Subjunctive KoL: WandEffects

Wands are a relatively-new feature introduced by Jick to alleviate the frustration felt by adventurers when they are trying to collect a set of some items and end up with 6 of one item and none of another. To obtain a wand, go to the Dungeons of Doom and adventure there until you reach Izchak's Lighting Store. Buy the item which appears to be a cloak (if you have the 5,000 meat) and you'll fight a mimic. Defeat the mimic and you'll get a dead mimic, which you can then use to get a wand. There are five wands: aluminum, ebony, hexagonal, marble, and pine, but they all function identically. The differences are only cosmetic.

A wand can be used to "zap" objects into similar objects. For instance, pixels can be changed into different-colored pixels, foods can be changed into similarly-made foods, parts of an outfit can be changed into each other (especially useful with the wolf mask and furry pants), Daily Dungeon items can be changed into other Daily Dungeon items (useful when you can't get the key that you want), and so forth. Not all items can be zapped. The VKoL wiki has a very complete list of exactly what can be zapped into what here.

Don't go crazy using your wand. It will explode after 2-5 uses in a single day, doing about 20 HP of damage to you. However, the counter resets every day, so you can always use a wand once a day safely.

If your wand explodes, you're out of luck -- you can't get another one until you Ascend again.

Zapping is the only way to obtain the six special Dungeon of Doom rings (ring of adornment, ring of cold resistance, ring of conflict, ring of fire resistance, ring of gain strength, and ring of increase damage). These can only be gotten by zapping a ring of aggravate monster. Zapping is also the only way to get a sleeping snowy owl, which can only be obtained by zapping a yo-yo, and conversely, a stuffed yo-yo, which you get by zapping a stuffed snowy owl. Finally, you can zap a Lucky Tam O'Shanter into a Lucky Tam O'Shatner, which has the same effect but with...more...ellipses.