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Encounter Repellant

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And any encounter, for that matter!

A spell, item or other thing that reduces or eliminates Random Encounters in a Roleplaying Game or other game with encounters.

This is often used for timed areas (when the clock won't stop for battles), when a player has done enough Level Grinding and wants to get to the Boss Battle, or if the party is in danger (like low health and used up practically all healing spells/supplies) and needs to head to the nearest Trauma Inn or Save Point ASAP.

Heck, it can even work with some Pre-existing Encounters, by causing the monsters to shy away from you.

Contrast Encounter Bait (and some games will have both), Draw Aggro (getting enemies to focus on you).


Examples:

  • Breath of Fire:
    • Breath of Fire I has the Mrbl3 item, which eliminated random encounters but not fixed encounters.
    • Breath of Fire II has the Smoke spell and item, and the HolySF accessory, which reduce the random encounter rate.
    • Breath of Fire III and Breath of Fire IV have the Holy Mantle accessory which reduces random encounters, and the Bell Collar accessory which increases random encounters.
  • The Brief and Meaningless Adventure of Hero Man: The Alarm Ring, obtained by beating Lord Doldrum once, turns off all encounters when equipped,
  • Bug Fables: The Bug Me Not! medal automatically defeats enemies in the overworld if the party is at a high-enough level. The final area has two exceptions: the fire-element Roach constructs are not affected until the postgame, instead of based on level, while the Dead Landers are always immune even at maximum level.
  • Dragon Quest:
    • Holy Water and the Repel/Holy Protection spell will repel weaker monsters, and certain characters can learn spells to simulate its effects.
    • Dragon Quest III: Thieves can learn the Tiptoe / Padfoot skill, which lowers the chance of triggering a Random Encounter. Unfortunately, it also raises the chance of being surprise-attacked when an encounter does trigger.
    • Dragon Quest VIII has the Gospel Ring. It eliminates random encounters when equipped, but the only way to get it is to defeat every enemy in the game at least once, including Rhapthorne and the final trial of the Lord of the Dragovians. So, by the time you get it, there's nothing left to do. However, the 3DS version allows you to obtain it by defeating most of the game's monsters, not counting the ones added into the 3DS version. In other words, it becomes more useful for what remains of the game.
  • Dragon Quest IX: The Ranger class has the Vanish ability, which turns the party invisible. Because encounters are now represented by monsters wandering around on the overworld, they stop chasing after you but it's still possible to start a battle by running into one (deliberately or accidentally).
  • Etrian Odyssey: The Ward Chime reduces the rate of monster encounters for a limited number of turns/steps, and certain classes have a skill with the same effect (or the inverse). Farmers from the third game can also learn Safe Stroll, which prevents non-fixed encounters altogether for a period of time.
  • Fallout: The first two games and Fallout Tactics have the Outdoorsman skill. If it is high enough and you encounter someone while traveling through the desert, you will be offered to choose if you want to meet them or keep moving.
  • Final Fantasy
    • With a few exceptions, riding on a chocobo eliminates random encounters in every Final Fantasy game. It doesn't avoid preset encounters, though, and most chocobo types can only travel over certain types of terrain.
    • Final Fantasy IV DS: The "Safe Travel" augment removes random encounters.
    • Final Fantasy V (GBA): The "Read Ahead" ability from the Oracle job cuts random encounters by half. There's also a glitch which can eliminate encounters.
    • Final Fantasy VI: Two relics cut down on encounters. The Charm Bangle cuts encounters in half, and the Moogle's Charm eliminates them altogether. However, only Mog and Gogo can equip the latter, and they're both Optional Party Members.
    • Final Fantasy VII: One of the materias reduces encounters at a greater rate depending on its level, from twenty percent fewer encounters to start, and no encounters at max level.
    • Final Fantasy VIII: Diablos' "Encounter Half" aptly lowers encounter rate by about 75% (despite the name), and "Encounter None" removes encounters altogether. It does nothing to avoid fixed encounters, however.
    • Final Fantasy X has "No Encounters" ability that can be customized onto an armor and also a weapon obtained from Geosgaeno which eliminates random encounters.
    • Final Fantasy X-2 features the Charm Bangle, which eliminates random encounters. The only location where it doesn't work, however, is the optional Via Infinito dungeon in Bevelle.
    • Final Fantasy XIV has all enemies ignore you if you're riding a porter chocobo or falcon mount (a mount that runs on auto pilot to your destination). The moment you dismount, it's fair game. Alternatively, if you're at least ten levels above an enemy, they will no longer attack on sight. The Disciple of the Land classes also have the "Sneak" ability, which prevents them from being attacked by enemies of up to four levels above you to gather materials in peace.
  • Glory of Heracles: The Sybll's Balm item reduces the rate of monster attacks for a limited time.
  • Golden Sun has the Sacred Feather item and the Avoid spell.
  • .hack//G.U. Vol. 3: Redemption: The Demon Safe Shoes are an accessory that makes you invisible to enemies in an area, and it also gives you a significant speed bonus.
  • Hollow Knight:
    • Defeating the Mantis Lords will cause all mantises in the Fungal Wastes to become neutral and cease to cause contact damage.
    • Two Charms will render enemies in certain areas neutral. The Void Heart causes the Siblings and the Void Tendrils of the Abyss, alongside the shade left behind when the player dies, to become passive. The Hiveblood has the same effect for the bees of the Hive.
