Newcomer / Intro tips on how to start?

[Dannyjw]

So i've worked out a few things. how to dock, shoot and change systems.

But i don't know what or how to do anything else.

Are there some simple tutorial missions (not the tutorials outside of the main game) How do i make money? where to i find things that make me money? how would i even pick stuff up? what is said stuff? How do i find missions?

And who or what can i shoot that wont get me into trouble? are there space bandits or something similar? How would i find and identify them?

Whats the best thing to do to get me started?

I also have a 100 credit fine. not sure why or how to pay it.

 

[Lestenio]

When you dock at a station, check out the boards for missions, do a few of those and earn some more cash.
you'll soon be able to upgrade your ship.

Elite de is about anything you want to do. Be a bounty hunter, trader, trade rare goods, be a miner, piratee, explorers. It's up to you. you have a ship, 100c and the Galaxy is your oyster

 

[The Land]

Best thing to do is take some basic "haul goods" missions from the bulletin board. These give you reliable credits and take you places. Best check out the destinations, I would try to stick to orderly systems (i.e. not anarchies).

You can only safely shoot at ships if you are
a) not near a space station (IMPORTANT)
b) they have a Wanted status - select them as a target, then their status will show up
otherwise it's illegal.

For the fine - go to Contacts then Local Security Officer or Pilots Federation, you'll have an option to pay the fine.

 

[Argus Leadhead]

First off, welcome to Elite: Dangerous!

There are a few things you can do to get started making money. I would recommend that you find a mission in a station that involves delivering a small amount if items. That'll at least get you a few hundred or thousand credits depending in the mission. Another thing you could do is fly around the star in the system you're I'm and look for a nav beacon on the navigation panel to the left. Once there, you'll see a variety of ships. Just target one and keep facing it. Your ship will automatically scan him. After a few seconds it'll either say "clean" or "wanted". If the ship is wanted, look at your contacts panel on the left to see how much their bounty is.

Be careful about their combat rating though. I wouldn't advise shooting at anyone higher than novice until you get used to dog fighting and upgrade your ship a little. Don't be afraid to die in your starter sidewinder, it's free for a new one!

Once you've killed a few wanted ships, the accumulated bounties show up in the transaction tab to the left along with the name of the faction who issued said bounties. Fly to one of their stations and go to contacts in station services. You'll have an option to redeem your bounty vouchers. Voila! Money!

Please note, if you die , you lose all bounty vouchers so cash in early and often to keep frustration down.

Hope this helps commander!

 

[Dannyjw]

What if some one opens fire on me near a station? am i free to fire back? Was at a station recently and there was a bit of shooting going on.

And do the missions tell how how to mine/trade ect?

 

[Argus Leadhead]

I'm pretty sure the "no-fire zone" is absolute. You will be fined for shooting inside of it. If it's outside the no fire zone, aggression will trigger a lethal response from the station but defending yourself won't.

As for learning to trade/mine, I may not be the best to give advice on that. I'm more of a bounty hunter.

 

[The Land]

What if some one opens fire on me near a station? am i free to fire back? Was at a station recently and there was a bit of shooting going on.

And do the missions tell how how to mine/trade ect?

I would advise not trying to find out.

Missions don't "teach trading" per se. However if you are on a scrap hauling mission look at the commodity markets at source and destination, you may find opportunities for profit while on the mission.

Nothing teaches mining - there are probs some unofficial tutorials on YouTube tho.

 

[fitz5000]

same here

 

[Painkiller]

