Steam Community :: Guide :: Basic Trading Guide

Store Page

Starcom: Unknown Space

All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos Workshop News Guides Reviews

Starcom: Unknown Space > Guides > Prontius's Guides

30 ratings

Basic Trading Guide

By Prontius

A basic trading guide with a few example trading routes

Award

Created by

Prontius
Offline

Category: Trading, Walkthroughs

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

15 Dec, 2022 @ 11:20pm

25 Nov, 2023 @ 12:25am

5,896	Unique Visitors
49	Current Favorites

Guide Index

Overview

Introduction

How to read a trading screen

Prices for each Race

Example Trade Routes

Comments

Introduction

EDIT: I haven't played the game since it came out in December 2022 so this might be really out of date. The methods I showed might still be helpful to understand how trading works. I don't know when I'll get around to updating this.

SPOILER WARNING:

This guide discuss races you may not have met, or you may not know that you can trade with.

This is a very basic trading guide with some example trading routes to get you started.
Prices are dynamic in Starcom: Unknown Space which means if you buy or sell a lot with a race the price will get worse. You need to watch the buy and sell prices to make sure the trade route is still profitable.

Also, the game is in early access so all of this may change when the game is updated.

How to read a trading screen

Trading in Starcom can be a bit daunting since different races use different things as their base currency.

In these example pictures, we look at the Ermyr, who use Copper (Cu) as their base currency.
If we want to buy something from them we need to pay Copper, or sell them something worth the same amount of Copper as the thing we want to buy.

Once you unlock some early research, you'll be able to see how good buy/sell prices are with each race.

Prices for each Race

Disclaimer:

This spreadsheet shows prices I found when I first encountered a trader. Prices will change if you trade with them
These are only the races I met so far. If you want me to add a race I didn't trade with let me know in the comments and maybe give me a picture of their prices

I didn't include the Asteroid Traders because they have terrible buy and sell prices on everything. I might add them in future for completeness though.

This sheet is not just good for finding profitable routes, it will also tell you the best place to buy something if you need it for a ship upgrade.

Example Trade Routes

Things to consider when picking a route:

How long is the route? Getting to the Island Traders means a long journey through the void
Can you reliably find the race you want to trade with? Or do they just show up randomly or when plot needs it
Depending on your choices in the story you could end up at war with some of the races. So if you find a good trade route maybe take advantage of it while you can.

And before you buy or sell make sure it's still profitable. If not, maybe go do some exploring and come back to the route when it's recovered back to normal.

26 Comments

< >

Prontius [author] 27 Nov @ 11:06pm

@Oldhip it wasn't essential but it helped me get all the upgrades I wanted. The numbers in the guide are pretty out of date right now but I'm hoping the explanation of the trading system will help people.

Oldhip 23 Nov @ 8:27pm

Do we need to trade ? i havent yet

Ice_GopherFC 12 Sep @ 3:31pm

I have been running into Wiskamug VERY often, seems like at least every half a dozen or so jumps he's in the system with me.

Prontius [author] 11 Sep @ 11:30pm

Is it easier to encounter Wiskamug now? Back when I played it was entirely random so it wasn't possible to get a repeatable trade route with him.

EyeBeat 11 Sep @ 5:31pm

Is the Wiskamug calculated in here and a different name? No idea.

tankanidis 24 Nov, 2023 @ 10:54pm

thanks!

jacer08 18 Oct, 2023 @ 8:40pm

Also note for anyone looking for general trading tips. I used this data to buy low/sell high. [eg. I bought a large quantity of Al from the guild and sold it to the Island traders, but only once] I did not do specific trading runs multiple times, as the markets are heavily influenced by your trades. I ended up with plenty of materials by endgame following that simple strategy of moving materials around for profit.

One extra last note, and slight spoiler. He9 and Adm have no use in the game yet, so don't worry about stocking up on them. You will likely need lots of Nu (~50 or more), and a fair amount of Dbe, and Chr. Eth is a good high end trade good as you only need a fixed amount for large hulls, you get consistent drops, and it sells well. Xen is only used for 1 endgame module so don't worry about stocking more than ~12. I was almost always short on Ir and U.

jacer08 18 Oct, 2023 @ 8:23pm

I took your data and made a new spreadsheet to include the other traders, and prices from my game. I updated max/min values from a mix of your data and my game, as well as after I started trading, so it won't match a new game with a clean market. Enjoy!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQ1J4TPGwaNtBtSeTt6EXy2lBa3S9fW_HKGnxkWrpAiYvvLtEOVovR9St-tFbg8OCZUV_ayuaS7DOdF/pubhtml?gid=0&single=true

Prontius [author] 7 Jun, 2023 @ 12:37pm

(Note: I haven't played the game since release so all these prices might be way out of date.)

But regarding my math, I was correct:
If you bought something for $0.87 (-13% from $1) and you sell it for $1 (=100%) then you are selling it for 114.94% of what you paid for it (=100* 1/0.87), or about 15% profit.

For the route profit you multiply the profits. Say you started with $100, you make 34% profit and now you have $134. You make +15% profit on that $134 which gives you (1+0.15)*134 = $154.1 (+54% profit). You are compounding (snowballing) your profit.

sokko 7 Jun, 2023 @ 10:29am

Pt from Nimion to Kyrnan adds 13 to 0 and ends up with 15%.
The route profit then shows a total that adds 34 to 15 and ends up with 54%.

< >