Shipping corrosive cargo can be difficult, and there's a lot of people who aren't sure what they're doing with these things and think CRCRs are needed to ship even one tonne of this stuff. I can assure you, while it's not something you go into without thinking, it's not that hard in reality. I can confidently collect and ship over 50t of these goods without CRCRs or AFMUs without breaking a sweat, and have been shipping large quantities since before UA bombing was even a thing. Accidents can happen, but that's really unlucky. What you want to do is mitigate the risk as much as possible. So with that in mind...
Step 0. Have a plan!
Step 1. Decide what you're doing.
Step 2a. How does it damage your ship?
Step 2b. What are the main hazards
Step 2c. Actions-on
Step 3. Fitting your ship
Additional Techniques
Example Run
Feel free to ask any questions or make suggestions. This is a system that's worked well for over a year* for me collecting these things, but I'm always looking for ways to improve.
*
Step 0. Have a plan!
The most important part. If you are doing something else, whether that's exploring, picking a fight with Thargoids or whatever, and you accidentally come across some of this cargo and think "sure, why not!" then you're almost certainly going to lose it. Plan ahead, and make it the focus of your activity. If you come across this stuff and don't have a plan, it's best to leave it behind, coz it'll likely just jet into space in supercruise. Things to think about are:
- How much cargo are you looking to collect?
- How long do you plan to hold it for?
- Are you planning other activities? (i.e going to activate the Thargoid Sites, for example. This will dictate whether you fit AFMUs or not, and how many you carry)
- How far is it to the nearest station? Is it close or far from jump-in?
- How many hops are there to transport it?
They're some key points to consider and should inform your choices later. There's a whole bunch of activities you can do, and this guide is going to focus on bulk shipping, as it's the most dangerous, because...
- How much cargo are you looking to collect?
- How long do you plan to hold it for?
- Are you planning other activities? (i.e going to activate the Thargoid Sites, for example. This will dictate whether you fit AFMUs or not, and how many you carry)
- How far is it to the nearest station? Is it close or far from jump-in?
- How many hops are there to transport it?
They're some key points to consider and should inform your choices later. There's a whole bunch of activities you can do, and this guide is going to focus on bulk shipping, as it's the most dangerous, because...
Step 1. Decide what you're doing.
If you're doing anything with low volumes, whether it's research, activating US, or just keeping them hot in your cargohold for a while, you rarely need more than one of any type, except for redundancy, so you'd never really have more than 6-7t. For this, some CRCRs and twin AFMUs are best in whatever ship you're flying. Twin AFMUs can repair each other, and CRCRs mitigate some of the damage (not all, if you have some redundancy bringing your hold up to 12t or so). It's low risk, nothing will one-shot, just keep an eye on what's corroding and how much and you're solid. It's really easy.
For anything else (which pretty much leaves bulk shipping, assume 20t plus), read on.
For anything else (which pretty much leaves bulk shipping, assume 20t plus), read on.
Step 2a. How does it damage your ship?
Toxic cargo pulses randomly damage one subsystem in your ship at a time, with the combined power of all toxic cargo in your ship. So, if you have 1t, you'll periodically get 1t worth of damage to one system. If you have 100t, you'll get 100t of damage to one system in the same period. Systems with 0% integrity are still valid targets.
Your critical systems in this regard are, in order of priority:
1. Canopy
2. Cargo Hatch
3. FSD
4. Power Plant and Thrusters
Everything else is sacrificial. Some handy figures to know are that one Thargoid material will do 5% damage to your Cargo Hatch, and about 6.25% to your Canopy (I'd have to recheck, I don't really worry about these figures anymore with bulk shipping). The key here is that 20t will one-shot your cargo hatch, and 16t will one-shot your Canopy. So if you ship less than 16t, nothing will get one-shot.
Canopy is critical as the minute this goes, it can't be repaired in-flight, which puts you on the clock to find a station with repair facilities.
