Star MerchantHow to play

1What it's about

You run a trading house. You start with a single Ant freighter and 250,000 thalers in the sector capital. Every planet produces something and needs something else — your job is to carry goods from where there is a surplus to where they are scarce. Out of the profits you buy more ships, found colonies that pay taxes, and fund research.

The game is turn-based: in one turn (a cycle) you may issue as many commands as you like — buy, sell, dispatch ships, build. When you press Next cycle, the rivals move, ships fly and the economy is settled.

Maps

Classic — the hand-built Perseus Sector (15 planets) and the paid Hyades (8 planets). Random — two sectors generated from a seed, with different names, positions and resources every time. Large random — four sectors, 88 planets (Captain's Licence pack).

2The game screen

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

• 1Status bar — thalers in the till, wealth, last cycle's result, debt; below it the goal bar (campaign) or the distance to the leader (endless world).
• 2Distance to the leader and your place in the ranking.
• 3Guild adviser — where your ship is docked (or where it is heading) and what pays off right now: what to sell on the spot, or what to buy and where to haul it. Prices are worked out for the whole hold, with fuel deducted. The button opens the market on the right goods row and the right side of the trade; × turns the hints off.
• 4Sector tabs — switch the map; a padlock marks a sector from a pack.
• 5Sector map — click a planet and the map travels to it and opens the panel. Drag, pinch or use the wheel to zoom.
• 6Fleet bar — your ships: where they are docked, where they are heading, what they carry. Tap to jump to a ship.
• 7Panel — the planet with its portrait, the market, the ship in port, the shipyard, the colony. On a phone it slides up from the bottom.
• 8Tabs Fleet · Colonies · Research · Ranking; Finances, Chronicle and Shop are in the Fleet tab and in the ≡ menu.
• 9Next cycle — settles the turn. Online it shows a countdown to the cycle, because the server settles it.

3Your first voyage, step by step

You start in the sector capital, and the Guild gives you a full hold of ore to begin with — so your first move is a sale (about 12,700 thl), not a purchase. After that you repeat the same run over and over: food from an agricultural world to a metropolis. The agricultural world has a surplus of it (price ~20 thl), the capital produces nothing and buys at ~250 thl.

1. Sell the starting freightYou are docked at the capital with a full hold of ore. The short way: press Sell on the adviser bar below the header — it opens the market on the Ore row, on the selling side, with the whole hold selected. By hand it is the same: click the Ore row, press "all" and Sell. The trade box switches to selling on its own whenever you carry the goods.
2. Pick a destinationIn the planet panel, above the market table, press Set course. The list shows flight time, fuel and — when you have a fresh report — the best price for your cargo there. Choose the nearest agricultural world.
3. Settle the cyclePress Next cycle. A ship in transit appears on the map as an arrow on a dashed line. When it arrives, the panel jumps to the planet the ship has reached.
4. Buy goodsClick the Food row. A quantity slider appears with 10 / 25 / 50 / all buttons. Below the slider you see the cost, the price per unit and the port commission. Buy a full hold.
5. Fly back and sellSend the ship to the sector capital (the planet with a gate — a rotating ring), settle the cycle, click Food, "all", Sell. The message shows the takings and the profit of the voyage. Done — you have capital for the next, bigger run.

4Where prices come from

The price of goods on a planet depends solely on how much of them is in the warehouse relative to the normal level. An empty warehouse — the price can reach 3.4× the base price. An overflowing one — the price drops to 0.38×. Your deals really do move the market: buying empties the warehouse and pushes the price up; selling drives it down.

Price fog

You see exact prices only where your ship is docked or where you have a colony — a report stays valid for 5 cycles. The rest is an estimate based on the planet type: everyone knows a mining world sells ore cheaply, but not whether somebody has just flooded it with food. The Long-range scanner research lifts the fog from the whole sector.

5World types

Every type has its own look on the map and a coloured line under the name — the map can be read without captions.

A gate (a rotating ring around a planet) links sectors: a jump through the gate costs as much as a flight across half a sector. The black market (red mark) is a port where you can sell contraband. An unsettled world (dashed outline) is waiting for colonists.

6Ships and the shipyard

You buy ships at a shipyard — there is one in every metropolis and on every industrial world, and in your own colony once you build one. That is also where you repair the hull and fit upgrades (each up to 3 levels):

Every flight costs fuel (depending on distance and ship size), and every ship costs fixed upkeep each cycle. On top of that comes the trading house office: 2,600 thl + 450 per ship. An idle ship in port is a loss — keep the fleet moving.

7Colonies

A colony means steady tax income, your own production which you buy from yourself commission-free, and a piece of the map in your colour.

1. Recruit colonistsOn a populated world (≥ 30 m inhabitants) use the Recruit colonists button. One unit is a thousand people; founding a colony takes 8, at about 1,100 thl per unit. Colonists take up space in the hold.
2. Carry them to a free worldUnsettled worlds have a dashed outline; the Colonies tab shows their soil and deposits. Good soil favours farms, rich deposits favour mines.
3. Found the colonyOnce there: Found a colony. From then on the population grows, as long as it has something to eat — ship food in or build a farm.
4. Build it upIn the colony panel you put up facilities (each up to 3 levels). Further colonists can be settled — the population grows at once.

8Research

One project at a time, paid up front, with the effect arriving after a few cycles. It applies to the whole fleet and all colonies.

