SpaceCraft Trade Nexus 2026: Lower Buying Tax, the Credit Cap and When Trading Pays

At the SpaceCraft Trade Nexus, buying was simply too expensive for a long time: every purchase carried 20 % tax. Patch v0.3.22866 on July 21, 2026 cut that to 8 %, which lowers your cost by exactly 12 % of the net value. The same patch fixed a bug that made credits vanish when a corporation sent money to a player already at the credit cap. This guide works out what the new tax means for your margin and when buying beats making it yourself.

💰 What the SpaceCraft Trade Nexus is and what changed

The Trade Nexus is the player market at the stations: you buy goods from other players' sell listings instead of mining them yourself. According to the developer blog there are two, in Helicon and Ur. Corpo and wholesale requests, on the other hand, aren't taken at the Nexus but from an NPC contact at the station; they pay in corpo credits, reputation and license points. The hotfix of July 8, 2026 fixed a crash when opening the Nexus. If you tried the Nexus back then and gave up, your numbers are out of date.

The decisive change came two weeks later with patch v0.3.22866 on July 21, 2026. The points that matter for traders:

• Buying tax cut from 20 % to 8 %. The patch notes explicitly say buying tax, so the cut affects purchases, not sale proceeds.
• Credit loss on corpo transfers fixed. If a corporation sent credits to a member who was already at the credit cap, the excess used to be lost.
• "Take All" button for the Warehouse and Drone Dispatcher, which saves a lot of clicks when clearing production lines.
• Accepted corporation requests can now be cancelled, plus missing filter icons in the Warehouse and visible deposit icons when placing a Base Command Center.

Important for context: none of the patches since then, up to and including Major Update #1 and v0.5.25674 in October 2026, touched the tax again. As of today, 8 % applies.

🆕 The SpaceCraft Trade Nexus since Major Update #1: buy orders and Nexus Relay

Major Update #1 on October 8, 2026 expanded the SpaceCraft Trade Nexus considerably:

• Buy orders: you set the item, amount and price, and other players deliver. When creating one, you decide whether partial deliveries are allowed. You can also fill other players' buy orders and earn extra credits that way.
• New interface: listings can be sorted by name, price or corporation, filtered by type and found through a search bar.
• Log: trades are now recorded in your corporation's log.
• Nexus Relay: with the Remote Access permit (2,000 credits) you build a structure that lets you use both Trade Nexus locations from your base. Purchased goods land in the corporation storage at that Nexus, and to sell, the goods have to be there already. Since v0.5.25674 the Nexus Relay costs only 1 instead of 2 footprint.
• Trading Box: its storage grew from 400 to 800.

Community Update #1 on September 16, 2026 had already introduced two rules: sell listings expire after 14 days, and also when you leave your corporation, switch quadrants or reset your account. And sell listings above the credit cap are no longer possible.

For your margin, buy orders are the cheapest way to get scarce goods without flying there yourself. Plan for the time until someone delivers, though. If you mine yourself, filling other players' orders lets you move surplus without your own sell listing.

📉 Buying tax 20 % to 8 %: the margin in numbers

The tax sits on the purchase, so it shifts your cost, not your sale proceeds. Take a batch of goods worth 10,000 credits net that you buy at the Nexus and resell elsewhere:

Two things stand out. First: the advantage is exactly 1,200 credits in every row. The saving is always 12 % of the net purchase, regardless of how well you resell. Second, and that's the real lever: the break-even markup dropped from 20 to 8 %. Before, a route had to give at least a 20 % price difference just to break even, and anything below was a loss. Today 8 % is enough, so many more routes pay off.

The third effect concerns your capital. With 100,000 credits in your account you used to be able to buy goods worth about 83,300 credits net (100,000 divided by 1.20). Now it's about 92,600 credits (divided by 1.08). That's roughly 11 % more goods per round for the same stake, and since trading lives on turnover, that adds up over an evening.

🚀 Buy or build? Finding the line

The tax cut also shifts the question of whether you should still make an intermediate product yourself. The math is simple: buying pays off as long as

• market price × 1.08 < your full cost for the same part.

