Making Money in the Early Game

A guide, on how to go from debt to above 50k, and fend off debt if necessary.

General Overview

Saw that there was no general guide for getting out of the early game. Hence, this.

If you're just looking for the best way to make money, it's probably either gathering fusion reactors, or transporting AI servers while going at ~3km/s.

Else, the guide is ordered by cash amount, as that can drastically affect what methods you can actually use to make money.
Once you get about ~50k, you can experience all current content.

Mostly focused on scrapping, until you get the capital to try gigs.

I might update this guide with more detail, once there's more content, with more ways to get/spend money.

Assumptions are made that you understand at least how to navigate and dock.

Still WIP // Feedback welcome.

Character Creation

Shipbreaker
The only available career at the moment. Getting more than ~5000 before launching might mean you can get a scrappers licence right out of the gate, skipping right to above 6k on this guide. Else, the only real guide affecting parts are the smuggle it out for the Hydra Intake (which provides you a black market contact) and getting crates which allow you to store more stuff on your dinky starting pod.

The coffin allows you to avoid the mortgage, but you need to find a replacement ship ASAP.
I'd recommend this once you get comfortable with the ship building mechanics in the game, but it either limits you to short trips to close by wrecks, or forces you to find/steal an oxygen canister and a pump. (Ideal targets for this being fellow scrappers' ships.)
(Alternatively, you can cheese it by just closing the external airlock for your pod when standing on it to lose no air at all, but that's likely to be subject to change.)

Stealing is much easier at the moment. Might be subject to change, as well.

Below $6000

The first goal here is to get enough money such that you can buy a licence to scrap, and dock with KLEG for a full resupply.
This will not only prevent heavy fines from the police, but allow you to have a different seller to compare prices to. (I'm pretty sure that the price multiplier for the black market/scrap trader are random in a range, with the black market allowing for better prices on average, but it has less parts that it buys.)

0. Familiarize yourself with the nav console and ship controls.

1. Resist the urge to dock at the asteroid at KLEG immediately. It'll cost you more money than you likely can float at this point.

2. Align bearing with a derelict that is pretty far away (preferably with another close by to avoid getting boned by RNG). Then, accelerate towards it with up to about 1/4 of your Delta V. Shoot for around ~500m/s of relative velocity. Keep in mind that you'll have to mirror the deceleration.

3. Pray that the police and micrometeroids don't notice you head towards whatever derelict you chose.

4. Decelerate when close to the derelict, then dock.

5. Pay attention to what's on the ship.
If you bought the optional crates, you can store 3x3 items/modules in a 2x2 space. If it's a big enough ship, with a reactor and a safe/isolated center, I'd consider making it your new ship. Else, if it's too much work to get up and running. (EG: Too few RCS thrusters/No reactor) I'd just scrap it and look elsewhere.

6. Loot the Ship.
Uninstall ship parts. Loot what's not bolted down. As of .9, you'll have to repair ship parts as well.
Costs per tile, and actual costs listed for reference (Licensed kiosk). As an example, conduits stack to 5x, and are valued at about ~180 per tile. All per tile metrics are assuming you repair the item, or it was in working order to begin with.

All costs are rough, though the priority order remains the same. Black market may pay slightly more. Your mileage may vary.

Item	Cost (Fixed)	Cost (Broken)	Size	Tiles	Cost per Tile
Purple Jumpsuit	258784	?	1x1	1	258784
Reactor	64000	13000	3x3	9	7111
Battery (Laser)	3900	?	1x1	1	3900
RCS Intake (Hydra)	14650	3327	2x2	4	3663
Laser Torch	7000	?	2x1	2	3500
Eva Suit	3200	?	2x1	2	1600
RCS Cluster	2510	504	2x1	2	1255
Eva Helmet	1200	?	1x1	1	1200
Nav Station	7663	1590	3x3	9	851
Cooler	3300	600	3x2	6	550
Turbo Air Pump	1524	824	3x1	3	508
Liquid Can.	2970	?	3x3	9	330
Air Pump	930	231	3x1	3	310
Heater/Battery	1200	200	2x2	4	300
Vodka	270	NA	1x1	1	270
Door	1200	250	5x1	5	240
Gas Can.	180	24	1x1	1	180

7. Head back to KLEG.
When you have more than ~11k of loot total, you can head back to KLEG without much worry. I'd shoot for ~40k just in case the police fine for not having a licence to scrap, or loot you for your most valuable items.
Make sure you have enough Delta V to make the trip comfortably.