  • Kingdom of Loathing has potions, skills, and equipment that you can use to decrease or increase the rate of combat encounters. There are also skills and items that can be used mid-combat to temporarily banish the particular type of enemy you're facing. Since you only have a limited number of adventures per day, changing the encounter rate depending on what would help you reach your current goal faster is a regular part of the game's strategy.
  • Legend of Legaia has the Good Luck Bell, and much later, the Evil Talisman as accessories that reduce the encounter rate, and Incense as a consumable item that does the same.
  • Lufia: Sweet Water. Particularly essential in the first installment, Lufia & The Fortress of Doom, which had an abysmally high encounter rate (fortunately bottles of Sweet Water were cheap enough that you could keep the effect active literally all the time).
  • Mega Man:
    • Mega Man Battle Network has SneakRun (ShinobiDash in the Japanese versions). It only repels weak normal enemies (Defined by how high your base max HP is compared to their's), however, which makes it handy for encountering the multitudes of bosses that show up randomly.
    • Mega Man Star Force also has this in the form of the Cloaker item. It's especially useful in the third game, as it allows both rare normal enemies and bosses to be fought. From the same game, the Chivalry weapon works as a lesser encounter repellent by simply reducing the normal enemy encounters as opposed to blocking them completely (alhough it doesn't actually say this anywhere in-game).
  • Monster Hunter: Throwing a Dung Bomb at any monster causes said it to flee after a moment. This is quite handy if you're dealing with two monsters at the same time. Unfortunately and obviously, this doesn't work for specific monsters with special single areas, like Lao-Shan-Lung or Jhen Mohran for example.
  • Octopath Traveler: One of the Scholar skills reduces the number of enemy encounters. Defeating the True Final Boss gives the player an accessory that eliminates them.
  • Paper Mario: The Fright Mask (Paper Mario 64 and The Thousand-Year Door) could scare away some weaker enemies during battle. The "First Attack" and "Bump Attack" badges could clear weaker enemies in the field.
  • Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth has an item called "Repulse Bell". You need a special item called "Repulse Alloy" to be able to buy them. They are disproportionately expensive for their limited practicality.
  • Pokémon
    • The "Repel" items (which resemble real-life bug repellant cans) prevent wild Pokémon encounters as long as the lead party member is a higher level than what you're encountering. It will not, however, avoid battles against other Pokémon Trainers. Generation II had the Pokémon Lullaby music on the Johto Radio Station; Generation III added the Black Flute for reducing the encounter rate, and Gen VI has the Stealth O-Power that reduces the rate.
    • A few Pokémon abilities note  can also reduce the encounter rate.
    • The Cleanse Tag is a held item introduced in Generation II. Equipped to the first Pokémon in the party, it reduces the rate of random encounters with lower-level wild Pokémon.
    • Inverted with the Generation II move Sweet Scent, which causes an instant random encounter if used outside of battle in a tile where wild Pokémon can appear (even overriding use of a Repel or Cleanse Tag).
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Most games have this around in both item and spell form, and the spell is often named Estoma. To note:
  • Skies of Arcadia Legends:
    • Equipping the White Map significantly reduces random encounters. By the time you get the White Map, you will have finished most of the game, making it useful only for Bragging Rights.
    • Making the Delphinus fly above or below the normal cloud line will allow you to travel across the world map with no random encounters. You get this ability fairly late in the game, but it's still useful for exploration and finding Discoveries.
  • Star Ocean: First Departure and Star Ocean: The Second Story: In the PSP versions, opening the UMD tray would make it impossible for random battles to trigger, though you have to close it and re-open it every time you go from one screen to another.
  • Tales Series: The Holy Bottles eliminate Random Encounters in the games that have them. In games where monsters are visible, using a Holy Bottle makes enemies either not notice you or run away from you. Holy Bottles also make enemies respawn slower. Certain food items in Tales of Destiny can gift the player with reduced encounters as a side effect.
  • Terraria:
    • Planted sunflowers grant the "Happy!" effect to nearby players, which slightly reduces enemy spawn rates.
    • The Calming Potion reduces enemy spawn rates slightly, as well as reducing the cap on how many enemies can be spawned in total.
    • The Invisibility Potion, in addition to its eponymous effect, also reduces enemy spawn rates slightly.
    • The Peace Candle, when held or placed, reduces enemy spawn rates and the enemy spawn cap by a fair amount.
    • NPCs reduce monster spawning rates under most circumstancesnote , causing harmless critters to spawn instead. The effect caps at three NPCs in the area, encouraging players to build little towns throughout the world to serve as safe zones.
  • Terraria Calamity:
    • The Zen Potion is a souped-up version of the vanilla Calming Potion, reducing enemy spawn rates and spawn cap by a massive amount.
    • The Tranquility Candle is an upgraded version of the vanilla Peace Candle, reducing enemy spawn rates slightly more and the enemy spawn cap by a lot more.
  • Tradewinds Legends has an item that causes you to encounter fewer pirates (but more storms).
  • Ultimate Custom Night: The Dee Dee Repel item will prevent Dee Dee from showing up to make your night harder by activating random animatronics.
  • ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal features the consumable Garlic Atomizer, which can be used to scare away any randomly attacking wild fairy.


Alternative Title(s): Encounter Repellent

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