How Merchant Contracts Work In Windrose: Fastest Way To Get Resources & Materials

Merchant Contracts are easily missed but they are one of the most important systems in Windrose for obtaining large amounts of resources and crafting materials. Merchant Contracts allow you to trade Piastre for a wide range of various goods that you will need for crafting weapons & armor, for shipbuilding and in general progressing in Windrose.

How Merchant Contracts Work In Windrose

In this section we'll run through the Merchant Contract system and explain clearly how you can access it, and how it all works.

Acquiring Merchant Contracts & Placing Merchants In Your Base

Merchant Contracts are 'plans' that allow you to build a merchant vendor in your base, who you can then trade with. There are currently three Merchant Contracts you can acquire in the game, listed below:

You can buy the Merchant Contracts from the Faction Provisioners either at their Faction Base, or at Tortuga where you can find them all.

The People of Tortuga sell two of the three available Merchant Contracts once you reach Level 2 Reputation.

Once you have acquired the Plans from the Faction Provisioners, you can then place the Merchant in your base from the Build menu (B). You'll find the Merchant Contracts right at the bottom of the 'Crafting & Utilities' menu.

Placing Orders With Merchants

Once you have constructed the Merchant, interact with them to bring up the trading menu. You will see that you can 'Place an Order' for 1x, 2x, 5x or 10x boxes of resources. Each box contains a different amount of resources, the quantities of which are listed in our tables later in this article.

Once you place an order, you will have to wait 70 minutes (real time) for the order to complete, after which you can collect the goods from the Merchant. You cannot place any other orders from the same Merchant while you have an order active.

Finally, you will unlock the ability to purchase more advanced resources from the Merchants after you defeat the Local Threat in each zone, though currently only Thomas Richards and Hands, as defeating the High Priestess in the Cursed Swamp does not add any new materials yet.

All Merchant Contract Items In Windrose

In this section, we'll list out every item you can purchase from a Merchant Contractor, the quantity of each item in a box, the price per shipment and at what stage you unlock the ability to purchase that resource.

Merchant Contract: Natural Resources (People of Tortuga)

Merchant Contract: Food (People of Tortuga)

Merchant Contract: Animal Products (Rogue Buccaneers)

Best Merchant Contract Resources & Materials

In this section we'll point out where you can extract the most value from Merchant Contracts and advise on how to spend your Piastre wisely.

Some notes regarding the list above:

1. Flax Seeds are S-Tier because they allow you to set up a farm in your base which can provide you with an infinite stream of Flax Fiber which is required for Linen Fabric.
2. Rough Hide is difficult and time consuming to come by but required for so many things from weapon & armor to ship upgrades and Tanned Leather. We've probably bought 300-400 Rough Hide.
3. Sulfur is required for crafting Gunpowder, and once you reach the Cursed Swamp you will no longer have access to it unless you go and specifically farm it. An essential Merchant supply in the mid-late game.
4. Given how easy it is to obtain Hardwood, I considered A-tier for this supply, however you require so much of it from the mid-game onwards that it can be such an incredible time saver to buy a few hundred from the Merchant when you need it.

As you will have noticed, you'll need quite a steady supply of Piastre to trade with the Merchant Contractors. If you are interested we have a comprehensive Piastre guide that runs through the most efficient means of earning it.