Quest artifact

The quest artifact is a special artifact in NetHack that you retrieve from your role's quest nemesis along with the Bell of Opening, and is considered one of the prizes for completing the quest. While your quest artifact is not strictly necessary to ascend, it is worth picking up anyway since it is at least of some use to your character, often providing valuable extrinsic qualities.

Like normal artifacts, quest artifacts provide various special effects in addition to any abilities intrinsic to their base item; see the entry for a particular artifact to find out all of its effects. All quest artifacts are intelligent artifacts, and each has a default alignment; your own quest artifact will always be adjusted to your alignment. You can only safely pick up a quest artifact that you share a role and/or alignment with; other quest artifacts will blast you, and cross-aligned quest artifacts will evade your grasp. You cannot wish for your own quest artifact, and it will be reverted to its base item if it would be found in a bones level.

List of quest artifacts

Role	Name	Base object type	Alignment	Effects
				When carried	When applied	When invoked	When wielded or worn
Archeologist	The Orb of Detection	crystal ball	Lawful	magic resistance, telepathy, half spell damage	crystal ball selective object detection	toggles invisibility
Barbarian	The Heart of Ahriman	luckstone	Neutral	stealth, luckstone		toggles levitation	double damage and +d5 to-hit when slung
Caveman	The Sceptre of Might	mace	Lawful			toggles conflict	magic resistance, double damage to cross-aligned, +d5 to-hit
Healer	The Staff of Aesculapius	quarterstaff	Neutral			heal half HP damage, cures sickness; blindness; sliming	double damage to non drain resistant, +d8 damage to non non drain resistant, level drain attack, hungerless regeneration, drain resistance
Knight	The Magic Mirror of Merlin	mirror	Lawful	magic resistance, telepathy, Knights do double damage with certain wands and spells.	gives random rumor, reflect gaze attacks, other mirror effects
Monk	The Eyes of the Overworld	pair of lenses	Neutral			enlightenment	magic resistance; astral vision; protects against the stunning and blinding effects of the Archon's gaze attack; overrides all blindness; prevents blindness from ravens, black naga, and cobras (like normal lenses.)
Priest	The Mitre of Holiness	helm of brilliance	Lawful	fire resistance		restores approximately half your lost power, up to a maximum of 120	protection, half damage from undead and demons (only for priests), helm of brilliance intelligence and wisdom boost
Ranger	The Longbow of Diana	bow	Chaotic	telepathy		creates a small amount of arrows	reflection, +d5 to-hit
Rogue	The Master Key of Thievery	skeleton key	Chaotic	warning, teleport control, half physical damage	gives random rumor, lock and unlock objects	untrap doors and containers without fail
Samurai	The Tsurugi of Muramasa	tsurugi	Lawful	luckstone			protection, bisection, +d8 damage, +2 to-hit
Tourist	The Platinum Yendorian Express Card	credit card	Neutral	magic resistance, telepathy, half spell damage	unlock objects	charges an item
Valkyrie	The Orb of Fate	crystal ball	Neutral	warning, half spell damage, half physical damage, luckstone	crystal ball selective object detection	levelport
Wizard	The Eye of the Aethiopica	amulet of ESP	Neutral	faster energy regeneration, half spell damage		branchport	magic resistance, telepathy

Variants

SLASH'EM

Role	Name	Base object type	Alignment	Effect when invoked
Flame Mage	The Candle of Eternal Flame	magic candle	Neutral	summon a fire elemental
Ice Mage	The Storm Whistle	magic whistle	Lawful	summon a water elemental
Necromancer	The Great Dagger of Glaurgnaa	great dagger	Chaotic	energy boost
Undead Slayer	The Stake of Van Helsing	wooden stake	Lawful
Yeoman	The Crown of Saint Edward	helm of telepathy	Lawful

UnNetHack

Role	Name	Base object type	Alignment	Effect when invoked
Convict	The Iron Ball of Liberation	heavy iron ball	Neutral	Temporary phasing; chains self to player

References

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.0. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-360}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.