A type of item or ability, Encounter Bait is used to attract enemies into Random Encounters.
While this seems counterintuitive since random encounters are often seen as a nuisance, forcing more can be quite useful to speed up the Level Grinding or Money Grinding processes. Some games also have bait that will increase the encounter rates of specific enemy types, which can be quite helpful in its own way. For example, hunting down a Rare Random Drop from a particular mook.
Combine with a Random Drop Booster to further increase the odds of getting that Rare Random Drop.
Compare Draw Aggro.
Contrast Encounter Repellant (which makes the enemies stay away). Some games have both.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Near the beginning of Bleach, Uryu uses a Hollow-summoning bait during a contest with Ichigo to determine who can destroy the most Hollows.
Fan Works
- In My Huntsman Academia, Katsuki is a living example of this. His Hair-Trigger Temper and tendency towards Comical Overreacting make him irresistible to the Grimm. For reference, he and Ruby had to fight their way through eleven Beowolves and an Ursa during Initiation.
Literature
- Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Cheat Powers: Flio's Bottomless Bag that was gifted to him by the King of Klyrode is enchanted with Monster-Luring Magic as part of the king's attempt to have him killed. Flio manages to dispel it.
- Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: At one point, Lilliluka drops a few of them near Bell after she steals his equipment.
- Villainess Level 99: Protagonist Yumiella used one for her obsessive Level Grinding until she reached the level cap. Everyone else in the world considers this item cursed and completely insane to use at all.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons: over the years there have been a number of magic items that increase the chance of Random Encounters. However, these are usually considered cursed items because randomly encountered monsters usually have less treasure than normal and the resulting fights either (a) just wear down the PC party for no gain or (b) interfere in the party's current mission.
Video Games
- In APICO, you can craft incenses that increase the spawn rate of butterflies and solitary bees nearby.
- The Brief and Meaningless Adventure of Hero Man: The Bullhorn item, obtained by beating Lord Doldrum twice, can be used to force a random encounter in any map where they can occur.
- In the original The Legend of Zelda, you can purchase monster bait. It's mostly used as a bribe to get past one of the dungeons, but if you use it on any other screen the monsters are drawn to it.
- There's a variety of ways to increase the rate of wild Pokémon encounters, most of which were added in Pokémon Gold and Silver. The move "Sweet Scent", items like "Sweet Honey" and the "White Flute", or tuning into the Johto Radio station while it's playing the Pokémon March; Pokémon with certain abilities note also increase certain encounter rates, and even using the Bicycle or Running Shoes in games that have them will increase the encounter rate (an early NPC in HeartGold and SoulSilver cautions that "the extra noise will attract them").
- Traveling in a zig-zag pattern (e.g. up, right, up, left, repeat) is also noted to increase the encounter rate in all generations including the first, because the player character turns to face that direction before taking an actual step. In fact, it is possible to generate Random Encounters on demand by repeatedly tapping different directions on the control pad to turn the player character without taking any steps at all. This is especially useful in the Safari Zones, where the player has to leave after taking a certain number of steps.
- Gen V adds the Encounter O-Power,which also increases the encounter rate,albeit for a set time period.
- Pokémon GO: The Incense and Lure Module items attracts Pokemon to the user and a Pokestop respectively for 30 minutes.
- The Black Map in Skies of Arcadia, which not only increases the Random Encounter rate, but also prevents enemies from running away from battle... very useful for grinding Loopers.
- In Golden Sun, you receive the Lure Cap as a prize for winning Colosso. Naturally, wearing it will increase the number of monsters you find. To get it in The Lost Age, you have to transfer it with the rest of your save file. In Dark Dawn, you get it from killing a Chest Monster in the Craggy Peak Ruins.
- In NetHack you can use the Create Monster spell to create a hostile random monster to kill. However, only wizards who have the wizard quest artifact regenerate Mana quickly enough to make casting this spell over and over and over a viable tactic.
- The GBA version of Final Fantasy V has the Lure ability for Gladiators.
- Final Fantasy VII has a materia that raises encounter rates, and another that specifically allows Chocobos to spawn in battle (to facilitate catching and taming them).
- Dragon Quest:
- The "Whistle" skill always starts a battle.
- Dragon Quest III: In the remakes, Jesters can learn the Whistle ability, which instantly triggers a random encounter.
- Dragon Quest V has Monster Munchies, which can be used to lure monsters in the field and distract them in battle.
- Many Shin Megami Tensei games have this in both item and spell form, and the spell is often named Riberama. To note:
- "Enemy Welcome" and the higher-level "Enemy Challenge" in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. However, they're sub-applications installed on the Demonica, so they remain effective for as long as they're installed.
