Trading creatures and items are a natural part of ARK life in the Maelstrom Gaming (MG) ARK community. Players can agree on any kind of deal that is not against rules, mainly not to trade Tek and Element. Additionally, sellers and buyers can use trading hubs to realize their business. These guidelines explain how the hubs work.
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The hubs are located on the TCC Event Map, part of the Maelstrom Gaming ARK cluster. You need to subscribe to the map and download it. Once you are in-game, use any obelisk, terminal, or transmitter to travel to the Event map.
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There are 4 different trading hubs on the Event map, each with multiple shops run by players, built in unique styles. All 4 hubs are connected by pathways so they can be reached easily.
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The metal ingot is the official currency of the Maelstrom Gaming community. Whenever you see prices, they mean the number of metal ingots. For example, dino being sold for 2k, that means 2000 metal ingots.
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The Event map is friendly to new players although some creatures can still attack you. You may want to bring some land creature or flyer to explore all 4 hubs easily. But walking is still easy and safe.
Finding trading hubs
There are 4 trading hubs on the Event map, each with a unique style.
🧭 37/80 | Tudor Town
Stone houses of English style accented with rich wood beams.
🧭 30/92 | Grand Bazaar
Stylized as a Marrakech marketplace full of colors and scents.
🧭 23/27 | Takeda
Oriental-style buildings in a hidden valley under mountains.
🧭 75/75 | Pirate Town
Aarrr! Shipwrecks everywhere, rebuilt into cozy shops. All onboard!
Shopping
The advantage of using the trading hubs is no need to meet the trader face to face, you both do not need to be online at the same time at all. There are generally 3 ways how to find creatures or items you want to buy:
- Visiting shops on the Event map and exploring their offers
- Watching individual shop channels in the Maelstrom Gaming Discord community
- Using #unofficial-trading-channel for your WTB (want to buy) requests
Ok good, so now you know what you want to buy and from whom. What next? Your shopping will be usually organized this way:
- Use Discord to contact the respective trader. Their Discord nick is usually visible in the in-game shop or you can find it in the Discord shop channels. Send them a message, all of them are part of the MG Discord. Using a private message, inform them what you want to buy and additional details of your demand.
- The trader will usually reply within the next 48 hours. They will clarify your questions and confirm their price.
- If you will agree to the price and conditions, the trader will dedicate one vault in their shop to your name and will put the goods in it. The vault will be PIN-coded and only the trader and you will know the PIN.
- You will bring your payment in metal ingots, drop them to the vault and take your goods.
Remember, the trader may request the opposite process, which means you drop the payment first, then the trader will drop the goods to the vault. Be aware there may be one or a few days delay between the steps, that is normal. The majority of our community members are busy in the real world.
Tips for transporting ingots
Maybe you wonder how to move thousands and thousands of heavy metal ingots to the Event map to cover the payment, without traveling hundred times there and back or using tens of dinos to carry it. Here are few tips for consideration.
- Tek Transmitter and Loadout Mannequin is one effective method. Place the mannequin near your transmitter. Using the Super Structure pull function, load the mannequin with all required ingots. Position yourself to reach both the mannequin and the transmitter. Use the mannequin’s option to Pull All and all ingots will move to your inventory, skipping the usual carry capacity limitation. Then open the transmitter and upload all ingots to ARK Data. Once you teleport to the Event map, place the transmitter and a storage box nearby. Download all ingots via transmitter from ARK Data, again no carry capacity limit will bother you, and place them in the storage box. Now you can open the trader’s PIN coded vault and pull all ingots there.
- If you have no access to Tek Transmitter, you need to rely on obelisks or terminals. That means you need to transport the ingots from your base to the obelisk. You can use strong dinos or rafts. Hint: An unconscious tribe member can be pulled even if massively overloaded. With this modification, you can apply the method above.
- If you have no access to Loadout Mannequin, you may use a whip. Staying on a storage box, dropping 20-30 stacks of ingots from it, and picking from the ground using a whip allows you to overload yourself too. Just repeat until all ingots will be in your inventory. Then you can apply a variant of the method above.
- PS: Did you know you can unlock DLC engrams including the Loadout Mannequin on the Event map?
Becoming a trader
Do you want to become a shop owner as well? Please remember, you should not build freely on the Event map. Instead, there are pre-defined building plots in each trading hub. You can grab one for free just by asking Hatch, the Maelstrom Gaming founder. You can see an actual overview of free plots in the #town-info MG Discord channel.
Once a plot is assigned to you, you will become a member of a local alliance that will enable you to build within your plot and a dedicated Discord channel will be created for you to advertise your offers. And the rest is easy. You build a new shop to propagate your offers, show off creatures and items for sale, and inform your customers how to contact you. Don’t forget to add few vaults too. And please follow these rules:
- Fit to the assigned plot.
- Follow the style of your local trading hub. Get inspired by your neighbors.
- All vaults should be inside your shop, not outside.
- All Tek structures (except Tek Lights) shouldn’t be visible to customers.
- Make sure your Tek Transmitter is deactivated when you leave the map.
Happy shopping!