Tutorial : Newbie start guide : X4 Foundations

No one looks to have done a detailed early game starting video in a long long time. This is what I would consider a good start. A fast ship to get around the galaxy is essential to a profitable and fun experience. I believe this start gives a solid structured way for newer players to get a foot hold in the vast expanse of space that is X4.
Included DLC
Split Vendetta
Cradle of Humanity
Tides of Avarice
Kingdoms end
Credits Song
Rise of the protectorate by Alexei Zakharov
Save file :
/ francisjohn
Discord server : / discord
X4: Foundations is a huge space sandbox simulator that lives and breathes within your gaming system. Thousands of ships and stations trade, mine and produce, all realistically simulated. In this universe, you can grow from being the lone pilot of a fighter ship, to managing a vast empire, commanding your fleets and designing colossal space stations. Transition seamlessly from first-person action, boarding ships and visiting their bridges, to an expansive strategy and management simulation. Choose your own path at your own pace. The decisions are yours. Trade - Fight - Build - Think.

[@jasonnchuleft894]

Another tip for new players: After about 2h into a new game make sure to deploy satellites at all the Wharfs and Shipyards friendly to you and scan their buy offers for any High demands and shortages. Note them down and check again every few hours. Once you see a pattern you know what the faction owning the station will need to keep the war effort going. Supply them and they'll be able to pump out ships just like in the start of the game. They build stuff and get it blown up, you make a profit, everybody wins. As for why you should wait 2 hours at least: It takes a while for the economy to settle and run through the stored up goods and external supply to kick in.

[@3rdcain356]

so that's why so many dudes wrote something about "broken AI" its not like they do not build ships, its that they can't since they missing parts and nobody brave enough keeps supplying them! Makes sense

[@jasonnchuleft894]

@@3rdcain356 exactly and this is especially true for the Split since their space is mostly isolated. Every faction is missing something at the start of the game and in case of the Split this something usually needs to be transported through Xenon sectors by the AI for the economy to work without the player. Hence why the Split are often the first factions to fall. Eg. In my most recent game they had an absurd overproduction of food but almost nothing in terms of hull parts which resulted in them being extremely quickly overrun. They literally didn't have the parts to replace their losses nor to build new factories. After just 20h they had only 2 "functional" Free Families systems left everything else was swarmed with Xenon capitals.

[@3rdcain356]

@@jasonnchuleft894 so basically Splits = profits

[@gravity00x]

If it wasn't for this guide, I'd never touch this game again. Thank you so much.

[@user-ip6wq7vr7m]

The game is pretty cool and once you get a feel for it I think you'll enjoy it if you like Micro managing lol, the AI can be a pain the in the ass sometimes though.

[@mentaldyslexia]

5 minutes in and I already know more about the game than my 2 hours in game

[@geekey265]

10:38 You actually will run out of oxygen. The Oxygen UI element was a relatively recent addition, but was a mechanic since release... Many of us found out the hard way trying to save some money repairing destroyers. 24:00 Ah Key thing to note about the HQ mission, If you don't have the Boron DLC or are using the Terran starts there are different ways to acquire the HQ. The Boron DLC implemented a replacement for the original mission to get the HQ, which admittedly sped it along. Boso Ta is also voiced by one of the developers.

[@ZlothZloth]

Terran Cadet still gets the HQ handed to them with the KE DLC. Genesis is the only one that you have to do any sort of 'work' now to get the HQ.

[@Prophitman8]

i love the devs lol

[@ItsDeaconYT]

Thanks, i only have base game and was a little confused trying to follow this as it didn't exist for me

[@Saio89]

I play the game during the day, and in the evening's I watch your videos and take notes on my laptop.

[@cuddlebuff]

This is the most comprehensive single guide on X4 out there. Every new player would benefit so much from this. Thank You

[@larsenex33]

I am new to this and was going to purchase the community of planets and this video convinced me to get it! Your video really helps!

[@ronw5005]

Great guide FJ! I have over 200 hours in X4 Foundations and still learned a few useful tips. One big thing I'll add though is that a Budgeted Start instead of a storyline start keeps you out of a ship you don't like, AND gets you into a very fast travel speed right away. With the budgeted start you can begin in any sector you'd like and everything else is in place with the story states, and you pick from an array of ships only limited by a budget of about 2M. The Pegasus is fast but has a very weak hull. Here's some highlights of my research: Takoba: two sheilds, two guns, 7885 cruise speed, superb flight parameters, 1.9M Pegasus: weak hull and only one shield, only one gun, fast, 8633 travel speed, cheap, 1.7M Balaur: Great hull strength, many guns!, 6039 travel speed, 2.1M Perseus: Good hull, two guns, 6869 travel speed, cheap, 1.6M Chimera: Great hull, guns guns guns, poor flight parameters, 2.1M Lux: average hull, two guns, 7283 travel speed, cheep, 1.6M Nimcha: average hull, two shields, one gun, 6142 travel speed, poor flight parameters, 1.8M Jaguar: average hull, one gun, 6463 travel speed, superb flight parameters, the cheapest, 1M The cheaper the ship, the more of the budget you can use for other things, but I usually go with the Takoba because of its two shields. Thanks again for this video!

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I can see the reasoning for your choice you are looking for a ship that can fight and explore. What I found was that fighting in a fighter was difficult and dangerous. For example a Khaak incursion is 5 ships with hit scan weapons and if unlucky is death to any fighter slower than 500 m/s combat speed. Never mind the Xenon that is just straight death. I usually get 4.5 million and go straight for a Paranid Nemisis medium ship. Good combat speed, 2 medium shields, 5 guns and 2 turrets. You can take out Khaak infestations with one of them and I have even killed K's with one. So what I figured out was I avoided fights until I had a medium or better ship as it was to risky. So in the end the only thing that mattered to me was speed. For speed you cannot beat a Pegasus. Though the new Irukandji from the Boron looks interesting.

