How often do you visit the black market?

[Pangarban]

So far I have gotten more stat boosting potions from the black market than from the dungeon, so I like to visit the black market as often as possible. Too often, and it seems to have the same stuff as before.

How often do you like to visit the black market?

And does anyone have a sense of how long it takes for their stock to refresh?

EDIT: the other thing I like finding at the bm are scrolls of enchant armour.

[Estie]

I visit it whenever I am in town anyway for other reasons, I dont know the restock timer offhand. Resting on level 1 for 9999 turns should refresh it.

If you find more stat potions in the bm than in the dungeon, you arent very deep yet.

[Derakon]

The stores refresh every 10000 game turns, which is 1000 player turns at normal speed. The main things I get from the Black Market are stat potions, speed potions, and rare consumables like Healing, *Healing*, and Destruction.

[krazyhades]

What Derakon said.

Also it's worth checking early game for fairly priced scrolls of Teleport (at least getting one to ID it+safety buffer). The potions of speed are also fairly priced and worth buying at all stages of the game.

[Einoel]

The deeper I go the more stat boosting potions I seem to find. No use hanging around 2000 feet. (At least, that is what I remembered from Moria )

[mushroom patch]

I love the black market. It's so bad.

I buy a lot of basic consumables there, e.g. !speed, ?teleport level, ?teleport, heals and *heals*, etc. It's also nice that they sell weird stuff like ?deep descent. A few of those can be gotten cheap at the beginning and really add a tempo to the early game.

In the midgame, I buy anything that could be even remotely useful, since money quickly becomes useless/available in absurd quantity. You usually see an okay rod/staff/wand/ring or a piece of equipment slightly better than what you already have that you can buy maybe once in a game. A ring of free action in the early/midgame is a nice find at 7, though not too common. I don't often buy stat potions.

[Mark]

Do RoS still appear on the Black Market?

I have a dilemma (before finding a RoS in the wild), do I spend gold on !stat and rare spellbooks, or do I save, in the hopes that should a RoS appear on the black market I can afford it. Last time I saw one I think it was ~million gold. But I haven't see RoS/BoS for a long time now.

[AnonymousHero]

Do RoS still appear on the Black Market?

I have a dilemma (before finding a RoS in the wild), do I spend gold on !stat and rare spellbooks, or do I save, in the hopes that should a RoS appear on the black market I can afford it. Last time I saw one I think it was ~million gold. But I haven't see RoS/BoS for a long time now.

Just go for the local optimum. Buy !Stat or whatever it is that'll help you get to speed ring depth.

(I think I've seen BoS in the BM in 3.5.x, but it's been a while, so I can't be 100% sure.)

[Derakon]

Just go for the local optimum.

This is good general-purpose advice. Pretty much the only situation in which saving stuff for later is a good idea is conserving Destruction and Mass Banishment scrolls (and depending on class, Speed potions) for the endgame. Everything else should be expended at the first useful opportunity (though of course if you can get by with !Healing, there's no need to use !*Healing*).

Regarding the Black Market, speed rings can show up there, but very rarely, and as you note they're expensive. You're much more likely to benefit from some additional stat-gain potions than you are from a hypothetical speed ring.

[Mark]

Thanks, sounds like good advice!

[Egavactip]

This is good general-purpose advice. Pretty much the only situation in which saving stuff for later is a good idea is conserving Destruction and Mass Banishment scrolls (and depending on class, Speed potions) for the endgame. Everything else should be expended at the first useful opportunity (though of course if you can get by with !Healing, there's no need to use !*Healing*)..

I like to start saving the basic consumables that I will need (which will vary by class to some degree) for the endgame right away. My typical rule of thumb, when picking up such a consumable in the dungeon is to save for salting away--unless I a) have to use it or die or b) encounter a unique, in which I unlock the armory, so to speak.

To me, the nice thing about this is that when I feel I am ready, in terms of hit points, resistances, etc., to go for S and M, I pretty much immediately can, without having to spend time accumulating consumables.