# Talk:Shopkeeper
Playing, I was on Dlvl 4 when I ran into a shopkeeper, Asidonhopo, who, upon meeting me, stated that he was looking for a former player character, Tobias.  This occurred in a hallway, not at all near the shop.  
144.118.195.171 18:03, 23 February 2009 (UTC)Zophar

Not only was he looking for a former incarnation of you, that was a bones level. If you search around, you'll find your old corpse and all your inventory. Bones levels often include things that don't happen on a freshly-generated level - Keystone Kops, corpses with no cause (traps etc excluded), partially eaten food, corroded weapons and the like. A Shopkeeper who left her/his store is one of these cases. Of an interesting note, if you name your character exactly the same thing (in this case Tobias), the Shopkeeper may *STILL* be angry with you, and would continue to pursue you! -- Kalon 22:58, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
Is the section on shopkeeper's items correct?  I just killed one, and he had a potion of confusion on him... which was not in the list of items on this page.

Could be a death drop. Did he have it on him alive (wand of probing)? Tjr 21:52, 28 April 2009 (UTC)
Contents

1 Fighting while invisible
2 follows levelport
3 How to be nice
4 Shopkeeper Fight
5 Shopkeeper Tactics w/ Pets =

5.1 Ashikaga Takauji
5.2 Scroll calms angry shopkeeper
5.3 Problem in calming a shopkeeper
5.4 Unbagging message?

6 Bot work: please redirect shopkeeper names here
7 Monster detection, shopkeepers, priests

Fighting while invisible
If you get into the shop while invisible, the shopkeeper will move away from the door to fight you.

follows levelport
An adjacent, angry shopkeeper will follow you if you go up/down stairs, level- or branchport. He will instantly return once pacified (pay or tame). I've always wanted to know if that is a way to make items return form the endgame to the main dungeon. Tjr 06:14, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

How to be nice
When I acquire powerful pets like dragons and mind-flayers they destroy all the shopkeepers and priests they encounter. While this doesn't REALLY break my heart or anything, I'd prefer to ruin the Yendorian economy (shopkeepers alive with no wares or gold) to scorched earth tactics - after all, chaotic stupid is not a Nethack alignment. So how do I keep the pathetic bastards alive? Is it a problem if my pet hits them once or twice before I pull them away (they'll regenerate but will they stay angry at pet or be otherwise affected)? I suppose I can leave them on another level but I'd rather not - my shopping and price-IDing ventures sometimes drag on. You should be able to leash them to a tree or boulder or something... hmmm. DemonDoll 14:30, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Either lock your powerful pets up in one of those extra rooms and use some cat to credit clone, or lock all shopkeeper doors before you acquire powerful pets.-Tjr 15:01, 15 June 2009 (UTC)
Shopkeeper Fight
The real variable when fighting the shopkeeper seems to be his wands- if you have MR / reflection you are generally safe as long as the shopkeeper has remaining charges on a wand to fight you with: you could even try to donate a wand to help this perpetuate. If you can position yourself so that the shopkeeper is bouncing the rays past you into himself, and you can launch your own ranged attacks then the shopkeeper should go down. A starting wizard with MR and force bolt seems to be ideally equipped (leave the potions somewhere safe). Once the shopkeeper runs out of wands he will start hitting you: if you are low level you're in big trouble. --PeterGFin 20:31, December 16, 2009 (UTC)

Shopkeeper Tactics w/ Pets =
While playing today, my pet Rock Troll (thank you Wand of Polymorph!) attacked a shopkeeper, who appeared to be a bit of a pushover, never zapping any wands or doing much of anything to defend himself. It seems shopkeepers fight using different tactics against non-players. Can anyone else confirm this?
76.16.89.137 18:17, January 11, 2010 (UTC)

