Tips every player should know but may not be obvious.

[KARL M FITZGERALD II]

1. You can come to a stop by hitting shift and down.
2. You can un-equip an item by clicking "u" and it will go in your inventory.
3. If you shift click and deselect your ship, you can unload items onto the planet to store them.
4. You can land on uninhabited planets, and even "Park" your ships there as well as inhabited planets.
5. You can have your escorts hold extra loot by coming to a full stop, typing "g" to gather, then while looting the ship, type "i" and click the other tab to reveal the "Dump Cargo" button. Dump it, and your escorts should pick up all the gear if they have space.
6. Click "Trading", then click sell all, and the button will then say "sell outfits", making it easy to sell everything at once.
7. Every system seems to have a limit to how far a ship will chase you. If you fly away from the center, all ships will eventually stop following you.
8. If you have solar panels, or some type of ram scoop, staying close to the systems sun, or suns, will rapidly regenerate your energy (solar panels) or jump power (ram scoop).
9. On the map screen, in the upper left, you can click it and change the overlay to show what planets are hostile, or what faction owns each sector.
10. Take a minute early on to reset the controls of the game to how you prefer them on the keypad. I really wish I had done this much sooner, trust me, you will not regret it.
11. Hold down "J" until all of your ships are ready to jump, helping prevent them from dying one by one. OR, press "Shift + J" to jump together for the whole route.
12. You can repair your reputation with almost all factions by simply hunting pirates for awhile.
13. Raise your combat level to unlock many of the quests in the game.
14. If you are trying to capture ships, equipping your escorts with constant-beam-type lasers instead of projectile weapons will prevent further (potentially destructive) hits against your target after it has been disabled.
15. If you run out of jump fuel and there are friendly ships in the area, target one and press T, then request assistance. they will come by and give you enough jump fuel to jump once.
16. There are only three Pug Arfecta ships in the game. Two are for an escort mission, that once complete will not be available again. You may not want to pass this up. ;)
17. Go to "preferences," the "settings" tab. You can set "rehire extra crew when lost" to "on." - (Thanks Melchiz!)
18. Want your fleet to land on a planet when they arrive? Click a specific planet or station in the upper left of the "Ports" tab on the galaxy map, then "Shift + J".


* I have updated this to include some suggestions from the comments. Feel free to add more.

[KARL M FITZGERALD II]

Oooh yeah, Flamethrowers are OP when you have a bunch, especially on your escorts. It's game over for any ship you target for more than a second or two.

[76561199382900831]

Thanks for these tips. Could you elaborate a little on ##2 and 3? Are they hints for when you're landed or in space? What does it mean to have an item (what item?) in "inventory" etc.

[KARL M FITZGERALD II]

#2 and #3 are both when you are on a planet. As for items, that just means that you can swap out your gear for better pieces, or swap them to escort ships to upgrade those ones.

[76561199382900831]

Suggestions ##2 & 3 concern the outfitters interface when you're landed on a planet, correct?

If you go to the outfitters and sell an item, you can then transfer it to another ship. I understand that. But if you sell an item to the outfitter and leave the planet, I believe the item is lost, unless it's regularly sold there. So items that are not sold on any planet can't actually be stored in any outfitter's inventory permanently.

#3 suggests you can "unload items onto the planet to store them," but I believe they can only be stored on your ships.

[KARL M FITZGERALD II]

Unloading allows you to store an item on a planet and not in your inventory. If you sell it, yes it will be lost, which is why storing is a better option. Try it out, go to a planet, land, buy an item, then click "U" or "R" and it will say stored. It will not be in your inventory, and you can leave the planet and when your return it will still be there.

[MeniliteZ]

It took me a bit to search for this post again after finding it a while back. Is there a way to favorite it?

Or maybe apply for it to be pinned?

[Goose]

yeah can we get this thing pinned please

[76561199382900831]

One thing I learned quite late:

Go to "preferences," the "settings" tab. You can set "rehire extra crew when lost" to "on."

This is quite handy when you are targeting ships for disabling and capturing. Before I found this setting, I would sometimes disable a ship, board it, and discover my chances of capturing were zero, because I forgot to rehire crew after my last boarding and capturing. Capturing a ship always involves losing crew.

[jonnin]

8) some suns are better than others. nebulae specifically regen like mad.
9) clicking missions shows hostile systems and systems that tribute you.
10) you can get some radical controls by binding the same key twice, like afterburner and turn (eg missile avoidance) and so on.
14) somewhat. The turrets I have (not gonna spoiler here) can blow up small ships even if i stopped firing due to in - the -air rounds. Only 'continuous' weapons stop instantly.

