ToME Wiki(this is a 2.2.7 and 2.3 spoiler, subject to being obsolete soon enough)
The first concern of the alchemist making his first artifact is that his artifact should NEVER be discarded in favor of a normal artifact he finds later; afterall it costs permanent 10HP to make one! The second concern is that the artifact should have the best AC, to-dam, to-hit, and activations possible.
But then the base object might be hard to find, the AC/to-dam/to-hit not maxxable in reasonnable time due to alchemy skill not at 50 (and not having maxluck which counts like 3.5 alchemy skill points), and fear of error.
So the trick is to artifact a light. You can't make AC or to-dam or to-hit errors because lights don't have those features. All normal artifacts in 2.3 have activations easily duplicated by rods, sticks, artifacts, or scrolls. You won't regret choosing a light as your first artifact!
Any permanent light will do(the best range you find; you'll improve the light range of your artifact at low cost later). It needs to be egoed first, so you can choose "of *brightness*" because you don't want this artifact to raise your stats.
Just remember that having only one stat-maxxing artifact is a very useful trick to save XP - the tool slot is ideal because it's being dragged down by tunnel ability's expensiveness anyway. If you can spare the magic essences start a shovel of digging +10 (well +9 is OK, it's just that higher saves you some XP). This should be the only slot which raises stats - all 6 stats.
I've thought of making a climbing kit artifact, but cannot figure out how to add an ego to it. But even if it were done, wands of dig and thaumaturgy attacks do only walls so it's too complicated. Stick with a shovel(picks are too heavy). ( PatekShoggot - Can't ego a climbing set at all, as is. Scroll of Artifact Creation doesn't recognize 'em as artifactable, either. So no alchemy arti climbing sets.)
if you're making a light and/or a shovel, skip to step 4 immediately; the complexities you skip don't apply to lights/shovels.
Alternatives & your second artifact
Another artifact of experienced players is often a shield because there is nothing in the 2.3 game better than a Shield of Deflection (with best AC bonus you can get - [10, +25] from the deepest dungeon's black market is the theorical limit you can't make yourself). So you can start this, knowing you will not regret it by finding better base item later (just remember it prevents use of 2-handed weapons - which is not such a great deal since slaughter axe 5d7 which is one-handed is close to mace of disruption 5d8). The slaughter axe is a nice choice too.
Those shields start being common at dungeon level 70, that is a few steps down in Angband (which is too hard - you're much better with the level 70 of other dungeons unless you're super powerful). Scumming the black market up to the very limit of my patience usually gets me the deflection shield -- at the price of insanity without losing sanity points. (-;
An alternate starting artifact is the Elfstone of Elessar, the one that cures black breath and is (+7, +7) [10] there is no better amulet (according to the 2.2.1 artifact spoiler - I didn't code dive for 2.2.7 artifact list yet).
Keep in mind that in 2.3 the only non-alchemy artifacts that are alchemy-improvable are rings and amulets(this is probably unintentional, has to do with the 'indestructible' in rings/amulets being checked instead of checking for an ego). Negative pval items aren't improvable even without curse(i.e. helm of knowledge). Curses possibly prevent alchemy too. ( PatekShoggot - Correct on curses and negative pval items. Also, cursed items cannot be used as requisite material for artifacts, nor can uncursed but negative pval items (at least rings and amulets, haven't checked with picks and whips. Average filthy rags start out negative, and work, though.)
The Mace of Disruption (5d8) is the best two-handed weapon(with a nice slay undead flag), the slaughter axe (5d7) is the best one handed(eru worshippers need to make it "blessed" with is an ego). With a proper double ego they're superior to *thanc daggers (and even Sting and all unique/sentient weapons who start with a boring 1d4 / 1d6).
