“Buy where it is made. Sell where it is wanted. Live through the part in between.”
— Fleet Admiral Selene Voss
The Trader's Licence
Trading earns trade reputation, and reputation raises your rank on the Trader's Licence, from Hauler to Merchant Prince. Open it with LICENCE at the foot of the market.
| Rank | Reputation | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Hauler | 0 | Trade at any hub. 10 orders, hangars of 50,000 |
| 2. Carrier | 2,000 | Hangars of 75,000. The Wayfarer Tender freighter |
| 3. Merchant | 10,000 | Sales tax 3.5%. Price alerts (5) |
| 4. Broker | 40,000 | 12 orders, hangars of 100,000. The Bulk Hauler freighter |
| 5. Factor | 100,000 | 6 contracts posted at once, hangars of 150,000 |
| 6. Magnate | 200,000 | 24 orders, 10 price alerts. The Leviathan Freighter |
| 7. Tycoon | 380,000 | Sales tax 2.5%, 10 contracts posted at once |
| 8. Merchant Prince | 660,000 | Hangars of 250,000. Your alliance may make its hangar a trade depot |
Reputation comes from profit: one point for every 10 Credits a sale makes, after tax and less what the goods cost. A run pays more the farther it goes, +20% for every jump between where the cargo was loaded and where it is sold, up to three times. It pays more the riskier the road, +10% for every border or frontier sector on the way, up to one and a half times.
| What you do | Reputation |
|---|---|
| Sell goods for more than they cost | Profit ÷ 10, times the distance and the risk |
| Sell ore you mined | A quarter of that: ore cost you nothing |
| Another commander takes your sell order | A little: 15% of what it fetched, ÷ 10 |
| Deliver a courier contract, or be paid for an escort | Its reward counts as your profit |
| Buy, or sell at a loss | None |
You can earn at most 2,000 reputation a day (UTC), so Merchant Prince takes the better part of a year. Trades between commanders who play from the same address earn none. A new rank is announced on your screen, and Voss tells you herself.
The licence also keeps your career: profit, trades, cargo hauled, cargo lost, your longest run and your best route. Rankings has a TRADERS board: see Rankings.
Trade runs
A trade run is the whole loop: buy goods where they are made, carry them, and sell them where they are wanted.
- Dock a fleet at a hub. SEND TO HUB AND DOCK on the galaxy map does it from anywhere.
- Buy goods that hub makes. They go into your hangar there.
- On the market's CARGO side, LOAD them into the docked fleet, and insure them if you like.
- Send the fleet to a hub that wants them, and dock.
- Sell them from the fleet's hold.
The galaxy map's TRADE RUN tab does the planning. With a fleet docked, pick a good and a hub on the map, and it shows what the good costs here, what it sells for there, the jumps, the risk on the route, the tax and your profit. BUY, LOAD AND LAUNCH buys the goods, loads your fleet and sends it off in one press. BEST RUNS FROM HERE lists the most profitable runs from where your fleet is docked, at today's prices.
Risk on the road
Core space and Free Port are policed. Border and frontier space is dangerous for cargo. The RISK bar of a run shows what happened to cargo on that route in the last day: LOW, MEDIUM or HIGH, and how many attacks there were.
When a loaded fleet is chased, a warning counts down across the top of the screen, INTERCEPT IN the seconds left, YOUR CARGO IS AT RISK, with three choices:
| Choice | What it does |
|---|---|
| BURN FOR THE GATE | +50% speed for 30 seconds, and a jump at once if the fleet is at its gate. Only while it is on its way to a gate. It costs nothing and is ready again 15 minutes later |
| TURN AND FIGHT | Fight it out. A fleet escorting it joins in |
| DUMP 25% AND RUN | A quarter of every good aboard is dropped as salvage, and the fleet burns |
Escorts. Select a fleet, press ESCORT on the command bar and click another fleet of yours. The escort follows it, jumps the gates with it, and joins any fight it is in while it is within 3,000 units. A fleet can have one escort.
