Art of Trading - Merchandise Guide
Seaside Bazaar
A guide by the Game Guru
Uncharted Waters is not exactly a typical MMO, and a non-typical MMO is not going to have a typical leveling path. This game is no different. The game offers three different paths, the one discussed here is the hardest to level up and potentially the most rewarding. So in this I’m just going to go through an appropriate path to level up your merchant.
Step 1: Do the full tutorial from start to finish
This is quite possibly the longest most brutal introduction to any game. However this introduction will give you an appropriate introduction to all the tasks you will be doing and at the end you’ll get a surge bonus of 1000 fame.
The tutorial comes in three sections, Beginner’s, Intermediate and Advanced. At the end of Advanced you will have to do ten quests in a row requiring you to go get a bunch of random materials. Once again, very lame but very worth it.
What you will be doing along the way is what you picked this character to do, trading. You purchase anything that is below 120% Market Index and sell it wherever it is profitable.
What opening skills do you want?
Food Trading -> Livestock Trading
Mineral Trading
Textile Trading
Crafts Trading
Sundries Trading
Cooking
With these skills you will slowly be bringing up your ability to trade larger and larger inventory. Cooking is especially good because if you pick up livestock or pork you can transform them into something 10x worth the value and get a lot of extra XP out of nowhere.
You will need this extra trading Dinari to pay for ships, fighting equipment (to defend yourself). You have to remember that new ships you buy will require some adventuring and fighting skills on top of your regular trading skill.
If you finish the tutorial that will get you to Level 20.
Step 2: Long specialty trading routes
Specialty trade routes grant you a lot of experience and grant a little bit of trade fame. It’s also going to be 100% profitable trading between trade regions. Specialties are commodities specific to that region. They are generally cheaper to purchase than most commodities of that type and are guaranteed to generate a profit once you leave that trading zone. The further away you are from that area the more valuable they are.
The only exception is alcohol and pork go for 0 in Muslim zones.
What you will be doing here is a specialty surge. The goal here is to get 50 of each specialty and move on to trade. If you have 50 of any you get a surge for that specialty. Every time you get another 50 within that same trade you get these massive surges.
My current biggest specialties trade is this:
Whisky (London)
Gin (Groningen/Amsterdam)
Dried Apples (Calais)
Apple Cider Vinegar (Calais)
Fruit Brandy (Nantes)
Lilac (Nantes)
This is sold at Marsaille for usually around 50-60k profit (which isn’t actually much).
After that I buy Prunes (Marsaille), Crossbows (Pisa), Glassworks (Naples/Venice), and Woad (Ragusa). I bring this stuff back to London and start over.
Anyone who is Dutch or English is 100% guaranteed to be best off doing this trade route.
If you are any other nationality you may want to look into Investing opportunities for your ports and what specialties they unlock.
Step 3: Investing
You invest at the Town Authority. Investing starts off being relatively cheap and slowly starts to scale up in value. At first you should be investing in various ports. After giving small investments (as little as investing twice) you will unlock more commodities for that zone.
You will need to unlock commodities so that you can make income quickly to purchase things like new ships, guns, and equipment.
One of the biggest things about investing is that many ports will be battle zone ports. If you can help flipping ports you will have to pay less and have more influence over trades on these ports.
Step 4: Level 40
This should get you to level 40 trade. After this point you will need to do the Spice Trade with some Company mates (protection). Most of the other territories in this game (Scandinavia, South America, East Africa, West Africa, and India) are all pretty volatile and without a fleet you will get ransacked by pirates remorselessly. - Fin - Note: Trading is one of the best part of this game. Dungeoning can gain trade and maritime levels, but you will never get adventure levels by doing so. A fast ship can change the course of your merchant life and gain experience of where or how to avoid pirate's, always remember that adventure is the most hardest to raise in this game. "Wealth is powered by the thousands". - Shingetsu |
Basic Trade Routs by Aika Sato
[ mmorpg.com/blogs/aika_sato ]
Short distance trade with handicrafts/cooking/sewing/casting for beginner profits (exp/fame not first priority)
1. Very good trade route is Antwerp-Den Helder.
You need at least level 3 cooking and level 3 handicrafts and level 1 sewing.
Let's say we start at Helder, buy all chicken - pluck feathers (sewing1, Fabric Secrets - Hardwares book, bought in Amsterdam for 5000D), buy all sheep - make lamb (cooking3, Livestock secrets - Sheep book, 8000D Amsterdam), sell lamb to market keeper (profit of 40-60k in couple of minutes). Even better if you have cooking level 5 and can make sausages (level 5 recipe from the sheep book). Then make sausages and sell to market keeper - even better profit. After doing that sail to Antwerp, sell feathers (or you can sell feathers in Calais nearby for better exp/fame), buy all wheat and pork (if you have level 5 cooking - then buy pork).