Dragon helms and other things that don't have an (easy to find?) ego might benefit from a scroll of artifact creation or craftsmanship - can't remember which - to get an alchemy-artifactable ego. ( PatekShoggot - Scroll of Artifact Creation does this, unsure on craftsmanship. Also, ?oAC seems to have 0% failure, while I have yet to have a ?oCraftsmanship work at all. )
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So you have choosen your first future artifact? Read on (light-makers, jump to step 4):
1- Wear the Robe of Great Luck if you have it. NOW. And other luck items, every bit counts. NOW. Remove unlucky things (helm of knowledge, etc) NOW. You won't regret the equivalent of +3.5 alchemy levels maxluck will give you!
2- So start with egoless item, use as many *enchant armor* scrolls as your sanity can bear or until you reach the maximum of 15 ... or for weapons *enchant weapon* to the max (+15, +15) ... some items like the Elfstone or slaying rings won't enchant that way. (anyone who tried scroll of craftmanship, report success or failure here).
3- Ideally you should have a skill of 50 in alchemy + maxluck to make sure you'll get a near-perfect bonus with the first ego (and second ego wherever possible) after a few tries. You might have to go back to step 2 a few times, having multiple items and keeping the best is also very helpful - and time consuming. Twenty tries with (+10, +10) base items is better than 2 tries with (+12, +12) items for the same number of scrolls. Just make sure to use the shops before the scrolls to save your sanity...
The best ego for weapons is "of slaying", no doubt. The first is pretty much irrelevant unless you need blessed because you're Eru worshipper...
So you have your first ego/double ego item. The exact maxxes of double ego weapons are not known yet; but (+41, +47) has been seen from level 40 alchemy with 19 tries from (+10, +10) weapons as base; it was the last item (+7, +9) which actually "won".
4- So get the 50 magic essences and pay the permanent loss of 10 HP!
NOTE: you will LOSE any ability (such as the map ability you get from wearing a lamp of the magi). Just be aware of this 'feature' (bug?). You'll get a rod to map things later anyway.
( PatekShoggot - is the above true? In 2.3.4, at least, the Elfstone was still curing BB, and Helm of Gondolin (if I spelled that right?) is still activating for heal. Or are you referring to given abilities like 'conveys stone to mud if worn', as opposed to activations? Being a bit more specific, while the arti is named 'a Steel Helm Becoming', the activations intrinsic do -not- work, but after the first add-in is given and the item is named, they do. ) (ShoOb - It was meant that any ego item will lose its abilities, whereas a trueart will retain them.)
5- Wear the item. IMPORTANT. If you are making multiple artifact at once, wear them all.
6- If you're artifacting a light, lucky you! Save 50 magic essences by jumping to step 9
7- Quaff a potion of experience or two, and add disenchantment resist NOW. You don't want all your hard-earned +AC/+to hit/+damage to be lowered forever (if it's lowered and still at 15 or more, you can never get it back)!!! ( PatekShoggot - and am I alone in finding Rings of Resist Disenchantment to be incredibly rare? At Angband lvl 127, I'm finding 1 for every 10 or so rings of speed. And that's not counting cursed rings of speed. Save all you find, I suppose.)
8- Get 50 more magic essences. Use the 2.3 magic essences bug if you have to!
Your artifact ISN'T INDESTRUCTIBLE unless you add SOMETHING, ANYTHING to it. So that's why getting disenchant resist NOW is doubly important(if the artifact already has it, add something else - blind resist and light range is cheap; can't drop if cursed if you don't have XP). Otherwise the first acid monster that comes along will turn your gloves of slaying (+6, +6) [1, +18] into gloves of slaying (+6, +6) [1, +12] in no time, regardless of disenchant resists! You can never go back above 15 again due to the limit on *enchant* scrolls which is the only way with artifacts...
If you already have disenchant resist from another item, you can still get disenchanted after hitting some drop item traps than drops your disenchant resist. It sounds silly but it happened to me! So get it on every artifact you make as a precaution.
