One star, 1.5 million extra Timber: read Lords Mobile Cargo Ship trades

One star on Lords Mobile's Cargo Ship does not necessarily mean a bad trade. An archived game screen offers 5,000,000 Timber for 3,499,000 Timber with a one-star rating. Read what you give, how much you receive and what you will need afterwards first. The rating icon does not answer that last question.

In the Deal or No Deal? discussion, a newcomer asked whether to take a special Captain's offer. Replies differed because players were assessing different account needs. Ask the same question before an ordinary resource exchange: an offer's value depends on the task you are trying to complete.

Multiply item size by quantity first

At the bottom left of the original Marks Angry Review screenshot, the offer shows 500K Timber ×10. That means ten items of 500,000 each, totalling 5,000,000. The Exchange button lists a price of 3,499,000 Timber. Comparing that price with a single 500K icon would be a mistake.

The difference in this offer is 5,000,000 − 3,499,000 = 1,501,000 Timber. This is arithmetic based on two visible amounts, rather than the result of a trade we performed. The image is archival, with no specified capture date or client version. It explains how to read an offer; it does not promise the same offer on your ship today.

Open the game trade screen at full size

Subtract matching resources; assess different resources first

For Timber exchanged for Timber, compare the total quantity with the price. If you already have enough to make the exchange, the positive difference is visible without assigning an exchange rate between resources. That still does not compare the trade with every other use of your stock.

For Stone exchanged for Timber, simple subtraction loses its meaning. A million of one resource does not equal a million of another merely because the numbers match. Write down the cost of your next needed building, research project or troop batch, then check what stock would remain after the exchange. The relevant shortage is the one relative to that goal.

Hypothetical example: you have 4 million Stone and your chosen upgrade needs 3 million. An offer asks for 2 million Stone in return for Timber. After exchanging, you would have 2 million Stone, leaving the planned upgrade one million short. If it needs to start now, extra Timber does not solve the problem. With 20 million Stone and a Timber shortage blocking the goal, the same trade deserves a different assessment.

Speed-ups have a cost too

If the offer provides speed-ups instead of resources, add their durations and check their type. Six ten-minute speed-ups provide one hour, rather than six. Then ask whether you have a compatible queue and enough resources to start it. An hour of speed-ups cannot itself solve a material shortage.

It is especially easy to overlook this after heavy troop losses, when you want to rebuild quickly and exchange resources for time. Separate your healing budget from your training budget first. The recovery after being zeroed guide explains that planning order. For the Cargo Ship, assess a deal after defining the batch you actually need.

Stars invite a closer look rather than instructing you to buy

The original screen includes offers with different star counts. One screenshot cannot establish the official rating formula or prove that two stars are always more useful than one. Do not turn a guide author's fair-exchange table into a game rule: it may simply reflect that author's circumstances.

Before confirming, describe the offer in words: I give this amount of this resource, receive this many items of this size, and retain this much for my goal. If you must open additional resource items just to fund the trade, include them in its cost. If the button instead shows a real-money price, evaluate it separately from an ordinary resource exchange.

Calculate the result before looking at the stars. This helps you notice a useful increase behind a modest rating and retain a needed resource when an attractive offer would delay your next goal.