Trading Legend Beginner’s Guide: 10 Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Become a Top Business Tycoon

Since 2015, 37games has continuously been creating their own brand of strategy and role-playing games on the mobile gaming market, each with its own unique set of gameplay mechanics that offer a broad and addictive experience for gamers in general. Ant Legion, Puzzles & Survival and Soul Land: Awaken Warsoul are just a trio of the company’s titles that we played and enjoyed.

Trading Legend is a unique simulation title from 37games, that’s designed much like an RPG. Building and growing your trade empire in the ancient China feels very much like a base-building game with earnings serving as your overall power. Although there are idle clicker elements present as well, players will find very little idle inside Trading Legend’s world considering the abundance of content and features it offers, which includes numerous events as well.

Starting off with a desire to take someone’s hand in marriage, Trading Legend takes you through a peasant’s journey towards becoming a top tycoon across the land. Although set in an ancient era, the path towards progression in Trading Legend is completely devoid of fighting and violence. Campaign stages are progressed based on earnings instead of power, leading to a boss battle that is actually a negotiation in process. Reputation and earnings stand as the measures of your power and influence and all activities you engage in are aimed towards increasing both.

Trading Legend, while exhibiting a very light and peaceful ambiance, can still appear overwhelming to beginners considering the plethora of content it offers. Although it takes a while to unlock and access each and every feature it holds, the pace at which progression can be made is faster than most adventures. Despite that, Trading Legend is a business management simulation and role-playing adventure where players are assured of progression regardless of the decisions they make and how much time they spend on it.

Despite having plenty of situations that require some decision-making, Trading Legend ensures that players earn something regardless of their choices. Each of the many features and content you engage in will come as either part of the tutorial, or explained with a prior short guide. If you have jumped into the world of Trading Legend and aim to be among the top tycoons in no time, then be sure to read our beginner’s guide for some useful tips, tricks and strategies!

1. Follow The Main Quest

The first few minutes of your dive into the world of Trading Legend will be aimed towards introducing and familiarizing you with its most basic features and mechanics. You will be led to click on the designated structures or icons as well as claim rewards for main quest targets completed. Although you will be free to venture on your own shortly and given that there is already a plethora of features to visit even at the early part of your journey, we recommend sticking to following the main quest for faster progression.

Main quest targets will be indicated on the lower left side of the screen. Only one objective will be shown at a time although it does not mean that efforts directed towards other aspects of progression do not count. It can happen that you will accomplish some quest objectives that have yet to appear and those will be marked as completed once they pop up on the quest line. The rationale behind following the main quest line is for you to claim the rewards for it, as well as other rewards pended behind it.

There will naturally be instances when progressing the main quest will be impossible for the moment given that some activities have limited attempts that replenish over time and resources are consumed every step of the way in the campaign. These will be the only instances that makes it reasonable for you to stray from pursuing the current quest.

Strictly adhering to the main quest may all seem very restrictive in an adventure where there is an abundance of features to explore as well as activities to engage in. Do not worry though as some quest targets will certainly leave you plenty of time to venture across all other areas of the game with some progression. In essence, you can expect that progression in your journey to slow down the further you get given the increasing costs of upgrades and improvements and the growing level of challenges in the campaign.

While accomplishing one main quest target after another essentially gives you familiarity of the cycle you go through as far as clearing the objectives go, actually accomplishing a set of objectives relative to the main quest will likewise form part of a routine that you will sooner or later be able to establish following a higher level of familiarity with all of the game’s features and mechanics.

Trading Legend also provides indicators on areas that require attention. These indicators serve as yet another set of valid reasons for you to deviate from pursuing a current quest. While these indicators are helpful in the early part of your adventure, you will come to realize later on that some aspects of the game will also require some attention even if they do not have an indicator.

2. Familiarize Yourself With The Market

Just as the Market served as your key towards starting your journey on becoming a trading legend, it should be perceived as the core of your earnings. The bank your uncle owns will primarily be a source of money for you but your dependence on it will grow less and less over time. Several business establishments will be unlocked in the course of your adventure and each one will equally contribute to your income.

