Tide Traders

Tide Traders is a cozy 3D sailing and trading game set on a sunny archipelago of eight harbour towns, from tropical Port Solace and snowy Saltmere to the stone fortress of Goldcrest Keep and volcanic Cinder Cove. You start with a raft and a fishing rod. Catch fish off the pier, sell them at the fish market and save up for your first sloop. You walk your own deck in third person and steer by stepping to the left or right side of the ship.

Trading is the heart of it. Every island makes some goods cheaply and pays well for others: rum and sugar from Port Solace, timber and planks from Timberholm, silk, tea and porcelain from Silkhaven, pearls from Coral Reach. Prices move with every trade and drift back over time, and merchant ships trade on live prices in the background, so the best routes keep changing. You only see live prices where you are docked; the Harbour Gazette prints a snapshot of prices across the islands.

The wind matters. A ship is quick with the wind across its side and crawls when pointed into it, and a full hold makes it sit lower and sail slower. Seven ship classes, from the raft to the galleon, unlock as you level up, and each can be upgraded in plating, sails, guns, hold and rudder. Taverns hire deckhands, gunners, fishers, carpenters and cooks, who are paid a wage every in-game day. The fish journal holds 33 species from tropical, temperate, cold, deep and volcanic waters.

Harbours and the Calm Waters around the starting towns are always safe. On the Open Sea captains may fight with broadside cannons, and Cinder Reach is lawless with richer loot. A sunk ship is never lost: you wash ashore on your raft and the ship waits at the shipyard for a salvage bill, which insurance covers. You do lose your cargo and a quarter of the gold in your purse, but gold in the Goldcrest bank stays safe.

Practical habits: buy what the island you are docked at produces, then check the Gazette for who wants it. Bank your gold before long trips across open water. Fresh fish lose value over time, so sell them soon, or upgrade the hold to level three for an icebox. Fish bite faster in moving schools, in rain and at dawn and dusk.

Solo Voyage gives you your own sea with computer ships only, saved to your account. On the Open Sea you can sail with other signed-in captains, crew up on one ship, or found a clan with a shared treasury, ranks and an emblem on your sails. It plays with mouse and keyboard, touch or a gamepad.