Starting as a merchant.

[Xequecal]

I have to wonder, how is this possible without generating 100 characters or save scumming 100 starts until you luck into a playable game? You can't head for the CoC, because crossing the river will destroy your starting inventory and you'll never survive the trip by land at level 1. You can't survive the SMC to get the blanket with a PV of zero, the puppy cave is definitely out, and the odds of you having enough PV and HP to kill Yriggs by the time you reach level 7 of the VD are also extremely low. The DD is of course even harder than this. You're also pretty likely to generate at least one river level that you can't get across without losing your whole inventory or possibly not at all due to no swimming.

I just ended up reloading my level 1 character until I generated a small cave with a studded leather and a +3, +3 shield in the first two rooms, that let me get to the blanket and thus the CoC and actually play a real game, but there has to be a better way than this.

[Stingray1]

You need to learn to survive with any character, re-loading saves is a very bad habit that actually has the opposite results that you are looking for.

Over the week-end I rolled a test character to try and re-produce a reported bug. It had to be a mist elf, so I selected mist elf and the RNG selected a merchant.

As I was looking for an iron weapon I quickly ran over to the ID, went down to ID:3 and back to Terinyo to get the PC and VD generated for an altar to raise piety and bless water.

There was a river in both dungeons, I turned around and ran off to the CoC cleared all levels. The character is now in DT and xl 8 10. Wasn't hard at all.

Edit - Although mist elves are maybe a bit OP as they only take half melee damage and start with mithril gear.

[Silfir]

If you're trying to kill Yrrigs I suspect you haven't learnt a lot about the game just yet. Try to help him instead (or, if you allow me to give a hint, have someone else help him). If you succeed, you get the Healing skill, which will assist in recovering from the damage you take due to the lack of armor.

You have to play carefully and exploit what little options you do have in the beginning - but every character in ADOM is perfectly able to survive the early game in principle, barring exceptional bad luck. 0 PV means you lose nothing by taking off all your clothes and fighting in true berserk mode. For that matter, merchants have the upside of starting with a huge stack of reasonably deadly thrown weapons - gold pieces. In a merchant's hands, they actually do significant damage, and that will make all the difference a lot of times in the early game.

If you insist on playing a merchant, but can't seem to get anywhere without armor, play a dwarven merchant.

[grobblewobble]

What races do you play? A dwarf merchant starts with decent armor, I believe. A troll merchant should have at least some PV, too. When you have 0 PV it helps to true berserk. True berserk means you take of any armor except shield / bracers / jewelry and press F1. You'll see You Lust For Blood! when hitting things, this gives you a large damage boost.
Using more ranged attacks also helps you survive with low PV. Merchants can throw coins at things for good damage right away. However this takes 1200 energy and it doesn't increase any weapon skill IIRC, so once you have a good alternative ranged attack you should probably switch. A drakeling can spit too.


having enough PV and HP to kill Yriggs
Try to save his life instead of killing him..

edit: woops, ninja'd by Silfir.

[_Ln_]

As others mentioned, when in doubt - throw coins. This is the attack that allows you to jump-start a merchant without much risk.

Scroll merchants can start with protection/defense scrolls - don't hesitate to use them right away.
Same for healing potions for potion merchants.

Also, don't take puppy cave out of consideration. With good enough staircases (avoid ants and PC:5) you can clear the vault with coins relatively ok netting you some equipment.

Don't forget to check Lawenihlotehl - you can easily buy some cheap +1/+2 armor pieces there and are safe against denizens with your trusty coins.

Bear in mind that coins take 1200 ep (as grobblewobble mentioned) to throw. Early speed & missile talents (ultimately Quick Shot/Lightning Shot if you have Archery) are a great choice.

