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, along with their entire inventory (except the invocation items).

• 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.
• Wielding Excalibur at demon creation time or near the demon prevents bribing.
• Chaotic demons (Orcus) cannot 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.

• Beware throwing gold at peaceful shopkeepers: they have a chance to become hostile.

• Temple priests sell protection. This isn't normally called bribing.

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