Anno 1800 Beginner Guide: Straightforward Tips for New Players to Build Thriving Cities

Anno 1800 seems to be a complicated game at the beginning, and the balance is always in the red! When playing Anno 1800, beginners often struggle with what to produce on the island, the balance and income, as well as trading practice. Of all the aspects and things to pay attention to, players can focus their efforts on only one thing at the beginning of the game, that is: building up successful income streams and stable basic supplies to support the growth of the island. This post takes you through the early game of Anno 1800 (before expeditions and the discovery of the New World), and offers Anno 1800 beginner tips to help you kickstart the game!

Buy Raw Materials and Process Them on Your Islands

It’d be better to start Anno 1800 beginner tips with the suggestions on stabilizing the production and supplies on the islands! Why is this so important? In Anno 1800, each population group has its necessity goods and happiness goods. There are two reasons why it is necessary to pin down what to produce and what to purchase on the island:

1. The insufficiency of any one of the good results in the reduction of the population. Henceforth, it brings down the production of factories and farms. It is quite a vicious cycle, as players may realize.
2. Producing too many different goods leads to needing more population, which leads to needing more goods. This is another vicious cycle that can result in meaningless population expansion.

Explore: Anno 1800 How to Trade: Build Wealth Through Smart Trading Practices

Players can produce half of the raw materials on the island and buy the other half. Process the raw materials on your own islands, for their prices are high. Overall, maintaining the amount of raw materials in full stock helps stabilize production and supplies on the island. This prevents the population from dropping. As a general rule, the raw materials are cheaper than processed goods when purchased. NPCs usually have more raw materials for selling as well, but that depends on the situation of each game.

This mode of purchasing and producing can help players keep a full stock of staple goods on their islands, like timbers. It saves space on the island as well. Plantations and farms take up much space and reduce the attractiveness of the islands.

Explore: Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Reckoning: Infiltrate the Prague Camp Most Efficiently!

Build Up Income Streams: Quests, Trades, Selling Ships, and Looting

In the early game, it is crucial to build up income streams. The balance is very likely to be in the red for a while. Players need additional income to cover not just the deficits of the islands, but also the cost of building all sorts of factories, farms, and facilities. To do so, players can explore the options of completing quests, conducting trades, selling ships, and looting the pirates.

One thing which is worth mentioning is that the income streams in Anno 1800 heavily rely on the navy power. Players need a substantial number of ships to protect themselves from being attacked by the pirates. Running errands requires ships as well. Therefore, players should build the shipyard as soon as possible. Always stock enough timbers, sails, weapons, and enough workers for ship building.

Explore: Anno 1800 How to Make Money: Four Ways to Maximize the Profits of Ships and Trades

Complete Quests

Completing quests is almost a must-do in the early game of Anno 1800. As an indispensable part of Anno 1800 beginner tips, completing quests not only brings coins. It improves players’ diplomatic relationships with NPCs and gives players bonus items that can help players boost the efficiency of the islands.

There are two types of quests: one is the quests given by other NPCs, and the other is the quests given by your citizens. While other NPCs promise money and a good relationship in return, your citizens are happy to gift you items. The items are useful in trade unions, harbourmaster’s office, and other administrative buildings.

Players can find new quests by looking for a star icon on the mini-map at the bottom left corner. Additionally, players can also ask for quests on the diplomacy page.

Explore: Sultan’s Game The Mirror Visitor Artist: Complete Questline Explained

Set Up Profitable Trade Routes

Players can earn early game income by setting up profitable trade routes as well. One of the goods that players can export is soap. The trade route of selling soup to Eli Bleakworth is highly recommended in the early game. Bleakworth’s purchase price for soap is quite high. On top of that, soap can be produced as soon as players have workers. Moreover, the production does not take up too much space on the island.

Besides selling soups, players can also check the “Routes” page to see which goods are requested by other NPCs. But to keep things simple, usually producing and selling large quantities of soap is enough to carry players through the early stage of Anno 1800.

Explore: Cyberpunk 2077 Clothing Shops: Jinguji, Kabuki, and Wellsprings

Sell Ships to NPCs

At some of the NPCs’ harbours, players can sell ships to them at a good price. It is a convenient way to earn a lump sum when players have idle ships. When playing campaign mode, players can sell the ships to NPCs who are related to the main story, such as Sir Archibald Blake and Madame Kahina.

Players simply need to steer the ship to the NPCs’ harbours and click the “$” icon on the ship’s information panel to sell the ship directly. Building a frigate, for example, only requires 40 timbers, 20 sails, 15 weapons, and 6 minutes, while selling one can earn $10,000. This way, players can build up their wealth easily to support the islands through the early development period.

Explore: Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Sir Valentine Sword: Secure the Game’s Most Formidable Shortsword

Patrol and Loot the Pirates

Another straightforward way of earning income is setting up patrols and looting the pirates. In normal difficulty, usually 1 frigate and 3 – 4 gunboats as a fleet are enough to chase down any pirate ship.

When setting up the fleet, players need to note the pirate ship types so as to produce the ships that can overpower and match the speed of the pirate ships. To achieve this, players can click “Routes” at the bottom left corner and Ctrl + left click on the red pirate ships to jump to the ships. Then, players can access the ships’ information about their types and locations.

Destroyed pirate ships drop flotsam sometimes, which players can pick up. The flotsams include, but are not limited to items like mortars, pirates, and goods. Players can choose to keep them or sell them at harbours; Either way is a good gain for players in the early game.

Explore: Sultan’s Game The Mirror Visitor Sage: Guide to Complete the Sage Storyline

Conclusion: Anno 1800 Beginner Tips

As players start a game in Anno 1800, it is important to build up a stable supply and production chain on the islands to keep the population stable, as well as form an income stream to support the balance through the deficits.

It is quite difficult to keep the balance in the green in the early game. Despite this, players can still accumulate their wealth through quest completion, ship selling, and trading. During this process, the bonus items from looting the pirates and completing the quests can help further improve the efficiency of the islands, decrease the maintenance costs, etc. All in all, these simple and straightforward steps can assist players through the growth in the early game of Anno 1800!