Spoiler-free starting tips!

This is a selection of spoiler free starting tips.

Tips List

• Ammo has no weight so pick up every bit you find!
  
  
• You don't have to pick up everything. The game tells you which items are used for crafting. The rest is mostly for decoration. There are some items that are good for credits but usually they weigh much.
  
  
• It’s not immediately apparent, but you don’t need to open up your inventory and tab through five different submenus every time you want to switch weapons. By using the favorite feature, you can equip multiple weapons on your quickslot menu (technically up to 12), though you may want to reserve a slot for healing items.
  
  
• Use your scanner. It has many benefits, e.g. not having to navigate menus for fast traveling.
  
  
• Flora is auto-scanned when harvested, Fauna is auto-scanned when killed and Minerals are auto-scanned when collected.
  
  
• There's a box in the basement of The Lodge with crafting tables all around it. It has infinite capacity so you can use it to drop all your resources in there, especially in the early part of the game when cargo space is limited.
  
  
• Miscellaneous items are mostly not worth it for their value. To get credits your best bet is to stick to missions/quests and random encounters. You can also quickly make a lot of money and XP by doing missions from the missions boards. You don't just get money from the mission, but all the loot you pick up along the way.
  
  
• Every planet (that has a spaceport) has a yellow trade kiosk located near the shipmaster. This kiosk will buy anything you have to sell - even stolen goods - and resets its credit reserves daily. So even if you drain it of cash, you can come back the next day and sell even more.
  
  
• Some game features and mechanics are locked behind the first level of an associated skill. This includes things like pickpocketing (Theft), using a boost pack (Boost Pack Training), seeing a Stealth Meter (Stealth), targeting specific systems on an enemy ship (Targeting Control Systems), and several kinds of upgrades to your suit, ship, weapons, and outposts that won’t become available until you drop a point into their Skills.
  
  
• If you can afford to build an outpost, build your first on a field of Iron or Aluminium.
  
  
• When scanning for a spot for an outpost, open the outpost menu and roam around with the beacon so it shows you what resources are in range in the top left corner of the screen.
  
  
• You can shoot asteroids from your ship. When they’re destroyed, they’ll leave behind a mineral deposit. If you target it and then get within 500 meters, you’ll be able to pick it up for a few resources - usually things like iron or water.
  
  
• You can store things in your ship from the menu from up to 250m away!
  
  
• Just like in Fallout 4 you can pick up and move any light item by holding E on your keyboard. You can also rotate (Mouse 1 and 2) and place items in your ship or settlement that way. Also you can throw things at NPCs using the same mechanic. Using this, you even can place items on your ships console kinda like a bobblehead. Keep in mind that any change in the shipbuilder, even a color change will reset all your items and place them in the cargo hold.
  
  
• If you want some quick history on the galaxy, in New Atlantis go to the MAST station, enter the building, and take the elevator to the "orientation hall" to find a beautiful display hall explaining the history and political climate.
  
  
• You can loot Galbank ATMs. Staying hidden isn't difficult and seems to be easier at night.
  
  
• Always buy digipicks if you run into them at traders. You consume one even on successful unlocking (unlike lock picks in previous games).
  
  
• If you are trying to be stealthy, like in the Ryujin missions or Crimson Fleet missions, take your spacesuit off. All three pieces. The game is still thinking you are lumbering around in bulky, noisy gear, even in places that would only show your base outfit. So take them off.
  
  
• In ship combat, save your boosters for when enemies get a target lock on you. A quick boost will unlock their weapons.
  
  
• Registering stolen ships and selling them at space ports is only worth about 1-2k credits, not including stolen items. It's generally not worth the time and effort required, the loot inside stolen ships is usually worth more.
  
  
• You can change the lay-out of ship modules in many cases. Trying to add containers, display cases, and weapon workbenches to your ship? Select the module and look in the bottom right for the "next variant" buttons. For example, when building a 3x1 all-in-one hab, you can cycle through variations for different types, to include the workshop which gives you access to a weapon and armor workbench. This also costs 0 credits!
  
  
• There's more than one type of mission board, one per faction it seems. They're color coded and have different designs on them. The mission limit is per faction, not total, so if you grab all the missions from one faction you can also grab all the missions from another faction.
  
  
• Got contraband from commandeering? The Den space station in the Wolf Constellation is your friend. They don't scan and are located nearby, just northeast of Alpha Centauri.
  
  
• If you find a note about a secret outpost go and do that mission as soon as you can (The Mantis mission).

[Faustinus]

Good stuff!

However, for stolen ships, don't register them at Ship Tech because their fee more than registering them from your Ship menu. Usually the fee for registering from your Ship menu is about 60% of the ship's selling price.

[Corrupt]

Best starter tip: Play literally any other Bethesda game (minus 76) they are all better.

[almos]

Noob tip: give Vasco one unit of 3kV LZR ammo so he can shoot his builtin gun. Companions need 1 unit of ammo for their equipped gun to be able to shoot.

[DadAndDriver]

If you find a note about a secret outpost go and do that mission as soon as you can (The Mantis mission). <--- This!!!

[Martyr]

I have been playing 40+ hours and didn't know this;

"You can store things in your ship from the menu from up to 250m away!"

Big props for the guide

[Kenzi]

There is one reason to steal and register enemy ships. Since you can only modify existing ships you own and can't build one from scratch (for now anyway), hijacking a hostile ship and registering it is massively cheaper than buying one from a spaceport if you plan on custom designing a new ship. The low level Ecliptic or Spacer ships can be registered for about 9k, where the cheapest ship you can buy is about 60k.

[t0rrman2]

You can sell stolen items and immediately (without leaving the dialogue) buy them back for the same price, but the "stolen" tag will be gone. Legitimate merchandise!

[Darkcircle]

Pro Tip: Right mouse button with the Cutter will harvest ore instantly.

[Darkcircle]

Pro Tip: Need more merchants to sell to? Enter space above a high population center. Target any passing ship and Hail them. This allows to open trade dialog with all but Banker ships.

[DH71]

There's a hidden feature that let's you go forward with the boost pack. Go to options, bindings, and then bind some key as an alternative jump key. Now when you use that button to boost, you'll go forwards instead of up.

By the way, nice username fellow DH!