Pirate
Template:RoleInfobox A Pirate is an NPC or player who primarily attacks other ships for cargo and monetary gain.
Pirates also do smuggling to sell stolen cargo on the black market. The Crime & Punishment system affects PvP and piracy.
Playing as a pirate
Pirates can operate anywhere in the galaxy, but low-security systems are the most lucrative. Piracy is prevalent in Anarchy systems and systems with a ruling anarchy minor faction. Pirates don't gain a bounty and there's no NPC security in anarchy systems.
It's worth noting that if the last station you were docked is owned by a minor faction you have, or gain, a bounty with, you'll respawn at that station and have to pay that bounty off if your ship is destroyed. Thus it's beneficial to keep your last dock at a station in Anarchy space.
Piracy requires the use of several specific modules to operate successfully. Being able to track down targets between systems requires a Frame Shift Wake Scanner. Pirates must force targets out of supercruise with a Frame Shift Drive Interdictor. Next, a pirate must be able to ascertain what kind, if any, cargo the ship is carrying. This requires a Manifest Scanner. Without that a pirate has no way to tell whether a pilot has value cargo or the type and amount of cargo. Then a pirate must obtain the cargo, by force if necessary. This means directly damaging the target's Cargo Hatch, or by using Hatch Breaker Limpets. Lastly, a pirate's ship must be equipped with Cargo Racks to hold the looted cargo. Collector Limpets can be used to more efficiently pick up disposed cargo. Doing these tasks effectively determines whether you make profit.
Proper ship choice is key to a pirate. Proper offensive and defensive capabilities are needed. Sufficient speed is necessary to not be outrun by haulers and other vessels. The ship must have enough internal space to carry all modules and cargo racks.
Pirating NPCs
NPC ships that enter and leave stations carry cargo reflective of the station's economy. The respective imports and exports are based on the system state and the background simulation. The NPC ships may also carry an array of expensive rare commodities.[1] Thus players can pirate the shipping lanes between wealthy stations and outposts that import or export expensive goods. Such as wait just beyond No Fire Zones of stations or follow the wakes of haulers.
Piracy missions can be found on the Bulletin Board.
Pirating other players
The philosophy of pirates in Elite is one of simplicity. It draws on the fear of total loss of a ship and cargo by the attacking pirate. Pilots either drop some of their cargo to meet the demands of the pirate, or risk destruction and the total loss of their cargo with a pricey insurance payment. Pirates may use any number of activities to assert dominance over the situation and persuade the target into cooperation, (e.g.- mass locking, proving faster speed, or showing superior firepower). Sometimes the simple presence of a large combat ship is enough to pressure a pilot into dumping some of their cargo. In Elite, most pirates only seek cargo and do not actively engage for PvP kills; though will attack if pilots don't cooperate.
Generally, pirates will leave players unharmed if their demands are satisfied. Some will still attack to kill afterwards. However, like any other flamboyant task, those who engage in piracy will start to become known among pilots and those who destroy their targets after receiving cargo will become infamous. Such pirates are known as "player killers," and pilots are less likely to cooperate. Instead, they'll attempt to escape or die fighting which leaves the pirate with nothing. It is therefore beneficial to the long-term success as a pirate to be careful with actions and to keep their promise of no harm if they drop cargo.
Methods
One of the most common methods of piracy involves staying in supercruise at a low speed around a Nav Beacon while waiting for players to jump into a system, then use a Frame Shift Drive Interdictor to force targets out of supercruise. Once a target has been interdicted and their cargo is scanned, the pirate has numerous options. The pirate can start simply by directly talking to the player with the Comms Panel or a microphone. The target player may already realize they cannot outrun or outgun the pirate and quickly hand over some cargo before moving on. The pirate can choose to attack, damage the cargo hatch until cargo is ejected. Once cargo begins to eject (module ~75-80% health), it is advised to stop shooting, as further damage will not change how much cargo the ship loses. Once cargo stops, you can attack the cargo hatch again. Hatch breaker limpets can be used separately or while attacking the cargo hatch. The time needed to hack the cargo hold is related to the health of the target's cargo hatch module. Traders may jettison cheaper cargo first to draw attention away from themselves and attempt to jump to hyperspace before jettisoning more expensive cargo. A Manifest Scanner helps to prevent this and it gives you more bargaining power by telling the player that you know what they have and what your demands are ahead of time.
