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Currency & Crafting Methods ~24 min read 4,778 words

Salt & Steel: Currency System

Document type: Economy Design — Foundational
Status: Canonical
Last updated: 2026-04
See also: Crafting Methods | Trade System | Economy Philosophy | Modifier System | Base Types

Overview: No Gold

Salt & Steel has no gold. There is no universal medium of exchange that exists purely to be spent. Every currency in the game is simultaneously a crafting material with a direct mechanical function and a trade medium whose value derives from that function. This is not aesthetic flavor. It is the foundational economic decision from which everything else follows.

The lesson from Path of Exile — and from the broader history of ARPG economies — is clear: gold-based economies inflate into meaninglessness. Gold is generated faster than it is consumed. Every monster drops it; nothing truly removes it from the system. Eventually the numbers become too large to feel significant, and the currency stops mattering.

Salt & Steel's currencies cannot inflate into meaninglessness because they are consumed when used. A Doubloon spent rerolling a Rare item's modifiers is gone. A Piece of Eight used to add a modifier to a perfect item has been sacrificed. Every currency expenditure is a crafting decision, not just a transaction. This dual nature — craft OR trade, never "just money" — is what makes finding a high-value currency exciting in a way that finding gold never is.

The pirate theme enhances this naturally. Pirates didn't accumulate gold — they accumulated prizes, commodities, and specific valuable items. A captured Piece of Eight was both money and an artifact of Spanish colonial wealth. A captured spice cargo was both tradeable and useful. The functional currency system feels authentic to the setting in a way a generic gold system would not.

Currency Design Principles

1. Every Drop Is Meaningful
When a rare currency drops — a Piece of Eight, a Lodestone, a Captain's Seal — it is exciting because the player immediately understands its dual value: I can use this to improve my gear, OR I can trade it for something I need more. A gold drop is exciting only proportional to its size. A functional currency drop is exciting regardless of quantity.

2. Currency Has a Floor
Because every currency has a crafting use-value, it cannot become worthless as long as crafting exists. Doubloons cannot become worthless while Rare items exist to reroll. This structural floor prevents the hyperinflation that plagues gold economies.

3. Crafting Consumption Is the Primary Sink
Currency leaves the system when players apply it to items. The primary economic tension is between spending now (crafting your own gear) and spending to acquire (trading for what others have built). Both are rational; the choice is situational.

4. The Pirate World Runs on Prizes, Not Wages
Currency drops from content the way treasure was historically found: from defeated enemies, from salvaged wrecks, from locked chests in dangerous places, from trading with faction merchants. The acquisition experience should feel like prizes, not paychecks.

Complete Currency Catalog

Tier 1: Common Utility (High Abundance)

Steel Filing

  • Function: Upgrades a Common (white) item to Uncommon (green), adding 1-2 random modifiers
  • Equivalent: Orb of Transmutation (PoE)
  • Drop Frequency: Very common; floods early-game inventory
  • Trade Value: Near-worthless individually; bulk-traded at 40:1 for Doubloons
  • Crafting Use: Essential for map rolling (applying Steel Filings to Common chart fragments makes them Uncommon, adding modifier-based content bonuses). Also used en masse during early character building to generate Uncommon gear for use.
  • Design Note: The Steel Filing is the most common non-consumable currency in the game. Finding them feels like finding pocket change — nice to have, not exciting. Their value is in volume. A stack of 200 Steel Filings converts to 5 Doubloons via the Shipwright exchange, making bulk accumulation a minor income stream.
  • Flavor: A small curl of steel from a blacksmith's floor — proof that something was made here.

