Trade Guide for OpenFront.io

Dominate the mid- to late-game economy by mastering trade: build Ports, establish alliances, and maximize gold through strategic trade routes and naval actions.

1. Building and Upgrading Ports

Players must construct Ports on coastal tiles to unlock trade and naval options:

• First Port cost: 125 000 gold; each subsequent Port doubles in cost until reaching 1 000 000 gold.
• Ports enable:
  • Automatic spawning of Trade Ships
  • Construction of Warships (Destroyers and Battleships)

2. Trade Ship Spawning and Routing

Every 10 ticks, each Port attempts to spawn a Trade Ship, with spawn rate

tradeShipSpawnRate = round(10 × (numberOfPorts)^0.6)
(diminishing returns cap spawn rate at 50).
Trade partners are selected among other players’ Ports, prioritized by:

• Alliance status: allied Ports have double chance
• Proximity: closer Ports have double chance

Trade Ships travel automatically along the shortest path to their destination Port.

3. Gold Generation and Scaling

Upon arrival, each Trade Ship grants gold to both origin and destination owners:

Gold = 10 000 + 150 × (distance^1.1)
(distance measured by Manhattan metric)

• Short route example (20 tiles): 10 000 + 150 × 20^1.1 ≈ 13 680 gold
• Long route example (200 tiles): 10 000 + 150 × 200^1.1 ≈ 57 434 gold
  Longer routes yield superlinear returns, incentivizing distant alliances.

Route Length	Gold per Ship
20 tiles	13 680
200 tiles	57 434

4. Protecting and Pirating Trade Ships

• Safe zones: within a few tiles of any shoreline, Trade Ships become “safe from pirates,” immune to capture.
• Piracy: outside safe zones, enemy Destroyers can capture Trade Ships.
  • Captor receives full gold bounty
  • Ship re-routes to captor’s nearest Port (or removed if none exist)

5. Warships for Trade Control

• Destroyers: fast, used to intercept and capture enemy Trade Ships.
• Battleships: slow but ranged, effective at protecting your Trade Ships and deterring enemy Destroyers.
  Use a combination of both to secure your trade lanes and cut off opponents’ income.

6. Strategic Recommendations

1. Early Port priority: aim for your first Port as soon as you have ~125 000 gold to kickstart trade income.
2. Long-distance alliances: ally with distant players to maximize route length and gold yield.
3. Naval presence: station a mix of Destroyers and Battleships along key routes to both protect your Trade Ships and harass opponents.
4. Port placement: build Ports on map chokepoints or near friendly shores to increase piracy protection.
5. Port count vs. cost: balance spawning rate benefits against exponentially rising Port costs; generally, 2–4 well-placed Ports outperform many high-cost Ports.

By leveraging these mechanics—efficient Port building, strategic alliances, and naval warfare—you can turn trade into a decisive economic engine and outpace rivals in OpenFront.io.