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Artemis' Non-Merchant guide for Ragnarok Online
Version 1.0
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Table Of Contents
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I. Introduction
II. Rules to dealing with merchants
III. Dealing Basics
IV. Discounters
V. Overchargers
VI. Venders
VII. Scams
VIII. Thanks
IX. Contacts
X. Un-Legal
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I. Introduction
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Ragnarok Online is a fun world where people can pick to be either a strong
swordsman, a daring thief, a holy acolyte, or a powerful mage. Not everyone
chooses to go the path of the merchant however. They do not fight well so for
those who care just about hunting, they are not the prime class to play.
EVERYONE in the game deals with merchants on a daily basis however. Merchants
get the honor to deal with kind understanding people, and idiots that make them
go mad. This guide is put up to teach you what you need to know to deal with
merchants and how not be a bad customer in the end.
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II. Rules to Dealing with Merchants
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1. Remember, that player buying or selling an item is an actual person,
give them some respect!
2. NEVER CURSE.
3. Not everyone speaks english on the servers. If someone says 'na' it likely
means that they are trying their best to speak your language but don't
actually speak it. 'Na' means please in Thai by the way, so they're
trying to be polite
4. Figure out the price before going to an OC or DC merchant. There is
absolutely no reason to get upset at a merchant when he's doing exactly
what his chat says he's doing.
5. Feel free to tip merchants! While they are making a profit from their
dealings, it's not that large. You're getting more out of the deal than
they are.
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III. Dealing Basics
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Everyone in the game is a merchant at one time or other. You do not need to be
a part of the merchant class to sell items in town. The first time you go
into town you will notice all the bubbles above peoples heads. When you double
click on them you will enter the new chat or shop. There are 3 types of bubbles
1. Open door - This is a chat room. If you double click on it, you can enter
as long as the room is not already full. At the end of the
title it will say something like (1/20). That means there
is 1 person inside, with a max of 20.
2. Closed door with lock - This is a locked chat room. These are used to make
a private chat so not just anyone can enter. People using these
either want to talk to only people they've told the password to
or are using it to just display a message.
3. Money Bag - This is a shop. The merchant running this has those items on
them and have set the price already for them. If you want to
buy any, simple click and drag the object to buy it like you
would from any other store.
There are certain abbreviations commonly used when selling in town:
-=-
S>
This is the prefix for Sell. This person wants to sell that item they list
for either the amount of money listed on the chat, or you need to come inside
and make an offer.
ex. S> Reds 16z 100EA
This person wants to sell red potions for 16z each. He has 100 of them on him
-=-
B>
This is the prefix for Buy. This person wants to buy that item they list
for either the amount of money listed on the chat, or you need to come inside
and make an offer.
ex. B> Tsu 17k
This person wants to buy a Tsurugi sword for 17000z.
-=-
T>
This is the prefix for Trade. This person has the item listed and wants to
trade it for something else. Usually what they want to trade for it is listed.
ex. T> Hornet card
This person has a Hornet card and wants to trade it, likely for a different card.
-=-
A>
This is the prefix for Auction. These are only made when someone has a
prized item which many people will want. They hold an informal auction. You
may enter if you want and see what the price is going for. You can enter your
bid at any time and hope you can beat out the other people there.
ex. A> Neko HB
This person is auctioning off a cat hairband to the highest bidder
-=-
Combinations
S/T> This person wants to sell or trade the item they have.
B/T> This person wants to buy or trade for the item they want.
S/A> This person will sell an item or have it go to the highest bidder.
-=-
Leave offer
This is suffix in chats that means the person is not there and is collecting
offers on the item they are selling. Know first off, the seller is not at
the computer! Don't try talking to them if they have 'leave offer' posted.
The common way to leave an offer is just to enter the chat room, give a price,
and list your in game names. If you bid the highest, they will try to
contact you with the names you listed.
ex.
