Tips and Tricks for X4: Foundations – First Trader and Trade Run Tips

This guide will explained to you the basic methods of trading.

Determining Trades

Now, hopefully you have enough credits to buy your trade ship. Small traders will do, but I want to focus my attention primarily on Medium traders. Let’s now look at our map.

We will want to focus our attention on the Wharf and Shipyard. The trade filter can give you an overview of the needs:

When we look at this, it’s not immediately obvious what our main focus should be. Not all ships are going be bottlenecked due to the high demand of certain goods. The next step will be to scan our Shipyards and Wharfs by 30%. This will allow us to examine the storage levels, and determine what is lacking.

There are no shortages in the Wharf yet, but we can already see the signs that a Hull Parts shortfall is on its way. We want the Wharf to be stocked with Medium ships, so that we can continue to purchase ships. If we want to purchase a medium trader, Wharf will tell us that it needs Hull Parts in order to complete the basic Medium ship.

First Trader & Trade Run

You’ve probably been doing missions on the stations you’ve discovered because it’s now time for your very first trader.

Minimum or Low preset is how I buy ships. Higher levels often give you stuff you don’t actually need. If you really want more items, you can pay less if you build the ship so that it barely moves and then refit at an Equipment Dock.

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By enabling the Trade Filter in our map view, we can limit the items to Hull Parts. This will allow you to see all the offers in system.

We have a few options. We can either automate or manually order the ship to begin trading. I prefer to automate my traders, as I can start earning passive income without having to think about them.

We want a one-star pilot to start automating our route. This can be easily accomplished by docking in any station, visiting the Trade Corner, and then purchasing a basic piloting course. If we give it to our pilots, they will become a one-star and be able to perform the default behavior.

After I have set my Default behavior, I will select a sector that I know has Hull Parts. I will then right click on the sector and choose “Buy-In”, select Hull Parts before setting my buy price. I will then repeat the steps, selecting a particular sector and clicking on “Sell In”. If I’m looking to be specific, I can select individual stations for the trader to focus on. In this case, I want the trader to feed both the Shipyard Wharf and the Wharf. I am choosing sector.

While my trader goes, I continue to explore and do missions to augment my income and improve reputation. As soon I find Hull Parts plants, I add those to the list for my trader. My aim is to keep my trader busy and bring in passive income.

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