# Quickstart: Your First Mission

This guide walks you through creating a simple flyable mission from scratch. By the end you will have a player ship and a hostile wing to fight. The whole thing takes about five minutes.

## 1. Open a new mission

Launch QtFRED. Go to File › New. The viewport shows empty space with a reference grid. QtFRED automatically places one ship, this is your player start.

## 2. Put the player in Alpha wing

Click the player ship in the viewport to select it, then click the Form Wing button in the toolbar. Type `Alpha` and click OK. The ship is renamed Alpha 1.

The player ship must be in Alpha wing. The engine looks for Alpha 1 as the default player start.

## 3. Add enemies

Use the ship class drop-down in the toolbar to select a hostile ship class. It will appear in red. Hold `Ctrl` and left-click in the viewport twice to place two ships. Select both of them (drag a box or shift-click), then click Form Wing again. Name the wing `Epsilon`. The ships are renamed Epsilon 1 and Epsilon 2 and are hostile by default.

## 4. Optionally add more waves

With Epsilon wing selected, open Editors › Wings to open the Wing Editor. Increase Number of waves to 2 and set a short delay between waves. A second wave will jump in after the first is destroyed.

## 5. Fill in Mission Specs

Open Editors › Mission Specs. Give the mission a Title and a short Description. These appear in the mission selection screen. Set music tracks if desired.

## 6. Add a mission goal

Open Editors › Mission Goals. Add a primary goal with a description such as Destroy all hostiles. Set the completion condition to a SEXP that evaluates to true when Epsilon wing is destroyed, for example `is-destroyed-delay`. See SEXPs for an overview of the scripting system.

## 7. Save and play

Press `Ctrl+S` to save. QtFRED saves to your mod's `data/missions/` folder by default. Launch FreeSpace Open, go to the Tech Room › Mission Simulator › Single Missions, and your mission will appear there.

## Next steps

- Script dynamic events with the Mission Events editor.
- Add a pre-mission briefing in the Briefing Editor.
- Give ships patrol routes with the Waypoint Editor.
- Chain missions together in the Campaign Editor.