Introduction

There are many generic missions. 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 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 that any mission is available in the BBS once its icon has been scanned

Available missions (tips below)

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

*  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 affect of letting stations do all the killing.

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-ear notes; 4.0 seems to have improved this)

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.