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Trading and the Player-Driven Economy
October 18, 2026 at 05:44 PM
Added Trade Nexus Buy Orders and the redesigned Trade Nexus screen, the Nexus Relay, and Traveling Merchants
Trade sits at the center of the shared universe in SpaceCraft. The economy is player-driven, which means the players themselves set supply, demand, and prices.
You buy and sell resources, ship parts, and blueprints with other players. Crucially, each marketplace transaction affects prices, so the economy of the universe responds to what players do. You can participate in and adapt to this economy, reacting to shortages and surpluses as they happen. In game, you reach the shared marketplace through a terminal called the Trade Nexus. It is part of the online galaxies; in the separate Solo Offline Mode it is unavailable, since that mode runs without other players. Buying through the Trade Nexus is also subject to a transaction tax on purchases, which a late-July 2026 update lowered to 8%; because the game is in active balancing, the exact rate can change between patches.
Sell orders do not sit on the Trade Nexus forever. Since Community Update #1 on September 16, 2026 a sell order expires after 14 days, and it is also cancelled if you leave your Corporation, switch quadrant, or reset your account. The same update closed several credit exploits: sales and sell orders can no longer exceed the credit cap, and the credit limit can no longer go negative. See Updates and Patch Notes.
Major Update #1 on October 8, 2026 redesigned the Trade Nexus screen for readability, with sorting, filtering and a search bar, and added Buy Orders. A Buy Order names the resource, the quantity and your price, and other players fill it; when you create one you choose whether to allow or forbid partial fulfilment. You can also fulfil other players' Buy Orders to earn Credits. Trade Nexus operations are now logged for your Corporation.
The Remote Access permit, added in the same update, lets you build a Nexus Relay at your base to operate the Trade Nexus remotely. The developer's preview says the relay reaches both Trade Nexuses, named Helicon and Ur; that items you buy through it are sent to your Corporation storage at the matching Trade Nexus; and that to sell, whether by creating a sell order or fulfilling a Buy Order, the item must already be in that Corporation storage. Its footprint cost fell from 2 FP to 1 FP on October 13, 2026.
Not all trade runs through the Trade Nexus. Major Update #1 added Traveling Merchants, which the developer's preview introduces by noting that The Company does not control all trade in the galaxy. You may meet them while exploring planetary systems. Each merchant has a limited supply of Credits and goods, and both are unique to each player. Deals will not always be in your favour, but merchants look for specific materials and pay a good price for them.
Detail | What is confirmed |
|---|---|
Merchant types | Six: Ores, Ingots, Components, Ship modules, Ship hulls and Electronics. |
Stock and Credits | Limited, and unique to each player. |
Galactic Map | Merchants sell this item, which grants Exploration experience; it can also be found as loot. |
Where they appear | Not on Hot or Cold planets, after an October 9 hotfix stopped them spawning there. |
Interface | Major Update #1 also fixed the camera behaviour when talking to a merchant. |
Trading is not limited to goods. You can also buy and sell blueprints, accept or offer services, and take on or post missions and contracts. This lets players provide value to each other beyond raw materials, for example by offering work or commissioning tasks.
Category | Examples |
|---|---|
Raw and refined materials gathered through mining and crafting. | |
Crafted components used to build vessels. | |
Ready-made ship designs other players can build instantly. | |
Services, missions, and contracts | Work and tasks players offer to or request from one another. |
Trade pairs naturally with organization and automation. Through Corporations you can coordinate larger commercial operations, and through automated logistics you can move goods between planets and systems at scale. See Corporations and Co-Op and Automation and Logistics.
Credits are the standard currency in SpaceCraft, used for everything from unlocking permits to paying station commissions. Alongside trading with other players, you can buy needed items from NPCs; this is faster than waiting for another player to sell, but less efficient, so relying on it drains your Credits quickly. See Progression: Permits and Experience.
Organized trade connects to Corporation Requests, time-sensitive contracts from station NPCs that reward delivering large quantities of goods. Meeting them rewards Corporation currencies and depends on solid production and logistics. See Corporations and Co-Op.