Pilots Trade Network Elite: Dangerous

PTN Booze Cruise Guide

The PTN Booze Cruise is currently on an extended hiatus

This means PTN will not be running the cruise in any capacity, including providing STC into the peak. Check the post in #Updates on our discord for more information.

This guide is orig­i­nal­ly from our Dis­cord serv­er, from where it has been repro­duced in full. All names with a # in front of them are ref­er­ences to chan­nels on this serv­er. You can find this guide in #🍹booze-cruise-guide. Click here to join our Dis­cord serv­er, or find our Dis­cord starter guide here.

1️⃣ What is the Booze Cruise?

The booze cruise hap­pens when the peo­ple at the sta­tion Rack­ham’s Peak in the HIP 58832 sys­tem have a pub­lic hol­i­day. Dur­ing that time they ask for alco­hol and pay way way above galac­tic aver­age for it. This allows for great trade oppor­tu­ni­ties dur­ing the 48h dura­tion of the par­ty. On a nor­mal day they already offer (an untyp­i­cal) 33k cr/t 🍷, but on a pub­lic hol­i­day they pay more than 270k cr/t wine! So 20,000 units of wine on a car­ri­er equates to rough­ly 5.5 bil­lion cred­its! HIP 58832 is locat­ed 5k ly above the galac­tic plane. The view, look­ing down, is aston­ish­ing and unique. HIP 58832 can only be reached with a fleet car­ri­er as the last jumps of the jour­ney are beyond the range of even a boost­ed FSD. The sys­tem’s sta­tion Rack­ham’s Peak has no L‑Pads, only M and S‑Pads. This makes the :Python: Python the most viable car­go ship to trade with that sta­tion. Run­ning a 280t car­go Python leaves the pilot with +72 mil­lion per trade. About 14 Pythons full of Wine, and you go from Pen­ni­less to Elite Trader.

PYTHON //

Python

Booze Python shielded

Overview: A low cost shield­ed car­go Python. The shields are there to give you time to get back into super­cruise if you’re inter­dict­ed as you won’t be able to out­run NPC pirates with­out engi­neer­ing. Also works for all reg­u­lar M‑pad-to-car­ri­er trades.

PYTHON //

Python

Booze Python tuned

Overview: Thanks to its engi­neered thrusters and high­er cost armour, this Python can run an extra car­go rack instead of shields, rely­ing on its speed and armour to sur­vive NPC pirate encoun­ters. Also the best M‑Pad-to-car­ri­er trad­er in general.

the Booze Cruise is a bet: there’s always a chance it won’t happen.

(We do our best to predict it as precisely as possible, though!)

2️⃣ How do I participate?

🇦 The Python 
First buy a python with one of the load­outs from above.
Help loading wine 🍷 => ( / ) => =
Once you have your Python, you can help to load the car­ri­ers. Mak­ing sure that we have wine to sell lat­er on is a great way to spend the time while wait­ing for the cruise to start. Grab your best L‑pad hauler and head to #🚰wine-celler-load­ing to find car­ri­ers to fill. The load­ing dis­cus­sion hap­pens in #🥂wine-cel­lar-deliv­er­ies.
 Traveling up 🛫
Next take your Python and hitch a ride on a car­ri­er to the peak, these will get post­ed to #🚠booze-cruise-depar­tures. If you do not want to be sit­ting up in HIP 58832 with­out any­thing to do, you can take the ⁠#🚕🅿booze-snooze-and-garage. It trav­els up soon after the hol­i­day is con­firmed. Mak­ing you only miss the 6 to 8 hours it needs to trav­el up but keeps you avail­able in the bub­ble until then.
 Not in HIP 58832 yet
Car­ri­ers are like­ly to park in N-2 (HD 104495) 2 sys­tems before the peak, if the peak is already full. As soon as things move, any car­ri­ers head­ing up towards N0 from N2 will post a notice in #🚠booze-cruise-depar­tures and ping the @Hitchhiker role. You can opt in to that role in ⁠#🍾booze-cruise-signup while you are in need of a trans­fer. To opt out, just click the but­ton again.
 The waiting game ⏲️
Once you are there, you might need to wait for the hol­i­day to start. Have fun an chill out with oth­er CMDRs or play your sec­ond favorite game.
 
