This game only has 1 game start. It's a simple game compared to later installments: The story is short, most of your time will be spent generating money so you can upgrade your ship and xenon will be attacking you constantly. You can not outrun them until you upgrade your engines 3 times. You can not kill them yet. Avoid them. Xenon always show up as hostile. Pirates don't unless you talk to them.
You need to upgrade your ship to complete the game. You can only fly 1 ship. The expansion pack X: Tension allows you to fly multiple ships and create an army. It leans more into the sandbox playstyle. This game is more linear in what you can do, but the expansion takes place after this game. So it's best to complete this game's story first.

The start of the game is a great tutorial while also being a great opener to the story.
After the tutorial, you start the game lost in an unknown part of space with only 100 credits to your name thanks to a stranger being kind to you. You do not have to pay him back but I did. Pay him back as soon as you have some spare change. We will be staying in this sector (Seizewell) until we can no longer make profit or have at least 18000cr. The first thing to do is to sell the shield the teladi captain gave you at the teladi space equiment dock. All your ship upgrades will be bought at an equipment dock. Certain upgrades can only be bought at specific equipment docks.
Go there, sell the shield and buy SETA. But be careful!! You will die if you are shot even once without any shields!!
You can only save the game at space stations (you can not save the game at your own space stations) by buying salvage insurance for 10cr. Some space stations do not sell salvage insurance (shipyards do not sell it).
SETA will allow us to fast forward time up to 10x; making travel time much faster by pressing j. The game is unplayable without it.
Fly around and discover all the stations in the sector. The game will not tell you which stations are which until you discover them. All the stations have a default logo on the map until discovered. Target them with t to discover them (you need to be close to it).
After you've done that, now we can make some money. First, we need to buy some energy cells from a solar power plant and sell them to any station that needs them. Most stations need energy sells apart from a select few. The best price to buy them is for 5-10cr; anymore than that isn't worth it. The best price to sell them is for 12+cr. Just look for stations that are running low on energy cells. You can see if they are by targeting them with t and pressing i. You won't be able to see the price they are willing to buy them for until you buy the trading system extension. You won't know the price they are willing to buy them until you dock. (or you can just guess based on their current stock). Right now our cargo space is very bad but we can upgrade it at any trading station. It's expensive though!
All you need to do is fly to a solar power plant, press t to target it and then press c. Ask for docking persimmon. Now fly inside. Don't go faster than the green line or you won't be able to dock. You'll crash and die. Press a to go faster and z to go slower.

If you can afford it, you can buy teladianium and sell it to flower farms for a tasty profit or you can buy nostrop oil and sell it to the chip plants (there's one in greater profit). These are the best money making wares at the beginning of the game.

Once you reach 18000cr, its best to buy a solar power plant and place it in greater profit next to the crystal factory. Space Stations can be bought at the Teladi Shipyard in Seizewell.
Weirdly, you can not buy ships here. You can only buy them once you dock at any of your factories. You need to hire a transporter to place your station. There's a Teladi Albatross in Seizewell. You just need to find it. It shows up as a grey rectangle on the map. (You can buy a 2d map called a Tactical Naviagation Sytem for 500cr. Press n to activate it. Its very helpful and better than the default map). To release your ship from the transporter, you need to select the transporter using t and use comms to tell him to drop it. It'll spawn where you are facing.
Now, you need to deliver the crystal to the plant yourself as the developers didn't allow you to buy traders for the plant. Balance issues. It is a great money making factory for now. I usually leave 50,000cr in all my stations except my Solar Power Plant and Chip Plant. I take all the money from my Solar Power Plant since you can't hire Freighters and I leave 500,000cr in my chip plant since it needs tons of resources.
So, fill the Solar Power Plant up with crystals (500 should do), set the price to 8cr and wait for the money to pour in.

The next station you should build is a Teladianium Foundry in Seizewell. It costs 14400cr. Buy it once you get 25000cr as you need to buy some freighters for your station and it needs some starting money to buy energy cells (which you can give it once docked). 15000cr should be good starting money. Freighters can be hired when you dock at your space station. They cost 10800cr each. The price of your factories wares should be somewhere between below the average but the above the minimum. Its a balance. Always undercut the competition.

If you have any spare change, buy two 5mw shields from the teladi space equipment dock in Seizewell. If you can't afford it, get a 1mw shield instead. They are bad but will stop you from dying instantly if shot. 5mw are the best until you are a millionaire.
Our ship can only have two lasers and two shields and since you can't fly any other ships, you are stuck with this limitation.