[@ronw5005]

Even if speed is your only focus, starting a budgeted game will give you more speed as a baseline, that can still be improved on in game. As I showed, building the Pegasus out to the max for a budgeted game starts you with a ship that travels at 8633. You start the game with the better ship, and you can save all the early money for your Nemesis. Personally, I can fight one or two Xenon Ms and Ts with no problem if I have a with a better hull and shield, such as those in the list I included, and it comes in handy. You even went to collect loot in a favorite fighting area of the Xenon, so a stronger hull and another gun would have been good to have, especially in a starter ship that doesn't lose much to the Pegasus in the speed dept. ....and yeah, best to avoid the Ka'ak in the early game if you're starting in a fighter. Another win for starting as a budgeted game is that you have so many more options for engines, guns, etc. Cheers.

[@asdfdfggfd]

Thank you for this video, I have been waiting literally for years for someone to make this guide.

[@OGbrundle]

I finally just started this game after having it in my library forever. This game is OVERWHELMING to say the least, thank you for this guide

[@lemonoeye]

Try this: 1. Get the free Perseus Vanguard 2. Pirate Freelancer Katanas in Segaris 3. Use one of them, sell the other captured ones (strip them down first for more money) 4. Deck out your Katana 5. Start missions you want / Improve terran relations to get a better loadout for your katana

[@andrewhope4267]

This is a stunning start - I have used a variant of this since X4 came out and this gives lots of excellent advice. I do exactly the same going west to find the big battle between the Holy Order of Pontifex and the Argons... I do a slight twist on this to allow me to capture fighters more easily - once I have about the same amount of money as Captain Francis, I will go Anomaly Jumping... You fly into an anomaly (There are 2 in BHS-IV) and you come out at one of the other 30 or so anomaly locations scattered throughout the X-verse. Sometimes you come out in Xenon sectors and have to get back into the anomaly quickly... Then after maybe 20 jumps I will have found quite a few sectors and one near Trinity Sanctum VII where the Alliance Wharf will sell me a NODAN - it's not QUITE as quick as the Pegasus Vanguard but it has more firepower and more survivability.. I then set the Elite to go and map some sectors on it's way back to the battle again and I try and find a Scale plate M4 / M5 to capture which joins the Elite in mapping and looting. I will do this until I can afford a Pegasus and then send that mapping whilst I fly the Nodan - as I can often capture Minotaur raiders. NOTE: - anything with Minotaur Raider showing is actually a SCALE PLATE pirate disguised and you can capture them - Capturing a minotaur raider: - if you find one - get up close and scan it when you are within 200m I think is the limit - if you have done that you can see how many people it has on board - and you then start hammering away at it with the Nodans weapons. Just be a little careful as to the weapons it has - if it has plasma they are slow but take all your shields in one hit. - when you get it down to zero shield and less than 87% hull, about every 30 seconds each time you hit with Zero shield, there is a chance some of the pirates will bail - from a complement of 16, they will leave in 2's or 3's and when you get to the final 2, if the hull is not down to less than about 10%, you should capture it - they make good transports for small items being heavily armoured and quite quick for their size. Happy Landings everyone.

[@thepacketnarc7634]

This is truly epic, fantastic quality. Approachable and without a lot of over-explainy min-max things.

[@JaittPenguin]

thanks for the video. It encouraged me to came back to X4 after a couple of years. look forward to more

[@TormodSteinsholt]

Very good pacing. I started the video, looked down at the duration 45 minutes and thought I would be skipping a lot. But those 45 minutes were so good. This must have taken you a whole day to make. Much appreciated.

[@rtek3541]

The ALI wharf to the north west of GOP wharf has a significant discount on ships and equipment. you can save lots of money early game

[@barrett5229]

Love your videos! So incredibly helpful for getting into a new game

[@MajorDeath87]

ive been waiting on this ever since you started playing! cant wait to see what your next Tutorial is about!

[@justneb1995]

Noob guide to random game means we got another new one starting soon! I'll be here for it.

[@tonyko_u1s1]

Great fun watching your stuff. Thank you very much !

[@rebelkide]

Very good video Francis, really enjoying it , thanks !

[@craigbalnaves4326]

If I hadn't watched this I would have given up in frustration, and even after watching it lots more research required. Thank you. You certainly fit in a lot of instruction in a very small time.

[@kaivalook]

Thank you so much. This video is fantastic and has given me a great start and understanding of the game.

[@DADDOnaut]

Awesome guide! Really needed ALL the help! Very well done sir!

[@aarobriggs2665]

First class guide, helped me a lot to struggle through the first hours, thank you mate!

[@iiiBoneZiii]

Just had to sign in and say that I have watched several start guides, but this one BY FAR is the best one out of all of them. And I just recommended this guide in my Steam review of X4 as well. And of course, Francis John's subsequent guides after this one were very helpful in getting me a great start in my first play through. Thank you, Francis, for your work on these!

[@jackielinde7568]

Upvoting for "We are going to trash panda our way through it." In Avorion, certain ships (usually boss ships) explode leaving behind a lot of system mods and weapons, something my gaming group calls "Loot Pinatas".

