Occasionally when playing through a map of Pioneers of Pagonia you'll run into another faction. Given a unique name and controlling a section of the island that never changes size, other factions start off neutral - and are willing to trade valuable items to you. You need to be friends with the faction first, however, and earning their trust requires a bit of groundwork.

This guide will teach you how to befriend other factions, and then trade with them. You'll have to learn how to do this to complete the predefined maps, as every win condition involves befriending the other factions on each island.


Step 1: Find Other Factions

Before you can befriend a faction you need to find the faction. If 'Befriend all Factions' is at the top of the Objectives list, then you know there's someone else on the island - you just don't know where they are when you land.

The easiest way to find other factions is to put Explorers on the case. Build an Explorer's Hut and three Explorers will automatically begin to search the island for... basically anything. This includes the borders of other factions, and as soon as any of your units (Explorers included) catch sight of the borderline, you'll receive notice of the faction's presence.


Step 2: Find the Faction's Trading Center

Each faction has a special building known as a Trading Center, typically flanked by two Trading Posts. In order to make formal contact with that faction you need to find the Trading Center. Most units won't leave your territory, and Explorers have a great deal of range, so it usually falls on them to find it. Set the Explorer's Focus Point (changeable via the Explorer's Hut) to somewhere deep in the faction's territory. Eventually your Explorer will find it.

Once you've found the faction's Trading Center you'll establish formal relations. This reveals a list of Objectives that the faction wants completed, available under the Objectives menu on the right side of the screen. That brings us to our next step...


Step 3: Befriending the Faction

At this point your Friendship level with the faction you've just met will be 0%, as displayed by the faction's symbol on the Objectives menu. In order to befriend the faction you need to raise that number to 100%. You do this by completing the Objectives listed beneath the faction's symbol on the Objectives menu.

Each Objective is worth a different amount of Friendship points, and there are always enough Objectives to get your Friendship up to 100%. The Objectives may include the following:
  • Trade one or more items to the faction (see below to discover how trading works)
  • Deliver Artifacts, hidden throughout the map, to the faction
  • Deliver one or more items to a Mysterious Location
  • Complete construction of a landmark, hidden somewhere on the map
  • Raise your settlement's population to a specific amount
  • Raise your settlement's number of a specific unit type to a specific amount
  • Explore a specific amount of the map
  • Expand your settlement's borders to a specific size
The requirements vary from faction to faction, and in some cases you can pick and choose which Objectives you want to complete. Ultimately, though, the goal is to reach 100% Friendship, and once you do you'll be friend the faction.

Once you've befriended a faction you can trade a wider range of items with them at a Trading Post. (See below.) The faction may also offer you gifts, and you'll share their world view, including areas they've cleared of fog of war. It's very much to your advantage to befriend other factions.


Step 4: Trading with the Faction

Whether you've befriend a faction yet or not, you can trade with them - though your options are limited at first. The process is nevertheless the same, whether you're friends with the faction or not:
  • You need a Trading Post. They're found in the Storage & Trade menu, on the right side of the construction menu, at the bottom of the screen.
  • You need to train Trade Carriers. This can be done at Guild Halls, which are found in the Equipment & Training menu. You'll need to make a Backpack at a a Tailor's Shop (Processing menu) before a Carrier can be trained into a Trade Carrier.
  • You need items to trade. You'll see what when you click on the Trading Post.
Check the Trading Post. This will open a menu on the right side of the screen, displaying the trades on offer from each faction you've met. If you haven't befriended the faction you'll only be allowed to trigger a few of the trades. The item on the left is what the faction is offering, and the item on the right is what they expect in exchange.

Click the 'Start' button on the left side of the window to begin the trade. This will move the trade up to the Active Trades subsection. Here you can determine how many times you want to trigger this specific trade - including whether or not you want it to go on forever. Once you do this your Trade Carriers will begin ferrying items back and forth between the two settlements. Click the red X on the right side of the trade to deactivate it again. You can activate and deactivate trades as often as you like.

And that's that! You may need to use trading to befriend a faction in the first place, so don't forget to set up a Trading Post early. The items you can pick up may prove quite useful in your bid to control your current island. Good luck!