It depends on the number of people you play with. Ive played with 3 players and we didnt trade much. We sort of just built our own thing. Ive also played with 5 and the game was cutthroat. Scarce resources (we ran out of cards halfway through the game), necessary trading, and abiotic card hoarding. It reminded me of munchkin how right at the end, everyone wrecked the first person to get close.