Tips for beginners?

[Floyyd]

So I just started this game, and I am ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ loving every bit of it. However, it can be a little difficult and confusing at times. I think it would help me and others greatly if we got a discussion going for advice and tips. Thanks!

[don]

agreed, i just started playing and am trying to pay off this bank loan haha

[Floyyd]

Originally posted by _B:

agreed, i just started playing and am trying to pay off this bank loan haha

Well with that, pretty sure it works just like a regular loan. Payments will be made daily automatically, or you can go into the bank tab once landed on a planet to pay it all off or just a little extra.

[kenz]

start with the star barge or shuttle, they are easier

[Tay-Dor]

I used a barge and found a good trade route for a bit. Paid off my loan. Took out a new loan and used that money to buy bigger cargoships. Paid that loan off. New loan for more cargo ships. Rinse and repeat. After buying 14 cargo ships, I bought two protectors. Now I'm working on paying off a 26 million loan so I can save up for some bulk freighters.

[Tay-Dor]

fyi: A loan for 26 million has a payment plan of 110k each time you leave a planet.

[Hexarobi]

Tip #1: Take the Shuttle instead of the Sparrow. The life of a pirate is hard, work up to it.

Tip #2: You start the game in debt to the Bank, with a steep 40% interest rate so you will lose money every day that goes by (jumping or landing uses up 1 day) You want to immediately start doing Missions to earn some cash. Watch the Job Board for multiple missions that end in the same system so you get paid twice for one trip.

Tip #3: Once you have some money coming in, pay extra on your loan. A 40% interest rate is very high, so you want to work to pay that off as soon as possible by visiting the Bank. The interest rate the Bank will give you gets better over time as you make payments, so you can save money by "refinancing", or taking out a new lower-rate loan to pay off the first.

Tip #4: Once your loan is paid off, then use your money (and maybe even more loans!) to buy bigger freighters so you can transport more cargo. Once you get a hundred tons or so of cargo space you can switch from focusing on Missions to Trading, tho you should still watch for Missions on your trade route for extra cash. Use your Map to look for short routes where you can go back and forth buying low and selling high each way. You can sell off shields and weapons on the freighters for more space, but the bigger your fleet gets the more likely it will be attacked by pirates.

Tip #5: You can "cheat death" as much as you want. After you die, you can hit Esc to goto main, then click "Load/Save", then click "Enter Ship" to restart from the last time you left a planet.

Tip #6: When you buy or capture a ship, it joins your fleet. You can choose which ship is your flagship (the one you fly) when on a planet by pressing "I" to view Player Info then select your flagship by dragging it to the top of the list. (This can also be done from in Shipyard menu with the icons)

Tip #7: You can Park ships on planets for safe keeping during risky missions. When on a planet, press "I" to view Player Info, then goto the "Ship Info" tab. You can cycle through your fleet with Next/Previous buttons. Click "Park" to Park your ship on this planet. Cargo is kept on the ship, so you can use parked StarBarges as cheap on-planet storage.

[ExisT]

I've discovered that taking jobs and tourists is always more profitable than trading goods. You get roughly 10,000 per tourist and and about 1,000 per cargo of goods for jobs, which seem to get higher with higher distance. Compare that to the highest trade route I have found so far, which is 445 per cargo of profit by taking Luxury Goods from Aludra to Dubhe in The Deep.

So, what I do is take a bunch of jobs that are in the same system/area, and then use normal trading to cover crew and mortage costs.

[don]

Okay, I've got 558k and paid off my loan on the starter freighter ship, all I've been doing is trading metal/equipment on a profit of 200+ per tonne, can someone point me in a direction of some pathways I could go? All I can think of is buying another freighter and continuing trading until I build up some more $$.

[Manny]

It's kind of difficult at first, so I would suggest a shuttle or a star freighter-they are both good for transporting cargo and passengers, even though the shuttle is suggested for passenger missions. Find a stable trading route, no more than a few hyperspace jumps apart, and start trading. Pick passenger missions over cargo missions, because they pay you less for cargo missions and it weighs you down a ton. If you're a novice, NEVER begin the life of a pirate/bounty hunter; work your way up it. Try finding missions that are in the same system; you get payed twice the amount for a single trip. Keep in mind your mortgage though; use hyperspace jumps wisely, as you can end up stranded and at the mercy of pirates.

[azulness]

if you really need to you can modify your save file to get rid of your debt. hwne I start a new game it is usually becuase I want to do somehting different and I just don't want to have to grid to pay my debt off.
To modifythe save file you must press windows key and the R key. type in appdata. Open the endless sky file and find the saves. The text file at the top is your current auto save file. You can open it scroll to where it says credits and give your self as many as you need.

[Happyscientist]

Read through the comunity guides. Lots of good stuff in them.

[Foxtrot39]

My tips : use cargo and run errend until debt is paid off, then proceed to buy 2 cargo (the one with 3 turret) and run errand until you can buy a even bigger one (the one wich has quite a lot of gun/turret) with this one you can take on pirate ship, disable them and then loot their component avoid facing cap ship is still hard to get them, after this make yourself a fleet with thee cargo to loot and a capship to disable targets, capship hold some of the best equipement that easely can be sold up to 1M minimal profit

[FFS]

Either stick with passenger or cargo missions instead of ship capturing unless you are really into bounty hunting.
Passenger missions usually pay better than cargo missions so get as much bunkers as you can.
And for max efficiency get a better ship with loan right after you paid off the previous debts.
Or you can mod the game to get a better starting ship with a larger starting debt.

[FoxActual]

I've found you can save time on rush missions by not refueling at planets when you can, such as when one jump away from your destination. Every time you refuel at a planet, it takes one day away. So by asking other people for fuel, you get one jump and it's instant.

[Floyyd]

Originally posted by URC MightyDragonofAwe:

I've found you can save time on rush missions by not refueling at planets when you can, such as when one jump away from your destination. Every time you refuel at a planet, it takes one day away. So by asking other people for fuel, you get one jump and it's instant.

This is very very smart! Thanks!