The Merchant Cruiser is the ship each player starts with in the fictional TradeWars 2002 universe. The Merchant Cruiser is an average ship in many aspects. It has combat odds of 1.0, since it is the ship by which combat standards are rated. Its trading efficiency is only 72, however, compared to the Merchant Freighter's TE of 100. For this reason, many traders opt to trade in their Merchant Cruiser for the Freighter immediately.