Trade is the main skill in for accumulating wealth. The higher levels of this skill increase your profits, make investments in workshops and caravans safer, and, at the max level, allow you to buy and sell settlements from other nobles.
Related
These are the best Leadership perks to choose in Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord.
The final perk of the trade skill takes a long time to achieve, but the investment will be worth it if you enjoy the trading playstyle. Choosing the best perks along the way can ease the grind and increase your profit to the point that, by the time you reach the skill's capstone, you can easily afford a couple of settlements to start your kingdom with.
11 Whole Seller
Appraiser | -15% price penalty while selling equipment. Your profits are marked. |
|---|---|
Whole Seller | -15% price penalty while selling trade goods. Your profits are marked. |
The Appraiser perk is worth investing in if you don't plan on leveling up your trade skill past level 25, making battles and looting defeated armies a great source of income, as the perk reduces your selling price penalty for weapons and armor.
But the Whole Seller is the perk of choice if you want to progress in the trade skill tree with ease. Trade goods are anything besides equipment and mounts, making them a great source of income, as well as trade experience, allowing you to level up your skill even faster.
10 Caravan Master
Caravan Master | +30% carrying capacity for your party. Item prices are marked relative to the average price. |
|---|---|
Market Dealer | -50% cost of bartering for safe passage. Item prices are marked relative to the average price. |
Whichever perk you choose at this level, combined with the level 25 perks, you will now have an easier time trading as goods will be color-coded relative to the average market price and your profit margins.
But the deciding factor between Caravan Master and Market Dealer is the long-time benefit of the former. Market Dealer can only be useful very early on in the game when you have not gathered a strong party and are in danger of being attacked by bandits, but once you're past that stage, the extra carry capacity offered by the caravan master is crucial for a trade play style.
9 Local Connections
Distributed Goods | Double the relationship gain by resolved issues with artisans. -15% price penalty while buying from villages. |
|---|---|
Local Connections | Double the relationship gain by resolved issues with merchants. -15% price penalty while selling animals. |
The first benefits of both Distributed Goods and Local Connections are similar and don't affect the game enough to be the deciding factor between the two perks. The cheaper prices from villages are a nice bonus, but you make the most of your profits by trading in towns and adding villages to your rotation will make the process lengthier.
Related
Being a good lord in Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord requires you to make difficult decisions. Thankfully, all of these policies will help your kingdom.
Animals can be massively profitable if you don't mind traveling long distances. Horses from the Aserai lands will sell for impressively high prices in the northern towns of Sturgia, and Local Connections can make the trek even more worthwhile.
8 Traveling Rumors
Toll Gates | Your workshops gather trade rumors. +30 gold for each caravan visiting the governed settlement. |
|---|---|
Traveling Rumors | Your caravans gather trade rumors. +20 gold for each villager party visiting the governed settlement. |
Trade rumors are a great source for deciding what to buy and where to go. They will tell how much each trade good will be bought and sold for in various towns, allowing you to plan your trading routes to be more profitable.
The major benefit of both these perks at this level is to give you more trade rumors. Traveling Rumors is the best option as your caravans travel all over the map, giving you more and newer rumors, while workshops can only give you rumors about a single settlement.
7 Artisan Community
Artisan Community | +1 daily renown from every profitable workshop. +1 recruitment slot when recruiting merchant notables. |
|---|---|
Great Investor | +1 daily renown from every profitable caravan. -30% companion recruitment cost. |
Workshops and caravans are the two main investment options once you have earned a decent amount of money. The best perk at this level will depend on how many caravans and workshops you own.
The secondary benefit of the Artisan Community is more useful in the long run. And workshops, while more expensive, are the safer investment in the long run as caravans run the risk of getting destroyed by bandit parties.
Unlike caravans, workshops do require a bit of micromanagement.
If your workshops are not profitable, make sure they are getting their input materials either through bound villages or by you, and make sure there aren't too many similar workshops in the settlement and nearby towns.
You might need to change the production of your workshop until you find the best option for each one.
