Yes, trading is about profit but there are 2 ways to earn trade experience in game:
- Selling anything for a profit (Trading)
- Crafting (Every production skill)
You can invest in any city (that is not other nation's territory, capital or EA city) for trade fame. The more you invest the more fame you will get (Totally proportional). But that's not cost effective.
For the purpose of this guide I'll show you the quickest way to get trade levels and fame and that is TRADING.
What is Trading?
Buy LOW, sell HIGH. That's the merchant moto.When you sell for more than you bought you make a profit. Conversely, if you sell for less than it costed, that's a loss.
- You earn experience if you make a profit and nothing if you lost money in it.
- You earn fame if the product you are selling is a local specialty.
It works like this, you go to a city, buy some goods and fill your cargo. Then go somewhere else to sell it for a profit.
Usually the more you sail, the more profitable your trade will become.
Profitable Trading Routes
- EA goods to Europe (Nanban).
- South-East Asia spices (Nutmeg, Mace and Clove) to Europe.
- Indian Pepper to Europe.
- Rare trade goods to wherever they are wanted.
Thing is, you don't need to do it yourself! You don't need to sail back and forth to amass the XP from that profit.
Game designers allow you to BUY the profit from other player. And that's what this guide is about.
Selling Profitable Goods for XP (Fast level up)
Step 1: Buy some EA/SEA good from players. You can find them in bazaars around market keepers in busy towns (Seville and London for example).
Step 2: Sell it to the market keeper.
That's what people usually do but that's a huge waste of money.
Yes, profit is KING but for optimal ducats / XP or ducats / fame there are a few things you can tweak.
Choosing a champion
The "champion" will be the main product being sold.
First, buy one unit of each good type around to know how are market rates and prices (You should have the accounts skill by now).
Talk to the market keeper and click the sell button. Check who has the best selling prices. MK will show you this:
So the best prices are for Huzhou Brush (44200) and Saori (43100).
To choose between the 2 you should check the seller's price AND cost. Because what matters is the PROFIT.
Your profit will be (SELLING PRICE) - (COST)
But that's only IF you have to choose between them. Chances are you will buy all that is available anyway... If so, skip the guide to the combo and bonus XP section.
So in my case the seller was princing both H.Brush and Saori at 60k each. And Brushes costed less than Saoris:
Here how a calculate the profit:
Saori: 43100 - 3206 = 39894
Brush: 44200 - 1816 = 42384
42384 ducats per Brush is more profitable than 39894 ducats per Saori. More Profit equals more XP and fame per ducats.
So I chose Brushes as my clear champion.
Combo and Bonus XP
All other trade good types are runner-ups (Including Saori) and must be include in packs of 50.
Each 50 units of a different profitable will give you a COMBO. Must be 50 not 49 or 23. More than 50 is making another champion, which is not what we want.
Each combo will give you a nice XP bonus that makes it really worth it.
Note: Cities with active mayors get an extra combo bonus (Only "Allied Cities" have mayors).
Note: Cities with active mayors get an extra combo bonus (Only "Allied Cities" have mayors).
Planning your Cargo
If you have 1000 cargo, try to procure your goods as follows:
- 50 Runner-up 1 (Saori)
- 50 Runner-up 2 (Japanese Books)
- 50 Runner-up 3 (Japanese Style Painting)
- 50 Runner-up 4 (Wooven Hemp)
- 800 Champion (Huzhou Brush)
That's just an example. Add more runner-ups to get the BEST XP /ducats possible.
Be careful with:
- Goods with very low prices (Mace and nutmeg in the example). That's why I told you to explore prices first.
- Sellers that are overpricing their goods. That will lower the profit and XP/fame gain.
Run away from those.
Before selling
- Territory and allied ports of your nation pay extra (higher profit) due to lower tariffs. If you are low on cash, it may be worth it to travel to a different town to sell it.
- Check market rates for neighbouring cities. It may be worth sailing if a neighbouring city is paying 25% more for your champion.
- Check if you have fed your aides. Most people use aide food to increase the chances of aides getting more trait point during level up.
- Use a XP Boost if you have (There is a free +50% XP booster you get from starter pack lvl 30). That really helps.
- Haggle. More profit equals more XP.
Selling Profitable Goods for FAME
Any local specialty trade good is OK, when selling for fame.
Profit control is important as there are several "caps" for fame earning.
It doesn't really matter the amount of goods but profit. So what you should do is sell your cargo in small batchs.
The best batch size is the one you sell for less than 500k profit, but over 100k profit. 500k should give you about 150 fame (without boosters).
If you are really committed to grinding fame you can use the fame booster that school gives you.
Note 1: Batchs with more than 500k profit will get less fame/ducats so they are less efficient. In the end it is up to you and your grinding tolerance to decide when to stop (or reduce efficiency by increasing batch size).
Cheapest Trade Experience and Levels
The method I teach about in this post is really the fastest method. Buy EA goods from other players saves you lots of time of doing it (Nanban) yourself.
However, this method is not cheap. You are probably going to spend a few billions ducats to get to lvl 90 if you choose this route. And doing the nanban runs yourself will require a premium consumable, high levels, top ships and loooooots of time.
Therefore I created a post on patreon to help new players get lots of trade levels. Easy, fast and cheap.
Note: You can always beg for money from other players, but if you are the kind of guy that likes the sense of accomplishment... check out this post.
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