(The following document is valid with version 0.430 of IVAN.)

This guide deals with the following issue

What item to wish for?
----------------------

IVAN has a lot of items, but the following are extremely useful and so
are a good idea to wish for.

* scroll of change material: This is great way of improving your gear.
  Phoenix feather and meteoric steel are the best wishable materials,
  the former being more flexible (it causes less dexterity/agility
  penalties) and the latter being harder.

* scroll of taming: There is nothing like a good pet, but do not try to
  use this on a quest monster.

* wand of cloning: These by themselves are not useful, but if you do have
  some other useful item to clone, this is worth its weight in gold. With
  one charge you can clone a pile of five items. Note that certain items
  like wands of cloning, scrolls of wishing or scrolls of charging cannot
  be cloned because this could be abused. It is therefore sometimes wise
  to drop more than five items in pile in case the game doesn't allow some
  to be cloned. If you have a powerful pet like Ivan or a mammoth, you may
  lure it above the items so it will be cloned, too. You can also stand
  on the item pile and zap yourself, in which case you will be copied
  along with the stack. Note that when cloning a pet or yourself, the
  clone will be born without any equipment and only four items under
  it will be copied.

* wand of resurrection: If you have managed to get a unique monster as
  a pet, this may be extremely useful. It may also be used to quickly
  replace lost limbs.

* cloak or ring of invisibility: Invisibility is a great tactical
  advantage, but it also causes much more dangerous monsters to be
  generated.

* ring of polymorph control: Very useful if happen to have a way of
  polymorphing. Note that being very powerful may cause tough monsters
  like dark mages to spawn, which is not nice if you encounter them
  after you have returned to your original form.

* amulet of life saving: Basically gives you a second life. That's
  a *lot*.

* magical whistle: Handling more than two pets is almost impossible
  without this.

* Mjolak, Turox, Saal'thul, thunder hammer: Way more powerful than
  normal weapons. Saal'thul also grants invisibility. It is sometimes
  wiser to wish for a broken thunder hammer instead of an intact one,
  since the game often generates better materials for broken items
  to conpensate the need of repairing.

* holy banana of Oily Orpiv: Has terrible explosive power which can
  aid you in boss battles. Also trains all attributes when eaten.
  Be sure to store this in a hard container like strong-box,
  because if it explodes in your inventory, you're in BIG trouble.

* armor of great health: If you have scrolls of enchant armor,
  this gives a huge boost to your HPs. Again, a broken one may
  have a better material, but usually you want to use a scroll
  of change material for this one, anyway.
