Available missions (tips below)

TRADE

• Ware Shortage (deliver a ware to a station: see tip below)
• Resource Needed (mine and deliver ore or gas to station)
• Purchase location for a discount fighter
• Purchase location for valuable goods
• S/M ship for sale (see below)
• Sale of the Century! (purchase approximate coordinates to loot found with Long Range Scanner)

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)
• Destroy Pirate Raiders (emergent assassination mission)

BUILD

• Supply Reassurance / Station Needed (build a station in a sector for yourself, with reward after stage one)
• Upkeep Missions (guide the player towards supplying stations and ships with useful NPCs and drones)

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; see Egosoft guide here)

PIRACY

• Attack a friendly station
• Steal wares from a friendly station
• Random Acts of Distraction / Prison Break (create a distraction by killing civilians)

New in 4.00 beta

• FIGHT: Ship in Distress (Toride-only; emergent mission)
• THINK: Scan Anomaly (Toride-only; random mission)
• THINK: Fragile Salvage / Explosive Extraction (Found in regular systems; random mission)

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 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 committs 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.

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 Rebirth v3.61, you don't need to participate in fight (...) as stations are capable of defending themselves and you will receive the reward regardless. This is addressed in v4.00 though the separation of the reward into a payment plus a participation bonus.

Patrol Missions

This is quite 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, you don't need to participate in fights in Rebirth v3.61 in order to get paid. Similarly, this is addressed in v4.00 though the separation of the reward into a payment plus a participation bonus.

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 be escorted by a fighter escort 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