I love Teratons!

[Clear Air Turbulence]

They buy weapons and other non-mineral non-gem gear for rins! This really helps.

[Yugi]

Yes, it is helpful, though there is a risk to using Teratons, if you read my review. You need to decide wether the risk is worth the item(s) that you want.

[Clear Air Turbulence]

Most of the negatives associated with the Teratons are conditional. I looked up the script for when they mug you, and they say something about how weak your ship was...I think there's a check of the level of equipment you have like the Sisters of Domina do when determining what a decent tithe is, and if you are weak they will take advantage of you. I traded with them extensively (made over 100,000 rins in one play session and traded at every Teraton station looking for Longzhu spheres) and they never mugged me once.

I also looked at the code for the medical experiments, and it seems that you won't die if you have the necessary medical supplies in your ship...the one where they cut your arms open is counteracted by having artificial plasma, the tumor implantation is countered by having cancer dust, the disease and eel are counteracted by having hypermycin...and they all can be countered by having an autodoc.

[Clear Air Turbulence]

Yes, it is helpful, though there is a risk to using Teratons, if you read my review. You need to decide wether the risk is worth the item(s) that you want.

There's been no real risk so far. I'm wondering if your modded ship that you used for your pre-review playthrough had modded equipment with unusually low tech levels assigned to it - the Teratons will mug you if you have a weak ship, and if you had custom gear set at tech level 1 so it would be easily repaired/refueled, etc., it would have made your ship appear weak to the game.

I've had a lot more fun with Teratons. There are three kinds of Teraton nests that I am aware of, and all can be very profitable.

The manufacturing pit is a great place to unload cargo that's hard to sell in the later systems where most of the stations are Teratons and Ringers. If you feed the pit certain things (like food and cognac), it gets happier and happier. When it says something about it "purring contentedly", start feeding it different things. If you piss it off, feed it more food-type stuff until it's happy and give it different things. Sometimes it will say it consumed it without it releasing the pleasant smelling mist, I think that means it's saving up those materials to build something. When it's happy and you've given it lots of stuff it either likes or breaks down for components, try giving it a weapon, or a gem, or a superconducting coil. It will usually give you something much better.

The research labs are a good place to go to pick up free random stuff. There are 4 different experiments they might run on you - implanting a tumor, implanting an eel, cutting open your arms, and injecting you with a virus. You will survive any of these experiments if you have the right stuff in your cargo hold. If you have artificial plasma, you will survive having your arms cut open. If you have hypermycin, you will survive the eel or the virus. If you have cancer dust, you will survive the tumor. Or, if you have an autodoc, you will survive any of them...so if you see an autodoc, buy it! If you don't have the medical supplies, make note of where the stations that do research are so you can come back when you do, because you can only be experimented on once per station.

Add this to the fact that Teratons will buy high-level weapons and ammo, and the rin economy is boosted significantly. This has caused me to focus in the late game on specific high-value trade goods in my looting and keep my cargo level relatively low.