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. Most cursed items cause something bad when you use them.
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.