[@garrettgutierrez2677]

I would not recommend to new players to scavenge for trash for the first 45 minutes of the game, just because it might sour them to the game or not comport with the way they want to play. It might be better to tell them their options for how to start a game and let them choose. For example, if they want to jump immediately into the story missions, doing the Alliance Invitation missions (Kingdom End DLC) early on will get them a Mako absolutely for free, which is only slightly slower than the Pegasus. Also some people might want to RP and not buy a ship from a race they don't want to be friendly towards or will be utterly unconcerned with how fast their ship is and will want a heavy fighter so they can start dog fighting immediately. I am 1000% a min-max player but I got a friend started on this game recently and the way they want to play is completely different from me. If I told him "you can spend half an hour shooting criminals outside stations to get friendly with a station" he'd just respond with "guess I'm going to be at war with that faction then!" That said, this was a great video, and even I who has played for 200 hours learned a lot from it.

[@azerukaze]

I agree with you on being the trashman.. Plus getting the Pegasus early makes you miss out on experimenting with other small ships. To me the best newbie start would be the Terran Cadet. You start with a below average ship which leaves you ample room to test other ships later, you will get into easy fights with Xenon, plus they give you negative rep with almost all factions which forces you to do the random side quests if you want to befriend them. As most sandbox, the early game is usually the best part and maybe early-mid game but once you reach mid to late game things will get a bit repetitive. Best advice from me is don't try to min-max if you're first time playing as it'll take the fun out of the game. The game is not even hard to begin with.

[@Nothern_King]

You should make your own video tbh

[@garrettgutierrez2677]

@@Nothern_King butt hurded?

[@MemoriesLP]

New player... 3 or 4 hours played. I just quit the video in 5 minutes because I want to learn some stuff, and not be ordered to do things.

[@Nothern_King]

@@MemoriesLP what do you think a tutorial is? Most tutorials are instructions on what to do, but you want a tutorial without instructions... Also by 5 mins, he's literally telling you some key bindings, so you barely even go into this great tutorial.

[@TheBeardedOG]

Love the tip about holding “o” while in the map view. Glad to see you’re still going to play X4 a bit longer. Watched all your last playthrough. Keep up the great content! 👍

[@Jaggrh]

7 months on and it doesn't seem to work for me. Well, it stays on, but once arrive at cargo, autopilot turns off. I scoop cargo, set new target and if I am still holding down "o" shift-a won't re-engage AP. If I let go of "o" then I can engage AP again. ultimately, I still have to switch screens. Woulda been nice if there was "engage AP" option in map right click menu or a button.

[@user-jm7ju5wp9p]

Hey thanks, what fun to follow this through. You helped provide quality chill time over xmas.

[@MrWarbisshop]

that was amazing. looking forward to the next video

[@sim.frischh9781]

The ships only fly off while you are on a station if you have another ship there or the station IS your property, however it gets an issue once one has several ships, yes. Selling Space Caviar is done best to Black Market traders after you got a mission for it, that DOUBLES the price! Same with all the other things they ask for. When buying crew, i always leave ONE place open so i can accept some Taxi missions, they are quick, easy and fetch around 40k. If you think Boso sounds annoying in the english version, try his GERMAN voice, THAT is NIGHTMARE! XD

[@FrancisJohnYT]

The black market stuff I have to start getting into if that is the prices they pay. I never bothered with taxi missions I always figured 40k was to little money for the time investment. I hold out for hacking missions, 500k for roughly the same amount of time investment.

[@sim.frischh9781]

@@FrancisJohnYT Hacking missions can go for one or more sectors, Taxi missions are in-sector, i especially use them in the early phase to find all stations in the sector. And early on you don´t get the Security breaker tools for the hacking jobs anyways, but yes, those are awesome moneywise.

[@ekae947]

i'm new and this guide help me alot, thank you sir!

[@Demo0606]

Perfect timing for this videos release I just learned to fly the other day.

[@net2000man]

Really a great video guide, thanks for this! You've definitely earned my sub!!! Keep 'em coming!!

[@scintilion]

So many things that just are not intuitive, like the Shft-3 scanner not doing anything, until pressing R. Really appreciate the tips.

[@dahn57]

The previous games were complex, this one's gone to another level! I am interested in the ship capturing in X4 though, it's what I found the most profitable way to earn in the older games, and it'll be cool to see the changes that have bound to have been made.

[@salemprompthous3820]

Capturing ships is quite profitable in X4, though as I've seen it requires (atleast) a frigate (M class) to manage anything substantial. Was hopping around in a Nemesis (M class Corvette) and got lucky on an M class freighter. Was trying to have them drop cargo, suddenly the pilot bailed at about 40%hull. Guess there weren't a lot of crew to begin with. Saying this, I'm just assuming the ship-capture mechanic is the same, or similar, to previous iterations of the X series. Never really got into it before X4

[@2514ben88]

great video thanks for the knowledge.

[@deltaCorben]

You can shoot with middle mouse button, the advantage is that it will shoot where the cursor is. This makes opening lootboxes a lot easier in my opinion. Press R to recenter the gun.

[@mitechko]

"Press R to recenter the gun" Nice troll :)

[@salemprompthous3820]

Without secondary weapons on the ship, hitting R will recenter the guns. Personally, I just hit the spacebar (default for primary weapons)

[@mitechko]

@@salemprompthous3820 I am not sure what "recenter the guns" even means in X4. Guns shoot either where your mouse is or if you have a target it will attempt to auto-aim. What would recenter even do here? Also, at least in my game, in the default control config space is not bound to anything.

