Getting Started in Star Citizen

Welcome to Star Citizen, one of the most ambitious and immersive space simulation games ever created. With unparalleled freedom and a ridiculous amount of options immediately available, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed at first.

That’s where this guide comes in. We’ll walk you through your first steps, from creating your character to understanding the risks of open-world space travel. This is the ultimate beginner’s guide—real tips, to help you get started in the Verse. We’re rooting for you gamer!

Your First Steps Into The Verse

Creating Your Character & Choosing a Home System

Before you really begin on this journey, you’ll be prompted to customize your character. You can go ahead and strap in with your artistic side if you want as the customization is pretty impressive. Or you can run through the randomizer to find something satisfactory or funny, and roll with what you find.

Choose a Home World

Next, you’ll choose your home location – this will determine your starting point in the universe. Think about these for a second as this is going to be home base for your personal hangar, and hopefully an area you enjoy or are drawn to. If you’re a veteran then you’ll probably already have opinions about where you want to start.

Your options may include:

  • New Babbage (microTech): Beautiful, modern, great for traders.
  • Area18 (ArcCorp): Industrial, dense urban setting, good for mission runners.
  • Lorville (Hurston): Gritty, polluted, and a bit dystopian, but home to great early missions.
  • Orison (Crusader): Visually stunning, but has long transit times.

Tip: Choose a home world based on what type of environment appeals to you. You can travel between them later, but it may take time and cost.

NEW BABBAGE

Microtech

New Babbage is the home of Microtech and is flaunted as an advanced city and very prosperous. This is a great place to setup as your main starting point for a couple reasons. The atmosphere is fairly relaxed, even if on the cold side. You’ll be able to take your helmet off if you need in different scenarios and not have to worry about dieing to lack of oxygen, or needing specialized suit to handle the extreme heat or cold. There are great bunker missions, mercenary contracts, ground mining, and the city is great for general resources. Downside is it is fairly far away from other planets in the system so you’ll need a ship with more than a light quantum fuel tank to easily go to and from the planet. Not a huge deal later on, but its kind of out of the way in Stanton.

AREA 18

Arccorp

Area18 is a massive Industrial city. They have access to pretty much everything and are centralized close to major trade hubs, mission locations, and has traditionally been solid for Quantanium mining (high end lucrative ore mining).

LORVILLE

Hurston

This is the capital of a more dystopian industrial faction of Hurston. A great central location close to missions, mining, and central in general in the Stanton Star System. Doesn’t have access to a ton of ship parts or combat gear as one of the trade offs.

Learn how to find your way around Loreville.

ORISON

Crusader

The cloud city! Existing on the gas giant Crusader Orison is a large and sprawling city which is a great starting home world. It has access to every ship part you’d need at Counting Crows, and a good assortment of combat gear. Crusader system is home to Grim Hex and pirates, so Crusader in general is a popular and high traffic system, solid missions, and trade. The city can be a bit difficult to navigate for new players landing as a lot of the cloud city looks similar flying into the city from space. Orison also has some of the best ambience in the game.

Learn how to find your way around Orison.

Equipment: What You Start With and What You Need

As a new player, you’ll typically start with some basic gear: a flight suit, helmet, a multi-tool, and a starter ship like the Aurora MR or Mustang Alpha.

Essential gear to pick up early:

  • Multi-Tool with Tractor Beam attachment: Critical for looting and in general picking up heavy objects such as containers or ship parts.
  • MedPen / Oxypen: You are going to take damage, be ready to heal.
  • Basic Armor: Different armor of different levels, choose what you need. If you’re going to get hit maybe snag some heavy armor.
  • Weapon (like the P4-AR or C54 SMG): These two are some of the most common enemies will have at bunkers so you can easily grab ammo for these for free, and they’re not to shabby. You’ll find better guns quickly though so prioritize what you enjoy.

You can purchase gear at terminals in major cities or at space stations like Port Olisar or Everest Harbor.

Finding Your Ship

You can retrieve your ship at spaceport terminals in your home city. Look for signs that say “Fleet Management” or “Ship Retrieval.”

  1. Go to the terminal.
  2. Select your ship and retrieve it.
  3. Follow the on-screen instructions to find the assigned hangar.
  4. Take the elevator to your hangar and board your ship!

Note: Always store your ship when done to avoid it being impounded or lost.

What to Do? Where to Go? Who Am I?!

There’s no traditional class system here. Star Citizen is a sandbox—you define your path. Here are a few things you can try early:

  • Delivery Missions: Start with simple package runs via your mobiGlas (Contract Manager).
  • Bounty Hunting: After certifying, you can take PvE missions to hunt NPC pirates.
  • Mining: With a multi-tool and a mining attachment, try hand-mining rocks for profit.
  • Trading: Buy low and sell high using commodities at outposts and cities.
  • Exploration: Simply fly around and get a feel for the universe.

Pro Tip: Focus on one path initially to build up credits and learn game systems before branching out.

Common Sense Tips for Survival

Be Aware of Your Surroundings

Not everyone you meet is friendly. Star Citizen is PvP-enabled, and piracy is part of the experience. Trust is earned—not given.

  • Avoid responding to random in-game invites until you know someone.
  • Don’t carry all your valuables at once.
  • Always keep your ship locked.

Know the Law System

Each planetary system has its own laws and security. CrimeStat works like a wanted level—accumulate enough crimes, and you’ll have players and AI after you.

  • Avoid stealing or attacking friendly targets in monitored zones.
  • If you die, you’ll respawn, but you’ll lose anything not insured or stored.

Ground Combat Basics

Ground missions like bunker clearances and illegal outpost raids offer great credits and gear. Here’s what to know:

  • Use cover: Enemies are smart and will flank you.
  • Bring backup: These missions can be tough alone.
  • Loot everything: Dead NPCs often carry valuable gear.

Ship Combat Basics

Whether you’re dogfighting NPCs or other players:

  • Use mouse & keyboard for more precise flight control.
  • Learn your ship’s shields and power management.
  • Practice in Arena Commander or take low-tier bounties.

Hotkey Tip: V switches between flight modes. T targets, R locks on.

PvP and Keeping an Eye Out

PvP can happen anytime, anywhere outside of high-security zones. Always stay sharp:

  • Fly defensively in high-risk areas like Jumptown.
  • Learn escape maneuvers and quantum travel hotkeys.
  • Don’t AFK in space—even when you’re just checking Discord.

Final Thoughts

Star Citizen is a large and complex game, and is not your standard MMO. Take your time, be aware of your surroundings, and have fun!