Spiral Knights Trading Ultimate Guide

Spiral Knights Trading Ultimate Guide by Kalielle

So you’ve just crossed over from the new player zone into the Haven, it’s a bright beautiful day in town, and the first thing that hits you is a chat wave of

WTS !!!MATS!!! all mats many mats PM me
WTS Weapon You’ve Never Heard of. Make an offer – I’m sure you know what a fair price for it would be, don’t you?
WTS Even more mats!!!!!! And you can tell my prices are fair because I say so

Pretty overwhelming, huh? But it won’t seem that way after you read this guide.

Let’s start with:
[The Basics]

There are several copies/instances of the Haven area on the server. You can tell which instance you’re in if you look on the upper right of the screen where it says Haven followed by a number, for example Haven 8. Click on the writing to get a pop-up with a list of all havens, and click on another haven to go there. You will need to do this if you want to meet up with a buyer/seller who is in a different Haven.

In each Haven there are 3 zones: the Arcade (where all the gates are), the Bazaar (where the token trader and other trader characters are), and the Town (where you first arrive when you enter Haven). It helps to know where these are so you can set a meeting place with another player. Popular meeting places are the Alchemy stations in the Arcade and Baazar, and the area near the token trader in the Baazar.

If you press Enter and type a message, your message will be heard by people in the current zone only. For example, if you’re in Haven 8 Arcade, only people in Haven 8 Arcade will hear your message. Yelling a message can also only be heard in the current zone; the only difference is that your message will appear above your character in a red instead of white box.

There are currently 2 chat “channels” in the game, which can be heard across zones. Channel 1 is for non-trade talk and can be heard by everyone in the current Haven, but not other havens. You shouldn’t use this channel for trade-related messages.

Channel 2 is the trade talk channel, and can be heard across all havens. So if you send a message from, say, Haven 8, people in haven 1, 2, 3… etc can all hear it. Type /2 before your message to send a message in the trade channel. Do this whenever you want to buy and sell stuff, because you’ll reach many more people than if you just say something to the current zone.

Type /leave 2 to avoid seeing messages from the trade channel. (Much quieter, isn’t it?)
Type /join 2 to rejoin the trade channel.

You can send a message in trade every 30 seconds. If you try to send a second message before the 30 seconds are out, the game will tell you that “Your voice has become hoarse.”

[Trade chat Acronyms]

WTS = want to sell. S>, SELL are also sometimes used
WTB = wand to buy.
Mats = materials, which are ingredients used in crafting. Here’s a list of all materials: http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Crafting
PM me, /w me, whisper, send a tell = private message the person, which you can do by pressing Enter and typing /t name message (for example /t Kaley great guide! :P). It will show up in pink text. If another person sends you a private message, it will also show up in pink, and you can reply to it quickly by pressing the R key on your keyboard.
UV = unique variant http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Unique_variant
k = 1,000 units. For example, 1.5k crowns means 1500 crowns.
cr = crowns http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Crowns
CE = crystal energy http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Crystal_energy. For high-value items, sellers will often list the price in CE for convenience. Most of them will accept crown equivalent as payment, but be sure to ask.

You can exchange CE and crowns by using the energy market. Click on the blue circle in the lower right to get there.

When you see a price listed, always check if it’s given in crowns or CE. If the price isn’t followed by either a CE or cr, the seller usually means crowns – although some sellers might mean Crystal Energy and assume the buyer must know what they mean. It’s always ok to ask for clarification. Once you become a bit familiar with prices, it’s going to be pretty obvious which currency the seller must be referring to.

[How to find out what things are worth]

In the beginning you’re going to have no idea what the price for anything is. Don’t worry, this is normal and will soon change once you do some basic research.

Don’t buy or sell anything before you get some idea of what the item is worth.

A good way to start is to just sit in town and watch the trade channel, and see what price people shout out for the item you’re interested in. If the seller doesn’t list a price, you can use /t to ask him – just don’t buy anything before you get several price points. It’s perfectly ok to reply with a “Thank you, I’ll have to think about it” or something along those lines.

You can also type Price Check for [insert name of item here] in the trade channel and see what people respond. But take anything they say with a grain of salt – they may have their own reasons for wanting to mislead you. Get several opinions rather than just taking a single person’s word for it.

