Selling All Illegal Inventory Items without a DLC

[Blitz4]

Hi. I want to sell illegal inventory items. There's several ways I get illegal inventory items. It's not clear to me if Police detect them as the encyclopedia says they're illegal but often police scans don't detect anything. I've decided to play the game Ironman to remove my crutch of quicksaving and this is the first bottleneck I've come across doing so.

I followed a "Delivery Ship" to a pirate base which had no inventory traders or bar available. I've been scanning stations for about 7 hours and haven't seen one mission say "unspecified rewards" or how it reads. Things relating to the black market have changed a lot since I've played last. Reading the forums and discord and reddit. There isn't one clear answer how I go about this except one which I haven't tested, that's todo the pirate plot in one of the DLC's. Someone mentioned something about SCA stations in unowned space, but I don't know what that means. The pirate station was right next to a SCA space fuel station, I forgot to check who owned the sector, but I believe the only thing known is that these black market missions won't spawn in spaceful, spaceweed, maja production stations.

I question is that the intention, to load new players with illegal inventory goods, show them it's worth millions of credits much ore than they have and not make it clear how they're to sell these things? Then when they ask around they're told to buy the DLC?

I don't know the various ways of how to sell illegal inventory items.

[Alan Phipps]

"often police scans don't detect anything" There are two different types of authority scan that each look in one area only: - cargo for cargobay wares only, and inventory for inventory items only. They announce the type of scan in the warning hail (police ships) or the detection statement (station authority drones).

Some wares/inventory items are only illegal in sectors owned by certain factions, yet they might be indicated as potentially illegal wherever you may be.

A few illegal items can be sold at normal faction trade-corners. You can sell some other minor illegal items at non-DLC pirate (SCA, HAT, maybe ALI) station trade-corners, and to a shady trader in an unlocked bar in other stations - but not the most expensive fully-crafted illegal items as you probably will not have enough rep with the shady trader's faction. You can get rep with SCA via a difficult terraforming project in late game.

Two good (if cheesy) tips for if you don't have a PHQ yet to drop illegal items off at the inventory safe:

1. If piloting the ship with illegal inventory stuff then stand up when warned of a scan and wait for it to finish before resuming control.
2. You can safely drop all your illegal stuff in a floating lockbox at any time and go back to open it (a command not shoot the locks) and hoover up the stuff later.

[Blitz4]

They announce the type of scan in the warning hail (police ships) or the detection statement (station authority drones).

Some wares/inventory items are only illegal in sectors owned by certain factions, yet they might be indicated as potentially illegal wherever you may be.

A few illegal items can be sold at normal faction trade-corners. You can sell some other minor illegal items at non-DLC pirate (SCA, HAT, maybe ALI) station trade-corners, and to a shady trader in an unlocked bar in other stations - but not the most expensive fully-crafted illegal items as you probably will not have enough rep with the shady trader's faction. You can get rep with SCA via a difficult terraforming project in late game.

Two good (if cheesy) tips for if you don't have a PHQ yet to drop illegal items off at the inventory safe:

1. If piloting the ship with illegal inventory stuff then stand up when warned of a scan and wait for it to finish before resuming control.
2. You can safely drop all your illegal stuff in a floating lockbox at any time and go back to open it (a command not shoot the locks) and hoover up the stuff later.

Very useful thank you.

I'm not a new player, but I haven't played in so long I might as well be.

To add about illegal in certain sectors. I believe most everything is legal in Teladi space, but they have Ministry of Finance police roaming their sectors and to MIN, most wares are illegal. That doesn't make sense to me if Teladi is all about profit, nevermind that's a different thread. I believe more than the sector, it's about which police force protect that sector because MIN ignores Teladi's preferences and will say you're hauling illegal goods that they determine are illegal. Makes it a bit confusing where I can safely go.

To me chesse is required. When you play any game ironman. You use every inch available to you and that teaches you new tricks that nobody else thought of. Oh yea, I remember creating lockboxes when jettisoning items. Do they despawn after 5 minutes?

I love the ejection system when your ship explodes. Are there scenarios where I can still be killed after ejected? Like do pirates or AGI leave no survivors? I know there's limited oxygen and that's one way.


I can't think of any other bottlenecks for an ironman playthrough. Just fully understanding the police systems and how to survive if your ship explodes.

[Alan Phipps]

When you jettison stuff after being scanned, it either despawns or gets collected/shot by the authority. However, if you drop loot using the 'in lockbox' option then it remains until whenever you collect it again. I have often used this as an early game private safekeep.

If you want to add more stuff to your lockbox later on, you open it, hoover up the loot, and then drop the new increased amount of illegal stuff in a new lockbox. It's up to you if you tidy up the old empty lockbox with your guns or just see if it eventually despawns.