Saltwind

Trade cargo between ten island ports in a free age-of-sail trading game. Buy low, sell high, refit your ship and grow your fortune in one year.

Start with a small sloop and 500 coins in the Saltwind Isles, an original archipelago of ten ports, each with its own trades. Buy salt, tea, silk, pearls and eight other goods where they are cheap and sail them to the ports that pay most. Every purchase drains a market and every sale floods it, and prices recover over the following days. Festivals, blights, booms and gluts move prices, and tavern rumors hint at them, though not every rumor is true. Voyages take days and the wind helps or hinders. At sea you choose how to meet pirates, storms, calms, shipwrecks and navy inspections. Spend your profits on five ship classes from sloop to galleon and on cargo holds, sails, hull plating, cannons and crew quarters. Take delivery contracts, build your standing in each port and borrow from two banks. After 365 days your net worth (coins, ship, upgrades and cargo, minus debt) sets your rank, from Deckhand to Merchant Prince. The Daily voyage gives every player the same seas for the day; Free voyage charts can be shared by code.

By Goblin Originals

How to play

Tap or click / keys 1–5, Enter, M, H, P

Choose Daily voyage. You start in Brinehaven with a sloop and 500 coins. Open the Market and tap a good to choose an amount. Arrows, signs and percentages show how each price compares with its usual level, and the Market names a port that pays dear for what is cheap here.

Tap a port on the chart or in the course list to see the travel time, wind and danger, then Set sail. Days pass as you sail. Sell where a good is in demand; the market shows your profit or loss on each sale.

At sea you may meet pirates, storms, calms, shipwrecks or a navy patrol. Each choice lists its odds and costs. Tap one, or press 1 to 4.

Spend profits at the shipyard on a bigger ship or upgrades, take delivery contracts in the tavern and borrow at a bank if you need capital. After 365 days your net worth sets your rank, from Deckhand to Merchant Prince.

Keyboard players can press 1 to 5 for Market, Yard, Tavern, Bank and Log, Enter to set sail, M to switch between the chart and the panel, H for help and P for settings.

Tips

Each Port screen lists its Speciality (cheap there) and what it Pays dear for. Start by carrying a speciality to a port that pays dear for it.

Large loads move prices against you, and selling the same good to the same port trip after trip wears its demand down for weeks. Spread your trade across goods and ports; markets recover with time.

Rumors in the tavern hint at festivals, blights and price swings, but some are wrong. Kestrel Rock's tavern has the most reliable gossip.

A bigger hold or faster sails pay off on busy routes. Keep enough coins for crew wages and repairs, and repay loans before the interest grows.

Paying pirates off always works; short of coins, they take some of your finest cargo instead. A fast ship outruns them more often, and cannons and a full crew win fights.

Can I play this trading game online for free?

Yes. Saltwind is an original single-player browser game. It runs inside the page on phones, tablets and computers, with no download or account.

How long does a game take, and does it save?

A game is one year of 365 in-game days; the year ends on day 365 even if you are still at sea. You can set the sailing speed to Normal, Fast or Instant. Inside the arcade your current voyage is saved in this browser after every action and every day at sea, so you can close the page and choose Continue later. Clearing site data removes the save, and finishing the year clears it.

What is the Daily voyage?

The Daily voyage gives everyone the same seas for the current date in UTC: the same prices, events, wind, contracts and rumors. A new chart starts at 00:00 UTC, so friends can compare scores on the same economy. Your first finished Daily of the day is the score that counts; replaying it is practice and keeps that score. Free voyage uses a random chart, and its six-character chart code can be shared to replay it.

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