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the three starter ships can be interchanged via outfits. For example if you got a sparrow and get mad at dying the 200th time, you can convert it to a cargo or passenger job ship by selling off the weapons and downsize to a single solar panel, capacitor, tiny engines, and convert all the outfit space to cargo space or bunks. You need some money to do this, though; if you haven't had any success at all just sell and buy the other ship before its price drops from being used.
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a lot of the game is max/min of outfits. Its hard to beat afterburners to convert 50 tons of engine into 10, esp on the tiny early game ships, but you do need fuel...
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heat is weirdly computed and turning ALL your cargo space into outfits will make you run VERY hot. Converted cargo ships can make great warships but moderation is needed here.
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you can usually ignore combat missions and just land with a fast ship rather than risk your fleet against a giant fight. This includes escort missions, where you can outrun the ships you are 'helping' and land as soon as they catch up. Even missions where you MUST fight the invasion off, you can land to heal up and reorg your fleet and resume the battle over and over.
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fighters and drones need a lot of TLC to survive any real fight early on. So either be willing to replace them (at half a million + a pop usually) or don't use them until you have access to better stuff. Exception, the boxwing can add about 100 cargo each by adding a cargo extension (as above 1 solar panel & 1 capacitor). The roost for example can be set up with 4 (400 cargo) + all the main ship as passengers for an all-around job ship at low cost.
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midgame if you are capturing ships to salvage, you want a well armed large crew. Finding a ship with a huge crew and dumping most everything for spare bunks will let you capture even bigger ships... the falcon, a common pirate ship, is a good starter. You want to outnumber the opposing crew by 50% or so.
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[Goose]

Originally posted by jonnin:

you can usually ignore combat missions and just land with a fast ship rather than risk your fleet against a giant fight. This includes escort missions, where you can outrun the ships you are 'helping' and land as soon as they catch up. Even missions where you MUST fight the invasion off, you can land to heal up and reorg your fleet and resume the battle over and over.
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I would not advise doing this,
this will save the game and can put you in some very sticky situations,
previous - x does exist, but I don't like to rely on those.
also on abandoned/uninhabited planets, this will only regenerate shields.

Originally posted by jonnin:

8) some suns are better than others. nebulae specifically regen like mad.

supernovae, not nebulae,
nebulae aren't a thing in ES, unfortunately.

[Goose]

Originally posted by Melchiz:

One thing I learned quite late:

Go to "preferences," the "settings" tab. You can set "rehire extra crew when lost" to "on."

This is quite handy when you are targeting ships for disabling and capturing. Before I found this setting, I would sometimes disable a ship, board it, and discover my chances of capturing were zero, because I forgot to rehire crew after my last boarding and capturing. Capturing a ship always involves losing crew.

yeah, helps my forgetful lizard brain.

[Goose]

oh, and there's a keybind to make your ship stop in place (just like the NPCs do!)
i think it's shift + s?
or ctrl + s?
i don't remember, it's one of those keys and s,
works pretty well for ramscooping (regenerating fuel at a star) because you can stop right in the center of the star and be certain that you're getting the highest amount of fuel possible!
:)

edit: also helps with AFKing!

[MeniliteZ]

Originally posted by Goose:

oh, and there's a keybind to make your ship stop in place (just like the NPCs do!)
i think it's shift + s?
or ctrl + s?
i don't remember, it's one of those keys and s,
works pretty well for ramscooping (regenerating fuel at a star) because you can stop right in the center of the star and be certain that you're getting the highest amount of fuel possible!
:)

edit: also helps with AFKing!

I think its shift + downArrow

Maybe its shift + your Reverse key

[Goose]

Originally posted by MeniliteZ:

Originally posted by Goose:

oh, and there's a keybind to make your ship stop in place (just like the NPCs do!)
i think it's shift + s?
or ctrl + s?
i don't remember, it's one of those keys and s,
works pretty well for ramscooping (regenerating fuel at a star) because you can stop right in the center of the star and be certain that you're getting the highest amount of fuel possible!
:)

edit: also helps with AFKing!

I think its shift + downArrow

Maybe its shift + your Reverse key

it's not shift + down arrow,
it's just your reverse key.

[MeniliteZ]

Originally posted by Goose:

Originally posted by MeniliteZ:

I think its shift + downArrow

Maybe its shift + your Reverse key

it's not shift + down arrow,
it's just your reverse key.

Reverse key just turns you around, doesn't stop your movement.

EDIT: Maybe if you have a reverse thruster installed it could change things? I've never tried one.