The 10% rule
Quests (the bounties, sellsword contracts, gear hunts and expeditions on the jobs board) pay a fee that depends on how they turn out. In 2.1.8 a triumph pays 125% of the posted fee, a mixed result 100%, an ill-fated quest 50% and a lost one nothing. If any hero in the questing party is a Hard Bargainer, the payout is multiplied by 1.1.
Three details are worth knowing:
- It applies to every paying outcome. A triumph pays 137.5% of the fee instead of 125%, and an ill-fated quest 55% instead of 50%.
- One is enough. The game checks whether the party contains a Hard Bargainer at all, so a second one adds nothing.
- It is already in the quote. The pay shown when you plan a quest includes the bonus, so you can compare parties before you commit.
Delve purses are untouched. This is a quest trait.
What 10% is worth
The value scales with how much questing you do. A guild that keeps one or two parties on the road between fixtures collects several quest fees a season, and the bonus applies to each of them at no cost to the hero: they do not need to fight better, travel faster or take a different role. Over a year it can cover a meaningful slice of one hero’s wages, which is more than most “economy” traits manage.
The economy planner shows how quest income sits against your six-day settlements if you want to see the effect on your books.
The market event
A Hard Bargainer on the roster adds a choice to “A Glut at Market”: send them to haggle, at a cost of 90 gold. The alternative that does the same job through the quartermaster costs 180. Thrifty and Coin-Minded heroes unlock the same option, and the game picks one eligible hero from the roster. See the events page.
In the dungeon
When a Hard Bargainer leads the party and the dungeon offers a fork, they lean +2 toward the treasure side room and against the known path. With nothing pulling the other way, that is about an 80% chance of taking the treasure room whenever it is the side option. The treasure room carries a gold bonus on top of its contents, so this is a lean that usually pays, but it does mean a detour on a party you might have wanted to keep moving.
Flavour hooks
Quest reports have their own Hard Bargainer lines, and on pair duty the hero speaks with the “coin” voice shared with Thrifty, Coin-Minded, Greedy and Light-Fingered. Neither changes an outcome. The trait’s link to Decisions on the hero card is a label only.
Using a Hard Bargainer
- Put them on every quest you can. The bonus does not depend on their role or performance, so they are the cheapest way to lift a whole party’s fee.
- Choose high-value contracts. Ten percent of a large bounty is real money; ten percent of a small errand is not worth pulling them off a delve rotation.
- Pair them with road traits. Road-Hardened heroes come back from quests with half the usual fatigue, so a Hard Bargainer travelling with them can be sent out again sooner.
- Mind morale. Quests change morale on return (+10 for a triumph, −8 for a bad result), so a Hard Bargainer used constantly on risky contracts needs the occasional easy win.
Conflicts and rarity
Hard Bargainer can never appear with Generous.
- Rarity: uncommon, positive · draw weight 45 of 6,365 · about 1 recruit in 57
- Founding draft: any card.
- In the wiki’s archive: first present in the 2.1.8 build (absent from 2.0.7).
Recruiting
A solid, low-risk positive for any guild that quests regularly, and nearly blank for a guild that only delves. Because one per party is enough, there is no reason to stack them: one Hard Bargainer per travelling party is the whole value.