The bank hosts the idle clicker element of Trading Legend and each tap on it generates money for you. In the early part of your journey, you will need to tap on the bank to sustain your monetary needs as well as satisfy the conditions of some main quest objectives.

The amount of cash the bank generates per click depends on its level and you can upgrade the bank using Bank Designs. You can click on the “Expand” button beside the bank and upgrade it if you have the required number of Bank Designs. Once the bank reaches level 10, you will unlock the Bank Management System, which plays like a mini-game of sorts that help earn you more money.

Different market stalls or businesses can be unlocked within the Market following your progression across the main campaign. Each new structure unlocked has its own level and amount of earnings per second. Market Designs are needed to level up each structure and just like the bank, higher levels will require more copies of Market Designs.

Levelling market buildings up, however, is not the only means for you to increase the earnings it can generate. You can recruit staff for each structure and while there is a limit to the number of people you can hire, it is hardly within reach even after a long time of adventuring. More so, upgrading each building will increase the limit of staff it can hold.

Finally, the retainers, who are comparable to generals of your growing empire, can be assigned to each of the business buildings you have unlocked. Each market structure can have 5 retainers deployed in them although the last slot can only be unlocked once you reach level 40. Depending on the Retainer Deployment Skill Level of the assigned retainer, the business building can have an increased profit which is a percentage of its actual earnings.

Although you constantly earn silver as a result of having market buildings as well as taps on the bank and extra earnings from numerous activities, you will still easily empty out your supply of it. One of the most important skills to have in Trading Legend is being able to strategically allocate important resources for maximum growth.

Having multiple business stalls that can have more staff for increased income is a basic example of this. You can choose to spend money to recruit however you see fit and your income will be increased. However, choosing the right balance of investments across all open businesses considering costs of recruitment in contrast with increase in income will lead to a more efficient growth rate. At the same time, ensuring that you have an extra supply of money to pursue campaign stages and raise your heirs is important as well.

While in the Market, keep your eyes peeled for random events that pop up as well. If you see a lot of people gathered up with a speech bubble on top of them, you should click on it to earn some extra rewards. There are also trade offers that occasionally pop up. These will either cost gold, which is a premium currency, or an offer that can double rare items in your inventory, provided that you meet the required number of it to begin with.

As silver stands as the most basic currency you will constantly be in need of, pumping the idle earnings up as much as you can serve as an important aspect of your adventure. Idle earnings can be earned even if you are offline and away from the game and will continue to stack up to 12 hours. With this in mind, you should consider emptying out your supply of earnings before leaving the game, especially if you are planning to do so for a long time. Hire more staff on stores starting with the most expensive ones and leave as little idle income as much as possible.

3. Strategize Around Upgrading Retainers

Although Trading Legend focuses on your journey to become the top tycoon across the entire kingdom, the journey is hardly a lonesome one considering the number of people whom you will recruit to join your growing business empire. One of the most important sets of these people are your retainers, who serve as your primary means of increasing earnings as well as expanding the growth of your business empire. Each one has his own set of skills and specializations that can boost their own earnings as well as your empire’s.

Retainer Cards that you can earn from the lucky draw and other special events are your exclusive means of securing top grade retainers through the exchange shop. However, Trading Legend provides means for you to recruit some retainers through status level increases as well as special event rewards.

You can check your current status level by clicking on your portrait at the upper left corner of the Mansion or Market screen. You need to meet the required amount of prestige and earnings to be able to reach the next status level. On top of numerous perks to obtain following an increase in status level, most of it come with a new retainer to recruit.

Retainers can be categorized by their quality or rarity grade which could be A, S, SR, or SSR. Some retainers can be promoted to a higher rarity rank following certain conditions. Although there are small advantages for earning capacity between Retainers from one rank to the next, it should not lead you to completely ignore some of them in terms of resource investment.

