Silkroad Online Forums

FireAnt's Guide to Trading
By: FireAnt | 3x | Athens

What is Trading?

As you turn level 20, you can be a Trader. Trading has a lot to do with SilkRoad, but if you don't know what it is, here's a brief explanation. Traders take goods from one town, and bring them to the next for a profit. Doesn't sound too bad, eh? Well, theres much to worry about. Player thieves "popping" or killing your transports, and not to mention all of the npc creatures which cling to you until you kill them. Trading is a dangerous job, but does have its benefits.

How can you trade?

Well, you'll need some supplies to get off you're first trade, which is most likely going to cost the most.


You'll need:
White Flag (can be bought from the specialties shop for 10,000 gold)
Transport (I'll get into this later)
Vehicle Potions (I reccommend at least 100 Large for your first trip)
Vehicle Abnormal Status Recovery Potions (They're cheap, but handy)
Potions for your character (just in case)
About 50k cash (for starters)

Optional:
A high level hunter to protect you
A wolf

I bet you're thinking, how can a cute wolf benefit me in a trade run. Well, a wolf can attack monsters while you're on your transport, saving potions and gaining experience for you. A wolf can also divert a thief away from you, which is especially usefull when a cold thief is freezing you while a "1-star popper" gets on you.

One-Star Poppers? What?

If you are carrying a One-Star load (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) Player Thieves cannot attack you or your convoy, but they can be dangerous. If these thieves are carrying a load of goods and get slightly in front of your convoy, when that thieves NPC thieves spawn, they may attack your horse. Some of these thieves are 30 levels higher than you and will murder your poor convoy, leaving the thief to loot your goods and run away. Some helpful things to do if you are being "popped" are: let its convoy get ahead of yours then pull a 180 on it (turn around). This may give you the edge you need to slip away from him. If you want to get down and diry, you can repeatedly bombard the thief with exchange requests, party invites, etc to divert his attention from getting ahead of you. I have seen thieves back off just because they get tired of the messages.

So I'm all geared up, now what?
There are 3 towns in SilkRoad, and you can go to any one of them (except the one you're in, silly) If you start in Jangan, you can go to Don Whang or Hotan, and visa-vera. The order of the town goes:

Jangan--->Don Whang--->Hotan

Jangan is the safest town, and Hotan the most dangerous, as far as Creatures go, but I have found in my many trade runs that most to all One-star poppers lurk in Jangan and Don Whang. If you are under level 30, I recommend you don't try the trip to Hotan, level 50+ monsters are there.

If you can, try to acquire a Scout to look ahead at what lies or a hunter to fend off you're thieves.

Camels Vs. Horses

There are many things to consider when deciding whether to use a camel or horse. Heres the facts:

Horse are faster than Camels by 1m/s
Camels have more HP than Horse by almost double

I almost always use a horse though, to avoid One-Star Poppers. If you're not faster than the convoy of what's popping you, it just makes it that much easier for them to kill you and your convoy.

My Recommendation: The Horse's lower HP is worth not losing your load!

What you REALLY want to hear, money!

I've ran some figures...

I was level 30
Thouroughbred Horse
Bought 59 of the 277 gold item (16343)
I went from Jangan to Don Whang (Don Whang to Jangan yields the same profits)

I Made....63,248 gold! (A whopping 49,905 gold profit!)

If anyone has any other figures, please post them and I'll give you some credit

Routes to go:

The most time consuming route is always the safest route. Heres some sample pictures of routes you can use:



Yes, it is hard to hold a steady hand at 6:44am and you haven't slept but you get the point ALWAYS stick to as much cover as you can and try to stay off the roads. Experience is the best key to trade runs. These pictures are just some sample ways I have tried on trade routes. Change it up a little, add some life to the game.



Final Thoughts:
Trading, In my opinion, is one of the funnest aspects of this game, but don't do too many trade routes in a row, you'll get bored
Have fun and make sure to post some stories/routes/anything that is on this topic.

If you need to contact me, give me an email at hacker.cory@gmail.com (no I don't hack lol)

Credits:
spitfire8
Nano3D
WeeZyBaBy

mmm, i guess its personal reference when it comes to horse or camel, as ive heard people say use camel since u have a logner period of time to get away, and can suck in some damage

if you can outrun them in the first place, their thieves can't touch you!

Jeez was this all that smart??

you might aswell say

Come Get Me to alll the thiefs

you can easily do jangan-hotan( or don-hotan) at lvl38. no need to wait until you reach lvl 50.

I went through Dead Ravine (hotan to donwhang) at level 30...its not taht bad. i said level 50+ MONSTERS, but i could be wrong.

lvl50 monster in hotan are on the west gate area if I remember right. only lvl42-47(?) are at east gate of hotan. highest I think is 48.

personally I didnt actively trade to hotan until I was lvl40. Easier to kill mobs= less pots used= higher profit

yeş

btw very good guide.

But ok im coming up for lvl 20 i wanna know wot items u buy for best profit i dont have alot of money around60k to 100k so wot items do i buy for the best profit and how many thanks.

In the first map i would say WTF who does the green road plz dont do it i did it once and costed me more pots then i got profit and for the second card do the bleu line is the quickerst an d best i did else its a good guide

Makes no difference which items you use, I always use the most expensive one though. And use the lowest one to pan it out.

It gives the basic idea of trading, but on the maps it isn't completely clear which routes are designated safe..and yes, there is always the danger that a thief has thought the same thing and is waiting for you.