New Pilot's Guide
The game begins with a name prompt and then drops you on Levo in a Shuttlecraft with 10,000 credits and no instructions whatsoever. There is no tutorial and nobody tells you what the point is. That is deliberate, and it is the best thing about it — but it does mean the first hour can be spent going nowhere.
The short version
Trade food and industrial goods between neighbouring worlds until you can afford a Scoutship. Take cargo missions from the mission computer while you do it, because they pay for a trip you were making anyway. Kill pirates when you can win. Do not take either of the two courier missions from the bar until you have decided which side you want — see below.
Before you leave the ground
- Levo will always let you land. Whatever you do to your reputation elsewhere, this planet takes you back. It is the one safe harbour in the game.
- Check the bar, the mission computer and the commodity exchange on every world. They are three separate places and they carry three separate kinds of work.
- Strict play is a checkbox on the pilot screen. If it is ticked, death is permanent. Leave it off for a first pilot.
Making your first million
- Fill the hold. The Shuttlecraft carries 20 tons. Buy whatever the local exchange prices low and check where it sells high.
- Take the cargo run that goes the same way. The mission computer pays around 10,000 credits for a delivery you were already making.
- Buy a Scoutship (80,000 cr). Twice the cargo, better shields, four guns and — the part that matters — nine jumps of fuel instead of four. Suddenly the whole map is reachable.
- Then a Courier or a Clipper, depending on whether you would rather haul (50 tons, eight jumps) or fight (four guns, a turret, 300 AU/h).
What to bolt on first
| Outfit | Why |
|---|---|
| Escape Pod | Cheap. You survive losing the ship instead of losing the pilot. Buy it before anything else. |
| Meizner Ramscoop | Refills fuel while you fly. Turns a four-jump ship into one that never has to plan around refuelling. |
| External Fuel Tank | One more jump, almost free, five tons. The cheapest way to extend your range early. |
| Afterburner | The escape button. Worth more than a second gun on a ship that cannot win fights yet. |
| Regional Map | Shows everything within two jumps. Cheap, and it stops you jumping blind into a pirate system. |
The decision to put off
Read this before you accept anything in a bar
Two missions turn up early — Transport Confed Documents and Transport Rebel Parcels. They look like ordinary courier work and pay 5,000 credits. Completing either one permanently locks the other side's entire storyline out of that pilot file. Twenty-two missions on one side, twenty-one on the other, and you choose between them by accident, in a bar, in the first hour.
So: decide first. If you want to see both, keep two pilots. The mission pages explain exactly how the lock works.
Where to go next
Ship Registry
What to save up for, and what each upgrade actually buys you.
Galaxy Map
Where everything is, and which systems are hostile.
Making a living
How prices work, and where each commodity is cheap or dear.
Fighting
How your rating, disabling and boarding actually work.