Star Citizen Detailed Beginner Guide and Tips

Star Citizen is currently still an alpha. For new residents of the Verse, just getting started can be a bit of a hurdle. Your adventure begins, so to speak, when you have decided to buy Star Citizen. If you don’t know how to buy, download and install Star Citizen, Please read our Star Citizen How to download and Install post first.

With this small series of guides, I would like to give interested players a guide on how to find their way around the verse and how to take their first steps. This guide will cover every basic steps to get you started the game. If you are an experienced player, this guide may not suit for you but you may still want to check for details you have missed.

The First Step: Character creation and Starting Point

Star Citizen is a massive game with so many small details and information. It can make a new player confused at the start of the game but  you shouldn’t worry about the details yet. After you register to Star Citizen, Just Start your character creation after logged in.

After you created a character, It is time to select a starting point in the menu. Click on PERSISTENT UNIVERSE in the menu.

Now you should see several spawn point options here. This will be your primary residence where you can sleep, store your equipment and park your ships, in other terms this will be your hometown. I suggest you to choose any option except Orison because it might be a difficult place to land your ships and has a big, dense atmosphere. In this case we chose LORVILLE as starting point. New Babbage is also another beginner friendly starting location.

Now you will wake up in a random room to see that you were born as a 30 year old man, missing all your childhood and most adolescent. but you will stay a 30 years old man or woman for the rest of your life so that is a plus.

You can stand up by pressing the ‘Y’ key on your keyboard. Star Citizen has a lot of keybinding so I advice you to take a look at the most important keys in game settings. We will still cover some important keys in this guide.

You may want to explore the room and the city that is now supposedly be your beloved hometown. Go outside and explore the city and meet your fellow countrymen. After longing with your countrymen, you may think it is time to find out who your parents are… but NO, It is time to buy a great ship for you to explore the solar system. If you already have a ship that comes with game package then you are good to go.

In order to find your way to the ship hangar, you have to follow signs and find your way to Metro Station first.

• Try to follow the signs to Metro Station
• Take the super-fast Train to the Spaceport
• Just like in real life, make sure to check which train is going to your destination in screens.
• Once you are in the Spaceport terminal, you have to follow the signs and find The Fleet manager Screen.
• Go to a Fleet Manager Screen. Use ” F ” key to interact with buttons.

Purchasing A Ship and Starter Packages

Once you have reached to the Spaceport, you will see Fleet Manager Terminal. Interact with the screen and choose a ship you already purchased or purchase a ship here in order to start your journey. Our recommendation is AURORA MR PACKAGE which is a good choice for new starters. You can use this code STAR-ND9F-L5KP  to earn extra 5,000 when you make the purchase.

If you want to spend a little more to have a better ship then I would suggest you to purchase AVANGER TITAN STARTER PACKAGE. This package contains as follows:

• Aeroview Hangar
• 6 Months Insurance (See below)
• Star Citizen Digital Download
• Starting Money: 1,000 UEC

You can get Extra 5,000 UEC using  STAR-ND9F-L5KP  referral code.

After you purchased a ship, you will be able to retrieve your ship.  You will see a text showing you which Hangar your ship is at. Follow the signs and take the elevator to indicated Hangar.

Once you see your glorious ship, you have to find a way inside. Depending the ship you purchased, pilot seat can be accessible from the front, behind or even under the ship if the ship is huge. You can approach the ship and look for a button to open the door.

Basic Ship Controls and Tips

Now you take the comfortable seat of your ship and ready to take off but before that you need to know some important key points about flying in Star Citizen.

• Make sure to get familiar with the ship controls
• A small mistake can cause your ship to explode.
• You can get your ship again as long as you have insurance. (In this case we still have 6 months with starter package)
• You can activate flight console by pressing R key.
• You can increase and decrease engine power with Mouse Scroll button.
• F4 key to third person view.
• Space bar to up
• CTRL key to down
• W A S D to move your ship in corresponding direction.
• Q and E keys to roll your ship
• Q to roll left
• E to roll Right
• N key to toggle landing gear.
• C is for toggling cruise control

There are so many details when it comes to flying in Star Citizen but most important ones are these we listed.

How to Request Take off and open Hangar Doors

• Once you get familiar with the key-binding for flying you have to request a permission to take off.
• Press F11 key
• Go to Friends Tab (Shown in the picture below)
• Lorville Landing Services or it depends where you make the request (they are actually not your friends just some AI)
• Now you can exit the Hangar but check the exit way first.
• You can use mouse wheel to throttle up and down

Once you take off and get away from the city, enjoy the view and learn your ship.  Press Z button to look around in Free look mode.

You can also go to our New Baggage Landing Guide for complete guide and video tutorial.

C is the key for cruise control. You can activate your afterburn with “Left Shift”.

Before we get ready for our first mission, you may want to practice flying as much as possible and learn the keybindings with console visuals.

If you accidentally crash your ship to the buildings around or anywhere else, you may want to continue with Star Citizen Ship repair, refuel and maintenance guide.

You can find more guides in Star Citizen Category. 

FAQ – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What are ship upgrades?

If you want to replace your existing ship instead of buying a new ship, you “only” pay the difference. Upgrades are basically possible from any ship to any more expensive ship. The special feature is that the insurance (see below) is transferred to the new ship. If the ship was part of a package, the remaining conditions of the package remain in effect.

I want to spend some more money. What’s worth it?

If you’re looking to spend “a little” more money, the Avenger Titan is a viable option. This allows you to transport a little more cargo.

What are hangars?

The hangars are small separate areas where you can spawn your ships. They look nice, but they have no other function and are not (currently) anchored in the verse.

What is Insurance?

Insurance is the ship insurance. If your ship somehow explodes, you can issue a claim that will bring back a basic variant of the ship. Any modifications you make to the ship will not be restored. You can buy the insurance later with the in-game currency UEC (certainly also in combos and with extras), but each purchased ship comes with insurance for a certain number of months, which varies depending on the ship, or a (coveted) lifetime -Insurance on it. Furthermore, the developers have guaranteed that there will always be a way to restore a ship purchased with real money. Of course, time will not start running out until the release.

Where can you buy ships outside of the RSI shop (and possibly cheaper)?

There are several options here. A well-known site is star-hangar.com . There is also the subreddit www.reddit.com/r/Starcitizen_trades/ . There you have to confirm your account first, then you can start buying.