Comparison

Nethack Helper vs Cairn

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Nethack Helper

This app serves as a comprehensive toolkit for NetHack players, offering tools to master shops, spells, and character progression. It provides detailed information on items, spells, intrinsics, and includes animated solutions for puzzles. The app also features score logging and progress tracking.

Highlights
  • Item identification by price
  • Spell success percentages
  • Intrinsic monitoring
  • Animated Sokoban puzzle solutions
  • Score logging and ascension tracking
  • Progress timeline chart
  • Offline functionality
Features
Read full description

NetHack Helper - Everything you need to remember in one tiny app The ultimate toolkit for NetHack adventurers. Master shops, spells, and character progression with precision tools designed by players, for players. • Identify items by price with charisma-based calculations • Covers potions, scrolls, rings, wands, armor & more • All 43 spell books with success-to-learn percentages • Factors Intelligence, XP level, and skill enhancements • Monitor 18 intrinsics, protection, and prayer status • Step-by-step animated solutions for all 8 Sokoban puzzles • Toggle between DawnHack tiles and classic ASCII views • Comprehensive score logging with ascension tracking • Hidden timeline chart reveals your progress over time • Uses DawnHack Tileset • Works offline with persistent data • Auto-resets between characters for streamlined gameplay Unofficial companion app - not affiliated with NetHack DevTeam - We use it with iNetHack2 on iPhones

About

Cairn

This app serves as a player for classic text adventures, allowing you to bring your own story files. It features automatic mapping, integrated reference materials, and iCloud syncing across devices for a seamless experience.

Highlights
  • Automatic live mapping
  • Visual room and connection tracking
  • Support for Z3, Z4, Z5, Z7, and Z8 story files
  • Attach custom PDFs and images
  • User-supplied hint file support
  • Inventory bar
  • Customizable themes
Features
Read full description

Cairn is a player for classic text adventures. It does not include any games — you bring your own story files. Many classic and modern titles are available free from the Interactive Fiction Database and community archives. If you own Infocom games, Cairn plays those too. One app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, included with a single purchase. Your stories, saved games, materials, and the maps Cairn draws all travel with you through iCloud — begin an adventure on your Mac, continue it on your iPad, and check a hint on your phone. Unlike traditional interpreters, Cairn automatically builds a visual map of the world as you explore, so you can focus on puzzles and discovery instead of keeping graph-paper maps by hand. Cairn is a rich play desk for classic adventures. Attach your own PDFs and images to each story — manuals, maps, feelies, and other reference materials — then read them beside the game. PDFs include page navigation, single- and two-page layouts, and fit and zoom controls. Cairn also supports user-supplied InvisiClues hint files in a compatible JSON format. Hints appear in their own tab, grouped into booklet-style sections, and reveal one clue at a time. Every playthrough carries a notebook. Write down door codes, maze mappings, and the thing to come back to once you find the lamp, in a tab beside the story rather than on paper. A button drops in where you are, what you are carrying, your score, the move count, or the last thing you typed. Notes travel in the saved game, so restoring a save brings back what you knew at the time along with the map and the transcript. An at-a-glance inventory bar shows what you are carrying below the transcript, without typing an inventory command and without costing you a turn. The live map is flexible too: rooms take custom shapes, and you can hide or restore any of them. On iPhone and iPad the story takes the whole screen, and the map, your notes, and every attached document are one tap away. Readable themes include IBM PC Color and DEC VT241-inspired options. Cairn supports the complete classic Infocom Z3, Z4, and Z5 catalog, including Beyond Zork with its original on-screen map, stat bars, and character setup, and also plays Z-machine version 7 and version 8 stories, opening the door to modern Inform 6 and Inform 7 interactive fiction beyond the Infocom era. Version 6 graphical stories are not supported. Compatible adventures include classics such as Zork, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Planetfall, Enchanter, Trinity, Bureaucracy, Suspended, Deadline, Wishbringer, Spellbreaker, and many more. Features - A session notebook saved with each game - Automatic live mapping as you explore - Support for Z3, Z4, Z5, Z7, and Z8 story files - Beyond Zork's original screen, or a classic status line, at the flick of a switch - Attached PDF and image materials - PDF page navigation, layouts, fit, and zoom controls - Image zooming and scrolling - InvisiClues hint browsing from compatible JSON files - Spoiler-safe clue reveal controls - At-a-glance inventory bar - Adaptive side-panel tabs for maps, notes, PDFs, images, and hints - Custom room shapes, hidden rooms, and per-connection line routing, stroke, and labels - Separate map and text presentation options - Library management for your adventures - Tag your stories, then filter and search by tag, and group by tag or date - Add several stories at once, with covers and descriptions from the Interactive Fiction Database - One app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac with a single purchase - Stories, saved games, and materials synced across your devices with iCloud - Native menus and keyboard shortcuts on Mac and iPad - Layouts that adapt from iPhone to ultrawide displays IMPORTANT! Cairn does not include any game files, manuals, maps, images, or hint files. You supply your own from your personal collection or other legal distribution channels.

Screenshots

Nethack Helper4 screens
Cairn4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Nethack Helper at Free against Cairn's $19.99. Nethack Helper also leads on iOS requirement (17.6 vs 26.2). Cairn's advantage is ratings volume (8 vs 2) and device support (3 vs 1). On rating, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Nethack Helper is free to download; Cairn costs $19.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Nethack Helper against 5.0 for Cairn. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 8 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Nethack Helper ships an update every 9 days, Cairn every 5 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Nethack Helper versus Cairn: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNethack HelperCairn
PriceFree — better$19.99
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (8 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings28 — better
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS17.6 — better26.2
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDavid KonshuhDaniel Ducat

Customer experience

Nethack Helper

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Cairn

All ratings8 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Nethack Helper

No in-app purchases

None

Cairn

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Nethack Helper free?
Nethack Helper is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Cairn free?
Cairn costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Nethack Helper or Cairn?
Nethack Helper and Cairn are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 8 ratings respectively.
Do Nethack Helper or Cairn have ads?
Neither Nethack Helper nor Cairn shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Nethack Helper or Cairn?
Nethack Helper ships an update every 9 days, and Cairn every 5 days. Most recently, Nethack Helper was updated on October 24, 2026 and Cairn on October 24, 2026.

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