Nunuji's (very) rough guide to Ports and The Arc

Hi all! At the request of one of our clanmates (I believe it was Ire? Not 100% sure now...), I'm gonna give writing a guide to Player owned ports and The Arc Region a try. Bear with me, as I've never done a guide before.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post below and I'll see what I can do. ^_^

Introdution:
Player-owned ports is a high level activity where you send your ships and crew out to gather Resources and Trade Goods to manage your port and make items for yourself. I have been managing my port since the activity was launched, I have made 3 of each superior set of armor, have 2k rocktail soups banked (hopefully for pvm one day), and have made at least 50m selling various scrimshaws. Does that mean I am good at Ports? No. It means I am persistent. That is honestly the most important thing for ports, persistence. Regardless of how good or bad your crew is or how lucky or unlucky you are, if you do it every day, you will make progress. It may be worth mentioning that having more than one Port skill at lv90+ will make things easier/faster, so if you are level 85, it might be worth the grind to 90.


General Rules:
-Unlock more ships as soon as possible. More ships mean more voyages.
-Once you have a full crew for each of your ships, focus on upgrading ships and buildings above all else. A single crew member is useful on one ship, but a new sail can be applied to ALL ships.
-Don't take chances until you have lifeboats. Any voyage with less that 70% chance could cost you much more than the resources it could reward you with. There is nothing wrong with rerolling for easier voyages, and crew members get more exp from a success than a failure.
-Story missions for visiting adventurers are important. They lead to big rewards in the end, and help you progress faster in the beginning. Scroll missions are also helpful.
-Avoid missions for Trade goods. These missions take long, have low success rate, and don't reward much early on. They are just not worth it.
-ALWAYS CHECK FOR PORT EVENTS/MINIGAMES: after each voyage, whether it was a success or failure, there is a chance that Seasinger Umi, the Barmaid Surula, or the Black Market Vendor will have a random event/minigame for you to play. The rewards for completing these is almost always useful regardless of how far you are in Ports. Ultimately you want to get a lifeboat for each of your ships, which can only be won from these minigames.
-Because of Lifeboats being so important, I recommend having Pandora's Box in all four of your totem spots until you get 4 lifeboats. After that, you can build whatever totem you want.
-The Captain's Log is your friend: The Captain's Log is a pocket-slot item with a bunch of useful features. It let's you check on your voyages, resources, and general progress from anywhere in RS. Most importantly, it has a right-click teleport option that takes you directly inside of your Port. You can use this teleport to check on your Ports, but it is also useful as a free escape from combat, and provides very quick access to The Arc (since the ship for the arc is right outside the Ports portal). [Special thanks to EverRush for reminding me about the Captain's Log]


The Early Regions: The Arc, Skull, and Hook
Honestly, the early regions of are the worst/hardest, in my opinion. Chances are you only have 2 or 3 ships, your success rate is low, and your crew keeps dying. To make matters worse, voyages take about 20-90 minutes, so you can't even go enjoy yourself with the rest of RS for very long before you have to come back. Follow the general rules listed above, and you should be okay as long as you stick with it. Remember that your goals are to keep your crew alive and get to the next region as fast as possible.


The Middle Regions: The Scythe, Bowl, and Pincers
If you've made it this far, congratulations! I know a lot of people that have given up on Ports because of the early regions, not realizing things get easier instead of harder. Most of the general rules from above still hold true, except now you can start doing voyages for trade goods without them being that much of a waste of time. If you've been lucky enough to get one or more Lifeboats, you can start doing voyages with much lower success rates, though it's still not recommended. Just hang in there and keep up the good work.


The Worst Region: The Loop
Fair warning, this section of the guide is mostly opinion, and you can pretty much skip it. I hated the Loop... I honestly think Jagex messed up when they made it, because it is one of the hardest regions, with some of the absolute lowest reward payoffs. You get less chimes and less resources in this region then either the region before it or the region after it, which make absolutely no sense to me. Keep your cool, and don't go on tilt when things go wrong. And things will go wrong.


