Quick tip

[kencko]

I just want enough to get a decent jack of all trades ship that can trade but hold its own in combat.

[Sinbad]

Hi Kencko,

**Possible money-earning spoiler**

One of first things you should do as a beginner is increase your number of cargo bays. You can do that in the ship configuration section of the shipyard. Then do some mining. Mining is (usually) a low cost operation, and you can make decent money if you find a good place to sell. If you mine close to a station you can save fuel. Also try mining trees... biological units usually sell at high price. When you have more money available you can start to trade in more expensive items.

[Marvin]

As you mine, cursor over your cargo bays as they fill up. The center window will display the sell price. If it's selling locally for 800 units or greater, keep mining.

[Edited on 1-21-2016 by Marvin]

[PaulB]

I just want enough to get a decent jack of all trades ship that can trade but hold its own in combat.

If this was the future and pilots went into space with as little info as you get in EM almost everyone wold go bankrup.

There are no cheats ot exploits that I know of but there is a trmemdous lack of information unless you downlaod the Hints & Tips Guide or someone else will tell you.
And I don't consider this info a spoiler but info that should be in the documentation.
So, I'll tell you some.

(1) Mine Hydrogen, Platinum, Metal (or buy antimater) and then take them to a Construct station and you can then Convert them into various equipment that you can use or sell for more money than the material sells for itself - this is also hoe you get some of the material to use in Weapons Lab unless you just buy it.

(2) Try trading with the AI and some will sell you contraband dirt cheap and you can then use or go and sell.

(3) Find a good trade route to buy at lowest prices and take to sell at a hitech area.
There are a lot of good trade route on the Outer Rim and Chiron servers.

All this applies to EM - I can't speak to EL because I'm not able to run it on my older Laptop with Windows XP.

[Wedge598]

Best source of early income I've found is to min Plat and sell it in Ruckus.

If you start the main Alliance Quest it'll lead you very quickly to an asteroid field that has nothing but Plat. Equip 3-5 cargo bays and fill them there. Then using the gate to Ruckus head there and sell the Plat on the station. I was netting 22k+ for each cargo bay of Plat. And the jumps are very quick. You may want to invest in a better jump drive before doing this though.

[Radikal]

Combat in "beginner" war zones is a great way to amass credits quickly and easily as there are plenty of NPC helpers to get the missions done quickly.
I've managed to amass millions pretty quickly (multiple waypoint missions rock ).