8. Sell your loot to the black market contact.
They'll be sitting at the bar at the Mescaform station. If you got the contact from your career, great. Else, you'll have to kiss ass or threaten them to get them to trade with you.
At this point, you should be able to sell the loot from the ship to get you your first 5k, for the general scrapper pass.

Above 6k

Now, you have enough money to buy a scrapper permit from KLEG ($5000), and sell what the black market won't buy. You might have gotten here from using character creation well, and finishing a gig or two locally in KLEG.

Being above 6k without using the local delivery gigs in KLEG should allow you to comfortably restock on oxygen, nitrogen, ect.
I'd recommend against relying on gigs for money, but if you find an attractive gig, don't be afraid to take it.

The next goal, is to find a big derelict with lots of space. Passengers and heavy lifters are good candidates, but any big box will do.

Find a derelict that's mostly intact. Make sure it has enough RCS Thrusters, a Fusion Reactor, a Deuterium tank, and a Helium tank.

Repair it. Make it able to fly and hold atmosphere. It'll be your new moneymaker/home from now on, so make sure that you won't die spontaneously. You'll need to install battery chargers for gear, and then a bed from a derelict for when you start getting drowsy.
You can get chargers at KLEG, but the beds can only be found.

At this point, you should be pretty clear about how to earn money from scrapping, so go forth. If not clear, revisit below 6k. Goal is about 50k. Two reactors should be plenty to get you there.

Above 50k

Congratulations. You've reached the point where money is a non-issue.
Breathe easy, as you've earned a reprieve from debt slavery for the moment.

If you feel like taking a break from scrapping for cash, you can now take gigs with servers as cargo, where you either need a vacuum atmosphere, or ~3 coolers per server. I recommend at least 6km/s of Delta V. You can earn ~50k per trip, which isn't that bad for a sure payout.

Else, just scrap ships for fusion reactors, or expand your ship by uninstalling floors and walls from others.

Having a ship with 100+ pre-installed floors is better than trying to install more on your salvage pod 9 times out of 10.

[Cake >w0]

I fond a goopd ship, but how can I change ship?

[Jacky Treehorn]

You can check the Kiosk/ console in the commercial part of KLEG for the most valuable derelicts. Compare the distance to what you have on your NavScreen and once you hail them get their designation as well for confirmation.

[andreykl]

Getting eva is important if you are mostly salvaging (pressure suit is too annoying to manage and time hungry), but if you are doing gigs EVA is just a bonus.

[cryptkbanana]

The most important thing you can do is get rid of the pressure suit and get an EVA. You need 14k, 2 coolers to the fixer in the old emporium should be enough.

[The Daily Herp]

All I'll say is if you see an ayosec ship doing fuckall try docking with it, the guard inside might be dead and you get a bunch of prime shit you can scavenge without being harassed by ayosec

[dr.Yang]

You said that the price can be higher on the black market. How can I access it? Where is he located?

[zantanzuken]

around 4 new games in a row I've managed to reliably steal the ship and start with it, zero debt. (probably not supposed to be that easy, but enemies also don't currently track you down to beat you up, so that'll change in the future.)

[andreykl]

>oh right... another thing you gotta watch out for now.... pirates
You can just run away as soon as you see one and get back after an hour. Their suit buttery will run dry by that time. And half the time pirate's gun has no ammo.

>better ship than the coffin
Coffin (shipping crate with engines) actually isn't available in some cases, new players get locked to the salvage tug. The same might be true for that racing ship.

>in random events you'll be playing cards with a guy who puts his ship up for grabs, take the key and run...
It's possible to actually win it if you have right skills.

[zantanzuken]

oh right... another thing you gotta watch out for now.... pirates, so getting a knife and an extra vac-suit is a must... never fight in your EVA

(i realize this was made a year ago, but the info's still valid and the guides visible immediately from the shift-tab in-game)

[zantanzuken]

of note: theres two things that i'd add to this. one: theres a better ship than the coffin for starting off if you want a good ship to begin with, in random events you'll be playing cards with a guy who puts his ship up for grabs, take the key and run... you get 3 enemies but a sweet ship.

two: in the beginning, dont work as a shipbreaker at all, instead do random events... one or two will likely have the option to hack something (like the 'hack the crates' event or the 'stuck in a ship, what do' event), once you have hacking (you can also just learn it but that takes a couple years obviously...) you will often get an event where you're sitting around and can hack a random person for their money, you'll often get 2600 even if it goes bad, but you get an enemy out of it (honestly the enemies havent been an issue in any of my playthroughs, they just don't like you... may change when combat gets more intense.)