The Last Region: The Shield
If you've made it to The Shield then again, congratulations. From here on out, Ports is much more relaxing and rewarding. Voyages take longer, upwards of 9-10 hours I believe, and are much more rewarding. I would still caution you to focus on upgrading your ships, then buildings, and finally your crew before hunting for trade goods, but at this point you probably have a pretty good understanding of what you are doing and don't need my guide anymore. :p


After The Shield: how to min-max your Port
Disclaimer: the following section contains mild math and possibly statistics, and isn't for everyone. If you've made it to the Shield you are perfectly capable of handling your Port however you'd like. I am only including this section to try to help people using my personal experience
Let's assume you have 4 fully upgraded ships, 6 Gu Bodyguards, Stargazers, and Zhonghu Players, 3 Kharidian Exiles, and 3 Terracota merchents. Now you are finally ready to hunt down those remaining scroll pieces, trade goods, and story/special voyages. Why now, after all that time and effort, instead of doing it throughout this whole thing? The answer is pretty simple; you now have full control over your Port and what voyages you take.

Each voyage takes from 9-14 hours (loop) or 11-16 hours (shield) to complete, so you won't be completing more than 3 voyages per ship. Realistically you will be lucky to complete even two voyages per ship, which means you can be really picky with what voyages you send them on. At this point you can just keep rerolling a voyage slot until you get a trade good or special voyage.
Furthermore, if you have access to all the Adventurers, you can set up specific icons to get certain trade goods. If, for example, you wanted Plate to make Tetsu armor and weapons, you could build Icons to both the Whaler and Tengu, as both of those adventurers offer Plate for their Special Voyages.

After you have the Ports armor(s)/weapon(s) you want, you have a decision to make: Do you want to set your ports up for profit or do you want to keep making/repairing armor. A lot of people don't know this, but you can use trade goods to repair ports armor, making it virtually free to maintain, unlike most other degrading armor sets. However, of you just want to make a few GP every day for not a lot of work, the following set-up is one of the best I could come up with.
Icons: 2x Mammoth Head (Biologist), 1x Human Skull (Assassin)
Totems: 4x Jade Statue
Reasons:
-The Biologist's Special Voyages offer 8 Ancient Bones (minimum) as a reward, 10 of which can be used to make a scrimshaw which can be sold from 1.5m to 2.2m each, on average...
-The Assassin's Special Voyages, for some strange reason, offer 40 Spice as a reward, which can be cooked with rocktails to make soup.
-The Biologist's voyages require Moral and Seafaring, while the Assassin's voyages only require Combat, so there is no overlap. This means if you are lucky enough to get both adventurers at the same time, you can easily handle both voyages without having to mix and match your crew too much.
-Jade statues increase the chance of getting trade good voyages.

DISCLAIMER: While I have over a year or experience playing in Player-owned Ports, I have only been in The Arc for a few weeks so far. This means my experience is limited, and my recommendations may not work for everyone, especially since I am mostly doing very high leveled activities on uncharted islands. As such, I STRONGLY recommend you look up other guides in addition to mine, or even instead of mine. My guide will focus on getting resources and Chimes, and WILL NOT cover how to complete all of the tasks in The Arc, such as berry breeding.


Introduction: Welcome to The Arc!
The Arc is a high to very high level area where you can train your skills while trying to gather Chimes and Taijitu. These are the Arc’s currencies and as such, GP is pretty much not required. Because of the high level requirements and high exp rewards, The Arc can be a very good place to train or even hunt for skill pets (though I strongly recommend that you never try for a specific pet, just let them happen).


