Guide to Lost Shipments (2024)

With January’s Season One Update, the new Merchant Alliance Voyage ‘Lost Shipments’ has arrived to expand the trading company. The Voyage will see players track down a sunken Merchant ship in search of a Manifest and other optional Merchant loot.

This new trading company Voyage will become available only to players that have reached level 25 or higher in the Merchant Alliance trading company- but Larinna also has a Lost Shipment Voyage in her Black Market for a limited time.

This Guide explains everything you need to know about this new Voyage type

• A merchant ship has sunk beneath the surface, and the company will pay you to return the ship’s Manifest, a log book located on that ship.
• Starting the voyage, you receive a map showing that ship’s route and destination, near the end of which you’ll find the shipwreck and its Manifest. The voyage is then complete and you can sell the Manifest.
• Optional: along the route are floating debris that may contain Merchant loot, and also paper Clues. Following info from the Clues will lead to other potential loot and more Clues, and eventually Clues lead to a Captain’s Key!
  The Captain’s Key opens the locked cabin door of the shipwreck you’re seeking, and inside is a boatload of Merchant Alliance loot.

Read on for a more detailed breakdown of the voyage…

A note about Loot:

Throughout this guide, various mentions are made to “Merchant Loot”. On this voyage, that typically consists of Goods Crates- Fine Sugar, Rare Tea, Exotic Silk, Exquisite Spices, Volcanic Stone, Fine Ore, Extraordinary Minerals, or Precious Gemstones. Other kinds of loot that occur may include Gun Powder Barrels, Stronghold Gunpowder Barrels, Mermaid Gems, and Resource Crates (Wood, Food, Cannonballs).

When you begin a Lost Shipment voyage, as with any other voyage you’ll receive a quest in your Quest Inventory. This piece of paper details the route that the lost crew had taken- including the Name of the vessel, their Origin point, and their Destination.

If you wish to complete the voyage as quickly as possible and ignore the optional side loot, you can skip a lot of searching and head right for the listed Destination. But there’s a LOT of extra loot to earn otherwise, so make sure you read about the Search for the Captain’s Key farther down below before deciding!

Finding the Shipwreck

• The Galleon you seek will appear near the end of the pictured route, somewhere in the final 50% of the path laid out on your map
• Merchant Shipwrecks are denoted much like any other shipwreck in the game- circling seagulls will be visible above the shipwreck. The vessel may poke out of the waves or be hiding beneath its surface, but will always be right beneath a flock of birds.
  Note: Randomly Generated wrecks may also spawn during the voyage, having nothing to do with your quest. To be sure this shipwreck is the one you seek, check that the name that pops up on approach matches your Quest Parchment
• A Skeleton wearing a Merchant’s hat will be located somewhere on or beneath the deck of this ship. In its hands is a Manifest, a small book which is exactly the treasure you came here for. When its retrieved the voyage is complete!

The Merchant’s Manifest

This logbook retrieved from the shipwreck is worth nothing to simple pirates- but the Merchant Alliance sure wants it back! The books come in different value tiers from Prosperous to Revered, selling between ~1500 to ~4000 gold. Of course, like any other company loot you can sell a Manifest to the Reaper’s Hideout for Reaper’s Bones reputation instead.

If you skipped straight to the shipwreck to find the Manifest, you may have noticed that this ship’s captain’s cabin is locked closed. Inside is a hoard of Merchant Alliance loot ripe for the taking, but to find the Captain’s Key, you’ll need to search for clues long before you reach this sunken vessel

Find Clues Along the Trade Route

A number of clues may be found along the Trade Route, so it’s recommended that you start sailing from the Merchant’s Origin point, and Follow the Route they traveled, as pictured on your Quest parchment.

• If you spot circling seagulls along this route, they may contain a clue you seek! Search floating debris and barrels along the route, which may contain Messages in a Bottle, specially marked Merchant Barrels which contain a note inside, or even The Captain’s Key itself! There may also be Supply Barrels and Merchant Loot floating along with the debris

Note: Randomly Generated supply barrels or ship wrecks may also appear during your quest, also marked by seagulls, and contain no clues.

Quest Specific items like Clues or the Key will be marked by a BLUE COLORED GLINT OF LIGHT

What Clues Contain

• When a Clue is retrieved, a parchment is added to your Quest Inventory with either a note from the Merchant Crew you’re tracking down, or an island map
• If the Note mentions heading to their final destination, that they already lost the key, or generally doesn’t give any useful information, then it’s the final clue on the route and will not lead anywhere

Otherwise, the note will lead you to another location:

• If a note mentions a Map Coordinate, sail to that part of the map and search for more floating debris marked by seagulls
• If a note mentions an Island’s name or pictures a Map of an Island, sail to that island and search for the next clue washed along the beach
• If a note mentions the name of an NPC on an island, then talking to that NPC will get you the next note

These locations will contain another clue, and may contain the Captain’s Key itself, always marked by a blue glint of light. They may also be surrounded by other Merchant loot items

Follow these clues until you discover the Captain’s Key among the debris you encounter

Congratulations! Now take the Captain’s Key to the Merchant Shipwreck, open the Captain’s Cabin, and raid the loot you find inside!
Note: The Captain’s Key can also be sold directly to the Merchant Alliance or Reaper’s Bones for a small sum

Tips for the Voyage

• Keeping a keen eye for Seagulls will help you a lot on this Voyage, as most everything you will be looking for will be at sea. Seagulls will mark the debris were clues are hiding, as well as most importantly the Shipwreck you are looking for. The more Seagulls there are in a flock indicates if what you are looking at is a Shipwreck or not
• Merchant Clues and the Captain’s Key shine with a blue glint instead of the usual white when seen from a distance
• The Captain’s Key will sometimes be found in the same location as another clue! Always double check for the blue glint of a small key before leaving a clue location behind!
• Additional Merchant loot may be found among debris throughout the quest. The final shipwreck may contain miscellaneous loot in it’s hold as well

There are 3 new commendations to earn under the Merchant Alliance Reputation tab, and 1 new commendation under the Reaper’s Bones Reputation Tab.

For Merchant Alliance:

• Manifestation- Bring recovered Ship Manifests to the Merchant Alliance
  This earns the ‘Merchant of Manifests’ Title, and unlocks for purchase the ‘Merchant Pathfinder Sails’
• Manifest Destiny- Find Ship Manifests
• Cabin Fever- Open Captain’s cabins using a Captain’s Key
  This earns the ‘Merchant of Mysteries’ Title, and unlocks for purchase the ‘Golden Gatherer Merchant Sails’

And for Reapers Bones:

• Finders, Reapers- Sell recovered Ship Manifests to the Reapers Bones