"Nobody Told Me!" - Pawns & Vendors

You've watched the YouTube videos, you've read the guides & the Wiki and you've searched the Forums. But - did you know about these DDDA hints?

Pawns & Vendors

Your Pawn's Inclinations can (and do) change as you play or they get hired out by others, and usually not in a good way. Regularly check their current Inclinations and use the Knowledge Chair to fix any bad setups. Also, you'll eventually be able to buy Inclination Elixirs from Johnathan at The Encampment, but he only takes Rift Crystals as payment. Now, if you go this route, you'll want to make sure your changes stay set for a decent amount of time, so use the 3-5-7 rule. This means buy 3 Elixirs for the hidden/tertiary Inclination, 5 Elixirs for the Secondary Inclination, and 7 Elixirs for the Primary - and drink/use them in that order. Personally - I go 3-5-9-13 and make the first batch of 3 Elixirs set the hidden fourth Inclination that I would want in addition to the main 3.

Don't give "Spring Water" to your Pawns, either your own or hired ones. After repeated use, it will change their Primary or Secondary Inclination to Nexus - which means instead of fighting or helping you, they'll stop mid-battle and run to go pick up a dead Pawn to carry back to you. A completely useless activity that benefits nobody. I know there is argument about this in various forums, but I've experienced it first hand many, many times. It's just a fact. Most Pawns will pick up the foraging habit from watching their Arisen, so they'll grab Greenwarish or Mushrooms on their own. If you're that worried about their health, play with a Mage in your Party or just heal them yourself when they're low on health by giving them a curative.

If your Pawn isn't getting hired out much, it's probably because of bad Inclinations. Although YOU may personally enjoy having your Pawn be a Guardian, Nexus, Pioneer, Acquisitor - NOBODY hiring Pawns is looking for those. If you want your Pawn to earn you RC, they need to be a Scather, Mitigator, or Challenger unless they're a Mage, in which case you can go Medicant or Utilitarian. Avoid bad Inclinations and again, check regularly to make sure they haven't changed. Another big reason Pawns don't get hired is - bad gear. Sure, your Pawn may LOOK cool, but if they have 0% protections against petrification or poison or curse (for example)? They're less than useless in BBI. Personally, I'd rather hire a Pawn who is wearing Rings that prevent blindness/poison/curse/strength lowering/skill lowering etc. than a Pawn who is wearing Rings that boost weapon abilities. Nobody wants to hear "Help Me" or "I was clumsy!" from a hired Pawn 5 seconds into BBI.

As you level up, you know you can hire Pawns of the same level or lower for free, but sometimes the Rift will have a really high level Pawn or two available for hire for a ridiculously large amount of RC. And maybe there have been times when you were tempted to hire that Pawn in order to help you beat a difficult Boss. But, did you know - if you do that, the Arisen (or creator/owner) of that Pawn does NOT receive those Rift Crystals? The fee you pay to hire any Uber-Level Pawn in the Rift just gets sucked into the void. You're literally paying hard earned RC to nobody. The better idea is to look up the owner of that Pawn and send them a friend request on Steam. Steam friends can hire each other's Pawns for free, regardless of level.

Obviously you know all about Vendors and how to buy and sell stuff you're personally carrying. BUT I'm ashamed to admit I learned this by accident - When you are in the transaction screen with the Vendor, either buying OR selling, you can tab over from your inventory to your Pawn's inventory or your rented Pawn's inventory or even your storage! This means that you don't have to worry about only buying what you can carry or having to transfer items you want to sell over to your character first. Personally? I'd rather get to the questing than spend time hearing about "masterworks all, you can't go wrong" or "why not stay awhile". So, when you get back to the Inn, dump all of your unwanted booty into storage. Then, the next time you're at a Vendor, just tab over to the "Storage" and sell all that junk straight from there.Then, take all that gold and buy tons of curatives or periapts directly to storage. No more running back and forth to town to resupply. Game changer!

[fnlou88]

My Pleasure Ser Arisen! Thank you!

[spiegelH.U.N.D.]

Thank you, arisen.

[fnlou88]

Thank you for the kind words Arisen!

[Death's Assassin]

sometimes games are frustrating. Thank you for the Guide. R&F, Treasure.

[fnlou88]

Solitudinarian, to the best of my memory, whatever you have in storage at the time of the hard mode restart will still be there in the new hard mode game, but if you've sold stuff, that would remain sold.

[Solitudinarian]

If I sell dlc items from storage then restart on hard mode, do I still have them in my storage to resell? And does my gold carry over?

[fnlou88]

Thank you for your nice words. I agree with your thoughts on Guardian. As for Scather? While I do realize that the inclination is infamous for causing the "climbing" behavior, it is also the inclination that motivates the Pawn to attack the largest foes first, so I personally use this on my Warrior so he'll tank the big guys ;)

[Mr. Ed]

Kudos to you for taking the time to share this information. Well worth the time to read and digest as you've managed to condense a ton of info into as few lines as possible. All I would add is that saddling your pawn with Scather and Guardian for it's primary and secondary inclinations is a very good way to avoid having other players rent it.

[fnlou88]

Thank you for the kind words. Honestly, I only gave just a few tidbits that I learned after playing an embarrassing amount of time through numerous playthroughs. One thing I only discovered after a long time was how many items can be combined into really cool & useful things. Pick up EVERYTHING that isn't tied down and see what you can "combine" with it. You'll be pleasantly surprised ;)

[Loaf of Beans]

I've only just heard of this game, and only just recently finished my first playthrough (now starting my second).

I CANNOT believe how much stuff is hidden in this game, that the game just doesn't tell you.

Thank you for the guide!