Recommended Items and Levels:
-Level 90 all Port skills is a big help, with level 95 giving rewards/profits much faster.
-Crystal Tools and/or their augmented versions (I use the Honed and Enlightened perks)
-Modified Sous Chef’s Toque and Cooking Gauntlets
-Any Golem Outfit and/or Shark Outfit
-Level 90-95 divination is a huge advantage, and honestly one of the very few things I find div useful for. Hunting Tortles and Ornate Tortles can be very click intensive and tiring, but divination allows you to Transmute other Arc resources into those shells/bowls.


Starting out in The Arc: Quick rewards versus Long-term strategy
The first things everyone should do when they get to The Arc are the various mini-quests, especially the Flag Fall mini-quest because it allows you to claim uncharted islands. Completing at least half of the mini-quests should net you at least 2k Chimes and a few Taijitu. If you have a very specific goal, like the Gu Ronin override for example, then you are already half way there and can grind out the rest and be done with The Arc. If, however, you are hoping to complete most of The Arc’s content or your goal is something expensive like the Spirit Dragon pet, I recommend you follow the long term strategy below.


What to spend your Chimes on:
It might seem a little weird for me to recommend what to spend your chimes on before I tell you how to get your Chimes, but I feel that the order in which you buy things is super important for the long-term arc strategy. The “Waiko grill” upgrade only costs 500 Chimes and is SUPER IMPORTANT because it acts as a Portable Range, occasionally giving you extra portions of the food you are cooking for free. It is also close to the low level fishing spot on the island, which can be useful. After buying the Waiko Grill, buying the “Supplies Cost Reduction” and “Commodity Sell Price Increase” perks from the Waiko Reward Shop should be your priority above all else if you are in it for the long haul. Although a +2% increase in commodity sell price doesn’t seem like a lot when it only increases something like Alaea Salt by +1 chime, it provides a whopping +17 chime bonus to the already big profits from Shark Soup. Similarly, without upgrades it costs 500 Chimes to go to a new unexplored island, but when fully upgraded it only costs 200 Chimes, giving the islands a lower cost and higher net profit.


Earning Chimes: Spreading out the grind to earn maximum profit
While it is possible to earn Chimes just by grinding a single skill, such as cutting infinite bamboo, I find this method super boring/painful and not very effective. If you do a little math, you will find that making/cooking and then selling Arc Gumbo gives you a 21 Chime profit over selling the materials, while Shark Soup will net you 32 Chimes of profit (even more with the “Commodity Sell Price Increase” perks!)! Because of this, I highly recommend Gumbo/Soup as your main target for visits to The Arc. Making these food products also spreads out your skill grind over 5 skills instead of just one or two, so it is a little less tiring.

All of the ingredients for Arc Gumbo can be obtained from the main islands of the arc:
-Bamboo can be found on many islands, including the main island, Waiko
-Fish can be caught from Waiko and Whale’s Maw
-Tortles can be captured on Whale’s Maw
-Salty Crablets can be mined on Cyclosis
-Rumberries can be gathered and/or grown on Tuai Leit.

Some of the ingredients for Shark Soup can be found on the main islands of the Arc, though gathering rates are still faster on uncharted islands.
-Bamboo can be found on many islands, including the main island, Waiko
-Mushrooms can be found on Goshima and The Islands That Once Were Turtles
All of the other materials (Alaea Salt Crablets, Ornate Tortles, and Wobbegong) must be found on Uncharted Islands.


What if I can't make Gumbo/Soup?:
While Gumbo/Soup tends to be the most profitable item on The Arc, it does take some prep work and patience. If you either don't have the level or don't have the patience, don't worry, there are other somewhat profitable methods to getting chimes. As a basic rule of thumb, products are always worth more than the materials used to make them. 5 sticks of bamboo, for example, only sells for 5 chimes (one chime each item). A bundle of bamboo sells for 10-11 chimes and only requires 5 bamboo to make, netting you a 5-6 chime profit!
Side note: This can be useful for grinding in specific skills, gaining levels on augmented tools, or even hunting specific skill pets! If you are on an uncharted island with 2+ Golden Bamboo, for example, you can claim this island and guarantee some easy woodcutting exp each day all while making bundles of bamboo for profit!
MAJOR UPDATE: There is another method to gaining chime that uses fishvention, but it is VERY grindy. I will leave a link to the Reddit page HERE, as it is not my guide and I wont take credit for it. It is at the very bottom in the part labeled "JAZZ’S RECOMMENDATIONS." :3


