Contract

The Contract screen as seen in the game

Contracts are jobs that players can accept to earn money. Aside from a few story missions, contracts are procedurally generated from a collection of mission types. Two contracts are automatically accepted at the start of the game - 'Make your new ship ready for flight' and a sector objective to destroy enemy forces somewhere in the first sector.

Story Contracts

Make your new ship ready for flight

This contract is automatically accepted at the start of every game.

• A Reactor, generating power.
• Engines capable of propulsion.
• Test the engines from the TACTICAL screen
• Life support to make the interior habitable
• An FTL Drive capable of Hyperspace jumps
• Jump to the marked destination

The trouble with Tiddlets

For information about the Tiddlet delivery bug, see The trouble with Tiddlets#Bugs.

Upon entering the second sector, the player is hailed by a Tiddlet Breeder looking to transport 8 Tiddlets and their transport boxes to the end of the sector. They are sensitive and are prone to dying of shock when traveling through Hyperspace for longer than 12 seconds.

All of the Tiddlets are supposed to be female, but it turns out that isn't true. During the first Hyperspace jump after accepting the mission, they multiply and continue to do so until the end of the mission. The route through the sector requires making many jumps, resulting in an ever-increasing Tiddlet population.

The first jump also results in another contract. If not accepted, the player receives a hail from a Shady Buyer after the second jump. The buyer offers to buy the Tiddlets from you for a higher price.

This contract awards Humanitarian experience, two long range Hyperspace Sensor prototype, and $400,000 if completed with the Tiddlet Breeder. If delivered to the Shady Buyer, it instead awards Criminal experience and $10,000 per Tiddlet.

Special missions

Analyse Anomaly

Analyse mission progress

Collect data on the expanding void. You will be provided with Hyperspace Sensors that must be installed on the ship's hull. During FTL jumps, these sensors collect data. You will receive $1000 per data at each magnitude of collection: 10, 100, 1000, etc.

Evacuation

Create a ship capable of holding planetary citizens looking to escape the void. Pick up as many evacuees as possible and bring them to new worlds in other sectors. You will receive money for each magnitude of evacuees picked up.

Nomad

Design a self-sufficient ship that will allow you to continue to run from the void forever. Bring as many people with you as possible and have them live permanently in your fleet. You will receive money for each magnitude of permanent residents in your fleet.

Procedural Contracts

Courier mission

Cargo must be delivered to a specific system in a particular sector. This contract may or may not come with a time limit. The cargo is delivered via a cargo shuttle to the player's ship upon accepting the contract. The cargo is then retrieved via cargo shuttle when the contract is turned in.

Cargo lost, delivered late, or delivered to the wrong location will be deducted from the payment. The supply boxes from failed Delivery contracts will remain on your ship until the next cargo shuttle brings contract supplies.

To abort a courier mission: this can currently only be done by editing the save file. As always, make a backup copy first! Look for any mission where Type = Delivery and Accepted = true; cross-ref AssignedLayerId to figure out which layer (ship) it's assigned to. Use the Items list on the mission to find them in the Objects list on the assigned ship and delete them before deleting the Accepted, AssignedLayerId, and Items lines on the mission.

Urgent passenger transport request

Passengers must be transported to a specific system in a particular sector. This contract may or may not come with a time limit. The civilians are delivered via a cargo shuttle to the player's ship upon accepting the contract. The passengers are then retrieved via cargo shuttle when the contract is turned in.

Passengers lost, delivered late, or delivered to the wrong location will be deducted from the payment. The passengers from failed Transport passengers contracts will remain on your ship until the next cargo shuttle brings contract supplies.

A player docking with a Stranded Ship

Rescue civilians

The docking view

A ship has become stranded or damaged, and its crew must be rescued by docking with the ship. This contract may or may not come with a time limit. If it does, the engines on the damaged ship explode when the timer ends, killing the remaining crew onboard.

To dock with a ship, the player must be in Tactical view and must line up their docking port with the docking port of the stranded ship. A ship's docking port appears as two diamond-shaped indicators that must overlap the target ship's diamond-shaped indicators. When done correctly, the docking port extends and connects to the target ship.

Once the civilians are onboard, they must be delivered to a starbase or colony, where they will depart the ship via cargo shuttle. Any civilians not reaching the cargo shuttle safely will be deducted from the payment.

Combat

Hostile ships are harassing civilian ships in a system and must be taken care of. The threat can be a small group of fighters, a fleet of ships with fighters, or a large weapons platform.

Fighters are small and agile, dealing small amounts of damage very quickly. Ships have similar capabilities to average player ships. Weapons platforms are large and slow, with armor and heavy weaponry.

If overwhelmed, hostile forces may attempt to retreat. Ships that successfully retreat will be deducted from the payment.

Asteroid mining

Tilium is used to create the FTL Charges for evacuation ships to travel away from the void. The Tilium Ore must be mined from an asteroid belt and, in some cases, smelted into Refined Tilium. The Tilium Ore or Refined Tilium must then be taken to a trading post for delivery via cargo shuttle.

Asteroid belts may contain hostiles or be in the path of a meteor shower, requiring ship defenses to perform the mining successfully. It is a good idea to review the available Combat contracts to see if any are in the same system, as that may indicate the level of hostile activity to expect.

Clear dangerous minefield

A dangerous minefield is present in a sector. You must travel to the system and destroy the minefield before pirate forces arrive.

Weapons are required to accept this contract.

History

• Update 1.rc2: Introduced.
• Update 2.rc1: Certain Contracts require a minimum Rating in a particular category.
• Update 2.rc1: Contracts in systems where you already have existing contracts are highlighted with a light blue diamond.
• DEMO1: Removed "Provision the science vessel" and "OPEN CONTRACT: JUSTICE" contracts. Added "The trouble with Tiddlets" contract.
• DEMO2B: Many changes. See Version History.
• DEMO3A: Added "Clear dangerous minefield" contract.
• Alpha1A: Added "Take permanent refugees into your care" and 2 "Sector Objective" contracts ("Destroy all hostile forces" and "Evacuate stranded civilians"). Renamed "Open Contracts" to "Special Missions."