The Complete Compendium of Tips and Advice!

[NASAHireMe]

I LOVE the stickied thread, "What are the most important things about KSP to pass on?" I wanted to give back to the community by compiling all of the tips and advice from that thread into an easier-to-read list while taking out all the duplications and the debates over MechJeb. 90% of this list is from the authors of the original thread, so first and foremost I want to give them all due credit. Thank you.

The list is broken into categories. 'Tips' are practical information, 'advice' is, well, advice. They are not sorted within the categories themselves. Links to important things are included, and [MOD] when the tip refers to a mod. Standard abbreviations (LKO for low Kerbin orbit, AN for ascending node, etc.) are used. Some tips are for advanced players, but most are for all.

Without further ado:

Rocket construction tips:

• MechJeb or KER for calculations [MOD]
  
• Reduce payload weight
  
• Modularize/ construct modularly
  
• Shift-Click selects the entire craft
  
• Shift-AQWSDE changes the part by 5-degree increments
  
• Alt-Click duplicates the part selected
  
• Build your rockets radially (ie outwards) rather than upwards
  
• SRBs for high launch thrust
  
• MOAR BOOSTERS. MOAR STRUTS. MOAR PARACHUTES. All are cheap.
  
• Struts break after decoupling
  
• Cubic Octagonal Struts open up a whole new realm of creative rocket designs
  
• You only need one strut at the top of a booster, and one at the bottom, usually.
  
• The big orange tank tends to overheat easily. Place a lone strut to absorb heat.
  
• Strut ‘inwards’ from a booster (place the first end of the strut on the booster, then the main rocket). This way, you can easily duplicate the booster with Alt-Click without having to reattach multiple struts.
  
• Use this work-around to enable clustered engines in upper stages
  
• 400v batteries and an OX-STAT solar panel so you never run out of juice
  
• Navigation lights [MODâ€â€B9 Aerospace]
  
• Lights, in general. They are physicsless and never hurt.
  
• Place reaction wheels are close to CoM as possible, RCS equidistant and as far from CoM as possible
  
• Reaction wheels aren’t strictly necessary, but can save a lot of time.
  
• Use asparagus staging for launch if you're trying to minimize mass, but SRBs if you're trying to minimize cost
  
• Radial decouplers are expensive. If you need multiple SRBs, stick one on the other, then connect it to the rocket with one decoupler, vs. having each SRB with its own decoupler.
  
• Stick to one size of docking ports for your fleet as much as possible
  
• Stick a Small Docking Port on every craft, so you can always perform an emergency refuel if necessary. Small Docking Ports weigh very little, and you can attach them radially using a Radial Attachment Point
  
• Large Docking Ports are directional. Don’t place one upside-down.
  
• Use the same action groups as much as possible across your fleet (e.g. pressing “3†always toggles the solar panels)
  
• Ladders save the headaches of finicky EVAs
  
• More RCS ports, the better. They are massless, so having more doesn’t hurt.
  
• Sepratrons can help if used and angled correctly. Don't point them directly at the stack, or else they may blow up the main stack's engines and tanks. Angle them 45 deg. or so away from the main stack.
  
• Don’t inadvertently place things on capsule hatches (make sure you don't inadvertently place one by symmetry, too).
  
• Calculate the amount of parachutes you need with this Parachute calculator
  
• Double-check the following before launch: electricity, hatches, docking port alignment, staging order, fuel lines, crew, action groups, struts
  
• Fins may be useful at launch, but are useless in the upper atmosphere and space
  
• You can launch ‘empty’ and refuel at a refueling station in space
  
• Name your ships and save them.
  
• Save good copies of rockets, landers, rovers, stages, etc. as subassemblies and use prior subassemblies as much as possible rather than designing from scratch every time.
  
• If you don’t like excessive ‘revert flights’, make some way to abort your mission and save your Kerbals.
  
• Monopropellant may be all you need for very small crafts in orbit.
  
• [0.90 Beta] Stick an Octo probe core on every craft. They weigh almost nothing and you get SAS.
  

Plane/spaceplane construction tips:

• Center of Lift (CoL) ALWAYS behind Center of Mass (CoM)
  
• Rear landing gear too far back will prevent plane take-off
  
• Front landing gear too far back will cause plane flippage on take-off
  
• Place control surfaces as far away from CoM as possible
  
• Lift is more important than thrust
  
• At high altitudes, throttle down jet engines to prevent flameout while still picking up speed
  
• Assign intakes to action groups and close them to prevent excess drag, or open them for more intake air
  
• Spam intakes if you want
  
• Small Gear Bay is physicsless, whether deployed or retracted
  
• Don’t forget Center of Thrust! If it’s too far above, below, or to the side of the CoM, your spaceplane will be very hard to control during the rocket portion of its flight to orbit.
  
