Hello captains, I am A Xing. I played this game for three and a half days, tested different starting routes, and went through the numerical profit curve. Go straight to the dry stuff and follow this order. You can save at least 10 hours of repetitive work as a novice.
The first thing to do at the beginning: Don't rush out to sea to fish. First click on the cabin interface and arrange the initial fisherman and chef to the corresponding positions. The broken ship sent by the system has only 4 initial positions for sailors, 1 each for fisherman and cook, and the remaining 2 positions must be given to navigators. The navigator decides the speed, and the speed is directly linked to the exploration efficiency. Actual measurement: Two navigators shorten the sailing time by 30% compared to one navigator. This benefit is very critical in the early stage.
The rhythm of fishing and trading is stuck. On the first day, only fishing, no trading. Fish sell at a low price in the port, but the fisherman level rises quickly. Every time a fisherman catches a fish, his experience will be +1. After upgrading, his fishing volume will be doubled. I tried selling fish directly in Portland Port, and the income was lower than keeping it for making bread, because the chef needs fish + flour to make bread, and the flour is bought from merchants, but the upfront cost is less. Correct operation: After the fisherman reaches level 3, start making bread again. A level 3 fisherman catches 4 fish at a time, and a chef consumes 2 fish + 1 flour at a time to make bread, producing 2 loaves. Bread can be sold for 80 gold coins per piece on Storm Island, which is the most stable cash flow in the early stage.
There is a certain order in which ships can be upgraded. Many people build the turret first, which is a misunderstanding. The pirates are not strong in the early stage, and the benefits from turret upgrades are low. Priority should be given to upgrading the cabin capacity - each additional sailor slot at each level can be assigned to an additional occupation. My route: First upgrade the cabin to 5 positions, then add a cook and a sailor (the sailor is responsible for transportation and repairs). This forms the configuration of fisherman 1, cook 2, navigator 1, and sailor 1. Then start saving money to upgrade the sails. The sails affect the sailing speed. Fast sailing speed means you can reach new islands before others and collect resources first.
Island exploration is based on resource priority. Let me list them in order: Storm Island (iron ore) → Mist Island (powder barrel) → Pearl Island (pearls, high selling price) → Skull Island (skill book remaining pages). Iron ore can be used to make turrets and hull reinforcements, gunpowder barrels can be used to make ammunition, pearls can be exchanged for gold coins, and remaining pages of skill books can be used to synthesize skills. Don't go to the coral island. That island only has decorations and is useless in the early stage.
When it comes to camp selection, don't be a pirate in the early stages. The profit of pirates is plundering, but plundering requires high hull strength and high turret level, otherwise it will cost you your life. Be an honest businessman first, save 50,000 gold coins, upgrade the hull to level 2, and the turret to level 3 before considering changing camps. I use the neutral merchant route, running a business on the Portland-Storm Island-Mist Island triangular route. The profit for a single trip is 1500-2000 gold coins. One trip takes 15 minutes, which is enough for 50,000 in two hours.
Finally, let's talk about a mechanism that many people don't know: sailor loyalty. Lower than 80% will reduce work efficiency by 10%, or even run away. The way to maintain loyalty is to pay them regularly, or to give them bread to eat. Gold coins are deducted every time wages are paid, but loyalty increases quickly; bread is consumed in inventory but saves money. I have calculated that feeding with bread in the early stage is more cost-effective, because bread costs 40 gold coins (fish + flour cost), but it can maintain 10 points of loyalty, which is 60% less than paying wages. Feed once every 3 days to maintain more than 90%.
Following this process, I unlocked the medium-sized ship on the night of the second day, and completed the full exploration of the first island on the morning of the third day. I'm going to switch to the pirate route in the future, and I'll update the looting strategy when the time comes.
(Note: Version 5.0 of the game installation package is available for personal testing. iOS and Android data are interoperable. It is recommended to start with Android. It is more convenient to hang up the emulator)