Merchant

"Trade your items, visit shops and get rich!"

— Former Specialized Adventuring! Description

Merchant is a class.

Banking

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: left;

! Tooltip
 * You gain 1 Rupee every turn.
 * You gain 1 Rupee every turn.

If the Class Talent is active: You also receive a random item every 8 turns.

Category: Buff
 * }

Effect

 * You gain 1 Rupee during each of your Effects Phases.
 * If the Class Talent is active: You gain a random item from the generic item-givers pool every 8 Effects Phases (beginning on the 1st Effects Phase after you gain this Class Talent.)

Standard Use

 * Target another player; trade a random non-Soulbound item you have with a random non-Soulbound item the target has.
 * If the Class Talent is active, this skill's Standard Use is changed to be the following: Select a non-Soulbound item from your inventory. Then, target another player; the item you selected is traded with a random non-Soulbound item the target has; this resets this skill's Standard Use (back to the original Class Talent state.)
 * If the Class Talent is active, this skill's cooldown upon Standard Use is changed to be 6.

Event Use

 * Use against the Greedy Goblin of the Archaeology Dig; you gain a random item out of a pool including Beer, Weed, Tin Foil Hat, Happy Crystal, Old Tire, Mining Pick, Horn, and Chocolate Bar. Effectively counts as giving 1 item to the Goblin.
 * If the Class Talent is active, this skill's cooldown upon this use is changed to be 6.

Trade Routes

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: left;

! Trade Routes: Shops Tooltip
 * You are going to the shops!
 * You are going to the shops!

Neutral Effect, Category: Go to event
 * }

Standard Use

 * Move 2-3 spaces forward, also gain the Trade Routes: Shops effect connected to a queue for the Shops! event.
 * If the Class Talent is active: When you reach the Shops! event, it includes an additional three event options to choose from; 2 of these will be from the Cards Of Fate common pool, while 1 will be from the Cards Of Fate rare pool.

Standard Use

 * You can choose 1 of the 4 item choices to pay a number of Rupees equivalent to 80% of the item's "standard shop price" to gain the item and remove the current 4 choices from Purchase. (If you attempt to buy an item while you have insufficient Rupees, nothing occurs besides this skill going on cooldown for 1 turn.)
 * If the Class Talent is active: The current 4 item choices are no longer removed from Purchase when you purchase 1 item. Instead, only the item you purchased is removed, allowing you to purchase all 4 items from each cycle if you choose to and can afford to.

Passive Effect

 * Every 6 Effects Phases (beginning on the 1st Effects Phase after you gain this skill), this skill generates 4 random choices from the generic item-givers pool for its Standard Use. (This replaces the 4 choices from the previous cycle if they're still available.)

Strengths

 * Merchant has a great deal of purchasing power with Trade Routes and Banking.
 * Banking generates a healthy sum of Rupees over time and helps ensure you don't get stuck being poor. Access to the Pawn Shop similarly helps ensure you don't get stuck being poor.
 * Trade Routes offers excellent consistency for strong options, making it arguably the best class skill in the game (esp. with its Talent opening up Cards Of Fate options.)
 * Purchase offers unpredictability along with fast base generation of options to buy most items in the game, allowing rare items for specific comboes to accumulate over time.
 * Fair Trade can sometimes be very unfair to one player. Merchant can purchase many cheap items to decrease the chance of losing a valuable item.
 * Fair Trade lets you substitute an item for and gain an item from the Archaeology Dig's Greedy Goblin, and simply being Merchant reduces the cost of Greedy Goblin's Rupees substitute by 4.