9- Got that disenchant resist flag and invulnerable to all 4 elements? Now things to add your object, in my favorite order(whenever you have gained much XP and have 50 magic essences to spare):
- You can add the "can't drop while cursed" curse, a curse, and a heavy curse in order to save some XP, and then read a *Remove Curse* scroll when done. Remember flags other than curse/heavy curse cannot be removed later! This only saves small amounts of XP so killing a single big dragon is faster. A better method to save XP is to make Potions of Experience (30 essences of extra life each) and quaff them _while wearing the artifact_ if you need some artifact improvement right now. Smart players usually have 5 XP potions waiting for when they have artifact creation...
- The "of reflection" flag can be added it's kinda useful for its price
- Hobbit immunity to black breath may or may not make the black breath flag good for free XP; this has not been tested. One ring wearers should definitively add black breath since they have it already. Other unfavorable flags your character inherently have (aggravate, Maia XP drain around level 20 in 2.2.7, etc) are also good for some free XP. Mana drain is good if you're really, really sure you're not into using mana to save your life someday...
Luck is *cheap* and always good. Among other things it helps you get out of depth or very rare items you want to have to start another artifact. See my Rabbit Feet FAQ on how to get rabbit feet for luck.
- All resists and immunities you can. This allows you to wear other equipment without seeking resists...
- For weapons elemental branding (fire, etc) should be added here. As well as all slay flags you want. The mace of disruption already has the slay undead flag. Do elemental branding and slays affect bows(untested)?
- Light radius bonus is good, if you intend to do something different with your light slot(activations, antiteleport, etc). Add some now and finish adding light later (with a later modify with leftover XP). Keep in mind 5 is the maximum radius your character will ever have.
- ESP is good for leftover XP when you can't buy much else.
- Stealth is an often overlooked advantage. Save some skill points by making stealthy artifacts!
Electric and fire aura things are nice ( PatekShoggot - beware that transporting the required items can knock your speed into the severe negatives on this one... Rod Tip of Home Summoning comes in very handy here.)
Maybe add Life drain (vampiric?) to weapons sounds nice, but I've never tried it... the forum says this is oddly enough a cost that increases with pval...( PatekShoggot - Indeed it is. Save up and extract worthless rod tips and make as many Drain Lifes as you can stand...)
- Speed is expensive, but you can't really win without it (except with those rings of 238 attacks that are considered cheating just as the other methods that kill Morgoth in one round)...
Spell power is good, if you use some spells that want it. It makes small spells rock (it can be raised to infinity by multiple "+spell power" artifacts). But there is NO WAY I can think of spell power except a mage staff of some kind, is there another way?? ( PatekShoggot - and a related question, I've yet to find out if +max mana % is possible. Is it? On anything? ( Everything can get +max hp%, thankfully.) )
A +% of life, or mana (for spellcasters) is great! Despite being very expensive, life is a commodity people keep buying. And don't forget you can only carry about 20 troll corpses at once so add this flag before about pval > 20 or it won't be possible anymore! ( PatekShoggot - what's the requisite item for +% on mana? And I have yet to *ID* anything which has it, sadly. I need to start picking up more mage staffs and robes, I suppose.)
An activation. It's all you'll have left after a wand-eating monster or certain traps hits you! ( PatekShoggot - Is *ID*'ing an item which has the activation already required for it to be addable? I have yet to find anything with any of the activations, so perhaps that's the problem. Surprised they're still listed, given that other add-ins aren't listed until *ID*'d.)( ShoOb - I dont think that you can add any activation, but you can add activations based on your current level of alchemy.)
- At this point raising the pval is more important than getting new flags, for a long while.
- You might want to max all your stats (STR, INT, WIS, DEX, CON, CHA) from this one item so you don't need other +STATS items. This takes a long time and when it's done you should NOT increase pval ever again - add other flags instead(speed, esp, etc) so no experience is not wasted more of the 6 stats. When all possibly useful flags are there close the artifact (having only one +STATS item means you don't ever have to close other items - so more nonclosed items will contribute to your total improvements - saving lots of XP in the process).
The formula for experience needed to gain a pval: /Alchemy Experience
Making 2 rings +25 speed is faster than making one ring +50 speed, and making 5 artifacts +10 speed is even quicker. The more artifacts, the cheaper the XP you need to add the same number of pval to your character... this is the way to reach +69 speed (speed above +69 has no improvements over +69).
