Starting Guide
Pilot Classes
Mechanic:
- Bonuses: More efficient repairs (more condition/hull restored when repairing)
Repairs to craft systems on a timed proc - Best suited for: Aggressive players who prefer to fly into gunfire and take damage to end fights quickly.
Miner:
- Bonuses: Higher rate of loot drops
Chance to get double drops of scrap - Best suited for: Patient players who are prepared to spend more time doing inventory management.
Gunner:
- Bonuses: Increased range of ship weapons
Better damage for ground combat weapons - Best suited for: Defensive Players who want to engage enemies at a distance.
Players who want to focus more on ground combat in derelicts and planets.
Starter Ships
Eagle 1:
- Pros: Good all round stats. Small hitbox.
- Cons: Mediocre at everything.
- Best suited for: Players who aren’t wanting to specialise.
Rapier:
- Pros: Small hitbox, fuel efficient, fast, well armoured.
- Cons: Small cargo bay, small fuel & oxygen tanks, poor stealth
- Best suited for: Impatient and aggressive players who want to go fast and kill things!
Crate X-15:
- Pros: Lots of cargo space, big fuel and oxygen tanks, good stealth, 4 hardpoints
- Cons: Large hitbox, poor fuel efficiency, no armor
- Best suited for: Patient players who want to take their time and accumulate a large arsenal of weaponry
Starting Setups
All Mass Drivers
- Pros: Efficient Energy Use, easy to use
- Cons: Poor damage output, short range, may whiff against armored enemies
- Best Suited for: Players who prefer aggressive, short range combat
Plasma Gunner
- Pros: Good damage & Range
- Cons: Slow projectile speed makes hitting fast targets difficult
- Best suited for: Players talented at leading their shots!
Plasma & Missilies:
- Pros: Highly versatile, missiles good at countering agile early game enemies
- Cons: Missile launchers degrade quickly and consume a lot of scrap to keep them running. Missile launchers can only be activated manually using secondary fire.
- Best suited for: Players who are having a hard time with fast moving targets with the other setups.
Early Game Basics
So, you’ve chosen your pilot, ship and setup and you’re now in the universe. Now what?
Movement: Go into the Inventory (I) and select your Engine. Take note of what your Impulse Top Speed is. If you are going below that speed, you will be travelling on impulse power and consuming power from your reactor in order to move. This is helpful to conserve fuel, especially if you are in a heavier ship. If you are going at or above that speed, you will be consuming fuel.
Oxygen & Fuel: You need oxygen to keep your pilot alive. If it runs out, game over! If you are using a ship with a small oxygen supply, then go quickly whenever your fuel supply allows. If your ship has a bigger oxygen supply then you can afford to take your time and save your fuel for long hyperdrive trips and combat situations. Fuel helps you move at high speeds and use the hyperdrive. If you run out, you can only travel by using impulse power, which may leave you vulnerable due to limited manoeuvring options. Fuel and Oxygen can be restored by either destroying asteroids to get fuel/ice crystals, picking up fuel & oxygen canisters during ground missions, or buying fuel & oxygen canisters at shops.
Radar: Call up your radar with (R), and scan for contacts to find out what’s out there. While it reveals your position, you’re usually better off knowing what’s out there unless you’ve specifically built for stealth.
Lander Missions: There’s two types: Derelicts, which are zero-G missions and planets, which have gravity.
For derelicts, just leave the lander immediately. Your combat suit is better suited for zero-G manoeuvre than your lander is.
For planets, you need to increase your thrust until you are slightly reducing your velocity. Landers are quite sturdy, provided you are right side up, you have to be hitting the ground quite hard before you start doing damage.
Once you are landed, make sure you have your thrusters turned all the way off before you leave the lander. Otherwise it will keep burning fuel and once it runs out you will get a Game Over due to being stranded on a planet. Try to avoid that because you will feel very silly if you make that mistake.
