Identification

Knowledge is power, and knowing all the tools at your disposal will be a great help indeed. The rare and powerful Scroll of Identify will identify all items you are carrying, while individual items can be identified by the expensive Identify Spell, dipping them in a Potion of Enlightenment, or an unpredictable divine Boon.

Lacking all these, experimentation is the most common way of learning what an item is. Here are some methods for safely "identifying" items (at least the item type). Always try to find a safe situation away from monsters before you start testing items, so that you can ride out any negative effects you may suffer without having to deal with threatening monsters.

Holy/Evil Status

Besides their item type, any item may be "holy", "evil", or neither ("normal" or "neutral"). (Occasionally the terms "blessed" and "cursed" are used instead.) Holy items may produce stronger effects, but are difficult to spot by experimentation. However, any item gifted by a god is always holy (and if it's something that can have plusses, it will be +3). Evil items may produce weaker, reversed, or unreliable effects, and once worn or wielded, they cannot be removed. Evil items may well be otherwise useful -- in particular, weapons and armor can be cursed regardless of plusses.

Note that an item is not "known normal", just because you equipped it and it didn't get stuck -- such items will be bordered in gray like known-normal items, but they may in fact be holy. The "stacking" of untested items in your inventory. or on the floor. will separate evil, neutral, and holy items, as well as items with different plusses or minuses, or even different numbers of charges. This can be useful, but remember that learning anything (except the magic type) about an item, will also prevent it from stacking with unknown items, even with the stack you took it from! As of Version 117, you can learn the enchantment of a whole stack by throwing items from it.

The effects of holy or evil scrolls, potions, and wands vary with the specific item; see the individual item pages for details. In general, the effects of holy wands will last longer, while those of evil wands will expire early. Also, evil wands have a 1 in 10 chance of "fizzling" when zapped (the charge is wasted). Holy or evil amulets, rings, weapons, or armor have no special differences, except that evil items cannot be unequipped. The holy/evil status of corpses does not affect their foodvalue nor intrinsics granted.

Evil items can be decursed by divine aid, by a non-cursed Scroll of Remove Curse, or by dipping them in a bottle of Holy Water (this last will bless formerly-neutral items). Blessed items can also be unblessed, or neutral items cursed, by divine punishments or dipping into Unholy Water. In all cases, this will reveal their new status. Evil items can sometimes be removed (and destroyed) by dipping them into an Acid Potion. A more extreme way to get items off is to polymorph into a form which lacks the equipment slot it's using.

Artifacts

Be cautious experimenting with artifacts, especially if they're potions, scrolls, or wands. They can produce some obvious or really non-obvious effects, some of which can be deadly. Their special features are not revealed by using the item; only a "proper" identify (as above) will get the whole list of their abilities. This is a good reason to save up Potions of Enlightenment. A very few artifacts will grant their special effects whenever they are carried, even if not equipped. Artifacts can also confuse you badly when experimenting with other items, since they can imitate, counter, or mask the effects of almost any normal item.

Potions

Most potions can only be identified by using them in one way or another (or in a few cases, by creating them). The safer way to test them is to dip items into them, so it's useful to have some expendable items on hand.

First of all, you do have a couple of freebies:

• Bottle of Water will automatically be known as water, but what you really want to know is its evil/holy status. If you have water which is "known normal", Specifically Name it as such. If you have a stack of unidentified water, you can dip any known-normal (and non-flaming) item, to test the stack.
• Empty Bottles -- any bottle emptied by drinking, or dipping into, a potion, is "known normal". "Found" bottles may be evil or holy; if you fill the bottle(s) with water, the water will keep the bottle status, and you can test it as above.

