Entourage

Your Status can be spent to attract Helpers and Specialists to your Entourage during the Preparation phase between Expeditions. Helpers increase the value of your Tokens whereas Specialists help you collect more tokens and provide perks for your party.

Helpers
There are five types of helpers by default. There is one type of helper unlockable through Research: the Barterer. The base cost listed below is the price required to buy the first helper. The price increases depending on the number of helpers you currently own. The price increase is 50% of the base cost for the second and third helpers. The fourth through the tenth helpers have a price increase of 40% of base cost. The eleventh through the fourteenth helpers after this point have a price increase of 30%. Additional helpers after this point have a price increase of 20%.

Note: Journalists ' and Traders ' prices increase at half the rate of the other Helpers.

Note: the starter islands all have a node where a helper can be recruited, which counts towards future helper costs. Viking Landing can recruit a Lobbyist, Saxon Kings can recruit a Merchant and Celtic Code can recruit a Journalist.

Any Helpers collected in expeditions, from Research Papers, Captain or Crew perks or Campfire Cards are free, but do increase the costs of any future Helper purchases. The exception to this rule is when you gain Helpers by any non-shop means while using Suh Min-Joeng as your Captain: the Helpers purchased in shops are a different type of Helper in this regard, and their costs are not increased in shops if collecting Helpers from other sources, effectively making Helpers cheaper for Min-Joeng to purchase in the long run as they will not scale up as far, though the degree to which this applies varies according to how many are purchased.

Stockholm's Stortorget (Stockholm)
Stockholm can be upgraded three times, with costs 50/80/100 (third time 250 in base game?). Each level will offer 1 of each type of the basic token Helpers: Students, Lobbyists, and Merchants. The 4 Barterers unlocked through Art of Bartering can also be purchased here. At level 1, 2 and 3, three random Specialists of Type A are offered, one for each attitude. At level 4, three Specialists of type B are offered, one for each big token type (Treasure Hunts, Secets and Discoveries).

Specialists - Type A
These specialists will provide a smaller bonus when the More to Explore DLC is installed.

The Campaign and Collect token Type A Specialists are guaranteed to spawn, while one of the Study Specialists will not appear in each play-through.

Specialists - Type B

All of these specialists increase the rewards from spending insight on particular resources. Note that this does not increase any bonuses gained from crew, captain or research abilities, only the base amounts from the insight shop in question (shown when mousing over the insight location).

All of these Specialists are guaranteed to spawn.

Madrid - Madrid's Palace
Madrid can be upgraded three times, with costs 50/80/100. Each level will offer 1 of each type of Helper: Students, Lobbyists, and Merchants, as well as Traders and Journalists. At level 1, 2 and 3, three random Specialists of Type A are offered, one for each attitude. At level 4, three Specialists of type B are offered, one for each big token type (Treasure Hunts, Secrets and Discoveries).

Specialists - Type A

All of these Specialists are guaranteed to spawn. Specialists - Type B

Each of these specialists offer one of the big token types when finished an encounter in a chosen attitude. The attitude is chosen when you purchase the Specialist. All of these Specialists are guaranteed to spawn.

Turkish Baths (Constantinople)
Turkish Baths can be upgraded three times, with cost 50/80/80. Each level will offer 1 of each type of Helper. At level 1, 2, and 4 three random Specialists of Type A are offered, one for each token type. At level 3, three random Specialists of Type B are offered, one for each token type. (NOT resource type!) Unlocking this store also opens the Equipment Store in Muscat.

Specialists - Type A
One of each token type Specialists will not spawn on each play-through.

Specialists - Type B
Only one of each resource type Specialist will spawn each game.

San Fran Saloon (San Francisco)
San Francisco is unlocked along with the Equipment Store in New Orleans. San Francisco can be upgraded two times, with costs 50/80 Status. Each level will offer 1 Journalist and 1 Trader for hire. At level 1 and 3, three random Specialists of type A are offered, one for each different token type. At level 2, the three Specialists of type B are offered. All nine specialists listed below are thus guaranteed to appear every game, although of course that does not necessarily apply to any combination of two.

Specialists - Type A
All of these Specialists are guaranteed to spawn.

Specialists - Type B
All of these Specialists are guaranteed to spawn.

Copacabana (Rio de Janeiro)
Copacabana can be upgraded three times, with cost 50/100/150. Each level will offer 1 of each type of Helper. At level 1, 3, and 4 three random Specialists of Type A are offered, one for each token type. At level 2, three random Specialists of Type B are offered, one for each resource type.

Specialists - Type A
These specialists will provide a smaller bonus when the More to Explore DLC is installed. When fully unlocked, 9 out of these 10 will be available, with only one out of the Collect set missing. This means the other six can be relied upon, although of course not necessarily in combination with a specialist from a different token set.

All of the Campaign and Study token Specialists are guaranteed to spawn, but one of the Collect token Specialists will not spawn.

Specialists - Type B
One of each of the resource type Specialists will spawn each play-through.

Special Entourage
A number of Specialists can be obtained during Expeditions, either by bringing crew members with certain properties.

Patch History
Patch 22:

- Added Vizier Ibrahim Izbat as an event in the Holy Land.

- Added Derya the Dervish to the Holy Land in an event.

Patch 19:

- Reduced values of gold/status/science for collect/campaign/study token boosters in Rio from +15/+15/+6 to +10/+10/+4

- Researchers increase to study tokens increased to 1-2 from 0-1, but the initial cost also increased to 100 status, rapidly making them very expensive in status.

- Cost of Skill-specific Specialists in Stockholm reduced from 250 to 200.

Patch 18:

- Removed Minet, Impressionist Painter (+2 Collect from spending Insight in Paris, 100 Status) and Miles Fellow, Auctioneer (+2 Campaign from spending Insight in London, 100 Status) from the type B list in Stockholm. - All Stockholm entourage now give +1 token at level 4 instead of +1/+2 on level 2/5. (only applies with More to Explore) - All Rio entourage now gives +2 tokens at level 6 instead of +1/+3 on level 3/6. (only applies with More to Explore) Patch 17:

- You can now unlock San Francisco, offering new entourage members.

Patch 15:

- Flavia awaits you as a new Entourage member in Rio!

- Rio now has 4 levels of Entourage.

- The off-resource Entourage members in Istanbul (Rami, Zafira, Amon etc.) now are selected by token type. (used to be selected by resource) - The off-resource Entourage members in Istanbul (Rami, Zafira, Amon etc.) are significantly weaker. Patch 13:

- Admiral Reis gives Military History instead of Formations

Patch 12:

- The entourage for attitude (Pinkerton, Vaduva, etc.) is now pooled with same attitude: you will always have something useful per attitude instead of per resource type.

Patch 11:

- Ramped up late game helper cost a bit.

Patch 9:

- The level 2 entourage of Constantinople is now level 3 and vice versa.

- Helpers get more expensive more quickly.

- Rio entourage is more expensive.

- Constantinople Entourage more expensive.