How to become friends with the shadows on TNG

In the current version of TNG which is 2.7.6, your best of killing Bounty Hunters

This is true but it does take a long time, i suggest going to Hudson docking with Barrow Base 'Which is an asteroid base' start doing mission with them. A few things to watch out for.

First of make sure your not too badly disgraced with the Xenos, they own the base and they will kick you butts if you are.
Second when you doing missions make sure your doing them for the XENOS and AGAINST the BOUNTY HUNTERS.

This i would say is the more lucrative way of becoming 'friends' or at least Neutral with the shadows; reasons being.

1. You are allied with the Xenos (Good in the eyes of the shadows)
2. You are hated by the bounty hunters (Good in the eyes of the shadows)
3. You make at least 1 million per mission against them (Good for you, your going to need all the cash to get a nice shadow ship)
4. You get lots of cargo after kicking some bounty hunters butts. ( Extra cash when you sell your loot ) (WATCH OUT THOUGH ROUGES MAY TRY AND STEAL YOUR CARGO)

Don't be fooled into thinking just because your friend is neutral or allied with the shadows that they will be able to let you into the sector. As soon as someone comes through the Shadow Hyper gate that is enemies with the shadows a massive fleet appears from no-were and kicks everybody's butts. SO BE WARNED.

However once you have got the right alliances with the right people this is the sector you need to go to to find the shadows hypergate

You need to get to Omega 11

Once there look at the picture below exactly were the tip of the arow is thats were you will find the shadow hypergate.

How about a Starters Guide to Freelancer TNG 2.7.6How to get started in Freelancer TNG and the different player types

Trader. Money money money money. Items makes the world go round right? Well same here. Things like missiles and guns and ships cost money. There is just no way around it. So setting up a trader char is a good first move.
There are few options open to you for a new char, so I recommend you buy a rhino. Its effective enough that you wont need it for long and its small enough to slip by a lot of peoples attention.
OK so now you got the rhino you need a trade route. I will illustrate one here that is more then sufficient to build you enough money so that in one day you can choose from any merchant ship you like and from there build a fortune as large as you have a desire for.

TEXAS system is one jump gate away from ny. Go there seek out the planet houston. When you land go to the market and fill your hold with some DIAMONDS. No map a route to planet HAMBURG via the bering system. Two quick jump gates away. Land and sell them diamonds and make big profit! Easy as pie no?
Now heres how things get tricky in this game, you may notice the LIGHTARMS sitting at hamburg waiting to be bought for the trip back to HOUSTON for some more tiddy profits on a productive ride home to get more diamonds. But you cant buy it. How come? You need REPUTATION. It can be an ugly word for veteran players who like to call it 'rep'� for short. Item/'s the second most important thing in the game, and its become a part of the economy just as much as the items you may buy or sell. The things is for every race and government npc you will come across there is a reputation score you carry for them, and if they don't like you, they'll let you know about it , by refusing to do business with you for one and blowing you out of the sky for another. But don't worry cause rep is easy enough to get all you have to do for this situation is run 15 missions here at hamberg or any other rhienland police faction base to get the rep you need to buy those light arms and complete the "DIAMOND RUN"� This is enough to get you rolling there are many other trade routes to find and exploit to scratch the itch of the capitalist in you. So ask around EXPLORE, and don't be afraid to try new things. This can be a very fun part of the game and money will never stop being a concern for you as long as you plan to play, weather you have it need it or want to spend it, without it your pretty much just spinning your wheels. SO get the cash fast so you can start to have some real fun. Once you have 50 million u can buy yourself a Corvette from the planet in cortez system, with this the diamond run becomes even easier making 12 – 15 million per run, in 4 runs u can make the 50 mill that u shelled out for the corvette!

Good guy. Well this one is pretty self explanatory but there's more to it then meets the eye. First things first a good guys job is to protect the weak and to be a shining example of what goodness can be. Your righteous and proud your strong and just, heck man you're one of the good guys. That's how you may feel before you meet up with a cadre of clan pirates hunting in OMICRON THETA. If your ready to fight the good fight my best advice to you is practice practice practice. Try An ANCIENTS MAYHEM MEDIUM FIGHTER give some DOOMSDAY MISSILE LAUNCHERS there day in court collect your self up some STARBEAMS and beg borrow kill or steal to get your self an ESSENCE OF POWER cause your gonna need the best gear in the game to stand up to the bad guys and the traders and the noobs could really use your help so get good fast and don't get discouraged because your not alone in your fight, look to the other good guys for support and advice they give it freely so don't be shy. Learn the habits and were abouts of the pirates so you can best learn to take them by surprise if your alone, and always keep plenty of ammo on hand. Good luck to you he who be righteous bro, fight the good fight.
Pirate, well here again practice practice practice. You want to steal other peoples loot most preferably the kind that worth real money on the server. So think LOOT, people get loot when they build rep by shooting np's down at popular spawn points for said np's. So learn were to find these spawn points and be quick and deadly. You may want to try out the SHADOW SPIT FIRE LIGHT FIGHTER, and see if you can find your self a graviton pulse for it. Remember weaker players don't have much in the way of valuable loot and don't really pose much of a threat to you so let them be, just like in sport fishing its good ethics to let the little fish go. Besides that the bigger fish offer greater rewards. Keep your eyes peeled for the goodies know there clan names and learn there habits, in the beginning its going to be hard on you from them and from the pirates as the pirates area fickle bunch and will accept you only after you have learned their ways. SO try and hang with them get a feel for how they conduct themselves, more then likely if your honest about your intentions to join there ranks they will be plenty helpful. Good luck pirate, be ruthless be fast and most of all filthy stinking rich, arrrrr!