Cargo hatch is secondary. Even if it gets one-shot, this just stops it functioning, and doesn't jettison your cargo instantly. IMPORTANT: Each toxic pulse that hits your cargo hatch has a chance to cause it to jettison cargo. Dealing with this will be discussed later though.
FSD is third priority, as heavy damage can cause malfunctions meaning you can't activate your FSD. This equals more time in supercruise or local space, which is more time for cargo hatch or canopy failures. This is bad.
Power Plant and Thrusters are 4th priority as it's not a huge deal, but the interference is limited. Failures will just cause you to drop out of supercruise. Obviously if either of these hit 0%, you're in a bad place, but a reboot will fix.
Worth noting that FSD, Powerplant and Thrusters are all fairly rugged compared to Cargo Hatch and Canopy, and engineer mods/B-class fittings can also increase their integrity.
Your critical systems in this regard are, in order of priority:
1. Canopy
2. Cargo Hatch
3. FSD
4. Power Plant and Thrusters
Everything else is sacrificial. Some handy figures to know are that one Thargoid material will do 5% damage to your Cargo Hatch, and about 6.25% to your Canopy (I'd have to recheck, I don't really worry about these figures anymore with bulk shipping). The key here is that 20t will one-shot your cargo hatch, and 16t will one-shot your Canopy. So if you ship less than 16t, nothing will get one-shot.
Canopy is critical as the minute this goes, it can't be repaired in-flight, which puts you on the clock to find a station with repair facilities.
Cargo hatch is secondary. Even if it gets one-shot, this just stops it functioning, and doesn't jettison your cargo instantly. IMPORTANT: Each toxic pulse that hits your cargo hatch has a chance to cause it to jettison cargo. Dealing with this will be discussed later though.
FSD is third priority, as heavy damage can cause malfunctions meaning you can't activate your FSD. This equals more time in supercruise or local space, which is more time for cargo hatch or canopy failures. This is bad.
Power Plant and Thrusters are 4th priority as it's not a huge deal, but the interference is limited. Failures will just cause you to drop out of supercruise. Obviously if either of these hit 0%, you're in a bad place, but a reboot will fix.
Worth noting that FSD, Powerplant and Thrusters are all fairly rugged compared to Cargo Hatch and Canopy, and engineer mods/B-class fittings can also increase their integrity.
Step 2b. What are the main hazards
With the way damage is applied, there's times that are much safer with corrosive cargo on board than others. Assuming your cargohold is chock full of corrosive materials, here's the major risk times, in order of risk.
- Being interdicted. This is the most dangerous moment for multiple reasons, lack of control during the interdiction, and the risks of combat. See more in Actions-on
- Fuel scooping. If you're on a multi-system route and charge the next jump as soon as your FSD cools down, you avoid all damage. While you can fuel scoop, you risk taking too long to jump and getting hit with the toxic pulse, or you jump while in the sun's heat radius, overheat your systems and cause much more damage than just the toxic pulses... heat damage is really awful. Best to avoid scooping altogether, see Fitting your Ship for more.
- Large Stars. Particularly when you route through dense stars, the route
- Long supercruise trips. Any time in supercruise is time you can be hit by a toxic pulse. Especially on long trips, laziness can kick in and you can miss the "cargo hatch malfunction" error.
- Docking at stations/planet surfaces. This can take a long time, and the worst-case scenario is your cargo hatch fails *inside* the station and you jet a bunch of materials which end up caught in the station interior. Outposts on the other hand are much safer to land at and easier to recover from a cargo-hatch failure. Be quick about it, you don't want fines either.
- Canopy blowout. This is guaranteed to happen, but puts you on a timer to get to dock, and is a hazard.
- Emergency FSD drop. You may instigate these manually, but if you fly into the sun or try and fail to evade interdiction, these can be risky.
- FSD subsytem failure in supercruise. THIS IS VERY HAZARDOUS. You'll stay in supercruise, but you won't be able to charge your next jump *or* do an emergency drop, and it can last longer than several toxic pulses.
