How do you identify items and potions, please?

[FroBodine]

I am just starting, but am already finding unidentified things. How do I identify them, please?

[Koda]

You drink them. or a scroll of identify wich are far and wide. barely see them, if anything it adds fun. also, never pick up the duck... also if you use scroll of detect magic it reveals good and bad migic. just drink and use stuff, its worth it.

[elias.heyndrickx]

Originally posted by Fiercemaccow:

You drink them. or a scroll of identify wich are far and wide. barely see them, if anything it adds fun. also, never pick up the duck... also if you use scroll of detect magic it reveals good and bad migic. just drink and use stuff, its worth it.

Do pick up the duck for additional fun :D

I would recommend clicking on purple items and see what happens to get a better grasp of the game.

[FroBodine]

So, if I drink a potion or use a scroll, and identify it that way, will I automatically know what that item is next time I pick one up?

That seems like it could be a useless way to use a potentially great item. Say I quaff a potion of healing, but I'm already completely healed. Potion wasted.

[elias.heyndrickx]

Originally posted by FroBodine:

So, if I drink a potion or use a scroll, and identify it that way, will I automatically know what that item is next time I pick one up?

That seems like it could be a useless way to use a potentially great item. Say I quaff a potion of healing, but I'm already completely healed. Potion wasted.

Yea that's true, but the game isn't very stingy with giving you potions. You'll find plenty of them so don't hesitate in using them. There are a few tricks which you can use to eliminate some potential unknown potions.

[Misery]

The way I often do this is:

1. Hoard things for the first few floors. There's not much reason to be wasting magic items that early. Enemies are not much threat at that point.

2. Scrolls of Detect Magic arent that hard to come by... chances are, you'll get at least one early on. Once you've gotten a certain achievement, you can also buy one before entering the dungeon for 100 gold. If you've been hoarding scrolls and potions, you can half-identify a large number of things at once.

3. Once they're partially identified (meaning it just tells you wether they are good or bad, not what they do) you can figure out how you want to use them. For bad potions, they're effectively weapons that you can fling at enemies... you just have to be careful with them. Enemies also sometimes have their own potions to throw. Having harmful potions to throw can be very good, particularly when you're dealing with enemies that are too overwhelming to deal with in melee combat (anything with a heavy weapon, for instance).

4. Use Detect Magic scrolls only at the BEGINNING of a floor. Why? Because it also identifies the location of all helpful or harmful magic things on a floor.... including invisible traps. Sometimes, this can even help you locate secret rooms.

5. Never drink unidentified potions (with the purple background). Since there are so many bad ones, it's a 50/50 chance of drinking a bad one. And the bad ones can HURT, or just outright kill you if your health is too low.

6. Scrolls arent too bad to read when unidentified. There are only four bad ones, with "pain" being the worst (summons a bunch of phantom blades to attack you, be prepared to fight them off when reading an unknown scroll). One of the "bad" ones, the Scroll of Descent, isnt REALLY bad... it just warps you down to the next floor, and can be useful in some situations. Like with the Detect Magic scrolls, try to use unidentified scrolls at the beginning of a floor. If you do this and accidentally skip the whole floor with the Descent scroll, remember that you can simply find the stairs back up to return to it, so you dont miss out on stuff (usually).

7. Dont equip unidentified equipment unless you have something that can nullify a curse.

8. Choose the Wizard class at the start (when you have it available). You start with a magic hat that gives you a higher chance of automatically identifying something upon picking it up. The downside is that this hat isnt really a defensive thing.

9. For potions, if you have more than one of a single unidentified type, dont be afraid to simply throw one at something. If it's a good one, well... hey, you've got an extra right there that you can use.



Hope some of that helps a bit.

[FroBodine]

Thank you very much, Misery! Very helpful stuff.