From: "Snelling, Peter [CAR:CF39:EXCH]" Subject: Re: Strategies for identifying - may contain spoilers Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 11:28:54 -0400 My last game I found tons of scrolls early on, but not a single identify.. I was a healer, so I had enough money to buy them from shops. Here's how I identified them: 1: Ensure they're not cursed (stupid pet trick would work, but I had an altar nearby). Reading unidentified cursed scrolls isn't a good idea, unless you're one turn away from certain death (hope it's teleportation). 2: Check the price in a store, taking your charisma into account. 3: Look at the spoiler for scroll prices. Here they are sorted by price: Scrolls Pr $ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~ mail (stamped) -- 0 identify 185 20 light 95 50 blank paper (unlabeled) 28 60 enchant weapon 85 60 enchant armour 63 80 remove curse 65 80 fire 48 100 food detection 25 100 confuse monster 53 100 destroy armour 45 100 gold detection 33 100 magic mapping 45 100 scare monster 35 100 teleportation 55 100 amnesia 35 200 create monster 45 200 taming 15 200 charging 15 300 genocide 15 300 punishment 15 300 4. Read all scrolls under $100 (taking charisma into account). Be sure to unname them before reading (name them " "). This ensures you are prompted for a name. Even without the spoiler handy, everyone remembers that identify is the cheapest. Another key thing to remember is that all scrolls under $100 are safe to read -- so just read them. If you're careful what you wear/wield, you won't waste any valuable scrolls. And other than light/blank, they're all very useful for a starting character. If you have a choice, read the blessed ones first -- this helps you not waste remove curse scrolls. 5. The $100 scrolls are safe *if appropriate precautions are taken* for fire/destroy armor/teleportation. However $100 scrolls aren't that really that important early on, so if you'd rather not worry about the precautions, just hang on to them until you can get enough identify scrolls. 6. Don't read the $200 or $300 scrolls. You don't want to waste taming or charging. Genocide can probably wait (since you don't normally meet genocide worthy monsters early on). If you have something you'd like to charge, then reading *blessed* $300 scrolls is a good idea. Aside from scrolls: 7. Try on all uncursed rings and amulets. Some will identify themselves immediately, others after a while. Don't leave unidentified rings on for long durations since polymorph can wreck your armor. Do make sure you test for searching/conflict/regeneration/protection from shape changers. 8. Quaff any unidentified potions once you have a unicorn horn. I #name them "nasty" (or "hallu/blind/conf/sick" if you're pedantic), then dip a unicorn horn in them. If there's no effect, rename it to nothing " ", and then quaff away (blessed invisibility could get you in trouble, so don't do this in a shop, unless you have a way to get out when invisible). If it changes color, #name the result fruit juice. 8. When you get a limitted number of identifies, identify in the following order (generally, most difficult to identify first, then most important to identify): - amulets which didn't identify themselves. - rings which didn't identify themselves (most expensive first -- #name them by their price) - scrolls (most expensive first -- #name them by price) - potions - certain armor (boots/helmets) - primary artifact weapon - gems - other -- Peter Snelling, P.Eng. (snelling@nortelnetworks.com) Nortel Networks, Ottawa, Canada Standard Disclaimer: My views only, not my employer's