FyreByrds

X3 Sector Trader/Universe Trade Guide

Table of Contents

Introduction
After spending inordinate amounts of time on the X3-Reunion forums at the egosoft
website and seeing hundreds of duplicate posts about sector and universe traders I
decided to produce the definitive guide to these mysterious and wonderful beasts, in the
hope that it helps a few of you guys make better decisions when it comes to kitting, and
sending out your hired traders into the world.
This guide is based on X3-Reunion v1.2.01 and so can only be supported for that version.
If you have any comments of feedback, or if Ive missed anything either PM me on the
egosoft website (FyreByrd) or email me at fyrebyrd@mail.com
Cheers

Kieran FyreByrd Woodward

Definitions
Just a few quick definitions so we all know what we are talking about:
Term

Definition

Sector Trader

An automated trader that trades in one specific sector

Universe Trader

An automated trader that will trade anywhere in the

universe

Ships
First things first, If you want a sector or universe trader youre going to need a ship, and
not just any ship but the right ship. Below is a list of ship classes that are allowed to be
sector/universe traders:

TS
TP
M3
M4

Unfortunately you guys that want the heavily armoured gunship/sector traders (like m6
classes!) are going to be disappointed its just not possible at the moment!
Now as to advice I would avoid using M4s and M3s as sector and universe traders the
reason, very small cargo bays, you would have to do a lot of runs to make your money
back and get into the serious profits so it isnt really worth using them unless you really
want/need to. As for the other two Ill go through them in more detail below.
TP Class

These generally have a cargo bay of between 1150 and 450 which compared to the TS
class is quite small, but these guys more than make up for it in speed, coming in at
between 105 and 1861 Therefore they tend to take smaller cargo capacities and make
more runs than TS class ships. Unfortunately there is a big bad side to this, no TP class
can carry XL cargo (like ore) thus restricting their effectiveness they are also more
expensive than TS ships usually as well.

My recommendation of a good TP class sector trader would be: Toucan Hauler,

reasonably fast with a decent cargo bay.
TS Class

This class is pretty much designed for sector/universe trading, with huge cargo bays, and
compared to other ships fairly cheap. Speed however is a concern. TS class ships range in
speed from 53 to 124 making them very slow and dull to fly yourself! The upside is in the
cargo bay where they range from 3500 to a whopping 14000. So if the TPs made lots of
small runs, the TS makes a few large runs with another plus being that there is no
restrictions on type of cargo a TS can carry. In my opinion unless like stated before you
have no choice but to use a different class of ship then the only ship you should really use
for a sector/universe trader is a TS class
My recommendation would be: Either a Dolphin Super freighter for that 14000 cargo bay
or if you wanted something with a bit more speed a Mercury Super freighter
Notes

Once youve made a decision on your ship and purchased it there are a number of other
choices you can make mainly on your ship upgrades to cargo bay, speed, and rudder. As
a rule if I can afford it I immediately max out all three. If you dont as your sector trade
works he will occasionally buy upgrades for himself the money for which comes out of
your pocket, and its a little distracting when 100,000 credits goes missing until youve
worked out that your sector trader has just doubled his cargo bay!

Trade Software Mark 3

So youve bought your ship and maxed out all the upgrades to speed, rudder and cargo
bay what now? Well now you have to get the special ingredient Trade software Mark 3,
which can be found at the Terracorp HQ in Home of Light (1 south from Argon Prime) or
at any Teladi Equipment Dock.
Once this is bought and installed in your sector trader you are ready to go. Park your ship
somewhere and press R2 or conversely open up your menu system and navigate to your
property list. Once there select your soon to be sector trader. Then select Command
Console, Trade and finally Sector trader You should see the universe map, just
select which sector you wish to start trading in, and congratulations your new sector
trader is away.

Bear in mind you need nothing but compatible ship and trade software Mk3 to begin a
sector trader, you start needing more stuff when universe traders appear.

