Caravans, trade and Merchant Tradition
Prepare the crew, choose your route, and build a trading identity when Ideology is available.
Prepare transport
Attach the cart or wagon rather than packing a spare as cargo. Check the assigned animal and handler, rope, health and carrying capacity. Bring food, useful tools and repair materials for the trip.
Choose arrival and departure
- During caravan formation, choose a preferred edge in the map picker and confirm Use this marker. No marker keeps normal routing.
- While gathering or leaving, a selected member can use Change caravan exit.
- On the world map, select a traveling caravan and use Change entrance marker for its destination.
- Keep the whole party’s route reachable. Invalid choices can fall back to native routing.
Add Merchant Tradition
Ideology is required. Add the Merchant Tradition meme when creating or reforming an ideoligion. Assign its Caravanner specialist to an eligible adult follower with Social 6 or higher. Biotech is not required for this role.
The role supports trade and, when enabled and eligible, caravan travel and pack-animal capacity. Bonuses do not multiply with extra leaders. Check weight after a leader becomes unavailable.
Optional caravan choices
Caravanner bonuses, Forced March and passage negotiations have separate settings. A switch does not remove the role or encounter requirements. Forced March is a deliberate push with costs and cooldowns; check its in-game information before committing.
Existing colonies are not automatically converted to the merchant ideology. Read its required precepts and choose a setup that suits your colony.
Keep exploring
Guide reference: Manual 0.1.190.109, pages 93-104. Settings, recipes and labels can differ in other builds. Check your installed version and item information.