Port Royale 4 Cheats and Tips

When you set up your trade routes in Port Royale 4 there are several things you should take into consideration in order to optimise them. These are listed below.

Buying Trade Licenses
You will need to have a trade license in order to buy or sell goods in each town. If you click on the town in the lower right hand corner of the menu you will be able to buy a trade license for it. You will find that trade licenses become progressively more expensive as you obtain more.

Check the Weather
It is important that you consider the weather conditions of the area you are contemplating setting up a trade route. Pay particular attention to the general direction the wind blows and storm areas. You ideally want your trade routes to go with the wind so you save a lot of time. If the wind direction in red on the map it indicates an area where storms frequently occour and you should avoid if possible a they can cause damage to your ships if they get caught up in one. If an area has no wind direction your ship will move slowly through that area.

Create Waypoints
It is not necessary to sail directly to the next town on the list. You can click on the lines being created as you set up your route and drag them to a new area in order to create waypoints. These waypoints can then have cities added to them or moved around if you want to change a route. You can also delete them if you no longer want them.

Meet Citizens Needs
Make meeting citizens needs your first and foremost priority. You can see how important items are to citizens by looking on the 'Trading' and 'Production' screens. It is essential that you when you sail into a town you try to sell items the citizens of that town want.

Build More than Production Buildings
As the administrator of a town you are able to build more things besides production buildings. Also build businesses in neighboring towns in order to obtain more fame and favor with your viceroy and continually lobby to become administrator of more so you can earn more.

Fame in Port Royale 4 are equally as important as trade as they are used to buy upgrade options for your settlements, hire captains for your vessels, and purchase better warships. You will build up fame points gradually by simply trading but there are other ways in which you can obtain them.

Choose the Buccanneer
If you start out Port Royale 4 as the buccanneer you will begin the game with a bonus of five fame points.

Complete Side Missions
As you play Port Royale 4 you will be offered random missions which if you complete will give you a significant boost to your fame. Don't ignore these missions as they also enable you to unlock the things you need to complete the missions your Viceroy gives out.

How to Spend Fame Points
Fame points are not easy to build up and it is essential that you do not waste them. In the early game you should only spend them on unlocking settlement upgrades to optimise trading and resist the temptation of using them to hire captains and warships. Most of the early missions in Port Royale 4 revolve around setting up settlements, it is not until later in the game that you will need warships.

Unlike previous games in the series Port Royale 4 uses a turn-based system for naval battles. It is therefore recommended that before you jump into battle you play the combat tutorial in order to understand the mechanics of how it works in the game as it is more complicated than what it appears. Regardless of how skillful you think you are the most important thing you need to remember is not to initiate combat if you are outgunned as the liklihood is you will lose badly. Basically when it comes to combat in Port Royale 4, bigger is better.
Tactics
The tactics you have available to you during confrontations are determined by the type of vessel that makes up your convoy and the captain. If several vessels in your convoy have the same tactic you will be able to use the tactic more often. Vessel tactics have a cooldown which it is essential that you take into consideration when initiating combat. Captains tactic can be used independently from the type of vessel and the character is able to otain additional captains tactics by completing tasks. A maximum of 2 of each tactic can be collected. Captains Tactics can be used by your captain during naval battles but what is available will depend on the captains's level. Listed below are the Vessel Tactics and Captains Tactics in Port Royale 4.
Vessel Tactics

- Grenade
The current vessel hurls a grenade in a 2 field range. It causes damage to the target field and all neighboring fields.
Vessel: Galleon

- Kraken
The current vessel allures a kraken, which damages a neighboring vessel and makes it sit out for a round.
Vessel: Queen Anne

- Burning Arrows
The current vessel sets the sails of a neighboring vessel ablaze and thus, will detain it for the next round.
Vessel: Military Frigate

- Inferno
The current vessel will set an empty, neighboring field ablaze for 3 rounds and will cause damage by fire.
Vessel: Pirate Barque

- Turn
The current vessel is immediately rotated 180 degrees without having to use any maneuver points.
Vessel: Carrack

- Maneuver
Enables any of your vessels to move 1 field without changing it's direction.
Vessel: Military Corvette, Caravel

- Outmaneuvered
This tactic allows you to move any enemy vessel on a neighboring field by one field.
Vessel: Pirate Galleon, War Galleon

- Reload
Resets the possibilities of actions of a vessel, so that it is able to fire again or board another vessel.
Vessel: Frigate

- Lure
The current vessel loses it's movement points and attracts all enemies within two field range, as long as it is possible.
Vessel: Ship-of-the-line

- Smoke
The field of your current vessel or a neighboring field will be covered with smoke for one round and thus, cannot be attacked.
Vessel: Corvette
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