Merchant of the Skies

Merchant of the Skies is a trading and light resource-management sim developed by Coldwild Games. You play as the captain of an airborne vessel hopping between floating settlements, buying low, selling high, gathering raw materials, and gradually expanding your operation into a proper trade company. It sits comfortably in that niche between idle-clicker and full-fat strategy: there is genuine decision-making here, but the game never punishes you hard enough to break the relaxed rhythm it deliberately cultivates. From a systems perspective, the core loop is clean. You scout routes between islands, identify which settlements produce surplus goods, and construct a mental (or literal spreadsheet) map of where profit lives. Early on you are personally running every trade run in your single ship. Mid-game introduces the ability to hire additional captains and automate routes, which is where the light 4X brain kicks in. You are now managing a network rather than a single vessel, and that shift in scale is satisfying even if it never reaches the complexity of a Patrician or a Port Royale. The building system lets you set up extraction and production on certain islands, feeding raw inputs into finished goods for better margins. The numbers are legible and the upgrade paths are transparent, which I appreciate. Nothing is hidden behind cryptic tooltips. The tutorial does a reasonable job of onboarding newcomers. Coldwild Games has clearly thought about pacing: the first hour is essentially guided, handing you objectives that teach buying, selling, and basic resource loops without overwhelming. For players who have never touched a trading sim before, this is a genuinely accessible entry point. The game does not have the brutal early-game resource crunch of something like Anno, so you can afford to experiment with your first few routes without spiraling into bankruptcy. That said, experienced sim players will find the skill ceiling lower than they might want. Once your trade network is humming and you have enough captains assigned, the late game becomes more of a watching-numbers-tick exercise than an active strategic puzzle. The AI is serviceable for a game of this scope. Rival traders exist, prices fluctuate based on supply and demand in a simplified but perceptible way, and there is enough dynamism to keep routes from feeling completely static. It is not a living economy simulation, but it is not pretending to be one either. Mod support is limited compared to larger studio titles, so do not expect a Steam Workshop full of total conversions. What you get instead is a focused, stable, well-maintained base game that does exactly what it says on the tin without feature creep. The audience here is players who want a low-pressure trading loop they can pick up for forty-five minutes at a time, fans of incremental resource games who want a thin but present strategy layer, and anyone who finds traditional grand strategy too punishing to start. It is not the right pick if you need deep geopolitical simulation, complex combat, or extensive modding. But as a cozy, competent sky-trading experience with a respectable review score and an honest scope, it earns its place in the genre.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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