One of the first things you may notice when you go to talk to Tradebot on his island in Solarpunk about upgrading your airship is the broken vending machine outside the shop. When trying to buy from it, you discover you need tickets from the merchant to do it. So, how do you get tickets from the merchant?
Related
How to Get Airship Upgrades in Solarpunk
Airship upgrades allow you to travel further to explore more distant islands, and here’s exactly where you can get them in Solarpunk.
How to Get Tickets From the Merchant in Solarpunk
Image via GameRant, Source: Cyberwave
You have to repair the vending machine. All it takes is one Cobalt, so if you’ve unlocked Airship Level 3 and have a Furnace for smelting, you’re good to go. Once it’s repaired, you can interact with it, and it will show you all the cosmetics you can buy from the machine, but it says you need tickets from the Merchant.
The Merchant isn’t a person or robot that you see. You don’t have to find them on an island. To give items to the Merchant in exchange for Tickets, you just have to build and power a Postbox. To build a Postbox, you need:
x10 Iron
x10 Copper
x10 Silicon
x10 Cobalt
Image via GameRant, Source: Cyberwave
Take the ingredients to the Energy Crafting Table and find the Postbox, then select Craft. You will need to have a cable and a power source to run it. The Postbox only requires 25 energy.
Building the Postbox will not be an option until you unlock it at the Energy Bench at Tradebot’s shop in Tier 3.
Selling At the Postbox in Solarpunk
Image via GameRant, Source: Cyberwave
Once the Postbox is installed and powered up, you can begin selling your items to the Merchant. The amount of tickets you get depends on the items you sell.
Item
Tickets Received
Foodbasket
500
Egg/Milk/Truffle
20
Other
1
To sell, you have to interact with the powered Postbox and drag the item you want to sell from your inventory up into the Postbox box and push sell. The tickets will be added to your Key Items.
Howto Make the Foodbasket in Solarpunk
Image via GameRant, Source: Cyberwave
The most valuable item to sell is the Foodbasket, which can be made at the Workbench, or, to do it in style, you can make a Kitchen Counter or Outdoor Kitchen. These can be crafted at your workbench at Tier 6. To get the outdoor kitchen, select the second box under alternatives on the left side.
Station
Recipe
Kitchen Counter
x10 Iron
x1 Pot
x1 Pan
x2 Wood
Outdoor Kitchen
The Pot and Pan are also made under the same tab. It’s listed in decoration as Pan, but Pot is one of the alternatives on this as well:
Once you have a kitchen, you will need to make sure the Foodbasket is unlocked at your Research Table. This is a Tier 5 item. To make a Foodbasket, you will need to have at least one chicken, pig, and sheep. You will need 5 Eggs, Sheep’s Milk, and Truffles.
While the Foodbasket can be a lot of work to get started on, it’s well worth it because you end up with 200 more tickets than selling these items individually.
Buying At the Vending Machine in Solarpunk
Once you have at least 500 tickets, you can begin to purchase from the vending machine. Go to Tradebot’s shop and take a left when you get off your Airship onto their island to go to the machine. Interact with it to open the Vending Machine menu.
You will have to buy the items from left to right, as the items on the right don’t unlock until the previous are purchased.
There are a total of 9 items in the machine:
Item
Tickets
3 Additional Airship Colors (Red, Green, Light Blue)
500
A Bunch of Decorative Flowers to Craft
750
3 Additional Airship Colors (Yellow, Purple, Pink)
1,000
A Bunch of Decorative Statues to Craft
1,250
Two Special Decorative Pieces to Craft
1,500
Decorative Stones
2,000
Two Forester Skins (Forester Research Needed)
2,500
3 Additional Airship Colors (White, Blue, Black)
3,000
Vending Machine Trophy
5,000
Released
June 8, 2026
Developer(s)
Cyberwave
Publisher(s)
rokaplay, Metaroot
Multiplayer
Online Co-Op
Number of Players
Single-player
