Following are all of the rules that determined the scoring of the trading game. The rules are cumulative, so the leg 1 rules also apply to all subsequent legs. The rules are presented here in the approximate order that they would have been discovered.

Most of the rules were embedded in handbook entries that get revealed by clue solutions. These rules were revealed to all teams at the same point in the route, assuming they actually read the handbook. Three of the rules were embedded as puzzles in the Galaxy Today that teams received Saturday morning. Most teams solved these puzzles, although not all.

A handful of teams turned in more than twelve goods at the end of leg 1. One team made what they thought was a sweetheart trade, receiving nine cards for one; they ultimately turned in twenty-six goods. Goods results were distributed shortly after each leg, so few teams made that mistake more than once.

Leg 1

• Base values: Vegetable = 2, Animal = 3, Mineral = 4, Manufactured = 5 (Galaxy Today)
• Customs agents allow no more than twelve items per cargo bay. Any extra will be jettisoned at random before payment is rendered. (Galaxy Today)
• Ships are shielded to seven megarads of omnicron radiation. Any more than that and the base value of all cargo is reduced by half. (Galaxy Today).
• Tribonium rods emit one megarad of radiation. Crystite emits two. (tribonium, crystite)
• Balance Bonus: Each set of four items (one each of ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MINERAL, and MANUFACTURED) earns a seven cedrick bonus. (Confed Council)
• Harvest Bonus: The first unique vegetable in a cargo bay earns a one cedrick bonus. The second earns two. Thie third earns three, and so forth. (PERGOBELLUM)
• Noah Bonus: Pairs of identical live animals are worth double their base value, but only once per species. (Talgon)
• Focus Bonus: Each set of four identical items earns a twenty-five cedrick bonus. MANUFACTURED items are ineligible. (SHREDMART)

Leg 2

• An astromoth is an ANIMAL, but its base value is 12 cedricks. (astromoth)
• Fussy Eater Bonus: The ship delivering the most different food items earns a bonus of four times the base value of its non-FOODS. (LETTERS)
• Purity Bonus: A ship with no UNETHICAL items scores a ten cedrick bonus. (Josta)
• Hazard Bonus: If more than one third of a ship's cargo is DANGEROUS, that ship earns a 25 credrick bonus but is ineligible for any FOOD, DRUG, or RARE bonuses. (CHER)
• Sex Bonus: The value of all non-SEX items is increased by three if a SEX item of the same category (ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MINERAL, or MANUFACTURED) is included. (murgaleen)
• Addiction Bonus: The ship delivering the most drugs receives a bonus equal to the square of their count of UNETHICAL items. (Cess)
• Museum Bonus: Each set of five different RARE items earns a 30 cedrick bonus. Sets of six instead earn 40, and sets of seven earn 50. (Tolt)
• Astromoth cocoons require three megarads of omnicron radiation each to hatch. (PARK - Base camp)

Leg 3

• Budget Bonus: Any ship whose cargo bay contains all possible QUALITY values will receive a bonus equal to the total QUALITY value of their UNETHICAL items. (Silver Cluster)
• Kitsch Bonus: the ship delivering the most QUALITY 0 items will receive a bonus equal to its number of QUALITY 0 items squared. (Zeugor)
• Top Quality Bonus: the ship delivering the highest combined QUALITY total will be paid triple for its cargo, before any other bonuses are applied. (Mantar)
• Bundle Bonus: All MANUFACTURED items of matching quality score a bonus of N * (N+1) / 2 per item, where N is the number of matching items. (APOGEE)
• Mooncurser Edition Bonus: If the total quality values of a ship's cargo is exactly 42, that ship may double the total value of any one other bonus it receives. (Marcus Nembek)
• Straight Bonus: For each attribute (ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MINERAL, MANUFACTURED, SEX, RARE, DANGEROUS, UNETHICAL, DRUG, FOOD), any group of at least five items having that attribute and consecutive quality values scores a bonus equal to their combined base values. Each item can be part of only one set per attribute. (GalactoChef)