Currently I want some materials or a ship to a friend of mine. Neither of us want to do the grind at the start, and she wants to at least START with the ability to laser mine or fight pirates. Is there a way to give a ship? Or if not, how can I give them minerals that they can then sell and be able to afford the ship?
You can’t give a ship, but you can transfer minerals, sort of. Have them equip collector limpets and a big enough cargo hold. Meet at a designated location, jettison (abandon) the minerals, and have them grab it with limpets. You can use Inara to find good buy and sell prices to optimize this a bit.
Alternatively you could buy one of the JumpStart ships with IRL money. You don’t really need to do this as making creds is kind of a side effect of playing the game, but it’s an option.
