Ahoy, Tycoons.
A second charge appeared beside the harbor tax with v1.2.0. Here is what it is, what moves it, and what it means for a voyage you are about to load.
Every unload already pays the harbor tax, 8%, 10% or 12% depending on the port. The port due sits beside it as a separate charge, and the two are listed separately everywhere they appear.
The due is not fixed. It moves with the treasury that funds every settlement. When that reserve runs low the due rises. As the reserve recovers, the due falls back toward zero.
It runs from 0% to 25%.
One thing: the treasury balance. Nothing about your voyage, your port, your cargo or your standing changes it. Everyone unloading on the same day pays the same due.
The rate is fixed once a day at 00:00 UTC and holds for that whole day.
It is read at the moment you unload, not when you cast off. Most of the time that makes no difference, since both fall on the same day. A voyage that crosses 00:00 UTC is the exception: it unloads at the new day's rate, and that rate is set at the moment the day turns over.
There are no steps or brackets. The rate follows the balance continuously, so there is no threshold to unload just above or just below.
Four places, always beside the harbor tax.
The port header, as its own badge.
The trade desk, in the line that works out what you net.
Voyage prep, in the breakdown before you cast off.
Your unload result, as its own row in the waterfall.
If the due is 0%, the badge does not appear at all and the screens read as they did before.
Trade Premium is the heart of this game and it is not getting smaller.
But every premium a port pays comes out of the same reserve, and that reserve draws on a supply that is capped per season. That cap is published. Paying out past it would put more CHEF into circulation than the published figure says, and how CHEF moves has to be something you can check rather than something you take on trust.
Before this update there was nothing linking that limit to what happened at the docks on any given day. The due is that link. It reads the treasury and adjusts on its own, without anyone stepping in after the fact.
A voyage is worth sailing while the sell multiplier at that port beats the total you pay. Total tax is the harbor tax plus the due.
A rising due does not stop the sea. It reaches the thinnest margins first, and the wide ones keep clearing long after. What it tells you is that the harbors have been busy: a high due means a great deal has moved through them lately, and the ports are asking more until things settle.
One caveat: if the crossing will land after 00:00 UTC, the figure in voyage prep is today's rate and the unload will use tomorrow's.
You will not have to go looking at the balance to know the due is moving. The Serene Dominion tells you.
At first the Doge's envoy arrives with word from the ports. He carries the order rather than making it, and he says so.
If the treasuries keep thinning, the Doge comes himself. By the time he does, the harbors are asking a great deal of every hold that unloads, and he does not pretend otherwise.
The rate is on screen either way. The Dominion is how you hear about it without watching a number.
Not all of it stays with the ports. A share of everything the due collects, across all thirteen harbors, fills the guild season pool, which is paid out to the leading guilds at season close.
So the charge and the reward are the same flow seen from two ends. Sailing under a banner puts you on the receiving side of it.
Deep dive: how a guild season works →
The due is not a wall. It is a reading of how hot the sea has been running.
When it is low, the harbors are hungry and the crossings pay well. That is the time to push volume.
When it is high, the sea has been worked hard and the ports are holding back. The crossings that still clear by a wide margin are as good as they ever were, so keep sailing those. For the thin ones, there is no hurry. A day spent developing a port or training crew is a day the harbors recover, and the due comes down as they do. The tide turns either way, and it turns faster when fewer holds are being emptied into it.
Every season has its calm stretches. Read the water, pick your crossings, and the sea comes back.
Fair winds ⛵
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