• Translate your view in the Spaceplane Hangar w/the middle mouse button
  
• Flip the plane upside-down to make placing landing gear easier.
  
• Interleave engines and intakes to prevent asymmetrical flameout, per Kasuha’s technique.
  
• MechJeb can handle intake management and throttling for you [MOD]
  

Rover/landing tips:

• Rovers/landers should be wide and low to prevent flipping
  
• Landing legs on topside of rovers to re-right flipped rovers
  
• Remap your SAS keys from your motor keys to prevent accidental flipping, or drive your rover in Docking Mode
  
• Rover CoM should be at wheel axle, not attachment point
  
• Disable steering on rear wheels for better high-speed handling
  
• Use roll and turn controls to ‘lean in’ to a turn
  
• When going up steep slopes, put more traction of front wheels w/SAS or thrusters
  
• Use downwards thrusters to soften falls
  
• Disable front brakes so you don’t flip when braking suddenly
  
• Use trusses as bumpers to guard during crashes
  
• Structural girders make for great lander legs
  
• Use a mod or switch to IVA for radar altimeter readout for landing [MOD]
  
• Use drogue chutes for heavy landers (the red Mk parachute)
  
• You can make a very durable box with stuff inside using structural panels (good for cheap probes)
  
• Landing directly on wheels can be risky because they have low impact tolerances. Better to land on landing legs, then retract them to settle onto your wheels.
  
• On bodies with low gravity, a nuclear-powered lander may be more efficient and easier than a manned rover.
  
• If landing on a hill with a tripod leg configuration, position a leg downhill and lock its suspension.
  

EVA tips:

• Kerbals can survive falls from great heights, but not explosions. Fall head-first; their helmets are very, very strong. Or activate the Jetpack and thrust forwards and up.
  
• Pressing ‘Shift’ makes your Kerbal run during EVA
  
• You can collect science even when their parts accidentally break off during a rough landing, either through EVA or the Tracking Station
  
• You can land and return to orbit with just the EVA Jetpack on Gilly, Bop, Pol, and Minmus
  
• If you run out of fuel, you can use your Kerbal on EVA to push the craft from behind, indefinitely
  
• All of the crew modules refuel your Kerbal’s EVA jetpack, EXCEPT the Command Seat
  
• Switch to different view modes by pressing “V†during orbit or EVA. Really helps during EVAs.
  
• Kerbals can open solar panels, repair legs, and repack chutes while on EVA by right-clicking. Useful if you forgot to extend your panels before time-accelerating
  
• Press ‘L’ on EVA to turn on Kerbal helmet lights
  
• Kerbals can survive some take-offs by holding onto the ladder outside the craft. Be very, very careful. This may come in handy if you want to hold extra copies of data, but you've already got one set in the command module.
  

General/ flight tips:

• Alt-“.†and Alt-“,†forces physics acceleration!
  
• Burn an equal amount of time before and after a maneuver node
  
• To use a maneuver node, burn towards the blue ‘X’
  
• Use maneuver nodes and play with them
  
• Navball switches to ‘Target’ mode when you’re within 50km of the target
  
• If you align your vessels at perpendicular angles, you can dock using only the Navball and engines
  
• Alt-Right Click to transfer fuel between two tanks, even without fuel lines
  
• Place a maneuver node near the surface to estimate your suicide-burn times
  
• Use multiple gravity-assist flybys by placing your crafts into resonant orbits with the larger body
  
• Launch heading east (90 degrees on Navball) for cheapest orbital insertion
  
• It’s cheaper to perform an inclination change at launch rather than when you’re already in orbit
  
• Stick a probe in equatorial LKO to help you plan launches. See metaphor’s technique (which is used for real-life missions) for reducing interplanetary delta-v.
  
• Performing an inclination change greater than 45 degrees, by Alexmun: extend your AN/DN, perform your inclination change, reduce your AN/DN and recircularize
  
• Maximize Oberth Effect by performing burns at your highest orbital speed (aka at your periapsis)
  
• Press F5 and F9 to undo screw-ups. Alt-F5 is ‘Quicksave As’, but don’t accidentally hit Alt-F4!
  
