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Watch trailer on Steam ↗Mercator
rudderbucky · Published by rudderbucky
2 user reviews — 100% positive (2 reviews) · 9 achievements
Last updated 30 Sept 2026
Items are more than their sell value in this shopkeeping game. Run shops, hire workers, haggle for profit, and dominate ancient global trade from Muziris to Rome.
£4.99
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Price history
Indie, RPG, Strategy · 2025 · More under £5 games
Manage your shops wisely in Mercator, an indie RPG where you run ancient global trade networks. Hire skilled workers and haggle for profit across the Roman Empire and beyond.
About this game
Mercator (pronounced like the map projection) is an item shop game inspired primarily by Swords and Potions and Recettear. You will trade with customers and set up shops across the world with ships, caravans and more!
Shopkeeping
You start off with a tiny shack in Muziris, an ancient Indian trading port. Your objective as a fledgling merchant is to maximize profits by making good deals with the customers that roam into your shop. In time, you will expand your emporium by buying properties and joining forces with other merchants.
No item shop game is complete without haggling! In Mercator you can ask for better deals at any time in a negotiation, and even remove/add items in a back-and-forth, iterative process.
In Mercator customers may have wildly different valuations of the same item. No "value" for a given item is provided to you either, so it's truly up to you to decide how much an item is worth.
As a merchant, you will have access to workers who can make artisan items from raw materials, as well as research new items, scrap items back into their raw materials, and even reverse-engineer items you come across!
Later on, you will gain access to ships and caravans to encounter new regions and engage in arbitrage.
Day-night cycle
The work of a merchant does not end when the shop closes. At night, you will still be able to purchase new properties and farmland, scavenge for resources, farm ancient cash crops like the legendary black pepper, traverse rivers and lakes with boats, and even fish in your spare time!
Roleplaying in a rich, real world
Mercator takes place in the third century AD - when Rome and Persia were enemies eternal, the Chera Empire of Southwest India still controlled the pepper industry, when the Aksumite Empire still reigned supreme over the coast of east Africa and Arabia, and when Christianity was only just beginning to take hold. As your emporium expands, it will be exposed to new peoples, ideologies and legacies.
Art
Mercator takes an unorthodox (and economical!) approach of using pixel art and simple color schemes to convey the ancient world in a way you have never seen before.
Combat
What's that? You just made that word up.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 or better
- Processor: Intel i5 5300U
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5500
Recommended
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
Supported Languages
Latest news
Patch NotesOfficial
Mercator 1.0.2
Salvete mercatores, Mercator 1.0.2 is released. See the changelog below: * Updated to Bevy 0.16. * Added bad luck mitigation to coconut spawns, there will now be at least 3 spawning in at any given day/night. * Forced a banana to spawn on the tree Veeran points out during the tutorial. Sorry that I missed the mark on when I planned to update. The next update should make it clearer whether you're getting a good or bad deal. I don't know when it will be, but maybe March. Again, please let me know if you're having issues playing the game by making a comment to this thread or joining the Discord. Thanks!Read full article on Community Announcements (gaming)AnnouncementsOfficial
Mercator 1.0.1
Salvete mercatores, Mercator 1.0.1 is released. See the changelog below:Adjusted the default music volume setting to be louder. If you cannot hear any music, please try adjusting the volume dials in the settings.Added demos for macOS and Linux.I apologize for the relative inactivity. Life has been very busy for me recently. No promises, but I plan on getting out a more major update in December to fix some pain points when starting the game (making it easier to tell if you have a good deal and adding bad luck mitigation to coconut/banana spawns) Also, please please let me know if you're having issues playing the game by making a comment to this thread or joining the Discord. Thanks!Read full article on Community Announcements (gaming)AnnouncementsOfficial
Mercator out now!
Salvete mercatores,Mercator is out now on Steam! Please let me know if you have any issues during gameplay by replying to this post or joining the Discord.Thank you!Read full article on Community Announcements (fent gaming)Patch NotesOfficial
Mercator 0.4.2
Salvete mercatores, Mercator 0.4.2 is released. See the changelog below: Added Simplified Chinese localization. Removed the negotiation rejection timer. Now your deals are only rejected when it's the customer's turn to adjust terms. Added an info blurb about how you cannot place a workstation in a shop with no valid placement tiles, and how you'd need a new shop or to replace the existing workstation. Adjusted the switch merchant button blurb to indicate you can press 'TAB' to switch merchants. Added indications that there are idle workers/customers in shops controlled by a given merchant right above the corresponding switch merchant button. Added customer/people portraits. Adjusted map sprite. Adjusted merchant animations. Added music to the intro. Note: Mercator will be presented during the June Steam Next Fest. Please let me know of any issues you encounter while playing the game!Read full article on Community Announcements (fent gaming)Patch NotesOfficial
Demo bugfixes
I've deployed a bugfix so you can see the display names of happenings. Please let me know if you encounter any issues playing the demo. Thanks!Read full article on Community Announcements (fent gaming)
