The Hanseatic Merchant Trade — Imperia Borealis
The Kontör is the seasonal Hanseatic merchant system — a way for established estates to convert surplus production into gear, blueprints, experts, and cosmetics by sending commissioned ships across the Baltic to four foreign ports.
Each voyage carries a few holds of cargo. Better resources earn better rewards, with a jackpot roll behind every hold and a seasonal talent tree that rewards specialization. Talents reset at the end of each season; the items, blueprints, experts, and cosmetics you earn stay forever.
The Kontör tab is gated behind a knowledge node and a building. Once both are in place, you can dispatch any commissioned ship on a foreign voyage.
Study the Hanseatic Charter knowledge node on the Commerce path. It unlocks the Kontörhuset building.
Construct the Kontörhuset on your estate. Each level (up to 5) increases the number of voyages you can run at the same time, from 1 at level 1 up to 3 at level 5.
Visit a neutral port on Gotland and commission a ship. Any type works — Cog (balanced), Knarr (slow but roomy), Longship (fast but tiny), or Merchant (the cargo specialist with 800 hold capacity at 0.6× speed). A ship's cargo stat caps how much you can load on each voyage; its speed scales how long the trip takes.
Open the Kontör tab, pick a port, fill your holds, choose a risk modifier, and pick a ship. The voyage launches immediately — your ship will sail to the matching coastline edge before vanishing "over the horizon" toward the foreign port.
When the ship returns, your reward appears in the pending rewards drawer. Each hold rolls one reward independently — that's why ships with more holds and higher-quality cargo bring back more.
Each port has resource affinities — a list of goods it pays especially well for. Sending an affinity-matched resource boosts both the base reward weight and the jackpot odds for that hold. Ports also have different travel times, so a quick run to Lübeck is not the same investment as a long haul to Novgorod.
Travel time also depends on your ship: faster hulls shorten the run, and a ship with an assigned Navigator (an expert who has studied the Navigation knowledge) cuts travel time by up to 50% at navigation level 10. Every completed Kontör voyage also grants navigation XP to that navigator, so the ships you trade with steadily get faster.
Flemish luxury market. Pays well for cloth, glass, and finished goods. Travel time: 30 min one-way.
Rus' fur and iron trade. Values raw metals and northern pelts. Travel time: 45 min one-way.
Norwegian fishing hub. Trades in fish, salt, and northern goods. Travel time: 35 min one-way.
Hanseatic capital. Accepts a broad range of goods at fair rates. Travel time: 25 min one-way.
Every voyage carries multiple holds. Each hold takes one resource type, up to 250 units, and rolls one reward independently of the other holds. More holds = more rolls per voyage. Better resources = better rewards per roll.
Each voyage starts with 3 holds. Core-branch talents (Larger Hold, Reinforced Hold) raise this up to a hard ceiling of 6 holds. Each hold accepts a minimum of 10 units of its chosen resource and a maximum of 250 units, and the total cargo across all holds is also capped by your selected ship's cargo stat.
Every shippable resource is rated on a 4-tier quality scale. Higher tier means a better reward floor and dramatically better jackpot odds.
| Tier | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Raw bulk goods | wheat, stone, lumber, iron_ore, wool, fish, limestone, tar, water, wood_ash, honey, saltpeter |
| Tier 2 | Basic processed | flour, planks, slabs, iron_ingots, bricks, linen, dried_fish, wrought_iron, salted_fish |
| Tier 3 | Luxury processed | glass, amber, steel, beer, wool_cloth, stained_glass, horses |
| Tier 4 | Catalyst (special-location only) | bog_iron, ancient_resin, sea_salt, eastern_spices |
Tier 4 catalysts shift the rewards table dramatically. If you've claimed a special location that produces them, even small amounts per hold are worth shipping.
When you dispatch a voyage you can pick a risk modifier that applies to every hold on the trip. Calm Seas is the safe default; the other two are gambles.
Standard voyage. No bonus, no risk. Use this when you're shipping irreplaceable catalyst cargo or chasing a guaranteed reward.
+20% reward weight on every hold, but each hold has a 10% chance of being lost on the way. Best for cheap, easily replaced bulk cargo.
