ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery) – How to Deal with Cursed Items

You find some nice looking gear, so naturally you try it out. Ha Ha, turns out it’s CURSED and you can’t remove it! With some patience and planning you can dodge this kind of sucker-punch.

What Does It Mean When an Item Is Cursed?

  • Once equipped you cant bring yourself to remove it
  • Its functionality is reduced (or even reversed). Notably, cursed weapons are 50% less effective against the undead. Cursed consumables (e.g. potions and scrolls) can have opposite their intended effects.
  • Cursed weapons and tools tend break easily. Condemning you to face off the hordes with the stump of a cursed and broken weapon.
  • Some items will also block access to other items equipped beneath them (e.g. cursed gauntlets stop you changing equipped rings, cursed girdles trap you in your current armour etc.)

Identifying Items

It’s best to keep interesting items in your backpack until you can identify their ‘status’ (Blessed/Uncursed/Cursed). Three methods are commonly used:

  • Altars
  • Scrolls of Identify
  • Detect Item Skill

Using an Altar

  • Drop an item on an altar that shares your alignment (many players will convert any altar they find just to identify the great swag of items they’re dragging around). The item’s B/U/C status is then revealed in its description when you pick it up again.
  • However, this trick doesn’t help with the rare ‘auto-cursing’ items. These become cursed only after they’re equipped (notably ‘Rings of the Fish’ and the dreaded ‘Gauntlets of Peace’).
  • There’s a small piety cost for each item. So avoid dropping great stacks of missiles on an altar and needlessly aggravating your deity.
  • While your’e at it, remember to drop all your Potions of Water on the altar. This converts them into very useful potions of Holy Water (see below).

Reading a Scroll of Identify

  • An Uncursed scroll will reveal the B/U/C status of all items in the same category (e.g. when cast on a single ring, the status of all your carried rings is revealed).
  • A Blessed scroll will reveal the status of ALL items in your inventory. This is obviously much better value, so bless stacks of these scrolls in Holy Water when you can.

Using the Detect Item Skill

  • Available naturally to only to Ratlings, Merchants and Priests
  • Functions automatically (or not) one-time-only when you first pick up an item
  • Unreliable at low skill levels

Uncursing Items

Some cursed items are just too good throw away. Three options i know of for lifting a curse:

  • Scrolls of Uncursing
  • Blessing
  • Praying

Using a Scroll of Uncursing

  • An Uncursed scroll will work only on the single item it is applied to.
  • A Blessed scroll will uncurse your entire inventory. This is obviously much better value, so bless stacks of these scrolls in Holy Water when you can.

Blessing the Item in Holy Water

  • Dip any item in holy water to change its status from Cursed (or Uncursed) to Blessed.
  • Some smaller items can be dipped in bulk (eg. missiles, rings and scrolls etc.).

Praying to your Deity

  • Praying for favour will sometimes uncurse an equipped item, provided your piety level is high.
  • But make sure you’re not injured, hungry or have some other negative intrinsic (e.g. doomed), since your prayer will be used to reverse one of these other problems instead.
  • This costs significant piety each time, so many players pray only as a last resort
  • Rotting food is considered cursed. I wouldn’t advise praying for a de-wormed apple. But it’s a handy method of preserving valuable corpses you’re trying to return to Terinyo – just keep them ‘equipped’ in your Tool slot and and pray each time they ‘start to smell’.
Created by Sputnik

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*