A very basic guide

Some pointers

1. The more ships you own (including stationed ships), the more enemies will spawn on missions, so always keep your numbers low.
2. The more ships you command, the more cost you need to repair, rearm, and refuel ships, so always keep your numbers low.
3. The mission payout generator don't give a damn about how many ships you command, so always keep your numbers low.
4. The main campaign was most likely designed to be completed with 2-3 ships. You can try to do endgame mission with more than 15 ships though, I've done it, it's literal hell and I won't do it again. Commanding 3 ships are A LOT EASIER and also economical.
5. Recommended fleet composition: 1-2 interceptor / fighter / heavy and 1 bomber to complete the main campaign.
6a. Some interesting ships for free user: Hawk, Viper, B-1 or B-2 or Brutus as bomber (remember that heavy fighter has less armor than bomber)
6b. Some interesting ships for paid user: Eagle, Mamba, Apocalypse (this one is very OP)
7. Torpedoes do a lot of damage and have limited number, use it ONLY to destroy heavy weapons in capital ships. It also do extra damage to the structural integrity of a capital ship.
8. Kinetic weapons like chaingun, cannons and railgun can damage the hull directly, use it to destroy smaller weapons and engines in capital ships. Kinetic weapons (except railgun) are kinda useless against heavy weapons though, because it might put your ship in vulnerable position against powerful heavy weapons, so use torpedoes instead.
9. You can rearm in the middle of battle (that's why you only need 1 bomber), make sure you destroy all enemy interceptors so you can jump without taking damage, rearm on nearby planet / station, then return to battle.
10. To quickly make money, do procurement missions and smuggling missions.
10a. On procurement and smuggling missions, you can bring less than the requested amount. If they need 10, you can bring 6 and get paid for 6.
10b. On smuggling missions though, you can only bring the exact amount to complete the mission. If they need 5, you need to bring 5. If you bring 4 it might end up bugged and you need to abandon the mission (not sure if this fixed yet). already fixed
11. You cannot die, if you die the game will load the last autosave (the game autosaves every jump).
11a. If one of your fleet destroyed, it's not even destroyed, they'll retreat and rejoin you after a jump.
11b. You can also manually order your fleet to retreat. Transporters cost a lot to repair, so let them retreat early if you end up intercepted on the mission.

I might add some later

[KillDanno]

You wasn't joking when you said very basic. its good and gives alot of starting info. good job. "
thumbs up"

[KillerFgaming]

@smoke free t-16? the one that can HOLD 16 CONTAINER T-16??

[Pyre]

If you have the right loadout you can easily tear through pirates, even with a lot of ships and you get more xp but overallthis guide is great

[Peter Morin]

Actually, did the main campaign with a Godzilla, 4 lasVipers, 2 Executors, starter Cobra and three Brontos (freighters docked at home). Perfectly doable, although the number of bombers was a bit too low. Or maybe torpedoes. Chose Executors due to them having at least some utility after launching all their torps, compared to Doom Rider's absolute uselessness after releasing payload

Vipers are tearing down anything careless enough to get into their crosshairs, Cobra was just a little sentiment (but hey, it is free, its ions are pretty useful and it is on par with Viper in terms of survivability), and a gunship packs a heavy punch.

If you don't mind Bastille running on its own and not upgrading it, your freight fleet can be decreased to just one Bronto and one Rhino (or two Mules). Motus never asks for more than 19 containers, so to get the most out of freight missions that would be more than enough.

[Sebi_Omul]

...

[[AE] CHEEKI BREEKI]

Also, one thing about leaving the battle to rearm, is that when you come back most of the time there will be less enemies to fight(as long as you still have a friendly fleet), although i'm not sure how many they kill, seems random for me, but maybe this is exploitable somehow, but do know there is always at least one enemy left

[ScrinNid]

@F D S I have now confirmed what I have suspected before: The amount of ships actually has some kind of formula(what it is I don't know). But it is based on ships in the hangar+ reputation level of the employer at the time of the missions.

i've always found delta missions to be harder in the beginning than motus ones. The reason being that delta rep was usually around 60-70 when motus rep stayed around 30-40.
now having both at 100%, the motus missions tend to be just as difficult as delta ones, but have way lower payout (outside of trade missions.).

Also, may I suggest getting Rhino early?.

[ＦＤＳ]

@ScrinNid thanks, i'll update the guide.

@Cmdr. DoomForge™ I agree Brutus is kinda good, but it have less armor than bombers so i'll update the guide with precautions.

[ScrinNid]

Have to correct you. The more ships you own is a bit more correct. cause even if you don't command a few ships(say, they are in the hangar), you still get enemies for those ships in the hangar. So the less ships you own, the better and easier time you will have

[Cmdr. DoomForge™]

Another worthwhile ship for free use is the Brutus. Better ammo reserves than bombers and you can take out multiple capital ships with a single heavy fighter's railgun if you do it well. I was demolishing thetacorp fleets for hours one after another constantly with ease thanks to that ship. They endured a month's worth of fleet destruction with easily well over 100 lost I'm sure by the end of that torture. I lost count :P