For other potions, take a non-identified item that you're willing to risk, and dip it into the potion. If you know the Acid Potion but not the Bottle of Greek Fire, the best candidates for this are clubs, long swords and arrows, in hopes of discovering Greek Fire. Otherwise, use some other melting but non-flammable weapon (short sword, <cough>) to check for acid, then you can safely dip the long sword, club or arrows for a chance to get their flaming versions. At this point you'll have identified the following potions:

• Acid Potion - If the item was acid-soluble, it will dissolve. Otherwise, nothing happens. (Items conferring Acid Resistance will not dissolve regardless!)
• Bottle of Greek Fire - long swords, clubs and arrows will turn into Flaming Swords, Torches and Flaming Arrows respectively. Otherwise, If the item was flammable, it will be burnt and lost. If it was not, nothing will happen.
• Potion of Enlightenment - The item will be identified. Nothing will happen if the item is already identified.
• Poison Potion - Item will be covered in poison ("thick slime"). This will not work if the item dipped grants Poison Resistance. If you have the spell Poison Item, you can use it on an empty bottle to create and identify a Poison Potion. If you don't know the Cure Potion yet, dip your newly-poisoned item again into any potions that gave no response before, then continue below.

Optional dips:

• Dip an wand or spellbook, preferably empty or nearly so. If it "drinks the liquid hungrily", that was a Mana Potion. This will add charges to the book or wand (you might want to bless the potion first).
• If you're currently poisoned, you can just go ahead to the "quaffing" section. Otherwise, try to find a poisoned item and dip that into the potion. This will ID the Cure Potion, when it removes the poison from the item.

If nothing's happened yet, quaff the potion. Before doing this, try to be at full hit points and full mana. (If you can, bless the potions first.) This will ID the following potions:

• Cure Potion - If you were poisoned, you will be cured. If the potion was holy, you will "feel healthy" (Poison Resistance) for a few rounds, after which you will "feel weak".
• Heal Potion - If you were damaged, some damage will heal. Otherwise, you will "feel more robust", and your maximum hit points will increase slightly.
• Mana Potion - If you were not at maximum mana, you will recover some points. If you were at full mana, your maximum Mana will increase slightly.
• Smoke Potion - Smoke will billow out of the potion. You'll choke while in the smoke, but can move away easily.
• Potion of Blindness - You will be blinded for a while. This is a good time to try out your Helm of Telepathy.

Wands

Wands can be dangerous to zap if you do not know the Wand of Create Monster and the Wand of Polymorph. A wand of create monster may create a dangerous out of depth monster, but will fail if zapped at a square containing a monster, but then you may have polymorph and instead turn the monster into a dangerous out of depth monster. You can't really win, so be prepared to run in either case. To ID as safely as possible, find a room with one door. Drop an item you don't care about in the room, in a square adjacent and diagonal to the door, and make sure that a ray fired in that direction will not bounce and hit you. Zap the wand, targeting the square with the item in it. This will identify the following:

• Wand of Create Monster - A monster will appear. If it is hostile and a monster you can't take on, simply step back out of the door, and then close it. If the monster is smart enough to open doors, you'll want to get off the floor as quickly as possible before it does so. (If you have a known Wand of Invisibility, you can also use that to hide the door.)
• Wand of Polymorph - Will polymorph the item into something else. (An artifact, or an Amulet of Unchanging, will "shudder" instead, but will still ID the wand.) Alternatively, you can zap a pet with it. A polymorphed pet will remain loyal to you.
• Wand of Teleport - The item will teleport away. Go and fetch it if you need to.
• Wand of Trapping - A trap will be created. Search to reveal the trap, and reclaim the item if possible. You may need to move to a new zapping space after this.
• Wand of Light - "A warm glow spreads from you", and a 5-square radius is lit (if it was dark).
• Wand of Fire/Ice/Sleep/Digging - The ray will fire off. You need to make sure you're zapping it in a way that it will not bounce back and hit you.

If nothing happened, your next step is to find a weak or tame monster with normal speed, and use them as a test subject. (Indeed, if you've ruled out all of the previous types, you can even try the wand on yourself!)

• Wand of Speed - The monster will be sped up. If friendly, will not turn hostile. Gives message 'nothing happens' if the creature is already quick.
• Wand of Slowness - the monster will be slowed. If friendly, will not turn hostile. Gives message 'nothing happens' if already slow.
• Wand of Invisibility - the monster will turn invisible. If friendly, will not turn hostile.
• Wand of Nothing - The message 'nothing happens' will appear.

