Trading

Goods

There are ten goods: food, water, textiles, machinery, metals, minerals, medicine, electronics, fuel cells and luxury goods. A station’s economy decides what it makes cheaply and what it pays well for. Buy where a good is cheap, carry it in your hold (K shows what’s in it), and sell where it’s dear.

One market for everyone

Each station has a single market shared by every pilot. Every tonne bought there makes the next tonne dearer and the stock thinner; every tonne sold brings the price down. The effect wears off over hours (it halves every eight). So a busy route gets less profitable, and buying a good and selling it straight back always loses you money.

Shortages and gluts

Now and then a station runs short of a good, or has far too much, for two or three days. A shortage pays well for deliveries, and each delivery eases it; a glut sells cheap, and each purchase eases that. They’re the same for every pilot.

The trade board

The Market tab’s trade board lists the shortages and gluts at stations within reach. The galaxy map’s panel shows them too, with the prices you last saw at each station you’ve visited.

Trader rank

Your trader rank comes from your lifetime trading profit, and decides how far the board’s news reaches, which goods you’re allowed to buy, and how big your delivery contracts are:

Rank	Lifetime profit	News reaches	Contracts up to	Unlocks
Peddler	0	40 ly	20 t
Trader	50,000 cr	60 ly	40 t	Medicine
Merchant	250,000 cr	90 ly	80 t	Electronics
Broker	1,000,000 cr	120 ly	150 t	Luxury goods
Magnate	5,000,000 cr	150 ly	300 t

You can always sell a good you already have, whatever your rank.