The Merchants of Belvast: The Mabinogi Commerce System

Welcome to Belvast, the City of Trade! Opening its gates with the launch of The Merchant of Venice update, Belvast has its fair share of city services, jobs, adventures, and fascinating people. The biggest new attraction of the town, however, is indicated by its name – commerce!

The Mabinogi Commerce System

Commerce is a relatively simple concept. Buy items at one location for one price and take them to another where they can be sold for a profit. Of course if it were this easy, then everyone would be a merchant prince. There will be dangers and obstacles on your road to riches, including roving bandit gangs that will want your goods for themselves!

Ducats

Trading in Mabinogi is done using a new form of currency called ducats. Ducats are separate from any other form of Erinn currency and are not held in your inventory as physical objects. Ducats cannot be traded between players or characters.

All characters will start with 300 ducats.

Trading Posts

To start participating in the Commerce System, head to a trading post, located in many towns throughout Erinn. They are all similar in appearance and are all staffed by three Fomors: an ogre, a goblin, and an imp. Each Fomor fulfills a different function.

Ogre: Transportation master. Merchants can contract with the ogre for various transportation services.

Goblin: Trader. Merchants can click on the goblin to access the main trade interface.

Imp: Shopkeeper. The imp sells special items that can only be purchased with ducats.

Trade Goods

The Commerce System uses special items called “trade goods,” which come in a variety of types, qualities, and prices. These items can only be used within the Commerce System.

Clicking on the goblin trader will bring up the trade interface:

Goods Information

The left side of the interface shows the trade goods the goblin has for sale. Each trade good window displays the following information:

• Item image
• Item name
• Cost per unit

The middle window shows trade information. The top portion shows the current price for that good in various towns in Erinn. The red and blue numbers after the town name shows how much profit or loss, respectively, you can expect when selling the item in that town. These prices will fluctuate over time. Click on the trade good you’d like to learn about in the left window to change the trading information in the middle.

Buying and Selling

Place your order with the merchant in the bottom portion of the window. The order window displays the following information:

• Number of items to purchase/maximum number of stackable items. (Trade goods are held in stacks. Each trade good will have a different maximum number of items that can be placed in a stack.)
• Total cost of your order, in ducats.
• Cost of one item, in ducats.
• The weight of one unit of the selected trade good.

Once you’re satisfied with the order, click the “Buy” button to purchase the goods.

To sell trade goods to the merchant, click the double arrow between the trade goods and information areas to convert the order window to a sales window. Select the item in the transport window and click the “Sell” button to sell the item to the merchant.

Credit Rating

Each type of trade good also has a credit rating measured from 1-9. An item’s credit rating describes its general value and dictates who can purchase it. Beginning traders will have a credit limit of one and may only buy goods with a credit rating of 1. Successfully trading goods will earn you “credit points” that will raise your credit limit and allow you to purchase more valuable goods.

Transportation

Purchasing trade goods is just the beginning of the trading process. Traders will have to personally transport trade goods to another town to collect profits. The default method of transportation is on foot. Should you wish to carry more merchandise though, you will need to hire some form of transport.

Speak with the ogre at the trading post to contract transportation.

Loading Goods

Once you have secured transportation, the next step is to load your items onto it. Return to the goblin trader. The right hand side of the screen shows your selected method of transport. Trade goods will be stacked in the squares. Each square can only carry one type of trade good up to the maximum size stack allowed for that item. Each method of transportation can also only carry a certain amount of weight.

If, for example, you wish to purchase a stack of iron ingots (weight 100, maximum stack 5) and carry them on foot, you would only be able to purchase four (weight 400) and the other three available squares would remain empty. It’s up to each individual trader to maximize their available space and weight in order to maximize profits.

Transportation methods:

Caravan

Once you begin travelling toward your destination, several things happen:

• Your damage output is reduced by 40-50%.
• You will be unable to enter the housing channel.
• All other methods of transportation become non-functional until the trade is completed.

Bandits

While in transit to your destination, you may be set upon by bandits. You can choose to either engage or avoid the bandits. Once engaged, all the bandits must be defeated to move on.

During a bandit encounter, you will face off against anywhere from one to eight bandits. If there are more than five, the bandits may be accompanied by a bandit lord. During combat, the bandits will attempt to steal trade goods from your transportation. If they’re successful, a star will appear over their heads. Once a bandit gets five stars, he will attempt to escape with the goods. When a bandit is defeated, he may drop a bandit scalp. These scalps can be sold at trading posts for between 10 and 1,000 ducats, depending on the quality of the scalp.

Trader's Shop

Naturally merchants don’t work this hard and face this type of danger without some expectation of reward! That’s where the third Fomor at the trading post comes in. The imp runs the special Trader’s Shop and stocks some extraordinary items, including Demon weapons and Fomor Weapons.

Demon Weapons

Although similar to normal weapons, demon weapons are a bit more powerful and have the “Demon” prefix in their name. They can be upgraded using gold but can only be repaired with ducats. They cannot be turned into spirit weapons or be sacrificed to repair a spirit weapon.

Fomor Weapons

Fomor weapons are listed under the Special Item tab of the Trader’s Shop. They’re considerably more expensive than Demon weapons, but they’re also much more powerful. All Fomor items can be enhanced with a Metal Toolkit.

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