Shop

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A shop in the dungeon, beyond sight of the world above, manned by a secretive and reclusive shopkeeper who cannot be bargained with, grants no refunds, and is interested in nothing you may have to sell. Some shops hawk antiques of unknown provenance, and offer little hint as to the quality or nature of their goods.

Courageous merchants have opened shops throughout the Dungeon and its branches.

Useful Info

You can enter a shop by using the same keys for going up and down stairs (< and >). Shops let you buy items for gold (press the item's respective lowercase letter, then confirm your choice with Enter). Buying items is an instant action. You cannot sell items to shops, and there's no way to rob them.

Shops naturally generate in Dungeon, Orcish Mines, Elven Halls, Snake Pit, Shoals, the Vaults, and Depths. Each floor has roughly a 20% chance of containing at least one shop and a 4% chance of multiple shops. Shops can (rarely) be placed in other areas as part of vault code, such as "Island Escapes" in Swamp or "Demonic Rune Warehouse" (along with other shops) in Pandemonium.

Shops are given a random multiplier for their prices when defined ('greed'), so prices for the same item will vary between shops. Shops at a deeper Dungeon depth tend to have better items available.

Special locations for shops:

• Orc:2 has 4 guaranteed shops, placed via vault code.
• You can find Bazaars, which always contain a few shops, but can only be entered once.
• Gozag worshippers can create shops with the Call Merchant ability. These shops scale with XL rather than Dungeon depth.

Types of Shops

Shops fall broadly into two categories. Most of the shops you'll find are randomly placed by the dungeon generator. There are also vault-defined shops; these only appear in specific vaults and usually contain an unusual or themed array of goods.

There is some degree of overlap, in that a vault-defined shop can vary from being simply in a vault that calls for a specific type of normal shop (e.g. a bazaar that has a guaranteed wand shop, or even the shops on Orc:2) to a shop that is of a completely new type, with mostly pre-defined items. However, for the purposes of this article, vault-defined shops are those that appear as a completely new type of shop.

Normal Shops

Regular

• General shops sell a random selection of items, all identified.
• Book shops sell identified spellbooks and occasionally manuals.
• Armour shops sell identified armour (sometimes magical or artefacts).
• Weapon shops sell identified weapons (sometimes branded or artefacts).
• Jewellery shops sell identified rings and amulets (sometimes artefacts).
• Distilleries sell identified potions.
• Scroll shops sell identified scrolls.

Antique

• Assorted antique shops are similar to general shops, but their items are unidentified.
  • For weapons, armour, and jewellery, you will see the item's base type, but their specific properties are unknown.
  • For potions and scrolls, you will see the item's descriptor (e.g. orange potion), unless you have already identitified that item type. If you have identified the item, it becomes more expensive, even if you saw the shop before identifying the item.
• Antique armour shops are antique shops which only have armour. With luck, you can acquire powerful gear here at a discount, or waste gold buying garbage.
• Antique weapon shops are antique shops which only have weapons.

Vault-Defined Shops

• Alphabet shops sell items that all begin with the same letter. They have alliterative names.
• Barding shops sell bardings.
• Blood Bar sells vampiric weapons and Necromancy spell books.
• CLEARANCE SALE! everything must go, including the single item they have left.
• Changing Room sells items related to transmutation and transformation, such as Transmutation spell books, potions of lignification, and wands of polymorph.
• Demolitions Depot sells Conjurations-heavy books and destructive wands.
• Elemental Accessories sells four items, each related to one of the four elements..
• Evil shops sell weapons with evil items such as weapons of draining, demon weapons, and Necromancy spell books.
• Hallowed Reliquary sells good items such as weapons of holy wrath, silver ammunition, and sources of healing.
• Hydra Hut sells flaming-branded weapons.
• Island Escapes sells various items useful for fleeing from fights, such as scrolls of teleportation and potions of haste.
• Pet Rocks sells stones, sling bullets, Earth Magic books, and miscellaneous other earth-related items.
• Serpentskin Sales sells items pertaining to the infliction of and resistance to poison.
• Superior Scales sells dragon scales.
• Last-Chance Deals sells amazing artefacts for one gold piece... on Zot:5.
• Some shops appear near altars:
  • Cheibriados's Comfort Zone sells highly enchanted armour of ponderousness.
  • Gozag's Platinum Reserve sells outrageously expensive artefacts.
  • Zin's Purification Station sells potions of curing.
• A few shops can be found in "grated communities":
  • Legendary Smithy sells poor-quality weapons and armour (though they may be rare equipment like quick blades or demon blades).
  • Miraculous Elixirs sells potions of mutation.

In addition, there are two things that appear to be shops, but aren't:

• Shop mimics resemble shops, and disappear as soon as you step adjacent to them.
• Abandoned shops sell no items and cannot be entered. They are very rarely generated, mostly found in the Abyss or in bazaars, but also appear when you buy out the entire stock of any other shop, or abandon Gozag. There is no way to interact with them, and they will never be restocked.

Tips & Tricks

• When you buy an item from a non-antique shop, it becomes identified. You can use this to identify potions/scrolls. This saves you from having to read a scroll of identify, or having to blind-use the item first.
  • Antique shops let you buy unidentified items at a discount.
• If you lack the gold to buy something in a shop, you can use the menu to add it to your shopping list. The game will then remind you about the item when you've acquired enough gold. You can use the $ command at any time to review your current shopping list.
• You can examine what's for sale at any shop you've already visited. Simply press CTRL+f, search for "shop", press ! to look into descriptions, and then press the letter of the shop you're interested in.
• If you get messages about a "tolling bell" when exploring, that means a bazaar portal is on your level - hurry up and find it, as it will not stay open forever. But if you find a bazaar that is unannounced, the portal will last until you choose to enter it. It's usually best to enter immediately if you have a moderate amount of gold (around 1000-2000); this will let you buy just about any awesome item or a large number of consumables, and the potential benefit to immediate survivability is usually well worth the tiny risk of losing out on particularly awesome (un)randart because you didn't have enough gold.
• If you have cleared all locations where shops can spawn naturally, and you aren't worshipping (or planning to worship) Gozag or Zin, feel free to spend all your gold.

History

• In 0.28, the average number of items in a shop was reduced; from 4 + 3d12/3 to 4 + 3d8/3.
• Prior to 0.27, the first three floors of the Dungeon couldn't have shops. Also, gadget shops were removed in this version.
• In 0.14, wand shops were merged into gadget shops. Gadget shops could also sell rods.
• Gadget shops were added in 0.13.
• Prior to 0.9, all undesirable scrolls and potions cost 1 gold.