What is this?

Standing Orders is a persistent, living galaxy - sixteen star systems across three factions (the policed Core Worlds, the rough Frontier, and the isolated Reaches) plus the truly lawless Blackreach between them, each with its own economy, pirates, and traffic that keeps running whether you're online or not. There's no single win condition - you're a pilot building a life out here, and how you do that is up to you.

What's the goal?

Broadly: fly out, come back richer, repeat - and decide what "richer" means to you. Mine ore and sell it, run cargo between systems where prices differ, take contracts from a station's board, hunt pirates for bounties, or just build standing with a faction until they treat you better. Everything - credits, ships, reputation, bases - carries over between sessions under your callsign.

Where do I start?

Undock and fly to the nearest asteroid belt (shown on your minimap) - hold Space near a rock to mine it, then F at the station to dock and sell what you collected. Use those first credits at the Shipyard or Outfitting tab, or just keep flying and see what you run into - a contract board, a pirate raid, a hidden signal worth scanning for. Check the other tabs here whenever you want the details on a specific system.

Fighting

Left click fires your lasers at the reticle. Pirates and other outlaws are fair game, but hitting a lawful NPC or another innocent pilot makes you wanted - station turrets and troopers will start hunting you on sight, and only dying clears it.

Living galaxy

Sixteen systems - the policed Core Worlds, the rough Frontier, the isolated Reaches, and six more that don't belong to anyone at all. Every real station runs a live market in seven goods (ore, provisions, metal, tech, Components, Umbral Ore, Ancient Crystal): mining colonies sell ore cheap, industrial worlds pay top price for it, and prices swing with supply - so buy low in one system and sell high in another. Raids choke supply lines and spike prices.

The Blackreach is different: six systems forming a ring between the three real factions, with no stations, no turrets, and no law at all - crossing between factions means crossing it. Rival pirate bands hold these systems and fight each other as much as they fight you. It's also the only place Umbral Ore is found, in dense rings unlike any belt in real territory - but there's nothing to sell it to out there. You haul it back through the Blackreach yourself, or you don't sell it.

Ships & outfitting

Dock to open the Shipyard (five hulls - the nimble Skiff, the big-hold Prospector, the fast Vantage, the cargo Mule, the armoured Aegis) and Outfitting (cargo, mining, weapon and shield modules). Each hull has a limited number of module slots, so pick a build. Build mining bases on planets for passive ore, and watch for pirate raids - troopers defend and call in backup.

Contracts & reputation

The Contracts dock tab offers delivery, bounty and escort jobs. Every system belongs to one of three factions (the Core Worlds, the Frontier, the Reaches); clearing bounties, delivering, escorting or just killing pirates anywhere in a faction's territory builds your standing with that whole faction, not just the one station - it nudges prices everywhere they hold ground and unlocks better-paying elite bounties. Systems also rotate through live events - a blockade (heavier raids, tighter market), a rush (one good pays a premium), or a derelict wreck worth flying to and hacking open. A one-time Scanner (Outfitting tab) calls out rich core veins in the belt.

Exploration & industry

Press V to scan your current system for a hidden signal - unlike a system event it's invisible until someone finds it, and once revealed it's a race to reach it and hack it open the same way as a derelict wreck. Every station also runs a Refinery (Market tab): sell raw ore into refined metal at a loss, with the yield improving alongside your standing with that system's faction - the same reputation that moves everything else.

Manufacturing: metal + tech → Components

Components are never mined - the Outfitting tab has a Fabrication row that turns 4 metal + 1 tech into 1 component. Components sell for more than the raw materials cost, especially at an Industrial world, which pays the best price for finished goods of anywhere in the galaxy - so the loop is mine ore, refine it to metal (Market tab), mine or buy tech, fabricate (Outfitting tab), then haul the components to wherever pays best. Sell to a station, or trade them straight to another pilot from the Friends panel.

Ancient Crystal

The rarest find in civilized space - Crystal Relic rocks only spawn in the belts at Erebus and Nyx (both Ruins-status systems in The Reaches), and need a Mining rig L2 to cut, same tier as tech and Umbral. It's priced above even Umbral Ore - a Free Port's collector's market pays best for it, reflecting the risk of hauling a rare find out of No Sec space.

Planet & sun textures: Solar System Scope (CC BY 4.0)