Cargo

Cargo of Christmas tree

Cargo items, or trade goods, are a unique item type that may be bought and sold from traders(with the exception of traveler's food) which usually can be found in a bar. Some types of cargo may be made from materials using the carpentry, jeweler, or tailoring skills.

Unlike normal items, the value of trade goods changes depending on where they are bought and where they are sold. You will be reminded of the price of purchase when you choose to sell something. Obviously, the purpose of trade goods is to buy them cheaply and then sell them for a profit in another city.

Cart and cargo weight[]

Trade goods are stored in your cart, which has it's own cargo capacity (80s to begin with) that is independent of your regular carrying capacity. You can use small medals to upgrade your cart by 10s at Miral and Garok's Workshop at a cumulative cost of 1 small medal per upgrade (i.e. the 10th upgrade would cost 10 small medals).

If you go over your cart's limit your speed will be greatly reduced while traveling on non-road tiles on the world map. Moving slower will naturally increase the number of random events you will encounter. Against an ambush, you would have to rely on your allies or a teleport to escape.

It is possible to cast or use a scroll of return to circumvent the penalty somewhat (e.g. building Your Home next to Port Kapul, then stocking up in Noyel) The reverse also works, where you build next to Noyel, use Return to enter Lesimas and use a scroll of escape to skip the backtracking. This way allows you to bypass the walk through annoying snowy weather which causes delays and ambushes in bad conditions.

You cannot store cargo items in a 4-Dimensional Pocket, but you can drop them on any surface level (towns, deed-created areas, etc).

Rogue boss ambush[]

If you encounter a rogue boss while traveling, choosing to surrender will cause you to lose all of your trade goods. If you know that you won't be able to defeat them, using a rod of teleportation can make for a relatively easy escape.

List of trade goods[]

An easy way to make a profit is to buy an item and sell it further away from its hometown. For example, you can buy a snowman in Palmia and make a profit in Vernis. On the other hand, inner tubes sell for almost the same amount in Vernis, Yowyn, and Palmia, despite the home of inner tubes being Port Kapul.

In Elona versions after 1.13, traders will continue to buy cargo items even if they have no more visible gold,

Cargo	Wgt	Cheapest	Most expensive
Painting	35s	Lumiest	Port Kapul
Barrel	10s	Palmia Port Kapul	1st Noyel 2nd Derphy
Canvas	7s	Lumiest	Port Kapul
Christmas tree	60s	Noyel	Port Kapul
Coffin	120s	Derphy	Noyel
Grave	48s	Yowyn	Noyel
Inner tube	1.5s	Port Kapul	1st Lumiest 2nd Noyel
Manboo	21s	Port Kapul	1st Noyel 2nd Lumiest
Toy	32s	Vernis	Noyel
Piano	50s	Palmia	Port Kapul
Rag doll	6.5s	Vernis	Noyel
Rope	4.8s	Port Kapul	1st Lumiest 2nd Noyel
Snowman	11s	Noyel	Port Kapul
Tuna	7.5s	Port Kapul	1st Noyel 2nd Vernis
Whisky	16s	Palmia Port Kapul	1st Noyel 2nd Derphy

Cargo	Wgt	Cheapest	Most expensive
Painting	35s	Lumiest	Port Kapul
Barrel	10s	Derphy	1st Lumiest 2nd Noyel
Canvas	7s	Lumiest	1st Port Kapul 2nd Vernis
Christmas tree	60s	Noyel	1st Port Kapul 2nd Vernis
Coffin	12s	Derphy	Noyel
Grave	48s	Derphy	Noyel
Inner tube	1.5s	Port Kapul	1st Derphy 2nd Noyel
Manboo	21s	Port Kapul	1st Yowyn 2nd Noyel
Marimo	9.8s	Port Kapul	1st Lumiest 2nd Vernis
Toy	32s	Vernis	Noyel
Piano	50s	Vernis	Port Kapul
Rag doll	6.5s	Vernis	Noyel
Ration	1.0s	Port Kapul	1st Lumiest 2nd Vernis
Rope	4.8s	Port Kapul	1st Noyel 2nd Derphy
Snowman	11s	Noyel	Port Kapul 2nd Vernis
Tuna	7.5s	Port Kapul	1st Yowyn 2nd Noyel
Whisky	16s	Derphy	1st Noyel 2nd Lumiest

Traveler's food[]

Traveler's food weighs 2.0s and is automatically consumed while hungry and moving on the world map. Although it doesn't provide any bonuses, it doesn't rot or take up space that could have been used for loot. It also prevents you from being constantly hungry due to the slower pace of travel, the downside being that it may prevent you from eating something else.

