If the smell of the salty sea air and the pursuit of the life of a Merchant sailing goods and wares is more aligned to your good-natured ways then consider becoming a privateer in The King of Ocean for your iOS or Android device. King of the Ocean is a different type of sailing game where you are a merchant trying to sell your wares to the highest bidder in a world based in reality. You can travel with your fleet of ships and a cargo hold full of saffron for Athens and bring back fine artwork for London. There is a window that shows players what items are trading for the highest value, so you can maximize your profits. When you port into a new city you have use a little bit of silver or gold to unlock the products that are unique to that area. Once you unlock these items you can purchase them and sail them back to another port to sell them for a profit. Items are color coded for their demand white being the least in demand up to Orange, which is the most wanted item at the moment. You’ll want to check the market to see where the items are selling for the most.
What kind of Game is King of Ocean?
If you’re a fan of history and ocean travel, then this game might be more appealing to you than other pirate themed sailing games. The artwork is something similar to what you would see in a Final Fantasy type game and there’s not too much focus on “farming” materials to function. King of the Ocean is a cute looking game with a lot of points of interest to visit on the map all around the world.
As captain of your merchant fleet you are responsible for creating new ships for your crew to sail on. As the main Captain in charge, the player has to recruit new captains for your other ships. You are given a choice of 4 random captains to choose from but you can refresh the list for a bit of gold to get a chance at a better captain. Captains are rated 1-3 stars and are color-coded from white, orange, blue, and purple depending on their strength. As you progress in the game you’re able to unlock secondary ranks on your ship like Vice-captain, which gives that particular ship added bonuses and stats. It costs a little bit of silver to recruit a new captain to your crew. Once part of your crew, the captain can be upgraded as they gain strength from battle or by using experience cards that are gained by completing daily activity missions that appear on the left side of the player screen. This is a good way to help progress your Merchant ships and fleet in the game. Players are also rewarded additional bonuses for completing daily missions. Rewards are sent to the players inbox.
Ship Battles
Each ship can be upgraded with equipment to help it win in battle. When sailing on the open sea you can be randomly attacked just like in the real merchant sailor days!
The battle goes into an animation where your ships trade volleys back-and-forth until the final ship sinks and the winner is declared. When you’re fighting against another player the winner gets to select an item from the cargo to take from the loser. From what I can tell there is no restrictions on who can attack who on the open seas and I see no penalty from doing so. I completed about 20 trips before I was ever attacked and I lost one of my items in my cargo hold, but that was about it.
What are micro-tranactions like in King of Ocean?
As with all mobile app games, especially the free ones, Micro-transactions are available for purchase to help expedite your journey on the 7 seas. They range from .99 all the way up to a few hundred dollars depending on your investment in the game. So far, from what I’ve been able to gather, there’s not really much of a sense of urgency to purchase any additional items to advance in King of the Ocean. After only playing for a few hours I feel like I advanced quite far in the game myself and have not yet come up to a moment when I felt stuck and could not progress because of a lack of resources or materials.
How do you build ships in King of Ocean?
In order to build new ships you have to collect their pieces to complete their construction and it costs you a bit of silver. In order to quickly collect these parts, players can enter an instance battle where they face progressively more difficult fleet of NPC ships until they are defeated. If you are defeated before completing the instance you are given a reward based on how far you progressed. If you defeat all of the ships in the instance you’re given a special bonus for the completing the achievement.
A unique aspect to this game is that there is no fellowship or group to join. When I myself was playing in the game there was no lack of players active, as you can see the port and the other player ships pulling in and leaving again. You can also see them passing as you travel from city to city. You are left to go at it alone in regards to leveling and advancing in the game. Granted, the game is pretty simply built and not that complicated to understand, so the need for an alliance or clan isn’t really necessary, and honestly, a nice change of pace. Sometimes having other player’s expectations on you in a mobile app game can be a bit much and a little irritating.
This is a fun game you can just pick up and jump in to without having to invest a lot of time and money. I definitely recommend trying it out and see if the pills to your inner swashbuckler!
