Several uniforms and clothing sets can act like disguises and allow you to roam freely in otherwise restricted areas without it counting as trespassing.

A few things I wish I’d known sooner:

• Uncommon elements are grouped with the common ones on the “Show Resources” overlay on the system map. For example, if you were looking for platinum on Bondar, you’d head to one of the areas with lead because that’s the common element that is grouped with it (along with tungsten). It’s not always clear what’s grouped with what on the planet overlay, but when you’re on the surface and have a resource in front of the scanner, you can hit “Show Resources” there and it’ll show the groupings. The Scanning skill in the Science tree will give you a better breakdown.
• When you’re on the surface tracking down planet traits, you can hit Scan on distant “Unknown” markers to get a slightly more specific identifier and icon. That way you don’t have to waste time hiking 1km to an artificial structure or a duplicate planetary trait.
• You can double-click a part in the ship builder to select all connected parts (don’t know the gamepad button). Good for complex builds or if you want to repaint.

If you tend to become over-encumbered, and you’re currently playing on mouse and keyboard, consider trying out a controller. There is a “jogging” speed that is not quite as fast as running, but much faster than walking, which can’t be accessed using keyboard controls, and it allows O2 regeneration while encumbered. It’s also my preferred speed for navigating cramped indoor areas without running into things.

(To jog, simply tilt the left stick about 3/4 of the way to the edge instead of all the way.)

Dude, thank you! This thread has some great tips and tricks that would have taken me days of gameplay longer to figure out, if at all! I don’t think I have a whole lot that others haven’t already mentioned, but here’s what I’ve got to contribute, and I’ll be sure to edit this if I come up with more.

I think this one might be a bug, but today I discovered a way around humping back out to Red Mile for more contraband scan jammers. (I don’t know if it’s important or not, but I was using the outpost landing pad w/ shipbuilder when I did this.) I found that if you clone the part of the ship that the jammer is attached to, it also clones the jammer. Then you can just separate the jammer to put elsewhere and delete the cloned piece. I wasn’t watching the math, but I think it still charges you the credits for the jammer, but does refund the price of the cloned piece when you delete it.

Shielded cargo is available for purchase from this shipbuilder as well, though you might need to have already bought at least one from a vendor to be able to access this. 🤷🏼‍♂️

I’ve also noticed that some of the ammo laying around at various shops and other locations is free for the taking where it would otherwise be theft.

If anyone has some tips and tricks specifically for outpost building, resource harvesting/management/transfer I would love to hear those! I feel like I am wasting 2/3rds of my time (and resources, and credits) on trial and error while I figure it all out.
Like: Is there a way to shift your outpost location after you spend a bunch of resources, time, and credits building your first big base, only to realize a big chunk of the radius is unusable because it overlaps with a location boundary?
Or, why is it so difficult to get warehouses to reliably link between each other, the transfer container, and a cargo link? Can someone ELI5 that whole business for me?
Or what modules (outpost or ship) just aren’t actually worth the cost until you unlock certain skills?

My personal list

• Some skills lead to dialogue options! I have had the commerce skill pop up frequently during missions

• Melee is more effective than you may expect, and can be a good way to conserve ammo when you are running low

• You can fast travel planet to planet from almost anywhere outside, you don’t have to return to your ship and take off (wish I knew that a lot sooner)

• You can hide your spacesuit when in settlements using an option that appears in the inventory screen

Planning to add more as I play

Edit:

• Press melee when using a sword and you will stab instead of the usual slash

If you get that annoying “Unlinked module” error in the ship builder, double click a part on your ship to select all connected modules. You can either move the ship away to find the unlinked module, or pan around to see what’s not red.

My valuable tip: resist the temptation to play on the cloud. It’s frustrating to the point that I put the game down until I can afford a Series X. My PC won’t run it, and my One X can only play cloud, and it’s just so damned unreliable with constant lag spikes.

When planet scanning, zoom outs and ins can take a fair bit of time. Instead, hit the left mouse button to focus on a planet. Keep the mouse cursor over the planet you selected, then hit R to scan. Move the camera, find another unscanned planet, then left-click on it to zoom directly to that planet. Lather, rinse, repeat until all are scanned.

If you hit R when your mouse cursor is over another planet, the map will zoom out, then in to that other planet, taking valuable time that you don’t have. ;)