Rare Trade Goods

Rare Trade Goods are a special class of Resource that cannot be purchased in regular Exchanges or Black Markets. They can, however, be sold in them and they will appear in the Demand screen of exchanges. Being rare, they fetch prices equal to or higher than the best regular resources. Though they are all expensive, they vary considerably in terms of their Permit Levels and Legality. Rare Trade Goods are often most easily sold in Black Markets especially those, such as Terrox Artifacts, which require a level 4 Trade Permit and have a legality of 2.

### Finding Rare Trade Goods

Rare Trade Goods can only be produced in specific quadrants. A quadrant will only supply one type and most quadrants will not supply any. To acquire such resources, you must gain an introduction to a contact who resides in such a quadrant and who is apt to sell Rare Trade Goods such as Spice Traders or Trade Czar.

If a quadrant supplies a Rare Trade Good it will be listed on the bottom of the Atlas screen. It is possible to preview the map to discover which ones will supply Rare Trade Goods when selecting your captain at the start of the game. It is even possible to start in a quadrant that sells Rare Trade Goods. Some starting contacts will sell Rare Trade Goods such as Merchant, Smuggler, and Spice Trader, making it easier to start trading in them right away.

Kraesline Shardes, Terrox, and Jyeeta Xeno Artifacts are a special type of Rare Trade Good that can't be acquired by trade. They must be acquired via Exploring wild zones, Salvaging from orbital salvage rumors, and Combat with the dreaded Xeno. Be careful, as the reward cards are often paired with very difficult Xeno combat. Each Xeno Artifact in your hold slightly increases the chances of encountering Xeno ships in the void.

### Buying and Selling Rare Trade Goods

There are a number of special rules for buying and selling Rare Trade Goods as well. A contact must have at least 25 influence with their faction in order to sell Rare Trade Goods. This is important because purchasing Rare Trade Goods from a Contact will cost them influence, potentially limiting their ability to sell them in the future. In addition the captain must have a personal rep with the contact of 8 and an effective reputation of 20 with the contact's fraction.

Selling Rare Trade Goods has a chance to give Influence to all Contacts of the same faction in the Rare Trade Good's Quadrant of origin. The Captain will also gain Reputation with the local faction for selling Rare Trade Goods at the Exchange. Both the Influence and Reputation bonuses are increased the farther the sale is occurring from the Rare Trade Good's Quadrant of origin.

This means if you want to pump influence of your contacts, buy an initial batch of RTG, find any planet in the desired quadrant that has the contact(s) and then sell 1 unit at a time. This will also pump the contact you bought the RTG from to a high influence very quickly. The high price of RTGs allows a Merchant crew member (or captain) to hit the 50k minimum for Lucrative Wholesale quite easily to gain intel. Continuing to retrain and therefor refresh the merchant crew member's talents will allow you to do this over and over. This is a fast and reliable way to farm intel, gaining the crew members Negotiate skill in intel every turn for just a few thousand credits spent on the retraining.

### Lore around Rare Trade Goods

At this time, RTGs don't have in-game descriptions. Thus, for now, the community will stash those details here!

#### Iridlaentine

Iridlaentine is an extremely rare metal that was mined in the Galactic Core centuries ago. This crystalline metallic element mined from the surface of certain stars. This mining was performed by Star Traders, using Leviathan Suits for their original purpose. The refinement of Iridlaentine into a usable form requires a star forge, and following the Exodus it has been extremely hard to mine and refine. The Templar Knights have a limited supply that they use carefully when the need arises.