History Main / UnknownItemIdentification

* Scrolls of Identification double as PracticalCurrency in ''VideoGame/PathOfExile''. While equipments need to be identified to use, maps and Strongboxes can be used without doing so, and running an unidentified map gives a boost to item drops.

* {{VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV}} uses this idea for many items found on gathering nodes, meaning you won't know what the item is until you successfully obtain it for the first time (with only a 25% base success chance).

* In ''VideoGame/{{Recettear|AnItemShopsTale}}'', the only way to appraise the items you use is to get out of the dungeon. Makes sense because the merchants are running behind the adventurer and therefore are unable to sit down and appraise the items before they get home.

* ''VideoGame/DragonsCrown'' has loot acquired throughout stages that can be identified for a fee at the end of the stage.

* ''VideoGame/Elsword'' has a variant in that all equipments come with four rarity variant the lowest one can be equipped immediately while anything beyond that needs to be identified before equipping, you can slot extra attributes in and/or add elemental effects to it, but you need to identify their bonuses first before equipping it. You do, however, knows what the equipment is before equipping

** ''Identify'' is a 1st-level spell usable by wizards, sorcerers, bards, and clerics with the Magic domain. It identifies all properties of a single magic item. And yes, you can scribe a scroll of the spell with the proper item creation feat. Another option is to use a Knowledge skill check to deduce the item's properties.

** The rulebooks suggest that a character who frequently uses potions can learn to identify them by sampling the contents; just enough to taste but not enough to activate the magic.

* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' usually identifies what you're picking up (sometimes including a short explanation of varying helpfulness on what it does.) Pills, however, are the sole exception to the rule, and there's no way to actually identify them beyond taking one and hoping you didn't get stuck with a Stat Down or [[StuffBlowingUp Explosive Diarrhea]] pill (fortunately, once you identify a pill, all similar pills for that run are automatically identified as well.) The Curse of the Blind in ''[[UpdatedRerelease Rebirth]]'' turns ''every single pick-up'' on the current floor into a question mark, forcing the player to take a gamble in picking anything up.

* Scrolls of Identification double as PracticalCurrency in ''VideoGame/PathOfExile''.

* ''VideoGame/NetHack'' is the TropeCodifier. It also has a high-level spell for the purpose of identifying unknown items, and a separate one for checking if it's cursed. Equipping an unknown amulet without checking either is a good way to end up with an Amulet of Strangulation that you can't unequip in time.

* ''VideoGame/{{Elona}}'', similar to ''Diablo'', scholars in towns can identify items for you.

* ''VideoGame/NetHack'' is the TropeCodifier. It also has a high-level spell for the purpose of identifying unknown items.

Whether or not the player can use an item before getting it identified varies -- do you ''really'' want to take the chance that the random glass bottle with purple goop you just picked up turns out to be a HealingPotion and not deadly {{poison|Mushroom}}, or that a shiny-looking sword is actually a useful weapon as opposed to rusty old VendorTrash (or worse, harboring a nasty -- and usually clingy -- {{curse}}?) Some games won't let you use or equip the item at all until its true nature has been identified; others will let you do so at your own peril (but will usually disclose the item's true nature after the fact if you do).

* ''PerfectWorld'' averts this since [[{{Pun}} it is perfect]] and you get to see the stats of the items -- though this may have changed with a patch.

* In ''VideoGame/RagnarokOnline'' equipments obtained from monsters are only listed as generic "Shoes", "Armor", "Sword", etc and cannot be equipped until you appraise them with the Maginifier item.
* ''{{Trickster Online}}'': Averts this via showing the stats of the items once the player picks them up. Then again the game plays with a {{Random Drop}} engine which means that in Boss Encounters the stats of the weapons obtained are random but in a certain range of stats.
* ''{{Perfect World}}'': Averts this since [[{{Pun}} it is perfect]] and you get to see the stats of the items (this troper doesn't remember if it changed with a patch though).

* ''VideoGame/CastleOfTheWinds'' has the Identify spell as a single-use scroll, multiple-use staff, or (premanent) spellbook. Each town also has a sage that can identify items for a fee. Equipment may be enchanted or cursed, and magic items like potions, scrolls, and wands are completely unknown until you dare to use them or use one of the identification methods.

* In the ''PokemonMysteryDungeon'' series, wild Pokémon in dungeons may drop Treasure Boxes when defeated; these boxes come in various colors but the only way to know (and use) what's inside them is to take them to a specialized Pokémon back in town after leaving the dungeon. Until then, they do occupy space in your inventory, but if the dungeon includes a floor with a SavePoint, you can transfer them to your item storage so you don't have to keep lugging them around.
* ''VideoGame/ShirenTheWanderer'' has scrolls of identify (which have a small chance to identify every item in your inventory) as well as ''jars'' of identify which can identify any item you put into them.

* ''{{Azure Dreams}}'': You get three options to identify equipment, monster eggs and magic balls: equipping/using them (still won't show you the counter with the magic balls), using an identifier item and getting out of the dungeon since everyone at home can see what items are worth.
* ''{{Recettear}}'': Only way to appraise the items you use: Getting out of the dungeon, making sense since the merchants are running behind the adventurer therefore are unable to sit down and appraise the items before they get home.

* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' does this with the fossils. You dig the raw fossils out of the ground, mail them off to be identified, then get them back to give to the museum.