the main things you want to do is make loads of cash bout 120 mill for your 1st battleship or 60 million for a cruiser, (u'll find one waiting at Norfolk ship yard NY). With this u can then travel to the Fringe (the jumphole is the black hole in Magellan).
in the fringe u will find old republic ships that spawn at certain points around corisant Higara and degobah, killing these will increase your reputation with good factions found in the nexus, 450 will give u basic rep so u can buy ships 2250 will give u full rep so u can buy goods and weapons! U only need 1 of these fully repped ships to buy stuff for the rest of ur fleet, or if ur in a clan only 1 person need do it!
OK so ur now on good terms with the nexus goodies, u might find that the shadows and ancients are pissed at u for killing all those old republic, easily solved, head to Omicron Theta, at all the jump holes here spawn Bounty Hunter ships, killing 450 of these will make shadow and ancient like u again kill 2250 and they will love u so u can buy guns shields and tradable items, this is key as there is a massively lucrative trade run in shadow where u can make 300million per HOUR and money is essential!

So ok, killing all those ships might be boring for some but they drop the most powerful items in the game. When u get them u Need to keep them in stores to set up other ships u create.
As this mod is missile based you will find stuff dropped by the NPC’s called Hydras and Doomsdays, DO NOT SELL THESE unless u have a massive stock of them, they are coveted by all experienced players and pirates will go out of there way to steal them from you. Hydras fire fast and track faster, but for power and punch for your bucks doomsdays are the key, fitting these to fighters is a must!
Other items they will drop are:

Light Shields, essential for ur fighters and stronger then 1's u can buy.
Heavy Shields, essential for ur fighters and stronger then 1's u can buy.
Trader shields, essential for ur trader and stronger then 1's u can buy.

Shield overlays, adds 10k protection as well as ur shield, fit 4 of these to a fighter and u got almost 55k protection!
Nano repairers, repair damaged shields in a jiffy, mount 3 or 4 for max effect but beware there is a delay!
Energy savers, that essential item for cap ships, fire those guns twice as long!

Shockwave torpedoes, don't do hull damage, but fire 3 of these at any cap and watch that shield disappear.
Armmageddon torpedoes, with 87500 hull damage per hit u looking at a kill in seconds depending on the ship/how many fired

Starbeams and Star Burst's, best fighter guns in the game, beams fire 25 times per second Bursts 2 times a seconds, depending on ur preference depends which u use but both are good at their job.

U will also find a large quantity of starfury guns, Rhineland pats, kusari starbeams, bretonnia arcs and hellfire guns, sell em, plain and simple, that will keep ur coffers in the black and give u money for the ammo u will need.

But the most important item ever is the Essence of Power, pure refined power for ur ships, put 1 in a cap ship and u’ll instantly notice the difference.

u cannot buy any of the above items from planets or bases, so ask about or kill the NPC's urself to get em.

People coming from FL 1.0 wont put much stock in having counter measures, so if ur into dieing quickly don't bother with them, otherwise fit ur ships with them, advanced CM's are a must, remember it's a missile mod!

When it comes to ships and setups, try everything, u never know if that doom might fit that turret slot or if that ancient battleship shield will fit that gunboat, equipment can mean the difference between life and death depending on the pilot.
Try everything, scan everyone, share info and fight well.

We'll be waiting

Slicer Out (just like to thank Mr_Death for his informative guide making the 1st part of this guide, was a great help)

Where do i find the best ship(titan i think) i have looked every where and spent like 3days looking for it pls could someone tell me thanx. cheersTitan Type -
Corsair Weapon Mounts -
2 Class 9 Guns,
4 Class 10 Guns,
1 Class 10 Turret Armor
12600 Subgroups
- 5 - Main hull, the two wings, and the top and bottom fins (Yet another one that's the same as another ship, this time the Centurion).
Cargo Space - 70 Nanobots/Shield Batteries - 71 Turning Speed - 60.09 deg/sec Power Capacity - 11900
Where to buy - Leon Base (Omega-41), Planet Crete (Omicron Gamma)
Price - $776,380
Firepower - 10/10
Defense - 11/10
Maneuverability - 3/10
Comments - IMO, the worst of the three main VHFs, because armor isn't as important as manoeuvrability or firepower, and the best weapons in the game (Nomad Energy Blasters/Cannons) don't use energy anyways. Not that the Titan is a bad ship, it can take more hits than any other fighter (although don't let a Cannonball hit you where the wings meet or you'll be eating space), but the Eagle and Sabre are just slightly better. Also, it's just so freakin' expensive!
Source - neoseeker