Silkroad Online Forums

I failed.

I tried again.... got farther but then died.

I feel sad. I think I will level up to level 30 until I try again.

In case your all curious, here is what happened.

Trade Rune 1:

Level: 23
Transport: Camel
Difficulty: 1 Star

I took the shortest route heading to the Eastern Ferry. It went well, but around the last bend towards the Eastern Ferry, I had to kill some thieves attacking my transport. Soon, another trader came and his Thief killed me dealing 600+ damage I believe.

Trade Run 2:

Level 23
Transport: Camel
Difficulty: 1 Star

This time a friend helped me. All went very well. I accidentally used up all my Transport's healing potions due to a misunderstanding.

I managed to cross the Ferry. I waited for my friend and we soon head off to Donwang. The first couple of minutes went well until I came across the Earth Ghosts. I could kill 1 but when I realised my Camel got stuck, I had to return and, at the same time, attracted other Earth Ghosts. Soon, when I reached my camel, stuck behind an obstacle, it was being attacked by a Thief and a Earth Ghost. So in total, I got killed by a Thief and 4 Earth Ghosts.

*sigh*

Does anyone know other ways to do this at a level 23? I need money quick because I am forced to use up my Wolf money =(

Don't get a wolf at level 23 and don't trade at level 23. You can make much more gold grinding than you can trading. Only trade if you have 1 or more friends that are several levels higher (30+) than you to help. Trading at any level lower than 30 or so is pure suicide and a waste of money.

Oh, if you don't heed the advice and still decide to trade use a horse instead of a camel.. much faster.

I only started trading at level 31 (or wait, was it 30? I don't know I didn't pay much attention), from DW to Hotan. Yes I know, sui-bloody-cide. BUT, I had 2 Lvl 40+ and another 2 more trader escorting me, so all I had to do was enjoy the ride and watch the beautiful scenary all the way to Hotan.

But like many said here it's not advisable to trade until you're at least 30, or you have some high level friends who can escort you. I suspect that Jangan-DW trade is not as lucarative as it sounds, especially for *1 trades (correct me if I'm wrong), then again money is money.

Grind/do quests/sell drops until you're ready to pass Jangan-DW on your own, till then......

Oh and wolf's not a good idea for your current lvl, high maintenance, worse than girls!

You can indeed not enjoy tranding under level 30 been there, done that, died a few times and gave up.

Now when I'm trading (at lvl42) It's more enjoyable to do trades to hotan, it earns more, and I almost never die.

So my advice, get level 30 (at least 28) and try it again, you will see it will be a lot more easy and fun.

Even if you are trading at such low levels, horse is probably the better option as you can go faster.

There have been some discussions for horse <-> camel in other threads, but out of personal experience i have to say horse i better.

I started trading at lvl 21, died twice, traded ~25, survived 50%, trading now at lvl 30, survive 90%.

Reasons not to trade < 30:
1) you can't deal with the mobs around DW yet
2) you can't use the lvl30 horse (Thoroughbred orso), which has about 2x as much as HP then the lvl 20 horse
3) you don't have as much cash to buy enough pots, if you fail your run, it will hurt your eco more and you can still grind easily

Things you need to do when you DO want to trade below 30:
1) Always keep in mind that you CAN die, so don't spend your last cash on a trade run.
2) Only get a camel if you have high-level friends escorting you, a horse if you try alone. Still would recommend a horse if you have friends, but if you insist on a camel, get friends to help.
3) Go from DW to Jan. You will have the hardest part of your trade at the start, so you won't have wasted a lot of your time if you would die due to Earth ghosts (in comparison to a Jan-DW run and you would die near the finish).
4) It's worth taking a small detour which will cost you 5 more minutes than risk losing your cargo by taking the shortest route. In my experience most thief(poppers) run around near the crossing below the East ferry in Jan-area. I try to avoid that place everytime i trade.

In general for trades DW-Jan or Jan-DW:
1) Thief poppers will be a part of the game. But also part of the excitement! i remember getting frustated at it when i got popped at lvl 21, but now i don't really. Thieves who try to pop you will most of the time ride a horse. If you ride a horse too, you can stay away from them, or at least keep the same distance. It will come down to manoevring skills, which often include turning 180 degrees and take a big detour.
2) Don't run along with other traders who are higher level without asking them. Most of the time the higher level trader won't mind you tagging along, but asking is better, especially since the thieves he spawns will get you in trouble. Personally i prefer travelling alone, you are more mobile that way and will catch less attention from thieves. If they have some hunters with them, or some 'normal' player guards, then you can ask to tag along of course.
3) If you see yourself being overwhelmed by enemy (NPC) thieves for some reason, don't waste time potting your animal unless you are VERY close to DW or Jan. The loot won't be worth the pots, since you probably can't save your animal. Better safe yourself.
4) I usually take 50 large heal kits and 20 status cures along on a trade run. It's too much, but i rather have a few extra, you can always use them on other trade runs. Make sure you have them in a quickslot so you can heal fast if needed.
5) put the info about your trade animal up on the health bar screen and put it in the lower right corner orso, so you can always can keep an immediate eye on it's health.
6) keep checking the surroundings for (player)thieves, the mini-radar is always one step behind. If you see one, take another direction and hope they didn't see you.

correction. mini-map is always a step ahead. but if yuo see a player thief ( witha trans, if not he cant' pop you) yes, runn afap (as fast as possible)

I've done a couple of solo runs on lvl 25-28 (with a horse I might add). The mobs were no problem, just the poppers. DW-Jangan might have the hardest mobs at the beginning but with the poppers around the last bridge to Jangan often is A Bridge Too Far.