• Drop your heaviest stages first
  
• You only need one or two engines to gimbal. The rest can be disabled by right-clicking.
  
• Switch to the Tracking Station or to a stationary, landed craft to time-accelerate, then switch back to your active craft
  
• Launch an efficient ‘tug’ and use it for laborious assembly tasks in LKO
  
• You can ‘freeze’ the AP or PE readouts in Map view by clicking on them
  
• Use aerobraking/aerocapture whenever you’re around a body with an atmosphere to save delta-V
  
• Parachutes tear off in timewarp
  
• To visualize successive orbits, place maneuver nodes one-behind-the-other (useful for encounters/gravity assists)
  
• You can’t switch vessels while you’re in an atmosphere
  
• You can only store one copy of each piece of science data in a command module. Use labs to store multiple copies of data (useful for maximizing the science returns)
  
• Use RCS, or limit your engine thrust by right-clicking, for precise orbital maneuvers.
  
• Be careful on long interplanetary injection burns that you don’t accidentally reenter the atmosphere. Divide your long burn into several short burns.
  
• Land on the ‘day’ side of the body, especially if you don’t have lights.
  
• Science labs don’t automatically start with Kerbals in them. You have to add them manually before launch.
  
• ‘Closest Approach’ pointers only show when your inclination respective to the target is near zero, or your AN/DN directly intersects the orbit somewhere
  
• Turn off batteries by right-clicking when you don’t have solar panels in early stages of Career mode.
  
• When staging, rolling your craft will help ‘spin-away’ the boosters
  
• MechJeb has a pretty good aerobraking calculator under its ‘Landing Prediction’ window [MOD]
  
• Make sure your periapsis is above the highest terrain for a planet. Some moons like Gilly and Bop have mountains sticking up to 22,000m above the ground.
  
• Be consistent with your orbits. For most cases, this means your crafts should be in an equatorial, zero-inclination, prograde (counterclockwise) orbit. Nothing’s more annoying than rendezvousing with a craft, only to realize it’s going the exact opposite direction
  
• In Map view, hovering over the top edge of the screen will display the types of objects, just like in the Tracking Station. You can turn on and off debris and asteroids, for example.
  
• Have an escape system bound to ABORT, or the Backspace key.
  

Mods advice:

• Play w/ MechJeb and learn from it [MOD]
  
• Play w/o mods and learn from it. Please don't get this "MechJeb-or-not" debate started again.
  
• Play w/ additional parts packs like B9 or KW Rocketry [MOD]
  
• Play w/ Ferram Aerospace Research (FAR) for spaceplanes [MOD]
  
• Install Protractor to help w/ interplanetary maneuvers [MOD]
  
• Install Kerbal Alarm Clock to manage multi-ship fleets [MOD]
  
• Plan interplanetary missions with Ksp.Olex or Alexmoon’s Launch Window Planner or a Trajectory Optimization Tool and Alterbaron's aerobraking calculator [TOOL]
  
• Plan multiple gravity-assist flybys or synchronous orbits with a resonant orbits worksheet [TOOL]
  
• Install Precide Node or MechJeb to make more precise maneuvers [MOD]
  
• Install Kethane or Karbonite for off-Kerbin refueling [MOD]
  
• Install Kerbal Attachment System (KAS) for post-Kerbin construction [MOD]
  
• Install a visual enhancements mod or Chatterer for aesthetic effects [MOD]
  
• Install a docking alignment indicator mod for easier docking [MOD]
  
• If you have coding experience or really love KSP, contribute back to the community by making your own mod or tool! It doesn’t have to be complicated or advanced.
  

Concepts advice:

• Understand and perform Hohmann transfer orbits and bi-elliptic transfers to the Sun
  
• Learn the Navball and how to move indicators
  
• Perfect rendezvous and docking without MechJeb
  
• Learn and understand Tsiolkovsky’s Rocket Equation
  
• Performing a burn ALWAYS affects the OPPOSITE side of the orbit
  
• The earlier you perform a burn, often the cheaper it is.
  
• “There are no straight lines in spaceâ€Â
  
• “A smaller orbit is a quicker orbitâ€Â
  
• Learn Kepler’s Laws to understand the interplay between semimajor axis, orbital period, AP/PE, etc.
  
