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> > This might be a question best directed towards Sam, though if anyone else knows the answer for sure, please feel free to answer.
> > I'd like to know whether or not there is any difference in terms of the quality of the items you get in the various items that you can get on the various levels in towns, from monsters, exploration, and pools.
> > Upon first glance, common sense tells me that of course there's a difference, the harder and deeper the level gets, the better items I would get. However, I've had several incidents that seem to shoot some mighty big holes in that theory. They are as follows:
> >
> > 1. In the level 1 town (Perrin, I believe), sometime early on in the game, I entered the shop and was astounded to find a item that cost over 500,000 gold (I believe it was the rogue's cowl or something like that). That early in the game, there was absolutely no way that I could possibly afford it, and when I left the town, it disappeared :(
> > 2. Much later in the game, upon entering a town (Kaliti), for some rest and to sell some unneeded items, I found another item that cost over 500,000 gold called the sorceror's gloves. After stripping my characters of and selling off some of my more valuable pieces of armor (heater shield, cooler shield, plate armor+3, etc., the one exception being light armor, I refused to sell that) and selling off some items that I had been keeping in reserve but weren't absolutely neccesary to the well being of my party (anti-heat leather, hover shields, etc.), I could afford to buy it. It would seem that it would almost have to be an "item of extra specialness"(I can't be sure, since there's no label that says "SPECIAL ITEM" and there's no listing of special items in the instructions or wherever I've looked), because it gave my character a tremendous boost in cold resistence, heat resistence, speed, among other characteristics.
> > 3. Upon diving in a pool on Level 5, I found a "thief's sneakers". Again, I think it's a item of extra specialness, but I can't be sure. This one gave me a tremendous boost in speed and other characteristics.
> >
> > I think those items I found above are special items/items of extra specialness, if there's anything better, I sure would love to have them :). Sure, when I dive in the pools on Level 8, I get some good items--plate armors+3s, light armors, etc. But I also get some lousy items--quivering wand (yes, some people might say that this is a good item, but I consider it useless), leather boots, leather gloves, etc. In addition, if you'll notice, the items that I found above are items that I found on Level 5 or higher, I haven't found any items of that caliber in any of the levels below that, and I've completely explored levels 6 through 8, numerous times.
> > So, to repeat my question, does the level/quality of the items that you can find vary from level to level in shops, treasure chests, monsters dropping them, and pools, or is it pure chance as to the quality of the items I get anywhere in the game?
>
> As far as the Shops are concerned, merchandise only gets very slightly better as you venture deeper. However, for each individual Shop item there's a minuscule chance that it will be selected from among the entire range of items that exist in the game, instead of the range normally found in the Shop. We figured out, back in the day, that you have a roughly 50% chance of seeing such a rare item once in 20-25 Shop visits, and this regardless of what town you're in. You are very lucky to have seen an Item of Extra-Specialness that you could use and afford.
>
> As for the level 5 pool, consider yourself stupendously lucky. You're far more likely to find Items of Extra-Specialness in the deeper pools and treasure. Furthermore, a pool behaves as treasure from 3 levels below (I think). I think I found my very first Item of Extra-Specialness on level 9.
>
> You're bound to selectively remember the oddball cases. We all find lots of cheaper items even in the pools on level 10, and you'll never forget finding an Item of Extra-Specialness in Perinn or on level 5, where it will stand out as a seeming contradiction rather than a coincidence. Trust me, keep looking deeper if you want to find more cool stuff.
>
> ^v^:)^v^
> F"what's a Cloth Slipper like you doing in a fancy pool like this?"B


So basically you're saying that the quality of the items does increase as I progress deeper in the game and that I've been incredibly lucky to find those items of extra specialness in the earlier levels? Well, I certainly don't mind being lucky :). And I have absolutely no problem looking on the deeper levels, I love trolling around level 8 with all those pools and the 10 to 15K experience points I get per monster group as well as the 12K points I get per treasure chest. I just gather up all the stuff from the pools and the chests/monsters and sell them for big bucks, though it does surprise me that in all my trips through level 8, I haven't found an item of extra specialness. Right now, I've enough to buy another item of extra specialness if I happen to come across one--I think I have nearly 700,000 gold. If the quality of the items only increases very slightly per shop, I think I'll stick with the Kaliti shop for trying to find another item of extra specialness. The last town, (Teralt?), has ridiculously expensive clinic and inn prices, and the other deeper town (Lyesis?) is kinda out of my way to get to.