WARNING: While this guide will be fairly simple and straight-forward, you will most likely feel awful for squandering your considerable talents on reading how to play the game rather than playing it!

Congratulations! You've purchased Sunless Sea,

That means you're most likely, angry, frustrated, and entirely confused about how to acquire the kind of money only a Person of Some Importance could hope to attain. To help you out, I've decided to write a short(ish) guide on how to make enough to money to... well, make even more money!

... and also open up more of the game to you. Most of Sunless Sea's pleasure is derived from the incredible writing available throughout the game world, however, to reach much of it you need to be creative, daring, and wealthy! Hahaha!

(Note, this guide will NOT increase your capacity to be a creative, daring, or otherwise interesting person)

So. Where to begin? I would say the beginning. If you're familiar with the game already, feel free to skip ahead a bit. Otherwise, pay close attention. When you start, you are presented with a number of choices on character backstory, pick the one that best suits you. If you're still unsure, choose, "A street urchin!" and any ambition. This will start you with less echoes (The currency of the game), but will open up some interesting and profitable options for you.

Once you've clicked past this, you'll be taken to the game proper. There you'll start with your book open. Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the controls and interface before continuing. Finally, leaf through your in-game captain's handbook, and sell it it for 50 echoes.

Excellent. Now it's time to start questing and trading. The first thing you'll want to do is accept the "Offer passage to a tomb-colonist" story.

London can seem overwhelming at first and presents a slew of options to you. For the purposes of this guide we'll focus mostly on the Wolfstack Exchange. You should start the game with something like 10 units of fuel and 5 units of supplies, more than enough to reach your first destination. Under the "Shops" tab you'll find a number of so-called places of business, although to many players they are nothing short of extortion. Regardless, London's shops offer the best prices on a fair numbers of items in the Unterzee. Purchase as many "Cask's of Mushroom Wine" from the actual "Wolfstack Exchange" as you can.

In "Your Lodgings" make sure to read the news as it will, for a sadly limited amount of time, garner you free supplies at a later point. More on that later.

Finally, although it may seem tempting, avoid over-purchasing materials. That includes weaponry, fuel, supplies, other items that may increase your stats, and etc. until later in the game. Like I said, there is a lot to buy in London, but that general translates in to a lot to lose for you.

As a quick reference, 10 units of fuel and 7 units of supplies is MORE than enough to get you out to the Salt Lions and back. you'll learn where that is shortly. For now, it's time to launch!

Optional: If you've taken the time to read the news in "your lodgings" before departing you will be presented with a chance to acquire free supplies. Which translates in to much less overhead for you. between your destination, Venderbight, and your quay in London lies "Hunter's Keep" a medium-sized island with a large mansion that is home to three sisters. If you decide to dock there exhaust your starting options to aquire a port report and have yourself introduced to the sisters. Avoid the "News! News!" option for now. Dine with one of the three sisters for some attention from the gods of the Zee and an extra unit of supplies. You may then use the "News! News!" option to repeat this. You will be able to do this for a while, although eventually you will trigger a story that prevents you from continuing. You may dock at "Hunter's Keep" during either leg of your journey, though it will be slightly more fuel-effcient to do so on the return trip.

Now, to reach Venderbight exit the Wolfstack Docks complex and head straight north or, if you are worried about getting lost due to your admittedly poor navigational skills, hug the coast. You will eventually reach Venderbight where you will discover a slew of locations. The actual port lies on the northern side of the entrance.

Once there, the "Offer passage to a tomb-colonist" story will trigger. If you chose the "A street urchin!" backstory AND choose to help your "tomb-colonist" ashore you will be rewarded with 200 echoes upon successful completion of the story. If you chose another start or otherwise choose not to help the "tomb-colonist" you may recieve other rewards or end up having to repeat this route a few times to acquire more capital.

Finally, explore the depressingly not-quite-dead colony and acquire a port report. Head back to London.

Now that you're back in London you may recieve an offer from the "Blind Bruiser", who is really only half-blind mind you, to provide you with a large cache of fuel and supplies. Accept or reject his offer, but know that for this next part you will need at least 20 empty cargo space. There is no way to save fuel and supplies for later. Also know that he will occasionally return asking for favors (that usually end in your compensation). Anyways, do your thing and read the news and make sure you've got ~10 fuel and ~7 supplies. Don't drop too far below this or too high. Also make sure you've still got at least 200 echoes left as this is where you'll start accruing serious capital. Optionally, you may turn in your port reports now for free fuel, echoes, and admiralty favour (this is useful if you just need a few more echoes to reach the required 200), but by waiting to turn them in after you visit the Salt Lions you will also recieve temporary access to an actual admiral.

Remember, you may vist "Hunter's Keep" for free supplies at the cost of "Recent News".

The Salt Lions are quite easy to find. They are LITERALLY due east of London. So undock, don't touch the controls, and take your beauty to 'full ahead'. Read a book and check in every couple of seconds; you may encounter a zeemonster or two, but they are easily defeatable. Once you reach the Salt Lions, the dock will be located inbetween the two on the more northern one. Visit the unmakers, compile a port report, and offer to ferry their sphinxstone to London. This, while costing you 200 echoes to start will net you 300 echoes in profit (that's NET echoes, so if you left London with 200 you will end up with 500).

Finding your way back to London is easy enough, turn due west out of the Salt Lions' dock and just putter along. You may have to maneuver around an obstacle or two when you reach home waters, but it's a fairly straight path. Once you're in London, complete the sphinxstone story to get your money and *BOOM*: now you are up to ~500 echoes, if not more. You can repeat this many times, but know that it is a limited deal and will eventually end.

Now that you have a short-term solution to your problem of capital gains, where do you go next?

The first place to look is Warnor's "Guide for the Unterzee Merchant". There you'll find a number of profitable trade routes.

If trading isn't your thing, then you'll need to explore. To be able to survive, you'll have to take some trading stories like Polythreme's "Carry Clay Men to London" story. They're generally few and far inbetween. Otherwise, you'll have to eke out a living on port report's and admiralty favour.

God speed, ladies, gentlemen, and, err... best not to say.