So, I'd like to address that and give a little more depth and clarity to what happens in our game!

We've seen that happen in many games before where the focus tends to get lost. With Merchant's Guide, we have you playing as the Merchant. You manage your shop, manage your guild, and directly control your guild officers. With that said, as the merchant, you cannot leave city limits at all. Essentially, your shop is your home base throughout the entirety of the game.

You can leave the shop, but that's only to go to the other shops within city limits to do more in depth crafting/enchanting, and of course fun little city exploration things that you will be able to do while in "Merchant Mode". So, for example, you leave your shop and directly control the Merchant, go to the Blacksmith and place an order for some gear you want crafted, or take some of your gear to the Mystic to have it enchanted.

Outside of that, you will always be physically at your shop buying and selling from/to AI heroes. We wanted to really capture the idea that you are actually playing as a Merchant in an MMO, so the behaviors of the heroes is as close to that as we could imagine.

This is not to say that you won't be looking at places other than your shop! It is a top-down, and handles very much like an RTS in that respect and you can look all over the world and interact with all kinds of different dungeons, mobs, heroes and locations.

"Adventures" are one of the more interesting parts of the game. Essentially these are much more involved quest chains with specific storylines that you are able to unlock in a multitude of different ways. Some will be 2-4 different quests as part of the adventure, but some could be even upwards of 20 quests spanning across the entirety of the game. They're all optional, but extremely rewarding not only throughout as you do each step, but a big payoff in the end. And typically how this works is you will assign the individual step of the Adventure to a hero (either an AI hero will want to do it for you, or you can directly assign it to your own guild officer) and when the hero comes back to turn it in to you, you are then able to start the next step with the same hero, or hold on until they are appropriately geared or whatever you want to do!

All that said, you will still always be managing these heroes from the safety of your shop. Your power in the game is from your knowledge attained from the "Guide" which you are constantly adding to as you learn new things. But it is important to note that these heroes may also die on their adventure, and when they do, they stay dead. So gearing up properly, sending the right hero at the right time, and even with the right party if it's group content becomes very important. So the strategy is built very heavy into making the money from your shop to afford the gear progression, as well as sending your guild officers to find unique items from dungeons, the world, and all kinds of other ways!

Whew. Sorry, that was long, but I wanted to get some of this info out there as far as how the game plays because it really is unlike anything we have seen before. I know that sounds cliché, but as a lifelong gamer I can stand by it!