Finally, if you’re buying something, a good way to find out the price of more common items is just to put a WTB ad in the trade channel and see what people respond. If a seller doesn’t give you a price and instead says “offer”, respond with “you’re the seller, you tell me”. Never make the first offer if you don’t know what an item is worth. (However, once you get an idea about prices, there’s nothing wrong with making the opening offer.)

Materials are rated as 1-5 stars, and this can give you a rough indication of their rarity and price. However, demand also determines price, so prices will be higher for a mat that’s used in crafting popular items.

For gear, find out what the cost of crafting it is, which is the CE cost plus crown cost plus the cost of the materials that go into it.

The CE and crown cost is based on how many * the item is, and can be found here: http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Crafting
The materials for each item can be in the Equipment Encyclopedia in the wiki: http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Main_Page Watch the trade channel to get some idea of how much a material costs.

If the gear in question is an upgrade from a lower level item, be sure to add up how much it costs to craft the lower level items too.

4 and 5* items require the lower level items to be leveled before they can be crafted, so the price of those items will be higher as sellers will want some compensation for the time they spent farming heat.

Don’t factor in the cost of the recipe at this point. Once you get a total figure, that’s going to be the minimum for which a seller can sell an item without taking a loss.

Now add to that figure the cost of the recipe. That’s how much it would cost you to make the item yourself rather than buying it.

Anything in between those two figures is a reasonable price for an item, and how you and the other side split the difference depends on factors like the demand for the item and how rushed the other player is to complete the trade, etc.

[How to buy things]

Watch the trade channel for anyone selling the item you want. If the seller also lists the price for the item, remember that it doesn’t mean the price is set in stone – you can still message him to negotiate for a better price.

At the same time you do this…

Advertise in the trade channel that you’re buying the item. If you know what a good price for it would be, you can list the price you’re willing to pay to get a faster response. (Ex: /2 WTB Corrosive Acid 1k). If you’re not sure about the price or prefer to get several price offers, don’t list a price (/2 WTB Corrosive Acid). I use either approach and they both work fine.

If you’re buying a popular material and you get only one price quote and you don’t know if it’s a good price, try again later at a busier time. Always try to get several offers before buying something for the first time. (Of course this might not be possible for 4* and higher equipment, or for rarer materials.)

[How to sell things]

Watch the trade channel for anyone buying the item you’re selling.

At the same time…

Advertise what you’re selling. You can either list a price or not, and there are people who swear by never listing a price or always listing a price.

If you’re selling a UV (unique variant), be aware that prices for good UVs can be much higher than for the same item with no UV, so you might not want to list a price for items with med or higher UVs. Instead try to get several offers and wait for a while before selling.

[Your first trade – buying 2* gear]

If you’re new to the game, here’s a good first transaction to try once you have some crowns saved up. Many higher-level players will craft 2* items over and over again to try to get a good UV, and are happy to get rid of the non-UV ones at below crafting cost. They usually go for the crown equivalent of 25-50 CE, or 1k-2.5k at this time. This is the best way to get 2* gear fast, especially if you’re not picky.

Try one of the following sample messages if you’re to tongue-tied to come up with your own :) (just be sure to change prices to reflect current energy costs)
/2 WTB a premade 2* sword
/2 WTB a premade 2* sword 2k cr
/2 WTB premade Wolver Coat and Cap, 1.5k each

[One last thing]

Don’t let anyone upset you. Most traders in this game are nice and polite, but there’s always someone who insists on sharing his opinion that you’re a noob for trying to buy or sell at such-and-such a price. In my experience they’re almost always wrong. It might be karma, but I usually end up closing the deal for exactly the price I wanted about 5 minutes after someone else tells me my price is ridiculous. So just go by what you know and don’t take too seriously what anyone says.

Also, be nice if you disagree with someone’s price. A response like “that’s crazy” or a short “no ty” or “not interested” is unlikely to get someone to make you a better offer, and should only be used if someone’s price is truly outrageous. Try instead “well that’s fair, but the most I was looking to pay is ___”. Chances are it will work much better.

Have fun, be nice, and good luck with your trades! :)