[max-peck]

Also you can take BDU's initial orders as just a starting point.

You have enough fuel and torpedoes to remain on patrol for several weeks.

After you have done your 24 hours you can freelance a bit.

In the Navigation screen you will see several pull down charts up at the top of the screen.

One of these is a map of the world with major shipping lanes/convoy routes. Feel free to do a little bit of exploring to find good hunting spots.

I tend to patrol my given grid box for 4 days, then if nothing is doing there I will move to an adjacent box for 4 days, and so on until I am down to about 20% fuel or have no torpedoes left.
Others here will just completely freelance from the word go and head straight to their favorite grid.

How you play it is entirely up to you

But I would suggest you stay out for several weeks.