Secret Shops

I don't know if it was always wrong, but it definitely is now. For example, I used multiple chars to try to get into Anges' shop. Following the (previous) method on here, as well as the specifics on her page, led to a multihour slog of "Gift, talk, give gold".

The char that I simply spammed gifts on got into her shop in just a few minutes.

These characters were both identical mules, so there wasn't anything that would interfere there. I've confirmed this on several other NPCs. From what I can tell, talking to them with keywords is what actually stresses them most, for little or no intimacy gain.

Two characters isn't enough testing to change the wiki, nor is only using one NPC. I've now seen two people who haven't been able to get into Nele's secret shop using your method, and from some early testing using my characters I'm having no more luck with your method than how it was. When I have time I'll probably do some more serious testing and keep track of numbers, but do you have a spreadsheet or anything to prove your method? Otherwise that really seems to be observational bias and should be reverted to how it was so people can stop getting confused.

I did test this with multiple NPCs and characters. It's possible that Nele is different, I suppose.

I had data at one point, but I can't seem to find where I left it, so I'd welcome another extensive study on the matter. Rydian has also done research in this area. I believe he found essentially the same thing I did, perhaps with some minor variations.