Reputation in an MMO is a means of measuring how much a given faction likes you. In PotBS there are many different factions with which you can gain or lose reputation and each one has different effect. To simplify this I have placed reputation into four different "categories" which are Navies, Trade Unions, Trade Companies, and Religious/Other.
Navies
Each of the four nations has a Navy. These ships are fairly easy to identify on the open sea as French Navy, British Navy, Spanish Navy, or Brethren. The Navies are the military backbone of a nation and the ships most likely to attack you if your reputation is very bad with that nation. In order to not be openly attacked on the open sea by a nation's Navy, you must keep your repuation above -2500 with the appropriate Navy group.
Trade Unions
Each of the four nations has a Trade Union. These are the French Trade Union, British Trade Union, Spainish Trade Union, and Smuggler's Union. Trade Unions are essentially groups of NPC Freetraders which constitue the majority of trade in the Carribean. Your repuation with a nation's Trade Union affects your ability to use that nation's Auction Houses. In order to have access to a nation's Auction Houses you must keep your repuation above -500 with the appropriate Trade Union. Also, for Freetraders, it has been stated that obtaining very high repuation with a nation's Trade Union may open up extra high level missions. I do not have all the info on these right now but will update this guide when I do.
Trade Companies
There are four Trade Companies in the game. These are the French Mississippi Company, British East Inida Company, Spanish House of Trade, and Dutch West India Company. Trade Companies control most of the shipping between the Carribean and Europe. Your repuation with a nation's Trade Company affects your ability to use their European Traders and in the case of the Dutch WIC your ability to use the Oranjistad auction house. You must maintain at least -500 repuation to use the Euro traders and the Oranjistad AH. Additionally, the better your repuation with a given Trade Company, the better rate of exchange you recieve with the associated European Traders. For each repuation level you gain above
Indifferent the rate of exchange lowers by 1/7, meaning it takes 1/7 less material input to recieve the same output.
Religious/Other
This category is reserved for all remaining factions such as the Inquisition, Knights of St George, British Royal Society, and others. I currently do not know the benifits and drawbacks to repuation with these factions but will update this guide when I do find out.
Although repuation is measured in numbers, there are also several distinct "levels" of repuation which can be achieved upon reaching certain numbers. Those levels are as follows:
Less than -2500: Loathed
-2500 to -500: Distrusted
-500 to +500: Indifferent
+500 to +2500: Trusted
+2500 to +4500: Esteemed
More than +4500: Celebrated
Now that you have all this information about what reputation is and what it effects, the next natural question is how do you gain and lose it? The most common way to gain/lose repuation is by attacking ships. Almost all ships in the game will have you gain or lose repuation with a given group, with the following exceptions:
*Killing NPC Privateers has no effect on repuation.
*Killing players has no effect on repuation.
*Killing any ship which would normally not grant you experience points will also not increase or decrease your reputation with anyone.
*Killing ships in most mission encounters has no effect on repuation
The following is a list of what can be done to gain repuation with any given faction. (note: This list is
not comprehensive and I will update it as I gain more information)
To gain repuation with the
Spanish Royal Navy:
Kill Los Ladrones Ships
Kill Sons of Cortez ships
Kill Corsairs of the Main ships
Kill Hijos Verdederos ships
Kill British Navy ships
Kill Brethren ships
Do any of the Pirate Hunting quests from Spanish Ports
To gain reputation with the
Spanish Trade Union:
Kill Hijos Verdederos ships
Kill Smugglers Union ships
Do any of the Junk Dealer quests in Spanish ports
To gain reputation with the
Spanish House of Trade:
Kill Hijos Verdederos ships
Kill French Mississippi Company ships
Kill Dutch West India Company ships
Kill British East India Company ships
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To gain repuation with the
French Royal Navy:
Kill Bloody Arms ships
Kill Swampcat ships
Kill British Navy ships
Kill Brethren ships
Do any of the Pirate Hunting quests from French ports
To gain reputation with the
French Trade Union:
Kill Smugglers Union ships
Do any of the Junk Dealer quests in French ports
To gain reputation with the
French Mississippi Company:
Kill British East India Company ships
Kill Dutch West India Company ships
Kill Spanish House of Trade ships
---
To gain repuation with the
British Royal Navy:
Kill Drakesmen ships
Kill Sons of Cortez ships
Kill Merrymen ships
Kill Lost Ironsides ships
Kill French Navy ships
Kill Brethren ships
Do any of the Pirate Hunting quests from British ports
To gain reputation with the
British Trade Union:
Kill Merrymen ships
Kill Lost Ironsides ships
Kill Smugglers Union ships
Do any of the Junk Dealer quests in British ports
To gain reputation with the
British East India Company:
Kill Merrymen ships
Kill Lost Ironsides ships
Kill French Mississippi Company ships
Kill Dutch West India Company ships
Kill Spanish House of Trade ships
---
To gain repuation with the
Brethren:
Kill Bloody Arms ships
Kill Sharktooth Raiders ships
Kill Merrymen ships
Kill Varygas ships
Kill British Navy ships
Kill French Navy ships
Kill Spanish Navy ships
Do any of the Pirate Hunting quests from French ports
To gain reputation with the
Smuggler's Union:
Kill Merrymen ships
Kill Varygas ships
Kill French Trade Union ships
Kill British Trade Union Ships
Kill Spanish Trade Union ships
Do any of the Fence quests in Pirate ports
To gain reputation with the
Dutch West India Company:
Kill British East India Company ships
Kill French Mississippi Company ships
Kill Spanish House of Trade ships
Remember: Killing ships in any of the above factions will cause your repuation with that faction to decrease. So, choose wisely what you want to sink.
If you see information here that is incorrect or missing (which I know a lot is) feel free to send me a PM with updated information.
A special thanks to
http://www.potbswiki.com and
http://www.merchantsoftheburningsea.com which have provided me with several key pieces of information for this guide.