Compass Rose

  • Function: Upgrades an Uncommon item to Rare, adding 3-6 random modifiers
  • Equivalent: Orb of Alchemy (PoE)
  • Drop Frequency: Common
  • Trade Value: Low; 4-8 trade as 1 Doubloon
  • Crafting Use: "Rose-and-go" — the pirate equivalent of "alch-and-go." Apply a Compass Rose to a Common or Uncommon item to quickly generate a Rare for use or for content progression. Heavy use in Chart rolling to make Nautical Chart regions Rare (adding nautical encounter modifiers).
  • Vendor Recipe: Three Common weapons of the same base type → 1 Compass Rose
  • Design Note: The Compass Rose is the on-ramp to Rare crafting. New players use them liberally; experienced players hoard them for Chart rolls. The name evokes navigation — a Compass Rose opens directions previously unavailable.
  • Flavor: A full navigational rose etched in brass — it points to what the item might become.

Hull Patch

  • Function: Repairs a damaged Ship Equipment item (restores the DR reduction caused by Corrosion attacks or "The Corsair's Debt" Cursed modifier damage). Also used as the primary material in Ship Crafting — upgrading ship components requires Hull Patches as part of the material cost.
  • Equivalent: No direct PoE equivalent — a ship-specific dual-use currency unique to Salt & Steel
  • Drop Frequency: Common at sea; uncommon on land
  • Trade Value: Low on land; moderate at sea (necessary supply)
  • Crafting Use: Ship Crafting requires Hull Patches in every recipe. A Captain upgrading from a 6-Pounder to a 9-Pounder cannon spends Hull Patches + specific iron materials. Hull repair in port restores Corrosion-damaged ship items at a cost of Hull Patches proportional to the damage.
  • Design Note: The Hull Patch is Salt & Steel's most distinctly maritime currency. It creates a demand bifurcation: on-foot builds care about it only as a trade good or minor ship repair material; naval builds need it constantly and treat it as a functional resource. This is one of the points where the two-layer game design (on-foot and naval) creates genuinely different economic priorities for different players.
  • Flavor: A square of tarred canvas and fresh timber — not glamorous, but your ship stays afloat.

Tier 2: Crafting Currency (Moderate Abundance)

Doubloon

  • Function: Rerolls all modifiers on a Rare or Legendary item (generates a completely new random set of modifiers within the item's eligible pool)
  • Equivalent: Chaos Orb (PoE) — the standard trade currency unit
  • Drop Frequency: Moderate; reliable endgame income from content
  • Trade Value: This is the primary trade currency. All player-to-player item prices are quoted in Doubloons. The Port Market price board uses Doubloons as the unit of account. When players say something "costs 50," they mean 50 Doubloons.
  • Crafting Use: "Doubloon-rolling" is the base crafting activity: apply Doubloons repeatedly to a Rare or Legendary item hoping to hit a desired modifier combination. Fully random; a powerful method when trying to hit a single useful modifier on a good base type.
  • Source: Monster drops (primary), the Full Prize Set vendor recipe (5 items of identified Rare quality, at least one of each armor slot → 3 Doubloons), Nautical Chart completion rewards
  • Design Note: The Doubloon is the economy's heartbeat. Its value as both crafting material and trade unit is in dynamic equilibrium: when players spend Doubloons on crafting, fewer are available for trade, pushing their effective value up. When content rewards spike Doubloon supply, their relative purchasing power drops. This natural tension is healthy — it means the Doubloon's value tracks real economic activity rather than being arbitrary.
  • Flavor: A Spanish doubloon — double the gold of an ordinary escudo, half the weight of a man's conscience.

