Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord – How to Trade

Trading Tips to Early Game

General

There is no market. The whole point is you move stuff from A to B and try to profit off of local price fluctuations or regional shortages.

You can glance over the map and see that certain villages produce certain materials. Every village is tradebound to a certain town, you can see which in a cursor tooltip, the town has 3 workshops that turn materials into product, also town consumes some materials, products and food.

Then it’s just pure economics, difference in supply vs demand creates price discrepancy, travelling caravans smooth it down between towns.

Knowing towns and actual “average” price of every goods comes with experience, but for now you can just hover your cursor over every type of goods and see “trade rumors” that show if that type can be bought or sold somewhere else with a different price. Leveling up your trade will open new hints and decrease trade penalty.

Right at the beginning prices are instable and they need some days to “normalize” themself.

You could ask caravans you meet about prices and best deals they did.

Also in every tavern you could ask each normal citizen and some of them gives your some hints, what to buy in this city and where to sell with a profit.

But I think the trade is not as good solved. I tried to play as a peacefull trader, but come always to the situation with same pricing everywhere and you could gain XP in trade only using weak-designed mechanics in the game.

Starting Patterns

There are some patterns at the start of the game.

For instance Amprela+Myzea offer good prices for raw silk that you could sell literally everywhere. Tyal+Baltakhand offer good prices for wool and most food items. Sturgia (and battanian Cat Banseth) has good offers on tools and fur, both sell well with aserai.

But war can destroy these patters because villages get raided and towns and castles captured making towns switch owners and tradebound villages.

Other Tips

Also the village quests, the Art of trade are great for bulk discount buying. Most villages give you what they produce, grain so grain, horses horses, etc., or just read the dialogue. Keep an eye out on towns right after they are defeated. You will make a lot selling most food items.

Tools is another great item to carry around and sell or to use to complete the tool quest in villages. Cheap hogs will give meat plus the hides when butchered. Hides sell for over 400+ after some battles or usually 100 plus at times in some towns. Buying from villagers on the way to towns is not that bad either. And Beer…. always good.

Overall once you go around the map a few times you will start to notice which towns lack a certain things, etc.