| DRAGON WARRIOR IV |

o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o
| DRAGON WARRIOR IV |
| NES Edition |
| |
| TALOON’S COMMISSION GUIDE |
| Version 1.2 (October 29, 2005) |
| |
| By The Admiral |
| Email: [email protected] |
o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o

Introduction
------------
While many players overlook it as trivial, there are actually many useful
reasons to understand the inner workings of Taloon’s job and commission system
in Chapter 3. This guide explains how Taloon acquires possible items for sale,
how his commission is calculated, how to get better prices when selling certain
items, strategies for taking advantage of Taloon’s days as a merchant, and some
final notes on hacking the ROM for further exploration. Whether you are a
first time player or Dragon Warrior veteran, you will likely learn something
new and exciting that you can add to you playing arsenal in all future Dragon
Warrior IV excursions.

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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S DW00
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To jump to any section of this guide quickly, click the Edit option on the
toolbar, then go to Find and type in the index number listed in the right
column. You can also press Crtl+F to bring up the search box in most browsers
and text editors.

TABLE OF CONTENTS..........................................................DW00

HOW TALOON’S COMMISSION WORKS..............................................DW01
COMMISSIONS AND PRICES.....................................................DW02
STRATEGIES AND TIPS........................................................DW03
HACKING THE ROM............................................................DW04

DISCLAIMER.................................................................DW05
REVISION HISTORY...........................................................DW06
CREDITS....................................................................DW07

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H O W T A L O O N ’ S C O M M I S S I O N W O R K S DW01
===============================================================================
During Chapter 3, Taloon spends some time at the outset of his quest working at
his boss’s shop for a daily commission. He receives a discrete commission on
each item he sells, and this total is accumulated until he is paid. Taloon is
paid when either:

1.) His commission total reaches 100 GP or more. When this happens, his boss
will come into the shop and pay him. It will then be night-time when he
exits the shop.

2.) Taloon leaves the shop counter and speaks with his boss. At this point,
he is paid whatever commissions he has earned thus far. Upon leaving the
shop, it will still be day-time.

The specific prices and commissions are listed in the next section, but Taloon
is generally paid a greater commission on higher priced items. His shop’s
inventory starts out with three staple weapons: the Club, Copper Sword, and
Thorn Whip. No matter how many he sells, his shop can never run out of these
items. There are also three additional items his shop can sell: the Boomerang,
Chain Sickle, and Sword of Malice. These items will appear in his inventory if
he buys them from a customer. His shop will only carry as many of these three
weapons as he buys, so, if you buy a Boomerang and then sell one, the shop will
no longer offer this item.

Taloon can purchase any of these items himself by talking to his boss over the
counter. Interestingly, Taloon can buy as many of them as he would like, and
the quantity will never deplete. This has some useful applications and is
discussed later.

A few other notes before moving on to specific commission values:

• Buying items from customers has no effect at all on Taloon’s commission.
Purchasing the Boomerang, Chain Sickle, or Sword of Malice will add this
item to the inventory (or increase the quantity in reserve). Purchasing
the Club, Copper Sword, or Thorn Whip does nothing.

• Taloon can earn an infinite amount of GP within a single “game day.” To do
so, first leave work early by talking to the boss. He will pay you, and it
will still be day-time. Exit and reenter the town, then go back to the
shop. The boss will let Taloon work again, and you can repeat this process
ad infinitum. There is really not much use to this, so the point is rather
trivial.

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C O M M I S S I O N S A N D P R I C E S DW02
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There are three possible prices that Taloon can get for each weapon he sells:
the normal price, discounted price, or premium price. The discount and premium
prices only appear if you say "No" the first time the customer wishes to buy
the weapon. The customer may then try to renegotiate the price, either higher
(premium) or lower (discount). There is no guarantee either of these will come
up. The customer may just get annoyed and leave after the first time you say
“No.”

The discount and premium prices are 10% less or greater than the normal prices,
respectively. If offered a discount, the customer will always make the
purchase if s/he has the money and the inventory space. The customer will
often turn down the weapon if offered at a premium, but does buy it
occasionally.

The exact commission values that Taloon receives for each sale are based on a
percentage of the normal sale price, even if the goods are sold at a discount
or premium. The commission he receives for each sale item goes as follows:

Offered Price Commission (% of Normal Price)
============= ==============================
Normal 6%
Discount 5%
Premium 13%

Basically, Taloon receives the listed percentage times of the good’s normal
price. So, if he sells the Copper Sword (normal price of 100 GP) at a premium
price of 110 GP, he receives a commission of 13 GP, which is 13% of that item’s
normal selling price. Note that the game uses an odd function for rounding, so
some values are off by a few GP. Tables with the exact commission values
Taloon receives at all price levels are listed below.

