Traders and routes

How many traders you have, what they carry, how fast they travel – and how the trade master runs permanent routes between your castles.

Traders move your goods. Market offers, direct trade, gem trade and the trade master's routes all draw on the same pool of traders in your castle. The Marketplace decides how many traders a castle has: the higher the level, the more – the table on the building's page shows it for every level. Traders on the road are tied up until they are back home.

Carrying capacity per world

Traders for market offers carry far more than traders in direct and gem trade; there, one gem counts like one unit of resources. Without bonuses, one trader carries:

The Crusades and Venturia: 720,000 units in direct and gem trade, 7.2 million for market offers.
Bloodlust: 3 million in direct and gem trade, 6 million for market offers.

More carrying capacity comes from premium, the "+100% carrying capacity" mini package, the laboratory milestones in special castles, the Trader alliance specialisation, the quintessence skill Warehouse Master, settlement years, the crusade bonus, events and guard bonuses. The market always shows you how much you can send right now.

Speed

The travel time depends on the distance and is shown on the confirmation page. Your traders get faster with a high Tournament field – it matters most on long journeys –, with premium, mini packages, the laboratory milestones in special castles and the Trader alliance specialisation. When you accept a market offer, the seller's traders travel – so the seller's castle and bonuses count.

Routes with the trade master

With the trade master (Masters) you tick the Trade master box in direct trade: the selected traders then shuttle permanently between the start and the target castle. They set off even when the start castle does not have enough resources at the moment – they simply carry less. You have 30 route slots, 30 more with the Elite Trade master, and extensions add even more. Routes are a little slower than normal deliveries. Under My marketplace you end a route with "stop Trade Master" after the current trip; when the trade master runs out, its routes end. The Elite Trade master also runs gem routes.

A big advantage of routes: they never overfill. Whatever no longer fits into the target storehouse, the traders carry back home.