It's possible to pirate players without using Hatch Breaker Limpets. This frees a module slot for something else or use a ship with a more limited number of internals. This approach relies on the target manually ejecting some cargo after the pirate makes demands over the Comms.
Shooting at players may send them into panic mode, especially if they have not encountered player piracy before. Try mass-locking and using Comms first.
Give the ultimatum "Stop your engines or I'll kill you." before asking for cargo. Zeroing thrust is easier to do than dropping cargo, so they are more likely to do that. From there, you have the time to talk with the target.
When you have someone mass locked say "drop half your cargo or lose all of it" works well and keeps the bounties low.
Sometimes the target will not respond in comms, but will still do your demand. You would still get what you want and can consider it a success.
If you can persuade the target to abandon cargo instead of jettisoning, you can sell it on the normal commodities market instead of the black market. Sometimes the target asks what you prefer.
Pick your targets wisely. Because piracy requires special modules so your ship has reduced offensive or defensive power. Thus it can't fight as well as the same ship outfitted for e.g. bounty hunting. So pirating traders in smaller and slower ships is ideal. You can stay on their tail, mass-lock them and they can't kill you.
Tips
- Piracy in Anarchy systems solves the problem of 1. Getting a bounty for destruction 2. Heavy fines if stolen goods are scanned in cargo holds.
- Only visit high, medium, low security systems for piracy excursions, then return to Anarchy to offload goods.
- You can be the scourge of 32 systems and just change ship and go back to trading when you get bored. This makes piracy viable as a role.
- Most pirates don't only pirate. They just don't eliminate the option as additional income and fun.[2]
NPC Pirates
NPC pirates are typically any non-player ship with a bounty attached to it. Typically they come in two varieties; random and event.
Random pirates can be found anywhere in supercruise, inside Resource Extraction sites and Nav Beacons, and overwhelmingly inhabit Compromised Nav Beacons. When scanning a ship they can usually be identified by their bounty since all NPC pirates have some sort of bounty. This scales depending on their ship and rank. Random pirates in supercruise will attempt to interdict the player if they get close. This commonly happens outside Nav Beacons regardless if the player has cargo or not. Strangely if a player interdicts a pirate they will not fight back immediately and will instead merely scan the player for cargo, then supercruise away if they have none. These pirates can also appear in certain Unidentified Signal Sources and are frequently in a Wing. In salvage signal sources they will usually leave the player alone if they don't see them take cargo. Be careful with NPC Wings, because it's common for a small ship such as an Eagle or Sidewinder to be accompanied by an Anaconda or Fer-de-Lance.
Event Pirates are more predictable and very common for traders. There are two kinds; ones chasing your cargo and assassins hired to kill you. The former can be generated any time you enter Supercruise or jump to a new system. They can be easily identified since they always hail the player for their large cargo hold before interdiction. Cargo delivery missions also generate them occasionally. You will often be told by your mission employer that they are coming. These pirates are always scaled to the player they are hunting; a Sidewinder will be attacked by other Sidewinders, Eagles and occasionally Adders. Their rank is always one or two levels higher than yours. Assassins function mostly the same, but are much more dangerous. For one they do not care for your cargo and will attack as soon as they interdict. They also generally fly better ships than typical NPC pirates. These can spawn during a mission and you will receive a message about their arrival and attack and will gain a bonus if you can eliminate them. They spawn on rare occasions for delivering data and other legal non-cargo missions. Like other pirates, they always have a bounty and it scales with their rank and ship.
Supply runs, where you source a designated amount of cargo, have a rather deadly quirk. Unlike assassins, these missions commonly spawn pirates, a 70% chance per mission. Furthermore, these pirates have a higher level than assassins. For example, a Type-9 normally encounters ships such as Viper MkIIIs and on very rare occasions Pythons. While pirates for these missions very commonly fly Anacondas. They have a very high rank such as Elite while the player is as low as Competent. It's advised to take serious caution on these missions and don't take them in bulk. Note that Wing Missions don't have this issue.
Pirates other than assassins always demand a certain amount of cargo when they scan you; if you have any, otherwise they will leave disgruntled. Complying will satisfy them and it's useful to have the Jettison all cargo command bound to a button for emergencies. Beware, in some cases pirates can chase the player again immediately after receiving the cargo. So this is only advisable if escaping or fighting isn't an option.
Playing against pirates
You can avoid becoming a victim of piracy and keep all your cargo by knowing how pirates operate, using defensive techniques, and a bit of luck:
- Avoid high risk systems.
