Talk:Protection racket

Suppose you can't afford all 9 points of protection when you reach the temple, what do you do? Do you go on playing as a pacifist for as long as it takes, or do you switch to normal play after buying your first substantial chunk of protection? Ekaterin 15:42, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

If you have a pet, it isn't hard (but is usually time-consuming) to credit-clone and make up the cash you need. With an Archeologist, I have an easy time extorting the general store for all it's worth (no one else will accept my gems), which is usually enough for the +9. If you absolutely can't raise the funds, switch to normal play -- it's dangerous to stay at XL1 so long. Just my two cents. --Mogri 17:57, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

I have tried many, many times to do the protection racket as an Archeologist. I have only made it to the priest twice, and both times with XL = 4. I let my pet (or pets) do all the killing possible, but eventually I usually have to level up after having to fight under dire circumstances. At XL = 4 I could only get 1 purchase of protection. After selling gems, the general store shopkeeper has no more money. It seems nearly impossible to do the "steal & sell" with commestibles and candles to make much money without starving. This likely leaves only one store owner with available gold. I have two questions:

1. Besides digging to vaults in the main dungeon (which I do) and killing shopkeepers (I don't), how do you quickly obtain it? Do you extort money from every shopkeeper?

2. How low should your XL level be? Is XL=4 is too high as not enough gold is available in minetown?

Being level 4 means you have to spend at least 1,600 gold per point of protection. In order to get the entire amount, you will need to have 12,800 gold (1,600 gold 8 times). 12,800 might be possible, but it's much harder to get than 3,200 at level 1. --MadDawg2552 04:28, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I just tried this seriously for the first time because I was lvl1 when I found the Gnomish Mines...and made it! I'm an Arc and didn't bother to try and get money, I thought I'd get that from shoplifting with my doggie. It was all going fine for the first two levels of the Mines until I fell into a trap door right into Itzchak's. The way up was quite harsh as I refused to use any other weapon than Elbereth and I had 2 levels to ge through to get back to my pet, including going across a beehive, but whan I finally got to him the way back was fine, I collected some 1000g from a bone file along the way and I was back to the temple in no time. Remember guys: Elbereth! I'll post the link to my ttyrec file from NAO when I'm finished... 82.124.106.37 20:57, 15 March 2007 (UTC)