Introduced with Alpha 3.24, cargo hauling is a new category of contracts available in Star Citizen, tasking players with pickup a variety of different cargo boxes from one location and delivering them somewhere else. You can think of cargo hauling as an evolved version of the Delivery mission type.
In cargo hauling, however, players will deal with large cargo containers based on the mission grade they choose. It’s no longer about a few small boxes that the player can carry with hands. Multi-tools and tractor beams become crucial in these cargo missions, and in higher-tier reputations, you might be tasked with transferring over 600 SCU of cargo between multiple locations.
How To Pick-Up Cargo And Deliver It To The Destination
Before accepting a cargo hauling contract make sure to read through the details, especially the overall size of the cargo. If your ship’s cargo bay is capable of carrying the aforementioned amount, then accept the contract. Keep in mind that failing to complete a cargo hauling mission will result in a reputation penalty.
Now, the mission will show the player two locations, one for picking up the cargo and one for delivering it. These locations are either space stations, distribution centers, Lagrange points, mining stations, salvage yards, or one of the major cities. All of these locations now feature freight elevators.
In cities and space stations, you must request ATC for a landing hangar, and then use the freight elevator terminal inside the hangar to bring up the cargo from the warehouse. The same can be done in the distribution centers but they also feature freight elevators next to the landing pads, which are easier and quicker than hangars.
After the cargo is brought up, the player needs to use either a ship tractor beam or a multi-tool tractor beam to load the cargo inside the ship. Keep in mind that if the cargo needs to be delivered to multiple destinations, each destination will only accept its pre-determined containers even if they contain similar materials.
Once loaded, you will repeat the same process at the destination, but this time, you will unload the cargo and put it inside the freight elevator. Once done, head to the freight elevator terminal and send the elevator down to the warehouse. This will bring up a window asking the player if the cargo belongs to a contract or if it should be just stored.
Here, you must choose the contract tab, which is already picked by default. This window also shows the container sizes that have been requested by the destination. So, if a destination requires one 4-SCU container, you can’t fulfill the contract by giving them four 1-SCU containers. We suggest you check out this screen before unloading the entire cargo.
NOTE: In Alpha 3.24.1, the freight elevators located at salvage yards like Brio’s Brakeryard or Samson And Sons are broken. As a result, you are highly recommended to avoid accepting quests that involve salvage yards either as a pick-up or a drop-off location. This problem has already been fixed in Alpha 3.24.2 PTU.
How Much Do Cargo Hauling Missions Pay?
There are a wide variety of cargo hauling missions available, but in short, they pay in a range of 9K aUEC to 152K aUEC based on the amount of cargo and the number of destinations.
Cargo missions are divided into three grades: Small, Supply, and Bulk. Based on the grade, the overall size of cargo as well as the maximum size of containers change. Bulk Grade missions, for example, are only suitable for ships like Hull C or C2 Hercules.
The table below shows all the details about each cargo hauling grade’s payment and ship size requirements.
| Small Grade | Medium Grade | Bulk Grade | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max Container Size | 4 SCU | 16 SCU | 32 SCU |
| Max Cargo Size | 30 SCU | 120 SCU | 960 SCU |
| Rewards (Rep 0 to Rep 6) | 9K to 75K aUEC | 14K to 152K aUEC | 33K to 111K aUEC |
The reason why higher level Bulk Grade missions pay less than Supply Grade is because Bulk Grade missions don’t have quadruple-location missions yet. The longest Bulk Grade missions right now consist of three locations, one for pick-up and two for delivery or vice versa.
However, some of the Reputation 6 missions for Supply Grade task players with traveling between 5 locations, including one pick-up point and four delivery points, or vice versa.
Ships That Are Suitable For Cargo Hauling
For Small Grade missions, anything with 30 SCU or bigger cargo space will suffice. However, the Supply Grade missions might require C2 Hercules or Caterpillar in the higher reputation levels, though you can complete the lower reputation missions with a Constellation Taurus or even a Freelancer Max.
Bulk Grade missions, on the other hand, only work best for Hull C. Again, the lower-level missions of this grade can still be done with C2 or Caterpillar, but when the multi-location missions become available, only Hull C can tackle them based on the available cargo ships. Unless you want to complete the cargo delivery in multiple runs, which is possible!
Knowing that not every player owns a cargo ship, CIG now allows players to rent most of the big and small cargo ships in-game. This includes even larger ships like Caterpillar and Hull C.
