I'm not gonna pretend to know [i]everything[/i] about this game. But I feel I know enough to help starting players. Part one: Early game. So you woke up on a desolate waste scape/beautiful paradise. Your ship is crashed and you've got the head ache from hell. Boy you really shouldn't have had played that drinking game the night before. The very [b][i]FIRST[/i][/b] thing you should do is repair your Scanner. This is located in the Multitool and is activated when you press (L3). If I remember correctly you need Carbon to repair your scanner. Find some plants blast them with your mining beam. Repair that Scanner. The Scanner is used to locate resources and near by points of interest. Next fix your Analysis Visor. This will be your primary source of early income. Scanning new creatures will give you an initial reward of 200-500 units, while uploading your discoveries from the options menu nets substantially more. The Visor can zoom in up to 3 times (hold L2, then press R3 twice) great for scouting out locations! The game does a decent job of explaining how to fix your ship, that is if you're paying attention. The gist of it is you need enough Iron to craft 6 Cairite Sheets (4 for your launch thrusters and 2 for your pulse engines) then you need Heridium and either Zinc or Carbon (it's been 12 hours since I've had to fix it forgive me for not remembering). Heridium can be found in large blue pillars, (Rarely) Blue crystals, and (rarely) in out posts. Zinc can be found in (Rarely) asteroids, (Rarely) Yellow Crystals, and yellow plants. Part 2: take off! Or not? At this point you got Two options, leave your starting planet or stick around. You really don't have to leave, a player can spend hours exploring and mining the same world to their hearts content. But if you want to leave you'll only need one thing. Plutonium! Good news cause Plutonium is [b][i][u]THE THIRD MOST COMMON ELEMENT IN THE UNIVERSE[/u][/i][/b]. If you are buying plutonium you're doing it wrong, it will almost always be present on every planet in the form of Red Crystals. No joke I made hundreds of thousands early on just filling my ship and suit with plutonium and selling it at marked up price. (Even when marked up Carbon and Iron just don't sell for much). You use the Plutonium to charge your launch thrusters (as well as anything that takes isotope elements). With that you're off! Part 3: Dogfighting tips. I'm just gonna admit it, I'm I pirate, I plunder Freighters and shoot down Gek. It's honestly the most fun I've had in any thing close to being a flight sim. So have some tips! Use Cover: Space is full of asteroids and large freighters. Use this to your advantage when trying to avoid damage. If done properly you can turn freighters against the ships you're trying to shoot down. The Size and Shape of your ship [b][i][u]Does matter[/u][/i][/b]: The smaller the ship the smaller the hit box, the harder to hit. L1&R1: They Roll your ship! Remember this! Use boost! It's circle, very very useful. Remember to break troll: while in space you can move just as fast backwards as you can move forward (with out boosting). This leads to many fun maneuvers. My personal favorite is what I call the Break Troll. Oh no an enemy behind me? Hold L2 and while pointing my ship's Nose straight up(hold the 90 degree angle while you reverse down). Watch them fly past me, at this point if I need to disengage then I'll boost away or if I want to engage boost right at them nailing their engines until they're gone. Shoot at the indicator not the ship: seriously most photon cannons give you an indicator to help you lead your shots. Furthermore if you shoot the center of the indicator you'll get a 2 times damage multiplier. If your aim sucks use the Phase Beam: the phase beam is an auto locking pair of death rays that will almost never miss. As long as you can see enemy you'll be hitting them most of the time. No 2x damage bonus though. (You can switch between the phase beam and the photon cannon by pressing triangle). You can drift in space: I have yet to master it, but from what I've seen you can swing turns like a bad ass. Something to do with breaking, turning, then boosting at the right time. Part 4: Maxing money the legal way. When ever you visit a galactic trade terminal there will be items marked with a star. Those items are in great demand in that system/area. Simply put mine or craft as much as you can and sell it. You'll usually get double what's it's worth. If you want more detail information on what's hot and what's not, there will always be a red or green percentage on each listing, indicating the price change in that region compared to the galactic average. However if you are connected online be careful, if players flood the markets with too much of something and it could become worthless. (I watched Iron plummet in price over the course of a day). Part 5: Atlas Passes. As the method in which you acquire new Atlas Passes is rather spoilery all I will say on how to get them is "[b][i]Follow The Atlas[/i][/b]" now as to why you should get them well. Not the atlas path no no, The Atlas. It will lead you to your first one. Atlas Pass V1 unlocks a room in every space station that contains a Suit inventory upgrade machine as well as containers which grant you with warp fuel and warp fuel crafting materials. Atlas Pass V2 unlocks rooms in out posts that contain warp fuel themed loot and a Multitool sales machine. Atlas Pass V3 unlocks rooms in every space station that contain warp fuel themed loot and a Multitool sales machine. Part 6: How Upgrading works. First things first, of you're gonna be a trader and want a ship a lot of slots. DONT UPGRADE YOUR SHIP. Save your money and materials cause a ship with more than 30 slots goes for up to 20 Million Units. Fighters in general never get more than 25 slots (in my experience) but larger ships can go up to 40 Slots maybe more (I'm not sure). Now on actually upgrading. All upgrades need to be adjacent to their specified technology in order to be active. Meaning it's pointless to upgrade your multi tool much because you'll need a max amount of slots (4x7 I think). The same logic is applied to your ship, but not your suit. Don't worry you can get blue prints for every technology in your suit, ship, and multi tool. So they are all fully customizable. Update: Minor Text Fixes. Update 2: a friend of mine found a ship for 68 million.... It has 46 slots -> see photo.