The basics of Pardus are similar to other games, but have some points that are drastically different such as attacking other players. Here are the main things to keep in mind when you play.
AP[edit]
APs (action points) are the lifeblood of pardus. Almost everything you do will require that you use some of these. You will get 24 every six minutes, coming to 240 an hour and 5760 a day. Free players can hold at max (no advanced skills) 5000 at a time, recommending that you log in about twice a day. Some equipment and skills can reduce the amount of AP it takes to do something such as buying a better engine or a teleporter, and using drugs can increase the amount of AP you have (albeit very little).
[edit]
In pardus, the world is divided up into clusters, such as lane and the pardus cluster, which are composed of many sectors. Each sector is connected to another by wormholes. Some sectors have X-holes and Y-holes which allow you to jump out of X-holes (No Y-holes). There is one X-hole per neutral cluster, and there are several Y-holes in the pardus cluster. At a time, you can see a 7 by 7 grid. First, you can see the type of tile, then what NPC is on it, and then what building (buildings will cover up the NPC if there is one, be careful!). Your ship is at the middle of it all. To move, you click on a tile that you can move one, and you will be taken there. Your ship will not navigate around NPC's. When you move, you move one tile horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. It uses up AP and fuel when you do this.
Fuel[edit]
Fuel, one of the commodities, is one of the necessities of pardus. It is one of the resources that can be harvested, it can be harvested from open space. You will use up some fuel whenever you move, the amount depends on how much your engine consumes. Your ship should have an auto-refueller and a fuel scoop to be fully prepared for it. If you don't have an auto-refueller, you will need to click on the Refuel button and waste 5 AP. The fuel scoop allows you to harvest it from open space. To do this, you put your ship on an open space tile, and click on the "harvest fuel" button (15 AP). Depending on how much fuel is in the tile and your fuel harvesting skill, you will receive some fuel. Players generally despise players that harvest fuel from tiles under 250 fuel because the less fuel in a tile, the longer it takes to regenerate back (believed to regenerate at 6%/day). This is called "stripmining". In homeworld areas and very traversed, fuel will be hard to get by because of the many people passing through and needing fuel, so you will probably need to buy it from a fuel collector there. Many starbases, in particular ones that are big on FWE, will sell fuel for people.
Player Relations[edit]
In Pardus, this point is amazingly important. Because of it's player based economy and governing system, attacking another player or raiding his buildings will often end up in a huge mess that will result in you being bountied and his alliance killing you on sight. It's important that you keep your record clean or people will kill you, place you on their foe list (denies service at buildings, puts you on his list when ambushing), and attack your buildings. Generally, the only time you should attack another player is for a war between factions or alliances, if they are pirating, or if you feel up to the challenge of doing it right and cleaning up the mess. Once you have attacked several players, people will view you as a pirate and generally shun you, attack you, bounty you, and kill you.