Stations, bounties and trade: ports in the dark.

Finding a station

About two in five worlds have a station over them, and about three in ten moons do. The arrival world of every universe always has one. In home, its station is the Reach Exchange. Fly close to a station slowly and dock with N. Your ship is held there while you trade.

The five kinds of station

Station	What it deals in
Trade exchange	Luxuries and electronics. The general market, where most goods can be bought and sold.
Mining works	Cheap ore: iron, copper, nickel, titanium, platinum metals, ice and carbon. Dear food, water and machinery.
Frontier outpost	Cheap food and water. Dear fuel, iron, copper and luxuries.
Research station	Dear relics, helium-3 and machinery. Cheap electronics.
Gate station	Dear fuel, relics and luxuries. Stands by the Space Gate.

Each station stocks a few goods in quantity and has a price for each. Prices shift with the day, a little each way, and with what you have taken or put in.

Buying, selling and the hold

• Buy goods at the station's buy price, and sell them at a lower sell price. The gap is the station's profit.
• Load and unload your hold from the bag, so cargo stays where you put it.
• Taking a lot of a good out of a station makes what is left dearer. Putting it in makes it cheaper.
• Refuel and repair your ship at the station's yard, while you are docked.

The bounty board

Each station has a board of four bounties, renewed each day. You can hold up to three at a time.

• Raiders: beat two to four raider craft, anywhere.
• Wanted captains: find a named captain's ship in space and bring her down. Alive is not required.
• Legend: bring down one of the ten legends. Each is named on the board with a hint about where to find it.

Each bounty's pay depends on the station's standing and on the size of the task.

Trade runs

A station offers up to three trade runs a day. Each asks you to carry a set number of tonnes of one commodity to a station somewhere else. Runs pay more than selling the same goods where you stand, and the pay grows with the distance. A run to another system takes the Vector Drive.

Mining and rock fields

Some worlds have a field of rock in their space. Rock is stony, metallic, icy or carbonaceous, and each field is thick or thin and rich or poor. Fly the ship's mining beam at a rock (hold B at the helm in space) to dig ore out of it. The first world of every universe has a small field close by to learn on.

Wrecks and salvage

Some worlds have wrecks adrift in their space: a drifting freighter, a dead probe, an abandoned liner, a gutted warship, or an alien relic. A wreck is worth salvage, but raiders are drawn to it. Fly close, use the scanner to find a signal, and strip the wreck with the salvage beam. The first world of each universe has no wrecks.

Tips

• Dock at a few stations before you buy anything, and compare the prices.
• Take a run that fits your route, and give yourself time to get there.
• Carry fuel. A station's yard will refuel you, but a long run burns more than you expect.

For the worlds these stations hang over, read Planets and habitability. For the ship that carries your cargo, read the fleet.

← Back to the wiki · Last updated 25 October 2026. Mantlenaut is in alpha, so things change.