The developers have made it really easy to start with nothing in the new 7.0 update.

1: Use custom game start (budgeted)
2: Remove everything. Cash, scanner, Repair tool.
3: Change starting ship to "NO". This will put you in a spacesuit.
4: In the universe section, be sure to put yourself in a sector that is friendly, ideally close to a station.
5: (Optional) Put yourself between the two sides of the highway

6: Start the game and open the map. Find a passing ship. Use Comm. Ask for help.
7: Wait while the ship flies over to you. It will come to about 200 meters, flip upside down and give you docking permission.
8: Dock with the ship. You are now safe.

9: The next thing you have to do depends on where you are. If you started the game close enough to a station that it is on your map then you can ask the pilot to bring you there. If you didn't then you'll have to wait for the pilot to fly around a a bit until he lands. You only get ONE change to ask him to bring you to a specific station so don't waste it.

This is why you should put yourself between the highway lanes. When you first start, ride the highway until you discover a station on the map. Probably the best place will be either Argon Prime near the wharf or Hatikvah's Choice 1 near the trading station. Once you are close to the station you want, jump off the highway and call for help.

Guide to starting with nothing in X4 foundations

What does starting with nothing mean?

No money, no ship, no inventory items, no information, not even a repair laser on your spacesuit

There are two ways to do this and actually start the game.

If you set up such a start with the custom start menu and put your character in a part of space where they can not dock then your character will die no matter what because you will always spawn in space in the spacesuit too far from a station and even if you could get to a station, you can’t dock.

Side note: the developers need to add a way for a character in a spacesuit to send out a distress SOS and get picked up by any friendly nearby ship or brought to the nearest station.

Another side note: The devs also need to add a way for the player to book passage to another station when they don’t have a ship.

1: The same as above but you put your character in a sector of space where they can dock. It will still be extremely challenging because you will spawn a minimum of 35km away from any station. If you are careful in spawn location and put your character right on top of where the game wants to spawn a particular station, then the game engine moves the station 35km away. If you have no EV thrusters then you will die. The EV can only go max 8 meters per second. Do the math and you find out that even if you immediately find the station and use max speed to get there, you will still die.

Or will you?

At first I assumed that the automatic death of a guy who spawns with no ship must mean that giving you that option in the custom game start menu was a mistake by the devs but I decided to keep trying until I could make it happen and get to safety.

The thing that really kills the player is the lack of speed. So how can I get speed? The answer came from the opening of X-Rebirth amazingly enough. I put my character right next to the highway and tried to get to the station where I could get the free ship from the HAT plot. However, that station is still just too far away from the highway. I needed a station that was close enough to the highway for me to cover the 35km and get off with enough time to get docked.

The wharf in Argon Prime likes to spawn on different sides of the highway but always very close. So I set my new character to spawn right between the highway lanes. That would push the station to 35km away and a few times I tried this it pushed the station away from the highway. However, after repeated attempts I instead pushed the station just a bit further up the highway. I got to the highway (and got an achievement for it amazingly enough) in the EV and jumped off right outside the station. The 35km was now only 9km.

With only 9km to cross I was able to get to the station and dock. I sort of feel like I should get an achievement for that but nope.

2: Anyway, if you don’t want t ride the highway in just an EV then how do you get to rock bottom without dying and restarting over and over?

You have to do a custom start with with no money, no info, and no inventory BUT you have to have a ship and one mine. (Figured out where I’m going with this yet?) You start with your one ship and one mine and then you get really close to a station. You launch the mine. The fly away just a little bit. Then you fly back to the mine and get your ship blown up. If you are close enough to the station then you will be able to dock before you run out of oxygen.

Congratulations, you are now at rock bottom and have a long road ahead to get back to even the young gun status. But now what? How do you get the game to start and have fun? And why isn’t there a, ahem, “dance” club on the station? Or a place to sleep? Or a place to share a bed? Ahem, I mean, uh, forget that last part. Anyway …

Well, if you are on a wharf you will be able to buy a ship and then be right back at young gun status. How? All you have to do is make sure you docked at the wharf after you blew your ship up. Eventually criminals or attackers will create drops around the wharf. Get into the space suite and just hang out by the door of the dock and use your magnet to bring the drops to you. You’ll eventually have all the money you need. You might also be able to pick up a patrol mission and that pays well. It will take some time.

If there is no wharf then, Ok, this is the really hardcore start. You have to get to a wharf somehow. That means you have to become a stowaway. Find a transport ship, get in it, and wait for the ship to take off. Don’t get in a combat ship because once they leave they NEVER ever dock again. They stay in space until they are blown up in combat. Get on some kind of cargo ship and let it take you to another station. If it isn’t a wharf then stay on it. If it goes back and forth between two stations then find another one. You have to be quick because cargo ships land and take off again almost instantly.

Hitchhiking from station to station will take a long time and even finding a ship that will leave the sector will take a long time. Eventually you will find yourself at a wharf. Once there, just hang out until drops give you enough money to buy a ship. Even before buying a ship you can accelerate how much money you have by buying upgrades to your spacesuit. Once it is upgraded you can do scanning and repairing while you’re floating around waiting for drops. Just remember to go inside before you run out of air and then go back out.

This takes too long! How can I do this faster?

I’ll be honest, I got tired of waiting to have enough money to buy a ship. After one patrol mission (which I was lucky to get) I upgraded my suit. After using the suit to EV for a bit I noticed that my max speed with thrusting was now 35 meters per second. I did some math and I figured out what I had to do.

I did an EV out from the Argon wharf over to the highway. I took the highway to HAT Choice 1. I got off the highway right outside the trading station where I can get the first HAT mission. With so much more speed for the suit I was able to make it and dock. Then I just go and do the mission and I got a free ship.

Getting the Sentinel this way made me appreciate the ship a lot more. When I did the young gun start I put a lot of time into upgrading the starter Vanguard fighter and didn’t care about the Sentinel. I sort of felt like it was too big a reward for the simple cargo mission I was given. But when I think about it, both ships were free and I actually did more to earn the Sentinel than the Vanguard. Now that the Sentinel is my first ship and I had to do all of that to get it, I cherish this ship.

Anyway, I’m curious if anyone else has ever tried to do a start like this and how it went.