So, you're here. Now what? Well, in Destination Sol, you first spawn in some sort of big space station. The station itself is guarded by badass ships. If you tried the tutorial, you are in the same predicament. (If you are in the tutorial, then go ahead and try it.) Anyways, this guide will not only go over the basic gameplay of the game but as well as going over a few beginning to mid-game items and ships.
NOTE: This is my first guide, so please don't complain TOO much on its suckiness.

First things first, your first thought is, "How do I convert this puny little escape pod I have into one of those guys?" Answer, the Vanguard is a somewhat late-game ship, one I won't go over, but you can aquire it later on, just to settle that.

Second: What am I doing here? Answer, I dunno. You are sitting here reading this. As for in-game, to be the badassiest badass who ever badassed. And to do that, you need to begin with the basics! The controls are pretty simple, and I will list them here: (NOTE: I may add more controls as I find them myself) (NOTE: No, you cannot rebind the keys)
Mouse: Aim and point your ship and weapons
Left Click: Fire 1st weapon
Right Click: Fire 2nd weapon
W: Thrust forward.
Scroll Wheel: Zoom (In Map)
Scroll Wheel (Click): Special ability
T: Interact with trade stations
I: Open inventory (why did it take me so long to write this one in?)
Either Tab or M: Open map screen (cannot confirm because the launcher isnt cooperating)

Now that we have that in order, we begin any game as one always does: grind.

So, your ship is a small little guy who can squeeze through small places. Unluckily, he doesn't have a lot of health. Luckily, he's started off with a few essentials. If you open your inventory (ITEMS Tab), you can see all of your loot and equipment. Not much loot I must say. Anyways, on the top left corner, there are some stats that I'm gonna run over.
(Going From Top to Bottom)
Shield: Shields will tank most of the damage you take. They are weak and don't have much health, but they regenerate on a whim, making them incredibly useful. Can be upgraded by grabbing larger shields from stores and enemies.
Health: It's, well, health. Once your Shield diminishes, this is where you start taking damage. This place has a little more health and holds up better than your shield, however must be healed with repair kits. Plus, once your health is gone, you explode in a pile of loot for your enemies to collect.
Can be upgraded by either purchasing better ships and/or upgrading your armor. (Repair kits- explained: Repair kits are confusing but conveinent. You start off with a few, and basically they heal you when you are idle. After one kit heals 20 damage, it decays and the next one starts healing you. Be sure to stock up on these!)
Weapon Ammo: This bar(s) shows the amount of ammo your gun has in its current clip, along with any other clips it may or may not have (don't worry, the beginning blaster has infinite clips). Cannot be upgraded, however weapons and their corrosponding ammo clip will tell you how much ammo there is.
Special Ability: Your special ability must recharge once you use it, however the recharge is fast yet most abilities are somewhat small. They are also consumables, but they are cheap to buy at trading posts. (Your ship starts off with the ability to slow time in a small area). Upgraded with varying ships.
Money!!!: So the good part, money, dinero, mulah, green stuff, doll hairs, whatever you call it, thats whatcha' got to spend at trading outposts. And if you're getting too much loot and little money, then you can always sell stuff for money. And the best thing: you can buy back what you sell.

So, we are now finally going to do something in life. That laser of yours has infinite ammo. That makes it amazing to mine up asteroids with. So go ahead and fly around the place. If you see an asteroid, shoot it, and it may yield money along with other asteroids.
NOTE: I am using the Vanguard (late-game ship) because I'm too lazy to reset my save file.

(TIP: Try to go for the bigger asteroids, as not only do they yield more money, but also more asteroids that produce money)

Now, flying around mining asteroids may sound boring, but DS has a little thing to spicen them up: Space pirates.
The first pirate you're going to encounter is this one, The Orbiter.

The Orbiter doesn't do much, he has a pirate's basic plasma gun on a turret platform, and the turret shoots you while the Orbiter itself stays stationary. May not seem like much, but it's enough to kill your tiny ship. Luckily, your ship's blaster is more powerful than a pirate gun, so just shoot the orbiter until it dies.
When you shoot an Orbiter (or any pirate for that matter), they explode in a pile of money and loot that goes flying everywhere. Luckily, you have a loot magnet on your ship, and the loot will be drawn at you from a small range. If you pick up items, be sure to check over all of them: Some may be upgrades to your previous arsenal. Early-game, look for larger armors as well as Normal-to-Big Shields, as they can absorb more damage. As for weapons, there could be some great weapon in that loot pile just waiting to be fired.
A good tip for any buisnessman is not to drop/eject any excess items: As they can be sold for considerable credits at any trading post. Even the spawn.
Now, a good goal to reach for your first noticable upgrade is 800 credits. Keep mining and grinding until you reach this (more is always good!).

