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I noticed a strange thing about Demolitionist that I do not see mentioned on wiki.

Practically on my world I created immediately a good number of houses with all requirements needed to accommodate an NPC.

The first NPC that arrived was the Nurse. Then I found many bombs but Demolitionist never came. He arrived just immediately Merchant came, when I finally got the 50 silver coin needed for him.

Is this behavior correct? Is there and order in NPC appearance in addition to the minimum requirements for each one?

Community
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Drake
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6 Answers6

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During the daytime of 15 minutes, only 1 NPC can spawn every 2 minutes, the NPC must not exist yet and the necessary conditions (separate houses, …) must be met. If multiple NPCs are eligible, then only the first eligible will spawn. It is checked in the following order:

  • Guide: No conditions.
  • Merchant: House, players have more than 50 silver together (in their inventory).
  • Nurse: House, used a crystal heart.
  • Arms Dealer: House, carry a gun in your inventory.
  • Dryad: House, must have killed a boss.
  • Demolitionist: House, Merchant, explosive material in inventory.
  • Clothier: House, Skeletron killed.

Exceptions to the single NPC rule, which spawn before the order given above:

  • Second Merchant: House, at least 3 players having more than 10 gold together.
  • Second Nurse: House, at least 3 players having 20 hearts (i.e., 400 combined health or more).
  • Third Merchant: House, at least 5 players having more than 5 platinum together.

There is no order in which they spawn over time. But they can't spawn together, thus first in order…

Tamara Wijsman
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    Oh... this is why I had two nurses and two merchants on my multiplayer server. We got really confused. – Corey Jun 11 '11 at 19:40
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    I just generated a new world and built two houses. I had max health, bombs, and a gun in my inventory. The first NPC to spawn was the merchant. – Raven Dreamer Jun 11 '11 at 20:19
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    @RavenDreamer: That's correct, seems that lunboks looked wrong at it and so did I, the condition inherently checks whether a NPC has been chosen to spawn so the first one in the order is chosen. Thank you for checking it out, I carefully looked at it the first time and was in a hurry the second time... :-/ – Tamara Wijsman Jun 11 '11 at 20:28
  • Indeed, how embarrassing... In our defense, that's an unusual way of doing it. I would have expected an else if instead of checking spawnNPC a dozen times. – a cat Jun 11 '11 at 20:35
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    @lunboks: Some parts of the code really makes me amazed that the game works so well, given that the world was procedurally generated and that you apply all those different kinds of algorithms together to get different feelings from different things in the game. Still, I'm wondering if this will have effect towards the future of the game. It kind of makes it unmanageable and can hold back their patches. Those shouldn't even be else if conditions, the proper way to do this is to create policies which you put in a list and enumerate over... – Tamara Wijsman Jun 11 '11 at 20:38
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First off, I'm assuming there is a free house. According to the wiki, you may want to throw it.

He arrives once you obtain a Dynamite (or Bomb) for the first time and have a house available. The object doesn't need to be used, it only has to be in your inventory. If you have multiple bombs and a house set up and the Demolitionist doesn't arrive, use at least 1 bomb and he should arrive shortly.

In the comments for said wiki page, people mention throwing it and he arrives.

PrettyPrincessKitty FS
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  • All I did was log in to my world and he finally showed up.. (Took in-game weeks for him to show up mind you :)) – James May 25 '11 at 21:51
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    I think that was really a bug, now it is fixed. As you noticed Demolitionist did not come before because I had bombs in inventory but never used before. As described into 1.3 patch changelog: "The Demolitionist is now also triggered to arrive when the players have Sticky Bombs and Grenades in their inventory" – Drake Jun 02 '11 at 17:33
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There shouldn't be an order in which they arrive. If you have the requirements, they come. Perhaps this is a bug, or the demolitioniost also needs 50 Silver to come (but nobody never noticed)

I'll try this out this evening when I'm home

Sir Ksilem
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As the demolitionist is a specialized merchant in all explosive materials, it doesn't seem to illogic to require that the common Merchant is required in order to have it to appear.

If this is the logic, then the other 'merchant-kind' NPCs (Arms Dealer, Dryad) should not be able to appear if the Merchant is not already here.

The nurse could appear before the merchant, as she doesn't sell any items.

astryad
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In my experience, NPCs arrive at the start of a new day, and only if the prerequisite items are in your inventory. For example, I had 50 silver and several bombs in a chest, but neither the merchant nor the demolitionist arrived until I put them in my inventory and a new day started.

sjohnston
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  • I am not sure this is true - I am fairly sure I have had NPCs arrive late in the day - but I will test this. – jos May 25 '11 at 16:50
  • @jos - This might have simply been due to when I acquired the necessary items. I haven't had a chance yet to confirm. – sjohnston May 25 '11 at 17:16
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To answer your question:

No, there is no pre-set order ASIDE from the Guide always showing up when you start a new world and taking the first room available.

The rest are limited by the requirements and then just random chance. For example, I have had a room for a Demolitioinist for about 3 in-game weeks. All the other NPCs had already arrived, and out of the blue I log into my world to pick up some healing potions and get scared to death by the message noise telling me a demolitionist had shown up.

James
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