S> Fancy Flower Leave offer
I will enter it and say ' 15k - Swordsguy/Merchantgirl '
If I bid the highest, the player will later try to contact me under either
of those two names I left. If I can't be contacted they will go to the next
best bid.
Hints
-----
When people have an open door, they generally want you to come inside to deal
with them. Be nice and don't forget there is a person on the other end too!
When people have the door locked, they usually want you to just deal them.
These people do not want to haggle on the price and just want to sell the item.
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IV. Discount Merchants
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Discount merchants are likely the first merchants you will encounter in the
game. Discount merchants hang out in kit shops and weapon shops and will
discount the merchandise for you. Try your best to be nice to them, because
they have to deal with the brunt of the most annoying people in the game.
Discounters will generally have a chat up with an open chat room for about
3-5 people. They do this so they can handle only a few customers at a time.
They are not trying to be rude to you, they are trying to be respectful to
the few people that can handle dealing with at once.
Discounters will have chats up going from 10% DC to 20% DC. This means they
will take off that percent from the the price of the item. If you do not trust
their judgement, take your calculator out and check the item before you buy it.
If you are dealing at 20% off, you take the price of the item times .8 to get
the discounted price.
If you want to get an item at discount simply follow these steps:
1. Enter the chat room when it's available
2. Be kind, say hello and tell them what you would like to buy
3. Wait while they check the price and figure out the discount, it is a
person playing don't forget.
4. They will offer you a price, if you want it say yes.
5. Wait till they tell you to deal them. If you deal them before they have
bought the item they will need to cancel it since they can not buy
from a shop while a deal offer is up.
Hints
-----
Discounters really dislike being haggled. It's can be rather insulting at
times. Figure out the price beforehand and if you do not like what they offer
simple say no thanks and leave the chat.
Remember, discount merchants only have a max of 24% discount. When they deal
at 20% they are making a very small profit to give you a very major discount.
Don't haggle them lower!
Often, if you are looking to get small items and are a novice, DC merchants
will give you 24% DC since they don't make much money off you and since
money is so much more important at low levels.
DO NOT deal a merchant with a full room because you want to get something.
They are busy helping other customers and you need to wait till you can enter
the room to get in line.
NEVER say you want an item then leave or say you don't have enough money.
This is a very easy way to make enemies with a merchant.
Don't be afraid to ask the merchant if he can discount for you elsewhere.
This applies to closeby places at least. If I was in prontera DCing I would
gladly goto the church to help someone. If I was in Morroc I would also
gladly get someone a swordmace or jewels if they wanted some (they are not
in the weapon shop).
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V. Overcharge Merchants
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Overcharge merchants become very important later in the game, but you shouldn't
need to ever use them early on. An overcharge merchant will buy your items
for more than the NPC will buy them. For example, if someone was doing 10% OC,
they would buy your skeleton bones for 110z instead of 100z.
First and foremost, you need to understand how the games calculations work.
Overcharge merchants will either add on a percent to the total or they will
have a chart of prices they will buy everything at. The difference is subtle
but very important. Those who work by final percentages will give you much
more money than those who use a chart. Neigher one is doing it wrong however.
Difficult to understand? I'll give an example:
'Feathers of birds' sell for 12z if you sold them to the store.
If someone was doing 15% OC and adding the percent on the end for 1000 EA
It would add up like this:
(12 x 1000) x 1.15 = 13800z
If they add the percent to the item, which most do..
(12 x 1.15) = 13.8
the game rounds down however, so at 15% this item happens to be 13z each
(13 x 1000) = 13000z
It's an 800z difference in this example. For OC merchant who do the percent
at the end, if they offer too nice a deal, they could end up losing money!
If you want to deal with an overcharge merchant follow these steps:
1. Enter their chat when it is available.
2. Once the merchant tells you it is ok to deal him, do so and put all your
items you want to sell in the window
3. When all your items are in the deal window. Hit ok! This is a very
important step! It lets the merchant know this is all the items you
want to sell. If you hesitate too long and don't hit ok, he may add
up your total and enter the price before all your items are included.
