How to Pick a Route in Star Citizen


When picking the right routes it's important to understand the most important factors, Supply and Demand, Contribution Margin, how much you plan to risk, and how much cargo space you have in your ship. There's not a really good third party solution that accounts for all these factors, but let's stick with a few that I've been using.

First, to go https://gallog.co/trading/ enter in your ship, and enter your UEC. For this guide I'll only be looking at the most profitable routes for the freelancer Max starting with over 300,000 credits. I've also added a filter to avoid vices. If you need more credits you're welcome to team up with me any day of the week for the daily cargo run. 

The first commodity that pops up is ArcCorp Mining Area 045 on Walla to Area 18 on ArcCorp. Note, that I'm avoiding Grim Hex and the Orphanage because your ship is likely to get blown up on the pad at Grim Hex is, and the orphanage is an unmarked drug lab. Area 18 has secure, internal hangers, so the only problem you'll run into here is disconnection issues and server crashes.
Next, we need to map out the supply and demand, Bk Fighters website is the only site I know that currently does this: http://bkfighter.com/traverse/sheet.html Here we'll find that ArcCorp Mining Area 045 produces a supply of 20 SCU per minute with a limit of 500 SCU. This means that every minute 20 SCU is produced but they can store up to 500 SCU. This is ideal for the Caterpillar, as she'll devour up all 500 SCU with room to spare in one trip, but it'll also work for the Max in this case. The way we can figure out supply is simply by flying to an outpost and seeing how much of a commodity is available at any given time. Demand on the other hand is how much a station or outpost requires at any given time. Area 18, in this case, demands 50 SCU per minute with a maximum of 5000 SCU required. 

Contribution margin is simple the profit per unit also known as dollar contribution per unit sold. We'll find this by finding the buy and sell prices at their respective location. Also note that even the best trading tools will always be incorrect because prices change hourly, if not every minute based on player activity. You'll find the buy and sell prices in-game, noting the prices as you buy and sell. In this case I'll pull the numbers for Gallog which has laranite listed at 5.9.
Multiply the CM by the number of units you can buy (supply) or the size of your cargo hold times 100. There are 100 units in every 1 SCU. 120 SCU x 100 x 5.9 = 70,800 aUEC.
Also, not that every unit costs about 25.10 per unit, so your initial investment/risk for the freelancer max would be 301,200. 

I've also put together a few routes here that are running to and from ArcCorp to Port Olisar, as well as a personal favorite of mine Tram & Myers to Olisar. 

Tim's Routes of the Day 

ArcCorp Mining Area 045, Wala TO Area 18, ArcCorp
Commodity: Laranite
Supply: 20 SCU p/m, max 500 SCU.
Demand: 50 SCU p/m max 5000 SCU.
CM: 5.9.
Buy: 25.10.
Sell: 31.01.
Ideal Ship: Drake Caterpillar, using 500 SCU.
Maximum Profit: 295,000 every 30 minutes.
Profit Per Minute: 9,833

Hicks Research Outpost, Cellin or Deakins Research Outpost, Yela TO Area 18
Commodity: Medical Supplies
Supply: 10 SCU p/m, max 2000 SCU
Demand: 20 SCU p/m, max 500 SCU
CM: 3.45
Buy: 15.75
Sell: 19.20
Ideal Ship: Drake Caterpillar, using 500 SCU.
Maximum Profit: 172,500 every 45 minutes.
Profit Per Minute: 3,833

Area 18 TO Port Olisar
Commodity: Scrap
Supply: 150 SCU p/m, max 23040
Demand: 1433 SCU p/m, max 23040
CM: 0.5
Buy: 1.35
Sell: 1.85
Ideal Ship: Caterpillar
Maximum Profit: 28,800 every 45 minutes.
Profit Per Minute: 640

Tram & Myers Mining, Cellin TO Port Olisar
Commodity: Diamond
Supply: 620 SCU p/m, max 2000 SCU
Demand: 17 SCU p/m, max 23040 SCU
CM: 1.5
Buy: 5.85
Sell: 7.35
Ideal Ship: Caterpillar
Maximum Profit: 86,400 every 10 minutes.
Profit Per Minute: 8,640



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