Trading in Infinite Space: A Highly Profitable Venture

Trading in Infinite Space: A Highly Profitable Venture

Right now, you may be wondering why, after several months, I have chosen to revisit Infinite Space III: Sea Of Stars on this blog. Well, as it turns out, there is one key aspect of the game that I completely overlooked. The game's campaign mode is full of opportunities for trading items, and it is essential to buy low and sell high (in coins, which serve as the currency for most factions) if you want to make a profit (in credits, which the Terrans use). With that in mind, here are a few trade routes worth remembering - and using. Keep in mind, though, that these routes can only be used if the appropriate homeworld is actually present in the sector. In addition, it is impossible to trade with the Ravians, Tchorak and Tan Ru, since none of these factions have a store on their respective homeworlds.

The first major trade route involves selling a pair of Hyperwave Filter Arrays or Structural Gluon Shields at Bandur, the Muktian homeworld. Both of these items cost just 89 and 90 credits each, respectively, on Haven Station, and are worth 2 coins each on Bandur. Trading in two shipments of either item (or one of both) will yield 4 coins, enough to buy a Multi-Missile Launcher - a highly powerful long-range weapon that costs 575 credits on Haven Station. However, this high-end item only becomes available on Bandur in AD 4595, a full 10 years before the deadline, so if you want to use this trade route, make sure to wait until then before you do so, although this is mitigated by the fact that the same item is not available for purchase at Haven Station until AD 4600, five years after the Muktians have begun selling them. In short, swapping pairs of basic shields or scanners for some Muktian missile launchers is an excellent late-game tactic that can endow your flotilla with lots of firepower, especially if your capital ships have some unused weapon slots, and if you have any spare launchers, you can take them back to Glory (the Terrans' home system) and sell them there for a huge profit - it costs just 178 credits to buy a pair of hyperwave arrays, but when you consider that a multi-missile will fetch 575 credits on Glory, the resulting 397-credit net profit will definitely come in handy.

Top: a Garthan frigate with an unused weapon slot. Above: Having sold a pair of weak shields to the Muktians, we can now fit the frigate with an extra missile launcher.

An even more lucrative and profitable trade route can be discovered at or near the very start of the game. The Urluquai like to use Plasma Coil Cloakers, and their homeworld, Urlu, cranks out an endless supply of them. They cost five coins each, and fetch a whopping 750 credits per shipment on Glory. But by selling five 89-credit Neptunium Railguns at Urlu for two coins each, you will be able to afford two - yes, two - cloaking devices, and then sell them at Glory for a whopping 1500 credits in total, for a net gain of 1055 credits, which is an enormous sum by any measure. As an alternative, you can keep one of the cloaking devices for your flotilla to use, and sell the other one off.

Top: Here we are on Urlu, about to trade in five railguns for... Above: ...a cloaking device, or more specifically, two of them - on Urlu, a pair of these systems costs as much as all those railguns put together.

Although other trade routes involving the Garthans, Zorg and Calatians exist, the two routes described above are the most useful, especially when you are running low on credits. So remember, next time you venture out into Sector Prime, it's not merely a matter of exploring star systems and negotiating with (or attacking) the many factions that inhabit the sector. Sometimes, you have to get smart and make a deal that yields a worthwhile profit, and it may just make the difference between an average score and an excellent one.