Scroll of identify

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Revision as of 17:35, 14 July 2011 by Tjr (talk | contribs) (Strategy Tips: price-ID for tactical flexibility)
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? Scroll.png
Name identify
Appearance random
Base price 20 zm
Weight 5
Ink to write 7-13
Monster use Will not be used by monsters.

The cheapest scroll in the game is the scroll of identify.

Facts

From scrl-343.txt:

identify

Always identified when read.
blessed
You can identify items from your inventory:
# items: 1 2 3 4 all
chance: 1/5 1/5 1/5 1/5 1/5
If your luck is positive, then 1 item becomes 2 items.
"This is an identify scroll."
uncursed
You can identify items from your inventory:
# items: 1 2 3 4 all
chance: 21/25 1/25 1/25 1/25 1/25
"This is an identify scroll."
cursed
You can identify one item from your inventory.
"This is an identify scroll."
confused
You merely identify the scroll.
"You identify this as an identify scroll."

Strategy Tips

Reading a cursed scroll of identify is safe, albeit not efficacious in most situations.

The unique price of the scroll of identify allows players in the early game to recognize these scrolls by price checking them in shops. Their low price also makes them quite affordable once recognized.

There is also a spellbook of identify, but that is a level 3 divination spell. It is very convenient if you can learn it, but many characters cannot. (The identify spell in combination with the Eye of the Aethiopica lets you identify any object soon after you discover it, even if you only want to know the BUC status.)

If you do not learn the identify spell, you will depend on these scrolls. It is advantageous to make holy water and bless your scrolls of identify, because that significantly increases their chance of identifying more items. It is also a good idea to gather many unidentified items into your inventory before reading the scrolls; if they are blessed, then the 20% chance of identifying everything is very significant.

Price identification can point you to the most important items to identify and thus give you the tactical flexibility to use these scrolls before you can bless a stack.