Wizardry 8 – Artifacts Power-training and Identification Trick

From basic to hardcore information about identification, artifacts and ways of training the skill.

Basics

Note: Credit goes to user0113

Speaking of artifacts skill. It helps characters to identificate loot with no magic/money involved and successfully use artifact-based items (e.g. charged wands and amulets).

Using artifact-based items will affect only user’s artifact skill. But in contrast to this, every party member has a chance to improve their artifacts skill after successful non-magic identification. The chance depends on character’s intelligence and senses. Possibility of the identification depends on the highest value of artifacts skill in your party.

In other words, item can be identified if anyone in your group has sufficient level of artifacts skill. After successful identification everyone in your group will have a chance of artifacts skill improvement.

By the way, here are other ways to identificate item:

• Sell and buy back (very expensive) 
• Use scrolls (they cast level 4 spell and pointless with expensive and powerful stuff) 
• Use magic (the character must be able to cast identification spell of sufficient level) 
• Use sample (for stackables only, see the trick section) 

Training Ways

As it was already mentioned, character’s artifact skill may be pumped up by spamming spells of charged items, but it is pointless if they won’t make any effect (e.g. healing undamaged group). You may recharge these items by selling and buying them back, but be careful with some of them: they could disappear if no charges left. Scrolls are not rechargeable, but you can buy bunch of identifications and waste them on item which requires level 5 spell or higher (so it won’t be identified by them). For level 4 and below I may suggest to generate more unidentified stackables (see the trick section).

Another classy way is to help your alchemist with potion identification (one by one is better than in stacks).

And to the dirty one. Remember about one by one? What about bundle of unidentified arrows?
Right… so…

• Locate unidentified stackable and left-click on it, so it sticks to your cursor. 
• Click ‘i’ to open inventory and place your item there. 
• Split your stackable and identify one by one (use shift to get only one item from stack). 

Now we are ready to bring the dirty way (mentioned above) to the next level of karma pollution.

The Trick

You need at least two items in your unidentified stack:

• Shift-click to get one unidentified from the pile. 
• Place it in some character’s bag and identify. 
• Click on UN_IDENTIFIED pile to stick it to your cursor. 
• Press shift and click on IDENTIFIED item. 

Yep… your item returned to the unidentified stack. So you can repeat it all over again. Split, identify, merge, repeat. Nice way to pump some levels of artifacts skill on solo run, because it works with rocks even with 0 level of the skill. Your characters get one stone and be like “hm, a bullet stone”, return it to the pile, shuffle, take another one and “yep, another bullet stone”. Meditative.

This trick works vice versa if you got identified item in your hand and shift-click on unidentified pile. For example, with only one sample, alchemist can craft renewal potions and have no trouble with their identification. The character being like “this one is definitely renewal, and this one is exactly the same, so I guess also the renewal one”. Consecutive.

I know, this is definitely some kind of unexpected user-behavior and developers didn’t meant to work it that way, but Wizardry is classic game where YOU decide how to play and what story you will be telling this time (spoiler, because you are the Cosmic Lord). Purist walkthrough? As you wish, my fellow survivors. Playing thimblerig with rocks on monastery beach? Okay, become enlightened with Destinae Dominus aura and have no trouble with artifacts of this world.

I mean, why not? The game itself is the Cosmic Forge, where you tell the story.