Complete Nanban Guide

What is Nanban?

Nanban is a unique trading system which mimics historical / real world trading at that time.

In this system, as in historical times, trade was not performed with "money" or "ducats" but with goods that both sides agreed was valuable.

Example

So instead of purchasing goods directly from Nagasaki and selling it at Seville, you need first to obtain some valuable trade goods (in the eyes of Nagasaki), sail to nagasaki and trade it for what Nagasaki has in stock.

Table of Contents

This guide is composed of the following sections:

• Requirements
• Port Permits
• Bribing EA Officials
• Quick start
• Buying valuable goods
• Choosing which EA good to bring back
• How do I get more EA goods?
• How do I increase my profits?
• Unlocking EA Cities and hidden goods
• Typical Disasters in a Nanban Trip
• Nanban system mechanics
• How to protect the market
• How to set up company nanban
• Franban day
• Resources

Requirements

• EA (East Asia) Port Permit
• Bribe City Officials
• Valuable Goods (from outside EA)

Each requirement will be treated separately.

Port Permit

East Asia Port Permit is obtained in an imperial quest at Manila.

To get to Manila you will need to have all other Port Permits unlocked (Except West Coast of North America).

Permits unlock by fame level:

• Northern Europe
• North Atlantic Ocean
• West Mediterranean
• East Mediterranean
• West Africa
• South Atlantic Ocean
• East Africa
• Red Sea
• Indian Ocean
• Caribbean Ocean

Permits unlocked by Imperial Quests:

1. East Coast of South America
2. Southeast Asia
3. Oceania
4. West Coast of South America
5. Panama Canal
6. Suez Canal
7. East Asia

You have to complete Imperial Quest in the exact order they were presented here.The reason is that the NPC (Nation's consul won't talk to you if you didn't). Fame based permits are done in the fame order and depends on your character's nation.

Check my guide to unlock port permits here.

Bribing EA City officials

Yeah, the game requires you to bribe city officials to smuggle goods to Europe! Strange, huh?

East Asia is divided in 4 regions:

• Japan
• Korea
• South China
• Taiwan

You will have to bribe a city official in each region to gain access to do Nanban trading:

• Macau (South China)
• Tamsui (Taiwan)
• Pohang (Korea) 
• Nagasaki (Japan)

Each official requires 1000 Gift Points. Those points depend on the type of good you brought (and the back stock of the town).

Local Specialty Goods are the best. People usually bring whiskey which should be OK in all.

200-300 whiskey per toon/city should be enough. If you have 3 toons and want to unlock all 4 regions you should bring 4 X 3 X 300 (3600 whiskey).

Other good choices are Sherry and Glasswork (You have to bring more goods).

Note 1: You cannot gift different good types at same moment. You need to get the 1000 bribing points.
Note 2: Be careful of towns in "recession status" as the gifting effectiveness is reduced.

Nanban Quick Start Guide

Requirements:

• EA Port Permit
• At least one city official bribed

Instructions

Step 1: Buy (or collect or procure) goods to take to EA

Step 2: Go to an EA port where you can trade (Because you bribed some honest official)

Step 3: Go to the market keeper, choose the trade button, choose the cargo and push OK button.

Step 4: Choose which item you want in return. The number of goods you get is final here but I'll teach you how to get more later in this guide.

Step 5: Sail back to Europe and sell it to the market keeper (or players)

This is what you need to know to get STARTED. Everything below is about giving you tips and tricks to make this trade more PROFITABLE for you.

Buying Valuable Goods to take to EA

Good value

Not all goods are made same. 

• Some goods may give you good trading rates, like getting you 1 unit per good you brought.
• Some will trade, but you will have to give a lot and get few in exchange
• Some will be rejected by EA merchants and you will have lost your time.

So every good has a value. And this value is different in the 4 different EA regions.

If you do not bring a valuable good (In the eyes of the beholder) you will likely be better off doing spice runs.

One of the most popular good bought for nanban trading is wine. Wine is very popular in Japan and trades well for Saori, a valuable EA good in Iberia.

However, wine is worthless in Korea and Taiwan.

To find which are the most valuable goods to take to EA I recommend The Nanban Wizard. He will give you a list of all goods that you can trade 1:1 in your chosen EA city (He has the eye of the beholder!).

Understanding the Backstock

Whenever a good is traded in an EA city, its value decreases (Law of Supply and Demand in effect here too!). When this happens we say its backstock has increased. 

This means there is more wine/alcohol available (Example given above) and future trades will give less value. In another words, the next player (or your alt) will get less EA goods in return for the same amount of wine offered.

As wine is used a lot, its backstock tends to be high sometimes, which means less EA goods for you. The game also has a counter mechanism which will take its backstock to normal levels with time (If players cease to trade with the market).

