Once Human: the online trading guide after 3.0.3 — buy orders, the Marketplace and Energy Links

The 3.0.3 update, rolled out on August 5, 2026, went a bit unnoticed behind the Block Adventure event. Yet it's the one bringing the most structural change of the summer to Once Human's economy: a purchase order function ("Purchase"), which flips the logic of the Market. You no longer wait for a seller to deign to list the item you need: you post your request, your price in Energy Links, and any seller on the server can respond to it.

In the same patch, Starry Studio shortens the binding time of purchased items, unifies the tracking list (now capped at 20 entries) and significantly widens the catalog of tradable items: ingots, furniture blueprints, collectible fish and even farm animals are joining the Market.

The timing is no coincidence: on August 25, Once Human arrives on PS5 and Xbox Series with full cross-play and cross-progression. New Metas are about to flood in with everything to buy and nothing to sell. Here's how online trading works in August 2026, what 3.0.3 actually changes, and how to position yourself before the rush.

How Once Human's online trading works

Online trading was introduced with version 2.2.3, on December 10, 2025. It allows buying and selling on a server-wide scale, with no geographic constraint: no more need to roam Nalcott to track down the right Vendor in some remote corner of the map. There are three entry points: the main menu, any Vendor, or the NPC Harvester Manny. Patch notes have no longer been translated into French since 2025; in the absence of an official localized name, we keep the English names for these NPCs.

• Required level: your character must be level 10 to use this feature.
• Availability: the system is active in standard scenarios, but not in RaidZones.
• Binding: purchased items are temporarily bound to your account after the transaction — this is the safeguard against instant resale (see below, 3.0.3 loosens it).

Two other NPCs round out the system: Procurement Manny manages market bounties — you deliver the requested resources in exchange for Protochrome, rare materials or furniture — while Quickbuy Manny serves as a quick-exchange counter for common resources. Bounties remain one of the few ways to convert a harvest surplus into Protochrome: check them at every rotation before dumping anything on the Market.

Purchase orders ("Purchase"): the real novelty of 3.0.3

The principle is that of a stock exchange purchase order. You create a request specifying the item you want and the amount of Energy Links you're putting up. Any seller who owns the matching item can fulfill the order: they deliver, they get paid, and the transaction is taxed at the same rate as the standard Market — so posting an order doesn't let you dodge the tax.

For gear, the order can include precise conditions: presence of a given bonus effect, minimum effect value, durability threshold. That's the detail that changes everything for perfect-piece hunters: instead of scouring listings every night hoping a decent copy shows up, you set your criteria once and let the server work for you.

On the seller side, the reasoning flips. Before listing an item on the Marketplace — and entering the undercutting spiral — first check the current buy orders: if someone is already paying a fair price for what you have in stock, the sale is instant, with no exposure time or price war. Buy orders also give valuable, public information: the price buyers are actually willing to pay, far more reliable than the listed price of listings that never sell.

Shorter binding, unified watchlist, locking: fewer frictions

Three quality-of-life changes come with the Purchase feature, and they matter day to day:

• Reduced binding time: 3.0.3 "significantly" reduces the binding duration of materials and consumables bought online. Starry Studio doesn't give a figure, but the original rule — fifteen days of binding after purchase — was strangling the flow of resources. Materials become a real flow market again.
• Shared watchlist: your tracked items are now shared across all online trading modules, with a raised cap of 20 entries. Use them like a dashboard: materials you produce, items you're after, and two or three "benchmark" references to gauge the server's economic health.
• Item locking: added in 3.0.2 on July 22, it prevents listing or selling a locked item, including with NPCs. Lock your calibrated parts and perfect specimens before any mass-selling session — a careless mistake gets costly now that selling has become this fast.

New tradable items: ingots, blueprints, fish, and animals

3.0.3 extends the list of listable items, and each addition opens up a revenue niche:

The labels above are those from the game's FR client; the six fish also carry a variant qualifier that the English client displays in brackets (Cosmoglow, Quicksilver, Jade, Iridescence, Shimmergold, Crimson).

Fishing, an Energy Link trade for August

The overhaul happened in two stages. 3.0.2 simplified the fishing interaction, reworked the QTEs (with a continuous-click action), and introduced the six variant fish listed above. 3.0.3 corrects the communication misstep: the team admits it poorly documented the July 22 bait adjustments, and finally clarifies the rule that matters. When fishing with lures, you have between 15 and 35% chance — depending on the fishing zone — of hooking a special fish, such as the electric eel.

The economic loop is straightforward: fish with lures in high-rate zones, keep the special fish and collector variants, then decide between direct sales on the Marketplace and fulfilling buy orders. Since this sector has just opened, prices haven't stabilized yet on most servers: keep an eye on your twenty tracked listings for a few days before setting your own, and be wary of the first listed prices, which are often unrealistic.

Online Marketplace, Dispenser, or Harvesters' Markets: what to sell where?

Three channels coexist, and they don't serve the same purpose:

• The online marketplace: the default channel for anything listable — materials, consumables, equipment, and now ingots, formulas, fish and animals. Maximum reach, prices visible to everyone.
• The Territory Dispenser: still useful for retail sales of items the online marketplace doesn't accept, for bartering with neighbors, or for taking advantage of a high-traffic spot. Since 3.0.2, remember to use the lock feature to avoid accidentally listing a valuable item there.
• Harvesters' Markets: dedicated trading zones, added in March 2025 in Manibus, Evolution's Call and Way of Winter. There you place a special Dispenser — one per player, no power supply required — mainly for trading Anomalies. If a machine sits idle too long, it's automatically recalled and your materials are returned to you.

Before August 25: get your shop ready for the arrival of consoles

Once Human launches on PS5 and Xbox Series on August 25 at 10 a.m. (Pacific Time), with full cross-play between consoles, PC and mobile, plus cross-progression. Whatever the distribution of newcomers across servers turns out to be, one thing is certain: players starting from scratch will be buying basic materials, consumables and mid-progression equipment — exactly the categories that 3.0.3 has just made easier to trade.

The coming two weeks are therefore ideal for building up stockpiles that don't spoil: ingots, bait, collector fish, furniture formulas. And when the day comes, buy orders will tell you plainly what the market wants — this is the first time the game's economy has shown its demand so clearly.

The merchant's checklist for this weekend:

• Review your server's buy orders before making any regular sales;
• Lock your calibrated equipment pieces and rare items;
• Fill your 20 tracking slots with your products and your buying targets;
• Fish with lures in high-rate zones to stock up on special fish and variants;
• Set aside ingots and formulas ahead of the week of August 25.

Once Human's economy has never been so clear or so liquid. Those who learn to make the most of it before consoles arrive will get a head start — and a chest full of Energy Links.