User:Aximili/Test
Contents
Identification
Scare monster
There are several ways to indirectly identify the scroll of scare monster:
- You stand on the scroll and adjacent monsters turn to flee (including pets & shopkeepers)
- You pick up the scroll and it turns to dust
- You are a Priest(ess), and a scroll changes its BUC when you pick it up
Price
Scrolls of identify, light, enchant weapon, enchant armor and remove curse are pretty easy to identify by price. The more expensive scrolls, with base costs of 100 zm or more, are much more difficult to distinguish.
Here are the inconvenient and dangerous scrolls of each price class. A more detailed guide to price-identifying scrolls is here.
Base cost | Scroll | Problem |
---|---|---|
100 | fire | Fire damage to you, your inventory, and adjacent monsters |
destroy armor | Destroying your armor | |
scare monster | If picked up in a shop, it may turn to dust and you must pay for it | |
teleportation | Teleporting into a dangerous situation, or out of a shop | |
200 | amnesia | Forgetting object identities, map layouts, spells |
create monster | Dangerous if you're not ready to fight | |
earth | Boulders hitting you and adjacent monsters | |
taming | If cursed, will anger nearby peaceful monsters, such as shopkeepers | |
300 | genocide | Genociding your own race if confused |
punishment | Being chained to an iron ball |
Monster use
Monsters can be generated with scrolls of teleportation, earth, and create monster. If you observe them reading said scrolls, that identifies to scroll to you.
Position
Scrolls of earth can be identified by the guaranteed ones in Sokoban. Scrolls of teleportation are the only ones generated inside closets.
Reading
Many veteran players will not read an unidentified scroll unless they have a pretty good guess what it could be. Nonetheless, if you are desperate and you have a large variety of price-identified, pet-tested scrolls in your inventory, you may try to identify them by reading them.
Precautions
You should not try to read-identify scrolls if the game considers your character a beginner. If your character is a beginner, then several scrolls have a possibility of giving the message "You have a strange feeling for a moment, then it passes." If your character is not a beginner, then it will be possible to distinguish all scrolls by the messages and effects obtained by reading them.
BUC-testing scrolls before reading them is important: some scrolls are much more deadly when cursed.
Some scrolls are less dangerous if read while confused. However, the scroll of genocide can kill you instantly if read while confused, so read-identification while confused is not universally helpful. Don't be blind or hallucinating.
Beware of the scroll of amnesia. There is no defense against the possibility of losing up to 25% of your discoveries.
The table below summarizes precautions for reading unidentified scrolls. Some precautions may contradict: you need other means of identification to assist in these cases.
Scroll | Less harmful if confused | Other precautions |
---|---|---|
destroy armor | Yes | Remove important helmets, gloves, cloaks and shoes; remove all other armor or wear a junk cloak over your body armor. |
fire | Yes |
|
enchant armor | Yes | Remove any elven armor of +6 or higher enchantment; remove any non-elven armor of +4 or higher enchantment |
enchant weapon | Yes | Unwield any weapon of +6 or higher enchantment |
earth | Yes |
|
teleportation | No |
|
punishment | Yes | Have a way to escape punishment |
create monster | Yes | Be ready to fight or escape |
genocide | No |
|
amnesia | No |
|
taming | No |
|
Maximizing benefits
In addition to take precautions against harmful scrolls, you might also want to maximize the benefits of helpful scrolls. Some of these may contradict the above precautions: you need other means of identification to assist in these cases.
Scroll | Benefit maximizers |
---|---|
magic mapping | Read on an unmapped level |
identify | Keep some unidentified items in inventory |
charging | Keep some chargeable items in inventory |
enchant weapon | Wield a weapon you want to enchant |
enchant armor | Remove all armor except ones you want to enchant |
Auto-identification
Some scrolls will always identify themselves to you when you read them. Others might only identify themselves if read under certain situations.
Auto-identification | Scroll |
---|---|
Always | amnesia |
blank paper | |
charging | |
earth | |
fire | |
genocide | |
identify | |
magic mapping | |
punishment | |
stinking cloud | |
If new monsters are seen | create monster |
If not cursed, and gold on level | gold detection |
If not blind | light |
If blessed, or you are teleported sufficiently far | teleportation |
If wearing armor | destroy armor |
enchant armor | |
If not cursed, and wielding a weapon | enchant weapon |
If food on level | food detection |
If monsters were tamed or angered | taming |
Never | confuse monster |
remove curse | |
scare monster |
Messages
Scrolls that don't auto-identify can be identified by their messages or effects
Scroll | Messages | Effects |
---|---|---|
create monster | New monsters are generated around you | |
gold detection | Scroll of gold detection § Messages |
|
light |
| |
teleportation | Pay attention to your position before and after | |
destroy armor |
|
|
enchant armor |
|
|
enchant weapon |
|
|
detect food | Won't auto-identify if there's no food to detect | |
taming |
|
|
confuse monster | Scroll of confuse monster § Messages |
|
remove curse |
|
|
scare monster | Scroll of scare monster § Messages |
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