The most basic way of improving a retainer’s earnings is through leveling them up. EXP, which is earned from clearing campaign stages as well as raising your heirs, is consumed for each level up. Regardless of quality or rarity grade, retainers have an initial level cap of level 100. Once a retainer has reached their level cap, however, you can promote them to increase the cap by 50. You will need to consume Unique Ledgers, Unique Clothing, and Unique Jade for each promotion.

Retainers have skills that can be enhanced using different books. Most of these skills impact aptitude, and aptitude basically relates to how much earning increases are gained with each new level gained. The third skill, which is the easiest to enhance, is the Retainer Deployment Level. Improving this will boost the percentage increase in the income of the building where the retainer is deployed.

Although retainers belong to one of five different classes, these classes hardly have an impact on most endeavors they engage in. If any, the special events within the campaign stages that require specific retainer classes to earn the top rewards are the most significant applications of their class. There are some boosts that can affect retainers belonging to one class as well and some consumables also have limited applicability relative to the class system.

As far as management of resources is concerned when it comes to upgrading your retainers, there is no right or wrong way to do it but imposing strategies in prioritization can lead to a more efficient growth rate. While most endeavors may take into account the total earnings of all your retainers, individual earnings do matter in some game modes and challenges.

Banking on one top grade retainer for example can help lead push your crew across numerous challenges at a faster rate. You will also need to consider the bonds and beasts that apply additional boosts to each one.

4. Regularly Tend To Your Beauties, Heirs, And Beasts

Retainers certainly are valuable for leading the war towards helping you become the ultimate trading legend. While retainers are your main means of progressing through the campaign stages and man your business structures in the market to exponentially increase each one’s profits, retainers, in turn do not rely exclusively from EXP and resources to muster more earnings. The Beauties and Beasts you collect also lead to massive improvements in their earnings while Heirs that you bring to the world independently contribute to your profits as well.

While you can consider the Market as the place you potentially spend most time on given that it is the main source of your earnings, the Mansion is serves as your resting spot from all the adventures and challenges within Trading Legend’s world. Your mansion home is not devoid of activities as well as your partners, children, and pets all require a little time and attention from time to time.

Unlike conventional RPGs and strategy games where the number of times to interact or attempt an activity is limited on a daily basis, Trading Legend makes it so that attempts or interactions replenish over time, ensuring more rewards for players who can perform tasks more often in a day.

Your partners, the beauties, form part of the metrics that gauge your level of progression in your journey much like retainers do. Although you will only start your adventure with just one partner, your travels and adventures will lead to meeting more beauties who will live with you in your mansion. Beauties can be obtained using the Retainer Cards in the lucky draw as well and some can be obtained as event rewards. Engaging travels give you a chance to meet and get acquainted with a lot of maidens too.

The 2 important stats to raise for beauties are intimacy and charm. These stats start off uniquely with each maiden, having higher ones for beauties that have higher rarity grade. In any case, each one can be randomly increased or improved by choice and while you may want to focus on one beauty more than the others, it is also important to raise each of their stats in support of the random summons and different retainers bonded to each of them.

A beauty’s intimacy stands as the base determinant of your heir’s earnings. This means that bearing children from the beauty with the highest intimacy numbers will most certainly yield the highest earning heir. A beauty’s charm impacts the quality of bond it has, which means that investing more on a specific beauty’s charm should take into consideration the retainers that have a bond with her. Both intimacy and charm can be increased using gifts and summoning a beauty earns her bond points as well.

Each beauty starts off with different market skills that boost related retainers’ earnings. Upon reaching certain milestones in terms of intimacy, new skills are unlocked. Each of these skills can be enhanced by spending silver but results are random and each attempt will cost more money. Just the same, it is important to note that these are worth the investment as the buffs they provide are permanent.

Bond points earned by a beauty after summoning them are used to enhance their retainer skills. This will improve the earnings of related retainers by a specified amount or by a certain percentage. You can always choose to go on a date with the beauty of your choice at the cost of gold. This endeavor will guarantee an heir provided you have space for it and will yield a big sum of bond points for the beauty.

