Trade routes are almost always at a loss? What am I missing?

[No, I'm not, You are!]

I've been delving into trade routes since I unlocked it. But most routes always give me a loss, which makes it better to just wait for a trader and sell the loose materials like that...

Am I missing something here? Sure it adds up to the Amber you gain... but still... I feel like I'm being scammed.

Are there later unlocks that make it more profitable or no?

[No, I'm not, You are!]

Some examples of my current trade routes:

8x oil (1.12) + 1 provision (0.50) = 1.62 worth => Trade route reward= 1 Amber

12x Clay (1.68) + 1 provision (0.50) = 3.18 worth => Trade route reward = 2 Amber

5x Plant fiber (0.70) + 1 provision (0.50) = 1.20 worth => Trade route reward = 1 Amber

[Shadeon]

The value of trade routes generally increase as you increase the level of standing with a settlement/Smoldering City.

[mostly willing]

selling to traders is busted strong before p10. p10 brings it down to a reasonable level and at the same time makes trade routes super worthwhile

before p10 there is indeed little reason to do trade routes without some good cornerstones - you can just unload everything you want onto your next trader

[Samseng Yik]

Check my other comment about trade route in this game forum.
Basically, trade route is astronomically more powerful the higher level.
Level 1 will already break even.
Level 2 is very good profit

[mostly willing]

well to be fair, not all trade routes are supposed to be good. there's some rng, as with most things in the game. you choose the good ones. the ones you shared are not good, and at 0 standing (which exists only to gatekeep good routes).

[saurce]

Originally posted by Golden Monkey:

Originally posted by Samseng Yik:

Check my other comment about trade route in this game forum.
Basically, trade route is astronomically more powerful the higher level.
Level 1 will already break even.
Level 2 is very good profit

lvl 1 does NOT break even, unless you meant at higher levels. Check my examples up top comment.

Even at level zero you CAN find equal trade ratios. You're correct that many trade offers are done at a bit of a loss when at level 0 and 1 relation with other settlements. But trust me when I say that at level 2 - 4 relations you can get trade routes that give 50+ amber per trade (at a very lucrative ratio as well).

It's very worth. Consider it an investment. But at lower difficulty levels, not critical to win.

[arjensmit79]

The offers are random, some are good some are not. If you get higher level standings, they get better on average and more of them will be good.

That said, even at level 1, there are ok trades regularly like tools for 3 amber or gears for 6 amber.

At T10, trading is half value, so now almost every traderoute will be better than trading.

[Samseng Yik]

Ah ok sorry, I am always at P10 and above, forgot the "original item trade value" already.
At P10 and above, normal trade is just for emergency.
The only way to get normal value and profit is trade route, there are no other option.
Since P10 start all item value reduce by 50% except on trade route, so yes it break even fine at level 1.
Level 2 GREATLY profit

[TripSin]

Originally posted by Golden Monkey:

Am I missing something here? Sure it adds up to the Amber you gain... but still... I feel like I'm being scammed.

As has been said, as you level up the trade route (e.g. sell 10 amber worth to get to level 2), you get better trade offers. So the level 1 trade routes can be seen as a way to get to the next level for better deals.

Also, each trader will only buy a certain subset of items and you only get a certain amount of traders who will come by. So trade routes let you exchange materials you don't need for amber, which you can actually make use of. If you just wait for the trader and the trader doesn't want that material, then you're just sitting with the unneeded material and having gained nothing.

And like has been said, some offers are better than others. You just have to make a judgement call if it's too bad or not.

Using trade routes is incredibly strong overall, though.

[mostly willing]

yeah... no point in worrying about trade routes if you are struggling at pioneer

Originally posted by Golden Monkey:

I don't see any other way to win when orders give me things like "complete x amount of blights" when I don't even get blights yet... I don't know what is up with that...

you are not supposed to get anything related to blightrot before veteran. if you do get those orders on pioneer, report it as a bug

[TripSin]

Originally posted by Golden Monkey:

Originally posted by Samseng Yik:

Ah ok sorry, I am always at P10 and above, forgot the "original item trade value" already.
At P10 and above, normal trade is just for emergency.
The only way to get normal value and profit is trade route, there are no other option.
Since P10 start all item value reduce by 50% except on trade route, so yes it break even fine at level 1.
Level 2 GREATLY profit

I don't even know what I will get to prestige. I hear ppl talking about it, but I am 3 or 4 cycles in, and I haven't seen anything related to prestiges yet.

