Merchant Tips

What do you buy at the merchant?

I've had many conversations with alliance members about the merchant ship, What is it? How do you use it?  Does everyone see the same stuff?  etc.  Here are some tips and pointers and how I use the merchant.

Once you hit castle level 10 you will gain access to the merchant.  He does three things: 1. sells "shells" for resources. 2. sells random items for either resources or gems.  3. will trade some items for other items. Everyone gets a different, random set of options.  You can reset him if you want to try a new random set, but it will cost you some gems.

The merchant resets every 8 hours, so you have up to 3 opportunities to interact with him each day (unless you use gems to reset him)  Each time I visit the merchant, I sell my resources for shells.  I do this every time, no matter what (resources are easy to get, shells not so much.)  He won't buy that many resources from you, so it is unlikely you can't get enough.  At C10, you will only be able to sell wood, food and stone, but at c15 you gain access to iron, so you can get more shells each day.

Check his exchange every time he resets. Some times he will exchange something you have tons of or don't care about (like a move building card) for something rare (like a beast skill chest.)  Other times, his exchanges are pointless, but it is always good to check.

Look at his inventory and decide if you want to buy or not.  There are a few items I will always buy if they are offered for shells and I have enough:

Glory Swords: These are very difficult to get enough of without purchasing for gems, so collecting them little by little from any possible source is a good idea.

Beast Skill Chests: I will always do whatever I can to get these. They are very rare and you need a TON of them to get a beast skill put together by the time your beast is ready for evolution 3.

1 and 2 hour speedups (except for research)  If you see a building, healing, or generic speedup for 1 or 2 hours, this is the best deal around for sure.  (Farms may not need the building speedups.)

Elite Teleports: if these are available, they will either be for 1800 gems (a 200 gem discount) or 6000 shells. If I have enough shells, I will grab these for sure.  for gems, it depends on how many I already have, my current gem level, etc.  Might or might not go for it.

Beast Vigor: this is strangely rare.  always get it when you can from any source.

Some people also grab any Exp cards--these will help you level up and get those player skills. 

Stamina potions can be a good one to get as well  Very helpful when you need them, but if you wait until you need them, they're impossible to buy. 

Any others you like to get?  comment below.