Salt Crystal

  • Function: Removes one random modifier from a Rare or Legendary item (the modifier removed is chosen randomly from all eligible modifiers, not player-selected)
  • Equivalent: Orb of Annulment (PoE)
  • Drop Frequency: Moderate-scarce; several times rarer than Doubloons
  • Trade Value: Mid-high; approximately 10-15 Doubloons each mid-league
  • Crafting Use: The surgical tool. A Legendary item with five excellent modifiers and one poor one is a 1-in-6 chance of improvement with a Salt Crystal — if the Crystal removes the bad modifier, the item is worth significantly more. Used at the end of crafting sequences to clean up an otherwise-excellent item. Also used in metacrafting sequences: combine with "Marks Protected" Anchored modifier to target specific unwanted Engravings.
  • Design Note: The Salt Crystal preserves the spirit of pirate economics — salt was historically precious, worth as much as gold in trade contexts. A Salt Crystal is the currency of purification. It strips away the unwanted. The analogy is exact: pirates used salt to preserve things worth keeping; the Salt Crystal preserves a build's investment by removing the thing that shouldn't be there.
  • Flavor: A perfect crystal of sea salt, formed at the edge of a tide pool — pure enough to season a king's table, scarce enough to start a war.

Lodestone

  • Function: Rerolls the numerical values of all random explicit modifiers on an item within their existing tier ranges. Does not change which modifiers are present, only what values within the tier those modifiers roll.
  • Equivalent: Divine Orb (PoE) — the current primary high-end trade currency
  • Drop Frequency: Scarce; reliable mid-high endgame income
  • Trade Value: The high-value trade benchmark. In a mature Voyage economy, 1 Lodestone trades for approximately 180-250 Doubloons. High-value item prices are quoted in Lodestones at the high end ("that's worth 8 Lodestones").
  • Crafting Use: Applied to an item that has the correct modifier combination but suboptimal rolls within tiers. A Legendary Cutlass with T1 Physical Damage rolling at the bottom of its range (85-100% → rolled 86%) benefits from a Lodestone to push toward 100%. The ceiling for value improvement via Lodestone is reaching the maximum of each tier's range — a process that may require several applications.
  • Design Note: The Lodestone's dual role — high-end crafting material AND high-value trade currency — is the most important economic property in the game. It is the currency that matters to experienced players building serious gear. Its value is stable because its crafting use is constant: even players who don't need currency will use Lodestones on their own gear rather than trade them unless the price differential is compelling.
  • Flavor: A chip of lodestone, magnetized by something beyond iron — it points not to north but to potential.

Piece of Eight

  • Function: Adds one random modifier to a Rare or Legendary item that has fewer than the maximum number of modifiers (does not remove existing modifiers — adds to open slots)
  • Equivalent: Exalted Orb (PoE)
  • Drop Frequency: Scarce; approximately 1 per 4-5 hours of focused endgame content
  • Trade Value: High; approximately 25-40 Doubloons each
  • Crafting Use: Used in two scenarios: (1) Filling open modifier slots on an otherwise-good item — a 5-modifier Legendary with an open Engraving slot benefits from a Piece of Eight to add a sixth modifier; (2) Used in metacrafting sequences after blocking unwanted modifier categories, to add from the remaining eligible pool. The Piece of Eight is the "last expansion" currency — when the item is mostly right and needs one more good thing.
  • Design Note: Unlike PoE's Exalted Orb (which was historically the primary high-value trade unit before 3.19), the Piece of Eight is designed to remain a crafting currency rather than drifting into pure trade unit status. The Lodestone is the designed high-value trade unit. The Piece of Eight's lower value keeps it accessible as a crafting material.
  • Flavor: A Spanish piece of eight — the most famous coin in pirate history. Not the most valuable piece; the most useful one.

