Bribe

Certain monsters can be bribed. Bribery comes in different forms:

• Demon princes will ask you for a bribe when they first notice you, if you have gold in open inventory; refusing to bribe them will turn them hostile and they will not ask for a bribe again unless pacified, whereas bribing them will prompt them to disappear for good. (If you have no gold in open inventory the demon prince will be hostile and will not ask for a bribe.) If you are polymorphed into a demon, the demon prince will become peaceful without requiring a bribe. If the prince is carrying the Amulet of Yendor, he will ask for more gold than you have, thus ensuring that he won't disappear from the game with the Amulet. Otherwise, the amount requested is always smaller than the amount in your wallet; you may offer less than the requested amount, but in this case the bribe may fail.

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:

"Wielding Excalibur prevents bribing; does this apply to creation time of the demon or the actual time of bribing? What about Stormy? Also, chaotic demons can't be bribed."

• Soldiers can be bribed by #chatting with them, but soldiers are rarely threatening once you are in melee range, so this is rarely an effective tactic. Bribed soldiers become peaceful.
  • Alternatively, one can attempt to bribe them by throwing a suitable quantity of gold at them:

X + ((gold left in inventory) + (1-5 times your experience level)) / charisma)

where X is 150 for soldiers, 250 for sergeants, 500 for lieutenants, and 750 for captains. They only have a two in three chance of accepting the offer.

• Angry shopkeepers will also accept bribes via the #chat command, or by throwing the necessary amount of gold at them. If you can afford the asking price, the shopkeeper will become peaceful again.

Bribery always requires that the gold to be used is in open inventory; gold in containers cannot be acessed during the transaction.