The purpose of this guide is to provide an overview of the Startopia economy and reveal some of the hidden complexity to the deceptively simple trade system. The content is wholly mine. It is based on Startopia which is wholly theirs. Permission is granted to translate this to an alternate language, but only if attribution is given to me for my original work.

Thanks go to MuckyFeet for developing this game.

Energy (symbol: E) is the currency standard of Startopia.


Each Energy Collector structure provides a storage capacity of 100,000 E. Attempting to store more E than you have room for results in E bleed off (read: lost currency).

It is dangerous to build more than one Energy Collector per segment.

There are several ways that you can earn E.

• Energy Collection - After building an Energy Collector (and maintaining enough Power Boosters) you generate a small surplus of energy which is deposited continuously into your E account.
  
• Solar Flare (event) - Randomly you will receive notification that a Solar Flare event is occurring. When this happens, you can reconfigure your solar panels to collect the extra energy. This energy is deposited directly into your E account. (It effectively boosts the passive E generation that is always occurring.) This is a timed event and eventually E generation returns to normal.
  
• Visitors utilizing station services, including the port to enter the station. Everything a visitor does costs money. So building a thriving economy is dependent upon "tourism." (more on this below)
  
• Recycler - depositing trash (or dead bodies, which is just another form of trash in Startopia) into a Recycler allows you to recover a small portion of the energy of that item.
  
• Trade - buying and selling cargo with passing traders

Any visitor service structure can be selected and the price for use can be adjusted. Too low and you may not be able to afford the cost of running the business (more on consumable costs below), too high and your visitors will run out of money quickly and leave the station.

Visitors are reportedly discouraged by high prices and may end their stay prematurely. Unhappy employees will also depart before they finish emptying their wallets.

NOTE: Need to do some more testing, but I think even employees pay fees. (If this is true...) High prices can result in employees depleting their personal wallets faster and they will leave employment sooner.

There are even more ways to spend E.

• Hiring employees
  
• Promoting employees
  
• Building structures
  
• Queuing jobs to your Factory
  
• Fulfilling consumable needs (more on this below)

Most visitor services have a consumable cost. If the trade good is not in your Cargo Hold when it is needed, it will be synthesized utilizing energy from your E account. Default pricing on all services exceeds the cost of synthesizing something (so you always make a profit).

However, this mechanic offers a few things to consider:

• Missions where a certain good are required as part of the mission objective may be consumed by visitor services. Having more than the mission objective requires is vital to ensuring mission success.
  
• If you manufacture (via the Factory) or grow (via the BioDeck) the supplies needed for a particular Visitor Service, you may end up saving money. Without additional hard numbers, it's hard to say for certain. The Factory costs E to produce any good and the BioDeck requires (?) Karmarama farmers in order to grow plans (which then convert to goods.) Between the two, the BioDeck definitely is the most E-efficient method of generating goods. (It also takes a lot longer than producing something via the Factory.)

NOTE: Mission 6 (The Karmarama Commune) requires you to grow 50 food crates in 100 rotations. The Dine-o-mat consumes Food supplies. To succeed at part one of the mission objective, you must produce more than 50 food crates (as some will be periodically consumed during normal operation of the Dine-o-Mat.)

Trade is deceptively simple in Startopia. The Trade interface has helpful emoticons that tell you how good of a deal the player is getting from each exchange. The more happy faces, the better the deal. The more sad faces, the more the player is being ripped off.

With that bit of information, you hardly need more. However, there are a few bits of knowledge that make trading more profitable.

There are ten different traders, one of each of the nine species of aliens and Arona Daal. Arona is the only trader that does not require a StarDock to trade, and his prices are outrageous no matter how much of a deal the smarmy trader tries to convince you he's offering.

Trade with other aliens is conducted through the use of a Comsensor (requiring a Targ employee) and a StarDock. Players also greatly benefit from one or more Cargo Holds.

Trading with most aliens happens in two stages:

• Contact & approach - a green ship notification icon appears alerting the player of a hail from a passing trader. If you reply (select the green checkmark) the trader will dock and be available for trade.
  
• Docked - the green ship notification icon is replaced with a purple icon and the ship or the icon can be selected to begin trade.

Trading with Arona Daal happens in one stage. A golden "a" notification icon appears. Select the icon to begin trading with Arona Daal.

• Trading with aliens or Arona is a random event. There is no way to control which aliens visit or how frequently they visit. Although, which aliens arrive is sometimes limited within the mission being played.
  
• Contact notifications, docking notifications and Arona notifications have a time limit before expiration. Do not take too long to respond if you want to trade with them.
  
• You can only trade with a single alien at a time. You cannot trade with Arona and any other alien trader at the same time. Certain events can occur dynamically and simultaneously with trade (such as biodeck harvesting and factory production.) Attempting to start a second trade will result in closure of the first trade.
  
• You only get one trade opportunity per visit. If you exit the trade window, the trader will depart.
  
• If you have a Cargo Hold, there is a short delay after purchasing something from a trader before that item is usable.
  
• Any cargo outside of the pattern buffer or Cargo Hold structure will eventually decay and become useless garbage.

Now we'll review the best trades available from each Alien race. (We will not review Arona trades further, as no trade with Arona is a good trade. At best you can get a mid-level price out of him (no sad faces), but you never get a good price (happy faces) from Arona.)

NOTE: All trades are described from the alien's perspective (the trader will buy from you, the trader will sell to you.)

Gem Slugs love Black Market Goods and will pay 1250-1500 E to buy them from you.

Buying

• Food, 312-375 E per unit.
  
• Technology: Security Column, 13750-15000 E per unit.

Selling

• Lockdown Brig
  
• Security Column, 2500-3750 E per unit.
  
• Security Control

Buying

• Comsensor
  
• Luxury Goods, 1250-1500 E per unit

Selling

• Medical Supplies, 500-750 E per unit.
  
• Sick Bay

Karmarama offer no special pricing on anything they purchase. Their much too groovy for material needs.

Selling

• Black Market Goods, 500-750 E per unit.
  
• Food Supplies, 125-188 E per unit.

Selling

• Factory
  
• Lavotron
  
• Recycler

Buying

• Medical Supplies, 1250-1500 E per unit.

Selling

• Love Nest
  
• Luxury Goods, 500-750 E per unit.

Selling

• Black Market Goods, 500-750 E per unit.
  
• Comsensor

Buying

• Love Nest

Selling

• Laboratory
  
• Matter Anti-Matter