Pardus/Skilling

Don't worry about buildings yet. At this point, it's not necessary and will most likely cost you more than it will make. When you are ready to join an alliance (You need 1000xp first) your alliance economic advisors will be able to tell you what buildings the alliance needs and where they need them. They will likely also help you with credits or resources needed to build and upgrade your buildings. It is smart to build with an alliance because their buildings tend to be upkept more regularly by alliance members.

For beginner's the easiest way to quickly gain faction rank, and thereby upgrade to a better ship, will be to buy a new ship.

Note: If you have chosen the Union, you will need rank 2 to purchase a faction ship, the Rustfire. If you are Union, do some faction package missions until you reach rank 2. user posted image

For Imperials and Federation pilots, you have the Ficon and Wasp respectively both available to new pilots. Go to a planet, Starbase, or PSB (Player Owned Starbase), and purchase your new ship. Everything you had on or in your old ship will be sold at half value, which will be deducted from the price of your new ship. user posted imageuser posted image

Note: Ships and Ship Equipment are often cheaper at PSB's but you must make sure that the PSB actually sells those ships, weapons, or equipment first!

Here's how to equip your new fighter: 2x 1mw impulse lasers (12000 per laser) Note: buy 5mw impulse lasers if you can afford them (28000 per laser) Small shield (8000 credits) X1 conventional armor (6000 credits)

Buy an Escape Pod as soon as you can (recommended). They cost 10,000 credits, and if your ship is destroyed in combat you will not experience temporary skill loss or lose equipment.

If you don't have an Escape Pod when you die, you will in addition to skill/exp loss, also have your skills halved for 24 hours, and will lose one random piece of equipment.

With that setup you'll be able to take down Space Maggots and Young Space Dragons easily enough. Bio Scavengers are also easy prey. If you feel lucky and have full armor/shields you might try an In-experienced Pirate.

Note: Pirates can fire missiles and if you get hit by one, they can do a lot of damage. One good missile hit, can send a young pilot to their death.

Just keep careful tabs on your shield/armor/hull points. It is best to retreat when your armor gets low and repair, then return to finish the npc off.

If you have the credits or later make them, x2 armor will greatly increase your survivability against these NPC's.

All of the above NPC's take about 10-13 minutes on average to respawn in the same general area after they are killed. So don't despair if you don't see one, where it is shown on a map. Also not all space maggots can be seen, some hide in the asteroid fields or under buildings near asteroids. This is similarly true for other npc's as well, i.e. pirates cloak in energy.

If you're unsure of how you'll fare against one of the above NPC's try 5 rounds first. Once you feel confident, generally go for 10 rounds at a time. Evaluate your ships condition, retreat and repair if need be, or continue fighting 5-10 rounds at a time. Remember, with ship repairs better safe than sorry!

Don't worry about missiles just yet. The Wasp and Ficon can't carry any and generally at this point if you are in a ship that can carry missiles, they will cost you more credits than you will make using them.

When you start out, keep an eye on your armor and hull condition. Think of your armor as aluminum and your hull as paper. Your armor offers some protection but, once your armor is destroyed, you will take greater damage when your hull is hit.

Fear not, as long as you're not too far from a Planet or Starbase you can retreat off an enemy and repair your armor and equipment.

What happens when you die? You lose 5% of your current experience points and lose 1000 ap's. If you have less than 1000 ap's when you die, you will have negative ap's. If you have an escape pod, you will lose it when you die. If you don't have an escape pod, your skills will be halved for 24 hours, and you will lose one random piece of equipment (that is not your engine). At the time of your death you will be returned to your homeworld.

Note: Keep an eye on your AP's! You should generally end your day with at least 500 ap's to spare. It's also best to end on a planet (dock if you are carrying goods to avoid being tele-robbed) or starbase. If you run out of ap's in open space, you can't be attacked by other players (while under protection) but, if an NPC spawns in that space while you're offline you're likely to get attacked and killed.

-

Now, that you have a decent fighter, 'stack' kill missions from planets and starbases. You will see either missions that say 'Kill 2 Space Maggots' or 'Kill a Space Maggot at Sol (17,3)

For beginners, try and stick with one type of NPC unless you have full or near full ap's.

Try and collect about 5-10 missions to kill space maggots. Try and hit 2-3 different sectors stopping at planets and starbases to collect missions. Make sure you don't take missions that are spread far apart. Consult the BlueSun map, look where the missions are asking you to go, and also look for good ranking routes. A good example of a good ranking route is in Orion Ska-Adaa-Olbea, through those 3 sectors there are 2 planets and 5 starbases to collect missions from.

If you have 10 missions to kill 2 space maggots, you don't need to kill 20, you only need to kill 2 and you will complete and be credited for all 10 missions.

It's usually best to stick to package missions or killing missions. However, if a killing mission is on your way to deliver a package, or visa versa you may want to take it as well.

Always keep in mind your AP usage. If you fail missions, get killed, run out of time, etc. then you will lose, rank, skills, and experience.

Continue to do this and make money on the side for a while.

For Imperials you will probably want to strive for a Spectre, which is a decent trader and fighter, or the SSC which is a pure fighter.

For Federals you will probably want to strive for a Thunder-bird, which is a decent trader/fighter, or a VDC which is more of a pure fighter.

For Unionites you will want to strive for Maruader (a decent fighter) or a the Junker, an excellent trading ship but, not so great a fighter. You can fly a Rustfire for quite some time though, it is a decent trader/fighter.

For standard ships the Interceptor is a decent fighter and the Harrier (while ugly) makes a decent trader.

If you have progressed past your initial trade or fighter-ship to one of these ships mentioned above you should by now, have a decent grasp on the game.

When you have attained 1000 experience points, and have played more than 50,000 ap's you can apply to join an alliance. Try to join an alliance in the areas/sectors you plan to make a living in. Also, look for an alliance which shares your goals, trading, fighting, or what have you. Look for a well established alliance, with a good number of members.

These alliances usually help out young pilots and can offer good advice on progressing your pilot career, and may also be able to direct you in creating some profitable buildings as well.

-

Forums, Chat, & Rules

While the Forums and Chat can be a fun place to hang out, meet new people, and find information they are also widely recognized as the source of most contention between people in Pardus. Take heed of some pointers while perusing and using the Forums and Chat.

Before you start you should read these Rules: http://www.pardus.at/index.php?section=rules

The Space Tavern forum is considered 'In-Character'. Do not discuss things like game mechanics or refer to things like AP's (Action Points). You may however find creative ways to refer to these things in a role-playing sense. For instance you could refer to AP's as Atomized Particle fuel or something like that. You should read these forums and wait a few days before posting here.

RPG Chat is also considered 'In-Character'. Keep your discussions there in role-play. Lurk around a bit before you join the chat. Also, avoid 'God-modding'. This means while in RPG Chat you can only control your actions, you can't dictate or make other people do what you want there.