- Travel in wings.
- Use mines to deter pursuing ships.
- Use chaff.
- Use ECM.
- Become efficient in breaking frame shift interdictions, know the mechanics of the game (i.e.- submitting to interdiction means a faster FSD cooldown time than failing to avoid interdiction).
- Utilize developed PvP techniques and tricks to try to circumvent and outmaneuver pirates.
Dealing with NPC pirates
- If you dump a small amount of cargo they will stop to collect it.
- If a pirate NPC is in a better ship than you, run.
Dealing with player 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 a legitimate way to play the game.
- Keep an eye on the comms to see demands made by the pirate.
- There are good pirates. They aren't benevolent players, but they're good at piracy. If he or she talks to you: listen. If you run or shoot first, you will likely die.
- Losing some cargo might seem bad, but it's a small loss compared to the cost of total haul plus ship rebuy if you resist the pirate and die.
- A good pirate knows that if he kills you after you have given 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.
- If it's a player in a better, faster ship they will know the tricks to not let you get away and will likely blow your rear off. So it's better to meet their demands (or run anyway if they shoot first).
- Combat Logging to avoid getting killed is not permitted. It will get you reported and your account warned and possibly name-shamed on public sites.
PvE Low Temp Diamonds Piracy
Updated as of 25/3/2019: If you are lucky to get a Type 9 or a Type 7with low temperature diamonds you can fill your cargo in an Anaconda with half of its space (for a Type 7) or full cargo (Type 9). However you can manage this just fine in other smaller ships. Just keep in mind that given the high cargo amounts that Type 7/Type 9/Kraits/pythons yield, a larger ship can yield better money per run. Cutters, Anacondas and even Federal Corvetter can net you between 200 M per run up to 500 M per run (depending on cargo space and Spawning chance of Miner ships).
You should look for an agriculture system in boom, I've heard it mentioned that having a refinery/extraction as a secondary economy is a nice to have but not necessary (I haven't noticed much difference). This system should also be in anarchy. It is SO much nicer interdicting and doing your dirty work in the same system without following your prey like a lost puppy... I recommend eddb.io for this, you can search for system with all required parameters close to you. (Original Author text, not modified and stil relevant to this day, 25/3/2019)
Next once you are super cruising in the system be on the lookout for Type-6, Type-7, Type-9, Keelback, Asp, or Diamondback. Scan them in super-cruise and look at their equipment, if you find a mining laser then that ship is carrying Low Temperature Diamonds.
Once interdicted, you need to IMMEDIATELY fire on the prey to get aggro. Otherwise they will High Wake despite the FSD cooldown. If they do manage to jump, just low wake and search for another target. Below are the methods which are verified to work.
THIS NO LONGER WORKS! (25/03/2019): If the ship is a transport AND harmless or mostly harmless I will target they're power plant and shut them down. (Take your time, and fire only directly above them or below to minimize hull damage). This will stop them dead and you can hatch break and collect all day.
Updated methods:
Right now, There are two methods for faster LTD aquisition. First and most reliable on smaller ships is shield tanking. Hit your target a couple of times to draw aggro and come to a full stop. Divert full pips to Shields and wait for the miner ship to stop between 700 meters to 1.2 Km. While he's firing, hatch break him until the cargo is liberated. Do keep in mind if the target has point defense, this will become impractical. Therefore, for smaller ships, it is also recommended to pick one without said defenses. If you wish, then remove the shields and target the point defenses using Seeker missiles (en mass), Pack-hounds (more efficient) or Cannons. Anything with explosive damage works. Just be carefull not to use excessive force and kill your target.
For meddium ships, such as pythons and Krait Phantom/MKII (expect Type 7's), the process becomes more dangerous. Those targets have weaponry to compromise the shield tanking procedure. 2 Options are available: Shield tank what you can and withdrawn before losing shields or target and disable the drives.
- The first option won't allow you to steal all their cargo (which can sometimes reach as high as 100+ LTD) but it is more reliable.
- The second is harder and takes more piloting skill / time (as it involves bump stopping the ship to very low speeds or full stop) but the reward is all their cargo and faster cargo collection.
For bigger transports (Type 7 or Type 9), Shield tanking with a Large ship (Anaconda/Cutter/Corvette) is viable depending on their weaponry and/or your Shield resistences. Drive disabling while harder than shield tanking, is easier than bump stopping other medium ships due to the large chassis size and lower overall speeds.
