Introduction

There are many types of missions available to the player. The following are repeatable (AKA "generic").

Several are duplicates with different titles but it is possible they have different requirements in terms of reputation and/or license ownership. The table below characterises ones that have been identified so far but it's incomplete so please feel free to help fill it in.

Many generic missions are found in the Mission Bulletin Board System (BBS) but some, from across the difficulty spectrum, are not found in the BBS and must instead be found by flying near stations to find their icons. Generally speaking, those hidden ones are more shady in nature (an exception being "My ship left me behind!"). Note: hidden missions are available in the BBS once its icon has been found and scanned.

Available missions (some tips are below the table)

Icon	Type	Names	BBS entries?	Licence required	Info
	Build	New Station Required	Yes		Reward for building a station for yourself in the sector
		Supply Reassurance	Yes		Reward for building a station for yourself in the sector
	Explore	Supply Recovery	No		Open lockboxes and deliver contents
		Lost In Transit	No		Open lockboxes and deliver contents (illegal)
		Medical Emergency	No		Open lockboxes and deliver contents
		Quick Pickup	No		Open lockboxes and deliver contents (illegal)
	Hack	Hacking Specialist Wanted	No		Piracy: Hack station turrets (needs Security Decryption Device)
	Scan	Info Collection Required	No		Corporate espionage: Scan a faction's station
		Sensitive Data Required	No		Scan station
		Scan Anomaly (HoL DLC only)	Yes		Checking out peculiar signals in a new system
	Think	Anti-Smuggler Operations	?	Police	Scan ships and destroy ships with illegal wares
		Problematic Dealers	?	Police	Scan ships and destroy ships with illegal wares
		Deal Right Here!	?		Purchase rough coordinates to a lockbox and scan it down
		Exactly What You Need!	Yes		Purchase rough coordinates to a lockbox and scan it down
		Sale of the Century!	Yes		Purchase location for loot and scan it down
		Selling Fairly Priced Ship	Yes		Purchase location for a ship and scan it down
		Ship for Sale	Yes		Purchase location for a ship and scan it down
		Valuable Cache for Sale	Yes		Purchase location for loot and scan it down
		Valuable Items Going Spare	Yes		Purchase location for loot and scan it down
	Delivery	$WARE$ Shortage!**	Yes		Deliver a ware to a station
		$WARE$ for Victory!	Yes		Deliver a ware to a station
		$WARE$ Supply Required!	Yes		Harvest resource in specified zone and deliver to station
		High-Grade $WARE$ Required!	Yes		Harvest resource in specified zone and deliver to station
		Document Collection	No		Travel to someone and bring back some items
	Transport	Late for meeting!	Yes	?	Transport someone to a station
		My ship left me behind!	No	?	Transport Person to a capital ship
		Passenger Transport	Yes	?	Transport someone to a station
	Chain	Diplomatic Aid*	?	?	Multi-stage (Kill, Escort, Protect Station &/or Transport)
		A Dangerous Business	?		Scan hostile station and destroy turrets
		Bodyguard Required	No		Repel attacks and transport a person
	Destroy	Fragile Salvage	Yes	?	Free up a small ship
		? Deactivate Station Defences	No		Destroy station turrets
		? Destroy station add signs	?	?	Destroy station add signs
		Capship Needs to Go!	No	?	Emergent piracy: Assassinate a neutral
		Disarmament	Yes	?	Clear away mines
		Explosive Clearance	Yes	?	Clear away mines
		Its a Trap	Yes	?	Clear away booby-trapped asteroids
		Pirate Raiders	Yes	?	Emergent assassination mission
		Rigged Asteroids	Yes	?	Clear away booby-trapped asteroids
	Escort	Escort Required	Yes	?	Protect civillian travelling between stations
		Escort Ship	?	?	Protect civillian travelling between stations
	Kill	? Destroy a non-hostile ship	?	?	Corporate espionage: Destroy a non-hostile ship
		Cartel Boss Vulnerable	Yes	?	Assassinate hostiles
		Catch Dangerous Criminal	Yes	?	Assassinate hostiles
		Continued Xenon Threats	Yes	?	Assassinate hostiles
		Halting Marauder Activities	Yes	?	Emergent assassination mission
		Open Bountry Collection	Yes	?	Assassinate hostiles
		Stop the Snitch	Yes	?	Assassinate neutral faction target
		Take Out Enemy Agent	Yes	?	Assassinate hostiles
	Patrol	Military Patrol	Yes		Multi-zone combat patrol
		Neighbourhood Watch	Yes		Multi-zone combat patrol
		Searching for Justice	Yes	?	Assassinate neutral faction target
		Seeking Patrol Pilots	Yes		Multi-zone combat patrol
		Xenon Scouts Spotted	?	?	Multi-zone combat patrol
	Piracy?	? Attack a friendly station	No	?	Piracy: Attack a friendly station
		? Steal wares from a friendly station	No	?	Piracy: Steal wares from a friendly station
		Prison Break	No	?	Piracy: Create a distraction by killing civilian ships
		Mass Chaos	No	?	Piracy: Create a distraction by killing civilian ships
		Random Acts of Distraction	No	?	Piracy: Create a distraction by killing civilian ships
	Protect	Criminal Attack Incoming	Yes		Station defence
		Protection Detail	Yes	?	A 2-stage mission (Patrol and Transport)
		Protection Needed	?	?	A 2-stage mission (Patrol and Transport)
		Seeking Protection	Yes	?	A 3-stage mission chain
		Ship in Distress (HoL DLC only)	Yes		An emergent rescue mission
		Xenon Attack Incoming	Yes		Station defence
		Xenon Targeting This Station	Yes		Station defence

*  Diplomatic Aid missions have a video listed here.

