Getting Gold

## Getting more gold out of a run.

### Collect and store items of value to pick up on your escape

In your inventory, an item's description states how many pieces of gold you will receive if you return to the surface with it. There are many items that you might think to toss because they are malicious or take up room in your inventory, but actually have gold value like a cursed ring or a puzzle piece.

Instead of hoarding all these items in your inventory, why not hoard them on the floor by a staircase? You can pick them up on your way out as you flee the guardian.

At the start of your escape, drop everything in your inventory you will no longer need (as painful as it can be to get rid of a sword, staff or shield that has helped you the whole run!) Essentially clear out your inventory so you have room to swiftly pick up all the valuable items on the way back. I usually have about 15 items that need to be picked up.

Here are items that you can safely drop near staircases:

* Do not throw away any rings or amulets, even if they are cursed have negative effects, or are for a god you are not worshiping. These items are still worth a few pieces of gold, usually 2-20.
* Collect all puzzle pieces once a puzzle is completed (such as the jade, gold, amber, and amethyst cats, or the marble pieces). Each piece is worth 10-50 gold.
* Puzzle pieces that are made of clay like the clay owl will break if dropped on the floor. To store near a staircase, drag a barrel or crate to the staircase area.
* Collect all other items of value, like the silver chalice or mithril monkey.

You only receive this gold if you exit the run anyway, so it doesn't make sense to lug it around with you the whole game.

### Fight Gargoyles

Most runs will have a trap room with statues that burst into gargoyles when you pull the lever to open the door. Instead of locking them in the room, you can fight them for the gold they are carrying.

### Open Tombs

Tombs often contain gold, but can only be opened with a strength 14. If you are not strong enough to open them, note their location in case your strength is higher later. Opening wraith lord tombs often yields a lot of gold, but wraith lords can be tricky if you aren't prepared to handle them.

There are two kinds of shops: there is the shop at the start of the game as your choose your equipment, and there are in-game shops. The shop at the start of the game always has the same price regardless of difficultly level (e.g. Potion of Strength - 100g, Sigils = 150g, Random Potion -20g). However, the in-game shops prices vary by difficulty and and are generally cheaper. On easy for example, you can get a Potion of Myst for example for 2g and Sigils are only 25g. The tradeoff is that you don't have access to your larger gold pool in game, but it honestly might be worth spending the in-game gold on a sigil instead of the starting gold. If you don't need it on the first level, wait to buy it in game.

## "Bargain" Hunting

In the opening shop, you can sell some of your starting equipment like armor and weapon, etc. Most of these things you will find soon enough in the game as loot from enemies, so selling it to the opening shop gives you some gold to buy things you really do need. For example, as adventurer, you can sell your starting leather armor for 30g, which you can then use to buy tools, flasks and an extra dagger, which are much more helpful at the start of a run than armor that you will quickly find anyway. This avoid dipping into your larger pool of gold.