Chaos orbs

The chaos orbs are five artifacts that, along with their other properties, play a vital role in any victory the player wishes to achieve.
They are

• the Chaos Orb of Elemental Water
• the Chaos Orb of Elemental Fire
• the Chaos Orb of Elemental Air
• the Chaos Orb of Elemental Earth
• the Chaos Orb of Elemental Mana

Each orb is found in the possession of a powerful unique monster, in a special location which contains a chaotic altar guarded by chaos servants and monsters (typically) of the element corresponding to the orb.

Common properties of chaos orbs

• Each orb has a corresponding anomaly deep in the caverns of chaos, which the PC must throw the orb into (by 'u'sing the orb when standing on the anomaly) to restore the chaos orb to Balance. Doing so with all orbs opens the way to the final levels of the caverns.
  • Side effects occur when sacrificing two of the orbs — the fire orb generates heat that slightly injures all creatures on the level, and the mana orb drains PP and some Mana points from the PC once sacrificed.
• Each orb can be equipped in the tool slot of the PC's equipment to boost a particular stat by +10; Water increases Willpower, Fire increases Strength, Air increases Dexterity, Earth increases Toughness, and of course Mana increases Mana.
• Orbs are classified as tools, and each orb can be 'u'sed to generate a particular effect; however, corruption comes as a side effect of handling the chaos orbs in this way. Note that the amount of corruption caused is halved if the PC is wearing elemental gauntlets.

Orb	Effect when used	Corruption points added (no elemental gauntlets)
Water	Full HP restoration	600
Fire	Replicates the Fireball spell	300
Air	Summons a tame air elemental	500
Earth	Replicates the Earthquake spell	300
Mana	Restores PP and grants a permanent increase of +3 to Mana	5000

• Chaos orbs cannot be removed from the game by any means — deities will refuse to take them, and orbs left behind in wilderness areas or Infinite Dungeon levels will be returned to the PC's inventory when (s)he leaves the level. Additionally, they cannot be sold to shops. As of version 1.2.0 more obscure ways to make the game unwinnable by (mostly deliberately) losing the chaos orbs were fixed.