Trading

**Trading** refers to the transportation of resources and other goods in Before We Leave. This article covers trade between islands, and trade between planets in space.

## Manual Shipping

Players can manually ship resources and peeps between Islands using a Trade Ship.

**How to make a manual shipment:**

1. Select your Trade Ship. Move it next to the Port on the Island you wish to send goods from.
2. With your Trade Ship selected, you'll see a selection of different resources. Click the icon of the resource you want to transfer.
	* You can edit the slider that pops up to pick the amount of resources you want to transfer.
3. Wait for your Peeps to finish loading the cargo into the Trade Ship.
4. Navigate to the other Island's port by selecting the Trade Ship and using **left click** to sail. Hold down **right click** to move the planet around.
5. Once at the other Island's port, select your Trade Ship again, and click the amount of resources you have. Select the transfer button again, and then check your Port building - you’ll see the Resources being collected by the Peeps.

## Smart Shipment

*Main article:* Smart Shipping

Introduced in the wasteland update for Steam and EGS, it is possible to connect resources into a trade "network" by choosing the resources to trade, and a target amount that should be available on that island. Ships and other vehicles will attempt to transfer those chosen goods between other islands with those resources specified in the "network" to exactly meet this amount. This is the basic process for automated shipping.

## Shipping Lanes

Shipping lanes can be set up for transportation of goods between islands with Ports, and planets with Landing Pads. This is still the main shipping method on platforms without the wasteland update, such as consoles.

#### Setting Up a Shipping Lane

1. Click on the Shipping Mode button (mapped to the L key) on the left hand side of the screen. It is directly above the Road button.
	* Potatoes are the default Resource for Shipping. If you wish to change to a different resource, do so by clicking the button to the right of “Manage Shipping”.
2. To create a Shipping Lane, select the circle and drag a lane from one port or landing pad to another. Once connected, click the exclamation point button to open your Shipping Manifest.
	* You can also access the Shipping Manifest by clicking the "Manage Shipping" button while in Shipping Mode.
3. Click the Edit Trade Ships button and select which ship you want transporting goods in the lane. Click the tick box when you're done.

#### Setting Up an Interplanetary Shipping Lane

Setting up a Shipping Lane that runs between Planets is largely the same as setting up a Shipping Lane between Islands - the only difference is that the player must enter System View to access Shipping Mode. The System View can be accessed by the Show Planets button on the left hand side menu.

#### Reserve and Maintain

When selecting resources in the Manage Shipping dialogue box, the player can set values under "Units to Reserve" and "Maintain Target". Trade ships will not be loaded with this resource if the total amount of that resource stored on the target island is not less than the number set in the Maintain Target field or if the total amount stored on the source island is not greater than the number set in the Units to Reserve field.

Without using these settings, trade ships will be continuously filled with resources, and if the target island does not have storage capacity to unload the ship, the trade ship's cargo hold will get backed up.