• Learn and understand the holy trinity of rocket design: ISP, TWR, and delta-V
  
• TWR is most important at launch, ISP and Delta-V are most important during orbit
  
• Learn the different types of staging (parallel, asparagus, sequential, etc.)
  
• KSP is a two-body simulation, so only one body’s gravity can affect you at a time. Orbits ALWAYS revolve around the center of the parent body (unlike real life, where objects revolve around the barycenter.
  
• Radial burns ‘twist’ or ‘rotate’ your orbit by reducing or increasing your time to periapsis/apoapsis
  
• Performing your burn at a different point in your orbit is analogous/equivalent to performing a radial burn
  
• When nearing your target destination, radial burns are more effective than pro/retrograde burns
  
• Aerocaptures/ aerobraking can save buckets of delta-V
  
• Gravity-assist flybys convert radial speed into pro/retrograde speed by bending your trajectory. Remember, velocity is defined by both speed AND direction a planet can change your velocity simply by changing your direction.
  
• Learn basic aircraft dynamics (yaw, pitch, roll, thrust, ailerons, rudders, etc.)
  
• Understand “terminal velocity†and how it applies to launch, TWR, and throttling
  
• Understand phase angles and have some way of calculating them [MOD]
  
• Clustering engines can often give you better parameters than a single, larger engine.
  
• Midcourse corrections can be very cheap and have very large effects
  
• Polar orbits are good for probes and science, since they will eventually cover every latitude and longitude
  
• Burning anywhere other than pro/retrograde will incur mild-to-severe steering losses
  
• The only time two objects in space are perfectly stationary with each other is when they’re docked
  
• Oberth Effect: burning at highest orbital speed (aka at periapsis) yields 'extra' delta-v. It's better to maximize this effect by doing burns at fast speeds as much as possible. EVERYONE GETS THIS WRONG. Or at least not wrong, but very, very sloppy. Oberth effect is related to speed, not orbital height. Obviously, there's a relationship between speed and height, but for the sake of the newbie, please be consistent. For example, if I'm in an almost-perfectly-circular orbit, the difference in orbital speed at PE and AP is almost negligible, so Oberth effect doesn't really matter. I can start my burn anywhere along my orbit. If you're in a more eccentric orbit, the speeds will vary more, so Oberth will vary more. PLEASE BE CONSISTENT.
  
• Duna and Minmus may make good refueling stops, especially with Kethane/Karbonite. But it is always more efficient (but more difficult) to launch in one go with all the fuel you need.
  

Gameplay advice:

• Spaceplanes are the key to lifting things to orbit for cheap b/c they're reusable and get oxygen from the air, but they're harder to design
  
• Having high part counts on your rockets will cause your computer to lag
  
• The color of the time in the upper-left box indicates physics lag/time. If the color is green, your computer is handling the physics calculations fine. If yellow or red, your computer is getting overtaxed with calculations.
  
• Send flotillas of smaller craft rather than one gargantuan craft
  
• Understand why things happen rather than follow rules rigidly
  
• In the stock game, parts generate drag no matter where they are placed on the rocket
  
• The scary red flames on reentry are harmless in the stock game
  
• Engine overheating is also meaningless, unless the Overheat bar becomes completely full.
  
• Change your
  to something that suits you and your computer
  
• Consult the different orbital heights for time-acceleration speeds via KSP Wiki. No one likes to be stuck at only 10x acceleration.
  
• Print out and consult a Delta-V map CONSTANTLY when designing your missions. Metaphor has a great one with max-and-min plane-change delta-v's included
  
• Print out a keyboard mapping diagram like this one. There are TONS of key combos you probably didn’t know!
  
• Plan missions in advance. Planning is key.
  
• Set both small, short-term and hard, long-term goals
  
• Build things that work in KSP, not things that work in the real world. KSP physics aren't a perfect mirror of reality
  
• Contracts often have long completion deadlines but provide money up-front. So if you’re really short on cash, accept a bunch of contracts and worry about fulfilling them later.
  
• Experiment and test things out (on Minmus for Gilly missions, Mun for Dres missions, Kerbin for Laythe missions, etc.)
  
• Always have a way to recover Kerbals to Kerbin alive
  
• Don’t worry too much about a perfect gravity-turn/pitch program launch profile, but better to be too steep than too shallow-- too steep, and you waste a bit of fuel; too shallow, and you might be held up by atmospheric drag so much that you don't make orbit.
  
