The Merchant's Guidebook

In the *Merchant's Guidebook*, you will learn all of the aspects regarding peaceful merchant-style play, such as trading and fishing. This is the fastest way to get gold in the game.

### What kind of Krew?

The question of to sail solo or with a Krew is entirely up to you. The only disadvantage to solo trading is the lack of defense against other boats. However, recruiting members can be difficult and hard to control. You may also need to give up some of your cargo space to them (the captain of a ship can turn on the Cargo Lock so that his krew can't buy up cargo space) But, you can become a merchant each way!

## Maximized Route (starting at Brazil)

this route takes in account cargo weight and profit ~~and distance~~ (still working on making it more efficient)

1. Bananas from Brazil To Guinea
2. Spice from Guinea to Spain
3. Coffee from Spain to Brazil
4. loop the steps

## Freight Trading

**Freight trading is the fastest but the most riskiest method of getting gold in Krew.io.**

Freight trading involves the use of popular and dangerous freight-routes that yield an extremely large amount of profit. These routes are almost always patrolled by aggressive pirates, over-leveled rafts, and other dangerous vessels.

Traditional freight trading involved the use of large, slow vessels called Traders, which were the frequent victims of buccaneer attacks from the likes of Baby Fancies, Rafts, and Boats. With speed becoming the new meta due to the likes of vessels like the Junkie, Night Wind, and Black Oyster being in the game, traditional freight trading is no longer a viable option.

**Modern freight trading implements fast vessels with low to mid tier cargo capacity and sell goods at a high profit margin on short but risky trade routes.**

Freight trading routes are still good (even for however dangerous they are) but must be utilized in a different way. Speed is now important more than ever because it is essential to **completing freight routes faster, avoiding enemies, fleeing enemies, out maneuvering enemies, and even attacking other vessels.** Instead of using Trader-style vessels, a faster boat must be utilized. Many aggressive pirates now deliberately target Traders due to how easy they are to sink.

#### Freight Trading Progression

1. Boats are the best first choice because of their great mid-level stats and gold buying bonus.
2. Destroyers and Royal Fortunes can be used as a mid tier, because of higher health, cargo space, and intimidating size (very important -- **boat size and confidence is key.** Pirates who see smaller boats fleeing in the opposite direction will almost always purposely target them.)
3. Junkies are great as the third progression due to their great health, speed, size, and cargo space. You can either choose to stay here or move on to any of the 4 "Barque Ships", which are considered to be the best ships in the game. The 4 "Barque Ships" include the QBJ 2, Night Wind, Black Oyster, and Fortune Trader. Each can be used for basically any strategy in the game because of their incredible stats.

#### Freight Trading Routes

All freight trading routes stem from the Circle Route, which is most profitable and most popular trade route in the game.

##### The Circle Route

The Circle Route consists of trading in a counter-clockwise motion around the map, hitting all islands but Jamaica and Spain.

(Note: The percents are the differences between the high and low price. It does not represent profit.)

The Circle Route consists of:

* Spice from Taiwan to Barbados (771.43%). Distance: 921.95
* Coffee from Barbados to Brazil (500%). Distance: 583.10
* Bananas from Brazil to Malaysia (950%). Distance: 1004.99
* Sugar from Malaysia to Guinea (500%). Distance: 632.46
* Spice from Guinea to Philippines (771.43%). Distance: 632.46
* Gems from Philippines to Labrador (1136.37%). Distance: 1081.67
* Rum from Labrador to Cuba (385.71%). Distance: 583.10
* Silk from Cuba to Taiwan (535.71%). Distance: 608.28
* Repeat from the top. You should be in the same place as when you started (hence the name, 'Circle Route').

##### Circle Route Variants:

Circle Route Variants are routes that only use 2 of the islands in the Circle Route. Variants are often considered less dangerous than the full Circle Route, but it depends on which variant is used. However, Variants marginally make less gold in the long run.

###### Top 5 Circle Route Variants:

1. Coffee from Barbados to Brazil (500%), then bananas from Brazil to Barbados (200%). Distance: 583.10. This route is the best because of its short distance, great cargo efficiency of coffee and bananas, and decent gains. Also, you can spawn on Brazil and start trading immediately!
2. Bananas from Brazil to Malaysia (950%), then sugar from Malaysia to Brazil (200%). Distance: 1004.99. You might be wondering, 'why is this number 2 if the numbers are higher than number 2?' This is #2 because distance and cargo efficiency are factors too. As you can see, this is a longer trade route. The sugar also has a worse cargo efficiency than coffee, placing this route in number 2.
3. Spice from Guinea to Philippines (771.43%), then gems from Philippines to Guinea (309.09%). Distance: 632.46. This route has good profits and pretty nice distance but pays the price with the gem's crazy 20 cargo space, making it an inefficient commodity to trade.
4. Sugar from Malaysia to Guinea (500%), then spice from Guinea to Malaysia (385.71%). Distance: 632.46. This route struggles the most in cargo efficiency. Spice and sugar rank 3rd and 5th respectively out of the 7 different goods. This along with it's mediocre distance, this routes places near the end of this list.
5. Spice from Taiwan to Barbados (771.43%), then coffee from Barbados to Taiwan (140%). Distance: 921.95. This route is last because of its high distance and poor profit from Barbados to Taiwan. Distance really plays a role here.