You will have to cancel and redeal if this is the case.
4. WAIT! This is a person on the other end looking up and adding up to
30 numbers together! Give them a chance to do it.
5. When they enter the price, hit ok. Very few OC merchants will try to
scam you.
Hints
-----
Sell all your small junk to the npc before bothering the OC merchant.
Items under 10z just don't work as overcharge goes.. so there's no point
in giving them to the OC merchant at all. This means sell all your
jellopys, fluff and shells beforehand.
Remember an OC merchant only has a limited amount of money on him/her. If
you have a very large lot to sell, tell them in advance about how much it
will be.
If you have several loads of items to sell, give the merchant time to sell
away your first load so they can reclaim the money they just gave you. Don't
deal him immediately or he won't be able to sell those items and can't OC
for you!
If you bring an extremely large amount of items in, you may be able to get
a slightly higher OC than what is available since your deal will get the
merchant a lot of money. Don't try to ask for above 17% though since that's
getting to be too high.
Overcharge merchants are just there to overcharge, nothing more. They will
buy your weapons and armor however they likely don't care that it is equip.
Take your a tsurugi for example. You can buy them for 21000z in the store
without discount. An OC merchant w/ 24% gets [(21000/2) * 1.24) for it if
he sells his. This means he gets a maximum of 13020z when he sells it.
He does not want your weapon to use it.. it's just like another item to him.
During my time as an OC merchant I had people swear at me when I gave them
their price for OC items. This makes merchants more mad than anything else!!
Be smart enough to figure out the OC beforehand so you don't look stupid
when they give you the price which you can easily figure out for youself!
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VI. Vending Merchants
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Vending merchants are by far the most easy to deal with, but people still have
problems, so here's all your questions explained!
A vending merchant works exactly like a store. If you want to use one, simply
double click on their store and check out their items. If you don't want any
items just close the window.
Often venders will be at the computer selling thier items so they can restock
when they sell out, however there is a very good chance they are away from the
keyboard (AFK).
If you want, you can private message a vender if you want to get a better deal
than what they are currently selling at. Don't be surprised if you don't get
a response however. There is a high chance that they are either away or AFK.
Hints
-----
Do not deal a vendor. All of the items vendors sell are in their cart anyway
and they can't sell them without closing shop. I've noticed many people deal
merchants to see if they are AFK or not. This is annoying as heck. Personally
I will ignore people who try to deal me.
If someone is a reds seller, a common vendor in any town, DO NOT deal them
when they run out of reds. They have no more on them. They likely are trying
to buy more from the shop but every time you deal them, it makes it so they
can't buy more of the reds you want!
90% of the time something that they are wearing but is not in the store is not
for sale. Don't expect them to sell the item unless you want to pay for both
it's actual worth and it's sentimental worth to the merchant. My merchant
commonly wears a flower headband. If you want to get it off me.. I'll gladly
let you have it for 200k =) It's not worth that much, but that's what you get
if you try to ask for something they're not selling. This applies to all
merchants.
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VII. Scams
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There are many scams you'll see in the marketplace. Some are easy to detect
and others are actually very creative. Once you train yourself at seeing them,
you shouldn't ever have to worry to fallen victim to one. Many of these scams
have the same premise behind them, but they're listed out seperately because
they are common.
1. 116z, 161z Reds Potions
When you buy reds, always check the price in blue before buying them. Some
merchants will set them as 116z or 161z hoping you won't notice the price.
People end up losing a lot of money that way. It is very easy to get
scammed by this when your back from a long hunt and want to grab some reds
and go.
