The Eye of the Aethiopica

"   The Eye of the Aethiopica
Base item	amulet of ESP
Affiliation	neutral Wizard intelligent
When carried	magic resistance faster energy regeneration half spell damage
When worn	(none)
When invoked	branchport
Base price	4000 zm
Weight	20

The Eye of the Aethiopica is the wizard quest artifact. It is neutral for wishing purposes; if you are a wizard, it will adjust its alignment to your starting alignment. A wizard cannot wish for the Eye.

Its base item type is amulet of ESP, so wearing it provides extrinsic telepathy. You can also abuse the naming artifacts exploit to determine whether an unidentified amulet is ESP or not.

Special effects

Apart from being worn for extrinsic ESP (from the base item type), all other effects are available simply by carrying The Eye. This is handy as you can wear another amulet, say an amulet of life saving instead if ESP is not essential for you.

You can invoke the Eye to branchport. In other words, you can immediately teleport to another branch of the dungeon that you have visited. You arrive on the highest or lowest previously-visited level of that branch, depending on whether your current location is above or below the target dungeon branch's entry level. (Exception: you will always go to the lowest Sokoban level, and to the Valley of the Dead if you were above it.) Attempting to branchport to the branch you are currently in (or from the Endgame or carrying the Amulet of Yendor) gives the message "You feel very disoriented for a moment." and has no effect. Adjacent hostile monsters that normally follow you up stairs will follow you through the gate into the new branch; this is a common method to transport many wraiths from the Valley of the Dead so they are more likely to leave a corpse. The branchport ability of the Eye makes Sokoban an ideal stash location. Furthermore, the Eye of Aethopicia will ALWAYS teleport you to the lowest main dungeon level you saw if that is where you branchport. This makes it ideal for the following reason : after being gone to your stash, you can go back to the place you ported from, assuming you explore the dungeon top-down. A typical branchport menu might look like:

                                  Open a portal to which dungeon?
----------
|........-####      ------------- a - The Dungeons of Doom
|........|   #######-...........| b - Gehennom
|........|          |...........| c - The Gnomish Mines
----------          |..@........| d - The Quest
                    --------+---- e - Sokoban
                            #     f - Fort Ludios
                            #     (end)

While carried, The Eye provides half spell damage, magic resistance, and fast power regeneration. With fast power regeneration, you restore at least one power per turn -- this is far quicker than you would otherwise.

In the opinion of many experts (such as Rast and Eidolos), the Eye of the Aethiopica is not only the best artifact in NetHack, but also the best item.

Cautions

Like any quest artifact, if you don't match all of its affiliations, it will blast you for up to 40 damage (20 if you have magic resistance). For example a neutral Ranger would blasted for not being a Wizard by the artifact when you pick it up, put it on or try to invoke it.

Encyclopedia entry

This is a powerful amulet of ESP. In addition to its standard powers, it regenerates the energy of anyone who carries it, allowing them to cast spells more often. It also reduces any spell damage to the person who carries it by half, and protects from magic missiles. Finally, when invoked it has the power to instantly open a portal to any other area of the dungeon, allowing its invoker to travel quickly between areas.