R is short for Resources.
In the campaign game, R is displayed as purplish bubbles that both players and enemies will pickup and use to build new ships.
R can also be used to earn Credits (C).
Take your R to an allied station, or a friendly ship equipped with a Factory. It will automatically be exchanged for C, unless the ship you’re piloting has a Factory. If you have a Factory and want to unload your R, hold down the C button.
Capacity
How much R your ship can carry is limited by your ship’s total Capacity.
Increase your capacity by attaching storage blocks to your ship.
Harvesting
R will drop when enemies are killed, and can be collected from plants and seeds.
If you find a region with a lot of plants, you may have a large amount R available. Be sure to collect it before your enemies do. Put down a base nearby and make sure your faction controls the area.
Photosynth
R can also be generated using blocks with the Photosynth ability.
These are generally Solar Panels used by both the Farmers and Tinkrell.
Buildings for the Bees, Plant Seeds, and Spikey Plant command modules also slowly generate R.
The fastest R generating block is the large Tinkrell Solar Panel.
Farming
The Farmer faction has the ability to make more R than any other faction using their Seed Lauchers.
Seed Launchers allow you to fire seeds at asteroids to create your own gardens. These Crop Seeds will stick to any ENVIRONMENTAL block which includes all the asteroids.
Mobile Farming
The problem with a garden is, it doesn’t move. The Farmers can solve this problem by building their ships out of ENVIRONMENTAL blocks and carrying the seeds with them.
Even better, players can design ‘green house’ ships that use Seed Launchers internally and provide a large enclosed growing area. Crop Seeds can be carried around in a single large ship and build large fleets of allies.