The best first choice for a trader: the Scanner — cheap, quick, and it turns guesswork into planning. For a coloniser: Terraforming.

9Guild contracts, trade routes and milestones

Three things that give you a reason to come back even in cycle one hundred: contracts set a short goal with a deadline, routes take the repetitive clicking off your hands, and milestones measure your house's progress.

10Smuggling, combat and the protection period

Smuggling

Contraband (Smugglers' Guild pack) can only be bought and sold in free ports — the margin is the highest in the game. Docking anywhere else with an illegal cargo risks a customs inspection: a 28% chance of confiscation, a fine of 55,000 thl and a loss of reputation. Hideaways cut the risk to 13%, a shielded hold to 5%. Guild patrols (an event) multiply the risk.

Combat

A ship with guns can attack a foreign ship docked in the same port (planet panel → Foreign ships in port). An engagement is three exchanges of fire: damage = firepower × 2.2 × luck − the target's shield. The winner seizes up to 75% of the loser's cargo, and the loser's hull goes for scrap. A freighter with a single gun won't scratch a corvette — without upgrades there is no point trying. Every attack lowers your Guild reputation (and with it your colony taxes).

A rival's colony can be raided (planet panel → Foreign colony): a defence battery repels attacks, and a takeover requires 4 units of people on board.

Attack by order (online worlds)

In an online world an attack is not resolved the moment you click. The Order: attack button records the order, and the shots are fired when the cycle is settled, together with everybody's moves. If the target flies off in the meantime it has escaped; if you fly off, the order lapses. The order is visible in the ship panel and can be cancelled. This way nobody gets shot up "in the night" without a chance to move, and a defender who looks in on the game has a real chance to run. Computer rivals play by the same rules. In a solo game engagements are resolved immediately.

The Guild Exchange — trade between houses

Goods can be sold not only to a planet but also to another house — through the Guild deposit. While docked in port you list an offer (planet panel → Guild Exchange → List goods): the goods leave your hold for the warehouse on that planet, and a ship of another house that arrives there will buy them. A house with a colony can order a delivery: it leaves the cash, and whoever brings the goods to the colony gets paid. Every offer in the galaxy is visible in the Exchange panel (Fleet → Exchange, key G). Cash can also be transferred to another house (Finances → Transfer thalers).

11The endless world

In the default mode the game has no finish line. The bar under the statistics shows the distance to the leader, and the Ranking tab shows the full table with the number of ships, colonies and bankruptcies.

12Playing live with other players — persistent worlds

Online worlds live on the server. The server settles the cycles every set number of minutes (typically 60–120), whether or not you are in the game. You look in whenever you like, issue commands, and the button in the bottom right corner counts down to the next cycle.

1. Create an accountGo to gwiezdnykupiec.pl; on the start screen use the Online play card → "Create account": e-mail, house name, password (at least 8 characters). An activation link (valid for 48 hours) is sent to that address — click it and the account goes live with you logged in straight away. Without activation you cannot log in; if the mail hasn't arrived, use "Send the link again" (check your spam too). This guide is also linked from the start screen.
2. Join a worldThe list shows the worlds: cycle, pace, number of planets, players and the leader. "Join" founds your house — with a freighter, starting capital and 12 cycles of protection from the moment you enter. You may join a world that has been running for a long time.
3. PlayEvery decision goes to the server at once. After a cycle is settled you get a report: your result, ship arrivals, engagements, events. You trade with other players through the Guild Exchange, and attacks are issued as orders carried out at the cycle (chapter 10).
4. Talk to the othersAn online world has a world channel — the speech-bubble icon in the top right corner (a dot means new messages). Every player of that world writes there: about routes, prices, joint ventures. Someone else's message carries "report" and "mute player"; the administrator removes abusive messages and withdraws the right to write from persistent offenders. Web addresses do not pass through the channel — do not post contact details there.
5. Forgotten your password?"Forgot my password" sends a link to your e-mail for setting a new one (valid for one hour).

For the administrator

The server owner has an administrator panel (admin.html): they create worlds (map, sectors, computer rivals, cycle pace, player limit), pause them, settle a cycle by hand, manage accounts (roles, packs, blocks, new password, granting officer licences by hand) and see the event log — including every transaction between houses and every licence — as well as pending password resets.

13Shop and packs

One-off packs, no ads, no premium currency, no paid speed-ups. You buy content, not an advantage: a purchased sector also raises the victory threshold in the campaign, and your rivals play with the same content as you. Online worlds have everything unlocked.

You choose your crest and colours in Menu → Crests and fleet colours (or in the Shop next to the pack). In online worlds every house can do it right away. Computer rivals have crests of their own — a crest tells you faster whose colony is in your way.

Guild officers — 30-day licences

The only paid thing that also works in online worlds. The model comes from OGame's officers: modest percentages for a limited time, nothing that cannot be earned without paying. A licence belongs to the player's account, so it works in all worlds and in solo play at once; bought again, it extends from the end of the previous one. The protection period, the protection of weaker houses and catch-up support all stay unchanged — an officer will not help you attack anyone the Guild protects.

The table lists prices in Polish złoty. In a browser you can also pay in euros or dollars — you pick the currency in the Shop (the game language suggests one) and the amounts come straight from Stripe. In the Google Play app the currency follows your Google account’s country.

14Tips and shortcuts