Welcome Patrician! In this guide, you will find a detailed explanation of the Bonus to Bargaining stat in the Guild 3.


I plan on editing this guide and adding new ones as I discover useful information about other mechanics. If you are missing information or something is wrong in this guide, please let me know in the comments below.
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Please note:
The highlights provided in the below TLDR section are sufficient to explain this stat for gameplay purposes.

Each "point" in Bonus to Bargaining provides improvements to per unit buying prices (-0.25%) and selling prices (+0.50%) at the marketplace.

Items with a "Bonus to Bargaining" modifier have fairly high break-even point which can be hard to overcome in the early game.

However, this break-even point can easily be overcome once the player has enough capital and specific characters are engaging in frequent, high value transactions. After the break-even point, it is possible to generate substantially higher profits on each trade than otherwise possible (at least +14% for characters focused on Bonus to Bargaining).

In summary, Bonus to Bargaining can be a very lucrative stat to emphasize for specific characters: namely (i) dedicated dynasty traders, and (ii) transporters involved in high quantity, high value production chains.

That tooltip is nice but what exactly does "Bonus to Bargaining" do?

Like many niche mechanics in this game, I found the vague tool-tip description inadequate to determine if this stat was worth focusing on at all. I went to Google and searched for answers and, unfortunately, the wiki, guides, and forum discussions had yet to delve into the secrets of "Bonus to Bargaining" ("BB" for short). Thus, this guide outlines my thought process, research, and findings about BB as a mechanic.

Hypothesis

My initial hypothesis was that every point in BB was a direct % decrease in total purchase price of a transaction and a direct % increase in total selling price of a transaction. If correct, this would make BB a very valuable stat for transporters, or dedicated dynasty traders, in particular since they conduct many transactions at marketplaces.

To improve my transporters BB, I could provide them with "Free Citizen's Garb" clothing to get a +8 BB modifier for around $850. At that price, it seemed like it could be a reasonable investment - essentially reducing trade expenses and increasing trade income by 8% each.

The First Test

Testing with an early game barber / scholar at the time, I tested my hypothesis on a purchase that a barbershop transporter would frequently make: 20 Jasmine. I spent $850 to purchase one set of Free Citizens Garb, and then collected the baseline price first dreary Robust Clothing equipped - which was $340 for 20 Jasmine.

After swapping into the Free Citizens Garb, I was on the edge of my seat when I evaluated the "improved" price... and it was $340. An improvement of zilch... nada... nothing.

Devastated by seeing no improvement in price (and now $850 poorer), my initial hypothesis lay in tatters. However, I was more determined than ever to understand the inter-workings of BB.

These findings are very interesting. The effective benefit of BB is less than half of what I predicted and it won't always apply to all goods due to the calculation being conducted on a per-unit basis and price rounding. This limits its usefulness for trading high-quantity, low-value goods until a characters BB is very high to overcome rounding.

To clearly identify when the stat could be useful I created the following Break-Even Point ("BEP") calculation for items modifying BB.

• BEP for Selling: X / (Y * 0.50%)
  
• BEP for Buying: X / (Y * 0.25%)

X = Item Cost
Y = Item BB Modifier

Thus, for one Free Citizens Garb (which is the highest +BB/$100 item in the game) the BEP would be:

• BEP for Seling: $21,250 in goods; or | Calc: $850 / (+8 BB x 0.50%)
  
• BEP for Buying: $42,500 in goods | Calc: $850 / (+8 BB x 0.25%)

The BEP calculation more clearly identifies the circumstances where BB can be beneficial. Essentially, it would be useful for characters who engage in relatively frequent, high value trades. If the trades are of low value items, the character must have a very high BB to overcome rounding (as noted previously).

BB can be a very powerful stat, especially for dedicated dynasty traders, once the player has enough capital to make high value trades that easily exceed the ROI calculation for any given item buffing BB. With this in mind, it appears to be a good idea to fully focus at least one dynasty character towards this stat by buying all BB buffing items and focusing character levels towards related attributes. It could also be useful for transporters who are involved in high value production chains.

After concluding my research I am very frustrated that it took this much effort to understand the effects of a stat in a game all about character stats. I would recommend the devs consider adding in more detailed explanations about the effect / calculations that each stat has on key actions to make it more transparent to the player.

[Note: The above conclusions were updated January 2023 to reflect constructive critiques posed in the comments which provided examples for when BB can easily become a very powerful stat indeed. Earlier versions of this guide provided a very negative viewpoint towards this stat which, looking back, was incorrect.]