How to Make Money star sector?

Ways to holla holla get dolla:

• Exploration: safest, slowest way to riches, but also the thing you need to do to get good colonies, which are the best money makers, so you most likely will do this anyway. And blueprints; you can also get them through raiding, but this is safer. Income will depend on luck, but you can normalise it over time. I prefer to run colossuses with some light escorts, avoid fights whenever possible, survey only habitable planets or ones with ruins.
• Bounty Hunting: riskiest, in-between income occupation. Money can be decent, but it relies on you being okay with some losses or d-mods now and then, fighting dirty and being able to keep up with the rather quick bounty progression. Contact bounties can help out somewhat as you can adjust their difficulty, but they’re bothersome, hard to coordinate with other bounties thanks to UI.
• Trading Smuggling: this is what you want to do to earn fast, earn big. Smuggle drugs, organs, guns, sell supplies to pirates and pathers. Morals are a poor man’s quality. I don’t do this often, so you will have to refer to others for guidance, but it’s good.
• Raiding: something new you can do now. Get some marines and Colossuses Mk III (the more the better, but 200 marines and 2 colossues should be enough to start), then raid pirate or pather planets when they’re vulnerable, or their bases in the outer rim. Raid for supplies, fuel (if you need it) volatiles, drugs or organs; for best results all at once, as distractions decrease casualties. When raiding core worlds, don’t raid too if stability is 0, or the planet might decivilise in the future. When raiding bases, they respawn anyway so indulge yourself! You will sustain some losses when raiding, but loot will be worth more than the losses.
• Colonies: they require the most setup (good planets, AI cores, colony items, hazard pay), but they eventually make money whatever else you are doing.

Excellent! I laughed when I read the first sentence. Yes, it’s all about the money! Great info and quite specific, too.

The missions I’m seeing from the bars (kill this pirate, raid this base) pay pretty low and I feel something is really missing from the mission system. I know it’s new, though it currently appears to be something not profitable to anything larger than a few frigates in a fleet due to fuel, supply, and overall monthly maintenance costs. You can easily lose money running a 30-40k payout mission.