You can learn what an item does by identifying it in the store.  Items can modify any one or more of the following: attack, defense, stats, hits, age, spell points, resistances, swings, and damage done to monsters.  Some items can cast a spell and will show how many ‘charges’ or times you can cast that spell listed next to them.  Certain items weigh you down, causing you to sink in quicksand and increasing the damage you take when you fall into a pit. 

In general, if you wish to use an item, you must Equip it - however, some items (e.g. Tomes, Rods, Potions, etc.) do not need to be equipped to be Used.  A weapon must be equipped before you can fight with it.  To cast a spell from an item, you Use the item.  You can Give and Leave (Drop) items also.  An item may require certain minimum stats and may be restricted to certain guilds. 

To Equip, Use, Drop, or get the Info on an item, right-click on the item to bring up the item pop-up menu.  To sell, identify, uncurse, or combine an item in the store, click the item from your character’s inventory and then  the appropriate button in the store.   

Aligned Items 
Quite often, you will find items that are ‘aligned’.  This means that only a character of the given alignment can use the item to its fullest potential.  If a Neutral character Equips an item that is aligned Good, the character will only benefit from half of the item’s abilities.  If a Good character Equips an item that is aligned Evil (and vice versa), the item will attach itself to the character and become cursed - having adverse effects on the character in the process.  Items that are Unaligned (no alignment) can be used by all characters without any problems (unless they are specifically cursed, of course).  Using (versus Equipping) an item of a different alignment will usually have no effect, still taking away one ‘charge’. 

Class Restriction 
Some items will be “Class Restricted”.  This means that in order to equip or use the item, a character’s current guild must be allowed to use the item (i.e. the guild must be listed in the item information), and the character must be high enough level in that guild.  An item that is “Not Class Restricted” can be used by the character even if their current guild cannot use that item, as long as the character is a member of (and high enough level in) another guild that can use the item.  A good example is a level 30 Artisan and level 1 Magi, currently acting as a Magi.  If the character attempts to equip an Iron Dagger (which is Not Class Restricted), they will be allowed to because the level 30 Artisan part of the character can use the item.  However, if the character attempts to equip an item such as Padded Leather Armor, they will not be able to use it (even though their Artisan level is high enough to use it) because it’s a Class Restricted item, and their Magi level is only 1 (which is too low to use the item). 

Item Classes 
Every item is of a certain “class”, for example a Bronze Sword is of the “Sword” sub-class, which is a member of the “Weapon” class.  An Iron Dagger is of the “Dagger” sub-class, which is also a member of the "Weapon” class.  So,  Swords, Daggers, Maces, etc. are all members of the Weapons class.  Same with armor sub-classes (e.g. Leather Armor, Chain Armor, etc.), these are all members of the “Armor” class.  Now, a character can only Equip one item of a given class at once - this means that a character cannot use two types of “Armor” or two items in the "Shield” class at once.  Same goes for Rings, Stones, etc.; the only exception is the “Miscellaneous” class.  When viewing the item information, depending on the ID level, your character will be told what class or sub-class the item is a member of.  Items such as Potions, Tomes, Dust, etc. cannot be equipped at all, just used. 

Metals 
Most of the metal items in the General Store are made from Bronze.  This metal is readily available, making Bronze items inexpensive.  Any type of item made of a stronger metal is usually found in the dungeon.  Below is a list and brief description of known metals: 
 

A character can also find many other items that really don’t specify the substance they are made from.  One of them is the Lethe Dagger, a swift wicked blade constructed by magical iron used by Thieves and Magi.  Another is the Brown Cloak, which is widely found on Level 3 by starting adventurers.  The best thing to do with any item that a character hasn’t seen before is take it to the store and completely identify it so that one knows what advantages the item can offer. 

Weapons 
There are many weapons to be found, both in the store and in the depths below.  Some of these weapons will offer more than one swing in combat, allowing the wielding character to attack a foe several times in each combat round, or even strike down more than one foe at a time.  Extra swings from guild abilities are added to the swings given by the weapon.  The damage modifier of a weapon shows how powerful each hit can be (higher is better).  For instance, an Iron Dagger (1.2) is more powerful than a Bronze Dagger (1). 

Item Information 
When you have a fully identified item, there will usually be some Additional Information that goes along with it (i.e. a description of the item).  If this is the case, when you get Info on an item, a small ‘turn page’ graphic will appear at the bottom right of the information window.  If you click this graphic, you will be able to read the item information.  Since many items may have interesting information, or even important information, it’s always a good idea to completely identify all new items and learn as much as you can about them! 

Special Abilities 
Often, an item will cast a spell if you Use it. The spell is either cast at a fixed spell level, given by the item information, or it is cast at the “caster’s Spell Level”, which means the highest spell level of the character in any guild (which has access to the spell). 

Some items can bestow special abilities on the character (such as Invisible), while many weapons will cause special damage (Electrocute, Poison) or increase the wielder’s ability to Backstab or inflict Critical Hits.  When an item is identified as having special modifiers, there is quite often a number following the modifier.  For example: 
     Electrocute(1) 
     Critical Hit(2) 
The numbers following these modifiers represent how ‘powerful’ the item’s modifier(s) are.  A (1) behind Electrocute means normal electrocution, whereas a (2) would be twice as deadly .  A Critical Hit modifier of (2) would mean that the item is much more likely to score a Critical Hit than a (1) item. 

Items & Stats 
Many items require a minimum of one or more stats in order to be used or equipped (for instance, 10 strength is required to equip an Iron Sword).  Some items will also modify your character’s stats when they are equipped (Bronze Plate Mail will lower the wearer’s Dexterity by 2).  Since the Required Stats for an item are based on your overall stats (natural and modified), some items may not be usable even though it may appear you have the stats to wield them.  An example is a character with 11 Dexterity equipping Bronze Plate Mail.  Since Bronze Plate Mail lowers Dexterity by 2 when equipped, the character’s Dexterity will then fall to 9, which will be too much for the character to bear.  This means that when an item is equipped, the character’s stats must NOT fall below those required by the item WHILE IT IS EQUIPPED or the item will become unequipped. 

The advantage to this is that if you have a character who doesn’t have a high enough natural stat to use a certain item, but can raise the stat high enough by equipping other items, you can then equip the item! 

Giving Items to other Characters 
You can give an item to another character in your party by dragging the item and dropping it on the character’s picture in the Party Window (single-player mode only)! In Multiplayer mode, you can give items or gold to any character in the area by pressing the ‘i’ key (for Initiate trade).