Tutorial : Newbie start guide : X4 Foundations

No one looks to have done a detailed early game starting video in a long long time. This is what I would consider a good start. A fast ship to get around the galaxy is essential to a profitable and fun experience. I believe this start gives a solid structured way for newer players to get a foot hold in the vast expanse of space that is X4.

Included DLC
Split Vendetta
Cradle of Humanity
Tides of Avarice
Kingdoms end

Credits Song
Rise of the protectorate by Alexei Zakharov

Save file :

X4: Foundations is a huge space sandbox simulator that lives and breathes within your gaming system. Thousands of ships and stations trade, mine and produce, all realistically simulated. In this universe, you can grow from being the lone pilot of a fighter ship, to managing a vast empire, commanding your fleets and designing colossal space stations. Transition seamlessly from first-person action, boarding ships and visiting their bridges, to an expansive strategy and management simulation. Choose your own path at your own pace. The decisions are yours. Trade - Fight - Build - Think.

[nepocrates]

I know this is a year old video but just you first 3 minutes explain more to me than many newbie guides do in 15 to 20 minutes.

[TIB]

Me and my friends are still holding our breath, from 2018, for this game to be CooP.

[gravityx]

If it wasn't for this guide, I'd never touch this game again. Thank you so much.

[jasonnchuleft]

Another tip for new players: After about 2h into a new game make sure to deploy satellites at all the Wharfs and Shipyards friendly to you and scan their buy offers for any High demands and shortages. Note them down and check again every few hours. Once you see a pattern you know what the faction owning the station will need to keep the war effort going. Supply them and they'll be able to pump out ships just like in the start of the game. They build stuff and get it blown up, you make a profit, everybody wins. As for why you should wait 2 hours at least: It takes a while for the economy to settle and run through the stored up goods and external supply to kick in.

[mentaldyslexia]

5 minutes in and I already know more about the game than my 2 hours in game

[cuddlebuff]

This is the most comprehensive single guide on X4 out there. Every new player would benefit so much from this. Thank You

[srroome]

I've put hours/months/years into this series since XBTF. I found your stuff through Rimworld and watching you play games is hilarious. I love it. Best tutorial I've seen so far.

Great stuff. aaaand I'll be back for more.

[geekey]

10:38 You actually will run out of oxygen. The Oxygen UI element was a relatively recent addition, but was a mechanic since release... Many of us found out the hard way trying to save some money repairing destroyers.

24:00 Ah Key thing to note about the HQ mission, If you don't have the Boron DLC or are using the Terran starts there are different ways to acquire the HQ. The Boron DLC implemented a replacement for the original mission to get the HQ, which admittedly sped it along. Boso Ta is also voiced by one of the developers.

[OGbrundle]

I finally just started this game after having it in my library forever. This game is OVERWHELMING to say the least, thank you for this guide

[thepacketnarc]

This is truly epic, fantastic quality. Approachable and without a lot of over-explainy min-max things.

[asdfdfggfd]

Thank you for this video, I have been waiting literally for years for someone to make this guide.

[ronw]

Great guide FJ! I have over 200 hours in X4 Foundations and still learned a few useful tips.
One big thing I'll add though is that a Budgeted Start instead of a storyline start keeps you out of a ship you don't like, AND gets you into a very fast travel speed right away. With the budgeted start you can begin in any sector you'd like and everything else is in place with the story states, and you pick from an array of ships only limited by a budget of about 2M.
The Pegasus is fast but has a very weak hull. Here's some highlights of my research:
Takoba: two sheilds, two guns, 7885 cruise speed, superb flight parameters, 1.9M
Pegasus: weak hull and only one shield, only one gun, fast, 8633 travel speed, cheap, 1.7M
Balaur: Great hull strength, many guns!, 6039 travel speed, 2.1M
Perseus: Good hull, two guns, 6869 travel speed, cheap, 1.6M
Chimera: Great hull, guns guns guns, poor flight parameters, 2.1M
Lux: average hull, two guns, 7283 travel speed, cheep, 1.6M
Nimcha: average hull, two shields, one gun, 6142 travel speed, poor flight parameters, 1.8M
Jaguar: average hull, one gun, 6463 travel speed, superb flight parameters, the cheapest, 1M
The cheaper the ship, the more of the budget you can use for other things, but I usually go with the Takoba because of its two shields. Thanks again for this video!

[TormodSteinsholt]

Very good pacing. I started the video, looked down at the duration 45 minutes and thought I would be skipping a lot. But those 45 minutes were so good. This must have taken you a whole day to make. Much appreciated.

