Nethack defines several elven items. They are listed below. The weapon damage figures are copied from weap-343.txt, the armor class figures are from armr-343.txt.

Weapons

• Elven arrow (runed arrow) - d7/d6
• Elven spear (runed spear) - d7/d8
• Elven dagger (runed dagger) - d5/d3
• Elven short sword (runed short sword) - d8/d8
• Elven broadsword (runed broadsword) - d6+d4/d6+1
• Elven bow (runed bow) - d2/d2

Armor

• Elven leather helm (leather hat) - AC 1
• Elven mithril-coat - AC 5
• Elven cloak (faded pall) - AC 1
• Elven shield (blue and green shield) - AC 2
• Elven boots (randomized appearance) - AC 1

Comestibles

• lembas wafer

You can use the above list to identify if any item is elven, except for the elven boots. All runed weapons are elven except for Stormbringer and its base weapon, the runesword. Basic runeswords are never randomly generated.

Elven items have a reputation for high quality. (Those crude orcish items have the opposite reputation.) For example, the elven dagger does more damage than a normal dagger. Elves also make the blades themselves, rather than merely the hilt, from wood (others are iron), so elven daggers and swords will never become rusty or corroded, but they might be burnt or rotted. These properties suggest they may be either made of or at least inspired by D&D's ironwood.

As an exception, the dwarvish mithril-coat gives one more point of AC protection than the elven mithril-coat; however, the elven coat can be enchanted two points higher than the dwarvish equivalent without the risk of item destruction, for one net point of superior protection.

Elven armor can be safely enchanted if its current enchantment is +5 or less, compared to +3 or less for most other armor.