In all cases while identifying wands, make sure that when nothing happens, the message "nothing happens" appears. If it does, then look at the wand in your inventory. If it has 0 charges, you can either keep zapping to test with the "one last charge" (destroying the wand), or try another wand of that type. If the wand "fizzles", it means that the wand is evil, and whatever effect it generates did not occur, so try again. If none of these apply, or you didn't see any message, you may not have had a suitable target, as described above.

Footwear

Footwear comes in seven varieties, five of them magical. Clogs, Pointed Slippers, Hiking Boots, Riding Boots and Winged Boots are magical, while Sandals and Iron Shoes are generic. Don't wear non-magical shoes until you've got Speed Boots, or at least Jump Boots, lest cursed sandals keep you from IDing the good stuff until too late.

• Speed Boots - Look at yourself. If you have the Fast intrinsic, and know that you didn't get it from anything else, you have Speed Boots.
• Jump Boots - Try to jump. If you can, you're wearing Jump Boots. Keep in mind that you need to be able to see the square you are jumping to (and it must be vacant) in order to jump. However, if you have Jump, you'll get a message such as "You balk at the leap!", instead of "You cannot jump very far."
• Fur-Lined Boots - These give you Cold Resistance. The best way to check for this is to cast Chilling Touch on yourself, as it does little damage. If you can't, pick a fight with an Ice Snake.
• Boots of Water Walking - If you have enough hit points to withstand being underwater for a few rounds, just try to walk on water for a few turns. If you don't, and you have a spare set of the boots in question, try throwing them onto water. If the boots do not sink, they're Boots of Water Walking.
• Squeaky Shoes - These aren't easy to identify by trial (looking at yourself can help, but it's unreliable), so the best way is to attempt the above tests. If none of them work, you have Squeaky Shoes.

Headgear

There are three magical pieces of headgear, and they are the Feathered Helm, Gold Crown and Silver Circlet. The other types are Iron Helms, Floppy Hats and Leather Caps, which are never magical. If you are a magic-user, you may want to put off identifying headgear by trial, as an Evil Helm of Draining will ruin your game. Even if you're not using magic, it will make you hunger greatly, so you may want to delay until you have a handle on hunger.

• Helm of Warning - If you see question marks in the darkness where monsters are, you have Warning.
• Helm of Telepathy - If you do not see question marks in the darkness where monsters are, and if you are not Magic Drained, you have a Helm of Telepathy.
• Helm of Draining - Your magic points will start to decrease.

Other Armour and Weapons

Besides the non-magical boots and headgear, all body armor and shields, and all weapons except staves, are considered non-magical, and their type is obvious. The "plusses", if any of all armor is immediately learned when you put it on. The "plusses" of weapons are not learned immediately, but after fighting with the weapon for a while, you will "know your [weapon] better", and learn the plusses. Unfortunately, equipping either armor or weapons will also learn whether it's cursed... the hard way! You will not learn about blessings by experimentation, but you don't really need to. Equipping a staff will also reveal the spells it provides (start to cast a spell, and see what you're offered), which pretty well identifies its magical type. You can also learn a throwable weapon's enchantment by throwing it; as of V117, this knowledge will apply to any stack you threw it from.

Scrolls

The only way to identify scrolls by trial is to protect yourself from the bad effects and just read them. Knowing the holy/normal/evil status can also protect you from some of the bad effects. The worst that will happen is taking fire damage (get fire resistance or high HP), disenchanting weapon or armour (wear a spare, or take off), teleport (be ready) or forgetting the current map (read upon entering a new level, or just deal with it). All scrolls are identified when read. It is a good idea to hold off on reading scrolls until you have accumulated a lot of items, in case it is a Scroll of Identify (Quizar and Belweir give piety for IDing items.)

