To survive on your own in the big bad world of SubSpace only two things are required : lots of practicing and a bunch of creativity. The first one is pretty obvious : veteran players beat the living crap out of newbies. As for the second one, that's something you need in order to kill the defensive type of player. Those players will stay in open space so they can run quickly, and they won't let you lure them into a small corner. To kill them, you either have to put yourself in a bad spot so they will charge, or you will have to be smart and kill him in a way he isn't expecting. Being creative with portals, mines, repels and whatever other goodies you have in stock is a big advantage.

Maneuvering your ship

This is the first thing you should learn. If you're having problems grabbing greens (in other words : you can orbit one till hell freezes over), then don't read on but practice a bit more, you can't learn that stuff from a webpage. Dodging If you often find yourself slamming into mines and bombs while you saw them coming, then you should consider lowering your speed. Even if you can't dodge the bombs, you can "skim" them, resulting in a less energy loss. You can fight your way through quite a few bombs that way, providing that you are skilled enough to avoid all the shrapnel. An even better way is to dodge all those bombs in the first place. Now that's a bit hard because there are lots of players with excellent aim, but since most of them will be aiming "ahead" of you, you can trick them. Pretend that you're moving into a specific direction, and suddenly change course. If you time it right, chances are that your opponent will waste a good 400 energy on a bomb that isn't going to hit anything. Shooting Now that you can keep your ship from falling apart, you should try to kill some. This does not include piling up mines and hoping that someone hits them, but it's about fighting smart. You can keep firing bombs and keep hitting him with a few, but that's not likely to kill him. They will back-off when they are low on energy, and they will come back when they are recharged. If you want to kill someone, you'll have to move quickly when you think he's low on energy. Move in and use singlefire and guns at close range, and stop and recharge if he gets away after the first assault. Don't let him surprise you with a portal or a mine. If it was as easy as that, this game would suck :). Fortunately there's alot of skill involved, as well as a nice chunk of luck (bomb and bullet damage is partially random!). You can be a damn good tactician, but if you can't hit the guy if he's not even moving then you might as well try to kill the nearest asteroid (which, by the way, is quite good aiming practice:) ).

Playing the damn game

Defending This requires less skills and more brains. Since the enemy can't dodge it's a piece of cake to hit him, but you have to choose which weapon to use and how often you will fire. Are there many of them and are they rushing towards you? Use singlefire bullets and use the walls to bounce the bullets back at them while you dodge. If they are moving slow you should lob some slow bombs instead. If there are only few of them you should switch to multifire bullets and only an occasional bomb. This is because singlefire bullets will miss their target too much, as well as the shrapnel from the bombs misses. The key is energy conservation and smart shooting. Attacking This is probably even harder than defending. Attackers often have to run into enemy fire in order to get to the flags or to the goal, while the defenders just sit and shoot. As an attacker you will have to drive your enemies back into a corner. If they have alot of room, they will be able to easily dodge your shots, and you'll have a real hard time getting to them. In flag games it's often smart to slip by the defenders in a cloaked ship. You will have some time to grab the flags and run for it before they notice that their flags are gone. Just be sure that you don't set off any bombs or mines , since that will alert them of your presence. If you have to chase someone in the open you'll need some help from your teammates. Keep him near you, and don't give him a chance to recharge alot. Don't forget about bursts and mines and the like.