[@salemprompthous3820]

@@mitechko on a fresh install, first boot up (only three I've changed since then are Deploy laser tower, stop engine and change ammo, for missiles and the personal launcher) spacebar is set to fire primary weapons. Recenter guns: after firing with middle mouse button, the main weapons keep tracking the mouse movement. Recentering means the weapons stop their tracking, and are defaulted to firing straight forward (when no target is selected)

[@mitechko]

@@salemprompthous3820 for what its worth, I believe you, but it is not that way on my install. For me on a fresh install space is not mapped to anything. I mapped it to primary weapons myself for a bit, but did not find it very useful, in 99.9% of cases I want to shoot at something in particular, not just straight ahead. Also, there is a mapping for "deploy the last used deployable item" which I find to be a lot more useful than mapping "deploy laser tower". This way I can deploy whatever I need with a mouse once and then use the binding to deploy more of the same.

[@MannBilimoria]

Thank you for the tutorial! After 40 hours of playing i just realized that there is a Crafting station when you showed the crafting!

[@Just1Ace]

I love this and all your other videos, I hope you kepe making more, as I. New to x4 and learning

[@brianhauptman]

You make this game look awesome. If I had the time, I'd play it. I'm just excited to see more ONI content right now though.

[@THINKMACHINE]

13:40 You're protected from your ship running off even if it has orders when you do a spacewalk as getting up from the pilot seat while flying automatically adds a "wait for signal" order that basically prevents your relief pilot/captain from doing anything until you say so. You can remove that wait order at any time by contacting the ship by selecting it and pressing C, or after you have got back aboard by interacting with the pilot; no need to go through the map and behaviours UI. Absolutely check if you get up while docked though, your ship flying off and marooning you on a station is funny at first, but it gets old fast.

[@jasonnchuleft894]

Just make sure to turn off marooning protection once you researched teleport otherwise you'll often wonder what your pilots are doing only to see them holding position within a Xenon blob waiting for you to tell them to move on 😅

[@CalloftheWildOfficial]

With 400+ hours logged, I still learnt some juicy nuggets from this video. Thanks!

[@TheRichLifeCo]

thank you man, great video

[@marcelosampietro6424]

This video helped me a ton. I did almost everything except buying the scout ship. Been exploring the first 10h with a Eclipse and having a lot of fun.

[@watsinhorde]

thanks for this helpful guide!

[@dazzzmanschannel]

Been watching KZbin videos for 2 weeks jumped in the game and just flew around for about 6 hrs getting use to navigating the highways what a blast lol 😊😊😊

[@koilamaoh4238]

thanks for the simple guide.

[@thezanzibarbarian5729]

Good video. Even though I've got hundreds of hours _(Thousands if you count X2, 3 and Rebirth with their DLC's.)_ I've not played X4 for 18 months so I'm going to be rusty when I come back _(Probably in the next hour or two.)_ and being 60+, I forget what and how to do things! 8-\\... But the one thing I found funny, it wasn't for me, was when you land and making sure your ship is in *"Hold Position"* behaviour. I didn't once. I needed a break and to make a cuppa tea _(It's an English thing!)_ so landed. Got out of ship and went to the ship trader, or someone to do something. I can't remember. But I forgot to pause the game. When I came back, I spent 10 minutes running around the station looking for my ship _(Maybe it had gone into storage?)_ before going into the map. It had travelled through some 5 or 6 sectors and was hurtling through space heading towards a gate to somewhere... However. It took twenty plus minutes of me waiting for him to come back. Needless to say, I wasn't happy with my pilot and gave him a good dressing down.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Yeah I know that pilots are supposed to wait for you no matter what but I have had the same thing happen to me enough times that I'm paranoid about it.

[@TheWatchetdude]

Just started playing. Great starter tips even though fast forward till I came across areas that I myself was already struggling with. Just wanted to say thanks and that I got the start with the argon and hod going full send on killing each other. Theirs so many ships fighting it’s actually impacting my pc, to top it off I’ve died so many times to random mines and missiles that for some reason target me. I’ve spent like 3-5 hours replaying that one section because I keep getting killed to random bs, actually died so many times just trying to collect all the space eggs, programmable arrays, damage engine parts, and other good grabs I know where half the ships dropped mines and where to avoid getting blasted by enemy XL ships blowing up. Like theirs 2 massive fleets just bashing each others head, an absolute brawl and everything I’ve wanted from a game like this. I just hope once I make it out I get around that 5mill range. Lord knows how many times I’ve replayed this cause of how much loot drops their are.

[@nemracunbound3500]

Another thing I do in the elite at the beginning of the game while flying around looking at battles I ask the pilot to surrender and sometimes get free ships in the process

[@salemprompthous3820]

Cheeky.... I love it 😂. Gonna try this if I start a new game

[@michaelbennett7561]

Oh yeah, go to a battle where you are neutral to both sides. Look for ships with low health and low shields, and ask them to surrender. It does not make them angry at you, and there is a good chance you can get a nice pile of free ships out of it. They will only bail when they have received a lot of recent damage.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Ok that sounds to good to be true, I have to give this a go.

[@salemprompthous3820]

Thankfully, I did remember this one when started a new run. Can definately confirm that there's no rep loss when doing this, and it's easily a nice added pile on the cash-stash. I also managed to get a Nemesis, by way of "Surrender" with only 30mins of playtime. This is just hillarious. Got a nice little fleet of 8 ships, so far, all with their own pilots flying around collecting loot. Anyone loses too much hull near my spot, I'll have them surrender and a brand new ship to add to the collection of collectors......

