Hi,
after a lot of planet exploring and upgrading my ship from a crashed one (the fastest and cheapest way I think), I finally got involved into space battles. I want to share some tricks and glitches I have experienced.
The following is true with the Foundation update (patch 1.13 and later).

A. Space battles - What you need to have in your ship cargo for not getting in trouble

You need a lot of Iron or yellow material to reload your shields during battles, there are some shild plates you can buy cheaply on space stations or from other pilots. Also the fastest way to replenish your iron is by shooting asteroids.
Get this material before going into battles, otherwise you will DIE soon, wether you have a lot of weapon upgrades or not.
Then you need reasonable weapon upgrades for your beam weapon or photon canon, the initial setup is NOT enough to succeed in battles, or you must be incredibly lucky. Better BOOST AWAY from pirates if you are not well-armed.
You should also have a lot of free slots in your ship for collecting the pirate's cargo once he is destroyed, this can add up to interesting items that you can sell later.

What you get to know:
Your pulse engines have 2 functional modes: The full speed mode (warp with 20000 KS/sec) and the boosting mode (approx 1650 KS/sec). Your normal ship full speed is generally around 250 KS/sec. Against pirates and sentinels you will LOSE one or both of these pulse engine modes if you are close to them. You need to get farther away from them to enable again the full pulse engine functionality.
With pirates in sight or if you are scanned from them: You will NOT be able to warp until you defeat them or until you get away from the battle, but you can still use your booster to flee or get in a better position.
With Sentinels comming in against you: This happens if you do pirate actions like shooting freigthers. In this case, you can NOT WARP away and you CANNOT boost away with your pulse engine. To get rid of sentinels you will have to kill them unless you are very near of a planet surface or space station, in this case you can escape to these locations.

Tip: If things get hot for you, you can flee into a space station to re-arm by buying shield plates from pilots or from the trade terminal, and then rejoin the fight.

B. Look for Bounties - They get you rich fast

Some pirate ships have a huge bounty on them - 200.000 units or so. If you are well-armed then go for them, it's fast easy money, but again: be sure you have a lot of iron or yellow material to reload your shields.

Tip: A pirate vessel with a bounty on it is easier to defeat when he escapes on a planet surface. So don't attack him immediately, also because he may get big support from other pirates, instead follow him to the planet surface. With the Fly Low mod, you can easily confuse and defeat him!

C. Accepting Freighter support missions

You will often get distress calls from freigthers that are attacked by pirates. Basically it's the same as above, only you will get a smart reward and a rare item from the freighter captain if you defeat the pirates. This part of the game is still buggy because most of the time you will not be able to enter the freighter afterwards to collect your reward: The freighter will stay in red alert, this must be fixed in the next patch. So don't be frustrated if it happens, it means you have accidentally hit the freigther: No reward, sorry...
During this mission, while attacking pirates, never, never hit any friendly ship even once, not even a scratch! If a pirate is between you and the freighter, then DON'T SHOOT at him because you may also hit the freighter. If accidentally you hit a friendly ship even once, then after defeating the pirates, you will NOT be able to land on the freighter and get your reward, the freighter's tractor beam will stay red and you cannot get in. Also, the whole mission may change and Sentinels may be sent after you to 'punish' you. You will see a message like 'Avoid the sentinels or go for the freighter's cargo'. This means your accidental shot has just turned the tables, and you are now in a very bad shape! Try to hit the road before the first Sentinel wave gets you !! You have just lost your ability to boost away, you will have to defeat the sentinels first. Sentinels are generally stronger than pirates and will continue to spawn against you, so once you have destroyed the first wave, be sure to get away fast!

If you do things well, you will be able to enter the Freighter: Go speak to the captain and get your reward.

That's it, enjoy No Man's Sky and if you think battles are too easy then try to win Level 5 fights !!

XenonS

Also, a point on battles nearby freighters. It is best to hang close, to big ship and fly slow. Shot pirates as they leave or exit an attack on a freighter. If a stray bolt nicks freighter, even on its mighty shields, non loot compartment, it will void captains reward, later on. That, I think, is why the Devs added that shotgun spray cannon, weapon modifier. The beam and default gun range is Long! Easy to nick, the wrong thing. birdbatscuba

In my first system, I once got caught inside a freighter: he was in red alert and I was inside, I couldn't get out anymore. I don't remember how I came to this but I had to reload a past save to continue.

XenonS

Yup, in Age of Conan, MMO, at release, players were falling thru, the world. Can be very frustrating. I notice however, in No Mans Sky, the heavier fauna, now bump players, moving them slightly. Have you had that happen, like when you feed the big ones?

Up to now I have visited 6 sun systems with only 2 nicer planets with fauna and good ressources, one was in my starting world. Some guides speak about planets full of vortex cubes or these xxxx (light) balls which give you a lot of units if you stack them, I have yet to find all this. Meanwhile I finally got the Atlas Pass v1. I will soon get involved in the building thing, I hope I can make units faster with it...For the moment I have a sh** ship with a little cockpit and a misery outside view, oh man, that's terrible :(

XenonS