Knight And Merchants

[Blanchefle Strycker]

Butusually one if you trade your rook for an opponent's bishop and knight, I'd take the two minor pieces in general. But usually there's a pawn that comes with the rook, so if you add the pawn in the bargain it really depends on the position.

In the case of Rook vs Bishop & Knight with equal pawns though, even in the endgame the minor pieces usually do better. Flear did a survey in "Practical Endgame Play" showing the rook winning 0, drawing 10, and losing 22 games.

In the early game where your opponent is gunning for your f7 square with both a bishop and a knight, after castling you're basically trading two active pieces for a semi-active one. I think you could come up with a nice counterattack following that with active pieces.

In practice, though, it's a questionable trade, because it's a lot easier to force checkmate with a rook than with a bishop and a knight. The rook, therefore, is vastly easier to put to effective use.

[Site "Chess.com iPhone"]

[Date "10/15/2021 08:45AM"]

[FEN rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1]

[White "OverseasTeacher21"]

[Black "Pijounta"]

[Result "OverseasTeacher21 wins by Resignation"]

[WhiteElo "1210"]

[BlackElo "1214"]

With fans eagerly awaiting the release of Hollow Knight: Silksong, there's no better time to look back at the indie game darling, Hollow Knight. The game was released five years ago as of 2022, and to this day, the hit metroidvania has a dedicated fan base that can't get enough of the world of Hallownest.

You play as the Knight, and along your journey you run into more than a handful of merchants who wish to sell you goods and services. Here's a look at every vendor in the game, who they are, and what they can offer you.

Updated May 19, 2022 by Zenith Wolfe: Though the Hollow Knight community has heard very little from Team Cherry, fans are still eager for any kind of news on the upcoming game. In fact, Hollow Knight: Silksong won the 2021 Unity Awards for most anticipated game of the year, eliciting a vague but hopeful response from the developers.

With no release date on the horizon, the community can only turn to the Hollow Knight content that already exists, though there's a lot of content to be had; so much so that this list deserved an update providing readers with locations of the game's various vendors, as well as some tidbits of lore.

Millibelle the Banker is a perfect example of why you shouldn't judge a book by its cover in the land of Hallownest. Found in Fog Canyon near the Queen's Station, Millibelle presents herself as a sweet old lady who simply wants to help people protect their Geo. But this caricature is only a front for who she really is: a thief and an opportunist.

Saving your Geo with her may help in the short term, but if you use a bench or Stagway while she's holding more than 2,550 Geo, she'll abandon her stand and run away with your investments. If you want to get your Geo back (and perhaps more) from Millibelle, you'll have to beat her up at the Pleasure House in the City of Tears.

Sly is a merchant with the perfect name for who he is. The small big was once a Great Nailsage, but he abandoned that life in favor of stockpiling Geo. You can find this vendor in Dirtmouth, but his wares do not come cheap.

Sly doesn't start the game in his shop, however, as you must first find him in a house at the bottom right section of the Forgotten Crossroads. He ended up there as a result of a bad dream, and you as the player save him from falling victim to the Infection.

Tuk isn't what many would describe as a brilliant vendor or businesswoman. She's simply a scavenger who is willing to sell her findings to those interested for a reasonable price, and in all her scavenging, she's only been able to find one product to sell: Rancid Eggs.

She'll happily take your Geo for the objects literally rotting away in her possession. If you happen to have more than 80 rancid eggs in your possession, however, she will refuse to sell you any more. If you desperately want these eggs, you can find Tuk in a hidden room at the top of the Royal Waterways.

One of the neatest parts about Hollow Knight is the number of hidden rooms and characters you can either discover or miss entirely, depending on how vigilant you are when it comes to exploration. Confessor Jiji is a hidden merchant who lives in a locked room at the edge of Dirtmouth, and she aids in the acquisition of unrecovered Shades.

Found in Dirtmouth, Divine is very much an important part of what is considered the late-game portion of Hollow Knight. Her sole purpose is to turn the Knight's Fragile Charms - courtesy of the Leg Eater - into their Unbreakable versions. However, you'll only be able to access her Unbreakable Charms if the Grimm Troupe is in town - banishing them will make her pack up shop and leave Hallownest.

Little Fool is a rather harsh name for a character, but once you see him hanging upside down in chains, the picture comes together in a real way. He serves as the head merchant for the Colosseum of Fools and is tasked with not only taking payments for entry into the Trials, but also serving as the sole explainer of the arena's rules.

