Pioneering Merchant

First introduced in v9.0.2, the pioneering merchants are the new replacements for pioneering memorials. Since the secret of the old pioneering memorials have been exposed by the Witches of Bahama, three merchant houses have taken over the operations of pioneering. The merchant houses and the equipment they trade in are:

1. Vent Nuar ("Black Wind") - melee equipment
2. Magia Gremio ("Magic Guild") - magic equipment
3. Tempestar di Savia ("Desert Storm") - shooting equipment

Note: This post is compiled from various versions, so some sections may be slightly different depending on what client version you are using. For example, if you don't see the Test Application item for the next rank even after having enough favor rate, chances are that the next rank is not available in your current version.


Pioneer Merchant Information
You can access Pioneer Merchant Information window via the main menu or the hot-key (Ctrl + Shift + M).

For each merchant, there are 3 main concepts to track - (shop) points, favor rate, and rank. (Shop) Points are used to buy items from the Pioneer Merchant shops. Favor Rate is required to unlock higher-end items in the shops. Rank determines your shop content and your daily (shop) points limit.

Rank	Point Limit	Shop - Favor	Test - Seal	Test - Points
F	10	0	-	-
D	20	1,000	1	100
C	30	2,000	50	500
B	40	5,000	100	1,000
A	50	10,000	200	2,000
S	?	?	?	18,000

Point Limit column refers to the maximum (shop) points you can acquire per day. Shop - Favor column refers to how much favor rate you must have to unlock shop items once you acheived that rank. The two Test columns refer to how many Lv.9 Pioneer Seals and (shop) points are needed to buy the Test Application item for the given rank.

Pioneer Merchant - Field NPC
In most field maps (excluding premium dungeons), there are pioneer merchants offering repeatable monster hunt quests. Completing a hunt quest will grant you favor rate and (shop) points for the chosen merchant. However, the other 2 merchants will be unhappy with you for assisting their rivals, thus resulting in a loss of favor rates. In v10.19.0, the amount of favor gained/lost depends on the map level.

Zone Level	Sample Zones	Favor - Selected	Favor - Others	Points
Low	Al Quelt Moreza, Tetra Ruins	+1	-2	+0
Mid	Porto Bello, Torsche's Mansion	+1	-2	+1
High	Prison de Joaquin, Ustiur	+2	-3	+2
Veteran	Bahama, Katovic, Abertal	+3	-4	+3

There is a limit to how many (shop) points you can gain per day for each merchant. (This is denoted as "Today's Points" in Pioneer Merchant Information window.) At the lowest rank of F, you are limited to 10 (shop) points per day. This limit increases as your rank advances (see Table 1 above).

Urgent Supply Requests
Every day, there will be urgent supply requests for specific maps. You can open a warp gate directly to the map by selecting the desired request in Pioneer Merchant Information window (Ctrl + Shift + M) and clicking the [Move To Location] button (which consumes 1 Warp Scroll). If you complete a monster hunt on the map specified by the request, you will get a bonus reward. There are 3 types of rewards:

1. [P] This urgent request grants bonus (shop) points for the specified (random) merchant.
2. [♥] This urgent request grants bonus favor rate for the specified (random) merchant.
3. [░] This urgent request grants bonus EXP Cards, Honor Cards, or Training Cards. 

For [P] and [♥] requests, the bonus is for the specified merchant even if you complete the quest for a different merchant. The daily limit for (shop) points does not apply to the bonus for [P] requests. You must be at least family level 20 to have the urgent request which grants Training Cards. You can see the bonus amount, merchant, and/or card type by moving your mouse over the respective icons.

Normally, you can only get the bonus reward for each urgent request once per day. If you have Home Premium Service (aka Explorer Pack), you can redo the quest to get one additional bonus reward for each urgent request.


Pioneer Merchant Shop
Each pioneer merchant house has a town NPC, which offers shop access and rank promotion test. To use a pioneer shop, your favor rate must be at least 0 for that specific merchant house. To buy the merchandise, you need to spend (shop) points plus either Lv.9 Pioneer Seals or Elemental Jewels (depending on item).

The shops sell Lv.96 Elite Trump Weapons, EXP Cards, Veteran Polish, Shiny Crystal Chest, Portable Ancient Star Orb Box, as well as various Pioneer Rank Test Applications. As your rank and favor rate increases, more items will become available in the shops.

Among the various items, the more coveted ones are the Recipes - Enhanced Will of Argus (Magia), Enhanced Hope of Argus (Vent), and Enhanced Jormungand Belt (Tempestar). These recipes will be available in the shops when you have achieved Rank B and accumulated 5,000 favor rate. In v10.20.2, there will also be recipes for enhanced versions of the new accessories (e.g. Shadow of the Abyss).


Rank Promotion
You start with Rank F for all merchants. To advance in ranks, you must purchase the respective Pioneer Rank Test Application from the pioneer shop (see above) in towns. The test application items are all the same. Thus, you may buy the test application from one merchant (e.g. Magia) to take the test for a different merchant (e.g. Tempestar), provided it is of the appropriate rank.

Then, talk to the pioneer merchant town NPC to start a special mission for the test. If you complete the mission, you advance to the next rank. The various ranks are: F > D > C > B > A > S. See Pioneer Merchant Rank Tests for mission details.

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