Basics of Cargo

Preface - Contract Familiarization

Courier Missions - Pick up one-handed or two-handed items and deliver them to another location (not bound by distance restrictions)

• These can be done in essentially any ship with an interior!

Delivery Missions - 1 SCU through 6 SCU cargo missions, always in entirely 1 SCU boxes (not bound by distance restrictions)

• These are great for starter ships like the Mustang Alpha (4 SCU), Cutter (4 SCU), 135c (6 SCU), Syulen (6 SCU), or the Intrepid (8 SCU)

Hauling contracts - 6 SCU and above, any combination of box sizes, divided into three categories in the contracts manager:

• Local Hauling - Hauling contracts that take place exclusively on one planet for both pickup and drop-off

  • Extra Small and Small shipments

• Planetary Hauling - Hauling contracts that go between one planet, its moons, or the surrounding space stations

  • Extra Small, Small, and Medium shipments

• Stellar Hauling - Hauling contracts that go between planets, but always keep you within the star system (Nyx/Pyro/Stanton)

  • Extra Small, Small, and Medium shipments

• Interstellar Hauling - Hauling contracts that require you to transit between star systems (Nyx/Pyro/Stanton)

  • Medium, Large, and Bulk shipments

All cargo missions in general can be one of three basic types. These terms are not written used verbatim in any of the contracts, but you'll see what category the missions fall under as you browse their objectives (see below)

1. A to B - single pickup and single drop-off

2. Single to Multi - single pickup, multiple drop-offs

3. Multi to Single - multiple pickups, single drop-off

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Reputation

As you do more missions for a faction your reputation with them will increase, unlocking additional contracts with better rewards! Check your individual faction reputation under the "REP" page in your mobiglass. You can decide whether to slowly get reputation with many factions, or try and grind missions for one in particular. Some (but not all) of the factions you might see as you're scrolling through missions are:

• Ling Family Hauling

• Covalex Independent Contractors

• Red Wind Linehaul

• Dead Saints (unlawful)

This guide is based on the Covalex missions, so other faction's contracts might look a little different, but key information should be in blue regardless of the mission-giver.

Let's take a look at one of these Covalex hauling contracts and highlight a few key items you should check before accepting any cargo contract:

1. Mission Category - Planetary, so we know all of the ones in this section will keep us within our CURRENT planetary area (the planet and its moons). If you travel to another planet, the missions will update to reflect the new opportunities there.

2. Mission Name - "Rookie Rank - Extra Small Cargo Haul", the missions are split into size categories which reflect both the amount of cargo you'll have to take as well as the largest size SCU crate you'll need to be able to fit in your ship. More on this below.

3. Mission Name - "Rookie Rank - Direct Small Cargo Haul", this is not the contract I have on screen, but any mission that has DIRECT in the name is a single pick up and single drop off location. If you're short on time, or looking for an easier trip, try and find one of these missions.

4. "1 SCU or smaller" - all text in blue is the KEY information you need to actually read. The rest is just narrative fluff that you can skim or ignore if you'd like. In this case, 1 SCU or smaller tells you the LARGEST crate you'll need to be able to fit in your ship is 1 SCU in size.

5. PRIMARY OBJECTIVES - these show the pickup and drop off locations. In this case we have to take a total of 8 SCU of cargo (each no larger than 1 SCU in size) from Port Tressler and deliver 4 SCU to a facility on microTech, and another 4 SCU to the spaceport in New Babbage (NB) on microTech.

Based on the ship you're using, accept a contract that your ship can handle. Within each Hauling category (Local, Planetary, Stellar, and Interstellar) you may have any of the following size categories. As the category increases in size, so does the total amount of SCU you will need to haul, as does the length of the trip you'll need to make to pickup and deliver the containers.

• Extra Small: 1 SCU containers

• Small: 4 SCU containers or smaller

• Medium: 8 SCU containers or smaller

• Large: 16 SCU containers or smaller

• Bulk: no size limits on containers (32 SCU or smaller) - YOU WILL NEED A LARGER TRACTOR BEAM THAN THE MULTITOOL: the 2-handed dedicated tractor beam, a vehicle tractor beam, or the Argo ATLS will be necessary for moving these containers.

Covalex missions will have these sizes in the contract name. All cargo missions however, regardless of the mission giver, will have the same information available in the mission description. Look out for the blue text telling you the maximum container size you'll have to be able to handle. Again, any Covalex mission that has DIRECT in the name will be a single pickup and single drop-off location.

