How smart are Material Traders?

[EdVaessen]

I want to purchase 1 unit of tellurium at a raw material trader. I do not have any high grade raw material, only low grades. Like nickel. According to the exchange rate, I need 216 units of first grade nickel to get fourth grade tellurium. I do not have that number, but I do have other lower grade raw materials, like iron, phosphorus, chromium and so on. I can trade them for nickel.

I puzzled a bit and think they are present in sufficient numbers to get what I want. I looks I should trade in stages to increase the number of nickel units. Or not? Can a Material Trader do that automatically for me, once he knows what kinds and numbers of raw material I possess?

Anyone knows about this?

 

[Requiem Mortis]

Each interaction with a material trader is done on a per transaction basis, You can only specify 1 wanted material and then offer the quantity of the material you want to exchange in order to get the number of pieces of what you want.

You cannot offer from multiple bins at the same time.
You can cross trade across groups within a type but not across material type (raw; manufactured; data).

The exchange rates are exorbitant and always favours the Material Trader.

 

[EdVaessen]

I guessed so much. So I will have to do the math myself. Not that it is that hard.
Thanks!

 

[Retropolitan]

Or set up an account at Inara, enter your crafting recipe, and see what materials can be traded to get what you want.

Even better: go shoot some tellurium on a planet surface!

 

[JamesonIX]

Even better: go shoot some tellurium on a planet surface!

This! It's so much more efficient to fill your bins with the high grade raw materials and down trade. That can be done with all raws, except with Selenium.

And here's a more precise guide on how to do it (it also covers data and manufactured, besides raw materials):
Guide - Efficient sources for Raw, Data and Manufactured engineering materials (Reddit)

 

[Sunyavadin]

They're smart enough to make sure they always turn a massive profit on every exchange.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

This! It's so much more efficient to fill your bins with the high grade raw materials and down trade. That can be done with all raws, except with Selenium.

It can be done with Selenium as well - just not in the same way as all the rest.

Personally I find Selenium easy enough to pick up just by landing on a planet with the right composition and shooting some rocks, but it can also be obtained from volcanism sites.

 

[War Eagle]

Yes they are smart, the same people that place all the mats on planets have told them what is worth what based on rareness. lol

 

[CLG 6]

Or set up an account at Inara, enter your crafting recipe, and see what materials can be traded to get what you want.

Even better: go shoot some tellurium on a planet surface!

True - another way is mission rewards.

For some reason I find asteroid mining more fun than surface mining.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

in some cases trading a grade 1 material for grade 5 is not possible because it requires more materials than you can store. In those cases the trades are not allowed. Otherwise you CAN trade across multiple grades and they will do the math for you. It is because the traders can do the math that some trades are not allowed as they are mathematically impossible.

 

[Drelthar]

True - another way is mission rewards.

For some reason I find asteroid mining more fun than surface mining.

I really wish that "hitting the motherlode" (core mining) produced masses of raw materials as well as commodity chunks.

 

[Schmack]

True - another way is mission rewards.

For some reason I find asteroid mining more fun than surface mining.

I've never seen a mission reward offer raw materials.

 

[znôrt]

computing how many grind tokens you need to exchange for some different grind tokens to exchange for a boost. such deep, amazing gameplay ...

tbf with frontier, they are just swimming with the flow, this is the level of retardness most games have descended into because it turns out a majority of people actually want this. kill me now.

 

[Ephraim Stone]

I want to purchase 1 unit of tellurium at a raw material trader. I do not have any high grade raw material, only low grades. Like nickel. According to the exchange rate, I need 216 units of first grade nickel to get fourth grade tellurium. I do not have that number, but I do have other lower grade raw materials, like iron, phosphorus, chromium and so on. I can trade them for nickel.

I puzzled a bit and think they are present in sufficient numbers to get what I want. I looks I should trade in stages to increase the number of nickel units. Or not? Can a Material Trader do that automatically for me, once he knows what kinds and numbers of raw material I possess?

Anyone knows about this?

It's not particularly "efficient" but I use them to "nudge up" my mats. I.e trade up the 4s to level 5s, 3s to 4s etc all the way down to grade 1.

That way I dont constantly fly get the "storage full" warning for level 1 mats that you get all the time.

 

[KillZoneGB]

Written in layman terms.

If I was a Meg rich corporation, I would send out fleets of Manufacturing ships to the nearest star to produce the rarest raw materials.

Sending the ships to the nearest star is for fuel ( to feed the nuclear reactors)

It's just a simple method of adding/subtracting + or - protons/neutrons.

For example.

Mercury by adding one +proton you will get gold.

anyhoo food for thought and if this could be done in the game. I think the "Raw Materials" would be a good position to sell us the raw materials.

My grip is the Data traders, have they ever heard of copying data, like when I was a kid "X-Copy" J/k

 

[EdVaessen]

True - another way is mission rewards.

For some reason I find asteroid mining more fun than surface mining.

I haven't tried surface mining yet. I guess it is more efficient than asteroid mining, which provides you with lower grade materials 99% of the time. At least at the metallic ring of Delkar 7 it does.
Perhaps there are better planetary rings to be found?

 

[EdVaessen]

It's not particularly "efficient" but I use them to "nudge up" my mats. I.e trade up the 4s to level 5s, 3s to 4s etc all the way down to grade 1.

That way I dont constantly fly get the "storage full" warning for level 1 mats that you get all the time.

Sounds quite reasonable, the more because engineers generally seem to desire high grade materials.

 

[Raino]

It's not particularly "efficient" but I use them to "nudge up" my mats. I.e trade up the 4s to level 5s, 3s to 4s etc all the way down to grade 1.

That way I dont constantly fly get the "storage full" warning for level 1 mats that you get all the time.

This

Just play Your game and collect whatever it is, trade up once full
i synthesize primary ammo for my huge MC all the time, aside the engineers needs for every new ship

 

[EdVaessen]

Get in an SRV and find some.

It looks like the thing to do.
On planet Delkar 7A I have been mining a few times. Found 48 units of 4th grade Yttrium in a few hours. These I can trade to 8 units of another 4th grade element, needed for engineering. Also lots of Chromium and Vanadium are to be found. Planetary ring mining cannot beat that.
Besides, it is fun to drive the SRV over the surface, even though the surroundings look very gloomy.
I tried Delkar 7B too, but could not find any mining sites after using the detailed surface scanner. Wonder why that is.