Currencies

The game has no coins. Seven ordinary items double as money, and the shop screen simply takes the item named in each shop row's PriceType. Four of them (Bone Fragment, Big Bone, Fractured Body, Filthy Core) are the same material in four sizes and are also experience items: you feed them to an Altar to level up (see Leveling and Alchemy). The other three are special currencies for one or two merchants.

The currencies#

Sizes are 1 : 8 : 50 : 300 in experience (25 / 200 / 1,250 / 7,500). Selling is a poor deal: a Big Bone sells for 7 Bone Fragments, which is worth only 175 XP if you dedicate them, against 200 XP for the Big Bone itself (about 12% lost). Fractured Body and Filthy Core lose 10-13% the same way.

The Altar only lists a dedication item after you have picked it up once (quests 12019-12022 are the "seen" flags, MS_ItemData.ExpItemQuestIdList).

Where each one comes from#

Bone Fragment, Big Bone#

Both drop from ordinary enemies. The size of the biggest single roll grows with the New Game Plus journey (see New Game Plus):

The figures are the largest amount found in any of that chapter's drop groups; most individual enemies roll far smaller stacks, and which group an enemy rolls is set per enemy. See Drops and loot.

Ground pickups are separate and bigger. From chapter 2 on, each chapter has one fixed pile of Bone Fragments (88, 111, 166, 133, 178 and 199 in chapters 2 to 7, and 5 piles totalling 201 in chapter 9). It is the same size in every journey, so New Game Plus does not give you more of it.

Big Bone, Fractured Body and Filthy Core pickups per journey (chapters 1-9)#

Fractured Body and Filthy Core never drop from enemies. Their drop tables (groups x0099) exist, but every entry has an amount of 0, so only pickups give them. The Fractured Body count climbs from 40 to 102 across journeys, which is how the game pays for the Immundus Diamonds you buy with them (see Immundus).

Anthozoan Bones#

Dropped by monsters in every chapter in small stacks of 1 to 3. The Lunatic double of the hero, killed in the Lunatic state (the "nightmare" clone, drop group 99999 in each chapter) gives a 40% chance (weight 40 against an empty entry of weight 60) of 2 Anthozoan Bones in journey 1 and 3 in every later journey. The tutorial dog quest (11009) also hands out one.

Dominator Crystal#

Never dropped. Five are placed in every chapter from Heggem to Karst Cave (35 per journey). The item text says they are a gift for Viola, and the shop confirms it (merchant 1902).

Spectre Mushroom#

The Dark Mist currency, internal name Dark Shard. It comes from the Dark Mist stages' own tables (270 entries in StoryMazeDrop), from a killed summoned hero (10 + 2 x maze level) and from some dialogue rewards (20 + level x a per-dialogue multiplier). See Deep into the Dark Mist, Maze rewards.

What they buy#

• Bone Fragments. General goods. Throwing Knife 3 to 10 (unlimited, depending on merchant and journey), Elixir of Sanity for a stack of 5 at 5 / 7 / 10 / 15 (Heggem) up to 10 / 15 / 25 / 35 (late chapters), Elixir of Health 10 to 35 for a stack of 3, Blackwater Debris 125 / 185 / 275 / 405, Immundus stones at 20-165 (see Immundus), formulas such as Formula: Powder of Defence at 25 / 35 / 50 / 75. The prices rise by journey: the same Heggem Elixir of Sanity that costs 5 on the first run costs 15 on the fourth.
• Big Bone. Mid-priced goods: Starry Honey Wine (one bottle per merchant, 30 to 140 depending on merchant and journey, for example 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 at Edith), Blackwater Rubble 25 / 35 / 45-50 / 65-75 per merchant (2 or 3 per stock), Blackwater Crystal 40 / 60 / 90 / 135, Immundus Crystal 15-50, Sea Tooth Bone 20-55, Shriveled Holy Fruit and Fully Recovery Potion. The Dark Mist lamp oils: Rancid Whale Oil 5, Thickened 10 and Refined 20 (see Key items).
• Anthozoan Bones (merchant 1903). Sells six trophies (Active Niter Pot, Crimson Spar, Stone Grass Ring, Spellbreaker Runestone, Glistening Mercury and Seal of Flame) as copies at a set level (they cannot be enhanced further). The level on offer steps up each time you hand in an Ancient Relic (quests 75051 to 75053) and again with each journey, so the price and level run from level 1 for 33 in journey 1 to level 6 for 150 at the last stage of journey 4. The whole grid, one stock list, is in Norwood's sundries#Price and level table. Stock is unlimited.
• Dominator Crystals (merchant 1902). Six one-time trophies, from Brass Ring of Handel (4) to Brooch with Sacred Pattern (20), unlocked by the Broken Slate hand-ins (quests 75056 to 75058), and, from journey 2, stacks of 5 of Starry Honey Wine (8), Ancient Silver Key (7), Shriveled Holy Fruit (5) and Fully Recovery Potion (6). The trophy rows are NotReset, so they are bought once per game rather than once per journey. Full stock: Viola's collection#Stock.
• Spectre Mushrooms. Vertebra Nail 15, Hound Amulet 15, Glowstone 5, Moon Jellyfish Jar 2 and Big Bone at 2 each, all unlimited, and five tiers of Dream Chest at 250 each (Safe house shop#Stock).