LASTLY - you do NOT have to deliver the containers in one trip. If you want to take a mission with more boxes than your ship can fit in one journey, feel free! You can deliver a partial shipment to the drop-off location and then go back for the rest in as many trips as you want. It all depends on how much time you want to put into this. HOWEVER - you MUST store any extra cargo in the pickup location's freight elevator BEFORE leaving the location, otherwise it may disappear (even in your home's personal hangar)

Step 1 - Acquire a Cargo Ship

Choosing the right cargo ship for you is half personal preference and half contract requirements. There are a very wide variety of cargo contracts in game, allowing you to choose a mission that your ship can handle. If you're unsure which ships can handle what size and quantity of boxes, check out this awesome resource a community member made to visualize each ship's cargo grid: sc-cargo.space/#/v1/viewer

Step 2 - Select a Mission

Find a mission that your ship can handle and accept it. If you're going to have a friend helping you, just add them to your party and share the contract with them through the ACCEPTED page in your contracts manager. Make sure they received it so they get their share of the mission rewards. (Use the preface above as a reference for mission selection). Track your mission to get the objectives to appear on your HUD

Step 3 - Visit the Pickup Location(s)

Head to the pickup location(s) and land in the hangar or on the landing pad there. Make sure you orient your ship in a way that is most convenient for loading cargo from the freight elevator! Ex. if your ship has a rear ramp that you have to load boxes up, park the ship with the rear facing the freight elevator, just leave enough space for the ramp to go down.

**Tip - use [F4] to enter third person, then hold [Z] and move your mouse to rotate your camera view - just make sure you're stationary before you adjust the camera! Keep moving after you have the camera view you want**

WARNING: TURN OFF YOUR ENGINES BEFORE EXITING YOUR SHIP! Sometimes the ships can have a mind of their own if you leave the engines on and exit the pilot's seat... Use [I] to toggle engines on/off

Step 4 - Retrieve your Cargo from the Freight Elevator

Head to the freight elevator kiosk and lower the elevator. [left click] once on each of the boxes you need to retrieve to highlight them, then use the MOVE TO ELEVATOR button on the bottom to load them onto the elevator. After all boxes have been moved, or the freight elevator has been filled, raise the elevator and load the boxes onto your ship! If the elevator filled and you have more cargo to retrieve, just get everything off the elevator and onto your ship then lower it and call up the rest of the boxes. Repeat until you have all of the cargo loaded.

**Tip - to reset your third person camera view, hold [F4] and press [num *] (the multiplication symbol on the numpad)**

Step 5 - Visit the Drop-Off Location(s) and Unload your Cargo

Head to the drop-off location(s) and land in the hangar or on the landing pad there. Make sure you orient your ship well for the freight elevator again! Unload all your cargo from the ship onto the freight elevator

Step 6 - Turn in Via Freight Elevator Kiosk

Head to the drop-off location(s) and land in the hangar or on the landing pad there. Make sure you orient your ship well for the freight elevator again! Unload all your cargo from the ship onto the freight elevator

Step 7 - Choose Another Contract, and Repeat!

Now that you've done one, pick another contract and repeat the process!

Keep in mind profits are split among all party members with whom you have shared the contract, so if you bring friends that will split the profits evenly among you, but might also make things go a lot faster for larger cargo contracts.

BONUS - Submit a Partially Completed Contract

If you find yourself short on time or the victim of some unfortunate physics accident resulting in the loss of part of the cargo, you can submit a partially completed job! After turning in part of the cargo, simply open your contracts manager and click the submit button :D 

**CONTRACT MASTER - Chain Contracts for Maximum Efficiency!**

Now that you have learned the basics of cargo hauling, it's time to step up your game! The advantage to having so many cargo contracts to choose from (even more the higher your reputation goes) is the likelihood of finding ones with similar pickup and drop-off locations is very high! For example, these local missions all go between MT Logistics Depot S4LD13 and Rayari Deltana Research Outpost. Accepting them all and doing them together only takes 3x delivery legs in a Golem Ox (depot->deltana->depot->DONE) and allowed me to average about 1M aUEC/hr!!

There are bound to be more examples like this across the 'verse, it's just up to you as the hauler to find the right jobs to maximize profit :)