The hol­i­day will then start, last­ing for 48 hours. We will ping @PTN Booze Cruise when it starts. Hop in your Python, buy wine from the car­ri­ers in 🧃Wine Cel­lar Unload­ing and sell it to the sta­tion. This is best done in solo mode, as there is only one M pad at the sta­tion. Expect to wait for dock­ing NPCs.
 But how do i get back?
Once every­thing is over can choose your path back to the bub­ble via car­ri­er or hand­cuffs. See 7️⃣ Trav­el­ling down 🛬

3️⃣ Can I advertise wine from my carrier?

If you want to use your car­ri­er to take wine to the peak, and agree to share at least a min­i­mum of 5k t🍷 with the com­mu­ni­ty. Fill in the form linked in #🍸booze-cruise-chat, ping @Connoissuer and you’ll be grant­ed the @Wine Car­ri­er role. This role is per event so you’ll need to sign up for the role afresh each time a new Booze Cruise hap­pens. If you are doing a sec­ond trip or tak­ing mul­ti­ple car­ri­ers fill out the form for each one, as Pirate Steve wants accu­rate numbers!
 

Some things you should be aware of though, before you sign up:
🇦 Fill­ing a car­ri­er with 22000 t of wine and the **3784 t** of Tri­tium need­ed for the trip will cost in the region of **484 mil­lion** cred­its. Your total cost may dif­fer depend­ing on how much wine you load, which is usu­al­ly depen­dent on any ser­vices you have installed if you fill your car­ri­er full.

🇧 How­ev­er, all of the cred­its you spend load­ing your car­ri­er will be recouped when your car­ri­er is unloaded mean­ing you don’t make any loss or prof­it over­all for being a wine car­ri­er. (For a car­ri­er tak­ing 3784 trit and 22k wine)

🇨 Jump­ing a car­ri­er from the bub­ble to the peak will take you approx­i­mate­ly 6 hours, and anoth­er 6 hours to return from the peak back to the bubble.

4️⃣ What are the channels for?

#🍾booze-cruise-signup – To opt in for noti­fi­ca­tions of key booze cruise events
#🧉booze-cruise-announce­ments – For announce­ments rel­e­vant to the booze cruise from the man­age­ment and sommeliers
#🚠booze-cruise-depar­tures – List­ing of known car­ri­er rides to/from the peak
#🚰booze-cruise-load­ing-oper­a­tions – Car­ri­er adverts for load­ing with wine in the bubble
#🧃wine-cel­lar-unload­ing – Car­ri­er adverts for unload­ing wine at the Peak (right click > Noti­fi­ca­tions > “All Mes­sages” for unload notifications)
#🍸booze-cruise-chat – Gen­er­al open booze cruise chat
#🅿garage – Safe place to leave your ships and log off at the peak
#🚕booze-snooze Car­ri­er that waits in the bub­ble and only trav­els up if the Cruise hap­pens. (If the chan­nels is active)

5️⃣ Facts

… about the Booze Cruise!

🇦 Car­ri­er own­ers run at breakeven prices, This means that the car­ri­er own­ers do not make a prof­it or a loss. How­ev­er there is an ini­tial upfront cost of 486 mil­lion to load a car­ri­er. (10k *22k = 220 mil for wine + 70k * 3784 = 266 mil for trit)
🇧 Jump­ing a car­ri­er up and down takes at least 12 hours of jump­ing (jumps at least 21 min apart)
🇨 Car­ri­er own­ers par­tic­i­pate most­ly out of gen­eros­i­ty, there is noth­ing in for them besides maybe haul­ing some wine themselves.
🇩 A car­go python sell­ing to Rack­ham’s Peak dur­ing PH gives a prof­it of 72 mil­lion (280 t * 256k cr/t)
🇪 Load­ers in the bub­ble do this so peo­ple at the top can have fun mak­ing prof­its. The prof­its in the bub­ble are sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er than they are at the peak
🇫 Car­ri­ers are avail­able to unload when the own­er is avail­able and finds time, not when @PirateSteve is thirsty!
🇬 ❗Booze Cruise is a bet. There is always the pos­si­bil­i­ty of it not happening❗