[Xequecal]

What races do you play? A dwarf merchant starts with decent armor, I believe. A troll merchant should have at least some PV, too. When you have 0 PV it helps to true berserk. True berserk means you take of any armor except shield / bracers / jewelry and press F1. You'll see You Lust For Blood! when hitting things, this gives you a large damage boost.
Using more ranged attacks also helps you survive with low PV. Merchants can throw coins at things for good damage right away. However this takes 1200 energy and it doesn't increase any weapon skill IIRC, so once you have a good alternative ranged attack you should probably switch. A drakeling can spit too.


Try to save his life instead of killing him..

edit: woops, ninja'd by Silfir.

I know about saving him by leading him back up to level 4, but the problem is he's still faster than me and kills me before I can even get off level 7. When I did this as a Beastfighter, it was no problem even with only 1 PV because I was faster than him. With a Merchant with no class bonuses and no Athletics skill, I don't see how you can get back up three levels before he kills you.

I've done the early game a bunch of times with classes that start with actual armor, it's just the classes like Merchant, Farmer, and Thief that start with no armor/clothes for armor, don't have spells, AND don't have the Healing skill that baffle me. It's hard to even reach VD:4 alive as these classes to get access to Jharod for healing because the really slow rate of HP regen without the Healing skill doesn't keep up with the damage dealt to you when you have 0 PV. HP drops lower and lower with every monster you fight until you run out, and if you try to wait for HP you either get surprised by respawns or end up starving to death. I've tried sticking to ranged combat but you still get slowly ground down to 0 by rockthrowers, kobolds with bows, and the orcs that throw their weapons at you.

Like I said, it can randomly become "easy" if you find a source of PV quickly, but it really seems impossible if you don't get lucky. If you find something with PV on it early, like a leather or studded leather, or even cloak or boots with a randomly rolled PV stat, you're fine. It's still not easy but it stops the bleeding. If you roll characters until you get Candle so you heal really fast, also no problem. But trying to do these classes "correctly" with a random star sign and/or not relying on really lucky early drops just seems impossible.

[_Ln_]

Honestly merchants are much easier than farmers and thieves. Just try the coin-throw, it's a great tool.

If you are struggling to start your character without armor, try a high Mana race or a hurthling to get you 3 starting talents, then pick Heir (Boon to the Family and Charming as prerequisites). I'm not sure whether it was buffed or not in 1.2.0 but it will be at least 2 PV points right from the start.

[Stingray1]

Wrt to Yriggs and the VD, I'd suggest Long Stride(this is really one of my favourite talents) and being unburdened and not satiated or bloated and at full HP when you start leading him to Jharod. Run away from him and go heal at Jharod if you have to and don't wait for him, just run to the upstairs and clear the way. You don't want to get sandwiched between him and a tough monster. Use missiles as often as you can while not in melee range and set your tactics to berserk during missile attacks.

Your first aim should be to find Jharod, so you will always know the fastest path to him for healing when you are getting low on HP. Find Jharod, then explore VD:1 to 4, for experience and items and then explore 5 to 6 for more experience and items. Best of luck.

[Tyrnyx]

Merchants always get +1 on initial talent picks. So if you are candleborn (something I like because the class doesn't start with healing) and/or hurthling/gnome you start with at least three skills. Get the heir talent. It's very good armor: It's guaranteed armor of +5 pv. That makes starts much much easier. I've successfully gotten a couple merchants off the ground with that.

Personally I don't like PV 0 starts. It sucks when a simple rat can kill you.

All I can say: Don't save scum. It can help your ability to learn but ultimately will undermine your ability to play. I do however keep the guidebook handy just in case I think I don't remember something.

[Silfir]

If Yrrigs starts beating you up enough on the way, the Coward movement bonus should allow you to stay ahead at the very least. Obviously you can't be burdened or strained either.

But it's true, 0 PV without healing can go downhill in a hurry in the early game. If you exploit every little advantage, you stand a fighting chance - but not much more. It's hard to say anything definite without watching you play - Mistakes can be subtle and go undetected by those who make them.

[nathrakh]

Fling da bling. Berserkily. Go mad.