However there is a another method is becomes practical against those transports. First, you will need weaponry that can destroy shields fast such as beam weapons (or equivalent) and packhounds with experimental effect Penetrator payload or gimballed pulse/burst lasers/multicannons (anything that can penetrate the hull and damage the module). As soon as the interdiction is over, immediatly begin firing on the target vessel. While doing so, Select the FSD from contact panel. When the shields are down, use the Packhounds/Burst/Pulse Lasers to target and neutralize the FSD. Once that is done, proceed to disarm the vessel of all weaponry, including point defense. Pack-hounds/Seekers excel on this matter since they are external mounts. Once that is completed, let the target flee for a couple of minutes without losing sight of it, then proceed to chase. You will notice the target will come to a full stop on it's own as it was surrendering. While a bit complex and risky, this method present the most enganging experience of piracy while also offering a greater reward, full cargo and faster cargo collection.
Equipment required for piracy:
- FSD interdictor (mandatory to pull target from supercruise)
- High Class engineered Shield (mandatory if shield tanking, otherwise optional)
- Cargo racks (mandatory, for obvious reasons)
- Collector limpet controller (Mandatory, Higher class if possible, A-rated for more limpet life time or B-rated for more range)
- Hatch Breaker Limpet (mandatory, the class is optional and explained below, the rating A is mandatory)
- Laser weaponry or equivelant for shield neutralization (Optional for shield tanking, Mandatory for the rest)
- Pack Hounds/Seeker Missiles/Cannons/Multicannons (Optional for shield tanking, mandatory for the rest)
- Shield Boosters (Mandatory, Enginnering not required but recommended)
- Manifest Scanner (optional, effective only to monitor how many LTDS left in the target's hold. Otherwise, replace with Shield Booster)
Hatch Breaker clarification:
Use A rating hatch breakers as the minimum cargo released is higher, other ratings are not worth considering. Do remember that a higher class of Hatch Breakers may not be necessary. A Class 7A hatch breaker will release the cargo faster if the target is at 100% hull but a lower class will release at the same rate as the 7A if the target is heavily damaged (aprox. 10%). Therefore it is recommended a higher class of Hatch Breakers if you intent on shield tanking, otherwise any Class with do if you damage your target.
Side notes:
Be forewarned that Collector Limpets will impact the cargo against your ship and destroy it, if you are moving above 13 KPH, so slowing the ship to 0 or somewhere between that max value will allow for safe retrieval.
After completing an interdiction and jumping back in supercruise, wait a bit for an NPC pirate to attempt to interdict you. Proceed to evade interdiction, then go after your intented target. This will prevent a NPC pirate dropping on your wake and disrupting your own pirating operation (instead of risking heavy damage/destruction/target fleeing while fighting two targets).
If you find the number of ships lacking, jumping out and in again or switching modes will reset the instance and yield you better results.
Practice other methods other than shield tanking. While hard at first, those can be most rewarding and faster when fully mastered. Do not let dying or failure discourage you. Piracy should and is an engaging experience.
- As of Update 1.5, Piracy in Elite was overhauled and the definition of "piracy" broadened. Previously, the term "Pirate" was normally reserved only for players who would actively seek out and prey on other CMDRs hauling valuable cargo, as well as the generic term for any Wanted NPCs that interdict players and that populate Nav Beacons, R.E.S., USS sites, and other locations. After the changes implemented in update 1.5, NPC ships entering and leaving stations now carry cargo more reflective of each station's Economy and its respective Imports and Exports. These NPC ships may also carry an array of expensive rare commodities.[1] This means that players can now choose to pirate the shipping lanes between wealthy stations and outposts that import or export expensive goods - sometimes even laying in wait just beyond No Fire Zones of stations or following the wakes of trade ships. New and updated piracy missions were also added to the Bulletin Board. These changes provided a more open-ended path with more choices for players choosing piracy. Players can now engage in a form of piracy that is reliable, lucrative, and well-paying without having to rely on only attacking other players directly; this also had a secondary effect of lessening the social stigma and impact of the term "Pirate." Since it's possible to carry out the activities of a pirate without having to attack other players many are more likely openly admit to pirating, leading to open discussion about the profession between players and helping to further piracy as a career. Piracy has become a more lucrative career choice with the potential for a much larger income less reliant on PvP than it had been previously.[3][4]