Weaknesses

 * Merchant skills lack direct control; outside of Trade Routes' 2-3 spaces and Fair Trade, items are Merchant's only tools to move and to directly affect other players.
 * Cannot dispose of junk items like Creeping Fungus reliably without the Fair Trade Talent; the Pawn Shop is a method to dispose of some but not all junk items.
 * Purchase, Fair Trade, the Pawn Shop, The Magic Shop, Bank Account's interest, and Life Insurance's payout all involve randomness.
 * Purchase's cooldown cannot be reset to generate new items.
 * If a Merchant deposits Rupees in The Bank, another player can rob it to deny them.
 * Merchant needs a lot of Rupees to fully make use of its skills. Time Twister's Lock Time, Warlock's Goldfiend, and Curse Of Riches can deny Rupees. Lock Time in particular can deny a crucial Life Insurance payout.
 * Trade Routes requires you to have an Event Phase event, so skipped turns and forced queues like The Interwebz! can delay it, Objection! can deny it, and Hypno Glasses can make it uneventful or make you do something harmful to yourself like buying ACME TNT. (Glitcho Glasses in particular are worrying; they are able to make you wire an enemy 100 Rupees from the Shops! event.) Dying in any base Trade Routes event also prevents you from purchasing (or selling) anything unless you quickly revive. Queuing too many events at once can also reduce a Merchant's otherwise reliable control.
 * Detonation can be held by another player to deny you crucial movement items (or at least make it risky for you to purchase them.)
 * Access to charging items in The Magic Shop and to selling items at the Pawn Shop is frequently denied by Saboteur's Hinder, and this can be done at any range. Warlock's Chaotic Magic can be used similarly, though this is a less frequently seen threat. Disarm, Polymorph, and Death spells from The Magic Shop itself can also deny access.
 * Saboteur can Freeze an important item like Explosive Sheep, ACME Pogo-Stick, or Hammer to prevent you both from using it and from purchasing a new copy of it.
 * Saboteur and Quantum Physicist can burn/Freeze/Global Flux Wands/Orb/Staff to deny charging them in The Magic Shop.

Strategies

 * Your first stop with Trade Routes should be The Bank or the Pawn Shop to bulk up your Rupees.
 * Depositing Rupees at The Bank is relatively safe early game since the chance of The Bank being robbed is low, though Life Insurance is safer, and you are likely to die early game anyway.
 * Hypno Glasses, Improbability Device, and Sword from Early Reinforcements are good items to sell to the Pawn Shop. Also, if you see a Wacka Ball in the shop early, you should basically always buy it.


 * Consider using your Wildcard: Shops for The Market or the Future Shop instead of its other options since the other options can be accessed through Trade Routes.
 * The Engineering Shop is good for buying several cheap items (that are useful themselves) that you can use as a buffer for more valuable items (esp. those bought from Purchase) as well as for buying an Explosive Sheep (esp. to gain spaces or to capture in your Pocket Ball for use as a long-range sprint halter which cannot be blown up by Detonation.) Hammer is quite useful to get other players off of your space and to make Cocos Pieces/Jackhammer/Torch. Time Travel Condom is useful to remove STDs and to move 10 spaces forwards in its Item Recipe with Banana. Lightning Rod is useful as spell protection. Signal Jammer and Night Vision Goggles are especially useful for beating the Archaeology Dig. Duct Tape, Spanner, Plunger, and Battery (esp. with Phaser) are particularly strong "Today's Special" items. Soldering Torch on Tuesday can be used to dispose of junk items like Creeping Fungus.
 * The ACME Shop allows you to gain spaces through use of ACME Pogo-Stick, Hand Grenade, and ACME Rocket (as well as Extendo Fist on Tuesday.) It also lets you buy an ACME Magnet for use with Life Insurance or a cheap ACME Piano which can be used at The Dragon. On Monday, Anvil is quite good for generating random metal items and repairing Iron Helmet, and on Friday, Sneezing Powder is cheap item fodder.
 * The Church allows Disease, Curse, and Magic Debuff removal (esp. useful for removing Temporarily Denied when past the finish line) as well as Holy Water for use in creating Holy Hand Grenade, Super Coffee, or Free Drink, or for beating the Bearded Phantom, or for removing Dehydration in a pinch. It also allows purchasing an Auto-Resurrection in a pinch.
 * The Magic Shop grants you access to useful Spells, esp. Cards Of Fate and Wealth, which can be used to expand your stockpile, and Energize/Mass Energize to revisit for a chance to re-roll for the former 2 Spells. Remove Curse and Revive can be solidly useful, too. As for Dark Spells, Blind and Weaponize are cheap and useful, as well as Disarm.
 * The Pawn Shop is random, but it occasionally stocks really useful items. It can also be a place to unload unwanted items for some extra Rupees.
 * If the Adventure Time reference event is chosen, you can get an Orb for use at The Magic Shop.
 * If the Dr. Who reference event is chosen, other players can go to The Market, the Church, and the Future Shop without wasting their Wildcards, increasing their access to other shops and reducing the "uniqueness" of Merchant, though Merchants themselves will effectively have an extra Wildcard for those purposes, too, which can increase reliability if going for Cards Of Fate in The Magic Shop.
 * If the Board Game Of Thrones reference event is chosen, you can become a Lannister for Rupees and access to The Bank. You can also become a Stark for Boots and Gloves (the former of which you should generally have for creating Rocket Boots if no Saboteur is a threat), potentially saving a Wildcard for a shop besides The Market. If you become a Targaryen, you can use an ACME Piano to steal the Dragon's Hoard/tell the Dragon a story to get some Rupees or go to The Beach during Summer to either Waterski or buy stuff at The Mobile Beach Shop.
 * If the Interdimensional Portal Gun reference event is chosen, Fantasy World's Bag Of Schmeckles can be pretty useful if you are poor. Candy World's spaces can be pretty useful if you're not poor, and Diabetes can be removed by going to the Church or dying (preferably with Life Insurance and either ACME Magnet or ACME Rocket.)