2. 79atk knife
This one is played out because you never remember the weapon you start
with. It's just junk that you replace as soon as you can. There is also
a bug in the game that makes it say that it has 79 attack. Before you deal
with someone, check the name of the weapon you want to buy. When you deal
them, put your cursor on their items to make sure it had the exact same
name! There is no 79 atk knife btw, a dagger has 79 atk. A knife is worth
10z though. A dagger is worth 5,500z.
3. Selling fake out.
This one gets a bit more complicated. When you are in the market you will
see that someone is selling an item for say, 10k. Fairly close to them
someone has a chat up saying they want to buy that same item for 12k. This
can happen for one of two reasons. That other guy may be a dummy put there
so that people buy the 10k item. That will make people think it's worth
more than 10k. It also makes people want to buy the 10k, so they can sell
it to the 12k person. If it is a dummy, they're not going to respond to
you. However, people are not always smart. The 12k person may seriously
want the item for 12k, but just hasn't checked the stores that you have.
this is not always a scam, but something to be suspicious of.
4. Rare items
Make sure you know what you are buying, before you buy it. Is someone
selling a 'rare' circlet for 20k? You've never seen one in a store so it
must be rare, right? No.. they're just sold in an obscure place in Geffen.
Research before you spend a lot of money.
5. Weapon Upgrades
At this time, there are no weapon upgrades in the game. It will later be
available through using a blacksmith and stones that are found in the game.
Anyone at all whole is offering to upgrade your weapons is trying to scam
you.
6. Novices
Any novice selling an item should flash a signal to you immediately. Often
they will try to hide their appearance as a novice to make the scam to work.
One example I've seen is a novice hidden around the corner in the weapon
shop doing 20% DC and wanting the money first. Obviously, no novice in the
game can DC or OC for you. Remember though, that some very high level
players will make a second account and leave a novice in town to take offers
on rares they have found. If you have a novice 'taking offers' it is not
a scam
7. Decoration Flower, Flower headband
People will sell these two items as a really low cost sometimes because it
is a scam! There are 3 types of flowers you may encounter during the game:
Flower:
This is just a flower, dropped by Creamies and sold by the flower girl.
It's worth 2z
Fancy Flower:
A headpiece worn that has a single flower sticking out of your head.
It's worth 15k-30k
Flower Hairband:
A hairband made with many flowers.
It's worth 40k+
People will try to sell you flowers as the other two items. Make sure you
know what each of them is titled so you don't get scammed!
8. Selling an item of a similar icon
It's not unheard of, but people will try to make you buy and item that you
will think is something else by not looking at it close enough. A brooch,
a very highly prized item, looks similar to a worthless worm peeling.
This also goes for selling clovers as four leaf clovers and countless
other items.
7. Money upfront DC
First I have to say this is not always a scam! A merchant may not have
enough money to buy the items that you want to get! However, sometimes
people do take your money and run. If you've seen a merchant around town
and in the game a very long time, you can usually trust them. Otherwise
if you don't trust them, just go to another merchant.
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VIII. Thanks
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- Thanks to Gravity for making such a wonderful, complex, and... for the time
being... free game =)
- Thanks to everyone on the RO messageboard including Weggy, Civic2k, Fragon
and the other people on the RO board that make it fun to read despite the
idiots that often fill the threads.
- Thanks to CJayC for making this incredible site which houses some of the
best game info anywhere.
- Thanks to everyone who's visited my web site since it went up!
http://rtskox.home.attbi.com/
- Thanks to all of you who are reading this far.. I hope this helped you learn
about merchants some!
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IX. Contacts
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If you are looking for me, check the RO messageboards on Gamefaqs. My username
is ArtemisFur. If you would like to mail me with comments or questions about
this FAQ, feel free to drop a line to: ArtemisFur@netscape.net
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X. Un-Legal
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This FAQ can be posted anywhere, but please give credit where it is due. If you
would like this FAQ to be on your web page, please drop me a line at least to
know you are putting it there. As of this time the only places this FAQ
should be is the Gamefaqs page & my personal RO page at
http://rtskox.home.attbi.com/.
