Mystery Trader

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The Mystery Traders are ships from an advanced alien race that appear randomly anytime from 2430 onwards if Random Events is enabled with the message "A mysterious trading vessel broadcasting a proposal has been detected entering known space." The MT flies in a straight line at a speed between warp 8 and 13, but often (for reasons known only to himself) changes course and speed which can make a rendezvous rather difficult. If, however you manage to get a fleet of ships holding at least 5000kt of minerals within hailing distance, that whole fleet (including any escort ships) will be 'absorbed' by the MT and you will be given either a piece of unique technology, a boost to your current research, or a few of the Traders support vessels(MT Ships) in return.

You may increase the amount of help you receive from the Trader by giving more minerals - up to a maximum 9800kt. The chances of getting a particular kind of help from a particular trader are random, but that trader will give the same thing to everyone who visits it. If the MT is giving away a specific MT Toy which you already have(either from a previous MT or from tech trade) the MT may give anything(that MT's give) or nothing.

If you are given a unique part, the amount of materials in the fleet is irrelevant so long as it is 5000kt or more. You may only visit each Trader once. If you try again you will be turned away regardless of how much cargo you have to offer.

Map with Mystery Trader selected and showing its path at W10 Detail pane of Mystery Trader

Tech Resources

How much tech will I get?

That depends on you current total number of tech levels and the amount of minerals you deliver. Note that all the minerals need to be in the same fleet when it meets the MT.
Current Total Minerals given
Tech Levels 5000kt 6200kt 7400kt 8600kt 9800kt
0-59 6 7 8 9 10
60-71 5 6 7 8 9
72-83 4 5 6 7 8
84-95 3 4 5 6 7
96-107 2 2 2 2 2
108+ 1 1 1 1 1

Like tech transfers, the MT doesn't really give 'levels' but rather the resources required for the given tech level, so any resources you've already invested in a tech area will be applied to the next tech level - or to the next tech area if you happen to get the same tech area you're currently researching.


MT Toys

MT toys are components that cannot be researched by players, but are only available from the Mystery Trader.

class ID# Ener Weap Prop Cons Elec Bio Mass Resr Iron Bora Germ Name
2 19 21 21 0 0 16 12 8 40 6 40 6 Multi Contained Munition
3 8 0 11 12 0 0 21 8 50 3 8 1 Anti Matter Torpedo
4 9 0 12 0 0 12 12 5 5 1 5 0 Hush-a-Boom
6 15 20 10 10 20 10 20 0 5000 0 0 0 Genesis Device
7 7 5 0 0 10 5 5 20 20 8 0 2 Alien Miner
9 5 5 0 0 11 5 0 9 25 12 0 3 Multi Cargo Pod
9 10 16 0 20 20 16 0 10 40 0 0 50 Jump Gate
10 5 11 0 11 0 11 0 2 15 5 0 5 Multi Function Pod
11 7 12 0 9 0 9 0 10 20 10 2 6 Langston Shell
13 10 14 0 0 14 14 6 20 65 18 6 6 Mega Poly Shell
14 9 7 0 13 5 9 0 20 40 12 15 11 Enigma Pulsar
15 31 0 0 0 8 0 0 70 100 30 8 8 Mini Morph
  • See each MT item for more details of each item, or MT toys for a complete detailed listing.