[@12Prophet]

They changed the mission to get the player station. Either that or there has always been alternative methods to get it and I simply had no idea. (scanning leaks until the mission triggers) Either way, the quick and easy way to get set up is very refreshing.

[@koolkillarz]

perfect. Didn't know how to find containers in the world, or that you can use O to gravity beam loot. Biggest WTF was learning that you need to com a random stranger to learn where to proceed with your quest. I was completely stuck there.

[@AW-li9yf]

Great video and this technique got me started - you can also fully automate this with your NPC ship Captain! - Set the ship orders to "Repeat Orders" on the behaviour tab - Then, while having your ship selected, right-click a central point in space and select "Collect Drops" your captain will collect everything, when your hold is full he will collect software/items. Leave him to it for a few hours, come back and you should have a few million!

[@shockruk]

I was thinking of picking this up and this is a great vid with info at breakneck speed. Love it. Guess I'm buying it lol

[@BauN3RD]

I'm already at about 1000 hours played and just learned I can suck up deactivated deployables. I hate when I overlook these small details that go such a long way. Thank you very much for the useful video. However, you inspired me to start over and I just wanted to add, that you can repeat order the sh*t out of the Argon trashcan. Strip it down except for a good engine and mk2 shield, hire a 1 star pilot or generate one, tell it to collect drops at the important places and as soon as it has 1 inventory, tell it to deposit at HQ. You will miss out on some drops this way, but it's like a checkpoint-mechanic. When it finally gets destroyed, it will have hauled in enough goodies to pay for 2-3 new collector fighters by then. I also always get the free Perseus from Silent Witness and set up a trader with the Callisto from HAT-plots first mission. As soon as the trader gets harassed by a Minotaur Raider, I capture the piece of sh*t and use it to get 5 or 6 Freelance Katanas from PIO space. The goal is to have 3 MK2 Katanas with mk3 shields, while selling the others to pay for the equipment. Now set the Katanas to flee on conflict and let them "fill shortages" until they reach 3 stars. You now either have some decent bodyguards or autotraders. I like to get a freighter with 20 marines at this stage, let it follow me as well and capture my first L-Miner, preferably Gas. Form this point on the moneyprinter goes brrrt. :D Oh, and don't forget to set the Katanas back to use judgment when using them as bodyguards. Learned that the hard way. :D

[@THINKMACHINE]

For trash panda-ing, can't recommend enough the collect inventory mod. It lets you set up a ship to run around collecting inventory items from all your other ships and putting it all either in your pocket or at your HQ; there is nothing worse than realizing that your garbage scooper got blown up at some point (being too close to a captial-on-capital fight is extremely bad for your health), losing you several million credits of stuff that it had and would have collected. And don't forget to set up your trash picker to run away if it gets attacked or interdicted by police either! The defaults for both are horrible options for this use case (fighting back for the former, and submitting to scan/ejecting illegal - and thus the most valuable - stuff on the latter).

[@sekphejul4863]

Can confirm, inventory collector mod is essential. Didn't realize how annoying it is to have to constantly hold the magnet keybind in addition to starting and stopping autopilot over and over until I had already collected 8 million creds worth of trash lmao it was only then that I went and got the inventory collector mod. It's honestly a lifesaver, makes the whole process so much easier. Just wish I'd discovered it earlier in my campaign.

[@stanislemovsky5590]

Thank you, that really made for a good start. I got a new problem now though. The XEN are attacking Second Contact II Flashpoint, coming through the gate from The Void in a never ending stream. At first, I enjoyed the masses of Spacefly Eggs and other goodies that I could pick up with my fast ship, zooming right through the battles. But now the ANT defenders have run out of ships. Since then, the XEN are wreaking absolute havoc over the sector, effectively choking off all trade within it. This problem is aggravated by the fact that the only trade route to the ANT wharf and shipyard leads thorugh the sector, meaning I can't help them restock their supplies and they can't build any ships anymore. It's a real dilemma. I guess I'll just have to let it happen until I'm rich enough to isolate the XEN sectors with tons of defense platforms ... Though I'm afraid SC II Flashpoint might be completely taken over by the XEN until then, with almost no one fighting back. There's something unbalanced about this. Sure, the XEN are a highly efficient machine species, but they only own a couple of sectors and presumably don't trade with others, so how can they put out a large ship every 5 minutes? It's crazy.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

If you need to stem the tide for a bit until you can get up defences a 100 laser turrets can help, spread them out a bit so explosions don't kill them all. Put down 200 if you can afford it, great light show and it buys you a lot of time.

[@stanislemovsky5590]

@@FrancisJohnYT Thanks man. I've actually already started doing this, especially on their resupply routes I spotted (works great there, as they only send freighters and miners). After a while they stopped sending anything bigger than M size ships in Flashpoint. Then I set up a blockade there. Didn't work for long, as the AI is not that stupid. After my 80 Mk2 towers killed off about a dozen raiding parties, they stopped coming for about an hour to save up for larger ships - and then sent destroyers that took out my blockade with ease. Gonna try to set up the blockade again to buy enough time to build a defense plattform I guess. It's my first real game anyway, so I'm still learning. Next time I'm gonna focus on important production next to my allies' shipyards and defense plattforms at gates as early as possible. Shouldn't have wasted so much time doing missions at the start.