I hope you understand the concept of backstock by this point. It will help you choose which goods to bring to EA. You should choose goods with low backstock.

Have you ever noticed a Nanban Trade Merchant in major european cities?

Yes this guy will tell you which goods have low backstock. Well not in english if you know what I mean...

He will present you backstock graphs for each good type: foodstuffs, wares, sundries, etc...

Dots in the bottom of the graph mean LOW backstock (good to take to EA)

Example of good type to take: Medicine with low backstock

Note: The red arrow points to the current stock (right now)

Learn which good types have low backstock where you want to trade in order to make your decision.

Town Status

Town Status in a red rectangle

Town status also influentiate the trade in two ways:

• By changing the backstock

Say your city has a "war" status. Weapons backstock is likely to decrease, making it interesting to you to bring these kind of goods with you.

• By changing the value of goods

We could have a good that was a good trade (1:1) on normal town status and have it become a poor trade choice in a specific town status. Likewise a low value trade good (in normal status) may become highly valuable.

Here are all possible town status:

• Normal
• War
• Plague
• Drought
• Flood Damage
• Cold Damage
• Recession
• Boom
• Build ship Special Order
• Festival

As you can see in this section, it requires a lot of experience to select what goods to bring and make a good trade. 

It's also not a good idea to share your best trade routes as people could just copy it and make it less profitable for you.

Choosing which EA Good to take back

EA good profit

First question is: 

Where do you want to sell it?

One good choice is your home port and territory, as you get tariffs exemption (More profit).

Thing is, european cities do not give the same price (profit) for the same EA goods. 

So you have to shift your mindset and ask:

What is more profitable in my destination city?

Note: European regions are divided in cultural regions (follow the link to learn more), each shows the same base price for a specific EA trade good.

You can check how much your city (Region) pays for your EA Good in ivyro. Choose the EA city region you intend to do trade below:

• South China
• Taiwan
• Korea
• Japan

Another alternative, a much easier way, is using the Nanban Wizard. He will tell you... 

• Where you should sell what you have already bought (for max profit) OR 
• What you should buy to have the highest profit where you intend to sell.

Understanding the backstocks

Whenever you receive EA goods (Let's say Saori) from a trade in an EA city, the Law of Supply and Demand comes into play again. When this happens we say Crafts (Saori) backstock has decreased (You took things from their stock and reduced it). 

This means there is less of that EA kind (Crafts) available and future trades will get less EA goods in return for the same amount of goods brought/offered.

If Saori is choosen a lot, its backstock tends to be low sometimes, which means less EA goods for you. The game also has a counter mechanism which will take its backstock to normal levels with 

time (If players cease to trade with the market).

As I said above it's not a good idea to share your best trade routes as people could just copy it and make it less profitable for you.

I hope you understand the concept of backstock by this point. Now It will help you choose which EA goods to bring to europe. You should choose goods with high backstock. They will give you more goods in return.

The market keeper in EA cities has the same graphs as the "Nanban Trade Merchant" in major european cities. Yes this guy will tell you which goods have high backstock. Well not in english if you know what I mean...

He will present you backstock graphs for each good type: foodstuffs, wares, sundries, etc...

Dots in the top of the graph mean HIGH backstock (good to take to europe)

Dots in the middle means medium backstock.

Example of fabrics with HIGH backstock

The last dot to the right is the most current reading of the market (In this example it also means backstock is increasing).

So which one do I pick?

Learn which good types have high backstock AND are highly profitable where you want to sell them in order to make your decision.

How do I get more EA goods?

• Plan your route carefully.
• Reduce the amount of water and food you carry or don't carry them at all (Requires knowledge to deal with disasters).
• Read backstock info and take high value goods to EA.
• Have a high trading skill (R20 if possible) in the same good type (Crafts for example). 2% more goods per rank (Do the maths for R20). So grinding your trading skills is very important.
• Have a nanban EX equipped (Improves backstock which gives you more goods in return)
• Have the Nanban Trade Preference ship skill on your main ship (20% more EA goods). Doesn't work when it is with your aide (Also not sharable with members of your fleet).
• Use Nanban Purveyor Certificate - NPC. It used to costs between 2m to 5m but developers are making this item more common to encourage nanban trading. They allow you to fill up your cargo (1:1) in one trade.
• Invest in a north american railway company that favours nanban trading.
  

How do I increase my profits?