Relic Seeker Lemm is a character whose name reflects the very core of his desires. He loves those Relics and will buy them from the Knight for an honest and fair amount of Geo. He's located in the City of Tears, but he's not a natural resident.

Steel Soul Jinn is the rarest vendor on this list, and her shop will likely be missed by most players. She replaces Confessor Jiji in the game's Steel Soul Mode. Because you won't need to retrieve your Shade in Steel Soul Mode, Tuk's Rancid Eggs seem worthless at first.

The Last Stag isn't as much of a merchant as he is a service provider. He calls himself the last of the Stag Beetles, a species that used to roam Hallownest and serve as the residents' primary mode of transportation. His story is rather sad, as the more you interact with him, the clearer it becomes that his age is impairing his memory.

By spending Geo to open each of the Stagways, you'll be able to unlock more fast-travel locations and help the Stag reclaim some of his memories. After unlocking all the Stagways, a new location will open and The Last Stag will sense that more of his kind are alive, resulting in his name being changed to Old Stag.

Iselda is a primary merchant in Dirtmouth and focuses on the sale of maps and mapping tools. Her partner, a cartographer named Cornifer, can be encountered in various locations throughout Hallownest. Both he and Iselda moved to Hallownest in search of adventure and profit, and the main way they make that profit is by exploring underground and selling you maps of the world. You can find Cornifer by listening for the lovely tune he hums to himself.

If you don't have enough Geo when you find Cornifer he will eventually leave the area, allowing you to buy the maps from Iselda back in her Dirtmouth shop. Iselda will often express to you that she fears for Cornifer's health and safety and that she simply wishes he'd spend less time exploring and more time at home.

The unsettling creature known as Leg Eater is the sole purveyor of Fragile Charms, which can be upgraded to their Unbreakable versions at a separate merchant named Divine. He is a small and delicate individual, which very much reflects the condition of the Charms he sells. Leg Eater can be found by a firepit in the top right area of the Fungal Wastes.

His greed overwhelms him, and he believes he will become a ruler if he accumulates enough Geo. He often accuses others of greed despite it being his primary characteristic - for such a weak creature, he's pretty good at projecting.

Every good fantasy world has a blacksmith of some sort who is charismatic and loved. This rings true in Hollow Knight through the Nailsmith character, who can be found on the left edge of the City of Tears. The Nailsmith is one of the only people the Knight can meet who experienced the fall of Hallownest first-hand. In exchange for Pale Ore and Geo, he will strengthen your primary weapon, the Knight's Nail.

These upgrades are extremely important late-game, so if you happen to find Pale Ore, you should upgrade the Nail as quickly as possible. Once the Nail is fully upgraded, Nailsmith will ask you to strike him down so he can experience its perfection, but refusing to do so will make him seek out Nailmaster Sheo for a new passion.

Charm Lover Salubra is a squishy and adorable slug who is rather welcoming. You can find this vendor in the same Forgotten Crossroads village where you saved Sly - though she resides on a ledge that can only be accessed if you have the Monarch Wings. Her main focus is selling Charms and Notches for Geo, but she also serves as a solid source of information with regard to Charms and their uses.

The Charm Notches she sells can only be purchased once you've acquired a certain number of Charms. Salubra's Blessing, which requires you to have all the Charms in the game, will make you regain Soul when sitting on a bench.

I want to thank you beforehand for taking your time to read and (hopefully) answer this. My question is a bit ambiguous, so I'll give an example. Let's say I'm playing white, the enemy has castled king-side so his king is on g8, with his rook on f8, and his knight is on f6. Also, he's got his three castle pawns at their original positions. My dark-square bishop is fianchettoed and I can thus trade it for his f6 knight. If he can only take the bishop with the g7 pawn, opening up his king, when is it a good idea to trade (i. e. what other factors affect if it is a good idea or not)?

For example if your opponent doesn't have an e-pawn, you will create isolated doubled pawns, which are generally quite weak. But in a 4 vs 3 rook endgame, with all pawns on the kingside this structure is actually better for black than f7-g7-h7 because it is harder for white to create a passed pawn.

Taking gxf6 will often weaken the black king, but only if you are actually able to attack him. If you have all your pieces on the queenside he might just play Kh8, Rg8 and start an attack on your king!

3a8082e126