HI Danny and welcome to ED
I got some info that may help you or at least confirm what guys posted here
Mining:
To mine you need at least 1 mining laser + refinery mount. You need to go to some asteroid belt, go close to asteroid and start shooting at him with laser. It will cut small pieces of that asteroid type. Those pieces start to degrade in time so like, you need to pick them up in 20-30 seconds. Picking up means using cargo scoop (fly toward with small speed, keep target in the middle of ...) and you will pickup like 0.1, 0.2 tones or some small amount of that metal. After like 5-10 pickups, you will get in the end 1 tone of that item, meaning you can sell it on market. For me, this was not profitable option. Time spend and bunch of techniques used are not worthy 1 tone of that item. Plus, you will get attacked by NPC pirates and from today, by real players so my opinion, not worthy.
Trade:
Will confirm what most guys posted here, as you dont have much money, start with delivery missions. Check the image, its a print screen from Bulletin Board.
* Credits earning oportunity . This means, you will pay to buy cargo they need. Deliver it where its required and you will get payed. So if they offer 10.000 reward, cargo you buy costs 7000 credits, that means for you pure profit will be (10.000 - 7000) = 3000 credits. Sometimes it's not worthy.
Sometimes items that are need on BB (Bulletin Board) are in the station. I had today like 9000 credits reward for delivering 15 t of Hydrogen fuel (this fuel you can find it in almost every station). I simply accepted the mission, went to market, bought 15 tones of fuel, went back to BB and deliver cargo, got me easy 8000 credits.
* Kills mean credits ! ...killing involved, that means you will get ok with that faction and get negative with people you kill (some my guess, not 100% sure).
* Controlling The future ...ilegal cargo. I will not risk it, you may get fined for ilegal cargo, shoot down by NPC ...
* Data Handler ...simply delivery mission, no cargo space needed. If you can, do it all the time.
* End Corporate ..........charity mission. Spent 100% credits on items, deliver them...all you get will +up in relations with that faction ...
* Haulers wanted ...........this is it. Pickup cargo, deliver it to the destination, get payed.
...some tips now:
- Try to get fuel scoop . It costs 300 credits but it will pay itself in 2 runs.
- NEVER EVER EVER afterburn directly in the station direction, always aim for free space. Get near station, stop. Check for incoming/outgoing traffic (look at ships) and then start the docking. NPC don't care about you, they will continue their docking sequence, kicking your ship and if having bad luck, you will crash at the entrance.
- When taking off landing pad, go slow to the entrance/exit. Stop. Check the incoming/outgoing traffic. When safe, speed up to 30-40 and keep your center in the middle of the entrance. When I am sure direction is right and when I am in the docking hatch, I afterburn ...I do this to minimize time spending when exiting the station, NPC ships can block / kick me/ spin me , and in the end, I'll explode ))

For now market seems broken, stations that require some items also have that items for sale, never buy from them.
Use this tool to help you decide on what goods to buy/sell.
http://www.elitetradingtool.co.uk/

Fly safe

 

[CMDR Inigo]

Some good tips there from painkiller

delivery missions and data handler missions are definitely ones to look out for and are low risk

be careful when accepting missions to check the remaining time: don't take it if you're not certain you can fulfil it as you will lose reputation with the mission giver (and the clock is real time, so it keeps ticking even if you log out and go feed the dog/kids etc)

If you are doing a haulage mission where they give you the goods to carry, the consequence of failure is that the goods instantly turn to stolen property and you will be fined if scanned, and will only be able to move them on through a black market (see contacts for these) or by dumping them overboard. You'll also be fined by the mission giver as stated in the penalty at the bottom of the mission.

 

[Dannyjw]

I thought i had the traveling thing sorted. I tried going back to dalton station where my other ship is stored but it just took me to the star of that system and from there it took an absurd amount of time to reach the station. Can't i use hyper space to get there quicker? i over shot the station a number of times too. Still don't quite get how to stop in time other than blind luck.

And as for selling information, i scaned some unexplored planets and a star but i have no idea how to sell this info. or is that not how it works?

 

[Martin1956]

I thought i had the traveling thing sorted. I tried going back to dalton station where my other ship is stored but it just took me to the star of that system and from there it took an absurd amount of time to reach the station. Can't i use hyper space to get there quicker? i over shot the station a number of times too. Still don't quite get how to stop in time other than blind luck.

And as for selling information, i scaned some unexplored planets and a star but i have no idea how to sell this info. or is that not how it works?

You can use Supercruise but not hyperspace. When you approach the station slow your ship down and make sure the speed bar is at the lower end of the blue range, some journeys do seem to take forever. If you are approaching too fast curve away and let the speed scrub off and then curve back towards your target.

 

[Richard]

First off, welcome to Elite: Dangerous!

There are a few things you can do to get started making money. I would recommend that you find a mission in a station that involves delivering a small amount if items. That'll at least get you a few hundred or thousand credits depending in the mission. Another thing you could do is fly around the star in the system you're I'm and look for a nav beacon on the navigation panel to the left. Once there, you'll see a variety of ships. Just target one and keep facing it. Your ship will automatically scan him. After a few seconds it'll either say "clean" or "wanted". If the ship is wanted, look at your contacts panel on the left to see how much their bounty is.

Be careful about their combat rating though. I wouldn't advise shooting at anyone higher than novice until you get used to dog fighting and upgrade your ship a little. Don't be afraid to die in your starter sidewinder, it's free for a new one!

Once you've killed a few wanted ships, the accumulated bounties show up in the transaction tab to the left along with the name of the faction who issued said bounties. Fly to one of their stations and go to contacts in station services. You'll have an option to redeem your bounty vouchers. Voila! Money!

Please note, if you die , you lose all bounty vouchers so cash in early and often to keep frustration down.

Hope this helps commander!

It helped me - cheers! I didn't know about using the Contacts panel to see what target's bounty is. Does that also give you faction data?

To OP: beta player here - and still learning the game. Don't get discouraged if the learning curve is a bit steep to start with.

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I thought i had the traveling thing sorted. I tried going back to dalton station where my other ship is stored but it just took me to the star of that system and from there it took an absurd amount of time to reach the station. Can't i use hyper space to get there quicker? i over shot the station a number of times too. Still don't quite get how to stop in time other than blind luck.