[@axelkolle9994]

A bit overwhelming after basically forgetting everything in the first in game tutorial but all info essential. Thanks

[@dichebach]

Have played the game for about 183 hours now. Finally getting around to the point in your video where I start to talk to Boso and do the Research 25:00 You say "Teleportation is very tempting" but instead opt to go for chassis. I did not remember that is what you chose and I went for engines. Had to do try to find a race start spot. My bot pilot managed to get my ship stuck inside of a Paranoid station ROFLMAO! Turns out: there is no console. The "recommended solution" for getting your ship unstuck is to TELEPORT ~+100km away from the ship and when the player is not present collision is turned off so the NPC Captain can get the ship loose. I'm kinda stunned that this issue still exists in the game, is (based on the Discord conversations) well-known and yet, there is no "real" solution for it. The solution is to either play with a custom creative session and give yourself teleportation from the outset, or get teleportation finished at the PHQ.

[@Beingjn]

5:19 That's a Starsector portrait! It really does fit X4 extremely well

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I originally including the instructions on how to copy the portraits over but the first cut of this tutorial was 57 minutes long. I had to rip out a lot of stuff.

[@sgt.pepper5078]

Instead of modding your travel speed you could also mod your forward thrust. The travel speed mod decreases your boost speed and acceleration by quite a lot. The forward thrust mod has no downside, it also boost your cruising speed, normal acceleration, travel speed and boost speed. You won't gain that much travel speed, but overall I think it's the better mod. It also depends on the engine you're using. For example Terran engines big strength is boost duration and acceleration (along with travel speed acceleration). Installing the travel speed mod on them would defeat the whole purpose of these engines.

[@coltshanks457]

31:56 LETS GOO!!!! that was a bit more hype than I expected.

[@gregcalvert1604]

Long time elite fan looking to get on this

[@Th3BlackLotus]

There is a mod called "Capital ship magnet" or something like that. It basically automates sucking up everything. I think medium ships suck uo at 20km, large at 100, and XL ships at like 200. You can just park and waste Xen allcday long and itll suck up every 30 seconds. Saves holding the O key down.

[@Zazyr]

The suggestion to get the Scout is THE Advice for newcomers. Good job

[@sim.frischh9781]

Those are good ideas for Button re-assignment. Gonna try that as well. FJ, there is a mod out there that insta-teleports dropped containers into your personal inventory within a certain range depending on the ship class, it´s called "Fly-By Looting". If your idea of a game start is going for drops in battlezones, that mod is a must-have. However in general it´s extremely convenient to have. Every few seconds, everything in your vicinity stuff gets just teleported in. Neat! Oh, to look at yourself on the map, hit R!

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Late game a collection mod sounds perfect, early game I like the scrambling for the boxes as quick as you can before they disappear. I flew past my first Damaged singularity engine, did not brake early enough. Before I could get back to the crate it timed out. I only did the swearing on the inside.

[@MrRiccochet]

One FJ forgot is to reasign W to run instead of doubletap. Was covered in an earlier video but anyway. Love the game and nice tutorial!

[@sim.frischh9781]

@@MrRiccochet I changed that just yesterday, it´s fantastic.

[@sim.frischh9781]

@@FrancisJohnYT Even with the mod that still can happen, i swear inside as well every time XD

[@chanter3978]

A police ship scanned me and then a bunch of people became hostile towards me. I reloaded my save and made sure to quicksave after I picked up anything particularly good.

[@OOZ662]

Illegal cargo will be displayed in red on the left panel when collected by the player and be highlighted red in the player's personal inventory. You'll also be warned in red text when you enter a sector carrying wares deemed illegal by the sector owner. Of note is that the game tracks individual and faction reputations separately; if a police ship scans you, finds illegal cargo, and you don't eject it, the police ship and its squad will lose individual reputation with you and turn hostile. It's only when you fight back and destroy assets belonging to the faction (including the police ships after you) that faction relationship will tick down, eventually causing you to become hostile with the whole faction and lose docking access. All that is to say that you can flee and only have the couple police ships after you for a while, or fight back and potentially cascade into a war.

[@salemprompthous3820]

One thing to gain a varied ammount of seconds; when telling the ship's captain to bugger off from your chair, quickly double-tap the (default) "F". The captain will get up, and you'll sit down immediately, while the chair is still facing the wrong way (instead of the captain blocking the chair when buggering off xD). When the piloting hotkeys are all "in your muscle-memory", the chair blocking the view will eventually stop being annoying, as it'll be turned around by the time you've undocked. (This is something I picked up from @CaptainCollins, who seem to be a full-time X-series Twitch streamer with a YT channel. Guessing FJ has checked that channel out, as Collins was the first to pop up when I first started out in X4 looking for tips, tricks and how-tos)

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Ohh did not know about the double tap to take control instantly. That I am stealing. I was more of a JK Ninja watcher, his stuff was far more info dense.

[@spudpud-T67]

@@FrancisJohnYT JK Ninja has the info but delivered with witty style.

[@eternallight523]

I am planning my plunge into the X universe and soaking up all these kinds of videos to at least ease the dreaded early hours of not knowing shit. xD

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Good luck. Once you get a few the Xeon contained with some defence platforms you can take your time and build up a massive fleet.

[@AdamsOlympia]

So many people say this game looks dated or ugly but I think it looks great ...or at least serviceable. Very nice ship designs, interface and map are sleek...definitely looks like something I could sink my teeth into.

[@TherealTenmanI]

The issue is the NPC models. Other than those, almost all space games age like wine.

[@yantokki92]

Looks like they improved this game a lot

[@zelavalez]

this was the best pre-early starter boost tutorial for specially over 40 space wana be people who (of course that's not me xd) normally don't have enough time to travel sectors with 2.3 km per second ;) BUT BUT if you don't do it, then you really enjoy that always rememberable hard starting struggling bittersweet, pre-early game which is tbh really really fun :D and painful.

