Tip 1: Remember that hitting boost (tab) drains your shields. It also drains your opponent's shields, so consider making an effort to chase them down if they've just boosted away.

Tip 2: To get missions you have to use the map screen, you don't talk to people on a station. There is a tutorial for this. It details some requirements for accessing plot missions.

Tip 3: Sometimes you will overhear police radio type stuff. If a tiny ship gets marked as an enemy, for whatever reason, it seems to be safe to shoot it. You get a small bounty and a small boost to relations with the local faction.

Tip 4: Longscanning and scanning can be used to find secret stuff. On longscan, look out for purple pings in the world (not on the map) which are invisible to radar.

Tip 5: When trying to hire people on a station, click the ship you want to add them to, then right click it and click 'select' in the popup menu. You can then assign them a role in the right hand hire dialogue menu.

Tip 6: To sell a ship, Open the map then select the ship you want to sell, then right click on a shipyard or warf and select sell ship in the drop down.