a guide to open space for newbies

hello there reader. good to see you. my name is herozen13 and in this guide i will be explaining (turns on echo) O P E N S P A C E!!! below you will find different sections explaining the parts of open space.

enjoy

lets start off with the most common thing you will find in open space. most npcs will appear as 1 of 3 colours on your hud if you are within range of them.

RED: pirates.
these guys usually travel in groups and will attack any pilot that comes within range that is not under invisibility. they also usually carry kinetic weapons in the lower sectors and are quite weak, however if enough of them gang up on you they can easily overwhelm and destroy your ship. you will rarely encounter any pirates in station sectors due to high amounts of police units (we will cover them soon) pirates will engage you regardless of your current status and are not affected by station protection.
mainly use fighters and frigates

grey:positive faction npcs.
these units that can be found in several sectors and in abundance around stations. they will engage any red or purple units they encounter and are known to travel in groups of 4-6 ships. they will call for backup when a player starts attacking. they will automatically attack and hunt any player that enters the sector if they have a bad rep with the faction. they usually carry kinetic weapons that hit hard. mainly use fighters and interceptors

PURPLE: crystalids
crystalids are alien ships that are found more commonly in higher level sectors but can appear in some lower areas too. these things are EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. they use EM weapons and attack in swarms, they can easily overwhelm a low level ship. they will attack anything that isn't one of them and can hit through station protection. engage with caution

now to cover the scary part of open space. the part that involves everyone else.
here are the types of player you can encounter

BLUE: under station protection
station protection is automatically turned on upon starting the game for the first time (it can be turned off in settings) in this state, you cannot hurt them and they cannot hurt you (no matter how many missiles they throw at you). they are still able to hurt hostile npcs like pirates and crystalids. station protection is automatically turned off upon entering a pvp zone

grey: neutral
neutral players are players who have turned station protection off but have not engaged anyone yet. usually it is polite to leave these players alone if they are not being problematic. they can attack anyone and can be attacked by anyone. you cannot attack them if you are under station protection.

LIGHT RED: aggressor
these are players that have attacked any of the following: neutral players, other aggressors or police.
this is a 30 second debuff that does the following: does not allow warping between sectors (warpgate or iridium warping),inability to dock at a station (can still return to station through esc menu) nearby police will attack you on sight. while they are marked as an aggressor you will still be marked as an aggressor if you attack them.

DARK RED: criminal
criminals are players who have killed either police or another player who was not marked as a criminal too. criminals get all the debuffs as an aggressor but with a few changes, first, the debuff for criminals lasts for 300 seconds and is refreshed on every non criminal kill, and a bounty is placed on your head that other players can get if they kill you. players will not be marked as aggressors or criminals if they kill you, and all faction units in the sector will try to kill you.

open space has a bunch of things to do: collecting ore, getting treasure from enemeis, special missions and fighting other players

ore can be found floating near asteroids and will give 1 random unit of ore upon collection

additionally you can find large asteroids floating about that can be targeted. hitting it enough times will crack it open for multiple ore rocks. the closer to you are to 100% heat upon breaking will grant you more ore. WARNING! if you go past 99 heat before it breaks, the asteroid will shatter, giving no ore and damaging you if you are close. i recommend a singularity generator as it's rate of fire to damage ratio allows good control of temperature. AVOID BEAM WEAPONS AND DRONES.

sometimes when killing a hostile NPC they will drop a container. this can contain anything from credits to cool weapons and modules. some modules only drop in spesific sectors. check their desc to see where they drop.

special missions will be placed in certain sectors and offer rewards for their completion. these are randomised as are their rewards, from ship xp, to cash, raw materials and even mono and xenocrystals for the more dangerous zones.

killing a player that is carrying items in their inventory and allow you pick them up. however do not fear, you will not drop your items if you are killed by an npc or crashing, only in pvp combat.

there are various encounters one can happen upon in open space. here are just some:

sector contests. every now and then, the enclave will arrive in a sector and challange the holding faction, building a station and launching elite npc enemies. these drop seed chips of common and uncommon quality as well as some parts like screened batteries and computer chips as well as large ammounts of credits.

"bounty hunter attacks"
this is when a random enclave ship will warp in nearby and attack, with a message of "finally found you". they can be killed for a small reward

pirate destroyers
this is heralded by a faction leader warning you of an unknown destroyer signature in the area, and asking for it's deletion. be warned, this is not an enemy you should take lightly. their guns and modules are heavily modified versions of standard destroyer modules and have easily 10X the standard amount of health and shields. also, they are followed by an escort of various enclave ships.
each also has a unique ability, such as teleporting you ship infront of themselves, spawning mobile pulsars
how to kill these titans:

interceptor: all i can say is... good luck. probably best to go with a maxed out taikin with loads of escape options.

fighter: 1 of 2 stratagies: tanky command fighter with loads of protection or a kamakazi attack with a gunship fighter and loads of credits for resupplys.

BRING AN ION EMMITER REGARDLESS

frigate: the destroyer has a range of 6k meters, if you can outrange that, then do so. hammerhead and project 1011 come to mind. also, if you're using a long range frigate. torpedo over disintergrator. the destoryer can project 2 types of barrier, the standard static barrier and a large orb shield. torpedo can manevour past the static barriers.

destroyer: same as frigates, try to get around 8k range on your guns. take a photon emitter and a gavity lense to hold them down. take turrets to deal with the support ships it summons. and just chip it down over time.

why would i do this?: the destroyer drops the following on death:
a few million credits.
a gold seed chip with a chance at more
a chance at a RED seed chip with a low chance at more.

should i bring friends?:
this will make the killing of the destroyer easier but rewards are not given per player, so it's a scramble to grab the rewards at the end.

certain ship types are better suited for different parts of open space.

interceptors: gathering missions and covering large distances fast.

fighters: combat

frigates: gathering resources

destroyers: gathering/fighting

some personal choices:

a rank 15+ recon if you don't want to spend the money on directly warping to a sector for missions

a tharga gunship for fighting large single targets

a wolfhound for fighting groups

a hammerhead for farming a warzone sector.

any destroyer for a warzone sector (pve only)

thanks for reading my guide. i hoped this helped you understand open space a little better.

peace

herozen13