===========================================
COMMISSION ON WEAPONS SOLD AT NORMAL PRICES
===========================================
Normal Prices are those listed on the inventory menu next to each weapon.
Customers come in expecting to pay this price, and it is the first one they
will offer for weapons. The listed price and commission for selling each one
are found in the table below.

o----------------------------------------------------o
| Weapon Name | Normal | Commission on |
| | Price | Normal Prices |
|=================|================|=================|
| Club | 30 | 1 |
|-----------------|----------------|-----------------|
| Copper Sword | 100 | 6 |
|-----------------|----------------|-----------------|
| Thorn Whip | 200 | 12 |
|-----------------|----------------|-----------------|
| Boomerang | 350 | 21 |
|-----------------|----------------|-----------------|
| Chain Sickle | 550 | 34 |
|-----------------|----------------|-----------------|
| Sword of Malice | 3500 | 218 |
o----------------------------------------------------o

=============================================
COMMISSION ON WEAPONS SOLD AT DISCOUNT PRICES
=============================================
If you refuse to sell a weapon to a customer at the listed price, meaning you
say “No” when they ask if the price is right, they will occasionally think you
are giving them a discount. In this case, they will suggest the discounted
price. If the customer has the money and the inventory space, they will always
buy items offered at these prices. Discounted prices are always 10% less than
the normal prices, and they are listed in the table below, along with the
commission for selling each one.

o----------------------------------------------------o
| Weapon Name | Discount | Commission on |
| | Price | Discount Prices |
|=================|================|=================|
| Club | 27 | 1 |
|-----------------|----------------|-----------------|
| Copper Sword | 90 | 5 |
|-----------------|----------------|-----------------|
| Thorn Whip | 180 | 11 |
|-----------------|----------------|-----------------|
| Boomerang | 315 | 19 |
|-----------------|----------------|-----------------|
| Chain Sickle | 495 | 30 |
|-----------------|----------------|-----------------|
| Sword of Malice | 3150 | 196 |
o----------------------------------------------------o

============================================
COMMISSION ON WEAPONS SOLD AT PREMIUM PRICES
============================================
As with discounts, if you refuse to sell a weapon to a customer at the listed
price, meaning you say “No” when they ask if the price is right, they will
occasionally think the price is higher than listed. In this case, they will
suggest the premium price. Even if the customers have the money and inventory
space, they may still refuse to buy items at a premium since they feel ripped
off. There seems to be about a 50% chance as to whether they will accept the
new price or not. Premium prices are always 10% more than the normal prices
and are listed in the table below, along with the commission for selling each
one.

o----------------------------------------------------o
| Weapon Name | Premium | Commission on |
| | Price | Premium Prices |
|=================|================|=================|
| Club | 33 | 4 |
|-----------------|----------------|-----------------|
| Copper Sword | 110 | 13 |
|-----------------|----------------|-----------------|
| Thorn Whip | 220 | 27 |
|-----------------|----------------|-----------------|
| Boomerang | 385 | 48 |
|-----------------|----------------|-----------------|
| Chain Sickle | 605 | 75 |
|-----------------|----------------|-----------------|
| Sword of Malice | 3850 | 481 |
o----------------------------------------------------o

============================
BUYING PRICES FROM CUSTOMERS
============================
Customers will frequently try to sell their used wares to Taloon. You receive
no commission gain or loss for purchasing these items, but buying the
Boomerang, Chain Sickle, or Sword of Malice will add this item to the inventory
reserve. The prices that Taloon pays customers are always 75% of the original
weapon price. These prices are also non-negotiable, so turning down a
customer’s offer cancels the transaction completely.

o----------------------------------o
| Weapon Name | Buying |
| | Price |
|=================|================|
| Club | 22 |
|-----------------|----------------|
| Copper Sword | 75 |
|-----------------|----------------|
| Thorn Whip | 150 |
|-----------------|----------------|
| Boomerang | 262 |
|-----------------|----------------|
| Chain Sickle | 412 |
|-----------------|----------------|
| Sword of Malice | 2625 |
o----------------------------------o

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S T R A T E G I E S A N D T I P S DW03
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The following section contains a few strategies, tips, and points of trivia
with regards to Taloon’s commission and his merchant experiences in Lakanaba.

1.) If someone sells Taloon the Sword of Malice, DO NOT sell it back to a
customer. Save this weapon until later in the Chapter, when Taloon can
come back and purchase it himself. Not only is it the strongest weapon he
can use in Chapter 3, it’s also a great way to make money when you need to
save up the 60,000 GP for the Cave of Branca construction. Since Taloon
can buy an unlimited quantity, stock up on as many Swords of Malice as you
can, then give them to Neta to sell (once you have the shop in Endor).
Within 2-3 days, you can rake in tens of thousands of GP from the sale of
these weapons.