Adding a bunch of flags to an artifact may cost 50 magic essences a pop, but NOT waiting for it to be super-XP full can save your life. In the end your flexibility depends on how many magic essences you stashed since level 1...
Alternate artifacts talk:
Ring of flare is nice, but ring of phasing is better. You'll probably want the other ring slot for rings of slaying (+17, +17) and if you find/make one you can artifact now and not regret it. Just be aware than adding indestructible is necessary and will 'reroll' the ring's bonuses as a bug...
Artifact gloves of slaying are nice, but there is a pair of cesti that is superior - but not artifactable and doesn't allow alchemy while worn. Tough choice! Perhaps the scroll of deincarnation will give you a body that allows both??
-On the forums, someone said you can force certain items without egos into being artifactable. This helps with dragon helm and such (I never found an ego for them). Just remember that dragon helms are inherently inferior to that 100 total AC helm or the usefulness of the helm of knowledge...
-Check some character dumps who aren't alchemists, it's written where they found things. This gives you a hint where to seek. With alchemist dumps you'll get "you made it yourself." but they show you reasonnable choices of items to artifact - IF the player is experimented.
-KEEP YOUR PRECIOUS WEAPONS AND ARMOR AWAY FROM RINGWRAITHS, CURSE TRAPS AND SCROLLS, AND THE SPEED REDUCTION TRAP!! I've hit all 3 in close succession in the bottom of Angband... youch!
-Other possible "easy equipment slots" include arrows (any arrow whatsoever) unless you want a perfect arrow for archery or a musical instrument.
PatekShoggot - Query - one of the artifact powers requires a lesser balrog corpse, according to essences.txt. I have, at this point, killed over 40 lesser balrogs, with a 50 corpse preservation - and have yet to see a single corpse. Is something in error here?
ShoOb - no nothings in error, lesser balrogs just dont drop corpses.
PatekShoggot - okay, so how can the *Slay Demon* flag be obtained? Essences.txt definitely seems set on a lesser balrog corpse... Unless there's some way to force corpse dropping?
ShoOb - Well, there are 3 ways, but I would avoid 2 of them, as they hack the game or involve wizard mode. The best way maybe to make an of *Slay Demon* weapon before you artifice it, but assuming that you already have the artifact, I dont think you can get it, without ruining your gameplay.
PatekShoggot - and just 'cause, here's an arti made from Gauntlets of Eol - turns out, there's no adding mana%+, but if it's already there, it's cheap to raise: The Set of Gauntlets of Talent (Exp:415648) (+0,+0) [3,+15](400%)(400%) (+20 to It can be activated for mana bolt (9d8) 7+d7 turns if it is being worn. It provides light (radius 3) forever. It can be used to store a spell. It increases your intelligence, infravision and luck by 20. It increases your mana capacity and hit points by 400%. It provides immunity to paralysis. It provides resistance to electricity, poison and dark. It allows you to levitate. It gives telepathic powers. It slows your metabolism. It speeds your regenerative powers. It cannot be harmed by acid, cold, lightning or fire. You made it yourself. Adding speed will cost me 4.5 million exp, not counting finding all the speed rings needed. Working on that part now =) I'll also add in the basic resists before I go the distance, though.
Also by PatekShoggot - a query! My first artifact was a demonblade... I was bashing up rings of speed and experience potions on Angband lvl 127, and when I got back, I noticed that my weapon was no longer an artifact, and was, in fact: The Shattered Demonblade of Telet (0d0) (-4,-7) (-4% of critical hits) There were no uniques on this run - no ringwraiths, etc - they've all been killed post-morgoth. So, any ideas what could've caused this? It was such a nice made artifact, too =( I'm just worried about it happening to other artifacts now...
ShoOb - It could have been 2 things, either a trap of curse weapon, or a scroll of curse weapon that you read. Probably the former.