- Both Digital Devil Saga games only have it in item form as the Magic Reed. Being able to buy them requires selling a certain number of cells to a vendor in the first game or a high-enough rank in the second game's shop.
- Tradewinds Legends has an item that causes you to encounter fewer storms, but more pirates.
- Terraria has a few of these items. The Battle Potion, which increases the spawn rate by 50% and doubles the maximum spawn limit (the amount of enemies on screen). Holding a water candle (in 1.2, also just being near a placed one) out also does a similar effect. There's also the Calming Potion and Peace Candle, which does the opposite.
- Final Fantasy IV has Sirens, consumable items which force an encounter right then. Highly valued by completionists, as the encounter forced is fixed and is generally the rarest encounter in the area—which generally have the best treasures available as random drops. They're basically the only way to encounter Flan Princesses/Pink Puffs with any kind of regularity—ridiculously rare critters with ridiculously rare and valuable treasure.
- Dark Bottles in the Tales Series. Although the encounters are pretty frequent anyhow, they turn the fights from one every five steps to one every two steps in the games that utilize random encounters. In the games with visible monsters, they make defeated monsters respawn much faster, make them notice you from farther away, and increase their world map movement speed.
- In Zeboyd Games' Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World, the "Fight" command in the menu forces your party into a battle if you're outside a town. Since each zone has a finite number of Random Encounters (20 for individual dungeons, and 200 for the Overworld Not to Scale), this command can be used even if that cap has been used up, just in case you want to level grind just before a tough boss battle. Alternatively, it can be used near a Healing Checkpoint to grind out all the Random Encounters at once with a handy recharge between battles, as well as making exploration easier once the cap has been reached.
- Space Rangers 2 has the Transfactor Beacon, an artifact that causes the star system to be attacked by Kelleroid dominators — useful both for Level Grinding (until a certain patch, at least) and for causing Enemy Civil War.
- ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal has the Ocean Conch, which you get fairly early in the game but works only on the water fairies (who are considerably less aggressive than other types), and Fairy Horn, which works on every wild fairy but is very well-hidden.
- Mega Man Battle Network:
- The Oil Body, Fish, Battery, and Jungle programs increase the encounter rate for enemies of the corresponding elements — handy when hunting for certain Battle Chips. A story quest in Battle Network 3 requires you to use the Fish program in particular to force a specific virus to spawn for that very purpose.
- The Sneak Run program is normally supposed to be Encounter Repellant, but will instead boost the overall encounter rate if it's causing a Navi Customizer glitch.
- Locate Enemy will increase the chance that the last specific Random Encounter formation will spawn again. Nice for hunting some optinal bosses (which only appear as part of the random enemy table) to optimize their deletion time for your records.
- Fire Emblem: Awakening has the Reeking Box item, which causes a company of Risen to show up on the map.
- Legend of Legaia has the Bad Luck Bell and briefly the Nemesis Gem, both of which are accessories that when equipped, increase the random battle rate.
- Red Dead Redemption features an item simply called bait, which increases the spawn rate of wild animals as well as drawing them towards the spot where you placed the bait. This is not always a safe item to use, as Marston takes much more damage from animals versus bullets, and the bait has a significant chance to attract carnivores. These predators will gladly forget about the bait that summoned them and start targeting you instead, which means that you may inadvertently end up summoning upwards of twenty wolves within minutes, or get blindsided by a ninja strike team of cougars.
- The Gold Necklace accessory appearing in the Shadow Hearts trilogy. The Flavor Text varies from game to game but it always mention an ancient Egyptian curse as the responsible for the increased encounter rate.
- Kingdom of Loathing has potions, skills, and equipment that you can use to increase or decrease the rate of combat encounters. There are also skills and items that can be used mid-combat to temporarily attract more of whatever you're currently fighting, most infamously Transcendent Olfaction. 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.
- Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass: The out-of-battle ability of the Revolting Blob, when activated, summons one of the Random Encounters of the area.
- Various Yakuza games have some item that draws the attention of thugs and lowlifes, usually described as a particularly flashy piece of clothing. A notable example is the "Mew Shoes" from Yakuza 0, which generate cat meows every time Kiryu/Majima takes a step, and draw in thugs that get pissed off by the annoying sound.
- The Freetime expansion pack for The Sims 2 has an aspiration benefit reward for the Popularity Aspiration where the likelihood of bringing home a colleague or classmate from work or school is increased, where you can interact with them to befriend them. The Romance Aspiration meanwhile has a benefit that increases the chance Sims with higher chemistry (read: attraction potential) will walk by the house.
Webcomics
- In Awful Hospital, the 'Flenst Hoim' item is described as an 'attractant gland' that 'increases frequency of violent engagement with similar bioforms'. The Buzzers eventually chose not to purchase it, so we have yet to see it in action.