Additionally, before leaving Chapter 3, you should sell off all of Taloon’s
gear and fill your inventory with 7 Swords of Malice. When you meet up in
Chapter 5, Taloon can distribute these swords to the party and sell the
rest for a lot of money. Of course, if you are lucky enough to be sold a
second Sword of Malice while you are working as Taloon, there’s no harm in
selling it off. It won’t effect your ability to stock this item later.

2.) There is no reason at all for Taloon to buy Clubs, Copper Swords, or Thorn
Whips from customers. He gets nothing from this, and turning down the
offer has no negative effects on future sales or potential customers.
However, there’s really no point to refusing the sale, either. It takes
the same time to press the buttons and hear the dialogue no matter which
action you choose. So, if you’re in a grumpy mood, turn down these sales.
If you’re rushing through this part and don’t want to take your fingers off
the A-button, just accept them. It really doesn’t matter.

3.) Similarly, always buy Boomerangs, Chain Sickles, and, especially, Swords of
Malice from customers. All of these items can be sold for far more GP than
the staple goods, and each can also be bought for personal use by Taloon.

4.) There is no conceivable reason to ever sell a weapon at a discount, unless
you just want to see what the dialogue looks like. You receive a lower
commission for every weapon except the Club, and, even in this case, it
takes more time to scroll through the price conversation screen.

5.) The theoretical one session total you could earn from commissions would be
580 GP, from selling items for a total of 99 gold, then closing by selling
the Sword of Malice at a premium.

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H A C K I N G T H E R O M DW04
===============================================================================
The following section lists some of the memory address and information for
hacking the ROM of this game with regards to Taloon’s commission. The
following section assumes you have some minor knowledge of hacking and memory
editing, as no background information is provided.

The memory addresses for Taloon’s commission consist of three bytes, at the
following locations:

$07C6
$07C7
$07C8

The game has a hard cap on commission at 10,000,000 GP, so any values above
this in the lowest memory address are disregarded when Taloon is paid. Why the
game has three bytes for this value is a mystery. The maximum GP that Taloon
can ever legitimately earn is 580, which means two bytes would have been more
than enough. Not to mention, the game caps your party’s gold total at 99,999
GP. Perhaps there were originally going to be more ways later in the game for
Taloon to earn a commission, but no one knows.

The game also records the quantity of the three optional items that can be sold
to Taloon –- Boomerangs, Chain Sickles, and Swords of Malice –- at separate
locations. Setting the addresses to 0 (zero) means that the item will not
appear on the inventory screen. A value of 1 or higher means this item will
show up on the shop menu, with each sale decreasing the reserves by 1. The
addresses for these items are found in the SRAM portion of the memory, and are
as follows (starting at 0x00006000):

$62E7: Quantity of Boomerangs in reserve
$62E8: Quantity of Chain Sickles in reserve
$62E9: Quantity of Swords of Malice in reserve

It is also possible to derive Game Genie codes from the above memory addresses,
but I am not able to do so. If anyone would care to convert them, please email
me and I will include these codes (as well as credit you fully) in this guide.

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D I S C L A I M E R DW05
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This FAQ is meant for personal use only and cannot be reproduced for commercial
usage under any circumstances. No portions of this guide may be reproduced, in
part or in entirety, without the written consent of the author. If you would
like to use any part of this guide in your FAQ or on your website, I will
probably give you permission if you ask, but you must ask first (Email:
[email protected]). The Dragon Warrior IV title, as well as all contents
within, are copyright of Enix, Inc.

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R E V I S I O N H I S T O R Y DW06
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Version 0.99 – February 1, 2003
• Preview Version

Version 1.0 – February 3, 2003
• Initial Release

Version 1.1 – March 12, 2003
• Corrected info on commission percentages for normal and discount prices
• Made a few explanations easier to read
• Minor spelling and formatting changes

Version 1.2 – October 29, 2005
• Minor spelling and formatting changes

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C R E D I T S DW07
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Big thanks to everyone who helped me with this guide, especially the members at
the GameFAQs Dragon Warrior IV message boards – this guide would not have been
possible without your encouragement. If I have accidentally omitted your name
from this section, please feel free to contact me and I will include you
immediately. Special thanks to the following people:

• ke6drt: for correcting some information on the commission levels for
discount and normal prices

• BTB, Robbie Levy, and muskey38: for all your help in coming up with the
basics of the commission system and feedback about the guide.

• Everyone else for taking the time to read this guide and give me feedback
on it. Thanks a lot.

=================================END OF GUIDE==================================