** These missions were unintuitive prior to 4.0 but seem better now (if needed, see below for 3.61-era info)

Station Defence missions

Hostile S+M ships tend to arrive via highways or super highways, whilst L and XL targets boost in. All hostiles are hell-bent on attacking the station so best arrive ASAP or you risk missing the action. As of v4.0, the payment is separated into a base reward and a bonus payment in order to minimise the effect of letting stations do all the killing.

With Xenon station defence missions the difficulty is an extremely rough approximation. On normal difficulty there is almost always at least 1 K L fighter and 3 P M fighters independent of mission difficulty. Higher difficulty missions can have anywhere from 2 K L capships to 16 P M fighters. It is worth noting that the fighter wing spawns are extremely biased towards P M fighters, which are the toughest M fighter and deal shield-penetrating damage. Unless the player brings along at least 2 to 3 XL fighter ships it is recommended that the K L capships be left to the station defences.

Be careful around "Badlands Colony" and "Core Dig" stations. They don't have weapons, so if you start a station defence mission for them, you will have to kill all enemies yourself unless a friendly NPC patrol happens by..

Patrol Missions

This is similar to a chain of station defence missions in that you'll visit multiple zones and the various hostiles that may appear need killing. As with station defence missions, the payment is now separated into a base reward and a bonus payment.

Assassination missions

Typically harder and better-paid than station defence or patrol missions. The targets tend to be located relatively far from stations (~20 km is common), which generally gives the player of time to reach the target before any local ships that may be present. At higher difficulties, capital ship targets will often escorted by multiple fighters and 1 or 2 other capitals. Makes for an exciting battle, and often provides good opportunities for boarding.

Ship for sale missions

Small and Medium ships will occasionally be offered for sale as part of a mission. You'll need a Pilot to claim the ship and you'll need to use Long Range Scan mode (Sidebar-1-5) to find it somewhere in a temporary zone in empty space. Tips:

• The abandoned ships have the same ping colour as asteroids  so it is easiest to find them in zones without rocks.
• The mission marker disappears at the 50km mark. If you order a ship to your location and select it, you can use it's distance to help you move forward 

Ware shortage missions (v3.61-era notes; 4.0 seems to have improved this: see http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=4592177#4592177)

You're asked to deliver a specific quantity of <ware> to a station, but this order won't appear in the Trade Window until the mission is accepted. The station in question will probably have a trade offer up for the same ware, but the mission will not complete unless you fulfil the mission's demand (this prevents you auto-completing the mission with a suitable trade that's already on it's way: you'll have to set up or cancel & re-set-up a new trade to fulfil the mission's requirements).

If you don't have a Trade Computer, you'll need to fly within 500m of the trade port to uncover the buy order.

If you have (or can get) access to that ware for the mission's required amount through your own stations or discounts from NPCs (or simply stockpiling), take the mission first, then immediately set your tradeships to gather & deliver <ware> to take advantage of the trade bonus. If you don't do this immediately, the trade offers will update (as the mission commits you to fulfilling <ware> requirements, at a bonus) & you'll lose that opportunity..

(You can currently use <pause> as a slightly cheaty method to gain the maximum amount of profitsss from the latter scenario: <pause> allows you to scroll through & apply actions to a trade or property screen but doesn't update game events (such as movement, combat.. or trade offers!). If you close the screen you'll need to reactivate <pause> to gain access to another (or the same) screen)

Sometimes when there's an existing order for the same ware, the mission order won't appear in the trade window and you'll only see the existing order (normally for a different quantity). If that happens, try making a sale to the existing order and the mission one may appear. If that works, quickly cancel the trade via you ship's info screen; hopefully the mission order will now be present alongside the original (cancelled) trade order. HINT: select <mission station's> details from the map & look at their ware requirements: it's often easier than scrolling through the whole trade screen, even using the filter..

If the existing and <mission> trade orders are for the same quantity of ware, it becomes trickier. In such cases, it's probably best to try to fill both orders to be sure. This is another good reason for having a network of Trade Agents so you can check for existing offers for the ware before accepting a mission (you may gain rep but lose cash by accepting & completing a bad deal). At least the trade offer missions don't currently expire (they're not time-limited), but you'll likely lose profits by not fulfilling their /complete/ requirements ASAP.