So you want to play Space Impossible, but it's... impossible? Never fear, this is a guide from a former newbie who knows your pain. It'll cover just about everything important, and a few non-important things.

Controls
To move your ship, press W. This propels you forwards. You steer left and right with A and D, and back up with S. It will take some getting used to, so just spend some time experimenting with the controls.
You can also do small adjustments with Q and E; they do not change your angle, but are useful if you need to navigate into a narrow space.
An important note: pressing Escape does not pause the game. If you're tabbing between this page and Space Impossible, it's okay if you don't pause it. Nothing can hurt you until we leave the Void. We will discuss the rest of the controls as they are relevant.

Once you feel fairly confident with the controls, we're going mining.


Go left, which is where your first asteroid field should be located. If the mass of little arrows at the side of your screen points a different way, go that way. No matter what, you should encounter your first asteroid shortly.

Once you find an asteroid, position yourself facing towards the asteroid. You will notice that the asteroid is made up of small blocks. To mine a piece, position your mouse over a square of the asteroid and hold down the right mouse button to activate your laser.
Congratulations! You just mined your first piece of rock. To collect it, manuever your spaceship on top of it. Mine three or four more blocks, just to get the hang of it a little more. It's totally normal for the laser to have a quick little cool down every now and then. If you want, mine the whole thing.
Chances are, you encountered a rock asteroid like this. However, you might also have run into another kind.

Chances are that you encountered a rock asteroid. They're the most common in the galaxy. However, there are a few more that do occur in your asteroid field. Fly around until you locate one of each of these:
Keloirit:

Keloirit asteroids are usually quite small like this, but occasionally there are two or three pieces of keloirit in the asteriod. They are a gemstone, not a metal. They are quite rare, so don't fret if you can't find one. In fact, I had to visit a different universe to find this one.

Icesteroid:

Icesteroids are quite useful, as they are a free source of water vapor, and rarely oxygen, hydrogen, and helium. They are notably faster to mine than most asteroids.

Tritanium Asteroid:

Tritanium is the first metal you have easy access to. Like all metals, there is a variant known as Dense Tritanium. The only differences are that it requires less ore to make a Tritanium Sheet, it doesn't stack with Tritanium Ore, and it's slightly rarer.



Within the Void, there is one planetoid. Outside of the Void, there are many. It's clearly distinguished from asteroids;
1. The arrow used to denote its existence is a larger arrow, reserved for more important objects.
2. Upon discovering it, an announcement will appear to the tune of "Brave Captain Omega has discovered a planetoid!"
3. Planetoids are usually made of either metal or rock.
4. They show up on the Star Chart.

Press M to open the Star Chart.

This shows the entire region that you are in, which is currently the Void. If you try to go into the red hashed area, you'll bounce back, showing a tasteful warning message.
The map key is fairly simple. Lighter colored areas have lots of asteroids. Planetoids are shown by that potato-like shape. Stations are shown with that green shape in the middle. Warp Gates are shown with that stylized purple circle. (We're getting there.) If you want to view the star system map, just hit the S button in the corner.

This shows the Star System map. Right now, you only have the Void unlocked as a green exclaimation point, and one other point (for our map, it's the Moon). The green ship shows you where you are, and the home shows where your current set home is.

Direct your ship towards the Newbie HQ; point the front towards the arrow using A and D, and hold W to accelerate. The arrow that points to the Newbie HQ is green. Once you get fairly close, left click the HQ. This is how you check the inventory of ships. Press I to pull up your ship's inventory alongside it.



Going from the top left, the ship's name is in big white letters. You can't change the names of other ships, but you can modify your own by clicking the blue bar the letters are superimposed on.

You can set your home to any station by hitting the button with a house on it. The HQ is already your home, but you can set it again if you want.

The inventory of your own ship is a measly 8 slots. The HQ can hold much more stuff (32 slots), which is very useful when you're saving up on supplies. Stack size varies per item, but some things (lasers, ship kits) do not stack, while others can stack into the hundreds.
While we're here, let's take those repair kits. Just click them over into your inventory!

