessions identified?” Read a scroll. What class of monsters do you wish to genocide? Genocide mindflayers (h) but you’re a dwarf (h) and perish instantly with or without lifesaving. “DYWYPI?” Get a wish. Wish for a powerful artifact. The Orb of Fate. It’s intelligent and blasts you when it enters your grasp. You die. “DYWYPI?” Zap an unidentified wand. The beam of disintegration rebounds off the wall and hits you. You die. “DYWYPI?” You are blind. You hear an unseen monster hiss. You throw Mjolnir, killing it, but it returns and strikes you because you can’t see it. Your rings and wands get shocked and explode. You feel for loot and your ungloved hand brushes the cockatrice corpse. You turn to stone. “DYWYPI?” Get swallowed by a purple worm. It’s cozy in here. You are being digested. But at least your safe from the arch lich out there. Buuurp! You get digested. “DYWYPI?” You’re levitating across a body of water. Eels snap at your heels but slide off your oilskin cloak. A nymph blocks the shore. You strike them with Excalibur. They wake up, and pluck the ring of levitation from your finger. You drown. “DYWYPI?” You kick down the door. It’s a shop, the shopkeeper gets angry and demands 750 zorkmids as payment. You refuse. They blast you with magic missile. You die. “DYWYPI?” It has been in development since the 80’s and was one of the first open-source projects developed entirely remotely. It may be part of a museum exhibit, but this game is a fast-paced, polished, and filled to bursting with witty and deep mechanics that will make you laugh and cry. I love NetHack. Every game I learn something new. Have played since I was a kid. ### 5/5 — Good, Solid App of Nethack *2026-02-07, version 2.1.5* Been playing Nethack for over 30 years, and although I love the game I find it difficult to sit down at my computer to play regularly. Having it on my phone allows me to play in small increments while in the go. The updated color and font scheme for the items and monster also works well. If you have never played NetHack and like dungeon crawls then I highly recommend you give it try. If you love NetHack and need an easy, accessible way to play when you have little to no time, this app is perfect for you. ### 5/5 — Please *2026-01-05, version 2.1.5* Subject: Feature Request: Separate Shortcut Labels and Commands (Optional Toggle for Originality) Dear Developer, First of all, thank you for providing such a great way to play NetHack on iOS. I am a dedicated player who truly enjoys the depth and complexity of this game. I am writing to suggest a feature improvement regarding the Shortcut Bar. Currently, when I customize a shortcut, the text entered acts as both the button's label and the actual command sent to the game. For example, if I want a button for "Search" that sends the 's' command, I have to name it 's'. If I name it "Search," the game executes 'S-e-a-r-c-h' as individual keystrokes. Could you please add an option to separate the "Button Label" and the "Command Value"? I understand that preserving the originality and classic feel of NetHack is very important. Therefore, I suggest adding this as a toggleable option in the Settings menu. This way: Players who want the modern convenience can enable separate labels (e.g., Label: "Search" / Command: "s"). Players who prefer the original behavior ("They usually do what's written on them") can keep the feature disabled. This addition would significantly improve the user experience for mobile players while respecting the game's traditional roots. Thank you for your time and for maintaining this wonderful app. Best regards ### 5/5 — Fun game, here’s some tips (for beginners) *2025-09-14, version 2.1.5* Quite fun once you get to know it, but it’ll take a while before you get to know it. Of course, this is by design, but I think a little bit of knowledge at first would help make the game more accessible. Ok you got me I just made this review just to give tips. 1. Eat your fallen enemies (just do it) 2. Sacrifice your fallen enemies (to an altar, any altar) 3. Stuck? Use “s” to find hidden doors and passages (may need to do more than once) 4. Don’t be (too) afraid to use things lying on the ground 5. “AC” is short for armor class; smaller number = less damage 6. Not sure of something? Experiment! a. Go to the app’s settings to change your name, the symbol boulders use and other mostly cosmetic stuff (and also enable wizard mode to be able to not die and stuff) b. Tap and hold one of the buttons for a second on the bar to add, remove or edit a button c. There are multiple commands that are not readily available on the bar by default; press the “abc” button to bring up the keyboard, then input “&” followed by another command to figure out what it does (my favorite is /) d. In, for example, the drop menu, tap and hold on an item until its background becomes a mildly brighter shade if grey, then swipe left to specify amounts ### 5/5 — Best mobile game of all time *2025-09-14, version 2.1.5* Best mobile game of all time ### 5/5 — So good *2025-08-08, version 2.1.5* Been playing this for years. Just something about it that feels like there are a million fun secrets ### 5/5 — keyboard *2025-04-02, version 2.1.5* would be great to be able to use external keyboard ### 5/5 — best and only nethack ios port *2025-02-12, version 2.1.4* thanks for the brand new updates! im playing this very well from south korea lol ### 5/5 — Wonderful *2025-02-12, version 2.1.4* Last update is simply outstanding !!! Best way to play this fabulous game is now here on iOS !! Thank you so much for your work ! Being able to play such a rich game on your mobile is a blessing. As improbable as it may seem, the game is completely playable via touch, even if it is preferable to know the game controls and options beforehand. The advantages of this version are its incredible comfort: zoom, easy options, tile sets, automatic save. I want to say a big thank you for this port, and I hope the mobile iNetHack will continue for long 😊 ### 5/5 — Mein "forever game" *2025-02-03, version 2.1.2* Für mich schlicht DAS ultimative RPG. Kein Spiel fühlt sich so komplex und so vollkommen an. Immer wieder überraschend, immer wieder neu interessant und fordernd. Wenn ich mich nur für ein Spiel auf der Welt entscheiden müsste, wäre es dieser absolut fantastische und durchdachte NetHack-Port. --- *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 2026-07-04.*