Items

This is based on text copy/pasted from Documentation;

Please update this to reflect recent Crawl versions, and possibly add notes about Stone Soup version.

Items

After walking around for a while, you will no doubt come across some items laying around (you may come across some monsters as well; for help in dealing with them skip to the Monsters section). You can pick up items with the 'g' (get) or ',' commands and drop them again with 'd' (drop), and the 'i' (inventory) command shows you what you're carrying.

There are several different types of items:

• Weapons, represented by the ) sign. Wield them with the 'w' (wield) command. Some weapons are cursed and cannot be un-wielded without the use of magic.

• Armour (]). Wear it with the 'W' (Wear) command, and remove it with 'T' (Take off). Heavier armours give more protection, but may hamper your ability to fight and to dodge attacks aimed at you.

• Ammunition (also the ) sign). Throw it with 't' (throw). Darts are meant to be thrown by hand; other missiles need an appropriate launcher to be wielded (eg arrows are much more effective when shot with a bow).

• Wands (/), Scrolls (?) and Potions (!) can be very valuable, but have limited uses (scrolls and potions can only be used once each, wands contain only a certain number of charges). Wands are 'z'apped, scrolls are 'r'ead and potions are 'q'uaffed.

Unfortunately, you won't at first know what a wand, scroll or potion does; it will only be described by its physical appearance. But once you have used, for example, a potion of healing, you will in future recognise all potions of healing.

• Rings (=) and Amulets (") often contain powerful magic, but it can be difficult to work out exactly what one does. They are put on with 'P' (Put on) and removed with 'R' (remove), but can, like weapons, be cursed.

• Food (%) is vital to your survival. Eat it with the 'e' (eat) command when hungry. Monsters' corpses, also %, can be eaten if chopped up (the 'D' (Dissect) command), but not all of them are healthful, and many species of player-character dislike eating raw flesh unless very hungry.

• Money ($) can be used to buy stuff in shops, and increases your score if you escape.

There are a few other types of item, but you will discover these as you play.

One vital command to remember when dealing with items is 'V' (View), which gives you a short description of any item. Use it on everything you find. The magical Scroll of Identify can also help for identifying magical items of uncertain nature.

Items

In the dungeons of Crawl there are many different kinds of normal and magical artefacts to be found and used. Some of them are useful, some are nasty, and some give great power, but at a price. Some items are unique; these have interesting properties which can make your life rather bizarre for a while. They all fall into several classes of items, each of which is used in a different way. Here is a general list of what you might find in the course of your adventures:

Weapons

These are rather important. You will find a variety of weapons in the dungeon, ranging from small and quick daggers to huge, cumbersome battleaxes and pole-arms. Each type of weapon does a differing amount of damage, has a different chance of hitting its target, and takes a different amount of time to swing. You should choose your weapons carefully; trying to hit a bat with a greatsword is about as clever as bashing a dragon with a club. Light weapons are easier to hit with but heavier ones deal more damage. It is wise to use small arms for evasive and hard to hit monsters and use heavy weaponry for those slow and armored opponents, at least until your skill with weapon is high enough to be effective. There are exceptions though. Having many different weapon skills is generally unadvised.

Weapons can be enchanted; when they are identified, they have values which tell you how much more effective they are than an unenchanted version. The first number is the enchantment to-hit, which affects the weapon's accuracy, and the second is its damage enchantment; weapons which are not enchanted are simply '+0'. Some weapons also have special magical effects which make them very effective in certain situations. Some types of hand weapons (especially daggers, spears and hand axes) are quite effective when thrown.

You can wield weapons with the 'w' command, which is a very quick action. If for some reason you want to go bare-handed, type 'w' followed by a hyphen ('-'). Note that weapons are not the only class of item which you can wield.

The ' (apostrophe) key is a shortcut which automatically wields item a. If item a is being wielded, it causes you to wield item b instead, if possible. Try assigning the letter a to your primary weapon, and b to your bow or something else you need to wield only sometimes. Note that this is just a typing shortcut and is not functionally different to wielding these items normally.

Ammunition

If you would rather pick off monsters from a safe distance, you will need ammunition for your sling or bow. Darts are effective when simply thrown; other kinds of ammunition require you to wield an appropriate device to inflict worthwhile damage. Missiles can have [brand|brands] such as [flame].

If you have ammunition suitable for what you are wielding, the 'f' command will choose the first lot in your inventory, or you can use the 't' command to throw anything. If you are using the right kind of hand weapon, you will "shoot" the ammunition, otherwise you "throw" it.

When throwing something, you are asked for a direction. You can either enter one of the directions on your keypad, or type '*' and move the cursor over your target if they are not in a direct line with you. When the cursor is on them, press '.' (period) or delete to target them (you can also target an empty space if you want). If you press '>' instead of '.', the missile will stop at that space even if it misses, and if the target space is water, it may hit anything which might be lurking beneath the surface (which would otherwise be missed completely). If you type '.' (or del) instead of a direction or '*', or if you target yourself as described above, you throw whatever it is at yourself (this can be useful when zapping some wands; see later). Also, if you type 'p' instead of a direction or '*', you will target your previous target (if still possible).

Armour

This is also rather important. When worn, most armour improves your Armour Class, which decreases the amount of damage you take when something injures you. Unfortunately the heavier types of armour also hamper your movement, making it easier for monsters to hit you (ie reducing your evasion score) and making it harder for you to hit monsters. These effect can be mitigated by a high Armour skill. Wearing heavy armour also increases your chances of miscasting spells, an effect which is not reduced by your Armour skill.