• When in doubt, simplify and aim for smaller, less complicated rockets
  
• Play the game at your own pace
  
• Watch Scott Manley videos for inspiration, NOT practical advice
  
• Expect bugs in gameplay. This is Beta
  
• When in doubt, consult the Internet, KSP Wiki, YouTube, and the forums
  
• Be yourself and play your way. This is a GAME. Having fun is priority #1.
  
• Make things as efficiently or inefficiently as you want to. You can always slap on MOAR BOOSTERS, for example.
  
• Don’t worry about Kessler Syndrome. The chances of debris hits are incredibly rare. But excess parts in orbit may slow your computer performance.
  
• Keep space clean by deorbiting stages, colliding it, etc. to speed up computer performance and be aesthetically pleasing
  
• Design your mission backwards: what do I need at my destination? What’s the simplest rocket that can get to my destination from Kerbin orbit? What’s the simplest rocket that can get the payload to Kerbin orbit?
  
• Take notes and learn from your mistakes
  
• “Think outside the box". There’s many, many ways to conduct a mission or solve a problem
  
• Use checklists
  
• There’s lots of science near the Launchpad
  
• Minmus is a lot easier than the Mun. May be a little harder to reach because of the distance and inclination, but it’s far, far easier to land and return from Minmus, and there’s easier and more profitable science.
  
• Use subassemblies as much as possible to save time during design.
  
• Make lifters that can lift a certain payload to LKO (10t, 25t, 50t, 75t, etc.), save them as subassemblies, and use them rather than custom-building each rocket. This saves time at minimal extra cost.
  
• Backup your save folder and craft files b/c the game can crash and mess them up. Back them up in an entirely different location than the save folder.
  
• Don’t worry about being a ‘completionist’. Especially with version 0.90, there’s more biomes and science than a sane person would collect. It’s tedious to try to collect every science point in every biome.
  
• Contracts that stipulate a station "Supporting 'X' Kerbals" don't require you to fill those seats in the station. You can satisfy a contract for a 5-Kerbal station with a station that has the capacity for 5 Kerbals, but only two onboard, for example.
  

Thanks again to the authors of the original posts, Squad for finishing 0.90, and Jeb for being Jeb.

Edited February 5, 2015 by NASAHireMe

[The_Rocketeer]

Wouldn't it be great if all this advice was indexed and cataloged to be accessible to newcomers and experienced players alike in one massive sort of Kerbal encyclopedia?

Wait... isn't that basically the wiki?

[NASAHireMe]

Thanks for the snark. Again, this is simply a condensed version of the sticky, so people wouldn't have to click through 17 pages of posts. Sure, you can find most of the tips on the Wiki, but who reads an encyclopedia front-to-back? No one.

[The_Rocketeer]

Right. That's why they're indexed and categorised.

I'm not really snarking your post, it's just that both posts (this and the sticky) are pretty hefty wodges of text to crawl thru, especially for inexperienced players. I'm not sure your post is a great improvement, but I do respect the effort that's gone into preparing it. I just think an actual index that would take you to the relevant tutorial would be even better.

[Luis]

I just read the whole thing in 10 minutes and found it much more convenient to scroll through than clicking a link for each tip. So I say well done and have some rep!

[juanml82]

Wait, wait:

RCS thrusters should be placed around the CoM, or between the CoM and the Dry CoM, not far away from it. The mod RCS Build Aid will help you show how much (if at all) using rcs to rotate will translate the ship and viceversa.

The reaction wheels location is, AFAIK, irrelevant

Landing gear is no longer massless.

[NASAHireMe]

No, you have it opposite. RCS should be placed as far away from CoM as possible to generate maximum torque. It's the same as a class-2 lever. You're right if you're using RCS for translation purposes only; then you want it right above the center of mass. But most people use RCS for both translation and rotation, in which case you use a pair of RCS blocks equidistant and as far away from CoM as possible.

Reaction wheels placement is very important. The wheels impart torque at the wheel itself, so if you place it too far away from CoM you will literally cause your rocket to bend if your rocket is long and not very rigid (like two ships docked together, for example). Dont believe me? Both principles of RCS and reaction wheels are confirmed in both the KSP Wiki and real-life ships.

IDK if they changed the properties of the Small Gear Bay in 0.90, but in 0.25 it was physicsless (according to KSP Wiki and my knowledge).

Edited December 26, 2014 by NASAHireMe

[Lucky Spacer]

Thank you so much for compiling all these tips. I have found it very helpful.

