Pirate

Pirates are NPCs and players who take cargo from other pilots in order to make a profit. The philosophy of an Elite Dangerous pirate is quite simple, "Give up your cargo or I'll open fire!".

Pirates attack other ships for profit or gain, and very few other reasons. You will find pirates operating anywhere in the Elite universe but mainly in systems where the security forces and defences are weak, or absent. When pirating it is highly recommended to stick to "Anarchy" systems because attacking ships anywhere else will add a bounty to the player's head. It is also worth noting that if the last station you docked was owned by a minor faction you have a bounty with, you have to pay that bounty if you're destroyed as you'll re-spawn at that station, thus it's recommended to have your station be in anarchy space.

Being able to track down and force targets to drop their cargo is the difference between making money and going broke as a pirate. To track down potential prey it is recommended to equip a Cargo Scanner and either stick around a Nav Beacon or equip a Frame Shift Drive Interdictor to force targets out of supercruise. Once a profitable target has been found a pirate has a few options to obtain the cargo: shoot the cargo hatch until it is damaged enough that the cargo is ejected, shoot a cargo hatch breaker at the ship which will destroy the cargo hatch to eject the cargo (takes good aim and piloting), or 'encourage' the target to jettison the cargo - generally by damaging them into low hull. Keep in mind that traders will often jettison cheaper cargo first and attempt to jump to hyperspace before jettisoning their expensive cargo.

Things to remember about pirates

• Pirates are often accused of being griefers. While the victim of any pirate attack may view such actions as griefing, the pirate(s) will view the same situation as their normal routine.
• If a pirate is an NPC in a better ship than you, run. Also if you dump a small amount of cargo they will stop to pick it up.
• If it's a player in a better, faster ship they will know the tricks to not letting you get away and will likely blow your rear off. Better to meet their demands (or run anyway if they are the shoot first kind).
• There's such a thing as a good pirate, he isn't a good person but he's good at what he does. If he talks to you: listen, if you run or shoot first you will likely die.
• A good pirate knows that if he kills you after you have given up cargo, you will likely add him to his ignore list. That is bad for his long term profits so he shouldn't kill you if you give up cargo.
• Keep an eye on the comms.
• If you are a pirate give the ultimatum "Kill your engines or I'll kill you." before asking for cargo as zeroing your thrust is easier to do than dropping cargo so they are more likely to do it. From there you have the time to talk it over.
• Combat Logging to avoid getting killed will get you reported and your account warned and possibly name-shamed on public sites.