So you've managed to start a corporation and taken command of your first starship, now what?

There are four possible ways to make money:
  1. Transport passengers from the homeworld to a colony
  2. Transport commodities from planets that produce them to planets that consume them
  3. Attack another captain's ship, capture it, and sell its cargo
  4. Collect tax revenue from colonies that you govern
Decide what to do on your first voyage:
  1. Since your rookie shield is active, you won't be able to attack other ships right away, so that narrows your options down to three.
  2. Look at your strategic map, clicking on the planet pictures. If you see any planets or asteroids that have not yet been colonized, consider colonizing them. When you are the governor of a colony, you make money not only from your own activities at the planet, but also from those of other captains.
  3. If all the planets and asteroids in the system are colonized, look at their populations compared to their maximum populations. If any of the planets are not very full, consider transporting passengers to them.
  4. If all of the colonies in the system are fairly full, you have two options:
    1. Transport cargo (commodities) to the colonies, then return to the homeworld with other cargo.
    2. Jump through a wormhole in search of uncolonized or sparsely populated planets and asteroids. If you choose this strategy, remember to load passengers onto your ship before leaving the homeworld.
Now that you've formulated a strategy, it's time to carry it out:
  1. Go to your homeworld's starport. You can do this either by clicking the starport link above your map, or by clicking on the homeworld's picture, and clicking the starport link to the left of the homeworld's name.
  2. You will see 3 links in the center of the page: Marketplace, Shipyard, and Undock. Go to the Shipyard first.
  3. You only have $1,000 in your bank account, but that's enough to upgrade your ship a little. Add 10 cargo bays or sleeper pods to your ship, depending on which strategy you chose above.
  4. Go to the marketplace. Either click on the marketplace link at the top of the screen, or return to the starport, and click on marketplace from there.
  5. Load your ship with as many passengers and as much cargo as you can carry. You can make some supplemental money with passengers or cargo, even if that wasn't your primary strategy. Don't worry that you spent all of your money earlier, the marketplace (unlike the shipyard) will extend credit.
  6. Return to your strategic or tactical map, and use your movement buttons to navigate your ship to the same X,Y location as the planet or wormhole that you chose in your strategy. If you were using your strategic map, switching to tactical will help you navigate as you approach.
  7. If your target was a wormhole, click on its picture, then click the "Slide" link to travel to another star system. Then look around your new map and see how it fits into your strategy.
  8. If your target was an uncolonized planet or asteroid, click on the planet's picture, then click on the "colonize" link to create a new colony.
  9. Once you have arrived at a planet or asteroid, click on its picture, then click on the "Dock" link that appears to the left of its name. This will take you to the planet's starport.
  10. Go to the Marketplace, unload passengers, and sell cargo. If there is any cargo available for sale, you'll probably want to buy it to sell at your next destination.
  11. Go to the colony's Shipyard. If the price of a component is much over $100 (the cost for a component at the homeworld), you'll probably want to wait until you return to the homeworld to upgrade your ship. Otherwise, you can upgrade your ship's carrying capacity here. You'll also want to add engines along with carrying capacity, so that your ship will be able to produce fuel to keep you moving.
  12. Now that you've completed your first voyage, you can either repeat what you've just done, travelling back and forth between this colony and the homeworld, or look into another strategy.
Other Strategies:
  1. Travel in a loop, visiting several colonies before returning to the homewold.
  2. Carry commodities between two colonies, without returning to the homeworld.
  3. Explore further away, looking for unexploited territory.
  4. If other captains have neglected their defenses, attack their ships or colonies. Warning: don't attack ships or colonies belonging to the corporation that controls the homeworld, unless you are certain you can take the homeworld from them, or you have another reliable source of weapons for your ship. Attacking a captain will cause an arms embargo, and you will be unable to repair or upgrade your ship at that captain's planets.