Shopping runs

[Dodgydave]

Hi all,

quick question, how do shopping runs actually work?

Do you just keep starting new games until you see something you like then go accumulate the gold to buy it?

Currently I just plow through the lower levels killing everything collecting gold and selling magic items till I have 250,000-300,000 gold then keep buying items and checking teh restock? I'm sure there's a more efficient way though!

[Lanthanide]

Shopping runs depend on whether you are playing Single Player, or Multiplayer (even if you're playing solo).

In either case, all shop items are re-generated when you start a new game.

In the case of SP, Griswold's premium items stay the same each trip you do up from the dungeon in the same game, although he puts 2 new items in each time your character gains a level. Not sure about Wirt and Adria, but they probably also only change when you level up.

In multiplayer, the items are regenerated for each new game, and I believe each trip to town also re-generates the items - or maybe that is D2? If not, then every clvl up results in all premium items being replaced, anyway.

The best way to go shopping is to fill up all but a 2x3 area in your INV with gold, so that's 170,000 gold, then hit the shops until you find something worth buying, then buy it.


As for collecting gold, the easiest way is to start a Nightmare or Hell difficulty game and clear out the church and cats, because monsters there drop gold in piles of 100-300 and are very quick to kill and present little threat. If you are playing single player, you can simulate NM or Hell difficulty games via a bug, see the stickied bugs thread for details.

[Steven Catogen]

And if you play Hellfire, you can put the Auric Amulet on to double your gold capacity, not to mention shop a lot better. This is the only way to get some items, as it will not allow you to say... buy a suit of armor priced over 170k, even if you have that much because it makes the check to see if you have room before it deducts the gold.

There is an easier way to make Wirt change though. It's either load from scratch, or go into the dungeon and come back. As in closing down D1 or Hellfire. If you just use the Load Game function it won't change. I don't remember, because Wirt's been good enough about giving me good stuff I haven't had to reroll him much.

[Dodgydave]

Thanks guys.

I tried a few ways and the easiest seems to be just restarting new games in normal until you see something you like then going off and killing critters until you get the cash to buy it.

Worked well so far have picked up a topaz ring of the zodiac (something like 28%ra/19 starts) and Drakes amulet of the zodiac (48 mana/20 stats) from Griz and Kings bastard sword of slaying (167ed/97%ar/+17damage) from Wirt.

(Stats are just rough I don't have the game on this computer to check).

Need to get the auric amulet I think so I don't miss out on nicer goodies!

[Lanthanide]

I bit the bullet and started playing again recently, Single Player as a mage, which I haven't done before (although really it isn't much different - most quest rewards are warrior-orientated).

I found that while Griswold's and Wirt's items stay constant over game saves/loads, Adria and Pepin will refresh their stock. This means you can stand next to them, save your game and re-load and they will have different items available. This is very useful if you're looking for a particular spell book or staff to come available, or you have $$$ to burn on elixirs (which is where Pepin comes in).

Interestingly while doing this, Adria offered me an Arch-Angels Staff of Apocalypse - don't think I've ever seen a legit one of those before. I declined as I already have an AA of Bone Spirit (just bought it for the AA prefix). Then on my next cycle she had a Bountiful Staff of Apoc, with 24 charges, so I bought that one. Very useful for clearing out the enemies on dlvl 16 surrounding Diablo without having to face him.

[Norrit]

I don't play hellfire, and I heard that hellfire changes the shops in such a way that you'll keep getting better items than the ones you have everytime you get there

so my question is related to diablo1, but not hellfire. what kinds of items griswold CANT sell? is it possible to get a "king's bastard sword of haste/speed" from him? what about jewelry? does he even sells it? (i'm clvl 26 and no jewelry yet). does he sell obsidian rings of the zodiac? what about an "awesome plate of the <life suffix>" ?

[Lanthanide]

I don't play hellfire, and I heard that hellfire changes the shops in such a way that you'll keep getting better items than the ones you have everytime you get there

so my question is related to diablo1, but not hellfire. what kinds of items griswold CANT sell? is it possible to get a "king's bastard sword of haste/speed" from him? what about jewelry? does he even sells it? (i'm clvl 26 and no jewelry yet). does he sell obsidian rings of the zodiac? what about an "awesome plate of the <life suffix>" ?

