@honeycrisp1
I've got two methods of making easy money solo pve that involve merchant.
The merchant method
- raise merchant emissary
- purchase all commodities
- vote on lost shipment voyage and complete it hitting grade 5
- sell everything and lower flag
- repeat
The lost shipment voyage has many benefits over other voyages. It always starts near where you are. It always ends near an outpost. It can be ran very quickly when compared to most other voyages and predicted much more easily. You rarely have to leave your ship, using the harpoon for nearly everything before the shipwreck. You can sell rapidly to the merchant from your bowsprit. It's definitely my favorite voyage to do for easy solo money
Buying all 15 commodities and selling them all at grade 5 after the voyage is completed is easy money. You don't even need to worry about the adjusted prices since even the low demand items will turn a profit with the emissary bonus. If, for some reason you don't hit grade 5 by the end of the voyage, turning in commodities will increase your emissary grade just like cargo does. Instead of finding something else to get you grade 5, you just sell your commodities first.
I can get this done quickly when compared to most other ways to earn a grade 5 flag and nearly everything I collect is merchant. If you learn the ins and outs of the voyage, you'll be able to burn through them and make money quickly with little risk or effort.
The reaper method
This is a little bit more risky but pays out better. It can also require more time and unfortunately won't pay out until the very end. This method utilizes the fact that cargo and commodities raise your emissary grade upon turn in. So you stack them until you have enough on board to earn grade 5 reaper.
- vote on a cargo voyage and collect from spawning outpost
(this is usually the only cargo I collect since you can always pickup cargo from your spawning outpost before you leave)
- raise merchant emissary flag
- buy all commodities
- lower emissary flag
- sail to the next outpost while checking islands for a harpoon rowboat
- upon reaching each outpost, raise flag, buy commodities, and lower flag
- eventually sail to reapers, use the harpoon rowboat to turn in if possible, and raise the flag before selling the cargo and commodities. I believe 74 commodities made us hit grade 5 last time.
This can be done fast, ignoring all islands and even the rowboat, speeding between all seven outposts stacking 105 commodities, or even just 5 outposts for 75. Then taken to reapers for money and a grade 5 flag.
You could however take your time, hop islands between outposts, kill some captains and dig their treasure. If you had a crewmate, he could go do something else on a rowboat like a treasury or seafort while you continue on to more outposts before looping back around. You could spend hours stacking and eventually put up a reapers flag right before you sell everything, selling the cargo and commodities first of course.
The merchant method pays out often. You make smaller amounts spaced out over time but don't lose anything beyond the last voyage you completed if you're sunk. If you do get sunk, it's easy to hop and start fresh very quickly on a new server.
The reaper method can be ran to different playstyles, fast and focused on just commodities or diverse and unexpected playing moment to moment. The point is to not have a reaper flag up drawing attention the entire time and instead giving you time to collect as much as you want for as long as you want without being a bigger target, but you stack until the end before making any money. I highly recommend using a harpoon rowboat to turn in though, dropping your treasure from the bowsprit onto the rowboat right before pulling it onto the island to sell. I've had a stack of commodities disappear from my rowboat after so many hours while it was docked to my ship.
