Star Citizen 4.6 Trading: Best Cargo Routes

This Star Citizen 4.6 cargo hauling guide is built for players who want consistent profit without pretending any single route stays best forever. Patch 4.6 increases the value of having flexible trade habits, because limited-time activity, server conditions, and player traffic can quickly change what is worth hauling. The goal is not to memorize one loop, but to run a small set of reliable loops, score them quickly, and switch commodities when stock, demand, or risk changes.

Below you get a practical SC 4.6 profit guide format: a route scoring method, a shortlist of high value commodity categories that historically support strong margins, and specific buy and sell location pairs you can test immediately. Use this as your repeatable system rather than a one time spreadsheet, because trade terminals, stock limits, selling caps, interdictions, and patch side effects can all shift week to week.

How Trading Works in Star Citizen 4.6

Trading profit still comes down to three levers: buy price, sell price, and throughput. Throughput is the part most players underestimate. It is your total cycle time including landing, elevators, terminal time, loading flow, and your ability to actually sell your full hold when you arrive. If you cannot sell quickly or you hit low demand caps, your profit per hour collapses even if the margin per unit looks great.

In 4.6 it is safer to treat the economy as “sometimes volatile” rather than “always stable”. Some periods and locations can become temporarily better or worse due to activity, traffic, or terminal behavior. The correct response is not to argue with the market, but to pivot early. If the premium disappears or the terminal stops cooperating, your route scoring should tell you to swap commodities or swap hubs.

Use these principles as your baseline in Star Citizen 4.6 trading:

• Prefer short loops until you have capital and confidence. Short loops reduce loss exposure and keep your credits liquid.
• Track sell throughput. If a hub only buys small chunks, it can still be good, but only if your travel time is very short.
• Keep a reserve fund. A practical rule is to keep at least 30 to 50 percent of your aUEC uncommitted, so one bad run does not wipe your trading ability.
• Expect route competition. If everyone is hauling the same commodity, stock and demand caps hit faster and terminal downtime increases.

Route Scoring for SC 4.6 Profit Guide Decisions

This is the fastest way to decide whether a route is actually worth running. You do not need perfect data. You need consistent evaluation. Every time you test a route, record these numbers and you will quickly learn which loops are real earners for your playstyle and ship.

Metric	What to record	Why it matters
Margin per SCU	Sell price minus buy price	Defines the ceiling of profit for a full load
Cycle time	Undock to next sell complete	Profit per hour depends more on time than on margin
Stock reliability	How often you can fill your hold	High margin is useless if you cannot buy volume
Sell reliability	How fast you can sell full volume	Prevents getting stuck with cargo you cannot unload
Risk factor	Interdiction and piracy pressure on your lane	Higher risk requires higher margin to justify the loss chance

A simple decision rule that works: if a route is not beating your safest alternative by a meaningful amount, do not run it when servers feel unstable or traffic is hostile. When stability is good and your ship is fast, you can accept lower margins for higher reliability. When stability is poor, prioritize routes with fewer steps and fewer terminal interactions.

If you want one quick “score” number, use this lightweight estimate:

• Estimated profit per hour = (margin per SCU x SCU actually sold per run) divided by cycle time in hours.
• Reality check: if you regularly cannot fill or cannot sell, your “actually sold per run” is lower, and the route should drop in your ranking.

Best Cargo Routes in Stanton for Reliable Runs

Stanton still supports the most repeatable legal trading because it has multiple major hubs, lots of outposts, and predictable traffic. Your goal is to pair an outpost or mining facility that sells high value materials with a major city trade district that buys consistently. Because stock can be limited, you want two or three backup commodities that use the same travel pattern.

These Stanton patterns are worth testing first because they keep cycle time low and make it easy to pivot when one commodity is empty:

• Moon or outpost source to a major city hub, then return on the same lane with a secondary commodity if you find a reliable backhaul.
• Same-planet loops where you avoid long cross-system flight time and reduce exposure to repeated choke points.
• Short hub to station flips when you want minimal landing and transit time.

High Value Outpost to Hub Routes to Test

The location pairs below are a test shortlist, not a promise. Your job is to confirm availability and sell volume at the terminal in your current server conditions. These are useful because they map cleanly onto commodity categories like Laranite and Agricium, which can offer strong margins but do not always have reliable stock.

Commodity focus	Buy locations to check	Sell hubs to try
Laranite	Arial HDMS Bezdek, Arial HDMS Lathan, Cellin Tram and Myers, selected Wala trade and mining points	Area18 TDD, Lorville CBD, Orison trade terminals, New Babbage trade terminals
Agricium	Lyria Shubin SAL-2, Daymar mining points, selected microTech Shubin facilities	Major city trade districts and high demand terminals
Event-driven “bonus” materials	Use your terminal to identify which materials currently pay better, then buy where you can fill quickly	The locations that currently accept larger volumes at better prices

Why these routes work as a system: you can reuse the same navigation plan and only swap the commodity based on what is actually in stock. That is how you keep your cycle time stable, which is often more important than chasing a theoretical best margin.