To the right of your inventory is the ship's layout. On your own ship, you can remove and add components (but not the actual shape of the ship) to upgrade things. We'll discuss this more another time. On most other ships, this isn't an option. You can, however, click and drag to view a larger ship, and zoom with the buttons on the bottom. The small arrow on the side of this only serves to widen this frame.

On the left, at the bottom, is a red button. This lets you disown the station. Don't do this; you'll want the storage.

At the very bottom is a large green button labeled Take Control. You can do this if you really want, but all you'll be able to do as a station is turn. This is much more useful when you've just built a new ship.

We skipped a button: the one labeled Open Store.

There's one more important function that stations have. On the leftmost side of your ship's inventory screen, click the tab with a hammer and a C on it (or press the key C on your keyboard).
This is the crafting screen, and it's terrifying at first.

The five slots are where you put crafting materials. The crafting algorithm only checks these five squares.
When you're crafting something, you can do a few things. You can put all the required items into the squares and check "Show Craftable Only". This will hopefully display the item you want to craft. Alternately, you can search the name, which also works if you don't know how to craft something.
Finally, there are different "labs" for crafting. You can switch between them at the top. You should have three available: the basic "no lab", the mod lab, and the "Isomatrix Framer, Mk 1". Also, a side note: Mk # is used to denote level or quality.
While we're here, let's craft half of our rocks into Silica. To do this, first right-click your stack of rocks. Then, put them down into one of the five squares. If you've done things right, Silica should become available for crafting.

Go ahead and click Silica to craft some, then plop it into your inventory. We'll be selling that!

To open the HQ's shop, just click the Open Store button.

From HQ, by default, you can buy silica, rock, water vapor, and small repair kits, as well as a station kit. Note that they're sold in singles; the number denoted is the total amount that the HQ has in stock. At this point you won't be able to afford any of it, but we're going to remedy that.
Pick up your Silica stack and drop it onto the green box, as shown. It will pop up in the Buy Back box, which means you sold successfully.
Don't get too crazy. Silica isn't worth all that much. We won't be able to buy anything unless you made huge amounts of it. To exit the buy/sell screen, hit Back to Inventory.
Now, exit out of both screens. We're going on a trip, in our favorite rocket ship...

We're just about to get into exploration, but don't go yet.

When you leave the Void, pirate ships will attempt to dissect your ship. This is not as fun as it sounds. With Mk. 1 engines, the default, your ship can't outrun these nasties. Trying to upgrade them is a great idea, but not 100% vital. Use your crafting skills here! For raw materials, you'll need:

• Two units of hydrogen, from Icesteroids
  
• 36 units of Tritanium Ore, or 18 of Dense Tritanium Ore
  
• Your Mk. 1 engines

You should be able to get all these items without leaving the Void. To remove your Mk. 1 engines, pull up your inventory, locate them on the picture of your ship, and remove them. Without these, you're immobile, so get them last.
If your Void has Keliroit, you can also make a Mk. 2 laser. You don't need to worry about upgrading anything else just yet.

Go ahead and navigate your way to the Warp Gate. It's a forbidding swirling hole of black matter, but it's totally safe. Just don't crash into the solid part. Then, click the Open Warp Map button.

This is a version of the Star System map we looked at earlier, but the Warp button is green and clickable. Before you click it, make sure the destination in the upper right corner is set to Asteroid 1, or Moon 1, or something that's not START REGION. If not, set it to that by clicking the white asteroid field.

Then, we warp!

After you've warped, check your arrows for any bright red arrows. There may be none, but if there are some, turn in the opposite direction and fly until they disappear. These are Sixister ships, and should be avoided at all costs. At this stage, direct confrontation is risky.

