Start Here: Your First Steps in Star Citizen
Start Here: Your First Steps in Star Citizen
Star Citizen is huge, ambitious, confusing, beautiful, unfinished, occasionally broken, and somehow still one of the most memorable games you can play.
If you are brand new, it can feel like being dropped into the middle of a city, handed a spaceship, and told, “Good luck, citizen.”
This guide exists to make that first step easier.
The goal is not to teach you every system in Star Citizen. That would be madness. Glorious madness, but madness all the same. Instead, this guide will walk you through the early journey in a practical order: getting the game, choosing a starter ship, spawning for the first time, gearing up, flying, completing your first contracts, dying, recovering, and learning where to find help.
By the end of this guide series, you should feel comfortable enough to leave the spaceport, complete basic missions, recover when things go wrong, and start finding your own way around the ‘verse.
What Is Star Citizen?
Star Citizen is a space sim set in a large shared universe where players can fly ships, haul cargo, mine, salvage, fight, explore, run missions, trade, crew up with others, or simply get distracted by something shiny and lose three hours to nonsense.
It is also still in active development.
That means you will run into bugs. Elevators may betray you. Ships may explode for reasons known only to the server gods. Missions may break. NPCs may stand on chairs like they are protesting furniture. This is normal.
The trick is learning the difference between:
- Something you are doing wrong
- Something the game explained badly
- Something that is simply bugged
This guide will help with the first two. SCANZ can help you laugh through the third.
Who This Guide Is For
This guide is for you if:
- You are completely new to Star Citizen
- You bought a starter pack and have no idea what to do next
- You spawned in a city and got lost immediately
- You do not know what gear to buy
- You are scared to fly your ship out of the hangar
- You tried a mission and everything went sideways
- You are returning after a long break and the game has changed again
You do not need to know the lore. You do not need expensive ships. You do not need to master combat. You do not need to understand every system on day one.
You just need a starting path.
What This Guide Will Teach You
The SCANZ new player guide is designed as a step-by-step pathway.
You can read it from start to finish, or jump to the section you need.
The guide covers:
- Choosing your starter ship
- Creating your character
- Choosing your first home location
- Understanding your first spawn
- Using your hangar, inventory, and MobiGlas
- Getting around cities and spaceports
- Buying essential starter gear
- Equipping armour, weapons, tools, and supplies
- Retrieving your ship
- Taking off safely
- Using quantum travel
- Landing at stations
- Completing your first cargo contract
- Using clinics and setting your respawn
- Trying your first bounty contract
- Running your first bunker mission
- Understanding death, gear loss, and ship claims
- Using helpful tools and community resources
That sounds like a lot, but you do not need to learn it all at once.
Take it one page at a time.
The Most Important Beginner Advice
Before we get into the details, here are a few things every new player should know.
You Only Need One Game Package
To play Star Citizen, you need a game package that includes the Star Citizen digital download.
You do not need to buy a fleet. You do not need to buy the biggest ship. You do not need to spend more than you are comfortable with.
A good starter ship is enough to begin.
Almost everything else can be earned, rented, borrowed, crewed, or worked toward in-game.
Start in Stanton
If you are new, Stanton is usually the best system to start in.
It has major cities, stations, missions, shops, hospitals, and enough structure to help you learn the game without immediately being thrown into the deep end.
Other systems can be exciting, but they may be harsher, less forgiving, or less beginner-friendly.
Learn the basics first. Then go get yourself into trouble.
Do Not Wear Your Best Gear While Learning
You will die.
Not because you are bad, but because everyone dies in Star Citizen. Sometimes to enemies. Sometimes to gravity. Sometimes to doors. Sometimes to their own confidence.
Early on, wear basic gear you can afford to lose.
A simple helmet, undersuit, armour, rifle, ammo, med pens, food, drink, and a multi-tool will get you started.
Save the fancy stuff for when you understand how death and recovery work.
Ask Questions
Star Citizen does not always explain itself well.
If you are stuck, ask for help. SCANZ exists for exactly that kind of thing.
Someone has probably already made the same mistake, exploded in the same hangar, lost the same cargo, or spent twenty minutes trying to find the same tram.
You are not alone. You are just new.
There is a difference.
How To Use This Guide
This guide is designed to be read in order.
If you are completely new, start with the next page and work your way through.
If you already know the basics, jump ahead to whatever you need.
Each guide page focuses on one part of the early game experience. The idea is to keep things simple, practical, and useful without drowning you in every possible detail.
Star Citizen is best learned by doing.
Read a section, try it in-game, come back when something explodes.
Recommended First Path
If you want the simplest route, follow this order:
- Choose a starter ship
- Create your character
- Choose a home location
- Spawn in and learn your hangar
- Buy basic gear
- Retrieve your ship
- Learn to take off
- Quantum travel to a station
- Complete a simple cargo mission
- Set your respawn location
- Try basic combat or bunker missions
- Learn how death and ship claims work
Once you can do those things, you are no longer helpless.
You may still be confused. You may still be lost. You may still explode.
But you will know how to recover, and that is the real beginning.
Welcome to the ‘Verse
Star Citizen can be rough at first, but it also creates the kind of stories most games never touch.
Your first clean landing. Your first successful delivery. Your first rescue. Your first terrible decision. Your first “why is my ship spinning?” moment. Your first night flying with a group of people who make the whole thing click.
That is where the game starts to make sense.
So take your time, ask questions, bring snacks, and do not trust elevators too much.
Welcome to the ‘verse.
Welcome to SCANZ.