Unique item

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In NetHack, a unique item is one of four specific objects required to complete the game:

The discoveries page lists these items under the "Unique Items" section. Unique items are defined by having the field oc_unique set to 1 in objects.c. While the unique items are also commonly referred to as invocation artifacts, they do not count as artifacts for wishing purposes, as the player is guaranteed to encounter them. Unique items are indestructible (barring bugs) and may not be placed in containers.

It is not possible to wish for any of the unique items.

Unique items versus artifacts

Starting with NetHack 3.0.0, all artifacts are also unique within a given game, but are not the same as unique items - they are specially named variants of their base item with additional benefits, and appear as named versions of those items when unidentified. Some artifacts have a base item that exists mostly or exclusively for the generation of that artifact - e.g., most games will have no more than one runesword or tsurugi, as those items never generate randomly and only appear when Stormbringer or the Tsurugi of Muramasa (respectively) are generated; it is still possible to have multiples of each item, though this typically requires wishing for them or else finding a bones file containing artifacts that have already generated elsewhere in the game.