Tips and Tricks

## Map Boosting

When you cannot warp due to objects nearby, opening your map and closing it will give you a short window to start a warp. Activate the map again before you start the warp and it will ignore all nearby objects and warp you out of there. This does not work near planets.

## Scanning

Pulse immediately before going into scan and highlights will remain around objects enabling relevant targets to be selected quickly, especially mine-able resource targets.

## Smuggler's Cargo Hold

Smuggler's cargo holds can be purchased from outsider starbases. While smaller than other cargo holds, they allow you to store contraband safely within them (relevant contraband will be automatically placed in the hold). This lets you pick up lucrative contraband from destroyed ships safely. Its hard to turn down free money.

## Ship orientation

**TL:DR** - Face your ship in different directions during a fight and change directions once a particular side of your ships shields have taken too much damage. Changing direction can allow that side to regenerate while your other side takes the load for a moment.

Your ships direction can be highly important in combat and is critical to success in some cases.
Depending on your equipment, your broadside **cannons** for one, can fire in both directions if you face your camera forward, this is rarely useful as a good tactic is to drag one ship at a time to take it on in a 1 on 1. Your broadside cannons also can be more effective when firing consistently rather than charging them at close range, this results in a higher DPS(damage per second). Firing your broadsides continuously, however, requires you to be close and your ship facing in a certain direction, as they can be erratic and not fire in the direction you'd suspect with the way your ship is facing, this also depends on the type of ship.

**Important**

Orientation of your ship is most important during combat when you are aware of your shields extents and learning how much damage they can take and observing the shield/hull display. This also factors in learning to time your deflector. A good way to avoid hull damage and equipment damage which you have to pay for - A good tactic to combat this which can help considerably if done well, is to reorientate your ships direction once a particular side of your ship's shields has taken too much damage.
The reason this works well is because your ships shields and hull have 4 sides and work independently, this means your shields and hulls have a front, sides(port/starboard) and rear. Typically your sides are the most heavily damaged, so you can flip around if you have shields that take a while to recharge. You can do this continuously to avoid significant damage to hull.

**Tip**

When fighting superior fleets after they've pulled you out of warp, locate the weakest spot in their formation, which is often towards the outside of the battle. Unless you have good shields and/or great deflectors, don't maneuver between large ships. In some circumstances, fleeing with booster rockets and warping to your intended target is advised. Not all battles offer items to gather or a bounty to be collected, and may just slow your mission.

**Tip**

Once you get into the destroyer and dreadnaught class ships, installing the maneuverability chip will dramatically help your turn rate. This means being able to bring your main guns to bear much faster.

**Tip**

Pay attention to the number of broadside ports when purchasing ships. The amount of dps done by your broadsides is per port installed on the ship. This means that a ship with fourteen broadside ports will do twice the damage per salvo than a ship with seven equipped with the same type of broadside weapon.

**Tip**

When you are warping towards a mission point, disengage your warp when you are about 14-20 sm away or so, then use your pulse scan to see where the enemy ships are. After that you can approach from one side and draw away enemies towards you. Allowing you take them in small groups at a time.

**Tip**

Check your turret locations - some weapons work best when they have a good field of fire - side mounted turrets are ideal candidates for flak cannons where the anti-fighter/anti-missile capabilities can be put to best use. A good laser turret in a rear mount can also make running away a lot easier for you and costly for your foes.

**Tip**

Missile Weapons require ammo - forget about buying reloads at your peril!