Brutal Mode: From nothing and broke to rich and everything

Starting off, make sure you select the CUSTOM START option

Once you have selected the custom start, in the Player section, name your person, select any race (it doesn't matter which), then go to the starting balance bar below it, drag that all the way down. You are going to start the game broke.
Then go to the Starting Ship section, when in it, enable "use spacesuit", this means you will start with the spacesuit instead of the normal discoverer vanguard or an actual ship.
I will explain why it is prudent to do this later in the guide.
You can customize the rest to your delight, but i recommend leaving it at default. Install what mods you want, just make sure they will not completely alter the experience.

Once you have customized the run to where you want it, select the start button.

Once you are in the game, if you are in a sector that has ships in it, which i HIGHLY recommend you do when starting the game, right click on one, and ask for help. Optimally you want one that is heading towards the highway so you can jump around the map to where you want to go. You are gonna be doing this for a good part of your first 30 minutes to an hour of the game.

I recommend heading to a sector just north-east of Argon Prime, Hatikvah's Choice 1, there is a station here where you can get a small trading ship that you can use to make your first profits.

It is here in the sector

And it looks like this

You will most likely get a mission from the exec. of the Hatikvah Free league, it will be called "Join Hatikvah's Trade Revolution". Accept it. You will want it. They will have you take a small delivery of medical supplies in a Callisto Sentinel, this is the trader i was talking about earlier.
Once you have completed the mission, you will be gifted the ship for your work, easy free ship. Once you have it, you can either keep going with the quest, or you can disable it for now, and continue with the next steps i am about to give you.

Before you start profiting, you want to get a second captain for your trading ship. If you are on a station, go up to a crewman and check if their price is within your range. Hire them and assign them to the trading ship. If you have TaterTrader (which you can get here), assign the captain to TaterTrade, which is in the orders tab, the captain will now free trade, bringing in at least a little early game profit. Do keep in mind it will take him a minute to find a deal and make a route before he starts moving, so don't think he's bugged. DO THIS AFTER THE FOLLOWING STEPS

This is a forum with a list of abandoned ships you can salvage for profit[forum.egosoft.com], but the Perseus Vanguard is the one you want to nab as your personal ship, decent weapons, good speed, overall better than your trading ship. It is in Silent Witness XII (12), which is next to Silent Witness 11 and 1.

That really depends. There are other ships you can salvage, but you can take your own route. Wanna be a pirate? Be a pirate. Wanna run a corporation? Run a corporation. X4 is a free universe. Do what you want. This is just a guide that gives you advice on how to start your brutal run well, with my expierence.

Thanks for reading my guide, i put a lot of time and work into it and it was pretty fun to write honestly. I made this guide just so people could get another idea on how to play the game, or just a new fun little way to play it. I like interacting with the X community and i like supporting it, so i made this guide.

You can support me and my guide by liking, faving, sharing, and even awards. You don't have to, you can if you want.
If you want more guides or me to add on to this one, tell me! I will answer questions as well.

Good profits. -Lizard