
   [angband3.gif] Shopping Guide
       [nav-home-p.gif] [nav-index-p.gif] [nav-prev.gif] [nav-next.gif] 
         _____________________________________________________________
       
       First time in the stores
       Things you should buy
       Trips more than 150 feet
       Trips more than 300 feet 
       Trips more than 1000 feet 
       Other shopping tips 
         _____________________________________________________________
       
  First time in the stores
       Note: In order to buy multiple items in the stores in version
       2.8.2, you need to precede your command with a 0 (zero), i.e.
       025pc - purchase 25 of item c. Don't ask me why this was changed.
       Oil & lantern. Not essential, but refilling your lantern is much
       less annoying than re-wielding torches. Also, oil makes a good,
       cheap missile weapon. The torches you start with can usually last
       long enough until you find a lantern in the dungeon. However, if
       you are the type of player that likes to go down levels fast, you
       won't necessarily find one. Buy one if you need to.
       Shovel/Pick. A necessity of life. Without a shovel, you will have
       to work -much- harder than necessary for cash, because a large
       porportion of the money is embedded in walls, and requires a
       'digging implement' to get (the only exception is a very strong
       character can tunnel fairly quickly for embedded metals - but for
       granite you really need an implement).
       This should be your first purchase. Since you have the repeat
       command, buy a shovel since it is cheaper and lighter. Just go in
       the dungeon, rest a while come back up and check the stores again.
       Note that non-mages will still want a digging tool once they get
       down to greater-vault depth, since they will have to tunnel around
       to get at the one portion of wall that isn't permanent rock. This
       is VERY different from Moria, where once you got deep enough to
       find mithril lying around on the floor, you could ditch your pick.
       Phase Door Scrolls - get a good number of these for your first
       trip or two. (At 50' I've run into baby MHD's, Tengu,
       pseudo-dragons, and many other things far too deadly to take on
       right at the start - an escape route is essential - and one Phase
       Door is not enough. They work best from a corridor.
       Cure Light Wounds potions - restores hit points and cures
       blindness. If you can afford it get a Cure Serious Wounds or two.
       (After the first few levels, you will want to go for at least Cure
       Serious.)
       Armor - This depends on your class, and playing style. Long range
       fighters don't need them for a while (especially mages who can
       phase door away from melee). Spend your spare money on cheap
       items, for now. Helms, boots and cloaks are very cheap per point
       of armour.
       Weapons - Even the weakest player should consider changing to a
       damaging light weapon like a Trident or Sabre. These are two of
       the most important weapons for characters with high Strength
       and/or Dexterity as well, since they can get multiple attacks with
       light weapons. Multiple attacks make every plus on an enchanted
       weapon that much more powerful, and mutiple attacks with one
       weapon can do more damage/round than single attacks with heavy
       weapons.
       If you can only get one hit with the Sabre, you will probably be
       best off with the biggest damage weapon you can wield, unless you
       are so weak that carrying capacity is a major issue (say STR<10).
       If you only get single hits but have reasonable strength (>10
       say), a Battle Axe is a good choice, or a Two-Handed Sword if you
       can get/wield it.
       Any time you have more than one hit, watch out for rings of
       damage, etc - anything that will increase your damage.
         _____________________________________________________________
       
  Things you should probably buy whenever you get a chance
       From the Black Market: Potions of Speed - Handy things to have to
       kill off those speed 2 uniques. Potions of Healing - Good stuff.
       Potions of Experience - easy experience levels (if you can afford
       them!)
       Some form of teleportation if you can't cast the spell. (a)
       Scrolls of teleport/Phase Door are cheap, and you can carry
       multiple scrolls without hassle (in case one burns). However, you
       can't use them if you are blind or confused. Potions of Cure
       Serious cures either situation. (b) Staffs of teleport - Carrying
       multiple staves will eat up a lot of inventory. You run the risk
       of it getting burnt and destroyed. However, you can -always- use
       it, even if confused or blind. Recharge scrolls will extend the
       life of your staff collection (but there is a small risk - only
       recharge when empty so you don't waste charges).
       It's probably a good idea to stock up on Cure Serious potions,
       Potions of Restore Life Levels, Potions of Restore Mana (if
       applicable) and any Mushrooms of Restoring you find or buy from
       the Black Market. They are good to have when you need them.
         _____________________________________________________________
       
  For trips more than 150 feet
       A bunch of Cure Serious Wounds potions. They cure blindness, cure
       wounds, cure confusion, and are cheap - get a dozen. Cure light
       wounds are cheaper, but don't cure the bigger danger of confusion
       and are not that much cheaper. A quick way to die is to get
       blinded and then wander randomly, and get beat on by multiple
       monsters at the same time. Or, get confused, and then get whaled
       on by some bad thing. Starving to death while blind is no fun (you
       can't Create Food if you're blind - and sometimes you are blind
       for a long time). These scenarios are easily avoided and should
       not happen if you are careful.
       A Staff of Perceptions seems expensive compared to identify
       scrolls, but if you sell the empty staff before you buy the next
       one, an identify from a staff is about half (or even less!) of the
       cost of a scroll. They usually work out at about 25 gold per ID
       from the staff.
         _____________________________________________________________
       
