What's with the GreedFall Coin Guard Merchandise quest? There are typically a few ways to approach a quest in the fantasy RPG depending on both your play style and the 'talents' in which you've invested. Unlike skills and attributes—which both relate to your character's effectiveness in combat—talents are points that you invest in non-combat skills like charisma, lockpicking, and intuition.
Some will give you extra dialogue options while others will give you additional ways to traverse the environment like climbing tall cliff faces. GreedFall's early quest, Coin Guard Merchandise, is an introduction to these systems and how they play off each other. So how do you actually complete it? We've got the details for you below.
Negotiate with the vendor
When you first leave your family's manor, your master-of-arms, Kurt, approaches you before leaving the continent and sailing to Teer Fradee. His superiors in the Coin Guard have asked him to ensure that some merchandise makes the crossing with your party. The first thing to do is head for the vendor currently holding the crates of merchandise and negotiate their return. Based on where you've placed your first talent point during character creation, you will have a few options:
Charisma: Whip out your title and threaten to have the vendor arrested as an accomplice for extortion. The base success rate for this check is 50%. But if you've invested a point in Charisma already, you'll have a 75% chance. You'll receive +1 Coin Guard reputation by taking this route.
Intuition: With a point here, you'll can bribe the merchant and stage a robbery to get your goods back while he agrees to look the other way. You'll get +1 Coin Guard reputation.
Threaten: If you don't have points in either of the above, you'll have to take the crates by force. Run around the back of the vendor's stall and beat him and his colleagues until they surrender. You'll lose -1 Congregation of Merchants reputation.
Now run back to the Coin Guard barracks to tell the quartermaster of your success. He won't care which method of persuasion you chose. He tells you that you need to ensure the cargo gets on the ship.
Doctor the ship log and clear the guards
When you run back to ship captain, Vasco, he'll be understandably miffed when you explain the situation. He does let slip that the only way for goods to make it onboard is by it being registered in the ship's log and stored in the appropriate warehouse. Here are the ways you can break in:
Sneak: Be careful when entering the Naut faction's designated space on the docks: Only members of their faction are allowed inside and you'll be attacked on sight for trespassing. That said, it's not difficult to sneak to the back door of the Harbor Master's office and head upstairs to alter the shipping log book. If you do get caught and are forced to fight, you'll lose -1 Naut reputation.
Sleeping potion: You can also buy or create a sleeping potion that will knock out the Nauts while you sneak around their compound. If you've invested a talent point in Science, you can brew the potion yourself. If not, it costs 16 gold at the local merchant.
Disguise: By far the easiest method is to walk into the Nauts' warehouse area disguised as a sailor. Obtain a sailor's coat armor piece from a chest in the building marked 'storeroom' in the southwest corner of the docks. By equipping it to your torso armor slot, you can walk into any Naut area without trouble. Only De Sardet needs to be wearing a disguise. Kurt is just fine dressed in his own armor.
Next, head further east to the warehouse where the goods need to be delivered. If you're in disguise, you can speak to the guards at the door and convince them that you are relieving them of their shift. Without a disguise, you'll need to fight them.
Sail to New Serene and mark the crates
After having the goods delivered to the warehouse in Serene, wrap up your business on the continent and sail to the new world. When you arrive, talk with the local Coin Guard representative in New Serene. He will inform you that the goods are now stashed in another Naut warehouse, and that they need a special marking so the Coin Guard will know which ones to pick up.
Hopefully you haven't binned that sailor's uniform for this bit. Head to New Serene's docks and hop over the fence (you'll know spots that can be vaulted by their white markings) into the Naut's warehouse district. Search both buildings marked on your map. Interactable objects are indicated by their red glow. After marking the merch, head back to the Coin Guard barracks in New Serene to turn in and complete the quest.
Coin Guard Merchandise isn't terribly tricky, but you may not immediately realize that you're required to sail to the new world in order to complete it. Understanding the fundamentals of how GreedFall approaches quests with various solutions is key, and this mission sets you up nicely for the rest of the game.