Star Merchant

About Star Merchant

Buy cheap at the edge of the sector, sell dear in the capital. That is how every merchant starts — and ends up with a fleet, colonies and a place in the galaxy ranking.

Star Merchant is a turn-based economic game in a space setting. Each turn is one trading cycle: you check prices on the planets, load up and send your ships where the goods you carry are missing. Profits go into bigger holds, new ships, colonies and research. Sometimes it pays to slip a cargo past the customs officers. Sometimes you have to answer fire with fire.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING
• Trading. Every planet has its own goods, prices and shortages. A route that pays a fortune today may be worthless tomorrow, because the market reacts to what the merchants do.
• Colonising. Your own colonies pay taxes and give you resources you cannot buy anywhere else.
• Researching. Technologies improve range, cargo capacity, speed and colony income.
• Smuggling and fighting. Contraband carries the highest margin, but customs officers and pirates never sleep. Your fleet can defend itself — or strike first.
• Growing a fleet. Several ship classes, from a nimble courier to a heavy freighter, with upgrades, crests and colours of your own trading house.

SOLO OR ONLINE
In solo play you compete against trading houses run by the computer. The game also works without an internet connection, so you can finish a session on a train or a plane.

Online play means persistent worlds with real people. Cycles are settled every 60 minutes, merchants trade with each other on the Guild Exchange, houses can transfer money, and the ranking and the world chronicle show who is rising and who is sinking. The world keeps living while you are away. You come back in the morning and see what changed overnight.

TWO WAYS TO PLAY
• Endless world: you play for as long as you have something to trade. Bankruptcy is not the end, just a fresh start.
• Campaign: 60 cycles and a clear wealth target. Whoever gathers the most, wins.

THREE MAPS
• Classic: 23 planets. Good for learning and for quick games.
• Random: a different layout, different routes and different opportunities every time.
• Large random: 88 planets in 4 sectors, for players who like to plan far ahead.

ONE ACCOUNT, ANY DEVICE
Your save lives on your account, so you can start on the phone and finish in a browser on your computer. The account is optional: solo play works without one.

NO ADS
The game has no ads and does not track you. Optional purchases unlock extra content: the Captain's Licence (new ship classes and large maps), the Hyades Sector (a second sector on the maps), the Smugglers' Guild (smuggling upgrades) and Crests and fleet colours. You can also hire Guild officers for 30 days: navigator, engineer, governor, broker, technocrat, admiral. They make a merchant's life easier, but they do not win the game for you. Their bonuses work at the pace of the game, the same for everyone, so nobody can buy a place in the ranking.

Come aboard. The galaxy is waiting for a good deal.