Not all planets are equal. Planets full of gray and blue resources are not really worth messing with.

Generally, planets are worthwhile if there's something else on them.

Your ship is, well, not really cut out for interstellar travel. As you will soon learn, we humans in 2088 aren't really ready for it. Use the Precursor starbases you find to help you. You can upgrade your engines, your thrusters, your weapons, and everything else about your ship and even your fleet. Make use of this to make your ship more powerful.

You can use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. 1,2,3,4 are the camera hot keys too. 4 zooms all the way out. 1 sets it to auto zoom.

If you are going to install the module that has the AI fight your battles for you, pick a ship that is...well, good. Early on, your ship is...well see #3.

All of your dialog choices matter in some way or other even if it's not obvious. Under the covers, the game keeps track of those choices and it can affect what other choices might show up. But choosing A won't mean that later on option C comes up but rather choosing enough of a certain type of reaction is likely to result in gradual changes to how the universe treats you.

Planets are not your main source of income. There are plenty of aliens who want help or lost treasures or things to salvage. If you do find a planet with lots of green or purple minerals on it, then that's great! But otherwise, there should be a reason to land on planets unless you just enjoy collecting stuff.

You can enter a star system's name in the sector map. We recommend setting a thumbtack on that destination if you think you'll be going back there.