The Dream-Silk Road

A handy-dandy road trip around the unterzee, for merchant captains seeking a non-exploitey profit.

Introduction (Mostly Ignorable)

(MANY SPOILERS IN THIS GUIDE. YE BE WARNED)

Henlo delicious friends.

If any of you have ever played sunless sea ever, you'll probably know that echoes are good, and many of them are better. So what is better than many echoes? A way to make many echoes perpetually of course. This guide is a directory to my personal favourite trade route, what I like to call; "The Dream-Silk Road" which is 83% certified by (mostly) pleased zee-captains, or at least, the ones that didn't get eaten.

It may not be as valuable as other methods, such as farming implications or dread surmises, but it certainly will keep you out of bankruptcy, and it is geared towards players who DISLIKE exploiting the game, especially in the instance of sitting in port until you get "something awaits you" (my personal least-favourite exploit method).

After each leg is explained in text, I have placed an image describing the route as well, for all you visual learners. This will be the overall route you are running;



Now I'm rambling for no good reason. That'll happen a lot. Why are you still reading this.

What you need (Less ignorable)

As with all trade routes, you'll need something to start you off. In this instance, a ship. And fuel, and a living crew. I tried with a dead crew and it didn't work so good. Namely;

- The Caligo-Class Cruiser (optional)

Yeah it's not got many guns, but what it does got is cargo space, and less weight than the dreadnaught, which means moar speed for less fuel. The cargo space is the most important bit of this because of obvious reasons. If you've completed the tireless mechanic's quest and gotten the Fungent Impellier (spelt wrong probably) you should be able to b r e e z e through this route. On the other hand, this route is entirely doable with a tramp steamer. It'll just be a total pain. Also Maybe's Daughter/Rival is real helpful because of the efficiency.

- 35ish Units of Fuel

I can pretty much assure you that it'll be gone before you can say "Holy hecc where did all my fuel go now we're gonna get eaten by zee beasties." but don't worry, because you'll refuel a few times throughout this route

- 15ish supplies (about half that if you're using anything below the caligo)

You're gonna get more, but you're gonna get more where it's cheaper. Also this number heavily depends on how much crew you're taking. I recommend 20-25 with the caligo.

- A gun that isn't pathetic (optional)

There are many beasties on this route, and dying is really bad for business. You lose 100% of profits, which is pretty steep. Make sure you can stand up (or run away from) the blue prophets and their horrible squawking.

- 5-10 Mirrorcatch boxes (optional but good)

The first leg of the trip is significantly less profitable without them, but you can still net a good sum of echoes without. If the Isle of Cats isn't in the south of the zee, and you don't have access to the blind bruiser anymore, DON'T BOTHER.

- A key to the cage-gardens (Useful but not 100% needed)

You need to complete the main quest on the Isle of Cats for this. You also should make sure that you either have the blind bruiser or the brass embassy in London, the former obtained by accepting his quests, and the latter by bringing the wistful deviless home from mount Palmerston.

- Some money

Nothing crazy, but enough to get you where you need to be. 2000-3000 echoes should suffice.

NOTE: The values of fuel/supplies in this guide are the ones I use while zailing the CALIGO. It will need to be adjusted for different ships accordingly.

Leg I - The Surface

So you're all ready to go? "Quit buggering around boshmi" you say, "No one cares for your bad jokes and crummy writing."

Well... you're just a nasty poo-poo face meanie, voice in my head. (Excuse the profanity)

- If you have a significant amount of yearning, burning, (150-199), OR you haven't brought any mirrorcatch boxes;

___SKIP TO LEG II___

Unless for some reason you want to waste a lot of time and money, in which case, go nuts.

For the first leg of the route, you'll want to sail SE, for Mutton island and environs. Collect as many port reports as you can, while heading more or less in the direction of port Carnelion. Once you become on the same plane horizontally as the Iron Republic, however, you want to pull a hard West, and sail directly for the aformentioned port.

If you've not had any more than three (I think) Iron Republic days, you can open the market, and with some luck get the house of pleasures.

If you do, buy up literally as much coffee as you can carry. (ONLY DO THIS IF YOU CAN STILL SELL COFFEE IN VIENNA)

If you've somehow managed to expend enough fuel to have less than 30 units left, buy fuel until you have 30 units. If neither of these things apply to you, move on.