  For trips more than 300 feet
       A scroll of Word of Recall or two. To make your trips up and down
       into the dungeon much saner. You might buy these earlier dependent
       on how patient you are doing down and up. You could use the only
       for going up since down staircases are easier to find. Keep extras
       in case they get destroyed by something.
       Light Crossbow, and bolts. Enough enchant scrolls to get to
       (+8,+8). The chances of enchanting higher are pretty small, and
       get smaller the higher you enchant. +9 is possible but not likely.
       +10 almost impossible. A quick way of buying large numbers of
       enchant scrolls is to buy all you can, then go down to 50 feet.
       Rest for a thousand turns to allow the stores to reset their
       inventories. Go back up. etc. This is also a good way to stock up
       on bolts. Missile weapons are often overlooked due to the hassle.
       But they are great. Try them and decide for yourself.
       It's a very good idea to buy a Staff of Teleportation the first
       chance you get. It can be used anytime at all. Good for getting
       out of very bad situations.
       One of the handiest items is the Rod/Wand of Teleport Monster. It
       teleports all monsters in a straight line, much like a Spear of
       Light. Getting rid of a monster (or a bunch of them) is much safer
       than teleporting to a random location.
       See Invisible - You can get this from a variety of sources. You
       should get this before you start encountering invisible creatures
       that drain (drain stats or drain experience).
         _____________________________________________________________
       
  For trips below 1000 feet
       Potions of Restore life levels - You'll need these around 1000
       feet and below - pesky Ghosts.
       Resistance things - You will need to get the four standard
       resistances. In order of usefulness: Fire, Lightning, Acid, Cold.
       Rings, amulets, artifacts all grant resistance. You can also
       sometimes buy armor 'of resistance' which is resistant to all
       four. It costs a lot, but saves ring space, which will be quickly
       filled. You will need to buy poison resistance later, too, or face
       a quick death via breath weapon/stinking cloud.
       Free Action - You will need free action to prevent instant death
       by paralyzation. If you keep searching the Black Market, you can
       usually buy Boots of Free Action. At higher levels you will be
       getting See Invisible from at least a few items. Free action is
       usually harder to use, since free action is harder to get. This
       results in having to shuffle other objects around whatever is
       giving free action. (Gnomes are very nice in that free action is
       innate). An Amulet of the Magi is very expensive, but gives free
       action AND see invisible, and also boosts your perception,
       searching, and armor class.
         _____________________________________________________________
       
  Other shopping tips
       Selling unidentified scrolls and potions are a cheap and easy way
       to identify low level potions and scrolls. You should identify
       staffs and wands before selling, since you get more if you know
       how many charges an object has. In the early game, buying identify
       scrolls and identifying wands before selling is very profitable
       (even if the first few are unsellable). If you sell a wand with an
       unknown number of charges, you'll get offered the same money as if
       it had none.
       Note that in the UNIX version selling unidentified scrolls and
       potions is a quick and easy way to get barter in the shops. (Any
       version where you leave haggling on.) This also works on the
       Macintosh.
       If you want to save on ID's, here's a neat trick for missile
       weapons: drop one of a group, put the rest in your house, pick the
       single one back up again, and sell it. If it was cursed, you can
       sell the others still. If it was enchanted, then it is usually
       worthwhile to buy it back, because as soon as you pick up the rest
       from your home, they all get ID'd as well. If you want to use the
       rest and don't want to buy the one back, you can inscribe the rest
       to tell you what they are. But it is usually worthwhile to buy the
       single one back, and a lot cheaper than an ID from scroll or staff
       of perceptions. [This is best for characters without a fast
       pseudo-ID.]
       [savannah.gif] If you have an amulet/ ring/ whatever that raises
       your charisma, it is useless to you downstairs. However, on the
       town level it pays to wear one. Keep anything that increases your
       charisma in your home, unless you are desperate for cash - the
       price difference a good charisma can make is huge. Sometimes an
       amulet of charisma can pay for itself after only a few purchases.
       However, this depends on how close your Charisma is to the 'key'
       points. Increasing a Charisma of 18/01 doesn't do anything until
       you go above 18/50. Then the next marker is 18/70. So, if you have
       an 18 charisma, don't bother. On the other hand, raising a
       charisma from 17 to 18/10 can make quite a difference. Every point
       below 18 is a key point. Likewise, buy potions of charisma from
       the black market whenever possible.
       A good idea is saving money for buying a great object from various
       shops. These items include Holy Avengers, defenders, weapons of
       westernesse and elven armor that ocasionally show up in the weapon
       and armor shops. Armor of resistance is great to buy from the
       armor shop, if you have money. Some of these weapons are better
       than almost any artifact the player is likely to find down to 1000
       ft. However, most of these cost around 50,000 gold pieces so start
       saving up soon. This is a fairly consistent way to get Free action
       / See Invisible. A Crown of the Magi is worth almost any price...
         _____________________________________________________________
       
       [nav-home-p.gif] [nav-index-p.gif] [nav-prev.gif] [nav-next.gif] 
