Ultimate Caravan Guide for Ashes of Creation Alpha 2

In Ashes of Creation, Caravan plays an important role in the development of a node or even a Player. Despite the tedious preparations needed for a successful delivery, They are highly rewarding and It is considered to be one of the ways to make gold. In this guide, We will show you all the information about caravans, their construction, the best components and proper strategy. Plus, some tips to ensure the successful launch of your caravans. Let`s get started!

What are Caravans?

Caravans are used for transporting commodities of a player to sell from one node to another to gain profit. These commodities are priced depending on the distance the caravan will travel from another node.

Caravans will not always succeed and will give you more losses than gains. That`s why the Caravan mechanic implements a high-risk, high-reward concept. The longer the distance, the greater the travel time and the higher the chance bandits and other players can raid and ambush you.

When purchasing a cargo, Make sure to consider taxes since they affect the price of commodities. To maximize this, ensure to spend as much as glint as possible to fill all the cargo slots. You can purchase your first basic caravan from the Caravan Master for only 10 silver. However,

Basic Caravan is not suitable for longer distances and you need to improve the components of the caravan to gain better stats. This will be discussed in the next part.

Caravan Components

Caravans have 5 components, Carriage, Chassis, Wheels, Armor, and Beast of Burden. Four of these components can be crafted through Players who have the specific artisan skill or can be bought from the Carpentry Vendor. The rarity of the carpentry workstation plays a vital role in what component is available to be crafted. Let`s discuss each component in detail.

Caravan Carriage

The Carriage determines the capacity height with bonuses as health, physical and magical defense of the caravan.

This is the type of carriage that are available in the early stages of the game. It also shows the different crafting recipes and materials for you to be able to craft them.

The Rarity of each carriage also impacts the defense stats and the capacity height enabling you to transport better commodities and increasing the profit per Caravan run.

In the early stages of the game, Copper and Zinc are expensive and hard to obtain. Therefore, the best option for carriage is from the first category wherein it only requires wood to craft and also choose the cheapest wood to craft epic rarity for efficient profit.

When the carpentry station was upgraded to apprentice, 4 new types of carriages became available. For now, the recipes for brass and bronze-reinforced caravans are not yet available in-game.

The best option for a carriage is an Epic rarity of a tier 2 carriage since it provides great stats and unlocks the third row to maximize profit.

If a journeyman carpentry station is built. 4 new carriage options are unlocked but two of these are not yet in the game.

Upgrading your caravan to the tier 3 epic carriage will drastically improve your profit per run since it has now a 4-capacity height that can stack up to 2 rows of commodities.

Caravan Chassis

The role of the Chassis in a caravan, increases the capacity width, alongside its armor, health, and magical defense. Unlike a Carriage. The chassis slot increases two times. One in rare rarity and another in epic rarity.

When an apprentice carpentry station gets unlocked, 10 types of chassis will be available. But the others seem pretty much useless and inefficient. So, we are left with weeping willow and bronze reinforced.

Common weeping willow will be available from the vendor and upgrading the rarity will improve the capacity width from 6 to 7 or 8 allowing you to transport 1 epic or 1 heroic grade or 2 epic commodities respectively.

From the past component, Carriage focuses on the defense of the magical attribute. So, it is better to combine that carriage with a bronze reinforcement to protect the caravan from physical attributes.

When the journeyman carpentry station is available, more decent options can be crafted. Rividium and Steel are not in the game so our option is Braidwood and Iron Chassis. It is up to you what to choose but it is better to have 8 capacity widths to have 2 epic commodities side by side. Let`s move on to the next component.

Caravan Wheels

Wheels make your caravan faster on land or water. As for wheels, it is much simpler since you will not worry about the rarity but the stats increase depending on the rarity of the materials used.

9 wheels will become available when the apprentice carpentry station is built. 3 of them are not available. Now, I will show you the options.

Hemlock and Larch wheels only provide a slight increase however it is easy to craft and cheap if you cannot afford anything greater. If you can then these are the options for you.

Weeping willow wheels are much better on water caravans and provide a significant increase in speed. However, The routes of the caravan are most practically on land so the tin reinforced is much more efficient in most scenarios.

When the journeyman carpentry station is created, a 4 new wheels option is available. The rividium and steel are not available in the game yet, So, Braidwood is used for water caravans and iron reinforced is for land travel. The choice will be up to you on what suits you the best.

