Is Mercantile worth it?

[Elegant Caveman]

I pumped mercantile early to get the extra quest rewards from Quinton and Mordre, though now I'm wondering if that was wise.

I'm almost done with GMS, level 6, with mercantile of 32 (I forget the adjusted value... around 40 maybe?). Now I'm wondering if I should restart and get rid of mercantile, or keep going.

On one hand, from what I've read, GMS is not very far, so better to restart now than later. On the other hand, it -feels- very far... I'm someone who rarely finishes games, let alone replays them, so restarting now is something I really don't want to do (honestly, just thinking about it makes me consider stopping to play the game; that's how much I hate replaying stuff).

I originally picked mercantile because I liked the idea of cheaper items and extra quest rewards, but considering how insignificant those quest rewards were... I'm wondering if I should have just put those points into something more interesting instead.

Then again...

From the wiki[www.underrail.com]:

Dialogue options for mercantile are also fairly common. They let you negotiate cheaper deals when buying certain services, better rewards for your deeds or access to special shops.

That does sound good, in general. Especially that "access to special shops" bit.

Does anybody know how much mercantile you need, exactly, for getting access to these special shops? Are they worth it? What about extra quest rewards? Are later ones better than the early ones?

Thoughts on the mercantile skill in general would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Qiox]

I only ever go to 35 to get the feat that increases how much each merchant will buy from you. Have not noticed any dialog options related to it. Currently level 11.

[Greep]

Short answer: no.

Long answer: heck no.

[Cakes]

YES. I have so much money, and if you're a hoarder like me and pick up every single thing so you can vendor it or craft something out of it to sell, then its very much worth it. There's a salesman perk that allows you to increase your sell profits up to 100%

[A.W.S.H.]

It helps getting better quest rewards in a few cases, but otherwise it is relatively negligible.

[Elegant Caveman]

Originally posted by Greep:

Short answer: no.

Long answer: heck no.

Kind of what I'm worried about... though is it worth restarting...?

I'm a bit tight on money, even with the mercantile skill, but that's because I keep spending it for things I don't necessarily (yet) need (like stocking up on interesting-looking part from vendors when they have them).

Originally posted by Qiox:

I only ever go to 35 to get the feat that increases how much each merchant will buy from you. Have not noticed any dialog options related to it. Currently level 11.

Originally posted by Ms Babycakes:

YES. I have so much money, and if you're a hoarder like me and pick up every single thing so you can vendor it or craft something out of it to sell, then its very much worth it. There's a salesman perk that allows you to increase your sell profits up to 100%

I'm definitely a hoarder. I pick up/save everything, even when that means multiple trips back home to carry everything.

35 is probably around where I am, so I'll have to consider getting that perk. Maybe I won't restart. Increasing sell profits also sounds good.

I'm torn, because on one hand, I'm not convinced I need more money... but on the other hand, who doesn't like money? I did miss out on a very nice weapon from Jack, after I brought him the package, and then he disappeared, because I didn't have enough money at the time. I'd rather something like that doesn't happen again.

Originally posted by TΛPETRVE:

It helps getting better quest rewards in a few cases, but otherwise it is relatively negligible.

Any big rewards later on? The main reason I made this thread is because I was underwhelmed by the extra quest rewards you get early on from Quinton (extra free skill, worth a few hundred credits) and Mordre (need ~30 mercantile for an extra health hypo... seriously, wtf).

...

Still interested in hearing from someone about those "special shops" the wiki mentions...

[frumple]

I kinda upped it to 20-30 to get ripped off less, but it seems it's either >35+perk or nothing with this skill. Not saying it's exactly that straightforward but money is no issue and i seriously have more crap than i know what to do with. I think i'd rather have 35 pts elsewhere and the prices can go to hell.

[Omni]

No, absolute waste. By the time you finish the collect-the-drill-circuit-board quest, if you are dilligent about collecting and selling what you can to the SGS and Junkyard vendors (especially weapons and armor), you'll be swimming in cash.

[Orobis]

Nope. With a bit of backtracking, by the time you get to core city money should be almost irrelevant.

[Omni]

Originally posted by Ms Babycakes:

YES. I have so much money, and if you're a hoarder like me and pick up every single thing so you can vendor it or craft something out of it to sell, then its very much worth it. There's a salesman perk that allows you to increase your sell profits up to 100%

This makes no sense. Why would he need to invest in Mercantile and even get a perk if he's diligent about picking up everything and selling it when possible? If you do that without spending the skill points and perk you'll have plenty of excess cash as it is, and therefore spending those precious skill points and perk point would be an absolute waste. I would know since I haven't spent anything on Mercantile and have tons of cash.

The only time Mercantile might actually be worth it is if you are bad about picking stuff up and selling it, and need to make the most out of the stuff you do bother to pick up and sell.

[Greep]

Well, there actually is a "gold sink" towards the middle of the game in the form of a rare crafting material, of which you simply cannot get enough of if you're heavy armour and plan on using it as reinforcement.

However, whether it's worth spending skills on something petty like credits that you can get anywhere is another matter. I have no knowledge of any hidden shops (... accessed by mercantile anyways), but then again I've never actually raised mercantile.

[Orobis]

There is a hidden shop in the forge if i remember correctly from playing the alpha, and i dont think the skill check is that high, but its been around 6 months since i been that far so not 100% on that.

[Greep]

Oh right, in foundry. Yeah I don't think it has anything special, though.

[Jerome Gör Rätt]

Not really, since selling things is heavily restricted and the game encourage you to scavange, scrap items and craft it's of little use outside of dialogue. Picking up guns and selling them (as long as they are not broken from grenades and such) is good enough to get money and even then you'll find yourself not being able to trade everything.

[Elegant Caveman]

I've decided against restarting. Level 7 now, brought mercantile to 35 (though I doubt I'll bother with the Salesman feat, since there are so many others I want) and I've started raising my persuasion. I doubt I'll put any more into mercantile, and I doubt I'd take the skill if I made a new character, but I really don't feel like restarting (though it would certainly be beneficial; the rest of my build isn't exactly optimal either, I guess).

The persuasion/mercantile synergy is very nice, though. I think I've got something like 32 (40) persuasion and 35 (45) mercantile. I mean, it's not worth taking mercantile just for that, but since I already have it... it makes a not-so-great situation a little better.

In Junkyard, just starting to do the quests for the gangs, I've got roughly 60k in "monetary value" (almost 2k stygian coins and a few hundred SGS dollars). I sell whenever I can, but I tend to hoard components "for later" (so I'm mostly selling weapons and armors).

Hard to say how useful mercantile is/has been for me, exactly...

I think that I've been relatively frugal with my spending up to now, but I think I could easily blow through my money pretty quickly if I wasn't careful. Consumables do add up (in my case, special bolts and grenades), and especially because enemies are quite tough for me where I'm at (skills spread out too much, too much focus on non-combat ones), which means I'm going to have to start using even more of them.

Not exactly sure what my point is with all this... I guess I'm just giving an update on my situation and thoughts on mercantile since I made this thread.

TL;DR - Probably shouldn't have taken it, and doubtful I'd take it again if I made a new character, but I'm not (yet) convinced it's worth restarting for. I keep hearing horror stories about Depot A, though... so maybe that's what's going to make me restart...