# Influence Crew Market - Navigation

This is the first in a series stepping through the crew market for [Influence](https://www.influenceth.io/). For those not familiar, please reference the [Crew Member Jobs list on the official wiki here.](https://wiki.influenceth.io/en/gameplay/crew-members)

Check out other installments in this series [here.](https://hackmd.io/@Coldsnap)

Today I'll run through the first job department in the list - Navigation. Said to include bonuses for ship speed and fuel efficiency, Navigation roles are no doubt going to come into play as soon as the game commences. These crew are going to help ships get to your rocks more quickly, and be more efficient doing so. Further into the game, where all sorts of opportunities may arise, Navigation is likely going to be of great benefit for anyone looking to ship goods, themselves, or other players throughout the belt. A key department for sure.

Caveat: at time of writing, official confirmation of bonuses for job titles etc has not yet been released, so much of this is speculative. I'll look to re-do the analysis again once we have this.

### Numbers

Navigation is the smallest department in Influence, by a very large margin, which is an interesting stat for a such a useful-sounding role.

Current counts (as at time of writing):

| Category | Count |
| ----------- | ----------- |
| Navigation | 120
Management |182
Knowledge |195
Education |411
Engineering |414
Security |447
Medicine |466
Food Preparation |508
Technology |616
Arts & Entertainment |632
Food Production |729
Maintenance |833
Logistics |847

As such, the job roles within Navigation are represented in very small numbers, particularly at high tiers.

|Tier/Job |Count | Specialists|Citizens|
| ----------- | ----------- | -- | -- |
T1 Navigator |5 | 1 | 4
T2 Cartographer |16 |3 |13
T3 Observatory Tech |38 | 8|30
T4 Comms Officer |61 | 6|55

### T1 - Navigator

Navigation's T1 role is the Navigator, which is the second most-rare job title in Influence (tied with Curators). There are currently only five Navigators in the entire game across all classes. Rarity-wise, this is second only to Justices, of which there are just four.

Navigator is unique for being the only job title that is attached to a single class - in this case Pilot. There are no Miner, Merchant, Scientist, or Engineer Navigators. All other job titles in all departments, Navigation included, occur across at least two classes each.

In the case of Navigation, it would not surprise me if the expected bonuses to ship speed and fuel usage become some of the most sought-after. These types of bonuses have almost universal appeal, particularly to merchant and PvP focussed players.

For these reasons it is pretty clear why Navigators have rarely appeared on the secondary market. Indeed, only a single sale at 3 ETH, in the early days of crew secondary, and not a single listing since. Pilot / Navigators are an obvious synergy and an obvious hold, being a contender for single best crew card in the game right now. If you hold one, particularly the sole Specialist Navigator, count yourself very lucky indeed!

### T2 - Cartographer

In a department of this nature where there are very few T1s, I'm always attentive to the next tier down. A lack of higher tier characters automatically places a premium on the tiers underneath because these are the crew players will be seeking out, in future, if the bonuses for the department become in-demand.

So in a world where almost no players will ever encounter a mythical Navigator, its Tier 2, the Cartogapher, will no doubt have eyeballs on it.

Unfortunately, the Cartographer is still by no means in plentiful supply. There are only 16 Cartographers in total, which makes it rarer than most T1 jobs. All but four T1 job titles, one of which is the Navigator, are **easier** to come by than Cartographers. We've got some other classes represented this time within the Cartographer role - 7 Merchant and 3 Scientist Cartographers, but still just a mere 6 Pilot Cartographers (incl. zero Specialists).

There is a lone Marchant / Cartographer on secondary at the moment for 3 ETH. That's at the higher end of reasonable for Citizens right now but I suspect this is a good price for a long term hold (or maybe even not so long?). Travelling Merchants sounds like a very viable synergy to me. Why wouldn't you want to get to markets and primary manufacturers more quickly?

Again, these are going to be rare as anything come Conflict/PvP so Cartographers feel like a buy-on-sight job title, as per Navigators. If we assume that Navigation Pilots are going to be the best pure pilots in the game, there are only 11 of these across T1-T2. That's absolutely nothing for a game that wants to serve 50k+ players all requiring five crew each.

### T3 - Observatory Technician

The Navigation department T3 role, Observatory Technician, counts in at a more reasonable 38, spread across all classes aside from Miner. Miners obvs ain't got no time for staring at the stars!

I would say this is where we start to see some genuine bargains on secondary.

Pilot / Obs Techs are going for 1.5 ETH, and Engineers for 0.8. I'd say the Scientist / Observatory Technician for 0.44 ETH is a very decent price (as at right now for who knows how long?). It feels like that could be a cool combo if you're looking to double up on flight + science bonuses, which could be handy in some builds.

### T4 - Communications Officer

With 61 of these, these should be accessible to most people who want to hunt for them (0.2-0.4 ETH right now)... until the swarming masses arrive that is. To be clear this is one of the most expensive T4s ijn the game, in line with the scarcity of the department overall.

There are still no Miners in this job title, but there are no Scientists either, which is odd considering Scientists do appear at T2 and T3 Navigation. None of the 10 Pilot / Comms Officers have ever hit the secondary market. This is what diamond hands look like!

### Summary

I firmly believe that due to their scarcity, ANY Navigation crew, citizen or specialist, is going to end up being heavily in-demand if Influence takes off. They have a clear and obvious synergy that works both for shipping your goods across the belt or for PvP. T4 Comms Officers in particular are still reasonably cheap. I'd sweep these if I could justify the additional spend, but I'm in too deep on this game already ;)

My picks for best pilot job title combos across all departments:

- Pilot / Navigation (for route speed/efficiency)
- Pilot / Security (for damage and defense)
- Pilot / Management (for overall bonuses to crew)