Summoning beauties and going on a date with them leads to having heirs. You can have up to 5 slots for children and twins will occupy only a single slot. The number of slots will depend on your status level, which means you will only be able to have 1 heir early on. Heirs will need to be raised and you have limited vitality to raise each one of them. Vitality, however, replenishes over time and there are pills you can consume to instantly replenish some vitality points.

Although the initially available means of raising your heirs will not require silver, better but costlier raising methods will become available once you reach higher status levels. This may require silver in addition to vitality every step of the way but ensures that your children will have much higher earnings as they grow older.

After growing your heir into adulthood, you should consider making another heir to take their place. At the same time, make an effort to have your adult heir enter marriage and boost their earnings depending on their spouse’s earnings. Keep in mind that having heirs do not just increase your overall earnings, as every instance of raising generate EXP as well that can be used to enhance your retainers.

Trading Legend is an adventure not without pets to collect and upgrade as beasts can be partnered with each retainer under your command. Beasts can be obtained as rewards from quests and status level progressions and you can randomly have an opportunity to attract some on events in the campaign stages. Like retainers and beauties, beasts also have rarity grades that determine their performance as higher grade ones have more available skill slots.

Although each beast comes with random skills when you acquire them, each one can be changed and enhanced to match their retainer’s needs. Taming beasts to change each skill costs silver and have random results. Costs grow with each attempt as well. Alternatively, you can use Taming Fruits to ensure that a higher applicable skill will be unlocked. Use these only after performing tames with silver and only on high quality beasts that will remain with its retainer for good.

Beasts can also be leveled up using Beast Fruits and while you can obtain them from the exchange and as quest rewards, the easiest way is from releasing beasts. Make sure, however, to only release beasts of the lowest quality as you may recruit another retainer who will be in need of a partner later on.

5. Push Forward Through The Campaign

Pursuing the main campaign typically stands as our first tip in more conventional RPGs or strategy games. The main campaign in Trading Legend still stands as among your primary means towards unlocking the rest of its contents, starting with the business structures in the Market. However, pushing forward with it continuously will grow increasingly challenging the further you progress making it more viable to cycle through other activities that you should already be familiar with following the main quest objectives.

The main campaign is designed much like a campaign battle in conventional adventures with earnings serving as your overall power and trading resembling the battles you must triumph over. Total earnings are primarily, but not entirely the means by which you can make progress and while having higher earnings than what is required by the stage will hold true for most scenarios, Trading Legend provides you extra means to temporarily boost your earnings for the purpose of moving ahead in the campaign.

The campaign can be accessed through the “Stage” icon at the bottom of the screen. Trade battles are divided into stages that are further divided into 5 parts, with the final part leading to a boss battle. Silver is consumed with each fight and there are several fights within each part. Success earns you EXP and failure practically leaves no consequences. The higher your earnings are in comparison with the requirements of each stage, the less silver it will cost you to go through it.

The boss battle typically has an earning requirement that goes much higher than the requirements in battles before it. If ever you fall short of the required earnings to win, however, you can spend meat or silver to boost your retainer earnings temporarily.

Another important reason why pushing through the campaign is not at the top of our priority strategies is the lower costs attributable to each run the higher your earnings are. Cycling through different activities that increase your income will result in lower trade costs for the campaign and effectively lets you save more silver for other important uses.

In addition to the rewards earned after beating the stage boss, more rewards can be earned via the events that pop up after progressing through the second and fourth part of each stage section. Some events will require you to deploy specific retainers or types of retainers, some will have you choose a decision, and some will simply give you items as rewards.

6. Join A Guild As Soon As Possible

Trading Legend is an adventure where the main objective is becoming the top tycoon across the land and, expectedly, you will be competing against other players in terms overall earnings gauged through a variety of measures in the game. Although venturing into a business competition offers an array of content that can be enjoyed purely by playing on your own, the competitive multiplayer aspect of Trading Legend necessitates a guild system where cooperative features can be exhibited and utilized.

