This is going to be my take on what I think every new player in Odyssey should do for their first mission to maximize fun and profit and exposure to mechanics while minimizing repeatedly dying.
First, PLAY SOLO. Right now, the system we're all confined to is a mess. The reason so many people are getting frustrating results is because of the game's inability to handle multiple player-induced states at settlements at once. If someone beats you to your destination, they can cause it to be in a default hostile "alarm" state by their actions and the NPCs will be in a "kill on sight" state, even if you have legitimate clearance for the facility (frustrating). Also, you might get "landing locked" by someone whose wandered away and their taxi has arrived in the meantime and is just sitting on the pad waiting for them to come back and disembark. For the first mission, go solo (or private if you have friends). This assures that the mission location is in the state its meant to be before you arrive.
- Now go to the Weapons/Items vendor. Buy several grenades, several health kits and several power packs. These are just common sense utilities that preserve your life. Don't worry, you will make this money back.
- In any Starport, find a console/terminal and go to Missions > Operations. Find a "Power up the Settlement" that is danger level 0 (top right corner); look for one that is a "Industrial" "Genetic" "Chemical" something or other. These industrial/science settlements give great loot.
- Accept the mission, book your taxi, take off and enjoy (if possible) the ride.
- Power up the settlement. Look for the big building with PWR stamped on the side. This is the fusion reactor. If you cannot find it (maybe it's dark), you can use your minimap to find ANY terminal at the base. Use your Power Tool (key-binded to "3" by default) , then again transfer some to the terminal, search the terminal for the power plant and hit [Spacebar] select on it to make that location your waypoint. Once inside, place the power regulator into the housing and toggle the power on at the nearby console. Mission Complete. Right?
Wrong. Here is where you're going to make money. You see, you've been entrusted with Lvl 3 clearance at this site ( a prerequisite for getting into the PWR building), which means all the doors will be open to you all over the site. The dorms, the industrial, the storage buildings…but most importantly…the Command Building.
5) Head for the command building (everything should be lit up now so that'll be easier; if not, use a console). Inside there will be two sections Operations and Security. Head to both security and operations command centers, turn of ALL THE AVAILABLE TERMINALS – Turrets, Point Defense, Scanning, but most importantly: ALARMS. Deactivate them all. Now the settlement is wide open for you and you can take whatever you want. Fill up your inventory with whatever you can get.
6) When you inventory is full of goods, call a shuttle (hold Q for your quick menu and choose Apex from the list on the left to summon a taxi to the location). When the taxi arrives, go to the blue light ring, hit [E] to Board then select [Manage Inventory]. Store everything you've just looted. It's now safe. Even if you die, it's safely aboard the shuttle and can be sold. This is guaranteed profit.
7) Continue looting. Use the terminals around the site to find and open locked crates and lockers requiring codes. If you use [spacebar] to target a specific one as a mission objective, you don't have to remember the codes. The code will be prompted when you arrive at the crate/locker to interact with it. Still, if you want to be most efficient, get a piece of scrap paper and just jot down the codes that way. This is worth your time because the good loot is inside the locked containers (avg. 2000 / item vs 200 / item in unlocked crates). Additionally keep your eyes out for small data terminals mounted on the walls. You can download valuable data from these without any repercussions (because of step 5).
8) Big Score Time. Remember in step 5 I had you turn off all the settlement security and defenses. Well, now you find out why. If you're in an industrial site, go to one of the big industrial buildings. Inside will be machines and such. Occasionally (usually 1 or 2 per industrial building) there will be machines with an interactable sample console. You will toggle them open, and very slowly (takes about 3 minutes) the progress bar on the screen will progress until the cylinder on the side opens revealing loot. Sometimes these are empty, but when they're full they can have awesome loot inside (I had one sample canister worth 100k itself). Now if you skipped step 5 and you open one of these sample machines, alarms would sound all over the settlement and ALL HELL WOULD BREAK LOOSE. Drop ships with dozens of commandos would descend upon you and b-line for the sample console and anyone at the site will be killed on sight. But because you follow my instructions and turned off alarms, you're now free to pilfer these valuables without causing a ruckus. Call and return to your shuttle as often as needed.
9) When you've scoured the settlement, return to your ship and return to the mission station and turn in your mission (probably like 200k in financial rewards). Then visit the bartender and sell off all of the goods you've accumulated in your inventory and magic-ship-storage.
10) Buy yourself the new suit and all the weapons you can carry. For this, I recommend 1) Rocket Launcher + 1) Laser Pistol. This seems to be the best TTK combo from my experience, though you'll need to practice with both.
11) Go back to Open and show off.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/mim6c8/odyssey_first_mission_guide/
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