Hidden mechanics#

• Death costs Bone Fragments only. When you die, the game takes between 25% and 35% of your Bone Fragments (a random fraction, rounded down, plus a 30% chance to round up when there is a remainder). Big Bone, Fractured Body and the other currencies are safe. The lost fragments come back as a recoverable bundle only if you wear the trophy with effect 131 (World-Devouring Promise); without it they are gone. Worked table and the bundle: Death and respawn#When the whole team falls; see also Trophy effects and Bone Fragment#Dying. (ExpItemDropProbabilityMin/Max/IndependentProbability = 0.25 / 0.35 / 0.3.)
• The Potion of Wealth doubles the four sizes. Its status (10069, lasting 600 s = 10 minutes, as the item text says) doubles the number picked up of any dedication item. It is brewed from 8 Big Bones, a Mature Spore and an Active Symbiote (alchemy formula 41). There is a separate 300 s status (10094) that doubles Spectre Mushroom pickups, but no item in the data grants it (inferred: cut or script-only).
• Auto-pickup. The four dedication items are always collected automatically; you never need the pickup button, and no auto-pickup trophy is required (ItemScene treats main type 4 as auto-get and attach).
• Selling needs a price. The sell list only shows materials and dedication items whose price is above -1, so key stones, documents, formulas and chests never appear (exchangectrl.lua line 752). The payouts by panel are in Merchants#Selling.
• Shop stock resets differ. Rows marked IsRefresh restock after you respawn; other rows have a hard stock that resets only when a new journey starts; NotReset rows (Viola's and the Dark Mist shop) never reset, so one-time buys stay bought.
• Cycle cap. Shop prices and amounts index four columns; the game clamps the journey number at 4 (GameLoopMax), so journey 4, journey 5 and later all use the same numbers.
• Anthozoan Bones sink. Nine Katib quests (55056, 55058, 55060, 55062, 55064, 55066, 55068, 55084, 55086) each delete one Melos Bottle trophy, one Condensation Honey and a growing number of Anthozoan Bones: 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 210, 240 and 270. The bottles are Pitch-black, Gloomy, Pale, Dim, Luminous, Fulgurant, Flaming, Dazzling and Cyclical (trophy ids 60068-60075 and 60079). This is the price of sealing the bottle's curse (inferred from the bottle's text).

Sources#

• ES_ItemData ids 40001-40004, 40011, 40021, 40031 (Param1 = dedication XP; Price; NumMax); luascript/structdata/ms_itemdata.lua:113-160 (ExpAddList, drop constants).
• Dedication: ui/controller/playerinfoctrl.lua:7890-7905,10560-10590.
• Death drop: controller/controllerstorymode.lua:1859,1877-1894,2033-2041.
• Double pickup: controller/controllerstorymode.lua:4606-4609; ES_StatusData 10069 (LogicType 113), 10094 (119); ES_ItemData 20011.
• Selling and pricing: ui/controller/exchangectrl.lua:312-390,728-760,862-905.
• Throwing Knife price range 3 to 10: ES_TransactionData rows with item 30001 (13 slots).
• Shop rows (ES_TransactionData): merchants 1040, 1042, 1902, 1903, 499001, 99601; ms_transactiondata.lua; fs_savestory.lua:3419-3450; refresh call controllerstorymode.lua:1991.
• Drops: ES_ItemDropData (groups 40099-90099 with amount 0; 99999 per chapter); ES_StoryItem (journey columns); ES_StoryQuest 11009, 55056-55086 (Melos Bottle quests); ES_TransactionData 10015-10038 (merchant 1903 by journey), 10009-10042 (1902), 71007 and 93001 (Filthy Core / Fractured Body trophy rows), 4990001-4990013 (Dark Mist shop).
• Spectre Mushrooms: controllerstorymode.lua:1908-1921 (10 + 2 x maze level), ui/controller/dialogctrl.lua:1084-1087 (dialogue reward), ES_StoryMazeDrop (270 rows with item 40031).