A Shield normally affects neither your AC or your evasion, but it lets you block some of the attacks aimed at you and absorbs some of the damage you would otherwise receive from things like dragon breath and lightning bolts. Wearing a shield (especially a large shield) makes you less effective in hand combat. Shields are more effective when you're fighting a small number of foes than when you're surrounded.

Some magical armours have special powers. These powers are sometimes automatic, affecting you whenever you wear the armour, and sometimes must be activated with the 'a' command.

You can wear armour with the 'W' command, and take it off with the 'T' command.

Food

This is extremely important. You can find many different kinds of food in the dungeon. If you don't eat when you get hungry, you will eventually die of starvation. Fighting, carrying heavy loads, casting spells, and using some magical items will make you hungry. When you are starving you fight less effectively as well. You can eat food with the 'e' command.

Magical Scrolls

Scrolls have many different magical spells enscribed on them, some good and some bad. One of the most useful scrolls is the scroll of identify, which will tell you the function of any item you have in your inventory; save these up for the more powerful and inscrutable magic items, like rings. You can read scrolls (and by doing so invoke their magic) with the 'r' command.

Magical Potions

While scrolls tend to affect your equipment or your environment, most potions affect your character in some way. The most common type is the simple healing potion, which restores some hit points, but there are many other varieties of potions to be found. Potions can be quaffed (drunk) with the 'q' command. Try to avoid drinking poisonous potions!

Wands

Sometimes you will be lucky enough to find a stick which contains stored magical energies. Wands each have a certain amount of charges, and a wand will cease to function when its charges run out. You must identify a wand to find out how many uses it has left. Wands are aimed in the same way as missile weapons, and you can invoke the power of a wand by 'z'apping it.

Rings and Amulets

Magical rings are among the most useful of the items you will find in the dungeon, but can also be some of the most hazardous. They transfer various magical abilities onto their wearer, but powerful rings like rings of regeneration or invisibility make you hunger very quickly when activated. You can put on rings with the 'P' command, and remove them by typing 'R'. You can wear up to two rings simultaneously, one on each hand; which hand you put a ring on is immaterial to its function. Some rings function automatically, while others require activation (the 'a' command).

Amulets are similar to rings, but have a different range of effects (which tend to be more subtle). Amulets are worn around the neck, and you can wear only one at a time.

Magical Staves

There are a number of types of magical staves. Some enhance your general spellcasting ability, while some greatly increase the power of a certain class of spells (and possibly reduce your effectiveness with others). Some are spell staves, and hold spells which you can cast without having to memorise them first, and also without consuming food. You must wield a staff like a weapon in order to gain from its power, and magical staves are as effective as +0 quarterstaves in combat. Spell staves can be Evoked with the 'E' command while you are wielding them.

Spellbooks

Most books contain magical spells which your character may be able to learn. You can read a book with the 'r' command, which lets you access a description of each spell, or memorise spells from it with the 'M' command. Some books have other special effects, and powerful spellbooks have been known to punish the attentions of incompetent magicians.

Carrion

If you manage to kill a monster and have some luck it may leave a corpse behind for you to play with. Despite the fact that corpses are represented by the same '%' sign as food, you can't eat them without first cutting them into pieces with the 'c' command, and being extremely hungry helps as well. Even then, you should choose your homemade food with great care.

Some of the food might be poisoned or might cause mutations.

Carrying corpses might be needed if you need to pile up few of them for Twisted Resurrection spell.

Miscellaneous

These are items which don't fall into any other category. You can use many of them by wielding and/or 'I'nvoking them. You can also use some other special items (such as some weapons) by invoking them in this way. See also evocable items

Racial Items

Some items have been crafted by members of a gifted race, and have special properties. In addition, items made by a specific race work better in the hands of people of that race.

Dwarven weapons and armours are very durable, and do not rust or corrode easily.

Orcish bows/crossbows are particularly effective in combination with orcish arrows/bolts.

Elven armour is unusually light, and does not affect the dodging or stealth of its wearer to the extent that other armours do. Elven cloaks and boots are particularly useful to those who wish to be stealthy, and elven bows are particularly effective in conjunction with elven arrows.

Getting Items

You pick items up with the ',' (comma) command and drop them with the 'd'rop command. When you are given a prompt like "drop which item?" or "pick up <x>?", if you type a number before either the letter of the item, or 'y' or 'n' for yes or no, you will drop or get that quantity of the item.

Typing 'i' gives you an inventory of what you are carrying. When you are given a prompt like "Throw [or wield, wear, etc] which item?", you can type the letter of the item, or you can type '?' or '*' to get an inventory list. '?' lists all appropriate items, while '*' lists all items, appropriate or not. When the inventory screen is showing "-more-", to show you that there is another page of items, you can type the letter of the item you want instead of space or enter.

You can use the adjust command (the '=' key) to change the letters to which your possessions are assigned. This command can be used to change spell letters as well.

Some items can be stickycursed, in which case they weld themselves to your body when you use them. Such items usually carry some kind of disadvantage: a weapon or armour may be damaged or negatively enchanted, while rings can have all manner of unpleasant effects on you. If you are lucky, you might find magic which can rid you of cursed items.

Items like scrolls, potions and some other types each have a characteristic, like a label or a colour, which will let you tell them apart on the basis of their function. However, these characteristics change between each game, so while in one game every potion of healing may be yellow, in another game they might all be purple and bubbly. Once you have discovered the function of such an item, you will remember it for the rest of the current game. You can access your item discoveries with the '\' key.

A very useful command is the 'v' key, which gives you a description of what an item does. This is particularly useful when comparing different types of weapons, but don't expect too much information from examining unidentified items.

External links

• E. Grasland's excellent spoiler on items
• Identifying items on [swallowtail] page
• Some of the Named Artifacts on [swallowtail] page