[SAI Peregrinus]

A tip: If you can afford one, get a HOTAS joystick & Throttle. It makes manual flight and maneuvers much easier. Keyboard and mouse are certainly workable, especially with the RKE Onscreen Joystick mod, but a physical stick is great for small adjustments.

[percyPrune]

Thanks for condensing all this. Now printed onto 1 page of A4 paper above my PC as a permanent reminder. I reckon to have read the Wiki and I still found things here that I'd missed or forgotten (besides adding stuff that isn't even in the Wiki)

Have a rep for doing some useful but tedious admin when you could have been playing KSP!

[Janos1986]

This list should be loaded as mini hints while KSP boots up, beside the humorous loading statuses.

[AndreZero]

Thank you for this thread. Lots of things I wouldn't have even known to ask (like struts act as heat sinks).

• Keep space clean by deorbiting stages, colliding it, etc. to speed up computer performance and be aesthetically pleasing
  

Does the terminate option clean things up? The wiki says it will destroy the vehicle but I don't know if that means it is removed from the game or that there is a bunch of (now untracked) debris where it was previously orbiting.

Edited February 6, 2015 by AndreZero

[Engineer of Stuff]

Learning from Mechjeb is one of the most important things a new player can do. I learned how to land, dock, go to the Mün, and orbit from it.

[John FX]

A free return trajectory course to Mun is exactly 872m/s from a circular 80km orbit. Make a node which has 872Dv prograde then move it around the orbit until you get a perfect FRT.

[monstah]

My favourites:

• Understand why things happen rather than follow rules rigidly
  

But that's not gameplay advice, it's just plain advice

• Print out a keyboard mapping diagram like this one. There are TONS of key combos you probably didn’t know!
  

WHAT, there's a part/asolute symmetry toggle??? All this time growling and WTFing, and it was just my fat fingers hitting F?

[EtherDragon]

It's probably worth taking some time to sift through these tips and boil them down to the three most important tips to getting started. I've arranged mine into three main tips, with three(ish) sub-categories each:

Here's my suggestion for the first five tips:

Learn some key terms:

- TWR = Thrust to Weight Ratio

- Delta-V = Total Change in Velocity

- Apoapsis = Farthest point in an orbit (or trajectory)

- Periapsos = Closest point in an orbit (or trajectory)

Simpler Rocket Designs almost always perform better:

- Reduce unneeded parts and your rocket will go farther (i.e. have more Delta-V)

- Use the smallest engine that is useful for the mission to go farther (i.e. has just enough TWR to get the job done)

- Multi-stage rockets are efficient, to a point. Don't make too many stages.

Reaching Orbit is about momentum:

- Reaching Orbit is mostly about going sideways, with some, but not a whole lot of going up.

- The atmosphere is a drag, get out of it quickly (i.e. get some height quickly, then see below...).

- Gravity is a real downer, don't spend too much time fighting it (i.e. turn sideways to add lateral velocity, as it's more efficient than going too much up)!

[thadisjones]

I'm just going to repost my guide to the three basic planet orbiting techniques since people have told me it's informative:

"The only reason go upwards is so not go downwards while wanting to get more sideways. The more up you are, the less upwards is needed to not go downwards, then just sideways only! Then get orbit which is sideways, forever. More orbit wanted? Sideways prograde! Less orbit? Sideways retrograde! Always sideways. Not burn towards or away from planet in orbit. Is wasteful like spill drink! Only do rarely, like only rarely throw drink at commissar on purpose instead of drinking. Or if bring lots of drinks, can waste few on ups and downs. Inclination change is being drunk in public. Do it only moving slow at apoapse like walking in park, not while speeding in car like periapsis."

[EtherDragon]

I'm just going to repost my guide to the three basic planet orbiting techniques since people have told me it's informative:

"The only reason go upwards is so not go downwards while wanting to get more sideways. The more up you are, the less upwards is needed to not go downwards, then just sideways only! Then get orbit which is sideways, forever. More orbit wanted? Sideways prograde! Less orbit? Sideways retrograde! Always sideways. Not burn towards or away from planet in orbit. Is wasteful like spill drink! Only do rarely, like only rarely throw drink at commissar on purpose instead of drinking. Or if bring lots of drinks, can waste few on ups and downs. Inclination change is being drunk in public. Do it only moving slow at apoapse like walking in park, not while speeding in car like periapsis."

The drunken master plays KSP.