Affinity Gifts

[Nezeroth]

I learned that Mathias, the vendor at the Greatwall Encampment, sells the Divine Surcoat at max affinity.

I’ve given him 100 Harspud Sauces without the Allure augment, 200 with it, and done his escort quest and still don’t seem to be maxed affinity.

I’m wondering if anyone knows the amount of gifts you would have to give to max out affinity with someone. I can’t seem to find the answer on Gamefaqs or Wikia.

[Karathrax]

Are you sure it's just affinity? The Divine Surcoat is also affected by where you are in the main quest. This item is available in the post game (Stage 7).

That said, Mathias is kind of a hard nut to crack. I recall giving him a huge number of items to try and get his affinity up for that same stock update, and it took a LOT of stuff.

[Nezeroth]

I’m NG+ so I’m sure it still counts. That wouldn’t be the issue, anyway. I was at 6-6 M-F on people with max affinity before I found out about the Divine Surcoat. If he was max affinity, it would be 7-6.

And I used up my Arisen’s Bond that I forged for backup from last game. I want to do an actual full clear in this one so I can’t go and get another one just yet.

[Nightwalker]

Mathius is greedy.

[Karathrax]

Originally posted by Nezeroth:

I’m NG+ so I’m sure it still counts....

I don't believe it does. I've had the experience where I forgot to be polite to Fournival after his trial in order to get him to update his full stock of goodies during the postgame, and I had to wait until the next playthrough's postgame in order to be able to buy some of his goods.

[Mr. Moyer]

It depends on a few things.
1. Affinity. More affinity leads to more inventory to choose from. So be nice, talk to him a lot, give them gifts, do his escort quest from the inn's notice board, etc. If he has that pink glow around his face when you talk to him, then you've got affinity to as high as it will go.
2. Main quest progression. You need to advance the story to a certain point in order to unlock the next phase of a merchant's inventory.
3. Two of the merchants (Madeleine and the other one in Gran Soren) require the silver idol or golden idol to unlock their best stuff, as part of a side quest. You can only get ONE gold idol, so it takes two paly-throughs to get them both unlocked.
4. For Madeleine, it depends on how/if you did her side quests. Under some circumstances she opens a shop in the final chapter in the destroyed Gran Soren, in other circumstances she does not.
5. For NG+, merchants start at whatever inventory level and affinity level they were at the last time you completed the game. But I think you have to progress through the story again to unlock their stuff in stages again. So the best stuff is only available right before the mission to enter the Greatwall, and after the Everfall hole opens in the middle of Gran Soren.

[Nezeroth]

I understand how affinity works. I was asking how many of the favored gifts are required to max an NPC affinity. I did state that I finished Mathias’ escort quest, and have given him 100 gifts without Allure, and 400 now with Allure.

I appreciate the input, though. From what I’ve gathered, it seems that the number varies from NPC to NPC or is just higher solely for Mathias.

Still, 500 gifts, even without Allure, is a ridiculous amount to have given without reaching max affinity.

[Phoenix VII]

In my last game I couldn't max my affinity with some of the NPCs (the ones that had only 1 favored gift) without giving a variety of different gifts. Giving them just the gift they favored wasn't enough for me, but as soon as I gave them a few other gifts their affinity maxed.