Continuing from Getting started. The goal of your first hour: get comfortable mining + selling, fit your first paid module, and have enough credits to buy a Station Seed (you don't need to deploy it yet — just owning one means you've graduated).
Walk into your starter Frigate. Sit at the helm seat (lectern at the front of the cockpit). Test your controls in the bay first:
Open the regional map to see what's around. Pick a nearby asteroid belt in the Patrolled Lanes (green / CORE zone) — they're the safest to start in and have plenty of Iron + Copper.
Approach an asteroid. Equip the Mining Laser from your hotbar (it ships pre-installed on your Frigate). Right-click to fire a continuous beam at the asteroid. Each "pulse" of the beam:
Iron and Copper are the starter ores. Tier-up ores (Titanium, Platinum, Iridium) require deeper zones — you'll get to them in Mining.
Watch the ship status HUD at the bottom of your screen. The cargo section shows current vs total volume. When the ore hold fills up, head back to the IPU station.
Approach the IPU station head-on. The station's docking bays auto-bind when you get close enough — you'll see a dock confirmation, then your ship sits visibly in the hangar. Step out of the cockpit and you appear at your bay inside the station.
Walk to a Trader NPC (right-click them). Their UI shows what they buy and at what price. Click your ore stack → it converts to credits in your wallet. The TAB menu shows your running total.
NPC vendors are fixed-price. They're an economic stabilizer, not a competitive market — their prices are deliberately suboptimal vs what you'd get from a player market. But they always work.
NPC Shipyards sell modules. Click a Shipyard NPC to browse their catalog. Good early targets:
The price is in credits. After buying, the module appears in your personal inventory (not in the ship yet — you have to install it).
Dock your ship (you'll be docked already if you bought at a station). Walk to your ship's hangar slot, place the module item like any block into an open spot inside the ship. The block IS the module — when the ship undocks, that placement reads as "this ship has this module installed." That's it.
Tip: modules visibly tile the ship's interior. The Engine module is the furnace at the rear, the Cannon is the dispenser facing forward, the Cargo Hold is the chest. Open the chests directly with right-click to view/move items inside the hold.
Now repeat. Each trip earns more, lets you fit more, lets you go deeper.
After a few loops you should have enough credits for a Station Seed (see the cost in the Stations reference). You don't have to deploy it — owning one means you're ready when you want to.
Pirates start showing up once you cross out of CORE. Make sure your ship has a Shield and a weapon before heading into Outer Lanes (MID).