Lost cargo. A commander who beats a loaded fleet takes its cargo into their own hold, as much as fits, and the rest spills. When the Tide wins, half is destroyed and the rest spills. Spilled cargo drifts as salvage for 10 minutes inside an amber ring: right-click inside the ring with a fleet and it scoops what it can, the most valuable first. Anyone may scoop it. The CARGO LOST card tells you what was taken, what insurance paid and what is left out there.
Insurance
Insure a cargo when you load it, with LOAD AND INSURE. The cover you pick decides where it pays:
| Cover | Premium | Pays for a loss in |
|---|---|---|
| CORE | 1% of the cargo's value | Core space and Free Port |
| BORDER | 3% | Core and border space |
| FRONTIER | 8% | Anywhere |
Insured cargo that is lost pays 60% of its value. Cargo you dump is never paid, and neither is cargo taken by a commander of your own alliance or one who plays from your address.
Hauling contracts
The market's CONTRACTS tab is a job board: commanders hire other commanders to carry their goods or guard their fleets, and the Exchange holds every Credit and every crate in between.
| Contract | What it is |
|---|---|
| COURIER | Goods from the owner's hangar at this hub, carried to another hub. A reward of 1% to 25% of their value, a collateral of 70% to 130% of it, and 6, 24 or 72 hours to deliver, counted from when it is taken |
| ESCORT | A loaded fleet docked here wants a guard to the hub it is going to. A reward of 1% to 10% of its cargo's value, and 6 hours |
| HUB JOB | A courier job the hub posts itself: its own goods, worth about 120,000 Credits, to the hub that wants them, in 24 hours. The collateral is only a tenth of the value |
Taking one. Any commander from level 5 can take a contract, with a fleet docked at the hub it starts from. A courier's hauler puts up the collateral, and the goods go aboard as contract cargo: they cannot be sold, unloaded or insured on the way. A courier can be taken in parts of 100 units or more, as long as 100 or more are left. You can have 3 contracts taken at once, and a route through a lane above your level is refused. Your fleet wears a gold label, and a tracker shows the job.
| How a courier ends | What happens |
|---|---|
| Delivered in time | The goods go into the owner's hangar there. The hauler gets the reward, the collateral back, and trade reputation |
| Cargo lost on the way | The owner is paid that share of the collateral |
| Late | The owner gets the collateral and the reward back. The goods stay with the hauler, who has paid for them. A late hub job's goods go back to the hub |
An escort flies to the convoy and takes the ESCORT order on it. It is paid when the convoy docks at its hub with the escort beside it, and also when the time runs out with the escort still beside it. It is not paid if the convoy loses cargo or the escort drops away.
Posting one needs the same as an order: level 15 and an account 7 days old. It costs a 1% listing fee on the reward, never refunded. You can have 3 contracts posted at once, 6 from Trader's Licence rank 5 and 10 from rank 7. A courier nobody takes comes back after 7 days, an escort after 6 hours. You cannot take your own, or one posted by a commander who plays from your address.
Voss closes every contract with a card: DELIVERED, LATE or the cargo lost, with what was paid.
Freighters
Three cargo ships in a class of their own, under the Shipyard's FREIGHTER tab for every faction. They need no research: your Trader's Licence rank opens them, with your commander level.
| Freighter | Hold | Licence rank | Commander level | Command points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wayfarer Tender | 4,000 | 2 (Carrier) | 15 | 38 |
| Bulk Hauler | 12,000 | 4 (Broker) | 25 | 62 |
| Leviathan Freighter | 30,000 | 6 (Magnate) | 35 | 90 |
They have big holds, light guns and thin shields. A fleet with a freighter in it does not mine and does not raid bases: its hold is for trade goods, contracts and runs. Until your rank opens one, its tile reads LICENCE RANK NEEDED.
Starting values. The ranks, the reputation, the premiums, the contract bands and the freighters may all change as trading is played.