All monsters, including shopkeepers and pets, will only use their normal attacks when fighting each other. A pet will never cast a spell, pick up and zap a wand, throw a projectile, use a breath attack, etc. Similarly pets will never themselves be the target of these actions, but can get hit by crossfire. They will strictly use melee attacks against each other. Additionally, a non-tame monster will only ever attack a tame monster after it has landed a hit on it. If a pet cat walks near an arch-lich, the lich will never attack the cat (barring conflict, but that's another story) because the pet cat will never attack the lich, being too low leveled. Bear this in mind when deciding what potential pets are strong; arch-liches make fearsome opponent but laughable pets. -- Qazmlpok 22:43, January 11, 2010 (UTC)
Yes, the only time pets ever use their innate ranged attacks is when you cause conflict, and then only in your direction. So feel free to whistle/displace your strong pet into a dragon throne room, the Castle etc. -Tjr 11:08, January 12, 2010 (UTC)
Ashikaga Takauji
Considering how almost all of the top 90 most egregious deaths on alt.org are caused by Ahikaga Takauji, it seems like maybe some information about him ought to be included (he is a shopkeeper, if I remember correctly). What would make him so much more lethal than any other shopkeeper? Rezecib 14:49, January 21, 2010 (UTC)

Wrong, he's the Samurai quest nemesis Ashikaga Takauji. --bhaak 18:29, January 21, 2010 (UTC)
Scroll calms angry shopkeeper
I accidentally angered a shopkeeper by hitting him with a magic missile. As a low-level character that would mean certain death, but I read an unidentified scroll and calmed down the shopkeeper. What scroll does that? I didn't know that there was a way to calm down angry shopkeepers, I though you had to run away or kill them. --Audunmb 20:22, June 7, 2010 (UTC)
Of course it is Scroll of taming --Audunmb 20:34, June 7, 2010 (UTC)

Yep; a magic harp or spellbook of charm monster should have the same effect. You can also calm down angry shopkeepers by paying them with the 'p' command, but beware that you need at least 1000 gold if you attacked them, and even then it might not work.  If you stole from them, however, it seems they will always accept restitution.
Oh, and a cursed scroll of taming will have the opposite effect, angering the shopkeeper.  Combined with the scroll of fire and the scroll of earth, this makes it a bad idea to read scrolls next to a peaceful shopkeeper. -Ion frigate 21:29, June 7, 2010 (UTC)
Problem in calming a shopkeeper
I needed candles for the endgame, and went to minetown. Unfortunately, permanent invisibility, And since i really didn't want to have to take a mummy wrapping somewhere, i kicked down the door. This made the shopkeeper run after me, and i took my candles, paying him for some of them. He then, oddly wandered outside the shop. I ran after him to pay for the last candles, but the game responds&nbsp;: 

dopay: not to shopkeeper?--More--
Program in disorder - perhaps you'll better #quit

Why, exactly, does it do that? 
[Edit] And now, when i press (i), i get&nbsp;: 

unpaid_cost: object wasn't on any bill!--More--
Program in disorder - perhaps you'll better #quit
And the candle now costs 0 zorkmids.

Newtkiller 13:11, June 15, 2010 (UTC)

Sounds like you hit a bug in Nethack. -- Schnee 18:55, June 15, 2010 (UTC)
It looks a bit like C343-53 in the bugs of the homepage, but the shopkeeper was out of the shop. Oh well, bug report. Newtkiller 12:12, June 16, 2010 (UTC)
Unbagging message?
you get a message when un-bagging (a pick-axe/dwarven mattock)
What is this message? I've checked the source, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. --Kahran042 15:37, August 18, 2010 (UTC)

"You sneaky cad! Get out of here with that pick!" Pickup.c#line1985 Tjr 17:24, August 18, 2010 (UTC)
Bot work: please redirect shopkeeper names here
Would a bot operator please redirect the shopkeeper names to Shopkeeper#Shopkeeper_names so that the search box will take people to the right place? Thank you. --Tjr 13:20, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Monster detection, shopkeepers, priests
I presume there is no way to tell shopkeepers and priests apart if all you have is unskilled monster detection? (Except that priests don't occur above level 8 and mimics are a sign of shops.) --Tjr 00:28, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Shops have on-level messages, so you can use those as an unreliable method. Also, after dungeon level 8 there is only a very small chance that a shop will be generated with 0 mimics, so if you don't see any mimics it's almost certain a priest. -- Qazmlpok 01:30, 30 May 2011 (UTC)
Answering my own question, priests move around while shopkeepers stand still in their doorway until you approach. (Level sounds are impractical for a speed run. I've definitely seen small shops without mimics. Arguably those aren't worth robbing anyway.) --Tjr 01:33, 30 May 2011 (UTC)
Alternatively, you could make shopkeepers a distincive color with the MONSTERCOLOR option. Fyr (talk) 02:24, 17 June 2014 (UTC)