Certain monsters can be bribed. Bribery comes in different forms:
- Demon princes will ask you for a bribe when they first notice you, if you have gold in open inventory; refusing to bribe them will turn them hostile and they will not ask for a bribe again unless pacified, whereas bribing them will prompt them to disappear for good.[1][2] (If you have no gold in open inventory the demon prince will be hostile and will not ask for a bribe.) If you are polymorphed into a demon, the demon prince will become peaceful without requiring a bribe. [3] If the prince is carrying the Amulet of Yendor, he will ask for more gold than you have, thus ensuring that he won't disappear from the game with the Amulet. [4] Otherwise, the amount requested is always smaller than the amount in your wallet; you may offer less than the requested amount, but in this case the bribe may fail.
- Soldiers can be bribed by #chatting with them, but soldiers are rarely threatening once you are in melee range, so this is rarely an effective tactic. Bribed soldiers become peaceful. [5]
- Alternatively, one can attempt to bribe them by throwing a suitable quantity of gold at them:
- X + ((gold left in inventory) + (1-5 times your experience level)) / charisma)
- where X is 150 for soldiers, 250 for sergeants, 500 for lieutenants, and 750 for captains. They only have a two in three chance of accepting the offer.[6]
- Angry shopkeepers will also accept bribes via the #chat command, or by throwing the necessary amount of gold at them. If you can afford the asking price, the shopkeeper will become peaceful again. [7]
Bribery always requires that the gold to be used is in open inventory; gold in containers cannot be acessed during the transaction.