6 Mercenary Connections
Content Trades | +10% tariff income in the governed settlement. -50% wages paid while waiting in settlements. |
|---|---|
Mercenary Connections | +25% workshop production rate. -25% mercenary troop wages in your party. |
Content Trader is somewhat contradictory with the trading playstyle. While halving your party's wages is a great cost reduction, it only applies while you are waiting in a settlement, something that you rarely do with this type of character.
Mercenary Contracts is the superior perk at this level. While the reduced cost of mercenary troops is a nice bonus, the major benefit of this perk is increasing your workshops' production, adding to your passive income.
5 Rapid Development
Insurance Plans | +5000 denars return when one of your caravans is destroyed. -25% price penalty while buying food items. |
|---|---|
Rapid Development | +5000 denars return for each workshop when the workshop's town is captured by an enemy. -25% price penalty while buying clay, iron, cotton, and silver. |
The Insurance Plans perk is a decent perk if you focus on caravans and lose them to bandits occasionally, but if you choose companions with high scouting skills to run your caravans, you can avoid this problem without needing the perk.
Rapid Development is a safer option, especially if you are part of a kingdom. Workshops are the more expensive investment and losing them to a siege can be a devastating economic setback, making the money given back by this perk more valuable.
It's a good idea to avoid joining any other kingdoms if you are doing a trading playthrough.
The early to mid-game can get a bit boring and repetitive without wars, but your investments will be safer, and you can start building your kingdom on the back of your wealth when you reach the max level in trading.
4 Tradeyard Foreman
Granary Accountant | -20% price penalty while selling food items. +20% production rate to grain, olives, fish, and date in villages bound to the governed settlement. |
|---|---|
Tradeyard Foreman | -20% price penalty while selling pottery, tools, cotton, and jewelry. +20% production rate to clay, iron, cotton and silver in villages bound to the governed settlement. |
The choice between Granary Accountant and Tradeyard Foreman comes down to your preferred goods to trade. But in general, the price of food items starts to balance in the mid to late game, making them less profitable overall.
Related
Here's everything you need to know about the best smithing perks in Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord!
This makes Tradeyard Foreman a slightly better perk in the long run. Crafted materials, especially pottery and jewelry, are always in high demand and can be very profitable in high prosperity settlements.
3 Self-Made Man
Self-Made Man | +50% barter penalty for items. +30% build speed for marketplace, kiln, and aqueduct projects. |
|---|---|
Sword For Barter | -20% hiring cost of mercenary troops. -15% caravan guard wages. |
If you focus on mercenary troops and caravan guards for your party, which can be a decent choice if you are not putting in the effort to train regular troops, Sword For Barter can be a decent perk to reduce your costs of hiring and managing these types of troops.
But Self-Made Man will be a great perk if you are also investing in the charm skill. You can gain more relationship bonus by bartering items, and this perk can save you a lot of money if you plan on recruiting other lords to your kingdom.
2 Spring Of Gold
Silver Tongue | -15% gold required while persuading lords to defect to your faction. +15% better trade deals from caravans and villagers. |
|---|---|
Spring of Gold | +0.1% denars of interest income per day based on your current denars up to 1000 denars. +20% effect from boosting projects in the governed settlement. |
While the Silver Tongue seems like a decent perk for recruiting lords to your kingdom in the late game, it only reduces your occasional costs, while Spring of Gold gives a constant and passive income.
If you manage to earn one million denars, which won't be hard once you level up your trade to this point, you can get 1,000 daily denars, which is more than any single caravan and workshop usually makes.
1 Man Of Means
Man Of Means | -20% cost of recruiting minor faction clans into your clan. -30% ransom cost for your freedom. |
|---|---|
Trickle Down | +1 relationship with merchants if 10,000 or more denars are spent on a single deal. +2 daily prosperity while building a project in the governed settlement. |
Before getting the final perk in the trade skill and unlocking the ability to purchase settlements, you have a relatively anticlimactic perk to choose from at this level. Neither perk offers significant benefits, but Man of Means can be more useful overall.
Both benefits of this perk can reduce certain costs. Especially in case you are imprisoned, ransom offers scale with your wealth, and the cost reduction will be large enough to justify picking this perk over the minor effects that Trickle Down offers.
