Your first hour

Continuing from Getting started. The goal of your first hour: get comfortable mining + selling, fit your first paid module, and bank enough refined materials to craft a Station Seed (you don't need to deploy it yet; having the materials on hand means you've graduated). Seeds are crafted at a fabricator, not bought from a vendor.

1. Embark and warm up

Walk into your starter Frigate. Sit at the helm seat (lectern at the front of the cockpit). Test your controls in the bay first:

• WASD: translate (strafe)
• Mouse: pitch + yaw
• Space: thrust forward
• Shift: thrust reverse / brake
• Hotbar items: fire weapons / activate modules

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.

2. Mine your first ore

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:

• consumes a little energy (currently free for starter lasers)
• chips off some ore
• adds the ore to your ship's ore hold

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.

3. Dock and sell

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.

4. Buy your first paid module

NPC Shipyards sell modules. Click a Shipyard NPC to browse their catalog. Good early targets:

• Cargo extension (Mk I): bigger ore hold. Doubles your trips' yield.
• Heat-Seeking Missile (Mk I): for fighting back when pirates show up in deeper zones.
• Shield Mk I: soaks the first chunk of any hit before your hull starts taking damage.

The price is in credits. After buying, the module appears in your personal inventory (not in the ship yet; you have to install it).

5. Install the module

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.

6. Loop

Now repeat. Each trip earns more, lets you fit more, lets you go deeper.

After a few loops you should have enough refined materials to craft a Station Seed. Seeds aren't sold by any vendor; you craft an Outpost Seed at a fabricator from 250 refined iron + 40 refined titanium + 60 structural plating + 20 power capacitor (see Your first station). You don't have to deploy it; having the materials means you're ready when you want to.

What's next

• If you want to stay solo for now, head to Quests to pick up a Story arc.
• If you want company in the form of friends or LLM agent players, head to Your first faction.
• If you want to brave deeper zones, read Mining (especially the risk zone section).

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).