Heya am newbie to penumbra!

1. do I/should I be hacking every turn?

2. is there a way to NOT create a sanctuary/tp node? Say I want to hack a system 8 turns away. The game forces sanctuaries and nodes on me that are enroute. Can I not just hack past/through them without settling? Do I just have to colonize every system, their mother, their father in-law and dog on the way to X system?

3. Is the above part of the game design? It's the only thing that is stopping me getting anywhere.

4. How do you expand further out into a huge galaxy if you reach your population limit just in your starting constellation? Is this intentional so I have to manage approval better etc? 

5. Am I meant to expand out via minor civs?

Thanks for taking the time to help me wrap my head around it!

1. Yes, why not?

2. You can hack any node directly, if there is a path. You don't need to hack and colonize adjacent nodes first or anything.

3. ^

4. By hacking, as allways. You can hack through outer space in thin spaces after you've researched barryonic shielding. What approval problems are you talking about? As far as I remember UC don't have much trouble with approval management.

5. You can, for sure. Not superb for expansion when compared to just popping a new sanctuary, but you get good early fleets for assimilating a faction. Early pirates have detection so you can send those fleets to protect your Nexus.