Trading and stations

Docking, barter trades, building your own station, and rescuing stranded players.

Space stations are where gardeners meet. You dock to chat, trade, and get faster, cheaper ship work. You can also build your own station, and you can help stranded players, or get help yourself.

Where to find stations

Every system has at most one station. They come from three places:

• Starter stations. Twelve stations sit in a ring around the galaxy's middle, spaced evenly, each around a yellow star.
• Home stations. Every player's home system has a station, credited to that player as founder.
• Player-built stations. Built by gardeners in systems that had none (see below).

Each station holds up to 10 docked ships at a time.

Docking

You can dock when all of these are true:

• you're in the same system as the station
• you're not mid-flight
• you're not already docked somewhere else

Stations never turn a ship away. Like a cruise liner at anchor, every station runs a fleet of tender ships that ferry crews between its docking ring and the ships holding station nearby, so however busy it gets, there's always room.

You can undock any time. You can't travel while docked, so undock before you set a course. Taking a wormhole, towing someone, or being towed undocks you automatically.

What stations offer

You can see who's docked, browse a station's Trade Board, and view its Specimen Gallery without docking.

Trading

Trading is barter only. There's no money. Each offer lives on the board of the station where it was posted.

What you can trade

• Resources: any mined resource, in an exact amount.
• Specimen samples: a specific sample from your vault.

Fuel and Fuel Cells can't be traded.

When you ask for a sample in return, you choose how picky to be:

Rarity runs Common → Uncommon → Rare → Legendary → Mythic.

Posting an offer

You must be docked at the station to post there. Every offer needs at least one item offered and one item requested. The moment you post, your offered items are held in escrow: resources leave your hold and samples are locked, so you can't use them elsewhere.

Offers last 7 days.

Accepting an offer

You can accept an offer from anywhere; you don't need to be docked. You need every requested resource on hand, plus one of your own unlocked samples for each requested sample that matches the request. You can't accept your own offer.

When a trade completes:

• both sides swap items instantly
• any species that's new to you is added to your Flora Catalog
• every species in the trade joins that station's Specimen Gallery
• the poster gets a notification

Your trade history shows your last 50 trades.

Cancelling and expiry

You can cancel your own offer at any time, from anywhere. Your escrowed items come straight back. The same happens when an offer expires after 7 days. An expired offer can't be accepted, even if it's still showing on the board.

Specimen Gallery

Each station keeps a permanent gallery of every species ever traded there. It's free to browse, and each entry credits the gardener who most recently accepted a trade that included that species.

Building a station

You can build a station in any system that doesn't have one and isn't already having one built.

• Construction takes 24 hours from the moment you start.
• Resources are spent up front. Once started, a build can't be cancelled or refunded.
• Station names must be 3–30 characters, using letters, numbers, spaces, hyphens, and apostrophes.
• When the timer finishes, you complete the build yourself. You don't have to be in the system to do it.

Your new station is public: anyone can dock, trade, and chat there, just like any other station. You get "Founded by" credit on the station, but you don't own it and have no special controls over it.

Distress calls

A distress call is an SOS that every gardener in your galaxy can see. It pins your current system and can carry a short message of up to 200 characters. You can have one active call at a time.

Any player can respond; you don't need to be friends. Answering a call shows them your location on the map. To actually help, they fly to your system and then either:

• send fuel: they need at least the amount they offer, but only what fits in your tank is actually moved
• tow you: they pay double the normal fuel cost of the trip, and you both arrive at the destination instantly

Either one ends the call. You can also end or cancel your call yourself. It also ends on its own once solar recharge gives you enough fuel to jump out.

Rescue requests from friends

You can also ask your friends directly:

• Fuel request: ask for up to the empty space in your tank. Any friend in your system can send it.
• Tow request: pick a destination. The tow price (double normal fuel) is set when you ask. A friend in your system pays it, and you both arrive instantly.

Only friends can fill these requests, and they have to be in the same system as you. You can cancel a request until someone fills it.

Asking STEM

Your ship's computer, STEM, can dock and undock you on command and answer questions about trading, stations, and rescue. It can't build stations or post trades for you, and there are no quests or missions to track.

Example

You're docked at a starter station. You post an offer: 20 Titanium and a Rare sample, in exchange for 10 Quantum Alloy and any Legendary-or-better sample. Your 20 Titanium and the Rare sample go into escrow right away, and the offer is up for 7 days.

A gardener on the other side of the galaxy accepts with 10 Quantum Alloy and a Mythic sample. Mythic beats Legendary, so it qualifies; an Uncommon wouldn't. You get the Quantum Alloy and the Mythic sample, and they get the Titanium and the Rare sample. If either species is new to one of you, it goes straight into your Flora Catalog.

Later you're stranded with an empty 100-fuel tank. A stranger with 150 fuel answers your distress call. If they send 120 fuel, only 100 fits, so they keep 50. If instead they tow you to a system 35 units away, the tow costs them 70 fuel.