Quick tips
- A Nutrapack is the best all-round item: it fills Nourish completely and restores Vigor and a little Health.
- Peptab, Charmer and Dexboost set an attribute to 100 for a while, but each costs Vigor and Health.
- Gun shops sell rapidheals, shields, stingers and scatterguns. Ship parts shops sell the standard parts.
- The four special upgrades are black-market only: bribe a bartender and a dealer comes to your booth.
- Dealers can sell you fakes: a dud booster gives no boost, and a dud ship part burns out as soon as it's fitted. Intelligence 60 or more makes you impossible to cheat.
Food and boosters
Using one of these changes your four condition bars, each on a 0–255 scale.
| Item | Vigor | Rest | Health | Nourish | Also | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Burger | · | · | · | +70 | The everyday meal. |
 | Beer | · | −(100 − Strength ÷ 2) | · | +10 | Also knocks about 9–11 points off Intelligence, Dexterity and Charisma. A strong character loses less. |
 | Peptab | −30 | +130 | −20 | −10 | Sets Strength to 100, which then drifts back 5 points an hour. A big Rest boost, at a cost to Vigor and Health. |
 | Charmer | −15 | · | −20 | · | Sets Charisma to 100, then drifts back 5 points an hour. |
 | Dexboost | −15 | · | −20 | · | Sets Dexterity to 100, then drifts back 5 points an hour. Makes the laser the better ship gun. |
 | Nutrapack | +50 | · | +10 | +255 | A full ration: fills Nourish completely and restores a good chunk of Vigor. |
Weapons and protection
For street fights. The rapidheal isn't a weapon, but it's sold alongside them.
| Item | What it does | Where | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Rapidheal | Restores 100 Health (out of 255). | Gun shops |
 | Shield | 7 charges, each absorbing one whole hit in a street fight. When it runs out, the next shield you carry takes over. | Gun shops |
 | Stinger | Damage 45–60 per hit, never runs out. Counts as 1 weapon when you threaten someone. | Gun shops |
 | Scattergun | Damage 108–144 per hit: 7 charges of 4 shots each. Counts as 2 weapons when you threaten someone. | Gun shops |
More on fighting on the People & Street Fights page.
Special ship upgrades
Parts you can't buy in an ordinary parts shop. Each fits the special slot of one ship system, and only black-market dealers sell them, at (value + 100) × 5 Cr.
| Upgrade | Fits | Effect | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Concentrator | Ship's guns | +40% laser damage, +25–44% cannon damage. One is enough: extras don't stack. | 1400 |
 | Decloaker | Tactical display | Shows cloaked pirates on the combat screen. Takes the slot the Apple II's autoslew used. | 1775 |
 | Cloaker | Force shields | Adds the CLOAK button in combat; it burns fuel fast. | 550 |
 | Ground scanner | Pilotage | Lets the SunDog land at any city on a planet, not just its starport. | 1000 |
Standard ship parts
The parts that make up the SunDog's six systems, sold in ship parts shops. Each system is four rows of four parts; see Your Ship.
| Part | Value | Used in | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Shunt | 12 | Plugs a gap in a row so nothing worse happens, but the row adds nothing until a real part goes in. |
 | Cryofuse | 18 | Ship's guns, Force shields, Sub-c engines |
 | J-junc module | 31 | Pilotage, Tactical display |
 | Photon bridge | 52 | Tactical display, Ship's guns, Warp drives |
 | Scanner | 85 | Pilotage, Tactical display |
 | Flux modulator | 115 | Force shields, Sub-c engines, Warp drives |
 | Plasma tube | 142 | Ship's guns |
 | S/t distorter | 191 | Sub-c engines, Warp drives |
 | Control node | 255 | Pilotage, Tactical display, Ship's guns, Force shields, Sub-c engines, Warp drives |
 | Dead part | · | What a part becomes when it breaks. Replace it, or plug the gap with a shunt. |
Interface icons
Items 1–6 aren't things you carry: they're the control icons at the ends of the inventory strip. Item 14 is a reserved slot that was never used, though it still has an icon drawn for it.
Cargo
The trade goods you carry in the ship's two holds. How their prices are set is on the Trading page.
Pirates go after any cargo except fuel and cryogens: carry only those and they leave you alone (except in Enlie). See Pirates.
Tech goods
Chronographs, silichips, biochips, cadcams, synthesizers, sunsuns, comgear, nullgravs, droids.
Priced by the system's tech level: worth most where tech is low.
Other trade goods
Radioactives, gems/crystals, rare earths, exotic metals, gold, antimatter, grains/cereals, fruits/vegs, woods/fibers, seeds/sprouts, meats, stock embryos, spices/herbs, organics, pharmaceutical, clothing, hand weapons, furs/silks, art objects, stimulants.