- Collecting stuff. Typically (not including the new missions), you need to load up lots of this stuff. As you either logoff/on at a wreck site or at a US, or are farming USS, whether you're in an SRV or not, your ship will take toxic damage constantly. This is where most of the damage will come from. The new missions mean you won't get hurt by the cargo until you undock. If you can't get away within two pulses, you're being too slow.
- Being interdicted. This is the most dangerous moment for multiple reasons, lack of control during the interdiction, and the risks of combat. See more in Actions-on
- Fuel scooping. If you're on a multi-system route and charge the next jump as soon as your FSD cools down, you avoid all damage. While you can fuel scoop, you risk taking too long to jump and getting hit with the toxic pulse, or you jump while in the sun's heat radius, overheat your systems and cause much more damage than just the toxic pulses... heat damage is really awful. Best to avoid scooping altogether, see Fitting your Ship for more.
- Large Stars. Particularly when you route through dense stars, the route
- Long supercruise trips. Any time in supercruise is time you can be hit by a toxic pulse. Especially on long trips, laziness can kick in and you can miss the "cargo hatch malfunction" error.
- Docking at stations/planet surfaces. This can take a long time, and the worst-case scenario is your cargo hatch fails *inside* the station and you jet a bunch of materials which end up caught in the station interior. Outposts on the other hand are much safer to land at and easier to recover from a cargo-hatch failure. Be quick about it, you don't want fines either.
- Canopy blowout. This is guaranteed to happen, but puts you on a timer to get to dock, and is a hazard.
- Emergency FSD drop. You may instigate these manually, but if you fly into the sun or try and fail to evade interdiction, these can be risky.
- FSD subsytem failure in supercruise. THIS IS VERY HAZARDOUS. You'll stay in supercruise, but you won't be able to charge your next jump *or* do an emergency drop, and it can last longer than several toxic pulses.
- Collecting stuff. Typically (not including the new missions), you need to load up lots of this stuff. As you either logoff/on at a wreck site or at a US, or are farming USS, whether you're in an SRV or not, your ship will take toxic damage constantly. This is where most of the damage will come from. The new missions mean you won't get hurt by the cargo until you undock. If you can't get away within two pulses, you're being too slow.
Step 2c. Actions-on
- Being interdicted: submit and high-wake. Your subsystems will be swiss cheese, so you won't be in any shape to fight. DO NOT TRY TO EVADE. If you do this, you risk the cargohatch failing mid-interdiction and losing lots of your haul to supercruise, you can't disengage or submit fast enough if this happens. Submitting and high-waking is the most efficient way to get out of dodge, and you won't even take toxic damage when hyperspacing if you're quick about it.
- Cargohatch failure mid-supercruise. Emergency FSD drop (double-press jump key) immediately. This interrupts the cargo jetting out, and it'll cancel the effect, so if you're fast enough you won't lose any cargo. If the emergency drop also causes a hatch failure. If this happens just scoop up the cargo and carry on. This is most important to remember when flying to your destination.
- FSD/Powerplant/Canopy failure causing emergency drop. Don't panic. Seriously. Worst thing you can do is panic at a major system failure. This will happen, it's ok, normal space is quite safe. Just stick to the gameplan and keep a cool head.
- FSD/Powerplant/Thrusters at 0%. Again, stay calm, reboot/repair. Your sacrificial subsystems will keep you going... but presuming all is going to plan this should almost never happen. If it does, you had a bad plan to begin with, go back to step 0
- Large Star. Stay cool, pilot around the star like you normally would, I recommend taking a tangent route away from the star though this may not be optimal for all cases. Unless it's a supergiant (in which case, be ready to take a hit), you should have enough time to at least get the next jump unobscured. Rather than spool up the FSD though, drop into local space. This will essentially "reset" the corrosion timer. Once the cooldown is ready, instantly engage your FSD for the next system. You'll jump out with plenty of time before the next corrosive wave hits.
- FSD subsytem failure in supercruise. This will mostly happen on multi-system routes, and should happen near the star. If it does, fly into the star. It might sound dumb, but it's much lower risk to fly into the sun and force emergency drop to local space, than have a cargo hatch failure jet your cargo into supercruise you can't leave.