And as for selling information, i scaned some unexplored planets and a star but i have no idea how to sell this info. or is that not how it works?

Go to Universal Cartographics once you're at a station - you can sell your data there. You do need to be at least 20 light years from the system you scanned though, before you can sell.

 

[CMDR Inigo]

And as for selling information, i scaned some unexplored planets and a star but i have no idea how to sell this info. or is that not how it works?

Go to stellar cartography menu in star port services once docked
the value of the system scan data will be listed, but you need to be more than 20LY from the system before you can sell it, with the logic being that the local systems would already have this knowledge

 

[Dannyjw]

You can use Supercruise but not hyperspace. When you approach the station slow your ship down and make sure the speed bar is at the lower end of the blue range, some journeys do seem to take forever. If you are approaching too fast curve away and let the speed scrub off and then curve back towards your target.

But that must have been around 5 minutes plus. is the game really telling me to sit there and twiddle my thumbs for that long?

And how do i know when to slow down? with technology this advanced you'd think there would be some sort of indicator telling you so you don't over shoot or smash into the station.

 

[Istvan Aurelius]

If the ship is wanted, look at your contacts panel on the left to see how much their bounty is.

Thank you, sir; I've been playing for 4 months (already?) and was unaware that this data could be had in the UI somewhere. +1 rep for the tip!

 

[Istvan Aurelius]

But that must have been around 5 minutes plus. is the game really telling me to sit there and twiddle my thumbs for that long?

And how do i know when to slow down? with technology this advanced you'd think there would be some sort of indicator telling you so you don't over shoot or smash into the station.

Yes. During those 5 minutes you are at direct risk from attack by pirates in the system, or if you're bountied, by security patrols. Do not for a moment believe that in a civilized system that time is guaranteed uneventful! In fact, I've been interdicted three or more times in a traverse like that in a busy system, leaving me wondering if I'm ever going to make it safely to my next port of call! You've got to keep a weather eye on the radar display constantly, or at least continually.

Now, in an empty fringe system, it's a much quieter run, but in that case I'm actively watching the screen for objects to scan/explore, so careful attention is involved once again.

If you move your throttle indicator to the blue area so that it also highlights blue, your ship's computer will regulate your speed and help slow you down automatically for breakout at the destination. That said, since early Gamma I've felt that this process is not as accurate/reliable as it formerly was and I've needed to make some manual adjustments, so attention is required when nearing arrival ... can't just go play holochess with a wookiee in the recroom, I'm afraid.

 

[Painkiller]

I just entered system Rakapila, heading towards Walker Settlement stations. I will show you my distance and my speed in steps:
distance: 1,300 LS - speed at 26 C
distance: 200 LS, speed at 7 C
distance: 70 LS, speed at 4 C
distance: 10 LS, speed at 1 C
distance: 20.00 Mm , speed at 399 Km/sec
distance: 2.00 Mm speed at 70 Km/sec
distance: under 1 Mm, your max speed should be 999 Km/sec (or less) so you can do safe disengage.

I can follow the distance and speed if the distance is droping twice faster than real time seconds. So in 1 second I want my speed drop from 200 LS to 180 LS.

Also, on the left side of the screen you have 2 horizontal bars (indicators you asked), one is distance to the object and the other one is the top speed for it. When blue slider gets inside the blue area, thats the top and best speed for you.

Practice makes you better

 

[Googol]

...And how do i know when to slow down? ...

Super cruise throttle control can be a bit of a black art, particularly if you are moving across a gravity well on the way to your destination. If the route is uncomplicated then this will prevent overshooting:
-
Line up with your target and max the throttle.
Ignore the distance readout in the HUD, concentrate on the time to arrival (TTA) below.
When TTA drops to 7 seconds throttle back so the indicator needle is approximately in the middle of the blue band.
The TTA should stabilise at 7 seconds, if it increases then increase throttle slightly and vice versa - you want to keep it at 7 seconds.
Your ship will automatically slow down, reaching your destination station at a speed that will allow you to drop straight from super cruise without any fuss.
-
Once you get used to this you will find that a 6 second TTA is possible, but if you drop to 5 or below you are probably going to overshoot.
Flying across a gravity well to reach your destination will initially slow you down (TTA increases) but don't adjust the throttle up too much because as you come back out of the well the ship will accelerate again.
-
Happy flying!

 

[mugendo]

Watch which factions are giving you missions in the stations, when you get a good rep with a faction they will start to give you better paying missions.

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What if some one opens fire on me near a station? am i free to fire back? Was at a station recently and there was a bit of shooting going on.

And do the missions tell how how to mine/trade ect?

Open fire in the no fire zone will get you a 100 cred fine...each time you shoot. I was helping security kill a pirate and got a 400 cred fine (4x100)...lucky I got the last shot in and earned the bounty.....400 creds