[@ZFPAkula]

One change I suggest is going to the ALI warf in Trinity Sanctum VII and buying a Noden Vanguard. You can just do more stuff with the Noden in the early game.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

I looked into them as they were recommended but I never found a use for the Noden. They are a decent all round ship with good cargo capacity for the size but all I want is speed early on to unlock stuff and get to missions. I can make more money faster using the Pegasus.

[@edwardp7725]

Hey man great guide! I hit a snag though, I never got that Alliance Invitation mission. How do I pick up that mission? All I have is the hatikvah trade revolution one. Thanks

[@efxnews4776]

Use the shortcuts, Luke! (at least for pc) This is one tip most beginners need to learn fast in order to play better the game... use the shortcuts for commands, like shift+ D for docking/ undocking (this also would teleport you back to your ship, if she is docked in a station), is a essential one, another essential one is ctrl+D wich would make you leave the seat Another great shortcut command is to match the target ship speed (shft+X), another grea shortcut press C to start communication with the target ship... Press shft+C to launch counter measures against missiles... Press R while in the map to locate your ship press R in your ship to activat the secondary weapon (usually missiles) press shft+ 1, 2, 3 or 4 to activate modes (SETA, scanner, LRS, travel drive) And FINALLY press H to open up the tutorial menu where you would discover a lot of this shortcuts.

[@funnyanimalworld7579]

What i learned from this video is that yhis game is super complex

[@wolfhound146]

The Elite isn't trash you know. Tell that to the Nova I destroyed, the two Nova's I captured and the Cerberus I captured as well. All with a Pulse Laser MK2. No mods either that being ship or game mods. I see so many players saying certain ships are bad and then see videos on youtube at people barely able to get a shot off and virtually sitting still. All this being in the same instance. They were a fighter squadron. Also that HQ start is dlc from Kingdom End. It's literally the start to get the Boron into the verse. You need to disable to dlc to remember what you can and cannot do. You went into a split sector as well and if you don't have Split Vendetta you will not be able to go there.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

You are right that the Elite is not trash. But I would put it to you that in the same way a knife is not trash, I would still prefer a gun. You can use pretty much any ship in the game, it's just some are better than others. In the same way a pegasus is a great fast scout ship, but not great in combat.

[@MatthewHolevinski]

damn that was close, noice

[@alexkulev352]

holy shit! Congrats on 00:00:00 arrival!

[@rogercruz1547]

the whole "tab to afterburn" reminds me of Tachyon (RIP NovaLogic)

[@atigerclaw]

HAH! I've been hunting signal leaks by sound for so long I didn't notice the signal bar. I'd just sit near a station, wait for the spark sound, and center it in my ears over a few repeats, then roll 90 degrees, work on centering it again, and I'd have my direction. Good thing I went 'eh, maybe there's something new I don't know about.' and listened to the video.

[@firecopscott]

Thanks for doing this, FJ! Due to your last series, I re-installed X4 to take another stab at it (it was previously uninstalled in short order). Please consider Avorion for a future playthrough; it seems similar to X4, but is more buildy/crafty.

[@MavicAir1]

Bought all the dlc and when i play it's so easy to get distracted and end up just looking around at everything. It's one of the few games that stays on the HD for a rainy week.

[@lsswappedcessna]

Well, son of a- I had no idea about the shift d thing and I have just under 200 hours in this game.

[@Josivis]

5:51 I have a Scout usually Pegasus Vanguard with argon travel engine on repeat order collect drops infront of a xenon gate.and every now and then I let drop a lockbox. I also use P to pause everytime I give orders. 34:31 Before I start scanning I drop a lockbox with my illegal inventory.

[@fernandonovosad4533]

We are to trash panda our way , that made me laugh hard😂

[@derAtze]

I've got a small game you could play between your next playthroughs: Cosmoteer :) its a mix between X4, Satisfactory and in some sense The Settlers I'd say. Might be worth checking out ✌🏼

[@davidcarr2308]

"you are not as good as you think" 34:12, Thank you my guy worth watching until I heard you laugh!!! thank you this is my homework

[@mr.daisock1728]

You can get about 6M credits in about 15 min. at the Start of the Game. 2h for some Money to make your Ship a bit better is no good Start.

[@BlackRainEntertain]

good video

[@ravingodd]

I REALLY want to like this game because I like the strategy aspects of all the games you showcase. But this one seemed way to much to get into. Maybe I missed the earlier bus, I'm I'm looking forward to any/all tutorials for this one.

[@kleinerprinz99]

What about the Boron Scout ships? Are they a good alternative?

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Can't really comment as I have never used the Boron Scout ship. However looking at it's stats it does appear to be superior especially when it comes to travel speed.

[@K162KingPin]

15:00 So Im in the same station, and looking at the list of destinations in the elevator, and there is only one option for a Traders' Corner, yet you have many options. Do you have to find them on foot or something to unlock the ability to get to them via elevator? I looked through the comments but can't see where anyone else mentioned this issue.

[@CasperBlackbird]

Thank You for this, a lot! Also: how would a playthrough look like if i wanted to play the game with as little micromanaging/empire building as i can get away with, is such a 'theme' even possible or it is part of the intended experience to tinker and modify/control every tiny detail and run a mission once every blue moon? This is 60+ euro game and if my intended way of playing is only 10% of entire experience then i better find some other game is where i come from, thxzies!

