Guide Slaves

[Nelsonliang]

Slaves is a commodity neither buy nor sell in any colony, but it's the most profitable way to make money if you don't mind being a bad guy. Here are the pros and cons.
Pros:
-Price ranges from 275 to 400 per slave when sold to smugglers. Compare to other goods, it's decent.
-Easy to acquire since you can't buy slaves anywhere. To acquire slaves, either enslaving surrendered crews (damage to reputation) or board the smuggler's ships in Smuggler hunting quest (no damage to reputation).
-Slaves weight ratio is 1-1, which is good compare to other goods like ebony ect ....
-Rats can't damage Slaves
Cons:
-Can't sell in store.
-Affect reputation if acquire by enslaving surrendered crews
-Disease kill slaves.
-Need smugglers for the highest possible profit. And smuggler will not do business with you if your ship is too big.
- Slave might revolt.

Slave can be used as good to sell for profit or as crew to reinforce your ship. But you can't choose how many slaves will be enlisted.

There are three methods to sell slaves:
1/You can sell slaves by contacting smugglers, the price may be vary from 300+ to 400+ per slave. This is the most profitable and worth the risk. No limitation on the number of slaves as the smugglers will buy all.

2/Sell slave to merchant captain on the sea. The price is fixed at 275 (I have maximum luck, trade, charisma and 2 trading skills). Risk free but limit by the cargo hold of the buyer.

3/Exchange slaves for gold or silver nuggets at Spanish Los Teques mine. Sail to Los Teques Beach under a friendly flag (Dutch or Spain), go into the mine, turn left at the first tunnel and talk to the Spanish Officer and he will exchange 1 slave for 1 gold nugget which can be sold to banker and vendor for 218 each. And he has a limit of how many slave he will buy. Too risky and troublesome, not really worth unless you want gold or silver nugget in large quantity.

There is a Slavery Quest given by the Usurer on Saint Pierre.

 

[TheExploited]

But how can you acquire many slaves? When I attack ship they fight almost till the end. I stop and save. And then reload so I can again reduce them with grapes so they would surrender. In the end, I end up enslaving around 10 people. And the usurer wants me to get him 400.

Is there any other way you didn't mention? Or am I doing something terribly wrong?

 

[SD:TEHO]

1. The best way to find high amounts of slaves is to board big pirateships but even then it is all random generated. Sometimes you find them after boarding and sometimes you don´t. That can take some time of trying.

2. Once i found some (about 100 for example) i used my old lugger that i received in the beginning of the game and stored them at the harbourmaster (and again with the next amount) because if you don´t do that, you have to deal with mutiny till you can deliver the 400 to the banker.

Good luck!

 

[TheExploited]

Thanks SD:TEHO.

 

[Nelsonliang]

For the slaver quest, just go to governor for Smuggler quest, you'll get the whole bunch of slave. Do this before or after you talk to the usurer. Here is my guide for the quest

Now on to the slavery quest line.
I've started a slavery quest on Martinique. In port Saint Pierre , talk to the Usurer in the bank to obtain the quest.

The first task is to acquire a number of slave around 300 to 400 for 250 pesos each. This task has no time limit so you can go around and attack ships to enslave the crews. Or take Catching Smugglers quest. When you come back with the slaves (it has to be exact or more than the number he asked for), the usurer will pay you, extra slaves are not taken. He will tell you to return in three weeks for the second task.

TIP: Enslave the crew of enemies ships (damage your reputation) or do the smugglers hunting quest from governor (Enchant your reputation). Getting the slave before you take the quest is a good way to save time.
The second task, the usurer will tell you to attack his competitor near some island within 2 weeks. And he will buy the entire captured slaves for 200 each. The number of slaves you'll get is 1500 or more, and the enemies always has a big ship and a smaller ship. On the big the ship, you will get a "Ward Scorpion" amulet which will nullify the poison effect from your enemy weapon (haven't encounter any enemy who use poison so far). This is a unique amulet that has no penalty, no duration and usable for bodyguard. When you come back to the usurer, he'll pay for the slave and ask if you see anything unusual (the amulet). If you say no, he'll tell you to be back on a month. If you say yes, he'll offer to buy the amulet for 100.000 pesos, should you refuse the money, he'll offer to exchange it for a Brigant light armor which -20 damage from blades, -10 damage from projectile, -70% prevent a critical hit, -1 reaction, -1 perception, -10 stealth, -10 charisma, weight 12. I don't recommend this armor since you can buy this or better heavy armor later in the game. If you refuse, he'll give up and tell you to be back in a month.

TIP: Save before talk to the Usurer so that you can reload if the location he sends you is far. You only have 2 weeks time so it's best to reload until he sends you to Dominica to the east. Get ship with good speed and long range cannon. Bring only essential stuff and grapeshot and/or chain shot for the cannons. The best strategy is to use chainshot to disable the smaller ship, kill the crew with grapeshot and board it. For the bigger ship, depend on whether you want to capture the ship or just take the cargo, use the same tactic. It's more profitable to capture the big ship since it always better than yours.

After a month, he informs you that a slave revolt had occurred on Curacao, the slaves kills and capture a ship to leave. You will be told to go to Curacao to investigate, track down and recapture the slaves. Each slave will be purchased at 300 pesos. Now head to Willemstad and talk to the bartender, then to the habour master and finally to a bar patron. He'll told you the location where his ship encounter a barque with the slaves. Due to translation error, part of the message is in Russian so unless you know Russian, you need to find a Russian map online to find the location. Mine was at the lighthouse on Hispaniola. Get there and prepare for a battle with the slaves. You will be outnumber so bring along good boarder to help even the odd. After the battle, the remaining slaves (around 1000) will surrender and get in your ship so make sure to have enough space. Then proceed back to the Usurer with haste since the slaves might revolt on your ship. Then wait for another month. Prepare for a boarding and swiftly escape for the next task.

TIP: The number of slave is more than 1000, so you may hire extra crew member at the Spanish, pirate hideout and french colony to even the odd a bit.

After a month, go to the Usurer and he'll tell you about a ship named Francoise which is currently at the habour has a large number of slaves. He wants you to capture the slaves. Get back to your ship and load grapeshot, get as close to the ship as possible (boarding range) and manually fire on it. The fort and the ship will fire at you so you have to board the ship right after you fired to prevent damage. The boarding is easy enough with good quality and quantity crews, but the captain fight is tougher at 2 rounds. After the first round, he'll tell you that his ship has no slaves, it's a trap for you and your employer. Kill him, loot his cabin and corpse for some great stuffs, loot his ship and ran away as fast as you can. Proceed to a safe habour. The pirate hideout is the best choice should you need to replenish your crew.

TIP:
1/Check the wind direction before talking to the Usurer for a speedy escape later. Bring only necessary stuff like food, weapon, rum, and enough gunpowder and grapeshop for 1 shot. The moment you fire on the ship, your flag will change into a pirate flag. So if you don't want to lose the priest whom threaten to leave as soon as you hoist the pirate flag, just get close to the Francoise, hoist the flag of Spain to attack it.
2/Sail out of sign and change your flag to Spain, the Francois might sail out to. Chase and catch it outside the range of the fort.

Now you are safe, proceed back to the port on foot through the island. Get to the gate, wait after 1 am to get in. Hide until morning and go to the bank to talk to the usurer. He'll point you to a ship that carry the evident you need to acquire. After the talk, 1 officer and 3 soldiers will come in. Kill them and run back to your ship. Don't fight anyone, just run straight to the gate and get out. Proceed to intercept the ship to get the evident.