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)

part 1, part 2. You can read them with termplay 82.124.233.111 08:04, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

I am an old expert as this game, and have done in tournaments with the most conducts, including pacifist. Their are ways to make protection racket more viable as all classes, which include praying to raise your max hp and going up to lvl 3 before going into the mines. The best bet is to do sokobon first, and then go into the mines. Should i put this in?

I consider Protection Racket with a healer who has <5 mana to be roughly the same as with other non-healer classes, except that with a healer you do have the opportunity to quaff a couple of potions to get your HP into the 20s and keep more for emergencies. An Arc is a good choice because of the starting pickaxe with which to dig out some vaults, but then again you can go into the mines and let your pet eat gnomes and dwarves until you have one, which won't be that long, then head back upstairs likewise to go digging. I can't say exactly what I've done that has made it easier for me, but over time I've become fairly comfortable with PR. Initially it was abject terror; now it takes either pretty bad luck or serious operator error for me to get killed doing it. Ironically I think the most dangerous place is probably Minetown, because that's usually where a pet gets killed trying to take on one too many watchmen. If you're not a healer, your pet probably will be killed in Minetown by a watch captain, unless you find a magic whistle, so hurry up and get that protection while you can.

I go all the way down to Minetown as Level 1, or if I don't, I don't bother until I've cobbled up some huge amount of gold elsewhere.

As an experiment, I just ran PR with a samurai. First one got to Minetown with about 2400 gold cloned/looted from vaults/etc., at level 1, got the protection, and then was blown away by an orc pointblank with a wand of lightning coming around a corner. Oh well. Second try, got to Minetown with about 2000 gold, hacked around till about level 4, cloned enough for a couple more chats. Not a problem really. It's all in keeping the pet in the way, and both of you alive. Joe n bloe 10:26, 27 November 2007 (UTC)