Unique item

All artifacts are unique, but there are four objects which the game refers to as unique items (on the discoveries page):

• The Candelabrum of Invocation
• The Bell of Opening
• The Book of the Dead
• The Amulet of Yendor

While these are also commonly referred to as "invocation artifacts", they aren't actually artifacts. This also means they don't affect artifact wishing negatively as they don't increment the artifact count.

Distinguishing from other "one-per-game" items

Artifacts are not unique items in the sense of this article. Instead, their base item is a normal type of item, except the artifact has a special name and additional benefits. For example, the Eye of the Aethiopica is a named amulet of ESP that also provides faster energy regeneration among other extra powers.

While Stormbringer is the only runesword and the Tsurugi of Muramasa the only tsurugi that can normally be generated in the game, neither counts as a unique item. It is possible to find a non-artifact runesword or tsurugi in a bones file (if the artifact has already been created), or by wishing for one.

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.4. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-364}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.