Freelancing

General Tips

• Explore! For each location you visit, that location's set of trade prices is added to your commodity list. Over time, you'll get a substantially larger list of available prices and commodity sellers.
• When selecting a freelance mission, if a sector is noted, open your map and see how far away it is. You'll save a lot of time if you take missions at locations close to where you are. For example, if you're in 5D on the map, and the mission is in 4E, you'll be pretty well off.
• When you dock at a base, always check for new equipment and always restock on expendables like ammo, shield batteries, and nanobots. When taking long flights, remember to stop at stations or planets along the way to save. You never know when a trade lane might be disrupted, forcing you to fight.
• Generally, missions to take captives or chase particular criminals will be close to where you'll learn about the mission. Hence, selecting these missions can save flying time.
• Missiles cost a lot, and you can often make do without them, especially on freelancing missions. Ditto for mines. Conserve them when you can, and if you feel you're at an easy moment in the game, try replacing missile hardware with extra guns.
• In combat, don't forget to strafe and use the afterburner. These two tools drastically improve your maneuverability and your ability to quickly dispatch enemies.

Mining

It's difficult to find profitable ways to mine. Theoretically, you fly to a mining area (marked on the area map) that has a commodity you want to find. Once in the mining area, you shoot floating rocks. As you destroy the rocks, there is a chance that a commodity will be left behind. Once this happens, you tractor in the commodity. Repeat until your cargo hold is full, and then head to a base where you can sell the commodity for a good price. But finding good mining areas is harder than it sounds. Here are two helpful tips to consider when mining:

• Pick a mining area with a fairly high-value commodity. Mining a cheap commodity like scrap metal is not very profitable, even at the beginning of the game. Look for fields that contain higher-value commodities like beryllium, gold, diamonds, artifacts, alien organisms, niobium, silver, and cobalt.
• Verify your reputation with the field's random population before venturing too far from the shelter of a friendly base. If the dominant criminals in the area are neutral or friendly, it makes a huge difference, since you don't have to constantly fight off attacks. If you are hostile to many of the criminal factions most often present in the asteroid field, it's best to find an area where there is a commercial mining base very close to or within the zone, rather than some distance outside of it. Good examples of this are the GS & M goldfield in the Dublin system and the IMG niobium fields in the Tau system.

Here's a practical example:

First rule of mining: Get on good terms (or at least neutral) with whoever you're going to encounter most in the mining zone--this lessens the amount of trouble you'll encounter considerably. An example of this is in the Silverton and Copperton fields in the Colorado system. Ideally, if you make enemies with the Bounty Hunters, you'd be at least neutral with the Xenos and other criminal factions (as well as not crossing the true-blue Liberty honchos). If you're just starting out, a nice, easy mining run between Copperton and Pueblo is your best bet. The money is good (400c), and it's easily repeatable. Another good run is from Silverton to Los Angeles (700c). Again, the money is good for just starting out (without going as far as New Tokyo), and it allows you to trade up in ships fairly quickly. The only real trouble then is avoiding the Bounty Hunters, but there are fewer of them on patrol and at least you'll have a lot of support out there. Under these circumstances, you'll be able to spend the ample time necessary to mine those asteroid fields with as few interruptions as possible.