Attitude and Merchants

[Sines]

So, is it worth it to boost the attitude of merchants you'll deal with regularly through gifts? I'm just about to leave the Lady Vengeance for the first time, and the ships merchant made me realize I'd probably be dealing with him for a while, and with a newly obtained level 9, while wearing mostly level 6 gear, I should probably start making some purchases.

Just want to know if, and how, I should butter him up first.

[Ptolemy]

Originally posted by Sines:

Thievery seems a bit too much work for the return. Might be good on a challenge run, but I think I'm happy just with the occassional bit of carousing for the time being.

Anyway, I'm not rolling in the cash at the moment, especially taking into account a need for some more spellbooks, so I'd just be doing this to one trader. Is the ships artificer (haven't memorized his name yet) or someone in Driftwood the best target for this bribery? I guess I'd be looking for a general merchant selling as much equipment as possible, or perhaps if there's somebody with a wide variety of skillbooks in town.

Nobody in the game has a more than 2 or 3 types of skillbooks unfortunately.

Whatshisface on the ship is a good investment for equipment since he’ll stick around longer, but the guy in the undertavern is probably the best equipment merchant in act 2.

I bribed all of the merchants in the square as well. Act 2 is the longest one.

[wds_ncs]

Originally posted by Sines:

Thievery seems a bit too much work for the return. Might be good on a challenge run, but I think I'm happy just with the occassional bit of carousing for the time being.

Anyway, I'm not rolling in the cash at the moment, especially taking into account a need for some more spellbooks, so I'd just be doing this to one trader. Is the ships artificer (haven't memorized his name yet) or someone in Driftwood the best target for this bribery? I guess I'd be looking for a general merchant selling as much equipment as possible, or perhaps if there's somebody with a wide variety of skillbooks in town.

Skillbook merchants in Driftwood are split up (nonone carries all the books from every school). IMO, you spend enough time in RC to make it worth buttering up a few traders in Driftwood.

[Stabbey]

I generally bribe merchants who have stuff I want to buy from as well as those I want to sell to. The cost of bribing is pretty low compared to how much you can save, so bribe merchants up to 100 whenever you feel like it.

Originally posted by Hobocop:

Can be if you don't feel like cheesing everything nonstop with Theivery.

If I'm going to have a party face anyway, might as well take advantage of that.

Sitting comfortably at over 100k gold by Act 4 and a 4-man party without minmaxing Theivery just by picking up everything with a decent weight/gold ratio that's up for grabs and selling what I don't need throughout the game. When junk common quality weapons are selling for well over 2k gold apiece by that point, it's just excessive to exploit Thievery to that extent.

I'm at over 200k gold at the start of Act 4 thanks to a combination of boosting attitude through gifts, as well as stealing from NPC's who I fully intend to kill anyway (and pretty much ONLY NPC's I intend to kill).

[Hobocop]

There's the human weapon merchant in Driftwood Square, and the dwarf who runs the Arena in the Undertavern.

The human merchant also sells Warfare and Huntsman books and has a couple of vendors near him who sell skillbooks for most of the other schools. The fish vendor there is a good one to sell all of your garbage to since he never sells anything useful.

The dwarf in the Undertavern has a huge selection of weapons and armor for anybody, well worth bribing and checking regularly.

[Sines]

Guess I'll start with the Dwarf then. Or if sold (or gifted) items never leave a shopkeeps inventory, then I guess I'll bribe the Fishmonger to dump items off to, to avoid clutter. Although, I'd have to question if he has enough money... the Dwarf Smith will always have new gear in exchange for me, but the Fishmonger will run out of cash fast....

And is there any difference between giving a merchant gold, and giving them the items worth in gold? I guess it's best to give them gold first, so that you can then sell the items at a higher rate to that merchant later?

[Ptolemy]

Originally posted by Sines:

Guess I'll start with the Dwarf then. Or if sold (or gifted) items never leave a shopkeeps inventory, then I guess I'll bribe the Fishmonger to dump items off to, to avoid clutter. Although, I'd have to question if he has enough money... the Dwarf Smith will always have new gear in exchange for me, but the Fishmonger will run out of cash fast....

And is there any difference between giving a merchant gold, and giving them the items worth in gold? I guess it's best to give them gold first, so that you can then sell the items at a higher rate to that merchant later?

I don’t think there’s a difference. I think you’re right to bribe them with gold.

[Raines]

Its worth it but at the same time I feel gimped because of how the acts work, not able to return to the areas.

[Sines]

Originally posted by Jared Wolfe:

Its worth it but at the same time I feel gimped because of how the acts work, not able to return to the areas.

I know. I promised that rat I'd share stories of my adventures with her. I WAS ACTUALLY GOING TO DO IT! But the game has stopped me.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Sines:

Guess I'll start with the Dwarf then. Or if sold (or gifted) items never leave a shopkeeps inventory, then I guess I'll bribe the Fishmonger to dump items off to, to avoid clutter. Although, I'd have to question if he has enough money... the Dwarf Smith will always have new gear in exchange for me, but the Fishmonger will run out of cash fast....

And is there any difference between giving a merchant gold, and giving them the items worth in gold? I guess it's best to give them gold first, so that you can then sell the items at a higher rate to that merchant later?

Gifting items or gold doesn't really matter, it's the value of gold that matters, so either way works. I'd avoid doing it for merchants you only intend to buy a few things from, like a skillbook merchant as you need to give them a few thousand usually and unless you intend to buy their entire stock, you won't really save that much.

Overall though, it is definitely worth it. Attitude doesn't affect cost nearly as much as barter skill, but if you combine the two, it works wonders. Get a few pieces of barter gear and you'll be buying and selling for over 50% discount/markup. Makes that divine armor base price of 40,000 not hit so hard.