Yo ho! A pirate's life for me!

[ThePrivateer]

So, some folks may have seen my thread here:
http://neurohack.com/transcendence/foru ... php?t=3424
Asking about a good weapon for early game. Thanks for the input, but I need the cash to get said weapons, so I turned to a life of being a drug smuggler.

Don't look at me like that. I'm tight up for cash....

Anyway, I'm buying from the Black Market, but where do I sell?
Does anyone know what places buy drugs for good prices?

Thanks!

[Aury]

The "trashcans" (corporate enclaves)

[ThePrivateer]

The "trashcans" (corporate enclaves)

I've gone there.....I buy some Landanum for 55c say, and they only buy for 45c .... and yes I have gone to different ones, they all do it.
Bug?
Or am I missing something?

[Aury]

oh wait...
did you buy from the black market main stations?
You're supposed to buy from the tempus labs >.<

[ThePrivateer]

oh wait...
did you buy from the black market main stations?
You're supposed to buy from the tempus labs >.<

>.<
Thanks! I think I just passed one of those!

[Curudan]

If you've got a smugglers cargo hold, the best price you'll get for illegal drugs is the Victorian nightclubs on the commonwealth arcologys. Just make sure that you bring all of one kind at one time, so that you get the best price. The Victorian nightclub will pay a significant amount more than the Enclaves, and you can buy from the BM stations to sell to them.

[Aury]

Really? Wow, that's... pretty good prices. Though the smuggler's hold is heavy and gives you only 50 tons of additional space. If using a wolfen, once the supply of illegals dries up, ditch the hold.

[ThePrivateer]

Well, I started a new game today and came into a lucky streak of Black Market stations, Tempus Labs and Victorian Nightclubs.

I found that you can get ENORMOUS profits by buying from the Labs (Booster ~150creds) and selling at the Nightclub (~375creds). That's a massive gain -- however...the Black Market doesn't recognize this.

So if you are in it for the long haul and want all the benefits of the Black Market, you will need to buy from them and sell to the Nightclub.

You can't make the same amount of profit as the Lab-Nightclub run, but you can make decent gains by going Lab-sell-Black Market-sell-Nightclub. (essentially buying back what you sell to the Black Market, in order to on-sell to the nightclub.)

Make sure you have a smuggler's hold installed though if you want to go to the Nightclub.

[Aury]

That's because they only regnize the money that you spend at their stations, so going lab -> nightclub would thus be most profitable, but get you less up in rank because the BM is making less money.

[IceMephit]

If I do smuggle drugs, I buy from TL to sell at Nightclub, and if I can afford it, I try to empty out BM of all their drugs as well. The money from TL to VN can be used to buyout the BM and sell at VN. I have been known to carry these illegal items across several systems before unloading them. This way, you can still turn a profit AND gain rank. At some point before Juno, though, I usually unload it all wherever I can and ditch the smugglers hold ASAP (I usually fly the freighter and revert back to mining gear in the later systems, especially when purchasing units no longer spawn, i.e. VN, corporate conclave)

[SiaFu]

Pushing narcotics is just startup peanuts compared to what the Black Market stations and shipyards really have to offer.


WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS




If you're not in a hurry with your game the Shipyards have unlimited funds for military items up to 100K sales value per unit. Hunting Dwarg behemoths or Earth Slavers can net you over a million relatively early if you farm the reinforcements as the Shipyards and Stations pay a premium for faction military items (those +NotForSale that Commonwealth buys at 10% value).

Also, if you hoard Heliotrope fuel or have Ingenuity, you can upgrade to NX250 reactors at the Shipyard and have a 10%-chance to enhance them for 50% profit. You just need a decent starting capital, as you have to sell them all at once, and a spare 150MW reactor to reinstall and upgrade each time.

... And lots of time, which you can kill by recharging solars over a sun or hunting enemy reinforcements, bringing you full circle.

Black market stations are good for spending that cash so you can rise through the Syndicate ranks and get some decent gear. Hint (like ThePrivateer said): only your purchases count, sou you can buy, sell, re-buy, re-sell ... and, as long as you have cash - buy your way to the top just like a real gangster.

Just watch out if you follow this method, that you don't get hooked

[josh19967]

...and if you get high enough up in rank you can get awesome weapons/shields from the BM ststions!

[ThePrivateer]

....

Nice guide there SiaFu. I find the whole Black Market strategy quite good, provided you get a good run of labs and nightclubs. Particularly in the early game for the Wolfen (which can't really mine well), you can make a decent amount of cash (and thus sweet gear) to safely clear out the pre-Charon systems.