Guilds, alliances, clans, factions, and similarly-themed player groups have commonly been an integral feature of online games. Guilds have become more than an extension of an online game’s social features and provides numerous benefits for players who take advantage of the feature.

Although you can very much make progress without ever joining a guild, simply being a member of one can earn you rewards and benefits that can tremendously aid in your progression. As such, there are no questions as to whether or not you should join a guild. Rather, the choice is simply between creating your own or joining an existing one.

Guilds become accessible in Trading Legend after some progression in the early part of your adventure. Some guilds will have earning requirements before you can be accepted while others simply welcome anyone willing to join. For beginners, we always recommend joining an existing guild instead of creating one of your own. There is much to be learned in terms of managing and leading a guild and if you have no prior experience, the added responsibility may overwhelm you.

You can instantly benefit as soon as you join a guild although some structures or features within the guild system only become available once the guild has reached the required level for them. One of the features readily available is the Sideline, where tapping earns you a certain amount of silver per click. Earnings will increase with each milestone, which is reached through every guild member’s effort. There are construction activities to engage in as well, which earns guild EXP and other resources that can help advance your guild.

Being a member of a guild also opens up an extra layer of players you can arrange heirs’ marriages with. Note that beyond simply finding a suitable partner for each of your adult heirs, doing so 5 times with the same player makes them your in-laws, providing you more benefits. Another important feature you can benefit more from are feasts. Holding feasts and attending ones will benefit both parties so coordinating these events with guild members will ensure a higher turn-up on each event.

7. Venture Across The Suburb

Both the Market and the Mansion holds plenty of activities for you to engage in and manage. The undertakings on both areas of your adventure, including the main campaign itself, however, still hardly makes up the entirety of features and experiences that Trading Legend has in store for you. The guild system stands as just one of the many features in Trading Legend that you can access via the Suburb.

Travel is among the activities we consider very important within the Suburb as it gives you a random chance to meet and marry more beauties. Travelling costs stamina that replenishes once every 30 minutes and takes you to a random structure in the map. Each structure will be randomly visited and each visit will have you meet either a retainer or a beauty.

Meeting a retainer here earns you items you can consume to raise your retainers’ earnings while meeting a beauty earns affection points for them. Raising enough affection for the specific beauties will unlock them as your new partner. If you have established another trader as your in-laws, Stamina Pills can be sent and received between the 2 of you.

The Conquest is yet another area you will regularly visit within the Suburb. This is basically a journey towards higher class residency and impacts your total earning with each higher rank you achieve. You will start off at the hut and climb your way up to the palace. In each area, however, there are numerous houses to conquer. You basically have to climb up the ranks within each house and secure the top spot before moving to the next area.

There are neither any attempt limits associated with each capture nor are there consequences for defeat. Once your earnings are equal to or above any of the houses above you, feel free to attempt a capture.

The Trade War is comparable to a PvP arena in conventional RPGs. In this game mode, you will choose from among your available retainers which ones to take to battle. Opponents are random and every retainer you defeat earns you War Vouchers. War Vouchers are then used to upgrade your Tax Office, which generates silver as well over time.

Both the Temple of Gods and Rank work almost the same where salutations can be accorded to the top players of the game. Both should be peeked into daily so extra rewards can be earned. One feature you also need to take advantage of are Feasts. You can hold feasts for a variety of reasons and there are always feats you can attend.

Partaking in feasts can earn you Feast Points and boost your popularity. In addition to special event rewards relative to feast points, these can be exchanged for a wide variety of valuable resources as well so spending some gold for feasts are always worth it.

8. Regularly Check Your Bag

Given that Trading Legend holds a plethora of content and features, you can expect it to contain numerous items and resources for you to acquire as well. In addition to silver and gold as the currencies useful in a variety of situations, some resources have more specific uses.

For the most part, you will be able to consume plenty of the needed resources without even having to go to your inventory to do so, like when retainer skills are enhanced or when the bank or market buildings are upgraded. However, some items are easier to utilize within the inventory, which is why it should form part of your routine to regularly check what is in your bag.

