Star Citizen is an amazing universal sandbox for players to jump in and build a career for themselves in a range of mission types. This immersive experience is one like no other and is awe-inspiring when traveling from planet to planet with ultimate freedom. Investigation missions allow the player to become a "Private Investigator" for a range of factions and individuals. Although these missions are nowhere near the most lucrative or cost-effective missions in Star Citizen, they do help to break up the monotony and guide the player to some awesome locations.
This guide will help players with Investigation missions from preparation to payment. If the player is looking for a way of making money fast, this is not the way to do so. However, this will help to show them the possibilities of mission types we may see in future development.
Best Ships
Although there isn't necessarily a "best" ship for investigation missions, the player will need to prioritize versatility over a specialized class of ship.
The craft will need to feature an interior space to carry physicalized cargo for missions that may require the player to retrieve a specific item. This means dedicated fighter ships such as the Gladius or Hurricane should not be used here as they don't have the space required for these missions. Although this isn't essential, players may struggle to partake in a few missions available.
Cargo ships can be a good option, but they are far too large and sluggish to be viable for these missions. Something in the middle such as an Avenger, Cutlass, or 300i is great as they feature enough firepower to fend off any unlikely enemies but enough internal storage for any loot the player may find.
As the ships mentioned above are part of the starter packages available on the pledge store, players won't need to invest in buying new ships to complete these missions.
Preparation
The player will require an undersuit and helmet for most missions in this category as they involve the traversal of space or a planet/moon with no atmosphere. Luckily these come standard on spawn meaning players can jump straight into the missions from the go.
Armor will be incredibly helpful as it will give the player more time in hostile environments due to the extra insulation. This is most noticeable when on moons or traversing the wilderness of Microtech's tundra.
A large armor core will make a huge difference as it allows the player to carry a large backpack to transfer more loot to the ship. Again, although this isn't essential, the versatility that comes with the backpack really improves the player experience in these missions.
How To Start Investigations
To begin, the player needs to open their mobiglass using F1 (this is the standard keybind, it may be different if the player has changed it) and head over to the contracts manager found at the bottom of the screen.
There will be an "Investigations" tab on the left which will feature all the missions available in the area. If none of these seem interesting, the player can simply travel to a different planet location. These missions are reasonably easy to complete, even for novice players. They are also a great introduction for those trying to learn some more in-depth mechanics such as EVA traversal and scanning or simply using ground vehicles such as the HoverQuad.
What To Expect From Investigations
Each mission here is slightly different, but the concept is generally the same. The player will either need to locate a missing person (this will be a dead NPC) or an object such as a black box from a crashed ship. This limited variety is easily the largest downfall in the mission category, but future development will probably add new types for investigation.
Sometimes the player will need to enter a large cave system to locate a missing person. This is relatively tricky and time inefficient as these contracts only pay out around 4000 aUEC. A small ship may be required here to lower down into the cave. Generally, most medium-sized ships fit into these caves but the smaller the ship the easier this will be.
If the mission involves the investigation of ship wreckage, they can generally make more money due to it being far easier to find the objectives. The player can find lots of other loot here as well as boxes of goods to sell at outposts. As mentioned before, having a large backpack can easily make looting far easier. On top of this, purchasing a small SCU (cargo) box can increase the loot gained here.
The small reward from these missions may not be worth the time but bringing a loot box and retrieving as much as possible can add to the mission's value. That said, these do help to build Star Citizen's living universe and take us away from the repetitive bounty hunting or mercenary missions.
Star Citizen is available on PC.