What are the different item quality characters?
What do the item quality character designations mean? What quality is *<*sword*>*, etc?
Solution 1:
A full list and description is available at the df wiki.
In order from worst to best, with their additions to item quality:
- Nothing = 1x
- - = 2x
- + = 3x
- * = 4x
- ≡ = 5x
- ☼ = 12x
- Artifact items, (ones with a unique name) = 10x in the latest version, 120x in 0.28
The page for the previous version is far more detailed, but some information may be out of date.