@ntk There's some of that, and there's the fact that there's a hub town on level 0 and an important tool are the Scrolls of Words of Recall, which send you either back to the surface or back to the lowest level you've visited yet, depending on where you are when you use it.

In my case, I also plan to use Satisfy Hunger a lot, now that I have it, and there are also mushrooms, which are basically naturally occuring potions /and/ effective food.

@ntk There's also a bit of light management required (is that a thing in nethack?), as all the corridors and many of the rooms are unlit.

That becomes less of an issue once you've gotten the Vial of Galadriel, though, as it is a good, eternal light source (+3 light radius) /and/ can be used to shoot an AoE light attack around you.

@eal @ntk Even less normal.

Most people play the slightly more refined/awesome later ones, like angband or nethack.

=P