Nope. I have space in my Hauler for 75 widgets of the highest value, which I will purchase at a planetary trading post in a Technology system for example (sometimes they only have 55 or 60, so I find a second trading post or a minor settlement). I will purchase for 25% less than galactic average, so say 1.3mil units total. I will then warp to a Power Generation system where Technology items sell (again at the planetary trading post) for 42% more than the galactic average, so say 2.7mil units total, netting a nice million+ unit profit just for moving from system to system. In addition, I will buy up all the Solanium, Frost Crystals, Cactus Flesh and Star Bulbs from the alien traders at each trading post and craft them into Circuit Boards, which I will then sell for nearly 2mil each when I see the trade terminal paying anything over -6% Galactic Average. I can usually net about 10mil units per system hop this way, with the hops being fairly frequent (though I’ve been spending extra time planetside lately raiding Manufacturing Plants for blueprints).
It’s not the instant billions that creating a giant farm can yield, but it’s a lot less work and resources, and you can still explore and do other stuff while you run your routes.
Thanks for the detailed reply, but for those of us still in a C-class Shuttle, and maybe 5 million units on the outside, is one’s main ship still the way to go for space trucking?
If you have more room in your freighter than in your shuttle, then I would recommend visiting the planetary trading post to get as much as will fit in your shuttle, transferring it to your freighter (which you can do right there on the ground), then turning back to the trade terminal and buying more. Do this until you either fill your freighter or run out of widgets to purchase. Then warp to the appropriate system to sell said widgets. Look for systems with at least mid-level economies whose Sell+Buy numbers add up to 80 or above, ignoring the negative, so for example a Sell : 64.8% Buy : 21.4% system. The higher that combined number, the better profit you will make. Locate a planetary trading post, summon your freighter, and transport the goods (via your shuttle) down to sell. You could also just park the freighter next to the space station and sell there, but you’ll get less than you would planetside.
Do a couple of loops of this combined with making Circuit Boards (assuming you have the blueprints for Heat Capacitor, Poly Fiber and Circuit Board, all of which I believe are granted from the Scientist in your base quests) and you be swimming in millions of units in no time.
One minor extra thing is I found upgrading my suit FIRST was usually the right call vs ships. Each suit slot costs you a hundred grand or few at each space station, you get a new slot to carry forever. Wheras a ship is a purchase you may upgrade and reset at some point.
Now suits dont have the massive depth of some freighter or storage slots for example but early on they are a very wise investment because they never become obsolete.
I bought an A-class fighter for like 2,000,000, and haven’t been able to find any decent S-class ones. Only problem is it’s a bit cramped. But my exosuit is fully pocketed, so it holds more than the ship does anyway… somehow…
So yeah, missions are a pretty decent way to earn units. Just took a picture of an alien lifeform and got a Superconductor Thingie worth 150,000. This along with finding buried Vortex Cubes (and the related Tetra Cobalt) and mining copper to sell Chromatic Metal is my new grind.
I finished the Atlas Path a week or two ago, and just finished the main quest last night and entered a new galaxy. What am I supposed to do with all these atlas seed blueprints I kept getting on the Atlas path? I don’t even know what they’re for, and they don’t look worth making since they don’t sell for anything.
Now that Euclid is left behind I wonder if my bases there will forever remain for other players to blunder across in their own journeys.
Go to a rich system and hang out at a trade port. When you get there, check out the kind of ships that land. There are only so many model types that will spawn. If you do not see the kind of ship you want after a few minutes (ie: You want a S class heavy fighter, but are not seeing any heavy fighters of any class), then you may need to reset the spawns. Save your game and simply exit and reload and this can reset the spawns.
Anyway, once you see the type of ship you want, all you have to do is wait and eventually an S-class will show you. You can use your scanner to see the class of the landing ships without having to run up to them in an attempt to buy them.
Be aware, that S class ships are very expensive. I think the s-class heavy fighter I got was like 57 million units. Also the warrior race, vykreen are more likely to spawn fighters, and gek are more likely for freighters.
If you craft the Atlas seeds you have to make them all, as each one in the progression requires the seed before it as a component. At the end of the chain of seeds you’ll end up with the seed called “Heart of the Sun”, which allows you to complete the Atlas Path and birth a new star.
If you also complete the Artemis quest line, you’ll obtain a blueprint for something called “Remembrance”, which looks suspiciously like an Atlas seed. That’s because Remembrance is crafted using that final Atlas Seed (Heart of the Sun) and some Platinum. Remembrance is an Exosuit upgrade module. If you have it installed, you can operate Remembrance Terminals located behind the locked (Atlas Pass v2/v3 required) doors on space stations and planetary outposts.
That all sounds pretty cool right? And after working so hard to obtain this amazing Exosuit module and Atlas passes to get behind those doors you would expect some pretty cool rewards for activating the terminal…maybe some higher level component blueprints or sellable items worth 6 or 7 figures? NOPE. You get lore. That’s it. Seems this aspect of the game might just be a placeholder for something more they have planned for the future, but for now it’s a hell of a lot of effort for pretty much nothing.
Late to this thread since NEXT dropped. Fired up the game again several days ago, and wow.
Did you know that you can buy drop pod coordinate data at planetary trade terminals for pretty cheap? Then just fly around, periodically drop your signal booster down, and go from drop pod to drop pod to upgrade your suit. The materials cost is 1 Antimatter, 55 Ionised Cobalt, 40 Oxygen and 45 Sodium Nitrate.
Sometimes the signal booster eats the coordinate data and just points you to one of the drop pods you’ve already found. Not sure why that is yet.
That’s why I only ever use one drop pod coordinate data per planet. I hate it when you go to what you think is a new one and it’s one you’ve already been to. D’oh!
What I do is carefully try to note the previous drop pod locations, before activating the signal booster to find the next one. That way when the new waypoint shows up, I know that it’s new. Doesn’t always work perfectly, because I get disoriented, but it works.
I also use the terraformer to disrupt the terrain around the drop pod, once done, which sorta marks it visually from the air, so that you don’t mistakenly land there again. Kinda cheesy, but at least it saves you a bit of time and fuel.
If you tag the save point at each drop pod, manufacturing facility, minor settlement, etc., they don’t seem to show up again when you scan with the signal booster. I’ve done some fairly extensive searches across planets for such sites, and once I started tagging all the save points the signal booster did not seem to show me duplicates anymore. It will just show me nothing (and eat my nav data) if there aren’t anymore in range. Totally my own personal anecdotal evidence though, so YMMV.
