Biome preferences
Housing the Witch Doctor in a loved or liked biome lowers shop prices and unlocks pylon sales; hated biomes do the opposite.
Sells
10When in a specific biome and near another NPC.what it takes to get him
He wants a spare house and a dead Queen Bee, which puts him squarely in mid pre-Hardmode. Nothing else gates him, so the jungle trip you make for the hive doubles as the trip that recruits him. He is not a passenger once he arrives either: he answers anything that wanders into town with a blowgun, and the darts leave a long poison on whatever they hit, so he is one of the better neighbors to have during an early invasion. Like every resident he hits harder as you clear bosses.
his stock reads your location, not his
Several of his lines only appear in the jungle, and it is easy to assume that means building him a jungle house. It does not. The check looks at where the player opening the shop is standing, so he can live in your main town and still sell jungle-locked goods the moment you walk into the trees and talk to him from there. If you do want him physically closer for happiness reasons, a King Statue will yank him across the world for you.
the purchase to make first
The Imbuing Station is the one people leave until far too late. It unlocks flasks, a flask lasts through deaths and repeated boss attempts, and the damage it adds to melee weapons is out of all proportion to what a jungle-caught ingredient costs. Buy it the day he moves in.
The Bewitching Table is close behind and carries a condition worth planning for: it only appears on his shelf if the Wizard lives near him. Since the Wizard is a Hardmode rescue, that means deliberately pairing the two in one town before any serious fight. The extra minion slot it grants applies to whatever you already had summoned, so it is a free addition rather than a rebuild.
what he becomes after Plantera
Post-Plantera he turns into the summoner outfitter. The whole tiki set is his, and it is the best summon armor available at that point in a run. The Pygmy Necklace and the Hercules Beetle are the two accessories that make a minion build actually work, one adding a slot and the other making every minion hit harder, and both are cheap next to what they do.
The Leaf Wings are the awkward line. Night, jungle, post-Plantera, and expensive, which means an intentional trip with the money already in your pockets rather than something you notice in passing. The Vial of Venom is a materials purchase rather than a weapon, and it feeds several late upgrades, so buy it in quantity while you are standing there.
ammo that hides until you can fire it
Two of his lines stay invisible until you own the launcher that uses them. Carry a Stynger and the bolts appear. Carry a Stake Launcher and the stakes appear. Both are cheap and both are the only dependable supply for those weapons, so if either one is your main gun, he is your resupply point and worth keeping inside pylon range.
decoration and the seasonal odd one out
The water fountains are pure decoration and priced accordingly. Each recolors nearby water to match a biome, which only matters if you are building something themed, though they are also the quick way to make an artificial lake look like it belongs where you put it. The cauldron appears during Halloween and vanishes with it. He also offers a pylon under the usual conditions, which is worth taking if the jungle is where you want a stop.
who he actually is
He is a Lihzahrd, which the green skin and the tail give away, and the temple population still attacks him on sight regardless. The staff he leans on looks like a summon weapon at a glance but is a dreamcatcher, a hoop strung with web and hung with feathers. His title is an old term for a folk healer, a joke the game never follows through on, since he cannot heal you at all. Dunking him in shimmer changes his sprite and nothing else.