The Unterzee of Sunless Sea offers numerous safe, and a few hazardous, harbors. Each locations feels like it's own tiny world, tinged with the theme of the dark zee. The ports have their unique events. Events fit into three categories. Some require a skill check. The player has five skills; Veils, Mirrors, Iron, Pages, and Hearts. A successful check rewards the player with information, a strange item, or establishing a civilization of giant, intelligent rats against the sentient, invading guinea pigs. Other events involve trading. The most common currencies on the zee (aside from the many purchasable goods) include echos (the closest thing to cash), Moves in the Great Game, favors, zee stories, Tales of Terror, secrets, Extraordinary Implications, and vital intelligence, along with political favors. The third type of event forces the captain to risk life and limb, increasing Terror to unlock mysteries. Curious I sought too deep into the forbidden realm. I brought ruin! Hunter Keep and Quaker's Haven on Mutton Island were two ports I ruined with my insatiable inquisitiveness.
Visiting ports is essential, because the Admiralty in London pays well for each visit. They reward the captain with echos, fuel, and favors which are exchanged for more fuel and ship repairs. The rewards are a key strategy to build a cash reserve. A significant difficult of Sunless Sea is the arduous struggle to make money without money. My second captain, learning of his friend's loss, accepted the Bruiser's compact. The thug, through his boss, the Cheery Man, pays well, and proves new captains with a generous amount of supplies and fuel. Squeamish captains, unwilling to enter into the pay of another, should sell their Advice for Captains for 50 echos after reading it.
Even with cash it
is difficult to make more. The limiting factor is the hold. The
starting ship contains forty cargo slots, and the captain fills
thirty of these with fuel and supplies long voyages. A merchant
captain should trade goods, like Stygian ivory, mushroom wine, or
caskets of sapphires, but they don't earn much, after factoring in
costs for fuel and supplies. Prices are static, so its easy to work
out a trade route or two. Combining a trade route with a job from
the Bruiser, while visiting the ports, and picking up a half dozen of
clay men to sell in London earns a tidy sum, but a new ship demands a
dozen similar expeditions. The first cargo upgrade requires
purchasing a new ship worth seven thousand echos. In nearly fifteen
hours I never held in my hand more than five thousand. One lucrative
job (which I discovered late in my playthrough), was at the Salt
Lions. If they are near London, and the player has two hundred
echos, the quest pays well, though it is repetitively tiresome.
The journal forgets details, and isn't calibrated to record every drop of data. The player needs to make their own list of every port. For each, record what can be sold and bought, and at what price. Since each island has events which require specific items, write them down. Officers of the ship share their desires; write down what they need. A paper journal is the only way to remember the what objects the player needs, and where they can be found. I also wish the player could mark the map with helpful information, like the location of storms (some of which seem permanent), thoughts, or plans. The latter would have helped on the complex Officer quests, or planning an extensive trading route.
Like the harbors,
the storylines of each Officer are ingeniously crafted.
Unfortunately, my desire to see their ending led to my second death.
That's unfair. The Tireless Mechanic wasn't my downfall, it was my
desire to root out the core of every mystery. For my hubris, the
gods infected me with madness. Fearful, my crew pitched me overboard
into the deep. After ten hours I had only a nearly finished map to
show for it. If there was a quick way to earn cash I would have
returned to zee. Even as I write this sentence I feel a pull to see
again the white waves crashing against the shore in pale lights of an
eternal darkness. 
After playing a few hours, one reflects on a singular strength and weakness of the Sunless Sea; the lack of an objective. The captain chooses a goal when they set sail for the first time, but the conditions for success are so beyond the understanding of a new player that they might as well be nonexistent. Bemused, I substituted personal goals. Explore uncharted areas. Earn echos. Unlock secrets. Improve the ship. The zee is packed with mysteries to uncover; the Gods of the Zee, what lives Above Ground, the politics of the zee, the mind of the Cheery Man, the lives of the Officers, and the story of each island. I feel like I only skimmed the surface. And it was done while living anxiously, searching for mysteries, but dreading them. They were too dark to resolve but too powerful to leave unexamined.
Whether I return to the shores or not, I certainly plan to take to the air in their sequel, Sunless Skies.
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