#### Upgrades for Freight Trading

Freight trading is a unique and rewarding play style and the right upgrades can bolster it immensely. Because of the high amount of vessels on freight trading routes, a high damage stat is a must. At least 20-30 skills points should be added to the damage category. Another must is distance. Distance increases damage and allows you to more easily ward off enemies. 20-30 skill points should be allocated here as well. A great item to complement these is the cheap and effective Steel Barrel, which increases the cannon's distance by 30. With a high range and damage, you can deal heavy blows and warning shots to would-be-attackers and pesky rafts.

Example upgrade set:

* 0 Fire Rate
* 20 Distance
* 30 Damage
* + 30 Distance with Steel Barrel

## Channel Running

**Channel running (aka channel splitting) is a more sensible method for utilizing heavy vessels such as the Trader class.**

Channel running can be described as the opposite of freight trading. While freight trading uses fast ships, high profit margins, and riskier routes; channel running uses high cargo capacity ships, lower profit margins, and less risk.

To understand channel running, you must have knowledge of the Krew.io map:

The Krew.io map has many islands with some on the outside and some near the center.

A *channel* is the stretch of water between 2 islands. *Channel running* simply means to transport good across (perpendicular to) a channel. An example of channel running would be transporting goods from Jamaica to Spain across the Labrador-Philippines channel. In contrast, the Circle Route is a set of 8 channels were freight traders transport goods *with* (parallel to) the channels, such as Labrador to Cuba. Channels are also characterized by how often they are traveled on.

#### Risk Assessment

**Channels, especially the channels in the Circle Route, are very busy with all kinds of vessels, including pirates.**

##### Channel running mitigates risks by:

1. Only crossing popular areas once rather than travelling with them. This type of travel lowers the risk of being attacked by pirates.
2. Multiple exit points. If a pirate vessel that you can reasonable defend against is approaching you, you can bail to the 2 islands on your right and left. For example: If a pirate was encountered while transporting goods from Jamaica to Spain across the Labrador-Philippines channel, you have the option to escape to Labrador or the Philippines. Increased escape routes lowers risk.
3. Sailing parallel against pirating vessels. Pirating vessels are most likely sailing *with* the channels because most channels are popular trade routes and are populated with Traders. Sailing perpendicular allows you to better spot, react, and avoid attackers. It is also harder for attackers to pursue you if you do not stick to island-to-island channels, as they might lose interest.

##### Cons of Channel Running:

1. Lower profit margin
2. Higher distance to travel

#### Channel Running Progression

1. Traders are the best first choice because of their immense cargo capacity and gold buying bonus. Traders allow you to travel large amounts of good quickly and make gold fast. Traders are far too slow for freight routes but are perfect for channel running.
2. Junkies are great as the second choice due to their great health, speed, size, and cargo space. You can either choose to stay here or move on to any of the 4 "Barque Ships", which are considered to be the best ships in the game. The 4 "Barque Ships" include the QBJ 2, Night Wind, Black Oyster, and Fortune Trader. Each can be used for basically any strategy in the game because of their incredible stats.

#### Channel Running Routes

The 3 most common channel running routes are:

1. *Gem Run*: Gems from Philippines to Malaysia (545%), then sugar from Malaysia to Philippines (446%). Distance: 1131. This route is the clearly the best channel running route because of its high profit margins, low risk, and shorter distance.
2. *Spice Run*: Spice from Taiwan to Jamaica (371%), then silk from Jamaica to Taiwan (221%). Distance: 1151. While this route is certainly not the best, it is a good backup route in case the *Gem Running* route is too risky due to a large group of players being online.
3. *Schooner Gap*: Gems from Spain to Jamaica (179%), then spice from Jamaica to Spain (162%). Distance: 1210. This route does not boast high profit margins, but it the least risky yet still profitable trading route in Krew.io

#### Upgrades for Channel Running

Channel running is an interesting yet rewarding play style that can be finely tuned with the correct upgrades. Because there are less vessels on channel running routes, a lower distance stat is required. However, a distance stat of at least 10 coupled with a Steel Barrel is critical to keep potential pirates at bay. A higher fire rate stat is required in order to ward off pirates that are chasing you. This is because channel running routes are longer and the ships are slower, therefore a higher DPS (damage per second) rate is required in order to deal enough damage to scare off pirates. Lastly, damage fills in the last 20 points, making a fast, powerful, and ranged cannon.

Example upgrade set:

* 20 Fire Rate
* 10 Distance
* 20 Damage
* + 30 Distance with Steel Barrel

## Notes

* The *Merchant's Guidebook* has been updated and developed by Dinosaur4deez since 2/16/2022
* The Junkie is a great all-round vessel. While it may not be one of the 4 Barques, it is a great mid-to-high tier ship and can be used in any strategy.
* Its okay to change boats! If you are in a Trader and don't feel comfortable risking the journey to Labrador for Steel Barrel, then changing vessels or even downgrading may be necessary.
* Update 1.25.1 added a trading table to the game which shows the best trading routes and makes the entire concept of trading way easier.