Traveler's food can only be eaten while on the surface or while in a shelter; this means you can build a portable shelter in a dungeon and then duck into the shelter to let you eat it. Note that temporary levels created for quests, like the farms created for The Harvest Time quests, do not count as "surface" locations.

Best trade routes[]

The best theoretical(not taking into account goods shortages) trade routes of various lengths are:

32.72 - Derphy(Whisky, Barrel, Grave) -> Port Kapul(Rope, Inner Tube) -> Derphy...
30.28 - Palmia(Art, Canvas) -> Vernis(Noble Toy, Rag Doll) -> Port Kapul(Rope, Inner Tube) -> Derphy(Manboo, Tuna Fish) -> Yowyn(Barrel, Whisky, Grave) -> Palmia...
27.40 - Port Kapul(Rope, Inner Tube) -> Derphy(Manboo, Tuna Fish) -> Yowyn(Art, Canvas, Grave) -> Port Kapul...
25.99 - Palmia(Art, Canvas) -> Vernis(Barrel, Whisky) -> Palmia...

Values in (brackets) show which cargo to buy, the numbers preceding routes show optimal average profit(enough of best cargo to fill cart) per weight per 10 overworld steps.

Note that actual best trade routes will vary depending on what goods are available for purchase and the price of the goods that fluctuate over time. Consult the spreadsheets linked below for more data.

Quick trading strategy for the mid-game (Elona+)[]

Your Home near Noyel > Noyel(sell all cargo/buy Christmas Trees) > Return > Lesimas > Escape > Vernis(sell Tree/buy cargo) > Derphy(sell Tree/buy cargo) > Port Kapul(sell Tree/buy cargo) > Return > Your Home > repeat

If you have invested a lot into your cargo capacity, you can buy up Christmas Trees from Noyel and sell them to the other traders for a guaranteed profit of thousands per tree, provided you stay within your carrying limit and are able to teleport to locations. Any quest that rewards bronze coins like Harvest Time, Clean Up Mischief, etc., can improve your carrying limit through upgrading at Garok's Workshop. Having a home near Noyel makes this process much faster and you skip traveling through snow. You still have to level up the merchants by buying their goods, so they can afford all the trees. That cargo can then be sold in Noyel to recoup costs. The Noyel trader is going to level up very fast and have tons of cash on hand. Learning Return will cut costs or else stock up on return scrolls, you will also need a bunch of escape scrolls to quickly leave Lesimas.

Elona+[]

The cart can be upgraded by spending bronze coins (cost never exceeds 10 bronze coins).

Traveler's food will only be automatically eaten when you reach "starving!", allowing you to choose some other food to eat upon becoming hungry. You can also eat it without the need to be on the surface or in a shelter.

You cannot use Return while your cart is overweight.

Traders no longer continue to buy cargo after depleting their visible gold.

Omake[]

Cart upgrades increase the weight limit by 30.0s instead of 10.0s. Additionally, cart upgrades can be done via frying pans / pots for testing.

When the cargo weight exceeds the weight limit by 2 times, casting of return is disabled.

Omake Overhaul[]

Cargo:

Trade goods prices are massively increased.
Higher fame increases quantity of trade goods available.
Increasing cargo weight, speed in world map decreases through set weight intervals. Also it is no longer possible to trade after reading a scroll of return (all trade goods are destroyed upon returning).
Turnips (wuqing). This is a newly added item. Unlike other cargo goods, it is a very special in that its price changes randomly depending on the day and not by place. These can be bought from a trading store in Yowyn.

Rogue Encounters:

Encounter rate is now dependent on higher total cargo value rather than its weight.
Furthermore, when rogue boss is defeated fame gained has been greatly increased.
In exchange, increasing cart carry limit and traveling skill level will lower the chance of being ambushed by rogue encounters.