Make merchants defend themself also allow to move them after finding them

They wont move to next lvl but could become more usefull this way

Interesting suggestion... it *is* kind of annoying to find one in a dark corner and you can't protect him.

I thought of this during my first couple plays. I found a merchant but had very little dust to purchase anything so I figured he would be there or somewhere when I got back but then I figured out he died. It would make sense if the merchant went over to the crystal where it is "safest". Either that or perhaps he hides in a secret compartment in the room he is discovered in. It doesn't make too much sense that he would just stay in a room and be slaughtered when he has somehow survived in these ruins long enough to become a merchant to passersby.



The only other thing I can think of is to make the merchants akin to vending machines that the endless built.



Then again it does make the game more difficult that the merchants will die since it is possible to send one character to the merchant right before moving towards the exit with the crystal and just spend your dust all on items before exiting. Since dust doesn't carry over between levels there is little reason not to do this if you can protect a merchant.

Agreed spending all dust before ending the lvl is an easy thing however in later lvls the exit might be further away

Since rooms unpower one after another it might be smarter to keep certain rooms powered to make a clean escape

So if you spend most dust and then try to run for the exit while no rooms are powered between crystal and exit you might get ambushed or even lose

Therefore on later lvls I dont think people will be spending all dust on merchant just to risk it for some extra items next lvl especially if they have to run far enough

The merchant should stay in place, otherwise it would be too easy.



I think it's more difficult to keep the merchant alive than getting to the exit, assuming you have a fast character (I accidentally let Gork carry the crystal once. I died, obviously).



Buying the most important items when you're "not" able to save him is good, but usually they're ridiculously expensive (30+ dust) and make your further resource gain suffer or even lose vital rooms.



Placing a hero into his room makes, as I've tested so far, no enemies spawn in that room. Place 1-2 strong heroes there until you manage to collect enough dust and it's fine, but usually you need them for additional resource gain.



So all in all, it really depends "when" and "where" you find him. Just in path of another resource node it's fine, far away in a corner it's really a pain. But that's what makes it fun!