Polypiling

Spoiler Warning: This page contains spoilers which may affect your IVAN experience negatively

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Polypiling is a technique involving clever manipulation of the wand of polymorph's mechanics to gain free items of varied value. Although it is definitely an abuse of the game's mechanics, it is not popularly considered an exploit, perhaps due to the random nature of the rewards.

Polypiling is a useful technique to fall back on if in desperate need of food, or as a chance to get lucky and gain some rare equipment early on.

Technique

First, you will need a wand of polymorph. They aren't so common, but you're pretty much ready to go the moment one falls into your grasp.
Second, there are some rules as to how a wand of polymorph works:

• It can only zap a distance of five tiles
• It can only polymorph up to five items in a stack on a single tile
• When (a)pplied, the wand will polymorph items in a 1 tile radius including the tile you are standing on

Finally, the technique:

• Collect stacks of junk items (e.g. stones, sticks, cans, unwanted equipment)
• Place the items in stacks of 5 in a straight line 5 tiles long (like in the image above)
• Zap your wand of polymorph in the direction of the stacks
• All items will be polymorphed into random items
• Repeat as necessary, replacing junk items if needed