Free wares from a hit Shopkeeper

Verified against the spelunky.ai port v0.1.12 on 28 October 2026.

Stealing from a shop, or bombing it, angers the Shopkeeper through one script, which shouts and marks the player a thief, so that a Shopkeeper waits at the next level's exit. Hitting him angers him too, but none of the ways to hit him calls that script. And an angry Shopkeeper's first step gives every ware away, so a player who hits him can carry the wares out free, with no theft. It may be by design.

The player buys a Pistol and shoots the Shopkeeper beside him, who falls stunned and drops his shotgun. He gets up angry, grabs the player and throws him against the floor, which costs a heart. The player then collects the shop's bomb bag, free, and no shout calls him a thief ^[1].

A crack of the Whip (or a Machete's slash) sets the Shopkeeper's status to ATTACK at once, and so do a thrown item's hit and a Piranha's bite; a bullet stuns him, and he gets up in ATTACK ^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]}. None of them calls scrShopkeeperAnger, the script that shouts and adds to the thief count ^[7]. But the first step of his attack frees every ware the game is running:

else if (status == ATTACK)
{
    image_speed = 1;
    
    if (not angered)
    {
        with oItem
        {
            cost = 0;
            forSale = false;
        }
        angered = true;
    }

A free ware isn't for sale, so carrying it out isn't a theft: the count stays at 0, so no Shopkeeper waits at the next level's exit, and its shops greet the player as before ^[8].

Hit a Shopkeeper, with the Whip, a thrown item or a shot, then take a ware. It happens in normal play. In the replay of the clip, the player buys a Pistol and shoots the Shopkeeper (frame 1490). He gets up in his attack (1545), which frees the bomb bag (1546), and the player collects it (1598): the thief count stays at 0 throughout ^[9]. Whipping one does the same: his attack frees the wares on the next step, with no shout and no thief ^[10].

The spelunky.ai port reproduces it exactly: it's in docs/quirks.md's list of the 1.1 source's bugs ^[8], and the oracle's fingerprint of the replay pins the free bag and the count. No option turns it off.