Once you leave the Void, things get more interesting.
Attacks from space pirates are quite common. If you don't get fast engines, you will be spending your time running away from them. Combat is generally a bad idea at this point.
Throughout your travels, you will encounter shipwrecks and station wrecks. These are harmless, and can be looted for gain. Left-click the wreck to look inside, and pull up your inventory up beside it using I. Using right click, you can also collect the physical station for supplies, but each piece of salvage is worth 1/8 of a sheet, so it's not efficient. Different ships are made of different materials.
Most ships you encounter will not be an immediate threat, unless they are denoted by a red arrow or they fly towards you. In the early game, only Sixister ships (raiders and scouts) fall into this category. Later on, there are more types of ship, with different weapons, but that's a different story.
Neutral ships appear similar to your own. You will frequently encounter other Venture ships, as well as explorers, pioneers, and tradesmen. These will not attack unless they are attacked. Tradesmen lack weapons, and are completely passive. They are constructed out of a later-game metal, which provides a very early source of supreme metal. They also have Mk. 6 engines, which are quite good even into levels 6-7. Of course, this depends on your ethics...

Things happen. Be they provoking a raider or crashing full-speed into a planetoid (don't do it, by the way - it tends to shear half your ship clean off), your ship will eventually become less than 100%. Little cracks and dings will iron out over time, but when a chunk falls off you'll need to fix it.
*Warning - as of Alpha 4, when you repair a piece that overlaps with something else, you will become immobile. Check that there is nothing in your target area.*

After *accidentally* shearing off my laser by ramming a planetoid, I am left with a nub.

First, go into your inventory and select the hopefully present repair kit. To map it to a key (which you'll need to do to use it), bring it to one of the empty slots at the bottom of the screen. I like to choose 0.

Exit your inventory and select the key, then right-click.

You'll notice a diamond shaped selection. Move it around until it overlaps the area you wish to repair, then just click to build. I managed to repair mine just in time to escape the scout!

It's extremely important to note that repair does not replace lost parts, nor does it repair chips. If you lost a laser, like I did, then you'll need to go back to where you lost it, pick it up, and put it back in the slot before you can shoot things. For this reason, I strongly recommend carrying backup engines in the event that you lose one or both; if you have no engines, you can't fly to get the rest of your components. You can carry a backup laser if you wish, but it's not really necessary. A backup reactor is a waste of time, because if your reactor was detonated, your ship is likely definitely now a wreck.
If you find yourself in the curious situation of having no engines, nor backup engines, there is hope for you yet. You will likely still have your thrusters, which you can use to maneuver yourself with Q and E.

You should focus on trying to avoid combat. Unfortunately, most things are faster than you at this stage, so if they catch up with you, battle may be your only option. Preparing beforehand with a game plan is vital, as combat can come suddenly. First, pull up your Inventory.

There are three weak points in your defense. Your engines, your laser, and your bridge component. Identify the location of each of these, and work your plan around defending them.

Sixister ships have identical weak points to yours, but they are located at different points. The laser is located in the bright red block, and the engines are bright blue. The bridges are unmarked. Scouts are faster and less aggressive than raiders, but will summon raiders if they reach you. It is unknown whether they have to get away safely to alert raiders.

The scout (right) is partially damaged, but the laser normally has a full 180* of range. The raider (left) is equipped with a torpedo launcher. Most early raiders are equipped with 180* lasers, but some do have torpedos. This specific ship actually had no torpedoes to fire.
If a ship is approaching you slowly - very slowly - they are likely a raider. Don't get impatient and charge it. Inertia is a tricky thing. If you have anything better than a Mk.1 laser on your ship, simply bean their laser the instant they get into range. If they have torpedoes, this puts dodging into the equation: get as close as possible while not directly in torpedo range, and disassemble them. Quickly. Removing the engines helps, but it's tricky to get directly behind them unless they're fixed onto another ship.
If you see a zippy little ship flying at you, it's a scout. Scouts are generally not very dangerous unless engaged. If you'd prefer to deal with the raider, stay still while the scout approaches you. If you fly at it, it will open fire. Anything that works on raiders will work better on scouts, but because they move much faster it's impossible to not move while fighting them.

Now that you know the bare basics, you can explore some more, get more money, or wait for another guide!