Exotic Merchant Shop Gets Smaller?

[Just Some Random Kid]

So I just recently got access to the Exotic Merchant via getting Journeyman with the Merchants Guild and I decided that instead of having to go all the way to the Merchants Guild to check the shop I'd befriend her and bring her to my town. But after doing so her shop seemed to halve in size and doesn't have nearly the same consistency of good gear as before.

For full context the Exotic Merchant seemed to stock around 2.5x as many items as a normal blacksmith or blackmarket trader does with almost always at least 1 yellow in her shop. After asking her to move it this was decreased down to a regular blacksmith/blackmarket trader and the quality of equipment seems much lower. I've tried a few things like investing to see if it could be fixed with that but it didn't. Honestly if I knew this was gonna happen I wouldn't have bothered getting her to 75 rep. No clue if a new one will respawn in the Merchants Guild again but I'm hoping it will even if I have to invest from level 1 again.

Anyways, does anyone know if this is a known bug, if it's intended, or if there is a fix/if a new merchant will spawn so I can have to good shop back?

[Iyasenu]

It's because of the "town level" of your settlement compared to the Merchant's Guild.

Shop inventory is not just based on the merchant's Investment level, but the town level of wherever they are.
You'll need to recruit a Secretary-type NPC to your town to be able to invest into your settlement's town level.
(It's separate from asking whoever you made your maid to expand your land size with Gold Bars)

[Just Some Random Kid]

Originally posted by Iyasenu:

It's because of the "town level" of your settlement compared to the Merchant's Guild.

Shop inventory is not just based on the merchant's Investment level, but the town level of wherever they are.
You'll need to recruit a Secretary-type NPC to your town to be able to invest into your settlement's town level.
(It's separate from asking whoever you made your maid to expand your land size with Gold Bars)

Does this also affect shop quality? Given what you've already said I'd assume as much.

I would assume going and befriending a secretary and bringing them over to be the best way to acquire one. Dunno if they can even show up as a recruit or from a slave merchant. What constitutes as a Secretary-type NPC?

Edit: I would be worried about taking a secretary from a place and not being able to purchase Furniture tickets anymore.

Lastly just wanted to say I've seen you around in a bunch of other discussions as well helping people out and I just wanted to say thanks for doing gods work. It's really hard to get info on this game especially being an English speaker and not wanting to wiki-warrior it (not that the wiki has all that much information in it lol).

[Iyasenu]

Originally posted by Just Some Random Kid:

Originally posted by Iyasenu:

It's because of the "town level" of your settlement compared to the Merchant's Guild.

Shop inventory is not just based on the merchant's Investment level, but the town level of wherever they are.
You'll need to recruit a Secretary-type NPC to your town to be able to invest into your settlement's town level.
(It's separate from asking whoever you made your maid to expand your land size with Gold Bars)

Does this also affect shop quality? Given what you've already said I'd assume as much.

I would assume going and befriending a secretary and bringing them over to be the best way to acquire one. Dunno if they can even show up as a recruit or from a slave merchant. What constitutes as a Secretary-type NPC?

Edit: I would be worried about taking a secretary from a place and not being able to purchase Furniture tickets anymore.

Lastly just wanted to say I've seen you around in a bunch of other discussions as well helping people out and I just wanted to say thanks for doing gods work. It's really hard to get info on this game especially being an English speaker and not wanting to wiki-warrior it (not that the wiki has all that much information in it lol).

Haha, don't mention it.

Now, shop quality is determined by a combination of that individual shop's investment level and the settlement's investment level.
If you have multiple merchants, investing in a town is essentially boosting all of their shops' levels.

But, for secretary NPCs, I've seen them appear on the Quest Board's recruit tab.
I think they literally say "(Name) the secretary".

Also, not that I've recruited one to make sure, but "(Name) the elder" should also offer the town investment option.

Non-unique secretaries/elders should respawn if you poach one from an NPC city.
That's how it works for other NPCs, like Farmers and whatnot.
They'll eventually generate a new one to take their place.
I think the main way to differentiate uniques from generics, if you can't tell from their Portrait, is if you can recruit them without needing to duel them in combat.

[Just Some Random Kid]

Originally posted by Iyasenu:

Originally posted by Just Some Random Kid:

Does this also affect shop quality? Given what you've already said I'd assume as much.

I would assume going and befriending a secretary and bringing them over to be the best way to acquire one. Dunno if they can even show up as a recruit or from a slave merchant. What constitutes as a Secretary-type NPC?

Edit: I would be worried about taking a secretary from a place and not being able to purchase Furniture tickets anymore.

Lastly just wanted to say I've seen you around in a bunch of other discussions as well helping people out and I just wanted to say thanks for doing gods work. It's really hard to get info on this game especially being an English speaker and not wanting to wiki-warrior it (not that the wiki has all that much information in it lol).

Haha, don't mention it.

Now, shop quality is determined by a combination of that individual shop's investment level and the settlement's investment level.
If you have multiple merchants, investing in a town is essentially boosting all of their shops' levels.

But, for secretary NPCs, I've seen them appear on the Quest Board's recruit tab.
I think they literally say "(Name) the secretary".

Also, not that I've recruited one to make sure, but "(Name) the elder" should also offer the town investment option.

Non-unique secretaries/elders should respawn if you poach one from an NPC city.
That's how it works for other NPCs, like Farmers and whatnot.
They'll eventually generate a new one to take their place.
I think the main way to differentiate uniques from generics, if you can't tell from their Portrait, is if you can recruit them without needing to duel them in combat.

Ah that makes sense yea. I appreciate the responses. I'll be on the lookout for one and see if I can recover her shop quality lol. Luckily I just spent winter doing it.