If you have nothing better to do, you should go to Paranid Prime once you have Alpha PA Cannons and two 5mw shields. Once there, kill some pirates or xenon to raise your rep with them in order to dock at their stations. Make sure you press c to make the pirates hostile. Otherwise, you get no rep. Once you get Gamma PA Cannons and 5mw shields, you can kill almost any small ship. Only the paranids sell the docking computer at their equipment dock. It saves so much time. It only costs 10800cr. Once you have it, all you need to do is target a station with t and press d to dock immediately.

You can make your ship go faster and turn better if you are willing to spend the cash at a pirate base. Only pirates can upgrade your ship's speed. There is a pirate base in company pride. The only problem is it's very expensive to do this. You only really need 12 engine tunings and 5 rudder tunings.

Your next station should be a Sun Oil Refinery in Seizewell. Buy two if you can. After this, buy a silicon mine and place it on a silicon asteroid. You'll need the mineral scanner to find the asteroid with the best yield. Press t to target the asteroid and then press i to see the yield. The better the yield, the better the production. I placed mine in Seizewell. There's some silicon asteroids with 26 yield in there. Just place your ship next to the asteroid and tell your transporter to drop the mine. The mine will spawn where the asteroid is.
The chip plant is your next factory. I placed mine in Seizewell. Once you own this, you will be a millionaire. Give the factory 500000cr and watch the money pour in. Don't worry. It's a lot, yes. But you will triple your money.

If you need time to go by, just fly upwards in a sector and activate SETA. Go somewhere else for 30 mins and return. Fly back towards the middle of the sector and leave for another 30 mins. Once you get back, a good amount of time will have past in the game.
You need to do this so your factories have time to generate money. You can not park your ship and press SETA. The game always activates your engines once SETA is active. The Ecliptic Projector is good for this. Buy it once you can. Press F5 to activate it. It displays a plane across the sector so you can see the jump gates and the sector's middle position better.

Yes. I highly recommend you get the best lasers and shields if you want to attempt mission 2 and onwards. You can then solo the missions. No help required. Mission 1 requires at last 1 hornet missle to complete.
1) Dunne's Log
To start the story, go find the goner temple in CloudBase South West. They will tell you to find an asteroid. The asteroid is in Chins Clouds. The asteroid is randomly placed. You will have to find it yourself; no-one can help you. You need a mineral scanner to find it. Once found, blow it up with a hornet missle to recover Dunne's log. Its a metal box. You need to pick it up like cargo. When you do, a cool cutscene will play. Then go back and talk to the religious people again.
2) Find the Jump Gate to Earth
Report to the argon destroyer in argon prime. Now report to Argon 1 (a carrier).
They tell you, the xenon are preparing an attack. We need to strike first. The jump gate to earth is in xenon territory. Can you find it? Spoiler!!! Its in xenon sector 6. Once you do, report back to Argon 1. If you want, you can ask for the help from all factions to fight the xenon. This requires you to farm rep for all species. Just shoot some pirates and xenon in any of their sectors to raise rep with them all.
3) Destroy the Xenon Power Plants
Argon 1 gives you a mission. I hope you upgraded your ship with all those millions from your chip plant because you need to destroy 6 xenon power plants. You can get help from the other species. The power plants are in xenon sector 1.
4) Destroy the Xenon M0 Mother Ship
Argon 1 gives you a new mission. Oh, ok. Not hard at all. Its in xenon sector 8. The mothership is immortal until you destroy all its laser towers.
4a) Destroy the Xenon Shipyard (optional)
A self-imposed challenge. Can you do it? Of course you can!
5) Escort Argon 1
Yes, this game has an escort mission. Yes, argon 1 is very slow. Kill all the xenon along the way!
The 125mw shields you get as a reward are nice but if you already have the best lasers, the other reward is useless! But at least you beat the game! Congratulations!

And that's it. Not long. Hard but short.

X: Tension does not have a story. You do play as the main character from this game but only the opening contains any real lore.
Basically, you are still stuck in this part of the universe. You can not return to earth. Your ship is dismantled to unlock its secrets and to see if they can repair it. They pass you a new ship. Go create a new life for yourself.
If you want to continue the main story of the x universe, go play X2.

Lasers:

Missles:

Shields:

Software:

Space Equipment Docks:

Pirate Bases:
Every faction has a pirate base somewhere in their territory.
Warning! Pirate bases can be destroyed and will respawn in a random sector so pirate bases can be in different locations depending on RNG. But here are some common places they might be.

For convenience! How much does it cost to upgrade your ships speed? It gets more expensive each time you improve your ship.

Watch this let's play that helped me!


Read the guide provided to you by the developers. It can be found in the game folder. It's called EN_Walkthrough.txt. But be warned, its full of errors.