Scrolls of acquirement

[Bimbul]

As far as I can tell these are best read as deep as possible since their loot seems depth dependent.

I once made the mistake of buying one in the black market and reading it immediately in town. This was an utter waste.

So I'm thinking of starting to hoard them and read them deep down at some late stage...

This is all completely anecdotal and based on my own perhaps 'seeing what I want to see' impression.

Any merit in saving them like I plan?

[AnonymousHero]

As far as I can tell these are best read as deep as possible since their loot seems depth dependent.

I once made the mistake of buying one in the black market and reading it immediately in town. This was an utter waste.

So I'm thinking of starting to hoard them and read them deep down at some late stage...

This is all completely anecdotal and based on my own perhaps 'seeing what I want to see' impression.

Any merit in saving them like I plan?

The loot is level dependent, but if you hoard them at home you may end up dying before getting a chance to actually read them. I usually just "hoard" until I'm ready to recall anyway and just read it prior to recalling.

(Usually the loot is useless anyway, but you might get lucky, so even if you do hoard, you'll usually be disappointed.)

[Bimbul]

Well yeah, it's the general uselessness of the loot that was behind my plan.

A heavy crossbow of accuracy at DL 25 is better than an average sling in town (well sort of - useless is useless I suppose) but maybe I might get something actually useful later on. It has been known to get something proper useful with them in my experience.

[Estie]

I normally read them where I find them, the chance of something usefull is better earlier simply because I dont have much yet. If I wait till 98, 1. I might die before that and 2. I will have a good kit already which the scroll is very unlikely to improve on.

[Bowman]

I usually just read them off the ground. Minimal risk of losing them to a stray fire breath that way, and the chance of getting a useful item immediately is worth more than the chance of getting a useful item later (and, conversely, I'd rather be disappointed immediately than to hype myself up about having some ?acquirements only to get disappointed later ).

[Monkey Face]

I agree with the idea of reading it ASAP (except in town). That way you know right away if it's something worth keeping or not and if it's not, you free up the inventory slot.

Like people are saying, it may not be endgame quality, but it might be something to keep you alive until you find the endgame items.

[wobbly]

I tend to read them straight of the floor. If my inventory is full then I want to know whether it's worth clearing the space & by the time they start producing good items your tripping over good stuff left, right & center.

What's the mechanic on them anyways? Slightly OOD item? Is it basically the equivalent of 1 item from a vault?

[Nick]

What's the mechanic on them anyways? Slightly OOD item? Is it basically the equivalent of 1 item from a vault?

Basically forced at least ego item, with extra chances to be an artifact.

[Timo Pietilä]

Basically forced at least ego item, with extra chances to be an artifact.

Doesn't it allow "good" non-weapon/armor items like RoS and dungeon spellbooks? I don't recall ever getting one of those from acquirement, but vault blocks that are "forced excellent" do allow those items.

[Nick]

Doesn't it allow "good" non-weapon/armor items like RoS and dungeon spellbooks? I don't recall ever getting one of those from acquirement, but vault blocks that are "forced excellent" do allow those items.

Completely correct - I missed that. =Speed, the high amulets (Magi, Devotion, Trickery, Weaponmastery) and the dungeon books as well as egos and artifacts.

[Bimbul]

Well food for thought, all good points. To be honest, I lacked the will power to hoard them anyway as it turned out.

[Timo Pietilä]

Well food for thought, all good points. To be honest, I lacked the will power to hoard them anyway as it turned out.

My experience with these are that the deeper you go the weaker the chance is that you get something actually better than what you already have. For that reason reading them ASAP at the deepest dungeon level you have visited is the best practice.

Though I once got stack of deep descend and scroll of acquirement really early. I read those deep descends in row which landed me way way way deeper than I could possibly survive, I read that acquirement and then recalled back hoping that no insta-killer appear before it kicks in.

Got me a lance of single slay of uselessness with that.

[fizzix]

Speaking of modifications. DCSS allows you to specify what category want from a scroll of acquirement. We might consider doing something like that, since it does add something to the game.

[bio_hazard]

I could be mis-remembering but I think ToME 2 has this as well. I can't really see a good argument against doing this. If it was too much of a benefit to the players, just increase rarity of the scrolls.

[Derakon]

How much detail does DCSS give you about what you can get? Is it like "weapon/armor/other" or do you get to say "I want a Dragon Scale Mail"?