Thanks for the helpful replies.

I heard before that Camel was better at my stage due to HP and such. But I guess if you all say I should use Horse than so be it.

I don't know about the Animal's Health Bar, but when I summon it, its portrait appears next to my mini map, is that it?

As for thieves, I'm sticking to 1 Star trades but... I heard about that 1 star popping. What exactly is that? How does it work?

I could take the long way to trade since I am a patient man. But for now, I'll just train and do quests until I'm sick of killing enemies and decide to trade hehehehe. It's just that, I thought if I could trade to Donwang, I can then stay there and do the available quests there.

Well, a Camel does have.. about twice the HP of a horse i think? but with a horse you can avoid being 1* popped (more about that later). And the horse you can use at lvl 30 has enough HP to be able to take some hits.
Only time you could use a Camel is when you ride with other higher lvl traders who are friends and also use a camel, but then you still have the risk of being popped.


Not sure if that's it, but when you summon a trade animal, near the bottom right you have 3 new buttons (Information, Mount/dismount and terminate orso), if you click the first one you get a new window with 3 tabs, a status/hp bar tab, an inventory tab and a.. settings tab? i use the first tab to keep an eye on it's health


Traders spawn NPC thieves of their own level (or about their own lvl), the amount of stars is kinda the amount of thieves (1* spawns 1 NPC thief, 2* two NPC, etc).
Thieves spawn NPC thieves as well when they are riding a trade animal with stolen loot. However! those NPC thieves will STILL attack traders before they will attack the thief that spawned them.
Thiefpopping/1*popping is basically a thief riding a trade animal with stolen loot, and he tries to ride next to/in front of a trader, so the thieves he will spawn will attack that trader. Usually the thieves are (a lot) higher leveled, so the trader has no chance of being able to defeat those thieves.
If you ride a Camel, a player-thief on a horse can easily catch up with you, and spawn npc-thieves near you.
If you ride a Horse, and you can direct it well enough, a player thief won't be able to get close to you, so he can't pop you.


I mainly trade to take a break from grinding/questing as well, and it's a fun break but no worries, once you reach level 26-29 you will be able to take care of the mobs around DW, so trading will be more possible, but starting from lvl 30 it's almost easy to do, since your horse has enough HP then

you will make more money grinding than trading. If its about money grind, if its about accomplishing a successful trade run. You might want to wait or get some higher level friends.

Yea
Its just like the wolf if you have one. THe red is the health, and if a wolf, the yellow is hunger.

I, myself can do trade runs from DW-Jangan no probelm.
Well except for this one time....
Ok heres the story.
I took a level 20 horse through the Ravine and it survived because my wolf took most of the hits from taoists. (Im level 28 and my wolf is at 99.99% level 28 now also)
So as I was coming out of the ravine i see a horse thief and a camel thief.
So I decide well im going to East Ferry instead of West. Well the horse starts following me even though he couldnt catch me with my horse. My guild uses Teamspeak so I'm asking for help to see if anyone was close. My guild leader was PvPing hunter-thief war at South gate DW so he already had his hunter suit on. I joined his party and run like hell to get to him. On my way I pick up 2 more poppers trying to get me. All the thiefs were around level 32-50 cause they didn't have a level 52 weapon. My guild master did. So he was buffing as i came up to him then he sends his wolf and kills one. Strongbows another and had to chase down the final.
He protected me until I got to my safe route away from Poppers.

PM me in game....i'll escort you

ive had 4 successfull runs and im lvl 23. the first two was to jan-to dw-to hoten.

other 2 was just to jan-dw.

but i did have 2 escorts lvl 42 and 54. and they gave me all the camles and horses i need plus pills

i love my union

What union you in?

Thanks for more replies! Really appreciate it. This thread has got me to understand more about trading.

Thanks also for explaining to me what 1 star popping means. I will use horse next time for sure =)

Even though that's kinda cheap, I guess you can't stop it.

I recently levelled up to level 24 and if I can find people willing to help for free, I will try trading again.

But yeah, it's probably best to wait till level 30. Good thing about trading, when you die, you don't lose real EXP, only job EXP. In my situation, that's a good thing =)

Ideas on where I should train? I done every quest in Jangan and right now I decided to kill Chakjis until level 27 "at least".

Go to DW and get the quests there and remember to change your return point to DW.
To do that in case you didn't know is click on the teleporter and choose Designate return/recall point.

The first quest is from the potion person.

Cause if you train to level 27 on Chakjis you will get so bored.