Head for Gianotti harbour, and travel to the surface. Fill all your mirrorcatch boxes, and head for vienna. Sell all your coffee in Vienna, then it's back down to the neath. Don't forget to get port reports, because (to my memory) the surface ones are real valuable, and they don't take up any space.

Now, onwards, into the unterzee.

Leg II - The Colonies

Now comes the section of the trip that is really up to how your map has positioned itself.


Head for the Iron Republic. If you completed leg I, buy fuel until you have around 30 units. If you didn't complete leg one, buy fuel until you have around 30 units anyway. This is the cheapest you're going to find fuel anywhere so get it while it's... hot.

I know, I know, I'm seeing a therapist, I need to stop.

Zail for port Carnelion, and buy up supplies until you have about 15 crates, then;

Purchase literally as much coffee as you can carry. (important step)

Get port reports, and build up your spy network if you can. Getting vital intelligence here can be an extra source of income. Now comes the map problem.

IF the Isle of Cats is kinda sorta in the south of the unterzee, you're good. If it isn't, you miss out on some profit. If you also filled the mirrorcatch boxes, AND at this point in the game the blind bruiser has departed, you're gonna have to find some other place to sell off your sunlight.

Sorry.

If you're in a convenient position, and the Isle of Cats is kinda between you and Kingeater's Castle, good news, you get to make moar mula. Go to Cavendish, buy a jar of red honey, and sell all your mirrorcatch boxes to the sunlight sippers.

If you FAIL the veils challenge, and lose the box(es), DON'T WORRY. It just means you get a bonus 100 echoes, and need to buy more mirrorcatch boxes later (if you even want to do leg I of the route at all.) If you can't buy red honey, it's because you haven't done the quest to open the cage-gardens yet. Once you do that, if you still can't buy red honey, it's because you don't have the "Something Awaits you" super-exploitable bell-lamp thing. If you feel like exploiting one, do so. If you want to remain pure and untainted by the common rabble, zail onwards.

Leg III - The Far East

It has always been the truest plight of man, to explore the unexplored. However, it is also the truest plight of man to aquire bling-bling, and that is what this Leg relies on, though some of the former is required too.

Zail east, hugging the southern coast. If it's convenient for you, stop at Adam's way and help out at the hospital, for supplies. You can get the port reports at kingeater's castle and that other southern coast city if you feel like it. Also, if you have the Zubmariner DLC, and Aigul is on the way, feel free to stop by and load up on supplies and fuel, as I'm pretty sure they are the same price as in London. I could be wrong. Don't blame me, blame my... uh... okay blame me.

The main issue with this leg is the bloody blue prophets with their hyper-speed and squawking and 400 health the fact that you CAN'T DODGE THEM BECAUSE THE GAME DOSEN'T TELL YOU WHERE THEY ARE EXACTLY WHO CAME UP WITH THIS?!

Also the big eye may be a problem with terror if it has spawned here but sometimes it won't spawn at all so that's kinda a precaution that you don't really need to take. Once you reach Kingeater's Castle, zail east, off the edge of the map, into the unknown.

You will get a gazette box with tells you you sail around and then come back. The game will now instantly put you at Irem.

NOW HERE'S THE CATCH.

After some searching online I've found that for some people, zailing into the far east just spawns them at some random port in the east, be it Aestival or the Empire of Hands or whatever. For me however, I've managed to spawn at Irem every. single. time. Either the game has been changed or I'm obscenely lucky, because I've run this route maybe six times and gotten Irem for all of them. I dunno what you'll get, tell me, so I can adjust this guide as needed.

In Irem, if you have something awaits you, use one of your coffee sacks to do the trippy dream thang. Use the top option to lower terror, then go to the shops tab. Find the right shop, and here you are able to trade one unit of coffee for one unit of parabola-linen, the cloth of dreams. Change ALL of your coffee to parabola-linen.

See what I did there? I'm so clever.

This changeover is the main money-maker in the route, and is the only part of the route that can be completed perpetually. So do it.

Leg IV - Homeward Bound (Probably)

Now the task is simple; haul ~80 bales of dream silk, a jar of red honey, and (maybe) sunlight back to London. Simple.

