All missions

Trade:

• s
• s
• s

Fight:

s

Build:

Think:

...

Available missions (tips below)

TRADE

• Ware Shortage (deliver a ware to a station: see tip below)
• Purchase location for a discount fighter
• Purchase location for valuable goods

FIGHT

• Assassinations (kill an escorted target)
• Corporate espionage (destroy a non-hostile ship)
• Station Protection (defend against incoming hostiles)
• Patrol zones (defeat forces attacking several zones)
• Escort Ship (protect it as it travels between stations)
• Explosive Clearance (clear away mines)
• Booby-trapped asteroid clearance
• Seeking Protection (multi-stage)
• Piracy (attack a friendly station)
• Piracy (attack friendly ships)
• Piracy (steal wares from a friendly station)
  

BUILD

• Build Station Within A Sector (payment on completion of stage one)

THINK

• Transport Person
• Deliver Item
• Corporate espionage (destroy a friendly faction's signs)
• Corporate espionage (scan a friendly faction's station)
• Anti-Smuggler Operations (seek and destroy smugglers)
• Diplomatic Aid (multi-stage)

New in 4.00 beta

• Scan Anomaly (repeatable; FIGHT: Ship in Distress (Toride-only).Ship in Distress (repeatable;
• THINK: Scan Anomaly (Toride-only).
• THINK: Fragile Salvage / Explosive Extraction.

Ware shortage missions

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 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.

Station Defence missions

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.

In current implementation you don't need to participate in fight to receive success result. Stations capable of defending them self and you will receive reward even if you are in other zone.

Patrol Missions

In current implementation you don't need to participate in fight to receive success result. If you wait long enought, enemies will be killed by local patrols and stations and you will only need to visit mission target zones.

This will change in the upcoming version 4.0 as stated by one of the developers here.

Assassination missions

Typically harder than station defence missions since targets tend to be located in positions in zones that are relatively far from stations. Makes boarding a more realistic option though.