Pirates of the Burning Sea has one of the most complex in-game economies where players are heavily involved in the development of how it turns out. The challenge to conquer and dominate the market is as competitive as the struggle for power in the open sea. One of the ways is crafting. The Pirates of the Burning Sea guide explains PotBS manufacturing in details. PotBS crafting or manufacturing is unique and innovative. Unlike other MMORPGs where you hit a crafting button and wait for the items to be produced only when you are online, the PotBS crafting system works more like a real production factory with you as the owner of the factory.

Before any production can start, the player has to obtain deeds for factory buildings. The building then starts to accumulate some capacity to produce goods or gather resources called "stored labor". The system works in real time which means the stored labor accumulates up to 72 hours even when you are offline. Producing goods cost stored labor and some gold doubloons so you are limited to producing a specific amount of goods for a given time of stored labor. The limit also depends on your production slot which has a maximum of 10 slots. With the possibilities of holding the maximum of 720 stored labor hours, the opportunities to make gold doubloons are limitless.

The system presents a profitable opportunity even if you are a pirate and spending most of the time in open sea combats. The very least you can do is to fill all the 10 slots with gathering resource facilities and let the stored labor build up to 720 units. At the end of 3 days, you can log in and spend all the stored labor for resources such as wood logs, ores and other raw materials then put them into the Auction House for some quick PotBS doubloons.

Players with a bigger interest in the economy aspect of the game can take further steps. Crafting or manufacturing goods is more sophisticated than gathering resources. Crafting goods require a recipe which details what resources and how much gold doubloons are needed. When all the requirements have been met, the goods are instantly produced at the expense of stored labor units. Some of the products are wine, ingots, cannons and ship parts. They are usually more profitable than raw materials. However, the choice of your production facility has to be done with consideration before you spend your time and PotBS doubloons.

The most profitable craftable items are player-built ships and their parts. They are available as recipes although it is impossible for a single player to build every part of the ship due to the capacity limitation. With the limit of 10 production slots, players will have to find several parts with the help of others. Large societies can usually provide the resources for building ships but they are only accessible to some players. Others without the backup of societies will have to get all the parts from the Auction House. Therefore, having the parts that others need is a good source of revenue.

Players trade in the Auction House. The Auction House is a vital part in the PotBS economy and can be found in many ports. They exist as small local markets in every port and large regional markets in the nation's unconquerable ports. Players trade with each others through a bidding process known as blind auction system. The system shows only relevant information and hides the buyout price. The locations of the items, the available quantities are displayed as well as some price history from the last purchase, the past 10 purchases and the past month. This results in more resistant to players undercut and monopolize prices. Players can only see the available items in that port except the trader class which has a significant advantage over others in the Auction House. With the right skills, they have the access to seeing prices from every auction houses in the world regardless of the port's nation and have the most potential to dominate the game's economy.