How to Get Another Caravan in Hearth and Hamlet
Extra caravans in Hearth and Hamlet come from research after Market level three. You must hold the full send cost up front. Later ships unlock the same way.
Last verified: August 20, 2026 — Hearth and Hamlet full release on Steam (app 4315040, launched August 19, 2026). Demo numbers are not treated as live data.
After the Market is upgraded to level three, extra caravans (and later ships) come from research, once that building is at the right level. You must have the entire caravan cost on hand before you start one. If you spent the stockpile after sending, the van should still return with the trade result unless you hit a real bug.
The live-build rule
The Steam OP ran out of resources after dispatching one caravan from a level-three Market and asked how to get another. The useful reply:
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Gate | Additional caravans and later ships are gained via research after the building is upgraded to the appropriate level |
| Cash on hand | You need the entire caravan cost before you start one |
| While it is out | Even if you go broke afterwards, that caravan should come back after a time with the trade results |
| If it never returns | Then treat it as a bug and use the pinned Bug Reports thread |
Official screenshots already show a docked trade ship at the Harbor District and a Shipwright building. That matches “later ships” as a real full-release layer, not flavor text.
Full-release footage does show the send UI: destination, sell/buy goods, quality (standard → premium), and caravan size (small → large). One early expedition returned about 12,000 gold. Exact second-van gold cost is still not a published table. Demo trade rates are not listed here.
From Community Gameplay
- How to send: Market → expedition → pick a town → sell a resource they have Very High / High demand for → buy gold (or magic, later). (Campfire Kingdom, 1:56:25)
- First payout. One caravan came back with about 12,000 gold, which immediately changed how the runner treated trade vs the gold mine. (Campfire Kingdom, 2:01:30)
- Demand falls if you spam one town. Sending two vans to the same destination made the second trip worse. Spread destinations. (Kingdom Part 2, 37:08)
- Trips can overfill storage. The game warns that expeditions may exceed the cap temporarily. (Campfire Kingdom, 1:56:57)
- Ships are a later Market / Harbor research layer, not a second plot you hunt on the map.
Should you even send more?
An endgame player on medium said trade cost too many wages and it was better not to trade if you did not want to lose gold. That is one report. It means extra caravans are a decision, not an automatic upgrade. If food and soldiers are on fire, skip the second van. See Endgame Guide and Best Research Order.
Practical checklist
- Confirm Market level three.
- Open the research book and turn pages until the trade / caravan chapter. See Research Pages.
- Bank the full send cost before you click.
- Do not dump the rest of your gold into taxes experiments while the van is out. See Best Policies and Tax Rate.
Sources
- Official Steam store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4315040/
- Steam Community hub: https://steamcommunity.com/app/4315040/discussions/
- Caravan thread: https://steamcommunity.com/app/4315040/discussions/0/588435430711609291/
- Trade expedition footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQqbBSyw6-w
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