Symbols on your map can be broken down into three categories: Features of the dungeon such as walls, floor, doors, and traps; Objects which can be picked up such as treasure, weapons, magical devices, etc; and creatures which may or may not move about the dungeon, but are mostly harmful to your character’s well being.
Some symbols are used to represent more than one type of entity, and some symbols are used to represent entities in more than one category. The “@” symbol (by default) is used to represent the character.
It will not be necessary to remember all of the symbols and their meanings. The “slash” command (/) will identify any character appearing on your map (see ‘commands.txt’), and there is a comprehensive menu of terrain, objects, monsters and so on using the “tilde” (~) command.