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, a low Alchemy skill prevents the player from determining the properties of alchemical ingredients. In some games, such as ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', ingredients that the player has not used in experiments always have unknown properties. However, tasting the ingredients exposes the player to diluted version of their powers -- as opposed to the stronger powers of potions brewed from these ingredients -- so it's almost always safe to taste them.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'', you can also take your unknown items into town and have Cain identify them, or buy a scroll to do it (for the same price of 100 gold). Starting with ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'', the player has a GreatBigBookOfEverything; simply right-click on an unknown item and wait a few seconds to identify it.

This can be {{Justified|Trope}} for certain kinds of items, like potion bottles (whose labels may be the only clue as to what's inside), or items that are stored/hidden inside a generic container. Until it's been identified, all the item really does is occupy space in the player's InventoryManagementPuzzle, which (depending on the size of said inventory) may require the player to decide whether it's ''really'' worth lugging around twenty extra pounds of useless inventory in the hopes that it turns out to be more than just VendorTrash, or if it's something they can safely toss out and/or come back for later (without it getting LostForever).

Whether or not the player can use an item before getting it identified varies -- do you ''really'' want to take the chance that the random glass bottle with purple goop you just picked up turns out to be a HealingPotion and not deadly {{poison|Mushroom}}, or that a shiny-looking sword is actually a useful weapon as opposed to rusty old VendorTrash (or worse, harboring a nasty -- and usually {{clingy|curse}} -- {{Curse}}?) Some games won't let you use or equip the item at all until its true nature has been identified; others will let you do so at your own peril (but will usually disclose the item's true nature after the fact if you do).

Fortunately for you, sometimes you can figure out clues to the item's nature without having to actually use it (based on secondary factors, like the item's size/weight or where it's sorted in your inventory screen). For example, in some games an unknown item's description (icon, FlavorText, etc.) is consistent between all items of that type, so if one unidentified 'blue potion' refills your ManaMeter, there's a good chance that any future 'blue potions' will do the same. Likewise, if a game collates the player's inventory by item type and quantity (e.g. "Blue Potion x2" instead of "Blue Potion" A and "Blue Potion" B) then this implies that they are two of the same item. And if it's an item randomly dropped/found off a defeated monster, there's a good chance that other monsters of that type will drop the same item. But '''none of these are guaranteed!''' -- it depends on if the game decides the item's true properties when it's first ''acquired'' or when it's actually ''used''. And since unidentified items go hand in hand with RandomlyGeneratedLoot and RandomlyGeneratedLevels, these properties may be assigned randomly to begin with, where knowledge from one play session may not help you in the next: e.g. drinking a blue potion from Dungeon A may heal you, but the apparently-exact-same blue potion from Dungeon B might make you breathe fire instead.

Note that this does not necessarily apply to items whose unidentified nature is a plot point -- {{Video Game|Genres}}s generally keep plot-relevant items (identified or otherwise) in a category separate from the regular inventory items.

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In some {{Role Playing Game}}s (and {{Roguelike}}s in specific), a DungeonCrawling party may obtain items whose exact identities and purposes are a mystery at first -- the characters don't automatically know what these items are supposed to be, and (more importantly) the game doesn't tell the player either; it's labelled as an "unknown" or "unidentified" item or given an extremely generic descriptor like "a red potion" or "[[VideoGame/NetHack a scroll labelled 'FOOBIE BLETCH']]" (as opposed to the usual "Healing Potion" or "Elixir of Life").

This can be {{Justified|Trope}} for certain kinds of items, like potion bottles (whose labels may be the only clue as to what's inside), or items that are stored/hidden inside a generic container.

The task of divining the true identity of these items is the purpose of ''another'' item, a special skill, or an {{N|onPlayerCharacter}}PC specializing in identification/appraisal/whatever-you-call-it. Until then, all the item really does is occupy space in the player's InventoryManagementPuzzle, which (depending on the size of said inventory) may require the player to decide whether it's ''really'' worth lugging around twenty extra pounds of useless inventory in the hopes that it turns out to be more than just VendorTrash, or if it's something they can safely toss out and/or come back for later (without it getting LostForever).

Whether or not the player can use an item before getting it identified varies by game -- do you ''really'' want to take the chance that the random glass bottle with purple goop you just picked up turns out to be a HealingPotion and not {{poison|Mushroom}}, or that a shiny-looking sword is actually a useful weapon as opposed to rusty old VendorTrash (or worse, harboring a nasty -- and usually {{clingy|curse}} -- {{Curse}}?) Some systems won't even let you use or equip the item at all until its true nature has been discovered; others will let you do so at your own peril (but will usually disclose the item's true nature after the fact if you do).

Fortunately for you, sometimes you can figure out clues to the item's nature without having to actually use it (based on secondary factors, like the item's size/weight or where it's sorted in your inventory screen). For example, in some games, whatever description (icon, FlavorText, etc.) a game assigns to a certain type of unidentified item remains consistent for all items of the same type, so if one unidentified 'blue potion' refills your ManaMeter, there's a good chance that any future 'blue potions' will do the same. Likewise, if a game collates the player's inventory by item type and quantity, then any "Blue Potion x2" (as opposed to "Blue Potion" A and "Blue Potion" B) is most likely to be two of the same item. But ''this is not guaranteed'' -- it depends on whether the game decides the item's true properties when it's ''acquired'' or when it's actually ''used''; and since unidentified items go hand in hand with RandomlyGeneratedLoot and RandomlyGeneratedLevels, these properties may be assigned randomly to begin with, so knowledge from one play session may have only limited use in the next: e.g. drinking a blue potion from Dungeon A may heal you, but the 'exact' same blue potion from Dungeon B might make you breathe fire instead.

Note that this does not necessarily apply to items whose unidentified nature is a plot point -- {{Video Game|Genres}}s generally keep plot-relevant items (identified or otherwise) in a category separate from regular inventory items.