Tips for players looking to get into RJ (don't need a ship crafted to play even the toughest missions, and can level up roles in Orbiter by Profile -> Intrinsics).

Forward : Having played a lot of RJ recently (8-5-5-5, Veil cleared, derelicts explored) a couple of starter tips on roles and what makes sense to focus on (QOL suggestions for DE here ). Frankly, getting to 5-5-5-5 makes you viable at any role and is far cheaper than going further in the trees since it doubles in cost every rank. The below recommendations are WHAT TO GET FIRST, but I'd recommend 5x4 before going deep in a tree. That said, Veil has a Rank 7 requirement (for host only) so if you want to get to Veil faster, here's what you need for roles.

Roles:
* Pilot, Engineer, Gunner ~ Away (most frequently in pairs of 2)

Stays mostly on the ship (least gear required except for dealing with boarding parties):

• Pilot (Pilot 5, Gunnery 2, and opt Eng 3) :: Pilot skills seem the least impactful (how strong the ship is matters far more) but the ability to break lock-ons and drift is useful, and more advanced ships have fun toys to play with. Gunnery skills useful for targeting icon and clear scope (and later ranks to reduce gun heat). Eng3 optional if you want to make darn sure you can refill your munitions. Piloting frankly is ironically the easiest way to get into RJ (eg: I would prefer someone else pilot my ship while I engineer or away) as since you rarely leave the cockpit it really doesn't matter how bad your gear is. In recruiting you might see "H Veil LF Pilot" - from my perspective as long as you're pilot 3 you're fine even with crap gear...

• Engineer (Engineer 5, Tactical 3, and opt Gunnery 2) :: Engineer wants Eng 4 for 20% crafting (INCLUDES REFINEMENT!) and Eng 5 to resupply the big gun. You want Tactical 1 for better omni, 3 for porting around the ship quickly (hit L, double click an icon, port to it!). Gunnery 2 for when you're killing time (turrets suck without Gunnery 2). Engineers primarily handle hazards and resupply the ship from the forges. If you're doing wellnote that Forges only hold 200 resources and you can get 2-3x that over the course of a run, so if you're not needing to repair/resupply a lot make sure to refine early (note: 20% talent from Eng 4 applies to refinement). Engineer frequently also handles boarding parties, so if your gear isn't up to it make sure your team knows so they can help out.

Mostly away team (recommended: Strong Gear/ArchWing and a lot of ciphers):
* Gunner and/or Away (Gunnery 5, Tactical 4): Main role is 1) kill crew ships 2) kill fighters 3) do mission objectives. If you enjoy gunnery, max gunnery first (Rank 5 is BIG CANNON which can shred crew ships but requires R5 Eng to be resupplied in mission), but if you regularly leave the ship get Tactics to 4 ASAP (teleport back to ship from anywhere). If your AW is strong, you might not need gunnery at all, but if it's not strong get Gunnery 4/Tact 4 asap so you can use the ArchSling to pop Crewships - doesn't matter how bad your AW is, you burst right through the hull, slaughter the crew, set it to explode, and teleport back with G4T4. The Archsling can also one-shot fighters for most of Saturn, but can't one-shot elites and in Veil everything survives an Archsling attack.

Targets:
* Crew Ships : TOP PRIORITY AT ALL TIMES. In later levels (Veil) they have a giant aoe healing bubble (or map wide it seems on the last map) and you simply can't kill other fighters till they're dead. On top of that, they fire ramsleds of boarding parties (can be shot down) and have a lot of missiles - most frequent source of onboard hazards. Pilots should try to avoid them / keep them at range. They can't be killed directly except via the main cannon (Gunnery 5) but Slingshot (Gunnery 4) or Archwing onboard them and take down the reactor (may require unlocking reactor shield). If you kill all the fighters first, they RUN AWAY and need to be hunted down so try to handle them asap.
* Outriders: The mine layers, only other real notable opponent. Immune to Cryo as a note for pilot/gunners; my ship was running 2x Cryo guns so I had to use missiles to finish them and swapped up the second gun afterward. Relatively easy opponents but you can accidentally hit the mines instead of them making them "tankier" than you might suspect. Missiles work very effectively on them.