[@salemprompthous3820]

If you only want to do combat, missions and explorations, the the X series is not for you, honestly. Early game is a lot like that, but once the money piles up and you're ready to buy ships, the empire has begun. Granted, there are ways to minimize the micromanagement by using default-orders (miners to auto-mine, freighers to auto-trade) but that will only last for a "short" time. Eventually the micromanagement kicks in, unless you only ever have one single ship and don't like income 😅 Everspace, I think it was, is much more in line with flying ships and shooting stuff 😊

[@Sinaeb]

You can do missions First you want to do missions to raise up your repution to +10 with one of the trade faction for the trade guild (segaris, antigone, teladi or boron) When you get that +10 you can get guild missions in their sector (or closeby) What you want to do is to get a guild mission that includes "Fatal Attraction", make sure you have a marine! This will spawn a random ship surrounded by mines that you have to claim and bring back to a place An easy way to get rid of hte mines is to do drive bys on the edge of the minefield so you only explode 1-2m ines which shouldn't damage your small ship Then, when the way is mostly clear, go near the ship with your ship, then board the ship with the marine Order your new ship to move out of the minefield out of the way and yourself too, and when you are in a secure place, abort the mission! (trust me nothing bad will happen fr fr /s) You now got yourself a brand new ship, you can maybe sell it for a few millions, or use it to do more missions if it's an M-class combat ship Now you get two different choices (you can do both at once soon enough) (also both missions can come from random mission and trade guilds) 1. Combat route This route will give you about half a million credits per mission and a lot of reputation with the factions The mission is to a escort mining ship The mission consists of escort a mining ship and protect it from kaak attacks, until it lands at a station, the attacks comes in waves with usually 1 M ship and 2 S ships, and they don't stop coming, so you need a bit of combat skills for this as to not die horribly (and also why the M combat ship is important) 2. Selling ships (this is gonna be your main money maker) "Acquire assets" mission, the reward is the ship value +50%, you need to acquire the specific ship in whatever way you want but the easiest way (and costs a bit of money initially) is to buy it as cheaply as possible from a shipyard and to move it to an equipment dock to spec it up to the highest value (consumables and crew don't count on the value) And finally, the big money round, you sell ships, but it's the fleet missions (military factions trade guild) ones, obviously more ships = more money out of it (this round isn't absolutely needed depending on what you want to do, but the money is really good so you can really costumize your ship) Ok, so now entering into the spoiler territory to quickstart xenon space combat (you need the player HQ with a dock) Terran Protectorate plotline spoils : One of the missions you eventually get from them is to track criminals, this will lead you around the galaxy, follow the questline and you eventually get into a two choice, keep the moreya or go back to the terrans to trade it for a modified katana, I would keep the moreya and going to the player HQ with it because choosing the katana gets you into a potentially deadly battle later on in the plotline So you continue into the plotine then, you reach Yaki space, eventually you get at a crossroad with multiple choices Kill the power station Help the yaki invasion Inform the terran protectorate What you want to do is to inform the terran protectorate immediatly, as this will give you an L ship (Syn) (you need to board it) outside the terran command station (you can choose whatever option you want in the inform choice, making the yakis seems as a small group of pirate is the "best choice" as it will eventually make you friends with them) Anyway, now let's use your new ship, go kill the xenon power station controlled by the yakis :) If you told the terrans that the yakis are a threat you might not have a lot of time to do it so better go quickly! and if you said yakis are pirates to the terrans, after killing the power stations they become friends with you, so you get a useable wharf in xenon territory there. And now you can have whatever fun with your free L ship, deck it out with whatever you want as you have infinite money from selling ships (btw, you can use the Syn as a kickstart for the fleet acquisition missions as it's a destroyer type ship, which you obviously can buy another one after you've completed it due to the +50% value) And that's about as far as it can go with as little micro management/stations empire making etc

[@CasperBlackbird]

@@Sinaeb Thank you sir, for the very informative starter guide, but sadly as the other reply i got was more in tune what I was looking for. Regardless if i got into game i would have followed your advice. Have a great day and fun gaming experience!

[@grandfremdling3841]

Like the others said: to get very big ships, like "endgame-big" you will need hundreds of millions of credits. I think nobody want to do thousands of missions only to buy one ship. even if a mission would bring you 1million and takes ~5 minutes, you have to play for ~8 hours to have 100million. And that's probably not enough for a really good ship). So management and empire is on the menu...

[@FrancisJohnYT]

It really depends on what your end game goals are. Their is no end game to speak off, their are some main quest lines many of which take a lot of time and resources. But assuming you just wanted to do all the major questlines an Odysseus destroyer with some mod and laser towers could get your through all of them. An empire would make things easier but I don't think it's necessary. Now you got me thinking about doing an "all quests" "factory less" run just to see how hard it is.

[@Hyperionl10]

8:30 Xenon T is zooted, booted, and scootin'. It'll do everything it can to avoid combat, and there's little you can do to stop it from leaving unless its programming breaks and it kinda just sits there for a moment. Even more, it's not worth killing as it has the same loot as Ms and Ns.

[@joegiovino7440]

I have tried a couple times to get the Odysseus Destroyer, and have actually found it, but I keep getting chased by bad guys all over Faulty Logic II. I stay in travel mode and they chase, then let off a little, then chase. I circled around the area for an hour and then figured I'll just go try to get the ship on one of the passes. They blew me up. I can say that if you're floating in space in your space suit with the rocket chair, you still can't board the Odysseus. Help?

[@edwardecl]

be careful scavenging, you are technically an enemy of the HOP faction and their mines will blow you up.

[@wilfred8391]

i really like this only downside i somehow got the spacefly eggs the same moment you did but when i picked them up i got exploded so that sucked but trying again i suppose