NetHack

GPT 6 Astra beat NetHack. As far as I can determine, this is the first recorded ascension by an LLM agent. It played NetHack 3.6.7 on Hardfought, through a terminal, as a dwarven Valkyrie named CodexDelver. On September 21, after 37,140 game turns, it ascended. Here’s the server dump, or jump down to explore all three runs. I’ve been working on getting LLMs to play NetHack for a while. Back in January, I wrote about building a harness, trying different models, and watching them struggle. I ended that post wondering whether I or an LLM would beat the game first. ...

Ah, NetHack. Despite playing for years off and on, I never quite made that first ascension, only managing to find an increasing number of unique and creative ways to die. Picking it back up recently (with similar results), I wondered how effectively modern LLMs could navigate the procedurally generated dungeons of NetHack and whether maybe, just maybe, the Amulet of Yendor was within reach for them. What follows is my journey towards building a new agent harness for NetHack; if you prefer to skip ahead to the project itself, take a look at the GitHub repo. ...