1. Unlock more EA Cities and hidden goods like Saori from Sakai (Read below).
2. Increase the amount of goods you can carry. Clermonts are great for the task.
3. Plan your trip carefully to bring goods that are valuable in your nation's domains.
4. Protect the market BEFORE selling your EA goods (So its price doesn't fall, more on this later)
5. Sell your EA Goods in home, territory or ports allied with your nation.
6. Have high accounts and sociability skills for haggling. (Up to +20% prices at market)
7. Equip the Fortune Maker title (Up to +10% price. Stacks). Requirements: Level 80 trade, 40k culture investment in each of the 4 EA markets, 360k fame, 800m cash in bank account.
8. Use renegotiation demand consumable if haggling fails (to allow you to haggle again).
9. Set up a bazzar and sell to players.
10. Participate in the franban day (More details below).

Unlocking more EA Towns and Hidden Goods

It takes contribution points to open new trading posts (Cities) for trade or new (hidden goods) EA goods.

South China New Trading Posts

Quanzhou: 10,000 

Hangzhou: 20,000 

Yuntaishan: 30,000 

Chongqing: 40,000 

Taiwan New Trading Post

Anping: 20,000 

Korea New Trading Posts 

Hanyang: 5,000 

Busan: 40,000 

Japan New Trading Posts 

Sakai: 5,000 

Edo: 40,000 

South China Hidden Goods

Luo han guo: 31,000 

Wuxu Porcelain: 33,000 

Gumo Ink: 37,000 

Huzhou Brush: 40,000 

Mianzhu nian hua: 44,000

Taiwan Hidden Goods 

Orange Daylily: 26,000

Water Caltrop: 46,000 

Korea Hidden Goods 

Yangzhou Chestnut: 32,000 

Korean Black Raspberry: 37,000 

Korean Cactus: 43,000 

Japan Hidden Goods 

Soft Rush: 34,000 

Paper lantern: 43,000 

Saori: 45,000 

Typical (Dangerous) Disasters in a Nanban Trip

These are common dangers you will face in a nanban trip. You should learn about them so you can avoid (or mitigate) them.

Fire

Burns flammable goods (And your profits). Example: Foodstuff, Luxury goods, Spices, Medicine, Fibres, Fabrics, Fragrances, Sundries.

Solution: Aide with Fire Prevention and water at all times available.

Strong Wind

Also knows as "Squall damage" or "sudden gust of wind". May occur in a lot of places along a nanban trip and take you days out of course if you are distracted with something else. Check the disaster map for their typical location.

Solution: Ship skill Wind-resistant mast or aide with Windbreak skill.

Rats

Eats Foodstuff kind of goods. Rats do NOT eat livestock, fibres etc...

Solution: Aide with the Cat Breeding skill or the Sanitation Room ship skill.

Mutiny

If you sail without water, food or ducats this will eventually happen.

Solution: Carry water, food or ducats at all times. If you choose not to (Greed, huh?), carry VoCs to try to mitigate and/or bring aboard an aide with Persuation skill. 

High Wave

May damage your ship's equipment. 

Solution: Increase your ship's wave resistance (by improvements) to counter this. Also possible to use the aide skill breakwater or the ship skill wave-resistant armouring.

Pirates

May reduce your crew and steal some of your cargo and ducats. In all cases they are a minor nuisance and will only slow down your profit making machine called "Nanban Trading".

Avoid travelling with lots cash, valuable items and/or bring tributes to pirates (Both player and NPCs)

Nanban System (Mechanics info)

• When you bribe the region city official you have to keep trading (Market Keeper) in order to gain trust and unlock other cities (within the same region) and hidden goods.
• You can give as many trade goods as want AS LONG as they are from the same type (i.e Wares, Livestock etc...).
• You may only get ONE kind of nanban good at a time (in return).
• You may only trade if you have at least 50 units with you.
• You need to port reset (Port hop) to do another nanban trade (i.e you brought different good types).
• If you choose to take nanban goods that the EA city is lacking (low backstock), you will lose contribution points in that region. Likewise, if you bring goods that currently have a high backstock, your exchange rate will be bad and you will also lose contribution points in that region.
• Each city backstock will vary in real time according to player activity. If a player delivers wares to a city, the wares backstock will increase, making it harder for the next player (or your alt) to trade his wares for nanban goods. Converselly If you take a fibre nanban good the city's fibre backstock will decrease.
• EA cities may be affected by certain events like War, Recession, Flood etc... and preferred goods and backstocks are affected by these events.
• You may take EA goods from one region (i.e. Japan) and trade in another region. Not recommended for most people.
• The exchange is determined by the amount and value of the goods you brought with you, the backstock of the good type you brought and the backstock of the EA good you chose to receive.
• Good value is subjective. Each region likes some and dislikes others. Also, value is not entirely related to distance from EA or region specialty.
• If the EA city's backstock reach 0 (Bottom of the graph), the EA good of that type will not show up.

Market Protection How to

Why should we protect the market?

