Player Guide: The Auction House

The Auction House is where you compete for contracts — the primary way to earn money in Space Race. Winning a contract gives you a recurring cash stream, a one-time payment, or other rewards in exchange for deploying the right satellite to the right orbit.

1. Opening the Auction House

Click Auction in the top navigation bar. You must be logged in to access the auction. The page shows:

  • Available Contracts — all open auctions you can bid on.
  • Your Active Bids — a summary of every auction where you have placed a bid, with its current status.

2. Reading a Contract Listing

Each row in the Available Contracts list shows:

  • Contract name — click it to see full details.
  • Current Bid badge — the highest bid placed so far, or "No Bids" if nobody has bid yet.
  • Minimum bid — you cannot bid below this amount.
  • Ends on turn X — the turn the auction closes, calculated 3 turns after the most recent bid. If no bids have been placed the auction stays open indefinitely.

3. Understanding a Contract

Click any contract to open its detail page. The two most important sections are:

You Will Provide

What you must deliver to fulfill the contract. This can include:

  • An upfront cash payment
  • Specific assets (rockets, facilities)
  • Technologies you must own

You Will Receive

What you earn. This can include:

  • A cash reward per turn for duration turns (recurring revenue)
  • A one-time cash payment
  • Assets or technologies

Also check the Duration field — recurring contracts pay out each turn for that many turns. A duration of 12 means you receive the reward once per turn for 12 turns.

4. Placing a Bid

  1. Open the contract detail page.
  2. In the Place Your Bid panel on the right, you will see your current cash balance and the minimum allowed bid.
  3. Enter your bid amount and click Place Bid.
  4. Your bid is committed immediately — your cash is not deducted yet, but when you win the auction your bid amount will be deducted from your balance.

You can only bid an amount you currently have. If you are outbid and place a new bid, only your latest bid matters.

5. The 3-Turn Rule

An auction closes automatically when 3 turns pass without a new bid.

  • If nobody has bid, the auction stays open indefinitely. Once the first bid is placed, the 3-turn countdown begins.
  • Every new bid resets the countdown — the auction will close 3 turns after the most recent bid.
  • The Ends on turn field on the detail page always shows the current projected closing turn.

6. Bid Statuses

In the Your Active Bids panel and in the bid history table, each bid shows one of these badges:

  • Highest — you currently have the highest bid; the auction is still open.
  • Outbid — someone has placed a higher bid.
  • Won — the auction closed and you won.

7. Winning an Auction

When the 3-turn window expires, the player with the highest bid wins. Ties go to the earliest bid placed.

After you win:

  • Your bid amount is deducted from your cash balance.
  • The contract is assigned to you.
  • If the contract requires a satellite in orbit and you already have a qualifying satellite deployed, recurring payouts begin immediately.
  • If not, launch the required satellite — payouts start once it is in orbit.
  • A news article about your win appears on the Space News page the same turn the auction closes.

8. Player-Designed Contracts

Other players can create their own contracts and put them up for auction. These work exactly like system contracts — you read the terms, decide if the deal is worth it, and bid accordingly. See Design Contracts in the nav bar for information on creating your own.

9. Strategy Tips

  • Read requirements before bidding. Make sure you have (or can build) what the contract requires before committing cash.
  • Watch your cash. Bidding high and then running out of cash to build assets leaves you unable to fulfill the contract.
  • Recurring contracts beat one-time payouts. A contract that pays $20M per turn for 12 turns is worth far more than a single $50M contract.
  • Don't let auctions slip away. An auction with no bids stays open until someone acts. Check back each turn to see what new contracts have opened.

For a full explanation of how contracts work within the game economy, see How to Play.