Black Spot

  • Function: Adds a random Cursed modifier to an item (adds to the Cursed modifier slot, separate from Engraving/Mark budget). Cannot be applied to items that already have a Cursed modifier. The Cursed modifier added is drawn from the full Cursed modifier pool weighted by item type.
  • Equivalent: No direct PoE equivalent — a currency unique to Salt & Steel
  • Drop Frequency: Rare; significantly rarer than Pieces of Eight
  • Trade Value: High; approximately 60-90 Doubloons each
  • Crafting Use: Applied to a Legendary item to add a Cursed modifier. The result is entirely random within the Cursed pool. Some Cursed modifiers are powerful enough to transform a good item into a build-defining one (Davy Jones' Grip on a melee weapon); others are poor fits (The Drowned Man's Breath on a land-focused item). The Black Spot is high-risk, high-ceiling crafting — applying it to a carefully prepared Legendary is a significant gamble.
  • Special Use: The Black Spot can be applied a second time to an item that already has a Cursed modifier — this is the Embrace operation. Embracing doubles the power AND the drawback of the existing Cursed modifier. The second Black Spot costs twice the first.
  • Cannot Remove: Once a Black Spot is applied and a Cursed modifier gained, the modifier cannot be removed by the Black Spot itself. Only Cleansing Salt + ritual removes a Cursed modifier (Cleanse operation).
  • Design Note: The Black Spot is one of the most thematically resonant currencies in the game. In pirate lore, receiving the Black Spot meant you were condemned. In Salt & Steel, applying the Black Spot to an item is a choice — and a meaningful one. It makes the item more powerful and more problematic simultaneously. The currency is risky in the same way the Vaal Orb is risky — but rather than potentially destroying value, it always adds power at a price. No Black Spot application is a net loss; it is always a question of whether the price is acceptable.
  • Flavor: A piece of paper, blackened with lamp oil and marked with a cross. To receive it is to know you are chosen — for good or for ill.

Tier 3: High-End Crafting (Rare)

Treasure Map Fragment

  • Function: Consumed to access endgame Nautical Chart content (equivalent to Map fragments in PoE). Each Fragment is a piece of a specific Nautical Chart region; assembling a complete Chart (3-5 Fragments depending on region) allows activation of that Chart zone for exploration and content completion.
  • Equivalent: PoE Map Fragments (consumed for endgame content access)
  • Drop Frequency: Regular; drops from mid-to-high content monsters
  • Trade Value: Varies by region; common Fragments trade for 2-5 Doubloons, rare Fragments for 20-50+
  • Crafting Use: Fragments themselves are consumed for content access, not for modifying items. However, Chart modification is a parallel system: applying Compass Roses and Lodestones to assembled Nautical Charts makes the content more rewarding (more enemy quantity, higher item rarity, special event probability increases).
  • Design Note: Treasure Map Fragments deliver on the pirate theme directly — finding a piece of a map is the most iconic pirate activity in all of fiction. The Fragment system also provides the endgame's geographic metaphor: each Fragment is a piece of a world worth exploring. Assembling and completing Charts is the endgame loop, and the Fragment is the key.
  • Flavor: A section of yellowed vellum, hand-drawn with coastlines and landmarks. This means something. You just don't know what yet.

Captain's Seal

  • Function: Rerolls the value ranges of all properties on a Mythic (unique) item that have numerical ranges. Does not change fixed properties; only affects value-ranged ones. Creates a duplicate copy of the item with new-rolled values (original and copy both exist).
  • Equivalent: Mirror of Kalandra (PoE) — but applied to Mythic items rather than player-crafted items; the duplication function makes it both a reroll tool and the rarest commodity in the game
  • Drop Frequency: Extreme rarity; typically 1-3 confirmed per Voyage economy on high-population servers. May go entire Voyages without a confirmed drop.
  • Trade Value: The ultimate aspirational drop. Cannot be meaningfully quoted in Doubloons — trades are measured in Lodestones. A Captain's Seal trades for hundreds to thousands of Lodestones.
  • Crafting Use: Applied to a Mythic item to reroll its ranged values to new random numbers within the stated ranges, while also creating a perfect duplicate of the original. The player retains the original AND receives the copy. The copy can then be traded, mirrored-serviced (other players pay in Lodestones to receive their own copy of the item), or compared.
  • Design Note: The Captain's Seal is the economy's singular aspirational item. Every player knows what it is; almost none will ever hold one. Its function — duplicating Mythic items — creates the mirror-service economy that forms PoE's deepest high-end economic layer. A player who finds and uses a Captain's Seal can potentially fund their entire Voyage's endgame progression through mirror fees alone.
  • Flavor: The seal of a captain long dead — pressed into candle wax, impressively intact. With this, a man could prove he was who he said he was. With this, a copy is as real as the original.