Caravan Armor

The armor is like a shield component of your caravan. It gives health, armor, and magical defense to the caravan. However, Armor crafting is only available when a journeyman carpentry station is acquired. Caravan armor also provides utility slots for caravan skills but they are not in the game yet.

Weeping Willow and Braidwood have much decent stats compared to the armor that is crafted by a tier 1 wood. However, in heroic grade, these are so expensive. Here is another option for you.

Western larch armor is the best among these options but the difference from the wood is not that great so it is much better to craft wood armor.

Beast of Burden

Beast of Burden can be crafted by players who specialize in animal husbandry. This skill is quite expensive, So it is better to buy beast of burden to other players or in the marketplace. The beast of burden increases the speed of the caravan and turn rate.

This is the basic beast of burden that can be bought and equipped on the caravan. Once, the Apprentice station is built here are the other options.

Any of the horses will do since they all have the same stats. You can choose depending on your preference.

Once Journeyman station is built, Wolf or the Bird is efficient. Do remember that the rarity will impact the speed of the beast of burden. The higher the rarity, the higher the speed.

Tips and Tricks for ensuring the safety of the Caravan

Now that you are knowledgeable of the different components and have an idea of what caravan will you be building. Let me guide you on how to ensure the safety of your caravan because A well built caravan will still be destroyed if the player is not equipped with strategy and planning.

Choosing Caravan Components

When a solo player wants to do a caravan run, then it is much more efficient to create a basic caravan than to deploy an exquisite and expensive one since you are all alone. If you are ambushed by a large group of players, the outcome would be 100 percent negative. Making your caravan run affordable to lose.

It is much safer to do a multiple caravan like a march with your guild mates. In this way, all of the protecting players will benefit from this run since each of you has a caravan. Thus, Intimidating the enemies that they are outnumbered.

Glint Economy

If you are low on Glint, make sure that you take the longer route on the caravan since it gives you decent ROI and with huge profit. On the other hand, Instead of a long exhausting one, save your time by making a short one if you have an abundance of glint

Server Situation

Be observant and informative of what is happening to your server. Choose the routes wherein the nodes are occupied by a neutral guild or which guild controls it. It is much better to choose what nodes and what allies will you be encountering. This reduces the attacks while gaining allies.

Caravan Beacons

Caravan Beacons can be bought from the black market. They are beneficial if you have just completed a caravan run since you can summon the caravan beacon from any location but it takes about 2 minutes to fully complete it. Make sure to use it wisely and not use it before a caravan wherein enemies could spot you and they can ambush you easily.

Best Time

It is not suitable to do a caravan run when everyone is playing. The best time to do a caravan run is late at night during weekdays since most of the players are logged out of the game. Sometimes, being in the wrong place at the wrong time can impact you so time your runs wisely.

Route Planning

As I have said earlier, Caravan takes a lot of planning and strategically ensuring different aspects of the game. It is best to test your route and know the best spots to place your caravan or whatever may happen always be ready and have a plan.

Speed Buffs

There are buffs that can speed up the caravan. First is the trade bureau in a node. Any caravan that will travel through its zone will increase its speed. Also, A ranger and a bard can have buffs that can speed up the caravan.

Situational Awareness

Don`t just focus your eyes on the front and look around always. Once you have spot something is not right. Don`t hesitate to investigate it. Fighting back is not always the key to your survivability, But a strong plan and awareness can spot a danger even if it is not yet starting.

Do not waste your last gold

Keep in check of your gold amount. Do not risk it all and be always aware that whenever you do a caravan run, think that it will fail. In this way, you could become not complacent about what you are doing. Thus, making you not broke and lose all your gold.

Remember your main goal

Doing a caravan is not a necessity or a required thing for you to do in the game. It is not also the only way to make gold. Some players find caravan runs interesting and enjoyable but to others, it could be stressful. With that, Play what you think you can do and not regret it too much. Remember your main goal is to enjoy the game not stress over it.

That is all for this guide, I hope I encouraged you to at least try out doing Caravan runs with yourself or with your guild friends. I hope that every run will be successful with all the knowledge you have learned from this guide! If you have liked this guide, Make sure to check out my YouTube channel for more videos about Ashes of Creation, We also have Discord and you can check out.