6️⃣ Traveling up 🛫

When trav­el­ing up the ⁠#🚕🅿booze-snooze-and-garage is the rec­om­mend­ed method, This car­ri­er leaves as soon as the pub­lic hol­i­day in rack­hams is announced and gets there ~6 hours into the event, leav­ing you 42 hours to haul wine. If you want to head up before that though and make use of the first 6 hours you can pick any car­ri­er in ⁠#🚠booze-cruise-depar­tures that is adver­tised as head­ing up to N0.

7️⃣ Traveling down 🛬

.…. you have more options: We rec­om­mend 🇦 or 🇧:
 
🇦 The :fleetcarrier:-way: Take a car­ri­er down. See #🚠booze-cruise-depar­tures (or if unlocked, the #🚕booze-snooze)
🇧 The hand­cuffs-loi­ter-way: Hov­er over the land­ing pad of the sta­tion until get­ting shot down > pay the rebuy + small fine > after the rebuy, spawn with your ship on a prison ship in COL 285 SECTOR YG‑Y B16‑1 (157Ly from Gali in the bubble)
🇨 The handcuffs-🔫-way: Shoot a “clean” ship at nav bea­con once > fly to Rack­ham’s > dock > con­tacts > author­i­ty > turn your­self in > with­out a rebuy, spawn with your ship on a prison ship (Hard­points are sold at Rack­ham’s Peak.)
🇩 The I‑don’t-want-my-ship-way: You per­ma­nent­ly lose your ship with this one (ide­al if you are in a spare stock sidewinder): destroy your ship > don’t pay the rebuy > spawn in bub­ble in a stock Sidewinder

8️⃣ FAQs 🛬

How to get the NPC off the Medium pad at HIP 58832 🧹

  • Get real close to Pad 5 (the sin­gle medi­um pad), yaw your ship to the right so you can see the NPC ship + your con­tacts pan­el to the left
  • Spam the Dock­ing Request but­ton 3–4 times; the NPC will try to quick­ly undock (<10 sec on the pad)
  • Wait for the orange guid­ance light to turn off (takes about ~10 sec­onds from the time the NPC launches)
  • Quick­ly press the Dock­ing Request but­ton again

Or watch this mini tuto­r­i­al video made by Dbandy: https://youtu.be/G5qx87K7PHE

What does N2 mean? What route are we taking? 

It is just ‘N’ with it’s val­ue as the counter for fleet car­ri­er jumps towards the peak. No need to remem­ber all the names of N15 to N3. Both PTN Squadrons book­marks have those sys­tems saved as well.

Lad­der Sys­tem List:

N‑0: HIP 58832 (Rack­ham’s Peak)
N‑1: HD 105341 (Car­ri­er Bot­tle­neck Sys­tem)
N‑2: HD 104495 (Car­ri­er Park­ing Sys­tem)
N‑3: HIP 57784
N‑4: HIP 57478
N‑5: HIP 56843
N‑6: HD 104392
N‑7: HD 102779
N‑8: HD 102000
N‑9: HD 104785
N10: HD 105548
N11: HD 107865
N12: Plaa Trua WQ‑C d13‑0
N13: Plaa Trua QL‑B c27‑0
N14: Wre­goe OP‑D b58‑0
N15: Wre­goe ZE‑B c28‑2
N16: Gali (Chad­wick Dock)

the Booze Cruise is a bet: there’s always a chance it won’t happen.

(We do our best to predict it as precisely as possible, though!)

the Booze Cruise is a bet: there’s always a chance it won’t happen.

(We do our best to predict it as precisely as possible, though!)