Argument 1: Imagine that someone from your nation was 5 minutes ahead of you with the same trade goods. They found a port at 130%, so they sold all they had and crashed the market, which means you will not sell it at that good price.

Not convinced? OK, you think you will always be the guy ahead of everybody... NEXT ARGUMENT!

Argument 2: You have a 3 toon fleet and just sold your first toon cargo at 130% and crashed the market. Your 2nd and 3rd toon will than sell their cargo at 80%, or you will have to find another port (sail) to get good prices.

So there you have it, a moral and a selfish argument to justify why you should protect the market first. So how do we do it?

Instructions

1. Check if the market is already crashed. If so, you don't need to do anything else. Tip: The market keeper will say "Welcome" if the markets is not crashed.
2. If it's not crashed yet, check and see if your trade good TYPE is available at the Market. By type I mean crafts, seasonings etc... 
3. Markets are resistant to crashing with goods from the same type they sell. They usually show the message "good type A is getting popular".
4. If the market you want to sell is not crash resistant (or you want to stay on the safe side), you need find/bring a good type, that is different from the good you want to sell, and use it to to crash the market. The purpose is to have the market crashed with a DIFFERENT good type than yours, so you will lock in the good prices for 3 HOURS.
5. It's easy to find these different trade good types around busy ports like Seville and London.
6. 50 is a good number to bring. Make sure to make at least 1m profit and it will likely crash in the first attempt.

Note: Most Cities lack a firearm type of good, so that's usually a good to choice of crashing trade good (If that's not the one kind you want to sell!).

How to set up Company Nanban

Company leaders may choose from 4 EA Cities to have as their trading outpost:

• Macau (South China)
• Tamsui (Taiwan)
• Pohang (Korea) 
• Nagasaki (Japan)

After choosing the city, the leader (Director) needs to go there and bribe the city official (Yeah! More  BRIBING!). It works the same way as for individuals but you need to obtain 4000 points.

Once the company trading outpost has been set up, any member of the company may perform a trade to that specific port at the base city of your company admin office (in Seville, London etc...).

Members may trade up to 100 goods at a time (at least 10) and will be reward with EA goods at the end of the contribution month (usually around 15th). If you want to trade again you will need to port reset or port hop.

Members that contributed throughout the month may receive up to 50 EA goods of a random type.

This trade will also add contribution points to the company to further unlock a liner (to that specific city). You may also reduce the contribution points if you choose a poor good to trade.

Note 1: You cannot carry goods in liners, even if the liner is from your company.

To unlock the liner you need 25000 points. It may be less if you have less than 50 members in your company.

Note 2: The liner will appear or disappear around the 15th of each month.

Note 3: If you (or your company members) talk to the market keeper at your company trading city (must have one), you will receive 10 MSTs.  Limit: One set of 10 per month per toon.

Monthly San Francisco Nanban Goods day (aka Franban day)

Every month there is a day where you can buy EA goods from the market keeper at San Francisco.

The type of good is randomly chosen and you can buy it just like every other trade good on the market.

The day is not fixed and depend on player's action.

Tip: Please don't ruin everybody else's franban day (Check market protection section for more info).

Saori for sale on San Francisco

Check my franban guide for more details

Resources

Useful Consumables

• Nanban Purveyor Certificate - NPC (Increases nanban goods exchange rate by 3 times)
• Purchase Orders (PO1, PO2, PO3 or PO4)
• Renegotiation demand (Let you haggle again)
• Vintage of the Covenant (VoC, increases sailors loyalty by 20)
• New Nanban Permit Bill (A permit allowing another opportunity to perform nanban trade)

Useful Ship Skills

• Nanban Trade Preference (20% more EA goods)
• Wind-resistant mast (Prevents you from going off course when afk)
• Everyday Item Storage (+1 trading skill bonus for category 1 goods)
• Manufactured Item Storage (+1 trading skill bonus for category 2 goods)
• General Luxury Goods Storage (+1 trading skill bonus for category 3 goods)
• Quality Luxury Goods Storage (+1 trading skill bonus for category 4 goods)
• Paymaster Cabin (50% reduction in food/water consumption)
• Food storage (Reduces the consumption of water and food)
• Sanitation Room (Greatly decreases the likelihood of outbreaks of mice and poor sanitation)
• Wave-resistant armouring (Prevents high waves)

Tools

• Nanban EX List
• The Nanban Wizard, if you don't want to miss opportunities like:

Note: Lots of people bazaaring Saori for up to 80k right next to it...

Useful Aide skills

• Windbreak (Prevents you from going off course when afk, not needed if you have the ship skill wind-resistant mast)
• Fire Prevention (If you carry flammable goods)
• Cat Breeding (If you carry foodstuff)
• Persuation (Take precautions against mutiny)
• Breakwater (Prevents high waves)

Thanks to...

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