Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir - Trade - game guide, walkthrough, secrets, game tips & strategies

Trade is the main source of profit in game. You start off as a unimportant figure and slowly climb towards the top. Towards the end you will grab the reins of a powerful organization bringing a profit of hundreds of thousands gold pieces. Your can start trading as soon as you complete quest 4: Samargol – Job Application, which you are given at the very beginning of the game. From this point on you will be able to buy resources at one city and sell them in another. Early in the game you will only be able to carry 10 resources. Once you reach the Sword Coast the limit will rise to 15. You can buy resources for trade bars. In turn, bars you earn can be exchanged for gold. 1 bar is worth 15 gold pieces. You can make the exchange with Osi Tchaluka (Samargol), and later with Variel (Crossroads Keep). Trade gets interesting once you reach the Sword Coast – resource prices are the same in all cities in Samarach so you can't really trade between them.

Resources

There are 11 resources available in Storm of Zehir:

Basic:

Ore, Timber, Skins

They are the most common resources, but for this reason their price is the lowest

Rare:

Cold Iron, Darksteel, Mithril, Adamantine, Zalantar, Ivory, Mead, Salt

Rare and thus expensive.

Prices in towns

*There are two kinds of mead, available depending on your choices during West Harbor – Dragon Hunt. If you decide to cooperate with the dragons use the second value.

Trade Outposts

All throughout Sword Coast you will be able to set up trade outposts from which you will be sending caravans. The more outposts and caravans you have, the more profitable your company will be. Profit, generated in trade bars can be collected from Variel (Crossroads Keep). Be sure to check in with her every once in a while to collect your share. Setting up an outpost in a city may be expensive and may sometimes be tied to some quest. Below you will see the requirements for each of the cities:

Leilon – 300 trade bars and 5 skins

West Harbor – you need to complete West Harbor – Dragon Hunting and kill the monsters

Phandalin – 200 trade bars and 5 ore

Highcliff – 100 trade bars and 5 lumber

Neverwinter – you need to complete (Neverwinter): Trade Outpost

Thundertree - 100 trade bars and 5 ore

Port Llast – 100 trade bars and 5 ore, complete (Neverwinter): Under New Management and get rid of Luskan forces

New Leaf – 800 trade bars and 10 ore, Quest 12: Shortage

Conyberry – 500 trade bars and 10 skins

Caravans

Caravans can be sent from one trade outpost to another. They generate profit which can be collected by talking to Variel (Crossroads Keep). Caravans can be upgraded to make them more resilient to bandit attacks and more profitable. It pays off to create as many caravans as possible and upgrade them when possible, the expenses you take should be covered pretty quick. If a caravans gets looted by bandits you can approach it and repair it by giving it the amount of resources or trade bars. Below, you will see a table containing the costs for creating caravans (in gold pieces), upgrade costs and the income they produce:

Leilon

West Harbor

Phandalin

Crossroads Keep

Highcliff

Thundertree

Neverwinter

Port Llast

New Leaf

Conyberry

Organization upgrades

You can also increase your profits by upgrading your organization. Those upgrades can be performed with Variel (Crossroads Keep). Such an investiture is best performed when you have trade outposts in most or all of the cities. Each investiture costs a set amount of trade bars:

1 investiture – 500 trade bars

2 investiture – 500 trade bars

3 investiture – 1000 trade bars

4 investiture – no costs

5 investiture – 5000 trade bars

Possible upgrades:

Propaganda – costs 5 ore, 5 lumber and 5 skins

Chapel upgrade – costs 5 lumber and 5 mithril / Opens the temple at Crossroads Keep.

Greycloaks weapon upgrade - costs 5 zalantar and 5 cold iron

Greycloaks armor upgrade – costs 5 mithril and 5 adamant

Portal upgrade – costs 5 adamant and 5 darksteel / After the upgrade you will be able to teleport from Crossroads Keep to your trade outposts. The travel, however, is still one way.