-cubus

 * You can use Trade Routes to repeatedly go to The Magic Shop for Revives (for use with with Ethereal Gloves) and more easily access a Living item for Sexual Ritual, Explosive Sheep from The Engineering Shop.

Alchemist

 * Trade Routes can grant more frequent access to The ACME Shop for Hand Grenade for combination with Holy Water and Flask Of Mojo, ACME Pogo-Stick for movement plus Transmuting, and ACME Rocket and Extendo Fist for more movement while at the ACME Shop coincidentally. It grants access to The Engineering Shop for Hammer for making Broken Glass, Explosive Sheep for extra movement on the same turn you use HHG/Sex Bomb, and Lightning Rod for cheap spell protection (as your classes don't revolve around you casting Light Spells on yourself much), and access to the Pawn Shop for selling items enchanted to be Sparkling by Turbulent Juice.
 * Transmute can dispose of junk items like Creeping Fungus, covering one of Merchant's weaknesses if they don't have the Fair Trade Talent, and Turbulent Juice also allows for disposal of certain junk items at the Pawn Shop.

Barbarian

 * Trade Routes grants increased access to Explosive Sheep and Hand Grenade for synergy with Stamina and Break Free.

Enchanter

 * The 2 classes can stockpile well with Condense Magic, Trade Routes, and Purchase, esp. with access to Cards Of Fate, and Enchant can protect the strong items obtained.
 * Trade Routes grants more frequent access to The Magic Shop for synergy with Magic Affinity.
 * Enchant's Sparkling is more useful for gaining Rupees due to increased access to the Pawn Shop with Trade Routes.
 * Condense Magic can dispose of junk items like Creeping Fungus, covering one of Merchant's weaknesses if they don't have the Fair Trade Talent, and Enchant's Sparkling also allows for disposal of certain junk items like Jinxed Jewels at the Pawn Shop.
 * You can Soulbind your strongest items to ensure you Fair Trade away weaker items.