Rings

For the most part, you can just wear rings with no real worry, but since two of them increase your hunger (and are often found cursed), you may want to hold off until you have a handle on hunger or other countermeasures. If they're cursed and bad, you can try to remove them as above, or with a (hopefully non-evil) Ring of the Missing Finger on your other finger. Only wear one unidentified ring at a time so you can know which ring is responsible for which effect. Also be wary of artifacts and recently-eaten corpses, which can imitate or counteract the effects of many rings!

• Ring of Cold/Fire/Shock/Acid Resistance - Pay attention when taking damage from those sources. This can involve casting a spell on yourself, eating an acidic corpse, or picking a fight with an appropriate monster.
• Ring of Invisibility/Polymorph/Teleportation/Searching - Just watch out for the corresponding effect and name it.
  • If it is polymorph, either take advantage of the new form, or wait it out to avoid system shock. (If you have polymorph control already, it might be faster to wear both rings and polymorph back to "yourself".)
• Ring of the Missing Finger - Look at yourself. If or after it is uncursed, this one can be useful when identifying other rings, as you can use it to remove a cursed ring from your other finger.
• Ring of Light - Watch for a change in light radius (take off your torch or Flaming Sword first). The ring itself will also radiate light when on the ground. In both cases, the light radius is 3.
• Ring of See Invisible - Zap yourself with a Wand of Invisibility or put on a Ring of Invisibility. You'll be invisible but still able to see yourself. If you don't have either of those, you'll be able to see Ghosts and Invisible Stalkers.
• Ring of Teleport Control - Cast Teleport, step on or climb into a Teleport Trap or zap yourself with a Wand of Teleport. If you get a chance to choose your destination, you have Teleport Control. This will also work with a "known normal" Scroll of Teleport -- evil or holy scrolls will confuse the issue.
• Ring of Regeneration - Take some damage and then watch your hit points regenerate. Normally you will regain one hit point every four turns. With Regeneration, you'll regenerate one hit point every two turns. This will not work if you are 'Starving' or 'Full' (for different reasons), and it will be a bit more difficult to gauge if you are Slow, Fast or Quick.
• Ring of Polymorph Control - this one is tough unless you're able and willing to risk a random polymorph, or are willing to spend a Potion of Enlightenment on it.
• Wedding Ring - Since these have no effects, they can only be figured out by elimination or a "real" identify.

Amulets

Until you have identified the Amulet of Strangulation, it's a very bad idea to put on any unknown necklaces. However, you can identify some amulets without trying them on, and if you do happen to know the Amulet of Strangulation, you can freely experiment with the others. If you know an amulet is uncursed, you can of course wear it and see what happens.

• Amulet of Strangulation - When worn, you will choke. If you survive long enough, you may be able to remove it with an Acid Potion, or after decursing it as described above. (Only an Iron Torc or a Studded Leather Gorget will melt in acid!) Some hints for avoiding them:
  • This amulet is always generated cursed, so if you have multiples which won't stack together, you know those aren't Strangulation. (If it has somehow been decursed, it will still choke you, but you can easily take it off.)
  • If you see a dead kobold with an amulet on the same square, it was likely this, so be careful.
  • Even more obvious is when you enter a fortress section, to find it deserted of humanoids... except for one big pile of their equipment, including the amulet!
• Amulet of Unchanging - Try to zap your amulet with a Wand of Polymorph. If it shudders, it's an Amulet of Unchanging. If not, it will polymorph. You can repeat this process until it shudders to guarantee yourself unchanging.
• Amulet of Poison Resistance - Dip into a Poison Potion. It's the only amulet that will not become poisoned when you do this. Or wear it and notice the lack of ongoing damage when you happen to get poisoned. (Remember that you'll still take damage at the end.) Either way, best to have a Cure Potion or spell of Cure Poison handy, just in case....
• Amulet of Reflection - Wear it and cast Magic Missile or zap a Wand of Sleep at a wall so that it'll bounce towards you. If it bounces off of you, you are Reflective.
• Amulet of Life Saving - If it's none of the above, it's this. Also, you might see a monster get saved by one of these. (Or not saved, if they were undead!)