Items in your bag are categorized into 3 groups with event items and items that can be fused on a different tab. Although there is no limit as to the number of items you can keep, a lot of these items actually need to be opened to reveal the real items inside while others can be held based on your decision. With regard to the latter type, some items provide specific boosts that will remain constant regardless of when you use it. Some, however, will be more valuable the longer you hold on to them.

In general, we recommend consuming items as soon as you can especially if their value will remain constant over time. Every consumable contributes to earnings either directly or indirectly and earnings basically affect your rate of growth every second. Items that grant instant XP, give you prestige, or boost your retainers’ earnings are definitely ones you should use immediately.

There are items that give you a specific set of time’s worth of bank earnings or instantly hire staff for buildings you own. In essence, the value of these items increase over time considering that your earnings as well as the cost of new staff recruited increase over time. As much as you are inclined to hoard these items, however, do not hold back on using them too much and use them as you see fit. Even if they are worth less when used earlier, the increase in earnings over time accumulated also makes up for the foreseen opportunity loss.

9. Accomplish Daily Quest And Achievement Targets

Despite the increasing amount of grind and idle earnings required to make progress the farther you reach in your journey, Trading Legend always ensures that every action you take comes with its own set of instant rewards. Beyond the actual earnings and milestone rewards across various gameplay aspects, additional ones can also be earned with the Daily Quest and Achievement features. Both these sets of objectives can be accessed through their respective icons at the lower right side of the Mansion screen.

Instead of seeing Daily Quest and Achievement objectives as a feature that entails putting in extra time and effort, both should be rather seen as additional incentives. Both set of objectives laid out within each feature all directly relate to the usual activities you engage in the game. More so, each one should likewise be seen as an added guide towards progression across each of the game’s many aspects.

Daily Quest objectives are rather easy to accomplish and involve the most basic tasks you will perform by habit in the game. For the most part, you are likely able to complete most, if not all, of the daily tasks without even consciously knowing.

Each objective you accomplish earns you a valuable resource as well as activity point or AP. AP earned within the day unlocks extra rewards at the top of the page. Note that you do not need to clear every target to claim the top AP rewards but given that each one is relatively easy to accomplish, make it a habit to earn everything daily.

Achievements relate to the milestones you reach across different aspects of your progression. Some will be fairly easy to accomplish but since a lot of targets are just higher levels of accomplishments of previous ones, it will certainly take time to accomplish them. Given that your progress in each target is shown in the Achievements page, use them as a guide as to which areas of your journey you need to catch up more on.

10. Take Advantage Of Special Events

Beyond instant rewards from all sorts of activities you partake in, as well as the added incentives you earn via the Daily Quest and Achievements features, Trading Legend provides even more ways for active players to further their advancement and propel their careers toward becoming a top-tier tycoon. This is attributable to the abundance of special events that come with unique mini games and valuable rewards.

All icons above the Mansion screen largely relate to special events. A lot of these events are only available for a set period of time, making it important for each player to try and get the most out of each one within the period provided. Although there are some special events targeted towards premium or paying players, Trading Legends offers mostly offers events accessible to and enjoyable by everyone.

Some special events, particularly ones that activate as soon as you jump in, are tied in to daily quests and achievements and work much like the same. These special events offer more valuable rewards to the more dedicated players and can even help you acquire retainers, beauties, as well as other rare items that are difficult to earn elsewhere.

Some special events let you enjoy unique mini games that leave you with limited attempts to participate that also replenish over time. For the most part, all special events that require attention will have indicators on them much like regular areas of the game. However, it is always best to peek into each icon on the screen especially new ones as this may be needed to trigger the start of the activity.

Trading Legend certainly offers plenty more than what we can cover in one article but for now, this is where we wrap up our Trading Legend beginner’s guide. We are confident that the tips and strategies we shared will help you understand the game’s base mechanics better, leading you towards identifying the perfect strategy to make the most of the features and events yet to be uncovered.

If you have spent quite some time in Trading Legend and have come up with tips, tricks, and strategies of your own, be sure to share your experiences and stories in the comment box down below!