Welcome to the help files for The Merchant!

The Merchant is a turn based RPG strategy game set in space where you have to trade to earn a living to upgrade your ship and defend yourself from many threats that occupy the universe.



The Terran race has long since recorded history gazed at the stars in wonder of what could be out there. Their ambition has lead them along a treacherous path of destruction resulting in the loss of many lives and the creation of many wars that lasted for decades at a time.

The last war that took place in 2090 was started by the discovery of natural gravitational flux in space time that could be used to propel space ships at near light speed velocities. This discovery sparked many resistance groups into action against the colonization of space, their beliefs were to stay on this planet as fate had chosen it.

But as soon as the first ship was capable of leaving our solar system and venturing beyond the heliopause the states of Earth realized the possibilities of space exploration and that started the war that would last for 78 years. During this time improvement of the then named GravFlux drive stalled and Earth was literally plunged back into the dark ages.

The unification of Earth seemed impossible, and our ambitions for space travel soon wilted into the emptiness of space. Not a single soul on the planet of Earth remembered the time that we had the knowledge to venture beyond Pluto.

It was not until one lone scientist came across the literature of the GravFlux drive and discovered a hidden potential in the drive. If you change the ratio at which the drive converts matter to anti-matter you could create a hole in the light speed barrier and then travel faster than the speed of light.

This discovery made the nations of Earth rethink their fighting and they agreed to a truce and unite Earth under one authority, this authority would become the Earth Space Federation.

Since then many improvements have been made to spacecraft and there is no end in sight for further development of these cutting edge craft.

The Terran race then set their sites on the goal which was set by SETI more than two centuries ago, to find intelligent life in the universe, but this time, we were exploring the cosmos and looking for them at their doorstep.

The Terran race soon discovered wormholes which were only thought to exist by some scientists, but it was only theoretically possible. Wormholes posed a great leap forward in the exploration of space. It was found that wormholes have different strength levels, these levels would then equate into the distance a wormhole could cover. The higher the strength the more shielding you would need to go through them.

After years of exploration and loss of many brave crewmen and people in the service of the ESF 4 wormholes were discovered to support travel through them by current technology, these wormholes lead to the galaxies of Andromeda, Milky Way, Capricorn and Fornax from within Hyperspace.

In the year 2215 there was a strange signal coming from the wormhole in the Milky Way galaxy. The transponder code didn't register and all energy readings failed. It was as if the craft didn't exist, but it was detectable. The ESF scrambled fighter craft, frigates and a couple of battle ships to the source of the signal. Once the craft arrived the captains couldn't believe what they were witnessing. The unidentified craft was huge, it was larger than any craft the ESF had constructed to date, or even dreamt of constructing. It was black and looked like it had quicksilver flowing all over it, it shimmered in the light of nearby stars. The shape remained a mystery to the pilots and captains because this craft seemed to have so much mass that it distorted the light around it, the light of stars would seem to flow over the edges of the craft.

The ESF continued to try and establish communication with the fleet it dispatched to the source of the disturbance, no reply was ever received. It was only a matter of hours when the strange craft had found its way to Earth.

The Great Battle lasted for only 3 weeks before the ESF decided that is was time to leave Earth for the survival of the Terran race. They sent out 4 colonization ships that carried 4 million people in total. These ships were bound for the charted galaxy of Andromeda. The ESF had no contact with any other life form in the Andromeda galaxy, it seemed to be a dead galaxy and the perfect place for a new beginning. The colonization ships moved swiftly out of harms way while the remaining ESF Defence Fleet willingly sacrificed their lives so that the Terran race may start over in a new galaxy.

It took decades before the large majority of the Terran race forgot what happened at Earth, many call the galaxy of Andromeda their home, there are only a select few that still have information passed down through family that know what happened, and live with the fear that it could happen again.

The ESF called their new home in Andromeda Earth, people to this day do not know where the name came from, and why it was chosen, but they have always been told that the name symbolizes the root of the Terran race, and that one day, they will know what that root is.

The ESF has an expansive defence fleet, it is the largest known among all alliances and organizations. There have been many debates as to why the fleet is so huge, but the ESF remain quiet and have never even given the slightest hint as to why they spend mass amounts of credits on the maintenance and upgrading of their fleet. The ESF Defence fleet only operates within the borders of Andromeda, not a single ship has left the galaxy, only private pilots and alliances have moved out into Hyperspace and beyond.

Many pilots have entered the Milky Way and never encountered any phenomenon, they have come across many fertile planets that are perfect locations for colonization but the ESF simply has never considered to colonize a single planet in the Milky Way. Pilots have many theories as to why, but none know the truth of what really happened and how the Terran race barely escaped certain extinction.

This is where you come in, you have been given a stock Frigate and you now need to make a living from this unforgiving universe. Will you stay in the safety of the explored quadrants, or will you venture out and fulfill the Terran dream of contacting another race?