Help for a new player regarding progression in early game

[[BGG] ClockYze]

TLDR: My stash empties out after a couple of deaths, because of low inventory space in missions.

So I've played a couple tries now and have already started a new save because I had no medicine/weapons left in my stash. My problem seems to be that you can barely take anything with you from a mission, that you dont need to sustain yourself.

I probably have just not realised some mechanic in the game I guess ?

[Slamoo]

Early on, I took my loadout and replaced bits with skinned humans to trade with the Tez. I'd then take the stuff from the Tez and trade to whichever corpo wanted it and had what I wanted. Its a nice way to trade up into things. Daydream chem was another good early trade.. the tutorial missions had some poppys that daydream wanted and I lucked into some decent item chips. Midgame, it was me boosting Realware and focusing on what they wanted in trade for 6x4 backpacks and the 3 slot vests.

I'm sure you could pick another corpo like ANcom and hurry towards their 6x3 backpacks? Either way.. things get alot nicer when you get larger backpacks. Tunnel rats was a solid starting class to improve loot drops.

[Slamoo]

With the Tunnel rat class.. I was not wanting for food/medicine while doing missions. Before you get tunnel rat.. just use the emergency kit loadout and rinse/repeat until success.

[zverozvero]

You recieve safety net package when loose character. Check ship cargo - in first tab there should be 'emergency' something (dont remember how exactly its named). Disassemble it and it'll give knife, pistol, some clothes, meds, food and small backpack. Works few times in a row and then thats either all or takes some time to recharge. Not sure.

Also Tutorial is bit misleading suggesting that you want antibiotics and bandage/splint as meds.
You can craft Sorbent in your ship. Its free, takes only 2 hrs to craft 1 and you can craft 3 items simultaneosly. 1 portion is enough to heal wound getting infected and 3-4 to cure fully developed infection like one you may get from eating raw meat. I usually take half of stack (5) for mission.
Cloth you get from disassembling enemies rags can heal any wound. It just wont regenerate 2 hp for 10 seconds and might need 2-4 pieces reapplied to fully heal.
Mars and its moons is not connected to Quasimorph realms os you can eat human meat without summoning deamons to hunt you. Drop stack of fresh meat near explosive barrel and pop it with gun shot from afar. If square with stack burns meat will cook. No infection and no need to search for stove.
In early game enemies are slow and weak. If you have absolutely no weapons choose merc with high melee damage and jump some lesser grunt and punch it to death. Remember that you can have 3 moves per turn and most of them - 1. Get knife or sharp bone, toss into someone with gun and get a gun.

Gun parts, blades, armor bits trade well on many stations and you need to collect those during mission to keep your gear fixed any way so stack those. You'll need to check who wants what off course but at least it never changes. Each station allways want same stuff even if owner changed.

[GameKnut]

With every character death, you get an Emergency Case, which disassembles into a pistol with 60 rounds, knife, clothes, a backpack, food, and medicine. You can't stock up on these cases; only one can be in your cargo. So always open it! It's free!
From the overview screen, go to your cargo page and start crafting Sorbent. It's similar to antibiotics, but more importantly it costs nothing to make. 5 doses ought to be enough for a normal mission. Then you can save your antibiotics for trading!
Learn to switch to stealth mode whenever you need to interact with bodies, doors, or your inventory. It saves you actions, which can save your life; applying medication is free in stealth mode! Though, if your pain level is too high, you'll get stunned for one action anyway... Also, repairing items always uses an action, even in stealth mode.
Defense missions are a great way to stock up on crafting resources. You don't have to worry about quasimorphosis, even on the inner planets; just find cover, mow down the hordes, and loot between waves.
If you inflict any wound on an enemy, you can usually just run away and wait for infection to kill them. They can't apply medication. (yet.)
Enemies have a vision range of 5 tiles. They cannot fire on you if you're farther away.

There's probably more, but that seems like enough general advice.

[pgames-food]

hi i think you can also throw melee weapons too, so in case you have a metal pipe but not a knife, or some other melee weapon, you can usually throw it with shift+clicking on the enemy, but usually works best when you have a spare weapon for use in melee (since you can miss or not cause a lethal hit), and usually best at closer ranges.

if you cant find your Emergency Case, you can use the sorting button in the newer updates to sort a tab of items, or can scroll through each tab just in case it was given in an empty slot that was further down then usual. (i think rewards and that item are given in the 1st tab but have a look in case you moved it by mistake too) - i often drag things between different tabs, and sometimes put a grenade into the armour tab :)