- Cargohatch failure mid-supercruise. Emergency FSD drop (double-press jump key) immediately. This interrupts the cargo jetting out, and it'll cancel the effect, so if you're fast enough you won't lose any cargo. If the emergency drop also causes a hatch failure. If this happens just scoop up the cargo and carry on. This is most important to remember when flying to your destination.
- FSD/Powerplant/Canopy failure causing emergency drop. Don't panic. Seriously. Worst thing you can do is panic at a major system failure. This will happen, it's ok, normal space is quite safe. Just stick to the gameplan and keep a cool head.
- FSD/Powerplant/Thrusters at 0%. Again, stay calm, reboot/repair. Your sacrificial subsystems will keep you going... but presuming all is going to plan this should almost never happen. If it does, you had a bad plan to begin with, go back to step 0
- Large Star. Stay cool, pilot around the star like you normally would, I recommend taking a tangent route away from the star though this may not be optimal for all cases. Unless it's a supergiant (in which case, be ready to take a hit), you should have enough time to at least get the next jump unobscured. Rather than spool up the FSD though, drop into local space. This will essentially "reset" the corrosion timer. Once the cooldown is ready, instantly engage your FSD for the next system. You'll jump out with plenty of time before the next corrosive wave hits.
- FSD subsytem failure in supercruise. This will mostly happen on multi-system routes, and should happen near the star. If it does, fly into the star. It might sound dumb, but it's much lower risk to fly into the sun and force emergency drop to local space, than have a cargo hatch failure jet your cargo into supercruise you can't leave.
Step 3. Fitting your ship
First up, don't fit CRCRs. At this stage I'm assuming you're planning on carrying over 30t of corrosive cargo at this stage. The problem with CRCRs (and cargo racks) is that they aren't targets for toxic corrosion. Therefore any racks fitted *increase* the chance of a critical system taking damage, as it reduces the pool of available targets for the pulse to hit.
So with that in mind... here's a generalised fitting:
- One cargo rack, preferably the biggest your ship can fit.
- If your trip is multi-destination, fit a Fuel Tank (not a fuel scoop). The range extension on large fuel tank is incredible (you can get 600Ly out of an Asp with a 64t fuel tank)
- As many fittings as possible. Weapons, utility slots, everything. These are not to fight and scan things with, but to provide other valid targets for the toxic damage. This does affect your jump range, but number of jumps is not your enemy here (see the example run for more). Note: MRPs are valid, but don't function the way they would to redirect combat subsystem damage. Cargo racks are not good as they aren't valid targets.
- In your utility slots, fit nothing but Heat Sinks. Heat Sinks are great for doing hot refuels, if you're travelling a long distance. Each has it's own set of charges, and additional heatsinks can be synthesized. Hotkey Heatsink Deployment rather than assign it a weapon group, then you can just hit that whenever you need one rather than faffing around switching fire groups looking for a loaded heatsink.
- A-rate Life Support. Your canopy *will* go. When that happens, you want as much time on the clock as possible to get to a station.
- (Optional) Collection Limpet. If the almost-worst happens and you spill the cargo in normal space, a collector limpet (especially now since limpets can be synthesized)
- (Optional) AFMU. This is of limited value as it's almost certainly going to get whacked by toxic damage by the time you need it. The only critical systems worth repairing are FSD, Thrusters and Powerplant. You must be in local space to repair any of these, and the only time you'll be in local space ideally is when you arrive at the destination station. It's not worth repairing the cargo hatch as it's paper thin, and the same applies for the canopy (besides, you can't repair it once it's busted)
Here's two sample (unengineered) fittings, one for an Asp, more useful for shipping long distances, and one for a Python, which will be better for bulk shipping short distances.
Asp Explorer
Python
So with that in mind... here's a generalised fitting:
- One cargo rack, preferably the biggest your ship can fit.