There's some general details here: http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/D1_NPC...the_Blacksmith

He only sells jewelery in single player, not multiplayer. He could theoretically sell an obs/zod jewelry in single player, but you'd be *damn* lucky to see it, and it'd probably cost well over $100k, which you may not easily have access to in SP.

Wirt can sell any prefix in the game, but price caps often come into play, preventing the good affixes from spawning on good base items. It's not uncommon to see Wirt selling Godly Rags of the Whale, or Emerald Short Bows, for example. He can sell Kings Bastard Sword of Haste/Speed, though, and as the base item doesn't matter so much for overall damage calculation, even a club or claymore with the affixes would be worth getting. Griswold should be able to sell those items too. You'd probably be unlikely to get an Awesome Plate of [suffix] from Griswold on a decent base item - breast plate or plate mail possibly, but you'd be unlikely to see it on a FPM or Gothic, which is where you'd really want it.

For complete details, as usual refer to Jarulf's Guide: http://www.lurkerlounge.com/content/.../110/#Download

[bradismyname]

You can get a kings sword of speed from gris...cuz i have got that from him....not sure about kings sword of haste. I only made multi player characters...so i could play alone via direct cable connection of whatever it is...and also play with friends via modem all those years ago. Also with a multi player char the shops always refreshed.

[ziambe]

Hi all,

quick question, how do shopping runs actually work?

Do you just keep starting new games until you see something you like then go accumulate the gold to buy it?

Currently I just plow through the lower levels killing everything collecting gold and selling magic items till I have 250,000-300,000 gold then keep buying items and checking teh restock? I'm sure there's a more efficient way though!

Although it really boils down to how much time you want to commit and what items you are really going for, I will give you my general opinion...

Since the Hellfire (I say hellfire because you said you had +200,000 gold which is only possible in Hellfire) addition adds a step to item generation from vendors that encourages the sale of items worth at least 80% of a similar item [i.e. a sword/armor/helm] which you are already carrying, you should not carry as much gold as possible.

Instead you should buy the absolute best versions of each of the item types that griswold offers you until your inventory is full of nothing but the best items (and I do mean full). Such that when you see something you are truly interested in you have to go earn the gold for it. But the best things cost money, no?

Generally you want to buy things as close to the 200,000 limit as possible. But the only thing he can sell that would surpass that are certain types of armor and very, very near perfect versions of weapons. The most expensive modifiers that Griswold offers are king's/obsidian/ruby/diamond/sapphire/zodiac/heavens/haste/vampires/lion/tiger/deflection.

There is another point to note: the closer you get to having an inventory with only ridiculously expensive items, the more you will see of the 1 or 2 item types that you do not yet have. For example, I was recently shopping with a character that was carrying:

-awesome plate of the lion
-kings axe of haste
-kings sword of haste
-obs amulet of zod
-obs ring of zod
-awesome shield of the tiger
-kings maul of haste
-obsidian bow of the stars
-godly helm of the whale (from wirt)

And with that combination I would consistently create games where griswold was selling (and im not joking) 15 out of 15 staves. Almost all of which were crappy. Why? Because I didn't have one in my inventory...But when he did have a non-stave item it was always something great. So the first chance I got, I bought a King's staff of haste and now even though I have no space to carry a new item except maybe a ring or amulet, I have 15 of the very finest items Griswold has to offer, every game I create.

Finally, there seems to be an order in which the game goes through the list of item types. That is to say before I was getting tons of staves, I noticed lots of mauls and swords. And before that it was bows. So, one by one I added these to my inventory until the game had no 'easy way out' of selling me garbage. Since this can be time consuming, it may not be the best choice in searching for a single item but I used it as motivation (or perhaps salvation - lol) whilst monotonously clearing hell/hell over and over.

[Dodgydave]

Thanks for the reply Ziambe.


Been a while since I played, but that is essentially what I was doing if I recall correctly. Will have to get back to playing.