gameX4: Foundationsguide
Making Money and Crystal Mining
Fast early credits: crystal mining, medkit trading and money exploits.
1.Crystal Mining (early credits)
- Head to Argon Prime.
- Explore the snake-like asteroid field in the system (marked with red hexagons on the map).
- Start at one end and focus on the asteroids. Some show a bright twinkle — head directly toward these.
- Shoot the crystal with your primary weapon when in range (avoid ammo-based weapons like Torpedoes/Missiles to maximize profit).
- Pick up crystals by holding the key that pulls free-floating items into your hold.
Crystal Types (by value)
| Crystal | Value |
|---|---|
| Purple (Bandannite) — most common | 850 – 1,150 cr |
| Blue (Menelaene) — common | 8,500 – 11,500 cr |
| Green-Yellow (Aguilite) — uncommon | 17,000 – 23,000 cr |
| Orange (Mitonene) — rare | 25,555 – 34,500 cr |
| White (Burnite) — very rare, extremely valuable | 200,000 – 300,000 cr |
Always pick the right trader when selling or you could lose millions. Note: there's an achievement tied to this ("Miner's Luck"), unlocked by mining Burnite crystals.
2.Medkit Trading
Go to a station's trader (a building off to the side; see the crafting tutorial). Buy bandages, needles and sedatives, and craft them into Medkits. Buy price ~1,000/kit, sell ~10,000/kit. If one trader has all three, that's a fast 100,000 profit — nearly cheating.
3.Easy Money (Bug)
Note: This is a bug that may be patched. Dock at the shipyard of your friendliest faction and fit the most expensive gun/equipment with all your money. Then dock at the shipyard of a faction you have near-zero relations with and sell everything you bought. Friendly factions sell upgrades cheaper than neutral, but install/return cost is the same — buy for less, return for more.
4.Where Are My Savegames?
X4: Foundations saves: C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\Egosoft\X4\save\ (replace USERNAME with your Windows username).