1. Atmo is not your friend in SC. The developers might have used the real-life rule that doubling the speed quadruples the air resistance - it's safe to read "air resistance" as "fuel consumption". The argument of getting there faster means less time burning fuel doesn't hold. a. Slowing down while in an atmosphere (under SCM speed) has a huge impact that you can see right away (flying level or climbing). Watch the thrust numbers on the left - consider that a "liters per millisecond" gauge on the bigger ships. I've been able to reduce consumption on Daymar by 90%, while arriving at my destination 10 seconds later. b. Do everything you can to avoid atmosphere. Trading on Hurston has to take into account the fuel cost, which can diminish or erase profits - depending on the numbers involved. I wouldn't do box missions on Hurston with an MSR or a Cat. I say Cat because you need to think of them as being in the same weight class - I've even had my MSR spawn on 00 at Port Olisar. c. If you must fly in atmo, don't aim toward the surface until you are directly over the target. At this point, you could likely cut the engines and fall until you are 1 Km above the target and hit 100% thrust to decel - but that's something to experiment with. Just avoiding atmo until the last minute allows you aim straight down and go real easy on the throttle. d. When leaving planets or moons, aim for the nearest space marker and hit QT as soon as possible. If the marker is farther than you like, you can always cancel QT and set your destination. 2. The keybinds are misleading - "throttle" isn't. In your car, you don't force Matt and Pedal to embrace while in your driveway - but our ships go full "throttle" every time we adjust speed. Our throttle keybind should be renamed "Speed" because of how it behaves - like a cruise control setting you keep your hand on. The real throttle is called "acceleration" on the keybinds, but it's called "thrust" on our HUD. More confusion. a. If you lower the "acceleration" (can I call this "thrust" to clarify?), your ship will behave more sluggish in space - just like underpowered ships. I can make the MSR handle like a Prospector, a Carrack, or a Warden - with the flick of my thrust keybind. b. By making thrust as one of your active controls, you use it in conjunction with speed ("throttle") to achieve your goal while using less fuel. It's safe to lower thrust in space as low as you want - even to zero while you allow your ship to coast at no cost (at any speed). Just ease up to your desired speed with reduced thrust and cut it. Again... this is in space. c. Gravity is a whole new issue. If you are drifting slowly over a pad at GH or PO and your thrust is barely on, you will land hard. Anybody who lands at GH can hear the thrusters get loud as they enter the Hangar. That's not because of the walls, that's because gravity kicked in - watch your thrust dial. At a few meters over any space pad, gravity kicks in all at once - it doesn't ease in, so jack your thrust to full before every landing. d. When launching, tinker with minimum thrust to get off the ground. You can save a lot of fuel here. 3. Mining in an MSR with a ROC. a. Speeding up and slowing down kills your economy, just like on the road. I set the thrust to max (gotta keep gravity at bay), skim the surface below 500 meters, set the speed at between 50 and 75 m/s, and just drive as straight and level as the terrain allows - full-pinging as often as the scanner allows. The best economy is on the flats - very freaking far away from anything man-made. b. Real targets can be spotted between 1.5 and 2.5 Km away. If you're cruising along and you see ore rock for a long time, then a box "pops up outta nowhere" at 2.5 Km, that's your target - go there. It's rich with something. If one pops up under 1 Km, that's usually one or few mineable rocks with small mass, and not worth the fuel to case it. If you are in a more fuel-efficient vehicle, then the math changes. c. Make absolutely certain you kill the engines when not flying. I've seen a lot of dust storms under ships on the ground and on pads, this wastes fuel - particularly when you're gone for a long time in your ROC. d. I wouldn't buy quantanium when refueling. I can fly 8 rounds (with an XL1 drive) between PO and MT before needing quantanium. I'm almost certain I'll lose the MSR to a 30K long before I run out - so I'll get free fuel on the claim.