What is Franban?
Franban is a name (made up by players) for a one day event of the north american cycle. It is the short for "Fran" (From Francisco) and "Ban" (From Nanban). Needless to say, this is an exclusive game event and has never existed in our history.Note: The first real mention of the term "Franban" I heard came from player "PieRat" back in 2017/2018. Prior to that, we didn't really seem to have a unified name for this popular event so I'd like to give him the credit for it.
Franban is a merchant event but also a maritime event. Pirates and BHs will flock to Boston and epic battles will take place in the vicinities. Be prepared.
Franban Schedule
Some people go to Boston on Franban's eve to refill their POs.
This schedule tries to predict the next Franban and will tell you when it last happened. Manual actions by Papaya and players may still change the starting date of the cycle.
You can find current server time here. Check the rest of the NA Railway Events Schedule if you like.
How does it work?
Basically every month, there is one day where you can buy EA goods directly from the market keeper in San Francisco (Then sell it elsewhere for maximum profit). YES! No need to go through the nanban trading mechanism.
Here is how it works:
- Go to San Francisco
- Buy the EA good available at the marketkeeper
- Travel by train to Boston. Make sure you carry the correct amount (Train cargo is limited).
- Set up an aide bazzar at Boston or have an alt hold some of the cargo.
- Go back to San Francisco (1) and again to Boston until you have full cargo (for optimal profit).
- Find the best selling place(s) of your EA good (You may use my nanban wizard or ask for help at the world chat).
- Sail to your destiny port and sell it (Beware of pirates). Remember you get better prices if your toon is from the same nation the port is allied with.
- Rinse and repeat until you are wealth satisfied.
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| Saori for sale on San Francisco |
Note 1: Steps number 3 -5 (Cargo space) make sense for those of you that have clermont or other high cargo ships for the job.
Note 2: The "Best" selling place may vary a lot depending on the price index (%). If people start noob crashing every market the rates will be very bad soon for everybody. Check my market protection guide for more info (inside my nanban guide).
What you should get / do BEFORE Franban day
You could technically reset the market by port hopping or going back and forth with the train. But that takes too long and using POs (Purchase Orders) pays off in the long run (if you have decent trading skills).
1) So buy POs or get them from mysterious boxes. The best box is number 6, which spawns one day before franban but you are welcome to open these boxes at any day. There is even a nice memorial album for specific box rewards.
2) Get an Alchemist Robe EX, for increased trade power.
3) Get Player / Pirate Tributes, buy blue flags (No War premium item) or team up with BHs.
4) It is also worthwhile to have (at least) one of your toons sitting at San Francisco at 0 am because not all EA goods make good profit. Yeah, some are not worthwhile, so don't bother.
5) Grind your trading skills or team up with someone who does have high trading skills:
Useful Skills and PO number
There is not a great variety of EA goods available for franban trading. So here are the only useful skills for franban (Organized by PO type needed):PO1
- Food Trading (Water Caltrop, Yangzhou Chestnut)
- Medicine Trading (Korean Cactus)
- Seasoning Trading (Luo han guo)
- Sundries Trading (Gumo Ink, Paper lantern)
PO2
- Luxuries Trading (Orange Daylily, Korean Black Raspberry)
PO3
- Craft Trading (Huzhou Brush, Wuxu Porcelain, Saori)
- Art Trading (Mianzhu nian hua)
- Fibres Trading (Soft Rush)
Selling Skills
Useful Titles
- Fortune Maker (allows haggle up to 30% of base price instead of 20%)
- Legendary Tycoon (Increases the effect of Haggling at selling)
- Railway King (Extra train cargo capacity)
- Superior Company Membership (buy cheaper)
Pirate Evasion during Franban
If the usual tips are not enough or feasible, you can still use a few tactics to avoid nasty pirates, even during lawless waters.
Check my Pirate Evasion guide and stop worrying about pirates!
Check my Pirate Evasion guide and stop worrying about pirates!
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