Illusionist

 * Trade Routes can grant more frequent access to The ACME Shop for Hand Grenade, ACME Pogo-Stick, ACME Rocket, and Extendo Fist, access to The Engineering Shop for Hammer, Explosive Sheep, and Lightning Rod, and access to the Church for Holy Water. You can store Holy Hand Grenades, Hand Grenades, ACME Rockets, and Explosive Sheeps in your Magic Hat so that they are safe from the Detonation spell and so that you can have more than 1 of the same Explosive at once (without requiring Duplicates.) You can take 2 items out of the Hat in the same turn (1 before the Effects Phase and 1 after) even without the Hat Talent, and with the Hat Talent you can store 5 and retrieve 5 all in the same turn.
 * You can place your strongest items inside your Magic Hat to ensure you Fair Trade away weaker items.
 * This class combo is especially strong for Wild Mode: What The Flux?!

Necromancer

 * You can use Trade Routes to repeatedly go to The Magic Shop for Revives (for use with with Ethereal Gloves or to revive and kill a player) and other spells to use with Shimmering Soul. (Beware that Flow Of Magic can interfere with killing a revived enemy player.)
 * With Banking and Trade Routes, ACME Magnet, ACME Rocket, Explosive Sheep, Hand Grenade, Spider Mine, and ACME TNT are items which you can more easily access for SP.

Quantum Physicist

 * Banking grants Rupees for, and Trade Routes grants access to, cheap items for fueling Multiversal Flux: The Magic Shop's Wands, The Engineering Shop's Hammer, Lightning Rod, Time Travel Condom, Night Vision Goggles, Signal Jammer, and Battery/Plunger/Screw on the right days, The ACME Shop's ACME Piano and Anvil/Sneezing Powder on the right days, and Pawn Shop's random cheap items. The Pawn Shop can also grant Rupees for fuel.
 * Trade Routes gives increased shop access for the purpose of item denial with Global Flux, esp. denial of Wands and Alchemist's/Paladin's Hammer.
 * The Bank's Life Insurance has synergy with dying to Schrodinger's Box (as does the Church's Auto-Resurrection in a pinch.)
 * The ACME Shop's ACME Rocket and ACME TNT and The Engineering Shop's Explosive Sheep and Spider Mine have synergy with the Box's Death Immunity.

Sorcerer

 * You can repeatedly go to The Magic Shop for spells to cast that will grant you Mana from Mysticality. This is especially effective if you go to The Wizard Shop with the Cards Of Fate spell and get Orb, Staff, Wizard Hat, and Wizard Robes. (Tome Of Magic can be the icing on the cake.) The Wealth spell can supply you with the needed Rupees.

Time Twister

 * Not My Time Yet works well with Trade Routes' cooldown and Life Insurance.
 * Lock Time grants much needed funds for Purchase and general spending.
 * Time Twister's stalling allows for stockpiling with Banking/Trade Routes/Purchase.

Warlock

 * Trade Routes can be used to access The Magic Shop for use with Harvest Power and for easier access to Cards Of Fate, Energize, Life Shield, Revive, Speed Boost, Spell Shield, Spell Reflect, and Wealth. Chaotic Energy can be used to reset Trade Routes' cooldown, allowing for constant revisits and a sizable amount of space-gain over time. Cards Of Fate in particular grants access to Shady Dealer, The Wizard Shop, and Mystic Shop, among other strong options. Access to The Abandoned Mine and Ganesha, The Enlightened Elephant for Class Talents can be extremely useful in long games.
 * Trade Routes grants easier access to the Church and The Magic Shop for removal of Call Demon's Curses.
 * With Banking and Trade Routes, ACME Magnet, ACME Rocket, Explosive Sheep, Hand Grenade, Spider Mine, and ACME TNT are items which you can more easily access for Skulls.
 * Access to Life Insurance works well with Skull Collector and Chaotic Power.

Wordsmith

 * Trade Routes can be used to access The Magic Shop for synergy with Lexicon's Blank generation and the Compose Talent.
 * Trade Routes can be used to access various shops (and other events with the Talent) for items with specific letters to be bought, Split, and used for Composing.
 * Purchase can create items with specific letters to be bought, Split, and used for Composing.