Full cost means being honest: raw materials at market value (not "I have those lying around anyway"), your machines' crafting time and the flight to pick things up. A part that costs you the equivalent of 1,000 credits to make used to be worth buying only up to a market price of 833 credits. Now the line is about 926 credits, so the buying window is about 11 % wider.

In practice: cheap bulk intermediates that block your factories for a long time are worth buying more often now, freeing slots for the expensive end products where the margin is. How the stages connect is covered in the crafting chains guide, building the machines in the base automation guide and supply in the resources and automation guide. The reverse also holds: anything chronically scarce and expensive on the market, you keep mining yourself. See farming rare resources.

⚠️ The credit cap trap: the bug that cost corporations money

The second important point from v0.3.22866 is easy to miss. Until that patch, if a player was at the credit cap, the upper limit of what an account can hold, and the corporation sent them money, the excess was not rejected and not refunded, but deleted.

The bug is fixed, but behavior at the cap is still something to plan around. Three habits that pay off:

• Make room before a payout. If you're close to the cap, buy something or pay for permits first. See the permits guide.
• Park value in goods, within limits. Raw materials and parts don't count toward the credit cap. Since the community update of September 16, 2026, though, your storage is capped too (minimum since v0.4.24600: 35,000 SU). Storage is a buffer, not an unlimited vault.
• Use the corpo treasury as a buffer. Only withdraw credits when you spend them. How the treasury and payouts work is in the corporations guide.

The patch notes don't give a number for the cap. Check the value on your account in game.

📦 What else you notice in day-to-day trading

The "Take All" button for the Warehouse and Drone Dispatcher sounds minor, but clearing a production line three times an evening saves dozens of clicks. And being able to cancel accepted corporation requests takes pressure off accepting them: a request whose materials turn out pricier at the Nexus than expected is no longer a dead end.

A note on sources: Steam reviews mention daily selling limits at stations, such as "1,000 credits per day". These claims appear in no patch note and can't be checked against an official source, so treat them as unconfirmed player statements, not game rules. What's reliable is what Shiro Games documents itself, and right now that's the 8 % buying tax.

Good next reads: the make money guide, the credits guide for the start, selling blueprints for the late game and a cargo-friendly ship.

💡 FAQ: SpaceCraft Trade Nexus

What is the current buying tax at the Trade Nexus?

8 %. It was cut from 20 to 8 % with patch v0.3.22866 on July 21, 2026. It has stayed the same in every patch since, most recently v0.5.25674 in October 2026.

Can I use the SpaceCraft Trade Nexus from my base?

Yes, since Major Update #1 through the Nexus Relay. You need the Remote Access permit for 2,000 credits. Purchased goods land in the corporation storage at the respective Nexus.

Does the tax cut also affect selling?

No. The patch note explicitly says buying tax, the tax on purchases. It doesn't affect your sale proceeds; the advantage is entirely on the buying side.

From what price gap does reselling pay off now?

At about an 8 % markup between buying and selling price you break even; anything above is profit. Before, that threshold was 20 %. Factor in flight time and fuel too, or the route eats the advantage again.

Do credits still vanish at the credit cap?

The specific case, a transfer from the corporation to a player at the cap, was fixed in v0.3.22866. Still, don't sit at the limit permanently. Holding value in goods helps, but has been capped by the storage limit since September 16, 2026.

Is it worth buying intermediate products instead of making them now?

More often than before. Rule of thumb: buying is cheaper as long as market price times 1.08 is below your full cost. With cheap bulk parts that tie up your factories for long, it usually works out; with expensive end products, making them yourself stays ahead.

Sources: SpaceCraft patch notes v0.3.22866 of July 21, 2026 (buying tax 20 % to 8 %, credit cap fix, "Take All"), the hotfix of July 8, 2026 (crash when opening the Nexus), the community update of September 16, 2026, v0.4.24600, Major Update #1, v0.5.25674 and the developer blog with the update preview on buy orders and the Nexus Relay, all by Shiro Games. Claims from player reviews are marked as unconfirmed. As of October 2026, SpaceCraft Early Access v0.5.25674. Balance values can change with upcoming patches.