Levels
Your new sector trader should be busy trading in various wares by now. Or more likely he
is on Standby. When sector traders have no trades to make they will just sit there until a
certain amount of time passes when they will check the sector again for trading
opportunities. As they trade more they gain levels, the higher the level the more
intelligent (and less likely to be on standby the trader gets.
You can check your sector traders level by going into the ship information screen. In the
pilot field it will show a random name and then a number in brackets beside it (unless
your trader hasnt gained any levels yet then there will be no number.)
Once your trader has got to level 8 he is available to be changed into a universe trader,
and once he has got to level 10 he will no longer advance in levels until you make him a
universe trader.
Levelling up your sector trader can be a long drawn out process, some sectors are good,
some bad for sector traders, but a good rule of thumb is if they seem to be on standby a
lot of the time in one sector move them to another.
What makes a good sector? Some of the best sectors for levelling up sector traders are
sectors with two different types of food manufacturing stations and a trading station, if
you find sectors like this remember them especially if they have other stations as well. I
have also provided a small list of sectors that are especially good for levelling up traders I
have tried to give a cross-section of species and also tried to keep them close to the safer
core sectors.

Home of Light
Rolks Drift
Queens Space
Empires Edge
Rhonkar Clouds
Teladi Gain
Tharkas Sun

Sector Trader to Universe Trader

This is the confusing bit. There are always lots of different ideas on the forums about
what you NEED to start universe traders. After many hours of testing and retesting this I
believe is the definitive list.

A level 8 (or higher) sector trading ship

Trade Software Mark 1 (usually built into TS class ships)
Trade Software Mark 3 (needed for sector trader anyway)
Fight Software Mark 1
Fight Software Mark 2
25mj Shield

This is all you need then the universe trader option should light up in your trade
commands menu and you can go universe trading. Below is a list of common things you
DONT NEED to start universe trading

jumpdrive (see below)

Trade Software Mark 2
Navigation Software
A Weapon
Trading system extension
Best Buy/Sell Locator
Triplex scanner

While you could choose to provide these things to your Universe trader they are not
essential and some have other consequences (i.e. supplying a trader with a weapon means
hes more likely to fire on your enemies and get into fights rather than running away!)
Jumpdrives

The jumpdrive and its relationship to universe traders bear special mention. Although you
do not NEED a jumpdrive to start a universe trader, when the trader reaches level 12 he
will order a jumpdrive (at an increased cost to you.) Therefore many people choose to
equip their traders with jumpdrives for them.
Combustibles

Your trader will also buy things for itself weve already mentioned speed upgrades and
the like, but the trader will also buy energy cells and fighter drones. The energy cells are
to power its jumpdrive in case of an emergency, the fighter drones are to distract enemies
while it escapes. There is nothing you can do about these two needs, for the most part the

Trader deals with it himself.

Final Thoughts
Just a few final points to make about these wonderful traders
Help Ive run out of energy cells

This happens far to often, you will get an incoming message saying one of your ships
needs your attention because they have insufficient jump fuel. The easiest thing to do is
direct your trader to dock at the closest Solar Power Plant, buy him some more energy
cells then set him off Universe trading again
Help Im under attack!

Another annoying message, your trader (if he has a jumpdrive) will attempt to escape
from a hostile encounter. Unfortunately all to often they attempt to jump back to
complete their deal two minutes later getting attacked again. The two ways to solve this
are: 1) Jump into the hostile sector and clean it up! 2) Reset the universe trader by giving
him the command again (this doesnt effect levels)
Cargo Bay anomalies

If your trader (sector or universe) doesnt seem to carry a lot of cargo on trips check his
cargo bay if he has anything in there that YOU put in there before making him a
sector/universe trader then he will not sell it (therefore it will take up precious cargo
space) therefore guide him to a place you can sell it and get rid of it.
Do Nav Satellites and Triplex Scanners etc Help?

Another forum hot topic this one. As far as I have observed in the game having a large
range of nav satellites (Advanced or normal) or equipping your traders with scanners,
best buy/sell software or anything else not ESSENTIAL doesnt make much difference.
My traders never have these aids, and still make huge amounts of money.
How do I Know how much money my Trader is making?

Set his home base to one of your stations, and he will do all his trading using the money
assigned to that station thus allowing you a tight reign on his activities.

Conclusions
Well thats all I have time for at the moment, get in contact if Ive got something wrong
or I need to add something and Ill update as and when I can. Hope this helped
Kieran FyreByrd Woodward
1 All ship stats are provided for maxed out ships (i.e. ships with all the relevant
speed/cargo/rudder upgrades installed.
2 All shortcuts are for the default key layout of X3