In Star Citizen, progression is largely driven by the trade of goods, from highly valuable assets you can stow on your person, to volume-based trading using the largest haulers.
What are commodities?
Commodities are generally resources intended to be processed or traded rather than equipped for personal use. For the purchasing of clothing and equipment, visit our guide for spending your aUEC: Shopping in the 'Verse.
Where can I find commodities?
Commodities can be purchased from various mining outposts, hydroponic farms and stations to be sold when or where the demand is higher, or sourced by players via exploration, mining or other extraction.
High value items can be found all over the 'Verse, so be sure to scour above and below the surface of planets, moons and even asteroids, and make sure that you are well-equipped to collect them!
Hint: Many of the commodities you can collect on-foot for the Alpha 3.7 initial release of the feature are found in and around caves.
Where can I store commodities?
Ship and Vehicle Cargo Grids
Most of Star Citizen's vehicles contain SCU (Standard Cargo Unit) grids for the storage of commodities in shipping crates, although some are specialized for the role. For example, the Prospector mining ship is outfitted with saddle bags specifically for holding ore.
For more information about the different roles and types of vehicles in Star Citizen, visit our Ships and Vehicles guide.
Personal Commodity Inventory
Smaller items can also be stored on your person via the Personal Commodity Inventory (or PCI). Whilst the default skin-tight flight suit does not provide any storage, most torso armor provides some capacity, with heavier armor generally granting more Storage Points (SP) and some especially designed for storage.
Important Note: If your character dies or your ship is destroyed, you will lose all cargo contained within. Support cannot help with loss of cargo due to game-play or bugs.
How do I collect commodities?
In Ships
Large-scale extraction may require specialized tools, such as the extraction beam on the Prospector mining ship. For more information about the mining and ore extraction process both in-ship and on-foot, visit our Mining Basics guide.
On Foot
For hand-held commodities that do not require special tools for extraction, simply approach whilst wearing appropriate armor and hold F.
From the available options, Click Stow. This will add it to your Personal Commodity Inventory. You will still be able to pick up and inspect items without available storage, but you will not be able to stow them.
This inventory can be accessed by pressing I on the keyboard, or via Personal Inner Thought by holding F and selecting the small grey dot that appears.
From the menu, you can click on a single type of commodity and Drop Item. Whilst in a ship's cargo grid, you will also be able to Store All in a portable cargo box to free up space to allow you to collect even more before trading.
Note: Unlike commodities, equipment to be used by your character is stored in the Global Inventory when stowed. This is accessed through the Personal Manager App.
How do I trade Commodities?
Trading & Shipping Consoles
Most commodities can be bought from or sold to Trading & Shipping consoles, which can be found at most major landing zones, active space stations, surface outposts and rest stops; just look for the Administration section.
Interact with the kiosks by tapping F whilst looking at one. You can sell directly from either your ship or your Personal Commodity Inventory, although you will not be able to buy directly to your PCI.
Each locale stocks a limited selection of commodities, and will have different demand levels for different goods. Pricing also differs per location, so it is worth keeping abreast of the economy.
Refineries
Whilst gems collected by hand are ready to be traded, unrefined commodities such as mined ore cannot be sold to regular commodity terminals. Instead, it will need to be sold to a refinery for processing. These are less common, but can be found at major spaceports and stations.
Important Note: You must land legally in order to trade. Your ship will not appear in the terminal if this procedure is not followed.