Pick up

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You can pick up items from the dungeon floor using the , key. If there is only one item or stack in your square, you will usually pick it up without further prompting; otherwise you will be asked which items you want to pick up. Pressing , again will select every item.

Exceptions

The pickup burden option sets an encumbrance limit. If an item you attempt to pick up would take you to that limit, you will be prompted to confirm.

If you are polymorphed into a creature without hands, you can't pick up.

If you are levitating you can't pick up.

If you have already filled your knapsack slots, you can't pick up, unless the item is a loadstone.

If the item would take you past your maximum carrying capacity, you can't pick it up, unless the item is a loadstone.

A cross aligned quest artifact is likely to evade your grasp.

Monsters

Monsters can pick up items from the floor as well. Whether a monster is willing to pick up a specific class of item is defined by the monster's attributes:

Item class	Monster attribute required to pick up
Gold	monsters which like gold
Weapons, armor, gems, food (except corpses)	monsters which can pick up weapons and food
Amulets, potions, scrolls, wands, rings, spellbooks	monsters which can pick up magical items
Boulders	monsters which can throw boulders (when not in Sokoban)
Gems (excluding rocks and gray stones)	monsters which like gems
Pick-axes	monsters which need a pick-axe to tunnel through walls

In addition to the above, intelligent monsters will pick up items that are useful to their specific situation:

• if the monster is not already invisible, and the monster has no gaze attack, they will pick up charged wands of make invisible and potions of invisibility;
• if the monster is not already fast, they will pick up charged wands of speed monster and potions of speed;
• if the monster is not floating, they will pick up charged wands of digging;
• if the monster has difficulty less than 6, they will pick up charged wands of polymorph;
• they will always pick up charged wands of striking, teleportation and create monster;
• they will always pick up charged ray wands (e.g. wands of death);
• they will always pick up the following potions:
  • potions of healing, extra healing, full healing;
  • potions of polymorph;
  • potions of gain level;
  • potions of paralysis;
  • potions of sleeping;
  • potions of acid;
  • potions of confusion;
  • potions of blindness (if the monster has no gaze attack);
• they will always pick up the following scrolls:
  • scroll of teleportation;
  • scroll of create monster;
  • scroll of earth;
  • scroll of fire;
• if the monster is not nonliving and not a vampire, they will pick up amulets of life saving;
• they will always pick up amulets of reflection;
• non-unicorns will pick up non-cursed unicorn horns;
• if the monster can blow (roughly, has a head and breathes), they will pick up charged frost and fire horns;
• if the monster is wearing gloves, they will pick up chickatrice and cockatrice corpses;
• they will always pick up chickatrice and cockatrice eggs;
• if the monster is not themselves resistant to stoning, they will pick up corpses that cure stoning (e.g. lizards), as well as tins of the same (if they can eat tins).

A different set of rules govern if/when monsters will use the items they pick up, depending on whether it's considered a defensive item, offensive item or miscellaneous item.