Tier 4: Specialized Crafting Materials

Whetstone

  • Function: Increases a weapon's quality by 5% per use (maximum 20% quality). Weapon quality improves the base physical damage of the weapon.
  • Equivalent: Blacksmith's Whetstone (PoE)
  • Trade Value: Very low; bulk item
  • Design Note: Every weapon should reach 20% quality before significant crafting investment. Whetstones are gathered in volume from vendors, vendor recipes, and bulk drops.

Sailcloth

  • Function: Increases a Ship Equipment item's quality by 5% per use (maximum 20%). Ship equipment quality improves the specific performance stat of the item (cannon quality → damage; sail quality → speed; hull quality → DR).
  • Equivalent: Armourer's Scrap adapted for ship equipment
  • Trade Value: Very low; abundant at sea-oriented ports
  • Design Note: Sailcloth exists as a thematic replacement for Armourer's Scrap in the ship equipment context. On-foot armor uses Leather Polish (Armourer's Scrap equivalent). Ship items use Sailcloth.

Leather Polish

  • Function: Increases an armor item's quality by 5% per use (maximum 20%). Armor quality improves DR on the item.
  • Trade Value: Very low; abundant at port markets

Scrimshaw Token

  • Function: Modifies the probability weights of modifier pools when applied before a Doubloon or Compass Rose roll. Different Scrimshaw Tokens emphasize different modifier categories.
  • Types: "Blade Scrimshaw" (boosts Cutting/Impaling modifier weights), "Powder Scrimshaw" (boosts Piercing/reload modifier weights), "Tide Scrimshaw" (boosts supernatural/water modifier weights), "Black Scrimshaw" (removes all defensive modifier families from the pool — forces offensive-only rolls)
  • Equivalent: Fossil crafting (PoE)
  • Drop Frequency: Moderate in specific content zones; each type associated with specific enemies or regions
  • Crafting Use: Apply a Scrimshaw Token to an item, then apply a Doubloon or Compass Rose. The Token changes the eligible modifier pool for that single application, then is consumed. Stacking up to two Scrimshaw Tokens on an item before applying a currency is possible, creating narrowed probability spaces.
  • Design Note: Scrimshaw crafting is Salt & Steel's weighted-random crafting tier. It doesn't guarantee outcomes but significantly improves the probability of desired modifier families. Blade Scrimshaw makes a sword much more likely to roll offensive cutting/impaling bonuses; Black Scrimshaw ensures the item cannot roll defensive modifiers (all slots will have offensive ones, at the cost of having no HP or dodge). See the historical note: scrimshaw — carved whalebone — was how sailors personalized and decorated tools aboard ship. The modification of purpose through carving maps perfectly to the modification of probability through Scrimshaw Tokens.

Essence Bottle

  • Function: Guarantees one specific modifier on an item while applying a Doubloon-equivalent reroll to all other modifier slots. The Essence's modifier is placed in its appropriate slot (Engraving or Mark), and all remaining slots are randomized from the normal pool.
  • Equivalent: Essences (PoE)
  • Types: Correspond to specific modifiers:
    • "Essence of Typhoon" — guarantees T3-equivalent "+% Attack Speed" Engraving
    • "Essence of the Leviathan" — guarantees T3-equivalent "+Maximum HP" Mark
    • "Essence of Gunpowder" — guarantees T3-equivalent "+% Projectile Damage" Engraving
    • "Essence of Salt" — guarantees T3-equivalent "+% resistance to chosen type" Mark
    • "Essence of the Deep" — guarantees T3-equivalent "+% Supernatural Resistance" Mark
    • (Many more types, each corresponding to a specific modifier)
  • Shrieking/Deafening variants: Higher-tier Essence Bottles guarantee T2 or T1 equivalents of their modifier. "Shrieking Essence of the Leviathan" guarantees T2 Maximum HP; "Deafening Essence of the Leviathan" guarantees T1.
  • Drop Frequency: Moderate; specific types found in specific content zones
  • Crafting Use: When the player needs one specific modifier guaranteed and is willing to accept randomness on all other slots, an Essence Bottle is the correct tool. Most cost-effective when the guaranteed modifier is the hardest to land (high-tier attack speed or high-tier HP) and the player is comfortable gambling on the companion modifiers.

