Grinding Merchant Quests and Alliances

  • SurveyorPete
    Legend
    Insider

    Almost everyone I have met on the Sea of Thieves considers the Merchant Alliance quests the most boring of the grinds. They have a number of characteristics that make them different from GH and OOS:

    1. If you lose any of your animal crates through misadventure, you are stuffed unless you can find another lying around.
    2. The animals need care - especially the pigs.
    3. The captured animals must be handed in at a specific outpost for full value.
    4. The return from handing in animals is much greater for the quest holder than for someone who may steal them from you (unless, I suppose, they have a merchant quest of their own.)

    Today, I had a small load of animals to deliver and I noticed a sloop at the outpost I needed to go to. I did not have a lot of (real) time to complete the quest, so I headed that way anyway. I put up the "let's make an alliance flag" and got my megaphone out. As I approached I hailed the sloop, announced I was harmless, told them I had animals to deliver, and invited them to ally with me for a share of the gold and XP. As it happened, there was no-one there. Perhaps the crew was in the legend hideout or something, but I didn't see them.

    This is the suggestion: When shipping animals, if you encounter another ship (perhaps at an outpost, perhaps looking as if they want to attack), suggest an alliance. If they ally, they will gain more by letting YOU go on your way and selling the animals, than by stealing them from you. Their own merchant grind will be reduced that little bit.

    If you are a PVPer that seeks out other ships for their loot: Consider accepting such an alliance if offered, or even suggest it yourself, if you find they are shipping animals. You will make more gold than you would sinking them. And you don't get XP for sinking ships.

    Finally, if you convince someone to accept an alliance rather than sink you, don't be a d**k and leave the alliance when they get over the horizon. Honour the agreement. It costs you nothing to do so. It will build trust generally, and allow this technique to work more often.

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  • NeedSmokes
    Commander

    I always used to do my merchant quest solo. I found it simple enough and by far the easiest faction to level up to 50. Often i could run about for a few hours without once even drawing a weapon.
    It does help if you find yourself great small islands for collecting what you need and try to avoid the bigger land masses. You can really speed through quests and earn lots of coinage in no time.
    The only downside to doing this solo, was if as you mentioned. Another ship is in the outpost you wish to go. You have to wait and wait for what seems like an eternity to sail in to unload your goods. But now with the alliance option, and if you have a mic at hand. You can try to persuade those camped at the outpost to join an alliance and they will gain more coins from you selling animals than killing you and cashing them in themselves without an active quest.

  • Riareth
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    @surveyorpete said in Grinding Merchant Quests and Alliances:

    As I approached I hailed the sloop, announced I was harmless, told them I had animals to deliver, and invited them to ally with me for a share of the gold and XP.

    Just a small correction, alliance members get no XP, just gold. For merchant stuff that is still around 5x greater than if they sunk you and sold the animals.

    Edit: Sorry, I was thinking about commendations. You're right about the XP.

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