Hard Shoulder is an early Federation mission that opens up around level 3. A Föderation transport has stalled in orbit and needs Parsteel to get moving again, so the mission hands you one task: mine 100 Parsteel and deliver it to Lt. Cazola. It sits at warp 3, right next to your starting systems, and pays out Tritanium and Officer XP when you finish.
Hard Shoulder objectives
Hard Shoulder has a single objective, with no branching choice:
- Mine 100 Parsteel for Lt. Cazola.
That is the whole mission. There is no combat step and no follow-up part to unlock, so once you hand over the Parsteel you are done.
Wo und welcher Warp
The mission is built for a level 3 commander and asks for warp 3 to complete, so you stay close to home the entire time. “Warp to complete” is how far out you have to travel, and at warp 3 you never leave your starting region. Parsteel nodes appear in most low-level systems, which means you can gather what you need almost anywhere nearby.
Systems with Parsteel to mine for this mission include Dalfa, Toshen, Zorga, and Vawur, plus a long list of other early systems: Cospilon, Vinmaier, Bodex, Sverlov, Falko, Klora, Taoji, Rabalon, Iora, Wagirur, Mulk, Hroga, Cymon, Jobe, Dolcan, Follin, Aetisan, Mayagrazi, Panuq, and Groshi. Any of them works, so pick whichever one is closest to save travel time.
Hard Shoulder rewards
Completing Hard Shoulder gives you 50 Tritanium and 50 Officer XP. The payout is small, which matches a level 3 mission. Tritanium is a refined resource you spend on building and ship upgrades later, so banking a little early does not hurt. The 50 Officer XP goes toward leveling whichever Offiziere you have unlocked so they perform better in your bridge and below-deck slots. Neither reward is large on its own, but early Missionen like this one stack up while you learn the resource loop and build out your base.
Tips
Parsteel is the most gemeinsame base resource in the game, and every early system carries nodes, so you rarely have to search for it. Send a ship built for mining rather than combat, since a survey hull pulls resources faster and carries more cargo. One hundred Parsteel is a small target that fills quickly at this stage.
If you are new to mining, the loop is simple. Open the galaxy map, warp to a system that has a Parsteel node, tap the node, and choose a ship to send. The ship travels to the node and starts filling its cargo hold. You can leave it there and come back once it has collected the 100 Parsteel you need. Watch your cargo capacity, because a ship that fills up stops mining until you send it back to base to unload.
Before you start, pick the Parsteel system closest to your base so you are not warping back and forth. When your cargo reaches 100, fly home and turn the resource in to Lt. Cazola to finish the mission. If you are running the early Federation storyline in order, clearing Hard Shoulder keeps you moving toward the missions that come next.