- If your trip is multi-destination, fit a Fuel Tank (not a fuel scoop). The range extension on large fuel tank is incredible (you can get 600Ly out of an Asp with a 64t fuel tank)
- As many fittings as possible. Weapons, utility slots, everything. These are not to fight and scan things with, but to provide other valid targets for the toxic damage. This does affect your jump range, but number of jumps is not your enemy here (see the example run for more). Note: MRPs are valid, but don't function the way they would to redirect combat subsystem damage. Cargo racks are not good as they aren't valid targets.
- In your utility slots, fit nothing but Heat Sinks. Heat Sinks are great for doing hot refuels, if you're travelling a long distance. Each has it's own set of charges, and additional heatsinks can be synthesized. Hotkey Heatsink Deployment rather than assign it a weapon group, then you can just hit that whenever you need one rather than faffing around switching fire groups looking for a loaded heatsink.
- A-rate Life Support. Your canopy *will* go. When that happens, you want as much time on the clock as possible to get to a station.
- (Optional) Collection Limpet. If the almost-worst happens and you spill the cargo in normal space, a collector limpet (especially now since limpets can be synthesized)
- (Optional) AFMU. This is of limited value as it's almost certainly going to get whacked by toxic damage by the time you need it. The only critical systems worth repairing are FSD, Thrusters and Powerplant. You must be in local space to repair any of these, and the only time you'll be in local space ideally is when you arrive at the destination station. It's not worth repairing the cargo hatch as it's paper thin, and the same applies for the canopy (besides, you can't repair it once it's busted)
Here's two sample (unengineered) fittings, one for an Asp, more useful for shipping long distances, and one for a Python, which will be better for bulk shipping short distances.
Asp Explorer
Python
Additional Techniques
These are some techniques I've picked up which aren't particularly difficult, but may help with your journey
Hot Refuelling
This is a pretty straightforward technique to use if you find your fuel levels slowly whittling down because you spend more time each jump aligning for the next jump and avoiding heat damage. This technique is basically just spooling the FSD while refuelling at the maximum rate for your Fuel Scoop. Obviously this means being close to the star, which means generating huge amounts of heat with your FSD spooling up, so dropping a heatsink is critical for this technique. If you wait til your heat is at 90% before dropping a heatsink, you'll still be at 0% when your FSD is fully spooled for the next jump. Done right with the best Fuel Scoop, this should get you at least five or six jumps worth of fuel, rather than just recouping the fuel expended in the last jump.
Jump TimingAnother simple technique for timing the corrosive cargo hit. Once you enter a system, your FSD cooldown will begin. Once it's complete, you have 3 seconds to safely activate your FSD so you'll jump without taking a corrosion hit. You *can* chance a 4th second, but depending on whether you count slow or quick will affect whether you get hit with the corrosion or not before you jump.
The main purpose for timing this is to give yourself a "backout" opportunity and avoid panicking at a critical moment. If you can't activate your FSD spool-up before 4 seconds, your thinking needs to change from "Spooling up the FSD as quick as possible" to "dropping out of supercruise" i.e the Large Star actions-on. After that 4 seconds you have roughly the time for a high-wake spool to get the next star into an unobscured position and for you to drop out of supercruise safely (below 1000km/s). Doing this, the corrosion timer resets and gives you a clear head to align on target and hyperspace away. This increases travel time obviously, but will help you avoid unnecessary corrosive damage.
Note: DO NOT DO THIS IN FUEL SCOOP RANGE. Spooling from "normal" space inside scooping range will overheat your systems.
Hot Refuelling
This is a pretty straightforward technique to use if you find your fuel levels slowly whittling down because you spend more time each jump aligning for the next jump and avoiding heat damage. This technique is basically just spooling the FSD while refuelling at the maximum rate for your Fuel Scoop. Obviously this means being close to the star, which means generating huge amounts of heat with your FSD spooling up, so dropping a heatsink is critical for this technique. If you wait til your heat is at 90% before dropping a heatsink, you'll still be at 0% when your FSD is fully spooled for the next jump. Done right with the best Fuel Scoop, this should get you at least five or six jumps worth of fuel, rather than just recouping the fuel expended in the last jump.
