InBaldur’s Gate 3, having the right equipment for your characters is half the battle when standing against the forces of the Absolute. That said, you quickly grow out of items as you level up, and you might quickly find yourself getting weighed down by the twelve goblin scimitars rusting a hole through your bag.
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It’s pretty vital, then, to get chummy with the merchants scattered across the world. Savvy interactions with these traders won’t justmaximize your junk-selling profitsbut will also secure the best deals when stocking up. This guide will teach you how to make a keen ally of any merchant in the game
How To Increase Merchant Approval
Everyone likes free stuff, and the merchants in this game are no different.
In order toraise approvalwith them, you have togive them gold—either directly, bygiving them gold pieces, or bytaking deals that are “worse"for you when using theBarterfunction. Each merchant has an approval rating from -100 to 100,starting at 0 by default.
The amount of gold you need to raise their approval rating isdetermined by your player level, as follows:
1
4
400
2
5
500
3
6
600
8
800
10
1,000
14
1,400
7
18
1,800
24
2,400
9
30
3,000
36
3,600
11
45
4,500
12
you may bypass the level requirement byresetting to level one with Withersat Camp.
This is, of course, a pretty hefty investment—though itwill more than pay off in the long runif you consistently use thesame merchantwithmaxed-out approvalto trade with. As such, we recommend only maximizing approval with traders you mean to keep using for a long time—such asin the city of Baldur’s Gatein later Acts.
This is also a strategy you can use withnon-trader characters who you may have upsetthrough violence or any other criminal acts. Speak to them and open their bartering menu to give them gold.
Note that merchant attitude isunique per traderandcharacter—meaning you should use thesame character to initiate the conversationwith the trader each time when trying to build merchant approval.
Merchant attitude isn’t the only thing that influences your prices, however! Other factors include yourPersuasion bonusas well as thegame’s difficulty. Unfortunately, it seems that your actions duringquestlines do not affect merchant approvalor ware prices.
