Not enough Coin/Rep from Merchant Voyages

@remarka6le I'll keep an eye on the coin rewards from them, but the Rep I think we can agree on... It does take longer than the other types of voyages, no doubt. So it would be nice for some compensation if possible, haha

Everyone I've spoken to apart from @Vavume at least agrees with the rep side of things, and just to clarify, I don't hate the Merchant missions at all and I'm NOT moaning. I think the game is brilliant, its merely a suggestion as the majority of people seem to think that the amount of time needed to reach rep 50 with those voyages is going to be quite a bit more than the others simply due to the tasks you are set and we don't wanna be stuck having to JUST do merchant missions because they're the only one not at rep 50!

Are we doing different voyages?

Golden chicken: 1300 gold.

Random chest: 100-800? Unless you get a super rare?

I think both the rep and gold are on the low side, it doesn't feel like you progress as you get higher and it DOES feel grindy, due to so much of your coin / rep being down to RNG. But Merchant missions are the most profitable for me by far.

Interesting comment @PlatypusErotica
I agree golden animals are good earners but you can't guarantee a golden animal on the list... it's normally just pink and black pig or blue snake etc! And finding a list of animals normally takes a lot longer than going to a pinpointed X on a map. It feels like I could do a couple Gold Hoarders Voyages in the time it takes to get my list of animals together... Maybe I just need to get quicker at finding the pesky things!

But I SWEAR it's not just me saying this xD

@jables-55 UPVOTED
OF COURSE!!! You've absolutely nailed it. That's exactly the reason it's slower

Honestly every faction right now feels grindy as hell. It feels like a temporary measure till they have time to put in more content, but if the content you have is getting to the point of not being fun there's no reason to play.

https://s9972.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/sea-of-thieves-animal-spawn-map.jpg.webp helps a lot, @Saxonous but I do agree with you. Just for me, compared to OoS and GH, Merchants seem the best bang for buck. Maybe because I'm level 25 in Merchants I get more gold animal ones, or I just got lucky. :)

Even taking this into account @Captn-Crushem!?

@jables-55 said:

The biggest thing is that you need to start the voyage at an outpost to grab pens, then once you get what you need you can't start another voyage until you turn it in.
Compare that with the others and you can start those anytime, and once you collect the reward the voyage is completed, allowing you to start another one and stack multiple rewards in one trip. It really slows down the rewards, meaning that even if you get more per voyage you still make more doing the other quests.

And yes @PlatypusErotica, it's all been a bit of a grind since level 20 anyway!
Hopefully level 25 will bring me more golden goodies to collect :D

You should be able to sell goods without a mission for gold and rep.

Me and my crew now pick up anything we find while doing any voyage (Gunpowder and cages etc) to sell when we come to port.

Since doing this I have noticed my rep with them going up faster. Also ship wrecks are good for merchants especially if you find crate of rare tea or something.

I must admit their voyages can be annoying and take time to hunt for the stuff.

@chunkgb Chests and skulls, yes.

Merchant items, with the exception of tea, spices, sugar etc, sell for c**p without a mission.

Golden chicken without mission: 132 gold. B****r all rep.
Golden chicken WITH a golden chicken mission: 1300ish gold, tons of rep.

So there is a huge disparity between how Merchant voyages work and the other two trade companies missions work.

@captn-crushem The animal spawns aren't guaranteed and the map doesn't stop the fact you have to go back to an outpost before starting a second Merchant mission, unlike the other factions where you can do all 3 before turning them in, but yeh thanks.

And yes @ChunkGB we've been doing exactly that recently, has worked better than doing the actual Voyages tbh... that way you can get Merchant Rep increase whilst doing something else. Gunpowder has been most useful! Stopping off at inactive fortresses is brilliant for collecting that stuff up :D

@platypuserotica

It can be annoying gold wise but I think for rep it's probably one of the faster ways. There have been times we have sold rare tea or spice for quite a bit of gold.

I think it's meant to be less though to encourage us to pirate other players and look for treasure more. I suppose there are some players who would prefer to be considered more merchants than pirates though.

@captn-crushem The map itself says "Animal Spawns are not guaranteed"
Haha, that sounds like a challenge! BRING IT ON ;)