I have been extremely slow at progressing in XP and upgrade materials, cause my RNG has been crazy bad. The last 2 settlements I did, I bruteforced the win through trade, cause in both cases I got that trade perk very early (1 rep per 60 amber traded). I'm still playing at settler or pioneer, depending on the settlement location.

I never get the right blueprints, useless cornerstones in most cases, glade reveals never give the resources I really want or need,... RNG is crazy bad for me. So all of my settlements take 7+ years to complete even on lowest difficulties.

So yeh... my current strategy when I see that trade perk pop up together with woodcutter perks... Build a bunch of woodcutter shacks, lumber mills, ... and spam build material packs to sell.

I don't see any other way to win when orders give me things like "complete x amount of blights" when I don't even get blights yet... I don't know what is up with that...

Prestige levels unlock after you finish a settlement on Viceroy difficulty.

It's not the RNG that is keeping you from winning, trust me. Your games are completely winnable, you just don't understand the game well enough yet. But as you play more you should hopefully get better. For example, now hopefully you will be using trade routes more, which you seem to be underestimating the value of even though they are very, very strong and useful for winning the game.

Regarding blueprints: Early game there is higher importance for building materials (lumber > fabric/bricks) and you'll want a complex food building or two. After that you want to work on getting a supply chain going for 1 or more services (e.g. if you have two species who want education then you're going to look for pigment or wine production). This doesn't mean you can't get a service building early (sometimes the passive benefit alone can be worth) if the other options aren't great.

Regarding what resources you get: You have to adapt to what you get. It's kind of the whole point of the game. Also consider that some resources don't show up at all on certain biomes. If you press escape and then look at the left, it'll show you which resources can show up. Trade routes and traders help you compensate a lot for not getting what you want by letting you trade in what you did get for things you want instead.

Regarding cornerstones, you get rerolls. You should be able to find something you can make use of the vast majority of the time. If you really can't make use of any of them (which should be very rare honestly), then just take the amber. You should still be able to win.

Some orders you won't be able to complete so you pick the ones you can.

[mostly willing]

orders requiring bps you don't have is completely normal. it's just part of the game you learn to play around

definitely leave a bug report about blightrot in #bugreports here or on discord

[Samseng Yik]

Prestige is only unlock if you win game with viceroy.
Suggest try viceroy only when passive around level 11

[TripSin]

I almost never take the orders that require you to find a blueprint you don't have as I feel like the chances to find one specific blueprint is too low. But if the other orders happen to not be easily completable, then maybe I'll take it and just try to keep a lookout for that blueprint.

[TripSin]

Originally posted by Golden Monkey:

Originally posted by TripSin:

Regarding blueprints: Early game there is higher importance for building materials (lumber > fabric/bricks) and you'll want a complex food building or two.

Yeh I'm not getting those... And if I don't get those early, I have to rely on orders to bump up rep, to unlock more blueprints. As I said, orders that give me things I can't complete... so then I am stuck in a certain strategy like trade when I get that perk by chance, spending years to amass the amount of trade to win.

I also don't have enough unlocks to be producing tools, so I can't bruteforce rep by exploring either. Trade is the only way so far I managed to get tools. So yet again, Trade seems to be the only viable strategy for me right now. No matter how long it takes, it seems to be a no fail strategy.

Trust me, I do understand the game well enough, its just ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up RNG.

You really don't understand the game well enough, though. This fact is incredibly apparent from your posts. The fact that you think you do and that you're so ignorantly overconfident in your abilities and would rather blame the game than consider that you need to improve how you play is quite likely related to why you're not good at this strategy game and are struggling to beat it at the easy difficulty levels.

Everyone else in this thread can win a settlement with great ease at settler or pioneer difficulty. With 0 unlocks, 100% of the time. But keeping thinking it's the game's fault. Good luck with that blaming other things instead of looking to improve yourself mentality.