Tanker guide: the market watcher

What a tanker captain does

Every ship in PerpeNaval burns fuel, and every litre is bought at a port. Each port keeps a fuel stock from 0 to 100. Every departure and every refuel call drains it, prices follow it, and the only thing that refills it in volume is a tanker delivery. A Tanker captain does not take jobs so much as read a market: buy where a port is full and cheap, and sell where it is running dry.

Big refinery hubs (Rotterdam, Houston, Jebel Ali, Singapore, Novorossiysk, Jeddah, Port Klang and Algeciras) are always well stocked and cheap. Island bunkering ports such as Las Palmas, Malé, Honolulu or Valletta are thin and dear. Home ports are kept stocked for new captains. Everything in between moves with traffic, and that movement is your income.

How Tanker earns

A fuel run pays the freight ladder for your tonnage and distance, times a market factor that grows with the spread between the buy price where you load and the sell price where you deliver: from 1.0 on a thin spread up to 1.6 on a very good one. A tanker sails 90% full. Fuel is loaded on consignment, and 4% of the pay is kept at sale (there is no consignment fee under the rookie shield). The two smallest hulls get a 30% hazardous-cargo premium, where runs are otherwise thin.

The board only offers runs that cover their own fuel, the call fee and the crew with a margin. A port below 35% stock is short and pays the scarcity price. Below 15% it is in emergency: emergency fuel cards pay 30% more, show in red, and are offered even when the margin is thin. If no profitable spread exists from where you are, the board offers empty repositioning runs to the cheapest fuel in range, so a tanker is never stranded.

Every delivery raises the destination's stock (about 5 points per 1,000 t) and every load lowers the origin's, and the effect fades a point per game day. You move the market you sell into, and the fuel label shows who filled the port for a day.

Elo, SOS calls and events

A fuel delivery earns 2 Elo plus 1 for every 4,000 km, with 2 more for a short port and 6 more for an emergency. Tankers also answer SOS fuel calls: a ship that has run low (or had her tank drained by a pirate) drifts until someone brings 30 t at twice the emergency price, which pays about $13,800 and 14 Elo. Calls are visible within 3,000 km. The Fuel crunch event on the calendar raises deliveries into one named port by 40% for two days, and the Expansion port state adds 20% to fuel deliveries into that port.

The hulls

• Bunker Barge (tier 1): 400 t, speed 28, about 3,900 km of range empty. Fuel runs from 150 to 2,200 km.
• Product Tanker (tier 2): 3,000 t, speed 30, about 8,400 km empty. Runs up to 8,500 km.
• Aframax (tier 3): 12,000 t, speed 34. Ocean runs, weather forecast built in.
• Suezmax (tier 4): 25,000 t, speed 36. Fits the Suez Canal.
• VLCC (tier 5): 50,000 t, speed 34. Fits no canal.

Tanker hulls cost a little more than cargo hulls of the same tier (about $70,000 for a Bunker Barge, $134,000 for a Product Tanker). The tanker ladder is designed to start slow and pay best from tier 4, where it out-earns Cargo.

The upgrade tree

The Tanker Bridge is all about information: Market Telemetry shows which ports are draining or refilling, Spread Scanner raises the board from six fuel runs to nine, and Futures Insight previews tomorrow's best run. Each hull commits to one branch for good:

• Crude: capacity in steps, Slow Steam (8% less fuel burned) and Deep Draft (fuel runs reach 25% further). Its doctrines are Supertanker (more capacity, buying 5% cheaper at the eight refinery hubs, a further 5% off everywhere with Volume Discount, and +10% on fuel runs with Crude Baron) and Pipeline (+10% on every run with a spread through Spot Sniper).
• Response: emergency work and SOS calls, with faster pumps, a speed boost and emergency fuel cards that reach 50% further. Its doctrines are Lifeboat, built around rescues, and Opportunist, which raises emergency fuel from 1.3 times to 1.45 and then 1.6 times the normal pay, plus another 20% with Crisis Contracts.
• LNG: opens LNG cards, a premium cargo sold at 12 LNG terminals at 60% above the freight ladder, with further LNG pay nodes and, in the Cryo Master doctrine, four polar terminals.

Risks and counters

Your risks are market risk and the sea. A spread can close while you sail if another tanker reaches the same port first, so prefer ports that are deep in shortage over ports that are only slightly short. Pirates see tankers as prey like any other hull once your shield is down: Safest routes, escort tenders and LNG's Dual Cert node (seizure success against her 10% lower) help. Storms close ports, so a run into a port in a storm's path may be pulled from the board, and a port that has just recovered is often a good market.

How Tanker fits with the other callings

Every captain buys fuel, so every captain is your customer. When stock falls, departures from that port cost more for everyone and refuel calls there become slow. A Tanker delivery fixes that, which makes this the calling that quietly sets prices for the whole sea. Pirates who drain a ship's tank create SOS fuel calls that only Tankers can answer, and Cargo traffic through a region is what empties the ports you will refill next.

Your first hour

Start by turning on the fuel layer of the chart and looking at your region: dark, full ports and pale, starving ones. Your Bunker Barge's board already lists every profitable run from her port, with the buy price, sell price, spread and the destination's stock. Pick a run with a good spread and a short time rather than the largest pay. As a rookie you pay no consignment fee, so your early runs keep a little more.

After two or three landings, buy Market Telemetry or Spread Scanner on the Bridge. If an SOS fuel call appears within reach, consider answering it: it pays well and builds Elo fast. Keep one eye on the Office orders, which for Tankers often include refuelling ports below 30% stock.

Tips

• The best runs are from a hub into a port below 15% stock: emergency pay plus a wide spread.
• Do not chase a port that several tankers are already heading for. Each delivery refills it and shrinks the spread for the next.
• Stock recovers by itself a point a game day, so a port that was starving yesterday may be normal today. Check the card, not your memory.
• Use the repositioning cards when your port is dear: sailing empty to cheap fuel sets up your next spread.
• Spread Scanner on the Bridge raises the board from six fuel runs to nine: more choice is the cheapest upgrade a tanker can buy.
• If you enjoy emergency work, the Response branch and the Opportunist doctrine make starving ports pay up to 1.6 times the normal rate.
• Watch the event calendar for Fuel crunch: a named port pays 40% more for two days.
• SOS fuel calls carry Elo as well as cash. Answering them early in your career lifts your rating toward the first premium card.