Uncharted Isles: Expensive, but worth it
Uncharted Isles cost anywhere from 200 to 500 Chimes each to access, depending on what perks you have unlocked, but are guaranteed to have at least 1k to 1.5k Chimes worth of resources on them. You may have one uncharted island claimed at a time, which allows you to go back to it daily for only 3 resources (which costs from 30 to 75 chimes). The resources on Uncharted isles are randomly generated on your first visit, and they tend to require at least level 95 in a specific skill, so I recommend hoping from island to island ONLY if you have lv95 in AT LEAST 2 skills. Finally, to make the Islands worth visiting you should expect to spend at least 35 minutes to an hour; spending less time than this will usually result in a net loss of chimes. You may log out freely on uncharted islands but if you leave you will lose it forever (unless you claim it).


But what about Taijitu?
Taijitu, the secondary currency on The Arc, can be a bit of a pain for find. As far as I know, it is only obtained from a few of the mini-quests and from randomly generated chests that appear ONLY on uncharted islands. Because of this, hopping from uncharted island to uncharted island can become very important, but if you are not spending at least 35 minutes on each island it can also become a huge expense. There is no real strategy to finding Taijitu; the more uncharted islands you visit, the higher your chance of finding some.
MAJOR UPDATE: After looking a few things up and testing them out, it seems the "best" way to find Taijitu is to spam small islands. It is still random, but apparently small islands have the same chance of spawning chests as large ones, and they only cost 5 resources instead of 20. I would still only recommend this after you get the resource cost reduction perk.

The Combat Option:
In my experience, combat nodes appear pretty commonly on Uncharted Isles. Fighting these random monsters IS an option for getting Chimes, but I would not recommend it. ALL monsters scale to your level, and humanoid monsters (such as the Gu Ronin, Seasinger Priestess, and Death Lotus Rogue) have access to combat abilities, making them extremely dangerous. Finally, these monsters tend to drop less than 10 chimes per kill, so unless you have a slayer contract for them, they aren't very profitable.


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I've been typing for a while and I think I covered most of what I wanted to cover, so that's it for now! Hope it helps! As always, leave any questions/comments you have below.

[RESERVED]

thank you very much, bwana

No problem! Hope it helps out. :3 And let me know if you have any questions or recommendations.
I hope to have the Arc section up soon-ish. ^^;

The Arc section of my guide is finally done! I know it is a little rough around the edges, but hopefully it helps. ^_^

Nunuji wrote:

-The Captain's Log is your friend: The Captain's Log is a pocket-slot item with a bunch of useful features. It let's you check on your voyages, resources, and general progress from anywhere in RS. Most importantly, it has a right-click teleport option that takes you directly inside of your Port. You can use this teleport to check on your Ports, but it is also useful as a free escape from combat, and provides very quick access to The Arc (since the ship for the arc is right outside the Ports portal). [Special thanks to EverRush for reminding me about the Captain's Log]

You can send out voyages from the Log. Which makes it useful if you're in the middle of something else. You can't complete your events from Umi, Surula, or The Black Marketeer; nor can you send out Story missions (since they have the cutscene of you sitting in the office.) But it's still a quicker way to send out resource voyages in the middle of your day.

wow I never knew that about the log! i will keep that on my person from now on! thanks

WOAH. I did not know that about the log either!! I just used the portal from prif to get to ports each time I needed to do my voyages D:

Remember about using juju perfect potions at woodcutting at arc - then it will be a best way to get chimes. Works on golden bamboo C:

Also remember to use URNS on the uncharted islands - really big xp drops from them.