Oakhaven, settlements and gold

In short: Oakhaven, the town at the centre of the map, is where gold is spent: an inn, an apothecary, a market, a merchant, a blacksmith, a temple that sells a blessing for the day and a bank that keeps your gold safe from death. The smaller settlements out in the wilds each have a dearer bed, a trader and a rumour of their own. Every inn keeps a dice table for small stakes. None of it costs a turn.

How it works

Everything in Oakhaven lives on the Market tab, which appears when you stand in town. You must be alive to use it. Nothing here costs a turn, so passing through town is always worth it.

The inn

Rest to heal fully for 10 gold per level. It does not give turns back. See The daily loop.

On a Harvest Fair (see Omens) every bed, the apothecary's potions, and the potions of settlement traders and hermits cost 70% of their usual price. The dice table's stakes do not change.

The dice table

Every inn, Oakhaven's and each settlement's waystation, keeps a dice table. You and the keeper each roll two dice and the higher total wins; a tie hands your stake back. A win pays 90% of your stake, so over many games the house comes out a little ahead: the dice can win you a night's gold, but lose it on average. You may play 3 games a day, and stake at most the price of a night at that inn, and never more than you carry. A game costs no turn. You must be alive and standing at the inn: the table is under the inn on the Market tab in Oakhaven and on a settlement's card, and in the Evening when your day is done (see The daily loop).

The table plays with the game's gold only, and nothing in the game is sold for real money: the dice are there for a little excitement at the end of a day, not as a way to earn.

The market

The market offers 3 pieces of gear a day, chosen for your level and capped by the bosses you have beaten, just like the gear you find (see Levels and gear). Each costs 20 gold for every point of attack and defence it gives. What you buy is gone until tomorrow; the stock is picked the first time you look each day and does not change if you level up later that day.

The market is a safety net more than a main source: most of your gear will come from encounters, ruins, caches, quests and bosses. It is there so a run of bad luck never leaves you stuck with a rusty blade.

The apothecary

A healing potion restores 40% of your maximum HP. It costs 15 gold at level 1 and 5 more for each level after that, so potions stay a real choice as your purse grows. You can carry at most 5. Settlement traders and hermits in the wild also sell a few, at a markup (see below and Sites and rumours).

The merchant

The merchant buys any weapon, armour or relic for 40% of its market price, upgrades included. Only the best item of each kind counts in a fight, so spares are just gold you have not collected yet. Selling is instant and there is no undo: the merchant will happily take the item you are fighting with, or a boss's unique.

The blacksmith

The blacksmith improves a piece of gear up to 5 times. Each upgrade adds to the item's main stat (both stats for a relic, at half the amount) and a "+1", "+2"… to its name. Higher-tier items gain more per upgrade:

The price grows with the tier and steeply with each upgrade: the first costs 40 gold × the item's tier, the second four times that, the third nine times, the fourth sixteen and the fifth twenty-five. The blacksmith is where late-game gold goes: a long, optional sink for players who want their favourite blade to keep up.

The temple

The priests sell one blessing a day, for 25 gold per level. It lasts until the next daily reset and counts in every fight you start that day: hunts, bosses and your quest's foe.

Might and Warding are a real choice before a boss, and neither is the answer to a boss's trait: that is your stance's job (see Combat). In the stance that counters it, a boss at your own level falls about three times in four; either blessing makes that nine in ten or better, and the two stay within a point or two of each other everywhere: Might just ahead against the brutal bosses, Warding against the swift ones and Azhar, level at Ser Valdric. A boss's lair counts today's blessing in its reading of the fight (see Bosses).

Once you have chosen, the priests will not bless you again until tomorrow. The Hero tab shows today's blessing, and tapping Attack or Defence there shows what it adds. Blessings do not count in duels with other heroes or in the fights inside encounters.

The temple is there so spare gold can make today a little better without making you permanently stronger.

The bank

Gold in the bank is safe: dying takes a share of the gold you carry, never what is in the vault, and a duel with another hero can only take carried gold too (see Crossings and cairns). Only one thing empties it: beginning again after the dragon, which leaves your gold, banked and carried, behind (see Bosses). Each deposit costs a fee of 5%, rounded up, so always at least 1 gold; taking gold out is free. Type an amount and press Deposit or Withdraw, or leave the box empty to move everything.

The bank is only in Oakhaven, so banked gold is out of reach on the road: you cannot spend it at a settlement or a hermit. The Hero tab shows your balance.

Tools

The Wayfinder's Compass costs 150 gold and makes you 0.5× as likely to get lost (see The world and the map). You only need one; it is never used up and leaves the market list once you own it.

Settlements

The settlements scattered through every region (see The world and the map) are small and safe. When you stand in one, the location card offers four things:

• A waystation bed heals you fully, like the inn, for 1.5× Oakhaven's price. When you are hurt in a settlement, the big button reads Rest here with the price.
• A trader sells up to 3 potions a day at 1.25× the apothecary's price, and buys weapons, armour and relics for 75% of what Oakhaven's merchant pays. Every settlement's trader keeps a stock for you, refilled at the daily reset.
• Local talk: the locals tell you of the nearest shrine, ruin, watchtower or hermit within 6 tiles, with its direction and distance.
• A dice table, with stakes up to the waystation's price (above).

Settlements exist so a long day in the wilds does not have to end with a walk home. They cost more than Oakhaven on purpose, and the market, blacksmith, temple and bank are only in Oakhaven.

A waystation is also where you wake if you fall nearby: after a death, the reset puts you in the nearest bed to where you fell, Oakhaven's inn or a settlement's waystation, free of charge (see The daily loop). Every boss lair has one within a few steps.

Where gold comes from and where it goes

Tips

• Spend or bank before you take a risk. Gold in your purse is what the death penalty takes; potions, upgrades and banked gold are safe.
• Take out only what you need: every deposit pays the fee again.
• Keep your potions topped up to the carry limit before a long walk; the apothecary's price rises with your level, so early potions are cheap.
• Upgrade the item that counts, and prefer higher tiers: a tier-6 blade gains three times as much per upgrade as a tier-2 one.
• Early upgrades are cheap and late ones are dear. Two or three upgrades on each of your three items usually beats five on one.
• A blessing lasts until the reset, so buy it at the start of a day with turns ahead, not at dusk. Might or Warding before a boss tilts a close fight your way; set your stance for the boss first.
• A waystation next to your hunting ground costs more than the inn but saves the turns of the walk home.
• Sell spares in Oakhaven when you are passing: traders pay less.
• Buy the compass once you start walking deep: getting lost far out can cost you many turns of walking back.
• Play the dice for fun, not for profit. A settlement's table takes bigger stakes than Oakhaven's, because its beds cost more.