Accurate as of v2.0.18 (August 2026).
The eleven services
A port runs a fixed set of services determined by its archetype. If the service isn’t there, the action isn’t available.
| Service | What it does | Where |
|---|---|---|
trading | Buy and sell commodities | Every port |
banking | Deposit and withdraw — you must be at a teller | The three starports, Federation Ports |
shipyard | Buy, sell and switch hulls; restock; limpet sweeps | The three starports |
repair | Restore shields and hull | The three starports, Federation Ports |
upgrade | Buy stat upgrades, drives and tech modules | Tech Ports, Pirate Haven, Merchant Exchange |
research | Tech modules and intel | Research Ports |
supplies | Deployables and provisions (turns) | The three starports, Agricultural Ports |
recruitment | Security personnel and mining workers | The three starports |
defense | Defense contracts (purchased PvP immunity) | Stardock, Merchant Exchange, Federation Ports |
blackmarket | Buy and fence contraband; cloaking devices | Pirate Bases, Black Markets, Pirate Haven |
tavern | Rumors and intel; mercenary retinue hiring | Stardock, Pirate Bases, Pirate Haven |
priceboard | Galaxy-wide live price sheet | Merchant Exchange only |
The bounty office is not a service key: posting a bounty and redeeming faction claims happen at the two faction capitals — the Stardock and the Pirate Haven — and nowhere else.
Three things follow from all that:
- The Pirate Haven does not sell defense contracts. It is a full-service capital in every other respect. It does not sell law.
- The Merchant Exchange has no bounty office and no black market. It is deliberately clean.
- The tavern is where mercenaries drink. The Stardock hires the Federation Auxiliary, Pirate Bases and the Haven hire the Cutthroat Company. See NPCs & Encounters.
The three starports
One of each per galaxy. All three are permanently uncapturable.
The Stardock (Sector 0)
Federation capital. Million-unit pools that restock fully every tick, so it is never out of anything. Anchors 125 / 150 / 625, tax 2%.
Services: trading, banking, shipyard, tavern, repair, recruitment, defense, supplies.
Stocks the Federation line + neutral spine. The Federation bounty office lives here: player bounties are posted here, and Federation bounty claims are redeemed here in person.
Docks deny alignment below −300. If you have a Federation warrant and the credits to cover it, docking is an arrest: your wallet is seized up to the bounty amount, the warrant clears, it posts publicly, and that action fails. The next one works.
The Pirate Haven
At the center of the pirate band. Pools 60k / 50k / 100k, restock 0.5, anchors 100 / 125 / 500, no tax at all.
Services: trading, banking, shipyard, repair, upgrade, blackmarket, recruitment, supplies, tavern.
Stocks the Pirate line + neutral spine. The Syndicate bounty office lives here: player bounties are posted here, and Syndicate bounty claims are redeemed here.
Docks deny alignment above +300. Pirate warrants arrest here on the same terms.
The Merchant Exchange
Middle band, placed as far from the other two as the map allows. Two-million-unit pools restocking fully every tick, anchors 110 / 130 / 520, and the lowest lawful tax in the galaxy at 0.5%.
Services: trading, banking, shipyard, repair, upgrade, recruitment, supplies, priceboard, defense.
Stocks the neutral spine only.
No docking gate. Open to every alignment — the one full-service port a Scourge can walk into.
Ordinary ports
| Archetype | Sells | Buys only | Tax | Services |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federation Port | Fuel 150, Organics 170, Equipment 750 | — | 5% (7% for Pirates) | trading, banking, repair, defense |
| Trading Port | Fuel 115, Organics 135, Equipment 550 | — | 2% | trading |
| Fuel Depot | Fuel 90 | Organics 215, Equipment 600 | 1% | trading |
| Agricultural Port | Organics 75 | Fuel 160, Equipment 850 | 4% | trading, supplies |
| Tech Port | Equipment 375 | Fuel 135, Organics 155 | 3% | trading, upgrade |
| Mining Port | Fuel 105, Equipment 550 | Organics 240 | 2% | trading |
| Research Port | Equipment 350 | Fuel 145, Organics 185 | 5% | trading, research |
| Pirate Base | Fuel 100, Organics 125, Equipment 500 | — | 0% | trading, blackmarket, tavern |
| Black Market | Fuel 80, Organics 100, Equipment 300 | — | 0% | trading, blackmarket |
Buy-only rows are where you sell into — the port pays those anchors and never stocks the goods.
Ordinary ports carry shallower pools than starports and restock at only 0.15 per tick, so their prices move much more and recover much slower. That is where the money is.
Ports can be taken
Every port except the Stardock, the three starports and Federation Ports can be besieged and held by a corporation. A held port skims 50% of its tax revenue to the holding corp, charges corp members half tax, and charges everyone else +1 percentage point.
See Corporations.
Docking, in general
Only the two faction capitals gate docking by alignment. Everything else is open to anyone who can get there.
Queries — looking at prices, reading the shipyard list — only ever apply the alignment gate. Mutations additionally run the arrest check. So you can window-shop at a capital that holds a warrant on you; you just can’t buy anything until the warrant is settled.