Fly back to the spawn once you have over 800 credits. Dock with the station and talk with them. Select "Change Ship."
DON'T pick the guardian. That's the ship you're using and is a waste of money. Rather, pick the fighter for 400 credits. It's a large NASA shuttle with only one wing. However, that one wing has a heavy weapon slot. Now, you might be wondering, "why can't I equip my blaster?" Well, that's because the blaster is a LIGHT weapon. Your ship has a slot for HEAVY weapons. Now, remember when I told you to get 800 credits, not 400. Well, you used 400 to buy the ship, now all you need is to talk to the station again and then select the "Buy" tab.
Under there, search for a "Heavy Machine Gun."
Buy it for 220, then use the remaining money to buy bullets for the gun to use.
The bullets should automatically load into the gun, all you need to do is go into your inventory, click the "Heavy Machine Gun," and then click "Equip."
Now you should see a largish green gun on your one wing. Tis a badass minigun that can do tons of damage in little time. From there, mine up a few more asteroids (without wasting too much ammo). When you DO run out of ammo, keep buying plenty. Also be sure your repair-kits are stocked up, and try to see whether you can upgrade to a medium armor. Keep mining until on the map most of the galaxy you're in is not infested by pirates. From there, you should be equiped enough to venture through the asteroid belt. If you zoom in enough on your map, you should see your own little icon in the center. Use the map to navigate to the asteroid belt.
TIP: Try not to fire the engines at full speed. Doing that increases the risk of you crashing into an asteroid and dying. Take it nice and slow, and maybe shoot some fools on the way.
When you enter the asteroid belt, do a bit more mining, but be careful for pirates. The ones around here actually move, plus they are equipped with homing missiles! The missiles can be shot down, but these pirates are evasive, so for now it's just best to shoot and run. Keep mining until you are low on ammo. Then, exit the asteroid belt (on the other side of it). Enter orbit of a non-pirate controlled planet and search for a trade center there. Use the remaining ammo to fend off any attackers, such as bombers.
TIP: Since you are on a planet, the laws of both gravity and friction apply. So try not to crash much.

Once you visit that trade center, stock up on moar bullets and repair kits, then exit orbit to do more mining. WARNING: Stronger pirates have been known to not only attack the weary traveller but also persue and destroy them. Try to outrun them if you can.
TIP: Planets have stationary pirate gunner towers that are easy prey in which contain a good source of income.
Once you have obtained tons of (and by tons I mean around 1500) money by repeating the process, you can buy the final ship I will mention in this guide (but not the final ship in the game): The Wasp. This is a versatile freighter bought at a planetary trade center with both the ability to scramble shields and the potential of equiping two weapons. That's right, two weapons. However, it only has one heavy slot and one light slot. You already have a heavy weapon, but remember the blaster from earlier? Well, it's a light gun! So you can have both a gun that consumes ammo, and then your blaster with Matrix bullets and infinite ammo.

This is a small section here to tell you this: TRY NOT TO DIE!!! When you die, you do what other ships do: you explode in a pile of loot for your friends and enemies alike to collect. However, you don't lose everything. If you press Esc and click "Respawn" and you will be zipped back to spawn with most of your gear (all gear equiped stays on you) and your current ship.

So, now the universe is your sushi. You can conquer planets, fight pirates, hire mercenaries, and more! But first, here are some more tips and tricks:
1. UPGRADES!!! Look for better shields and armor! If you can't find out which is better, look in the description of an item in the bottom left hand corner of your inventory!
2. Fight... or not. Be careful who you pick a fight with. Some may have EMP cannons to disable your ship while others will overwhelm you with missiles and railguns. But, you always have the choice to run away!
3. FTL Portals. Portals such as these...

Um... Help?











... can transport you across great lengths at high speeds with little cost! Just fly on in and it will take 10 bucks and shoot you across the galaxy. If you are wondering where it will take you, use the map and the map draws lines between portals and where they go, so have fun!
5. (This section has been added on request) If you look at your stat bars, you can see the bottom one is something that I haven't mentioned. That bar is the special abilities bar. There are three types of abilities I know of and will describe, but there may be more. They work similarly to repair kits; you buy/loot each item relevant to the ability (ex. teleport ability requires a teleport charge) and when they need to be activated, they are. They are activated from middle mouse click (as mentioned above) and have a cooldown to them, which is represented by the bar. A ship may take only one special ability at a time, and that ability is relevant to it's type/clan. The three abilities I know of are: Unshield, Teleport, and Time Slow (<-- that's not official name). Unshield breaks down all enemy ship's shields in a small radius for a short time, so get some aim in and fire! Teleport is more defensive, where you teleport away from your current position and around a nearby enemy in order to dodge their fire. (NOTE: Teleport only works when you are under enemy fire). Time Slow slows down all ships within a certain radius, including you. Although it may not seem useful, it allows for a tactical advantage as you are now thinking faster than your enemy and can react faster to incoming bullets, making minute adjustments in ship direction. The abilites, in relevance to their clan, go in this: Federation: Time Slow. Pirates: Shield Break. Desert Guys: Teleport. Techies: Unknown. Miners: Unknown. There's some powerups, so go power up and take what's yours!

So, here we are at the end of this guide. I do hope you found this somewhat helpful on getting you started on your very first space adventure! And maybe soon you can be badass like me... maybe... just maybe...

Dey See Meh Rollin'! Dey Hatin'!