Mission Progress:
1) Clear the initial fighters, try to find the crew ships first and nail them as they come in. In later levels it is pointless to shoot fighters with a crew ship up, they just heal instantly.
2) Bringing the RJ in range of objectives (pulse station, ship killer beam, etc) is like bringing them in range of a crew ship - ram sleds and hazards galore (which can be good if you have Revo and want to farm intrinsics) but generally you want to keep the RJ >2K away from objectives.
3) Orokin Derelicts (Veil) - The wreckage appears frequently on maps but doesn't always have a door. If you're within 2-4K of one, Cy will call it out if there's a door to be opened and boarded.
4) Hazards: Counter-intuitive-but-fun design: There's three types of hazard: Electrical and Fire (which require an interaction similar to mining) and Small-Med-BIG breach (which just require spraying omni all over them/can be done faster). The ship can't die unless the Big Breach counts down to 0. The Big Breach costs 30 rev to seal (10% of your total capacity). Electricity shorts out your shields and recharge, Fire reduces your health, breaches create more breaches if left unchecked and will eventually turn into a Big Breach (shipkiller).

Loot:
1) Stuff inside enemy ships/bases is not shared with the rest of the team. For a boss-assassin mission, DO NOT kill the captain (can drop a new weapon blueprint) and leave the base - others won't be able to get in and get it. For those known drops, clear the map first then do the objective together (with RJ parked far enough away that the base doesn't attack it).
2) Core ship gear is random stats (shield, reactor, drive) and weapons are NOT random stats.
3) Skip to Mk2 or Mk3 to feel competitive, base RJ gear is awfully balanced vs starting missions. Join a mission, get some drops, rebuild or drone them (50p on market).
4) Most gun drops will be Zekti (HIGH damage, HIGH heat) which are actually a big dps loss in most cases vs a Vidar. Exceptions might include: Higher levels of gunnery (where heat is better managed and Zekti's extra damage might be worth it) and/or the Cryophan, which functions more like a shotgun (2-3 shots, big damage, short range, then ~5-10s reload).
5) Derelicts have locked vaults in them - this is in theory where the Umbral Forma BP can drop.

Away Team Tips/Gear: h/t /u/TheRAbbi74
* Amesha is top arsewing because it can live outside for more than a few seconds.
* Cyngas is top choice for arsegun, followed by Phaedra. Mod for 100% status; corrosive & fire seems to work alright. Only needed for when you're off-ship and there's no crewship or objective to be boarded, so you can help deal with fighters. Arsemelee is not worth considering at this time.
* There are plenty of good frame builds for Away, but Hildryn and Wisp are looking like top picks right now. Wisp's cabbages while aboard enemy vessels/objectives, and you're an unstoppable one-tenno wrecking crew. Hildryn's passive works in arsewing for some extra survivability (that second or two when you deploy and are vulnerable and can't move or do shit, for instance). Her (2) is helpful for an armor strip, and her (1) ain't half bad. And sure, (3) for some passive damage and to spot sneaky enemies, in place of Animal Instinct or Enemy Radar (similarly to Trinity's (3), you have a visible line on-screen to each enemy in range).
* Personal recommendation is to have two players in a Gunner/Away dual role, and at least one is Wisp. She can drop a health cabbage at convenient locations, and shock cabbages at likely boarding party entrances to hold up their little bullshit. If the RJ is okay and a second/subsequent crewship shows up while Away 1 is still on crewship 1, then Away 2 can go hit up crewship 2 and Away 1 can just teleport home to RJ on completion.
* Unless the RJ is in deep shit, aways should take the time to loot crewships, and at least bust open all the containers on bases/etc. In the latter case, you'll want the whole crew to cycle through and gather loot, and having it in the open already makes that a lot faster. Ignis Wraith, Warframe's top can opener, is therefore my first pick for a primary.
* Aways should use Ignis/Wraith for can opening, and a stronk melee for crew murdering. Why? Quick melee doesn't swap weapons, so you can go right back to primary instantly by ADS or fire (a secondary would have a weapon swap time to and from). Go with radiation on one and corrosive on the other, so you have both of your armor bases covered. Hose the room with Iggy, then hack/slash though the baddies.