I do this by zailing SW, through the Khanate and a few other ports just for the port reports, but it really depends on how your map has formed itself. If you're running low on fuel for whatever reason, stop at mount palmerston and load up. If you're short on supplies... uh...

Anyone here seen the film Raw?

If you do make it back to London with (most of) your crew and yourself undevoured, you face one final task, the London constables. If you have high enough veils feel free to take your chances, but if you're worried you'll get fingered by them you can use the SAY exploit on hunter's keep/low barnet/mutton island if you really want to. (silent judgement)

Once in London, sell your red honey to either the blind bruiser or the brass embassy, depending on if you've unlocked either of them. Sell your dream silk to either the venturer, the rose market, or just wolfstack. If you weren't able to sell the sunlight to port cavendish, sell it here.

Post-Mirrorcatch & Honey

"But boshmi!" You say, in relative annoyance. "I've already got like 200 yearning, burning, and 20 menaces: suspicion. What's the point of doing all that extra junk around the iron republic?"

Never fear, my delicious friend, I have a way for you to make some extra money off of your coffee/linen trade.

In this altered trade route, assuming you have the caligo cruiser, buy up 80 units of mushroom wine in London, as well as somewhere around 27 units of fuel and 13 units of supplies. Then, head directly to the empire of hands, and clasp your soul tight.

Now for this next section you need to have already compiled the port report and taken the adventuress to the empire of hands, but once you have, if you go to the civilized exchange of gifts, you can trade your mushroom wine for darkdrop coffee.

You probably see where this is going.

After that, zail off the edge of the map, spawn at Irem, and trade it all for parabola linen, then simply repeat leg IV.

EZ money.

Maths, Money, and the End

So you're resting in your elegant townhouse and decide to count out exactly how much money you just made eh? How convenient that I did it more or less for you.

Suppose you went for the full compliment and completed all legs of the trip.

Your profit from the surface will be (80x80)-(38x80)=3,360

Your profit from the sun sippers will be (500-250)x10=2,500(minimum), 5,000(maximum)

Your profit from the parabola linen will be (60x80)-(38x80)=1,760

Your profit from the red honey is a fixed 400

Which totals (at maximum, first run) to 10,520 echoes, not counting fuel, supplies, port reports, and mirrorcatch boxes.

I'd call that a tidy sum, honestly, especially considering you more or less used no exploits to do it. Of course, as with everything in Sunless Sea, it can't last forever, and eventually the vienna coffeehouse will burn down, and your sun yearning will become too great. This will bring you down to around 2,000 echoes profit per run. IF, however, you use the secondary route I've talked about, via the empire of hands, your profits will come up to;

(60x80)-(21x80)=3,120

Pretty tidy eh?

Right guys?

Thanks for reading this guide and I hope it helped in some way. I sure enjoyed writing it and I hope you guys enjoy making cashmonei.

Have fun in the neath, delicious friends.

[themonsterofthenet]

tl;dr

[CentzonT2]

In regards to sailing off the map, apparently it's a 50/50 to Irem or Kingeater's castle. However with the Zubmarine submerged it's either the Chelonate or the Gant Pole. Both however cost 3 fuel & 3 supplies.

Therefore, it may be better to submerge and sail off the edge of the map depending on the location of the spawn of the Chelonate and if it's close to Irem; alternatively just take your chances normally.
To add to this there is a luck check, using all your Zee stories, at Kingeater's Castle - failing it will return you to Irem, succeeding will cost some hull & other bits but return you to London. If you only have 1 zee story however (which can be gained from trading recent news for zee story at the lightship at London) then the effect is negligible.

So not being returned to Irem after sailing off the map can still result in being transported to Irem, especially if you only bring 1 Zee story with you. Hope this helps!

[Max]

This is a great guide and made me laugh out loud.

[Medium Jim]

Fuel and supplies in Aigul cost more that they do in London but also sell for more. Fuel costs 12 vs. 10 and supplies cost 23 vs. 20. You could also head to Venderbright on the way back to london if you're concerned about the constables, though that path might have less in the way of available supplies. Nice guide, I didn't think of using the east edge as a way to get to Irem more efficiently.