Blessed Powder

  • Function: Rerolls the values of implicit modifiers on an item within the implicit's range. Does not change which implicit the item has, only what value within its range.
  • Equivalent: Blessed Orb (PoE)
  • Trade Value: Very low; relevant only when implicit value matters
  • Crafting Use: Applied when an item's implicit modifier is underrolled and the implicit is important to the build. A Rapier with a rolled implicit of +8% Crit Chance (minimum of the 5-15% range) benefits from Blessed Powder to push toward 15%.

Salvage Material (Category)

  • Function: A class of materials looted from specific monster types or wrecked ships, used in Salvage Crafting to weight modifier pools toward that monster/region's thematic modifiers.
  • Types:
    • "Kraken Ink" — weights toward Corrosion and Supernatural modifiers
    • "Drowned Man's Bone" — weights toward undead-combat effectiveness modifiers
    • "Spanish Silver" — weights toward Treasure Find and social modifiers (looted from colonial encounters)
    • "Pirate Ironwork" — weights toward Attack Speed and physical damage modifiers (looted from pirate encounters)
    • "Storm Timber" — weights toward ship equipment modifiers and storm resistance
  • Design Note: Salvage Materials connect the world's content to the item system directly. Killing Kraken enemies drops Kraken Ink, which makes items more likely to have Corrosion-related modifiers — creating a natural reason to farm specific content for specific item outcomes. This is the thematic grounding of weighted-random crafting in the pirate world.

Currency Rarity Tiers and Relative Values

Tier Currency Approximate Value (mid-Voyage)
Common Steel Filing, Whetstone, Leather Polish, Sailcloth <0.1 Doubloon each
Uncommon Compass Rose, Hull Patch 0.1-0.25 Doubloon each
Standard Doubloon 1 Doubloon (by definition)
Mid-High Scrimshaw Tokens, Essence Bottles 3-20 Doubloons each
Scarce Salt Crystal 10-15 Doubloons
Rare Piece of Eight 25-40 Doubloons
Very Rare Black Spot 60-90 Doubloons
High-Value Lodestone 180-250 Doubloons
Extreme Treasure Map Fragment (rare regions) 30-150 Doubloons per fragment
Legendary Captain's Seal Hundreds to thousands of Lodestones

These values are approximations for a mature mid-Voyage economy. Values shift substantially at Voyage start (everything is scarcer, prices rise) and late Voyage (supply accumulated, prices settle lower).

Vendor Recipes That Generate Currency

Vendor recipes create economic floors by providing guaranteed currency conversion at fixed rates. Players can always convert unwanted items into currency via vendors, preventing items from becoming truly worthless.

Key Vendor Recipes:

Recipe Inputs Output Notes
5 identified Rare items (all armor slots represented) 3 Doubloons The "Prize Chest" recipe; incentivizes identifying and evaluating gear
3 Common weapons of identical base type 1 Compass Rose Encourages managing Common item surplus
1 unidentified Rare item (never identified) 2 Steel Filings Risk-reward: maybe it was good; now it's scrap
20 Steel Filings 1 Compass Rose Bulk conversion
6 Compass Roses 1 Doubloon Bulk conversion
Any weapon with 20% quality + any armor with 20% quality + any accessory with 20% quality 1 Whetstone of each type Maintenance recipe
3 Hull Patches + 1 Compass Rose 1 Piece of Eight (rare; low % chance) Lucky Ship's Barter recipe

Cargo Hold Organization (Practical)

Managing a large currency collection without organization is chaos. Salt & Steel ships with a base Cargo Hold that provides limited organizational space. Premium Cargo Hold Tabs (cosmetic monetization feature) provide specialized organization grids that make large currency collections manageable.

