What are the good trader ships?

[drspendlove]

I'm having trouble understanding which ships will be best for me to invest in for my (current) end-game trading ship. I'd like to drop 1 million credits on something but I don't understand the ships well enough to know *which* ship is really, really good for traders. Any suggestions?

[Zer0Winds]

As I've mentioned before, Galtak Freighter is great. It's also a good starter if you wish.

Never used it so I'm not sure, but Cautela Heavylift should be good, I think. Maybe.

[MintDragon]

drspendlove Playing as a merchant, I reach a point (in this version of the game), where I'm normally trading only in high value goods, have 3-5 million in credits, training crew/officers to become effective in things other than merchant duties (Spy, Explorer, etc...).

The question I ask myself is 'what do I want to do next?' Personally I don't need as much cargo space (due to high value goods only), so tend to look for a ship that can defend itself against anything (high armor/shields/lots of containers for weapons and upgrades). Also consider how many officers I want to carry.

Galtak Freighter is great due to good range, low fuel consumption, 75 cargo room to start. You can bulk it up pretty well with upgrades, but are limited initially to 4 officers (5 max).
Warhammer has the most compartments and largest crew size, 60 cargo, so IMO can really customize it the most at this point.

And for sure there will be additional ships to choose from, but currently the Galtak to Warhammer is my normal Merchant upgrade path.

Wiki Ship Table: startraders.gamepedia.com/Ships

[albma]

I rode the galtak freighter all the way up to level 29 on my merchant. it's hard to beat.
finally switched it out for the cautela titan. The cautela titan, despite the release notes, is initially configured more like a warship. spent maybe another million tricking it out.
In the end a fully customized warhammer and a fully customized cautela titan is about the same. after factoring in the mass effects, it works out to 1 extra large spot on the warhammer vs 3 extra medium spots (and 250 extra hull to soak dmg) on the cautela titan.

[drspendlove]

I had to learn that you could customize your ship with different types of equipment on a given slot much AFTER writing this initial question. Huge learning there.

[Cory Trese]

I love the new one!

[starlord]

I'm playing on challenging difficulty, as a Merchant/Smuggler/Military Officer in 312.40AE, with over $5 million in one of his cargo holds. Made most of my money from missions, few from rare goods and black markets. Considering I'm now a criminal lord in Steel Song, Cadar, Javat and Rychart factions, I was thinking of really focusing on the smuggling part since I have made some powerful smuggling contacts thru missions. I am currently using a Fidelis cutter, but looking for a good trading ship with larger cargo hold that can handle the occasional pirate, bounty hunter etc. Also when I get a new ship, will I get a new crew or will my old crew move to the new ship (I'm kinda attached to all my officers)?

PS: This game is a magnificent beast. I have spent hours travelling the galaxy with zero regrets. I love Templar Battleforce but the amount of affection I have for STF can't be quantified. Great job, TBros! You've hit another one out of the ballpark

[raithnor]

For endgame trading I prefer the Aegis Freighter. Technically it's slanted more towards Salvaging orbitals, but with a little work you can make work as a Spying and Exploring vessel.

[Bariel]

The Galtak Heavylift has 5 large slots - 4 of which can be cargo holds, so you can get a huge amount of cargo on it.

For absolute domination, and adding other strings to your bow as well as trading, I like the Sword Battlecruiser, as you can haul plenty of cargo and still annihilate pretty much anything that dares to get in your way - it is very expensive to buy and kit out though.

When you get a new ship, your crew and officers will transfer across with you, when you take command - unless you don't have enough officer and/or crew space on the new ship - so make sure you check, and add barracks/officer cabins as needed before taking command.

You can outfit the new ship in dry dock and leave it there while the upgrades are made - whilst this is happening you can continue to use your original ship.

[starlord]

Thanks for the feedback.
Ended up getting the Horizon Highliner. Though geared towards salvaging initially, I stripped it of some weapons and the salvaging gear, then added more cargo space and fuel capacity. Good enough for my rare goods, exploring and black market deals

[imp]

A different view

The smart merchant is one of the most powerful Captains in the game if you use his talents he is a fighter and a lover so goes well with diplomat and military commander to take advantage of his hopefully high Charisma & Wisdom. Command & Tactics for combat negotiate for an easy time and rep modifying through trading makes him the strategic manipulator. This guy has contacts coming out of his ears he makes friends and influences people like no other class.

Starting ship for best start 2 choices Galtak Freighter or Aeternum Vindex - both require unlocks.
Speed and range are important as can visit more places to trade and find those low trade level planets good hiring planets along with using that speed to complete missions.
You can get the 5k trade talents in a standard Vindicator so that’s all you ever really need along with your contact talents. Vindicator helps you shape and mould the universe faster because it’s quick and has a huge range. Crew size is the Vindicators down side you have to specialise as you probably want a total of 3 merchants on your crew and it could really do with cargo hold upgrade.

Galtak is a good all rounder max out the cargo holds or make one a specialist unit. It’s a fairly flexible ship but should you?
Probably a better option would be to upgrade your ship for something more flexible and survivable.

Upgrade ship should be able to survive a battle with suitable crew like commanders to help that and should be outfitted with either 1 or 3 level 4 cargo holds.
1 cargo hold - by this time should be all you need as you made the friends and bought the permits so are mainly trading in high end goods which are normaly limited in supply.
3 cargo holds - flexibility but mainly because you want to live life on the edge and make use of one of the new Xeno Hunter crew.
Don’t blow it up and some Xenos will give you 3 cargo holds worth of Artifacts - add 10% at least to sale price due to talents. Oh this is a lucrative sideline with a huge rep boost to boot and I know where to sell them.

Funny side note not sure how but current game I have 8 crew members with the bandit trait just acknowledging ships can net me 1-6k flying through a friendly system is great if I meet 3 or 4.