+1.5% flat jackpot odds on every hold (a huge boost on tier 1–2 cargo), but each hold has a 15% chance of being lost. Run this when you're hunting cosmetics or rare gear, not when shipping catalysts.
A 6-hold ship on the Pirate Route loses, on average, just under one hold per trip. The Storm Riggers talent on the Bergen branch halves the loss chance — making both risk modifiers far more attractive for risk-tolerant traders.
Voyages award Kontör XP (50 / 100 / 200 / 400 per voyage by highest hold tier, plus a +250 bonus for any voyage that rolled a jackpot). XP raises your Kontör level; each level grants 1 talent point up to a hard cap of 12 points.
The tree has ~22 nodes across 5 branches. With only 12 points to spend, you can't unlock everything — you have to pick a strategy. Talents reset at the end of each season; the Kontör XP, items, blueprints, experts, and cosmetics you earn stay forever.
Boosts that apply to every voyage regardless of port: extra holds, faster ships, +XP gain, jackpot odds, an extra concurrent voyage, and cheaper respec.
Key picks: Larger Hold, Swift Keel, Sailor's Charm, Efficient Register
Specializes in cloth, glass, and luxury cargo. Master Weaver biases rolls toward gear, Burgher Society biases toward cosmetics, Grand Bazaar adds +3% jackpot odds at Bruges.
Best for: cosmetic collectors, gear hunters
Specializes in iron and raw materials. Metal Brokers biases rolls toward blueprints, Envoy Network biases toward experts, Ice Road adds +3% jackpot odds at Novgorod.
Best for: theorycrafters chasing blueprint stockpiles or expert recruitment
Specializes in fish, salt, and northern routes. Storm Riggers halves cargo loss from risk modifiers, Harbour Master adds +1 concurrent voyage, Kraken Charter adds +3% jackpot odds at Bergen.
Best for: high-risk Pirate Route runners and high-volume traders
Hansa heart — broad bonuses rather than narrow ones. Chancery Records adds +25% Kontör XP, Silver Routes adds +10% reward weight on every voyage, Grand Kontor stacks an extra concurrent voyage with +3% jackpot odds at Lübeck.
Best for: players who want flexibility and don't want to commit to one port
Talent effects compose cleanly:
If your strategy isn't working, you can respec all your talents and get every point back. The cost:
Each port has affinities for a reason. Sending iron to Novgorod or wool_cloth to Bruges is almost always better than sending the same cargo to a non-affinity port — experiment to find out how much.
Every empty hold is a wasted reward roll. Even shipping a half-full hold of tier 1 wheat is better than leaving it empty — it's still a chance at a base reward and a (small) chance at a jackpot.
The tier-3 nodes (Grand Bazaar, Ice Road, Kraken Charter, Grand Kontor) require 4 spent points in their branch. Hitting one of these early — meaning ~6–7 total points committed to that port — outperforms spreading thinly across all four.
Storm Riggers (Bergen tier 2) cuts cargo loss in half, taking Pirate Route's loss chance from 15% → 7.5%. Pair it with Sailor's Charm (Core) and a port jackpot bonus and you have a build that routinely rolls jackpots without bleeding holds.
Catalysts are slow to produce. A 15% loss chance on a hold of bog_iron or eastern_spices stings hard. Ship catalysts on Calm Seas and reserve risk modifiers for replaceable bulk cargo.
25-minute one-way travel makes Lübeck the fastest port in the game. If you're farming voyage XP or burning down the pity counter, Lübeck's short cycle is unmatched. The Hansa Seal talent gives it +25% reward weight on top.
Your Kontörhuset level alone caps you at 1–3 concurrent voyages. Talent picks like Efficient Register, Harbour Master, and Grand Kontor stack on top — you can run up to 6 voyages at once with the right build.
The talent tree is seasonal. Plan your build around the active season — but remember the items, blueprints, experts, and cosmetics you earn are permanent. Even a season of bad RNG leaves you better off forever.
Every category-weighted talent (Master Weaver, Burgher Society, Metal Brokers, Envoy Network) is sending that port toward a specific kind of reward. If you want a steady stream of experts, take Envoy Network and ship affinity-matched cargo to Novgorod every chance you get.