Unique Technologies

Hush-a-boom.JPG
  • Hush-a-boom
    A specialised lightweight standard bomb which surpasses the destructive potential of the venerated Cherry Bombs. Their unusually low mass allows for the construction of gateable bombers.
Enigma Pulsar.PNG
  • Enigma Pulsar
    Probably the most sought after MT item, the Pulsar is an engine. And a very good one. It not only functions as a ramscoop, but is warp 10 capable, as well as cloaking the ship and raising its battle speed.
Mega Poly Shell.JPG
  • Mega Poly Shell
    Much the same as the Langston Shell, only occupying an armour slot. It is considered to be of more use than its shield counterpart however, due to its greater abilities in the same areas which allow for a longer useful life.
Langston Shell.PNG
  • Langston Shell
    A shield item which also provides additional armour, cloaking, jamming, and scanning. A very useful combination of abilities, only let down by its mediocre overall strength which means it is easily surpassed by the more advance standard items.
    • The armour component is unaffected by the Regenerating Shields LRT.
Multi Function Pod.PNG
  • Multi-Function Pod
    An electrical item that functions as a cloak, jammer, and increases battle speed. The increases are small, but allows a ship to have a 'bit' of everything rather than all of nothing.
    • This is the only electrical item capable of raising speed, so use this if mechanical slots are at a premium.
Anti-Matter Torpedo.PNG
  • Anti-Matter Torpedo
    A missile based weapon item with the highest base accuracy, longest range, and lowest mass. Not especially powerful but the very long range and overall cheapness make them fairly useful, however they seldom see much action as they have very high biotechnology requirements - biotech being the least 'valuable' of research fields.
Jump Gate.PNG
  • Jump Gate
    An unusual mechanical item, which enables an equipped ship to travel to a stargate from anywhere (even deep space) within the gates limits. If you are an IT, you want this item.
    • This can be used for fleets of ships, but EVERY ship in the fleet must be equipped with a jump gate, otherwise the jump order will be ignored and a standard course will be set.
Genesis Device.PNG
  • Genesis Device
    This is a planetary device that is built from the factory screen. For the massive cost of 5000 resouces you get a brand new planet.
Mcm.PNG
  • Multi-Contained Munition
    Another weapon, only a specialised range-3 beam. It increases scanner range, and torpedo accuracy as well as cloaking. Not to mention being able to drop bombs on planets AND lay standard mines!
    • This is the only way for War Mongers to have access to minelaying.
Alien Miner.JPG
  • Alien Miner
    Specialised high-tech mining equipment, the miner not only provides a decent mineral output, but raises ship speed, along with providing both cloaking and jamming.
    • This is the only advanced mining equipment you can get if you picked the Only Basic Remote Mining LRT.
Multi Cargo Pod.PNG
  • Multi-Cargo Pod
    Enables a ship to carry an impressive 250kt of extra cargo, as well as providing both a cloak and extra armour.
<tooltip text="Mini Morph hull layout">Mini Morph.JPG</tooltip>
  • Mini-Morph
    This is the only non-item thing the MT will give you. It is the plans for an exotic ship chassis based loosley on the Hyper Expansion Metamorph ship. Its smaller and has fewer equipment slots than a Metamorph, but is much cheaper and makes an excellent minelayer and light skirmisher despite being poorly suited to combat. (Low initiative and armour.)

MT Ships

<tooltip text="MT Probe layout">
MTProbe.JPG
</tooltip>
  • MT Probe
    A Mini Morph ship with 4 Anti Matter Torpedoes, 2 Enigma Pulsar Engines, 3 Mega Poly Shells, 1 Multifunction Pod, 1 Multicargo Pod, and 1 Jump Gate.
<tooltip text="MT Scout layout">MTScout.JPG</tooltip>
  • MT Scout
    A Mini Morph ship with 4 Anti Matter Torpedoes, 2 Enigma Pulsar Engines, 3 Langston Shells, 1 Multifunction Pod, 1 Multicargo Pod, and 1 Jump Gate. The mystery trader issues 2 of these ships. Very fast ship, yet weak in combat.
<tooltip text="MT Lifeboat layout">MT Lifeboat.JPG</tooltip>
  • MT Lifeboat
    A Nubian class ship with 3 Enigma Pulsar Engines, 6 Mega Poly Shells, 6 Langston Shells, 6 Anti Matter Torpedoes, 9 Multicontained Munitions, 6 Multifunction Pods, and 3 Multicargo Pods. This is a capital ship, although it's more deadly as a bomber than as a combat ship. This ship also lays mines.


Trading MT Technologies

The unique technologies you gain from the MT can be traded in much the same way as regular tech-trading. however the chances of gaining are much smaller. [1]

  • MT toys can only be traded via scrapping or via battle and not through invasion.
  • The chance of getting a part is based on the number of MT items in the whole fleet (upto 25 items per event).
  • As with trading tech levels there is 50% chance of not getting an MT part per event.
  • After the above check, there is a 1% chance per MT item present of gaining the design.
  • The total chance per event with the max 25 items is 12.5% (50% x 25%)
  • This is the one instance where having multiple copies of a component on a single scrapper is advantageous.

S.B.Posey's Spreadsheet has a sheet for calculating the probability of a successful (MT) tech trade. Probability of successful mt tech transfer.png

Following the MT - A warning

If you want to prevent others trading with the MT by following it with the fleet, that fleet WILL NOT follow the MT if you target it with the right click on the blue diamond (objects in the same location) and selecting MT. To move the fleet in the same location as MT in next turn, you need to target that MT with a ship that's not in the same location, and target that ship with the "interception" fleet. OFC you can try to travel with the same speed and along the same path as MT goes, but if it changes speed/direction, your ships will not end in the same location as MT. - iztok [2]

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