[iiiBoneZiii]

Just had to sign in and say that I have watched several start guides, but this one BY FAR is the best one out of all of them. And I just recommended this guide in my Steam review of X4 as well. And of course, Francis John's subsequent guides after this one were very helpful in getting me a great start in my first play through. Thank you, Francis, for your work on these!

[JaittPenguin]

thanks for the video. It encouraged me to came back to X4 after a couple of years. look forward to more

[thezanzibarbarian]

Good video. Even though I've got hundreds of hours _(Thousands if you count X2, 3 and Rebirth with their DLC's.)_ I've not played X4 for 18 months so I'm going to be rusty when I come back _(Probably in the next hour or two.)_ and being 60+, I forget what and how to do things! 8-\\...
But the one thing I found funny, it wasn't for me, was when you land and making sure your ship is in *"Hold Position"* behaviour.
I didn't once.
I needed a break and to make a cuppa tea _(It's an English thing!)_ so landed. Got out of ship and went to the ship trader, or someone to do something. I can't remember. But I forgot to pause the game. When I came back, I spent 10 minutes running around the station looking for my ship _(Maybe it had gone into storage?)_ before going into the map. It had travelled through some 5 or 6 sectors and was hurtling through space heading towards a gate to somewhere...
However. It took twenty plus minutes of me waiting for him to come back. Needless to say, I wasn't happy with my pilot and gave him a good dressing down.

[TheBeardedOG]

Love the tip about holding “o” while in the map view. Glad to see you’re still going to play X4 a bit longer. Watched all your last playthrough. Keep up the great content! 👍

[andrewhope]

This is a stunning start - I have used a variant of this since X4 came out and this gives lots of excellent advice. I do exactly the same going west to find the big battle between the Holy Order of Pontifex and the Argons... I do a slight twist on this to allow me to capture fighters more easily - once I have about the same amount of money as Captain Francis, I will go Anomaly Jumping... You fly into an anomaly (There are 2 in BHS-IV) and you come out at one of the other 30 or so anomaly locations scattered throughout the X-verse. Sometimes you come out in Xenon sectors and have to get back into the anomaly quickly... Then after maybe 20 jumps I will have found quite a few sectors and one near Trinity Sanctum VII where the Alliance Wharf will sell me a NODAN - it's not QUITE as quick as the Pegasus Vanguard but it has more firepower and more survivability.. I then set the Elite to go and map some sectors on it's way back to the battle again and I try and find a Scale plate M4 / M5 to capture which joins the Elite in mapping and looting. I will do this until I can afford a Pegasus and then send that mapping whilst I fly the Nodan - as I can often capture Minotaur raiders.
NOTE: - anything with Minotaur Raider showing is actually a SCALE PLATE pirate disguised and you can capture them -
Capturing a minotaur raider: - if you find one - get up close and scan it when you are within 200m I think is the limit - if you have done that you can see how many people it has on board - and you then start hammering away at it with the Nodans weapons. Just be a little careful as to the weapons it has - if it has plasma they are slow but take all your shields in one hit. - when you get it down to zero shield and less than 87% hull, about every 30 seconds each time you hit with Zero shield, there is a chance some of the pirates will bail - from a complement of 16, they will leave in 2's or 3's and when you get to the final 2, if the hull is not down to less than about 10%, you should capture it - they make good transports for small items being heavily armoured and quite quick for their size.
Happy Landings everyone.

[garrettgutierrez]

I would not recommend to new players to scavenge for trash for the first 45 minutes of the game, just because it might sour them to the game or not comport with the way they want to play. It might be better to tell them their options for how to start a game and let them choose. For example, if they want to jump immediately into the story missions, doing the Alliance Invitation missions (Kingdom End DLC) early on will get them a Mako absolutely for free, which is only slightly slower than the Pegasus. Also some people might want to RP and not buy a ship from a race they don't want to be friendly towards or will be utterly unconcerned with how fast their ship is and will want a heavy fighter so they can start dog fighting immediately. I am 1000% a min-max player but I got a friend started on this game recently and the way they want to play is completely different from me. If I told him "you can spend half an hour shooting criminals outside stations to get friendly with a station" he'd just respond with "guess I'm going to be at war with that faction then!" That said, this was a great video, and even I who has played for 200 hours learned a lot from it.

[MajorDeath]

ive been waiting on this ever since you started playing! cant wait to see what your next Tutorial is about!