Practical pivot rule: if you cannot reach 70 to 80 percent of your planned load within about 10 minutes of terminal time, treat the commodity as “cold” and switch to your backup on the same route.

Nyx and Levski Hauling in Patch 4.6

Patch 4.6 puts extra attention on Levski and Nyx-related activity. That can pull both legitimate haulers and opportunistic pirates into the same corridors. Do not assume the lane is always dangerous, but be ready for spikes in interdiction pressure when activity concentrates players into predictable paths.

In practical terms, a good Nyx or Levski plan needs three things:

• A route that does not rely on selling your entire hold in one terminal refresh. You want sell flexibility.
• A safety procedure for quantum travel that reduces predictable straight-line paths.
• A fallback sell plan in a safer hub, even if the margin is lower, so you can liquidate and reset rather than getting trapped by bugs or crowds.

Dogleg Routing to Reduce Predictable Interdictions

If you notice repeated interdictions or you are hauling a high value load, do not fly directly from source to destination. Add a dogleg. Set an intermediate destination, travel partway, drop out, then continue toward your real destination. The goal is to avoid appearing exactly where a trap expects you.

Dogleg routing is not magic, but it is one of the highest value habits you can adopt when traffic is hostile. Combine it with conservative cargo value and a reserve fund, and you will survive more runs without needing escort support.

Loading Workflow That Protects Profit Per Hour

In Star Citizen 4.6 trading, your loading workflow is part of your profit. A route with slightly lower margin can beat a higher margin route if it loads faster, sells faster, and has fewer failure points. If you are running solo, prioritize routes where the terminal, elevator, and pad access is predictable.

Use this loading checklist for consistent cargo hauling:

• Before you buy, confirm your ship is selectable and recognized by the commodity terminal.
• Buy in chunks if stock is limited, then decide whether to wait for refresh or pivot to a backup commodity.
• Do not stack multiple unrelated cargo plans unless you have a labeling system and enough time to stay organized.
• When servers feel unstable, reduce steps. One buy and one sell is safer than multi stop chaining.

Common 4.6 Issues That Affect Cargo Hauling

Patch side effects can turn a good route into a frustrating route. In 4.6 there are known problems that can directly impact trading workflows, including cases where commodity kiosks do not show your ship as selectable, cargo handling can error, and specific hubs can waste time if you stubbornly force the same loop. Build this into your risk management and time estimates.

Practical fixes when you hit terminal problems:

• If a commodity kiosk fails to show your ship, stow the ship and ensure it is in a delivered state before trying again.
• If a hub keeps putting you into a stuck state after store or retrieve cycles, exit to menu and rejoin instead of burning time on repeated attempts.
• If cargo handling systems are unstable at a location, do not force the route. Pivot to a different buy point or run a shorter station loop until stability improves.

This is also why route diversity matters. The best cargo routes are not only the highest profit routes. They are the routes that still work when one terminal, one elevator, or one location becomes unreliable.

Best Trade Routes Framework by Ship Size

Ship size changes what good looks like. Small and medium ships can thrive on high value, lower volume cargo because you can fill your hold even when stock is limited and you are faster to land and leave. Large ships need either very high demand or very reliable supply because partial loads destroy efficiency. If you are flying big, consider mixing commodity trading with hauling contracts or industrial tasks so your time is not wasted waiting on stock refresh.

Use this ship size framework in SC 4.6 profit guide planning:

• Small cargo ships: prioritize short loops with high value goods and fast sales, even if total profit per run is smaller.
• Medium cargo ships: keep two commodity options on the same route so you can usually fill most of your hold.
• Large cargo ships: treat stock as your primary constraint and avoid routes where you regularly leave half empty.

Conclusion

Star Citizen 4.6 rewards pilots who treat hauling like a system instead of chasing one magic route. The most reliable profit comes from scoring routes by cycle time and sell throughput, then rotating between a small set of proven loops when stock, demand, incentives, or risk shifts. Start with short Stanton routes, test high value outpost to hub pairs for commodities like Laranite and Agricium, and keep at least one backup commodity that uses the same flight plan so you are never stuck waiting on refresh.

For Nyx and Levski focused hauling, assume traffic can spike during active periods and adopt dogleg routing to reduce predictable travel paths. Finally, plan around patch realities. Known issues can affect kiosks, cargo handling, and specific hubs, so route diversity is part of your profit strategy. If you keep your runs short, your cargo value controlled, and your evaluation consistent, you can keep strong aUEC gains even as the economy keeps shifting.