How To Earn Cash
This list was adapted from elsewhere on the site, and officially made as a guide.
1) Augmenters. Collecting augmenters and selling them to bases or players.
2) Loot. Scooping debris off dead ships; often AI ships get killed by bases and sometimes their loot can be sold millions of credits. Or, of course, you can kill them yourself and scoop the loot.
3) Missions. Some missons give items or cash. A few of these items might be incredibly valuable or one-of-a-kind and will sell for quite a lot.
4) Artifacts. Pax medals or ancient Pax medals. These can be sold for huge amounts of money, and are available from Paxius exploration missions, which give good experience, credits, and sometimes items too. Just be sure to keep a few for yourself!
5) Trading. Often player bases sell commodities such as Baobabs for 10 or 20 credits. Look out for these! If you spot them, get a bulk (or other ship with lots of space) and ship them off to sell at a nearby AI base for a lot of money.
6) Begging. Don't underestimate it! Asking one of the many high levels politely for some money can work. Try to be polite and avoid statements like, plz lnd a mil. However, don't do it all the time, and try to avoid it unless you're going absolutely nowhere with profits.
7) Dungeon Runs. This is for level 20 or above players really; jump into a red galaxy (called a DG and some numbers after it) and kill all the enemies. Scoop up the Neural Keysyncs (which are keys) and then you may jump to the next level. Once you reach the last level of the dungeon (often it's the '0' level), you may kill the boss, and it drops rare loot. Usually the higher the danger factor of the DG, the harder it will be but you will also get better and more expensive stuff.
8) Scamming. It has to be mentioned, but don't do this! While it is not a punishable offense, you will get black-listed from all decent teams, and you are likely to suffer later as a result. Definitely a no-no.
9) Helping Others. It rarely happens, but sometimes people need a little help, like getting healed. You can do this by using a shield transference weapon, which it transfers your shields to him or her. I strongly suggest that you always carry shield transference, as if you see another player in danger and help out (even if it's only token), he or she may appreciate your help and reward you greatly.
10) Tractoring. Sometimes players are in ships that can't use an engine, like a Gelato or a Thatch. Using a tractor beam to pull people who are heavy, or have no engines to get to their desired location, can get you rewarded!
11) Giving tips. Helping other new players can sometimes pay off, especially in reputation. Often people you help will reward you when they are at higher level.
12) Teams. Often your team will help you get valuable items. Be careful though, as some teams have high tithe rates that will take money from you. Check to make sure that the team is not trying to scam you out of your hard-earned cash. It especially helps if you're on a distinctive team, or a team with a friend.
13) Clearing Rumble Galaxies. Clearing the galaxies Rumble, Rumble 2, Rumble 3, and Rumble Mumble for other people, or helping them do it, can provide much money. People pay large amounts to have help; for example, up to one billion credits for Rumble Mumble. It should be noted, however, that these galaxies can be insanely dangerous, and is not recommended for lower-leveled players.
14) Selling. Trading in particularly rare equipment for credits is a quick way to snag some cash! Shout your wares on the 'Trade' chat, and wait for a reply. Be sure that you don't get scammed, though!
15) Community Service. Sometimes there are players who need to obtain certain items, but can't really do it themselves. If you help them get what they need, you might be rewarded very well!
16) Capturing. Capturing certain ships can be really profitable for you! Most AI enemies have exclusive equipment that cannot be found anywhere else. Selling this to players, or occasionally AI stations, can score you serious cash. You can even sell certain AI ships to stations for a profit. Others you can advertise a price for and wait for a reply.
17) Bases. If you have some points invested in station management, you can build a base! Bases are actually very complex and are not for the faint of heart. However, if trading prices are set just right, you can cash in on some serious money.
Most bases come with a simple shield, Bubblewrap. It has no recharge whatsoever (even with a large bank), so it's very wise to equip another shield, or quartz chargers to suffice. With the exception of loaded kits (which happen to be a lot more expensive), that's the only thing you'll find.
To set up your base, first grab some workers. These guys will operate everything, from weapons to the energy unit. Also be sure to throw in some rations. That's a common mistake with new base-builders; they forget to restock rations, so the base essentially starves. When this happens, the workers will get very mad and unequip everything except for shields, which, of course, is very bad.
So right after that, you can throw in the basics; radar to see the bad guys, weapons to blast them, a tough shield to take hits, and an energy unit to supply electricity for it all.
But now you're probably wondering how you'll get money. That's easy; there are two basic things you can construct in a new base, a station expansion unit and a trading bay. The trading bay is the important thing; it allows you to buy and sell items from your base. But of course, you'll need space for those new trade goods, so an expansion unit will also be very helpful. Build both (take in mind they need metals and manhours), transport in some goods, set up the prices, and wait for some AI or people to come in and shop!
It's best that no buying prices are set up for normal commodities, because those can drain money fast out of your base. Also, certain commodities will actually sell than others. But if you set everything up correctly, you can gain a real profit!
18) Slaves. Bored of flying that bulk? Get an AI to do it for you! This is done by obtaining the skill Remote Control. Then you can enslave ships equal in tech to your level of the skill. Ships with large hulls are the most efficient slaves.
To build a slave, gear a normal ship with all the goods; radar, shields, energy, engine, and the like. Omit escape pods as you won't be needing those. Instead, buy a controlbot for your ship. Make sure it isn't a type of combat controlbot, or else your slave can only fight, not trade. You may also want to equip a slave stasis generator from to prevent your slave from dying permanently, and a black box to let you know who killed your slave if a pirate attacks it. Once all gear has been equipped, activate the controlbot to release your slave. When you undock, so will the slave. Select it, press 'X' (or any key that shows options for a target), and give it money. Then set the trade route and tell it to follow orders, but be careful! You must set the route to end at the same place it started. For example...
1) Dock Earth Central.
2) Buy Silicon.
3) Jump to Paxius.
4) Dock at Station.
5) Sell Silicon.
6) Jump to Sol.
When your slave gets to the end of the list, it will automatically begin its route all over again. There is a simple formula for calculating the number of orders you can assign...
4 + (x2 Level In Programming) = Number Of Orders
As an example, with Programming skill 5, you can assign 14 orders.
In case you need a status report, locate your slave, select options, and click on 'Status Report'. It will tell you (nearly) everything about the slave; its shields, energy, current order it's following, and also credits.
In addition, if your slave somehow disappears, go to 'Chararacter' and click on 'Possessions'. It should tell you where your slave is at the moment, so you can find it. However, there are some cases of no return, so be careful...
