You can identify items with relative ease using a scroll of identify, especially when it is blessed. However, such scrolls are not always at the player's disposal at times of need. This is where a material-based identification method can come in useful. Many worn items in ADoM are restricted to certain types of material, such as wood, iron, or gold. While the unidentified names for these items can often vary, their material type remains static between games. Interestingly, the unidentified names themselves are also tied to the material type, and thus it is possible to narrow the possibilities for many unidentified objects purely by comparing lists of unidentified and identified item materials.