Scroll of acquirement

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Type	Scroll
Name	Scroll of acquirement
Icon

A wonderful scroll which causes the creation of a valuable item, with the reader choosing from a small selection. The items offered will often be a good match for the reader's skills; and if nothing recommends itself, the reader can always choose a heap of gold.

When read, a scroll of acquirement generates three acquirements and a sum of gold for you to choose from.

Useful Info

A scroll of acquirement gives 3 options, chosen from the following categories: weapon, armour (including shields), book (spellbook or manual), jewellery, magical staff. There is a 4th option for 200 - 1400 gold. These options are displayed for you to choose. The item is then generated on the floor.

Felids will only get 2 item options (plus gold), as they cannot use weapons, any type of armour, or magical staves.

The scroll can be cancelled with Esc at any time; the scroll will not be consumed (even if read blindly) and its options will persist.

Acquirement Mechanics

The items themselves are affected by a number of different factors:

• They are biased towards items that match your skills. For instance, a character who has heavily invested in Maces & Flails is fairly likely to receive a weapon in that category. Similarly, a caster with high Fire Magic is more likely to get Fire spells from a book.
• They are biased against items that you have already seen, the logic there being that if you have seen it, you're probably either using it or have decided it isn't useful. This usually includes items in shops, but those which are far too expensive for your character to buy at present are excluded from being "seen."
• The item is guaranteed to be usable. This means that you will be able to equip it, and using it will not incur penance with your current deity. For example, worshippers of good gods won't be given a draining weapon. Note that these guarantees are fairly minimal: acquirement may well give your heavy Armour-based Hill Orc a robe (although it will be biased against doing so if you have invested in the Armour skill).

Strategy

Although unreliable, scrolls of acquirement are capable of producing gear that will carry you through to the end of the game in safety. While waiting for acquirements can give marginally better gear, waiting to use them is generally unwise. The increased chance of survival now is always more worthwhile than the slight chance of a better acquirement later.

Note that acquirements are not directly affected by your current depth or location. However, the bias against items you have already seen means that later acquirements do tend to give out rarer items, as the common ones have already been seen.

History

• Prior to its removal in 0.26, you could acquire food as a 5th option.
• Prior to 0.25, acquirement allowed you to choose to get an item from one of 8 categories (weapons, armour, jewellery, books, staves, evocables, food, or gold), but you did not know the specific item. Also, the maximum amount of gold you could get was higher.
• Prior to 0.20, you could acquire wands and miscellaneous evocables separately.
• Prior to 0.19, you could acquire ammo.

See Also

• Acquirement