As of now I am in top 10 players on android. So i thought I could compile a strategy guide to sum up my experience.
When drilling and when probing always go for 10km. You have a larger chance of your equipment damaging or blowing up BUT also you have a larger chance of fiding a pocket of helium - on gas gigants or fiding a pocket of fuel on rock planets - which will automatically refill your fuel to 100. Which is nice. And your EQ breaking isn't so bad provided that you always have some FE laying around, and maybe some SI if you have an ultraprobe. In my experience 10/10 is the only way to go if you don't want to run out of fuel in the beggining of the game.
2. Don't refil.
Whenever you can, don't refil fuel (you won't die if fuel reaches 0), and do not refill oxygen until it gets critial, and hull until you really have a lot of iron laying around OR it falls below 50 (you willt die if oxygen or hull reach 0). Especially in the begginign of the game. You never know what may happen. Maybe you will have a random event in which you lose 40 fuel. In that case if you only had 20 fuel on the moment of getting there, you are 20 fuel up. Take into account the slight chance of getting a free refuelling on a rock planet. If you would to tank up just before that happens - you lose a lot of free fuel. Also you may find a station that will boost a random parameter to 100, and you may find a new ship that already has all the parameters on 100. In that case if you refuel just before getting on a new ship - you used up resources that you could use on the new ship.
3. Farm.
Don't rush it. If you play your cards right and you are lucky, you will have a chance to visit EVERY solar system in the game ,and increase your chance of fiding tech. Later on spaces between systems become bigger and you don't want to end up not having the right tech to reach them. Especially the last RED beacon - to reach it you will need powerful propulsion - gravitational sails alone on a slow ship won't do.
4. Exploit Your Ships.
in the first hour or so in to the game - if you find a solar system with a ship lying around, you have 2 options: You either know that your ship is so bad that you will take whatever ship is laying around, or you don't know that and you go check. Now it's important to contemplate that to save fuel. What I often do is - when I see that I will be able to dump my current ship - i exploit it to the max and I am not repearing it, nor refueling. Going near a black hole I would say gives you a 30% chance to find a lone ship or a station there.
5. Tech.
In my experience, you have a larger chance of fiding a new tech on a rock planet rather than on a garden planet. Life encounters are just too random. If you have a lot of fuel and you can afford to visit a rock planet, do that, you may find a tech laying around there.
6 Oxygen.
After 'say' visiting 10 solar systems after having a 'monilith' event be sure to have some spare oxygen on your ship. Because when your ship becomes 'destroyed' in another time activated event - you will have trouble fiding non ocupied planets to refill your resources - especially garden planets. Oxygen becomes very scarce then.