Make Akvavit from wheat ( handicrafts 3, book Brewery Secrets from Hamburg for 10000D) and sausages from pork (cooking 5, book Livestock secrets - Pigs, 8000D from Porto). Sail back to Helder and sell everything. Repeat :) It's quite good early money, can make several 100 000's per hour this way. But it gets boring quickly.
2. Bergen - Oslo if you have Historical Crafts Guide book.
Bergen has Rye and Lumber, while Oslo - Wool and Lumber.
Go to Bergen, buy Rye and Lumber, make Vodka (handicrafts 3, brewery secrets book) or Whiskey (handicrafts 4, same book), and make Wooden figures from Lumber (handicrafts 3, Historical Crafts Guide book, 400000D investment in Cairo). Now sail to Oslo, sell everything there (can make some 80-150k profit easily), buy Lumber and Wool in Oslo (Lumber->Wooden figures). Make woolen cloth (sewing 3, book Fabric secrets - Cloth, 10000D Antwerp/Helder) or knitted cloth (sewing 4, same book), even better flannel (sewing7, Fabric Secrets - Fine Cloth, 240000D invest + 100000D price) or tweed (sewing8, same as flannel).
Mid distance trading
1. Spare rudders/Spare sails.
All you need is Casting level 2 (book Shipwright Basics, 10000D Antwerp) and Sewing 2 (Shipwright Basics, 10000D Antwerp).
Sail to Amsterdam, make 400 spare sails(can take up to 5-6 trips to Amsterdam, can sail to Helder, make feathers, lamb, sausages etc for quick profits too as mentioned earlier) - 200 in inventory and 200 in store. Then sail to Oslo (more lumber on sale than Bergen), make 400 Spare rudders.
Now the problem is that in North Sea area the price for these has fallen a lot. So you'd need to sail to Lisbon to sell sails (1.5-1.6 ea, 350-400k profit, but no exp), and search for a place to sell rudders (don't really know in Europe as I always sell my rudders in Luanda when going to India or so. Can sell sails here too). So all in all you can make 700-800k profit easily, but will get no exp for it.
2. Velvet to Northern Europe. Basically buy all velvet in Genoa/Pisa (now sells it too), max price would be 4000-4500 per unit, the lower the better.
In NE you can sell it for ~5500-6000, so it is a profit of 1000-2500 per unit. Usually if I can't buy it for 4000ea I don't bother.
3. Diamonds/Gold/Ivory to Northern Europe. You can buy these in West Africa, after some investment. Problem is these sell in small amounts, 4-6 in each market with no trading skills. So metal/gem trading is a must for it to be really effective route. For example you can buy diamonds for 2.5-3.5k in Luanda and sell them for 9-10k in Northern Europe. Great profit. Cons: need West Africa permit, which is 6000-8000 fame depending on nation
4. Silver/Gold dust/Caribbean specialties/Ginger to Northern Europe. Need port permits of course.
This is the route I am experimenting right now with, as going to India takes 3 hours of sailing there and back.
Silver is attractive as you can buy it for 1.2-1.5k in Santo Domingo, and sell for around 4000 in Northern Europe. Also with precious metal trading skill you can load it up quite quickly with sailing to San Juan and back.
Another great commodity is Ginger, can buy it for 250 or so in Jamaica, sells for 2000-2500.
Also every specialty except peanuts can get you around 1000-1500 profit per item, good exp and fame. Thats cacao, tobacco, tequila, pineapples.
There is also expensive dye in Jamaica, thyrian purple or something, can get around 3000 profit per item (buy for 4000 sell for 7000).
With trade job I get around 5000-6000 exp per route, and it takes only 1.5-2 hrs at most, earning 1-2m profit (largely depends on goods transported).
Bring Northern Europe specialties to Caribs, or just Dutch Calico for max profits (sells for 1500 profit per item or so).
5. Antique art/Damask fabric/Turkish carpets to Northern Europe.
If you can buy these for good prices (till 110-115%), can sell for 2-3k profit per item in Northern Europe.
The problem is that sailing to Beirut from Amsterdam takes a lot of time, Caribbean is a better choice imo.
Long distance trade
One word - India
The ultimate trade route, takes ages, but profit is too attractive to resist.
When sailing to India, you can earn around 1-1.5m with Europe->India trip.
When going back, the profits are insane.
For example sold Ruby/Sapphire for 15k ea in Antwerp yesterday. Can buy these for 3-5k in Ceylon.
Other great goods: Cat's eye, Cinnamon, Cardamom, Pepper, Aventurine.
Gem trading is very helpful, also spice trading would help too.
Need lots of fame to get permits though.
One word - India
The ultimate trade route, takes ages, but profit is too attractive to resist.
When sailing to India, you can earn around 1-1.5m with Europe->India trip.
When going back, the profits are insane.
For example sold Ruby/Sapphire for 15k ea in Antwerp yesterday. Can buy these for 3-5k in Ceylon.
Other great goods: Cat's eye, Cinnamon, Cardamom, Pepper, Aventurine.
Gem trading is very helpful, also spice trading would help too.
Need lots of fame to get permits though.