Jump TimingAnother simple technique for timing the corrosive cargo hit. Once you enter a system, your FSD cooldown will begin. Once it's complete, you have 3 seconds to safely activate your FSD so you'll jump without taking a corrosion hit. You *can* chance a 4th second, but depending on whether you count slow or quick will affect whether you get hit with the corrosion or not before you jump.
The main purpose for timing this is to give yourself a "backout" opportunity and avoid panicking at a critical moment. If you can't activate your FSD spool-up before 4 seconds, your thinking needs to change from "Spooling up the FSD as quick as possible" to "dropping out of supercruise" i.e the Large Star actions-on. After that 4 seconds you have roughly the time for a high-wake spool to get the next star into an unobscured position and for you to drop out of supercruise safely (below 1000km/s). Doing this, the corrosion timer resets and gives you a clear head to align on target and hyperspace away. This increases travel time obviously, but will help you avoid unnecessary corrosive damage.
Note: DO NOT DO THIS IN FUEL SCOOP RANGE. Spooling from "normal" space inside scooping range will overheat your systems.
Example Run
You've fitted your ship, and have a load full of 100t of corrosive cargo. Great! You then plot your route using max jump range, making sure to pick a station under 1,000ls away from jump in. Undock/take off, and spool up for your first jump.
You fitted Fuel Tanks, so you don't care about scooping fuel and avoid any subsystem damage all the way to the target system. Great start!
First thing to go is your canopy. You got 25 minutes of air now.
You're now in supercruise and as luck has it the first thing to malfunction is your cargo hatch. You're switched on though, and do an emergency FSD drop. You don't lose anything again. Hooray!
Unfortunately, your hatch fails again before you warp out. You've still got some room and materials, so you hastily synthesize a limpet and scoop up the canisters... you don't want to faff around with carefully scooping this stuff. Now everything is back on board! 15m left on your air.
You enter supercruise again, and the worst happens,, "Big haul like that, surprised you made it this far" and bam, interdicted. You keep a cool head and submit, all power to shields and boost like nobodies business and plot a random high-wake destination. You warp out successfully. 10m air left.
You consider going somewhere else (valid!) but try the same place. Luckily you don't hit any snags on the supercruise to station. You also take the time to align to the front of the station in supercruise to expedite entry.
You drop out of Supercruise, shields to max, thrusters at half with the letterbox dead ahead. Boost towards it, request docking at 7500m. As you're entering the letterbox, a toxic pulse hits. Luckily it's a 1 in 20 chance to hit your cargo hatch, and it knocks out a pulse laser. You dock, and sell everything! Hoorj!
You fitted Fuel Tanks, so you don't care about scooping fuel and avoid any subsystem damage all the way to the target system. Great start!
First thing to go is your canopy. You got 25 minutes of air now.
You're now in supercruise and as luck has it the first thing to malfunction is your cargo hatch. You're switched on though, and do an emergency FSD drop. You don't lose anything again. Hooray!
Unfortunately, your hatch fails again before you warp out. You've still got some room and materials, so you hastily synthesize a limpet and scoop up the canisters... you don't want to faff around with carefully scooping this stuff. Now everything is back on board! 15m left on your air.
You enter supercruise again, and the worst happens,, "Big haul like that, surprised you made it this far" and bam, interdicted. You keep a cool head and submit, all power to shields and boost like nobodies business and plot a random high-wake destination. You warp out successfully. 10m air left.
You consider going somewhere else (valid!) but try the same place. Luckily you don't hit any snags on the supercruise to station. You also take the time to align to the front of the station in supercruise to expedite entry.
You drop out of Supercruise, shields to max, thrusters at half with the letterbox dead ahead. Boost towards it, request docking at 7500m. As you're entering the letterbox, a toxic pulse hits. Luckily it's a 1 in 20 chance to hit your cargo hatch, and it knocks out a pulse laser. You dock, and sell everything! Hoorj!
Feel free to ask any questions or make suggestions. This is a system that's worked well for over a year* for me collecting these things, but I'm always looking for ways to improve.
*
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