Base Cargo Hold: Functions but limited. Standard grid; no automatic sorting by currency type.

Premium Currency Hold Tab: Purchased once, permanent on Account Record across Voyages. Provides:

  • Dedicated grids for each currency type
  • Running total display per currency
  • Quick-access from crafting interfaces
  • Visual progress toward significant quantities (e.g., "86/100 Compass Roses to convert")

Design Note on Cargo Hold Tabs: The Cargo Hold Tab is the most contested edge of the Ethical Free-to-Play commitment. We draw the line here clearly: the Tab is a convenience that makes managing what the player already has more efficient. It does not increase what the player can carry for content purposes, does not unlock any crafting functionality, and does not affect character power. A player who never purchases the Currency Hold Tab can play every piece of content, complete every quest, and build any item the game allows. The Tab saves time, not power.

Anti-Inflation Design

The currency system is designed to resist the inflation that plagues gold-based ARPG economies.

Structural Defenses:

  1. Use-value floor: Currencies cannot become worthless while their crafting use exists. Doubloons cannot inflate to irrelevance while Rare items need rerolling.

  2. Crafting as the primary sink: Currency leaves the system when players apply it to items. High-end crafting consumes enormous quantities of currency — a player who Doubloon-rolls a Legendary item 200 times to hit the desired combination has removed 200 Doubloons from the economy.

  3. Voyage-fresh economies: Each Voyage resets the economy from zero. There is no accumulation of currency from previous Voyages — Standard characters carry over to a Standard economy (which exists but is economically secondary), while Voyage-fresh economies restart clean. This eliminates the multi-year inflation spiral that affects PoE's Standard league.

  4. Drop rate calibration: GGG taught this lesson and we follow it: Voyage-specific content rewards and monster drop rates are calibrated carefully. A Voyage mechanic that drops too many Lodestones will devalue them. Playtest data from each Voyage informs the next Voyage's calibration.

  5. Geographic expansion as new demand: Each geographic expansion introduces new content that creates new demand for existing currencies (Doubloons for crafting new gear), new supply of region-specific materials (Salvage Materials from new enemies), and new modifier types (region-locked Engravings that require new Essence types). This fresh demand moderates inflation by creating new consumption without requiring a currency reset.

RMT and Economy Integrity

Real-money trading is the persistent threat to any functional ARPG economy. Salt & Steel's currency system is designed with RMT resistance as a secondary objective:

Currency-Based Trade Instead of Item-Based: RMT operations prefer high-value items because they're easier to transfer than large currency quantities. Salt & Steel's economy, where items are priced in Doubloons and Lodestones rather than real money, creates a currency-to-item-to-currency chain that's more diffuse than direct item RMT.

Voyage Reset as RMT Inhibitor: RMT accumulation in any given Voyage economy starts at zero with the Voyage. Purchased RMT currency provides advantage for one 16-week window, then evaporates at Voyage reset. The limited lifespan of any currency advantage reduces the ceiling value of RMT purchases.

Cargo Hold Anti-Stacking: A player cannot stockpile unlimited currency — the Cargo Hold has soft limits that require organization. This doesn't prevent RMT but limits the scale of stockpiling.

The Honest Acknowledgment: No currency system fully prevents RMT in a popular ARPG. The system described above reduces the advantage, reduces the incentive, and keeps legitimate players competitive — but Chris Wilson's 2026 reflection applies here too: the friction model has limits, and we should not overclaim our anti-RMT effectiveness.

Cross-References