Most likely, your first captain will be given a chance to choose an Ambition. You'll be given a goal of retiring rich or finding your father's bones or some such rot. Isn't that great? Ignore the Ambition entirely. Even extremely experienced players would be hard-pressed to accomplish an Ambition on their first captain. For a new player, it's virtually impossible, even in Merciful Mode, and there's really no point. Don't saddle yourself with such tremendous expectations early on.

Your real starter goals are:

• get a feeling for how things work in the Neath (the game's setting)
  
• get a vague idea of approximately where ports are (island locations are somewhat, but not entirely, random)
  
• get a feel for how far fuel and supplies will get you
  
• figure out where you can get things, and where those things can be brought for personal profit
  
• eventually, get better Lodgings and an Ironclad Will!
  
• and a Scion is nice too.

If you're lucky and careful, you'll be able to get a Will and better Lodgings on your very first captain. If you do, I salute you! If you don't, and are instead eaten or something, I still salute you! You are being daring. Make another captain, and pay close attention to that Legacy screen, it shows what can and can't be passed to the next captain, as well as some vague hints about how to find "Legacy" items - permanent bonuses you can eventually acquire that'll benefit all your captains! (You still shouldn't try to accomplish an Ambition.)

Getting a Legacy item or three should be your next goal after you've started to get the hang of the game and gotten swanky lodgings. Attempt an Ambition only when you're feeling awesome and confident. Ambitions are incredibly hard by design.

Pay attention to the Admiralty, they're going to be your best friends! Usually. The more unique ports you visit on a voyage, the more the Admirality will reward you when you come back to London, so be like a bee, buzzing from port to port and slurping up the sweet honey of opportunities (and taking mental, or even written, notes about what's there). Do what the Admiralty wants! Usually.

You may notice that Wolfstack Exchange has lots of neato trade goods for sale, and this might tempt you to try buying some stuff to trade away later. Please don't, at least not near the beginning. Buying and selling trade goods from the markets is not generally profitable unless you have a big, spacious cargo hold. Forty units is not a big, spacious cargo hold. You have room to cart around special requests and not much else. Load up on fuel instead (and, of course, the tomb-colonist). You need much more fuel than supplies.

When you return to London, make sure to carouse in Wolfstack Docks. You could encounter romance! Romance is a very good thing and you want to see it all the way through with at least one captain.

Before long you'll see things you can fight! That doesn't mean you should! Don't fight things with your starter ship unless you can kill those things before they hit you. Your starter ship really does not have the hull integrity for punishment to be affordable, and most fights are not worth the bother until you're properly equipped. To avoid fights, turn your light off and sneak around the enemy, preferably behind them. It's pretty easy.

Sometimes you might want to turn your light off even if you aren't trying to hide. Keeping your light on burns fuel at a pretty high rate, even if your engine isn't running! You will definitely use less fuel if you keep your light off. Unfortunately, you will also gain Terror faster, and it'll be harder to register new landmasses and such as being discovered. It's one of those things you'll have to work out! I think it's worse to run out of fuel than it is to get really high Terror, though ideally you don't want either of those things to happen.

You'll use less supplies if you have less crew, but some events can kill your crew, and if your crew is less than half maximum, your ship will be forced to run at half speed. Then you'll actually use more supplies because trips will take longer, and you'll get really bored, and be easy to kill if you get in a sea-battle. So be careful.

Outside London, many places have a "harbour provisioners" shop that sells fuel and supplies. Don't buy from these places unless you absolutely have to. It bears repeating: don't buy from these places unless you absolutely have to. Harbour Provisioners causes lots of economic misery for unprepared newbies who aren't paying enough attention (I used to be one, so don't feel bad). They sell fuel and supplies for 20 echoes and 30 echoes respectively, 10 echoes higher than in London. They're like last-chance supply depots and they're exploitative and horrible and they'll make it very very hard to accumulate money if you rely on them. This is why, when you're just starting out, you want to fill your hold up with fuel and supplies in London, and not waste precious space on trade goods. In your initial explorations, you'll probably end up forced to use these shops at some point anyway, but your goal is to keep it to an absolute minimum so you don't go broke.

There are a few ports outside London that sell fuel and/or supplies more cheaply than Harbour Provisioners. Some very rare few places have prices even lower than in London. Find these places, identify them, cherish them. Plan your routes around them. They will be important supply depots for exploring further away from London. This will be especially important for fuel. Fuel is life. Life is fuel.

You'll sometimes see opportunities to spend money to take shore leave. You should almost never do this unless your Terror is getting extremely high. Shore leave is a bit of a desperation move.

Capital! I mean... good.

(This part is a little spoilerish.) First of all, if a rough-looking individual suddenly handed you a large sum of money in London (1000 echoes to be precise), which frequently happens to new players, pay very close attention to what he wants you to do with the money. Very unpleasant things can happen to you if you don't do what he wants. Suffice it to say you might not be able to just blow the money on guns. If the stress is cramping your style, don't be afraid to say "no" when you get the chance. Refusal is merely disappointing. Failure is dangerous.

More powerful engines burn more fuel, but they get you there faster, and it partially evens out. You'll lose less supplies and you'll be doing more in less time, so it's a good purchase for the ambitious captain. The downside is that with very fast engines, you'll get to ports too quickly and not have Something Awaiting You. If that happens, you might want to just turn off your lights and sit in port without docking, and Something Awaits You will pop up eventually. You'll lose a little food, though, and it's a little boring.

In general, when thinking about purchases with your early captains, you should know what worldly possessions can and cannot be passed on to your next captain. If you have an Ironclad Will, your lodgings and the heirlooms inside will be passed on. (Make a Will ASAP if you have upgraded lodgings, on every captain!) Beyond that you generally pass on one of the following (along with some skill points), your choice:

• One of your previous captain's weapons
  
• One of your previous captain's officers
  
• Half of your previous captain's cash-on-hand
  
• The previous captain's map (keeps things from re-randomizing, but can't rediscover places for fragments)

If you have a Scion (a very good thing), you can choose two of the above, or even choose to inherit 100% of your previous captain's money if you forgo the other choices (just choose both 50% money options, they stack additively).

But bear in mind that you can never pass on:

• Your ship, no matter how amazing
  
• Your engines, no matter how amazing
  
• Any ship equipment besides one weapon, no matter how expensive the equipment
  
• Your cargo (with some rare and special exceptions that don't take up space and are always passed on automatically - the powerful "legacy" items)
  
• Your standing with people (other than a single officer), progress on quests, et cetera - you're a fresh face each time

If you spent tons of money on a new ship or new engines, and you want to retire your captain or do something suicidal, the best you can do for your next captain is to sell off the engines or trade down to a cheap ship (you'll get cash for excess trade-in money), and choose a money inheritance option, or find a way to buy stuff that you can convert into heirlooms, or buy better lodgings.

Don't acquire Doomed Monster Hunters unless you know what they're for.

If you ever find Strategic Information, open up the Hold tab and right-click on the Strategic Information item, and select "use." Don't worry, it won't consume the item. Once you've gotten Strategic Information from an Admirality quest, you don't have to turn it in before getting another quest for Strategic Information, and it's advantageous to hoard it for a bit.