Hey, I appreciate that there's someone out there making videos for newbie pirates. I kind of wish I could go back and start a new pilot and try to pirate NPCs from day 1, but there's no way I'm doing my rank grinds again and my clipper is too fun. But I have a correction for your guide. Armor penetration is not what you think it is. In this case the "Armor" being penetrated refers to a value inherent to every type of ship that mostly reflects it's size. Large ships have a big armor number, small ships have a small armor number. Large weapons and weapons of certain types have higher penetration values. A ship with a higher armor value than an attacking weapon's penetration takes reduced damage to it's hull and modules, proportionately. So an AspX has an extra hard time killing an anaconda with just 4x C1 multicannons compared to, say, 4x C1 torpedoes or railguns. What you're looking for as a pirate is an easy way to damage modules, which is actually tied to the "breach chance" statistic. The "min" value corresponds to your chance of breaching and hitting a module when their hull is at 100%, and as their hull decreases the chance rises to the "max" value (from my reading I am not sure when it hits the max value... it may be near 0% hull, or it may be higher). Most weapons scale from 40% to 80%, but cannons are higher (60% to 90%). Especially at high health there's a big difference. (side note: missiles have a 0% chance to breach but they're great at hitting external modules like thrusters). Weapons also have breach damage values that are separate from their normal damage values. They have different ratios between the two which affects how much module vs hull damage that they do. But for the most part I don't think it that hugely affects weapon choice. It just shows that pulse lasers are the best energy weapon for module damage. All this information can be found under the "read more" section when you are in the buying or transferring menu for modules. But this is more complicated than you really need it to be. I still see people posting builds where their only real anti-module weapon is pulse lasers, which is fine as long as your line up your shots carefully, that's how I used to do it pre-engineers. Though your life can sometimes be easier with cannons, sometimes you dice rolls go poorly and your cannon hits hull every time (since they're fewer, bigger hits). Cannons can be modded with high yield rounds to damage more modules when you hit the PP, which can be useful, but is far from necessary. Railguns are mainly good for super penetrator. Other pointers: if you're hunting in a system with security, wake scanners are useful for avoiding bounties. Just interdict your target, which only nets a fine, and then follow your target when they high wake out. Repeat until they are in a lawless system and then take their cargo. Just remember to pay your fine. Most pirates run 2A interdicters since range doesn't make a huge difference most of the time. That doesn't really affect your build but in other ships the space can be valuable. I actually run B-rated collector limpet controllers because they sacrifice duration for higher range without increasing weight. If your target boosts away from you they're better at cleaning up the mess of canisters afterwards. Unless you've got a huge haul and are low on limpets you don't need 12 minutes of duration on a limpet. Finally, beware of point defense turrets on higher rated targets. They will demolish your limpets whenever they regain power. It's really annoying and makes collecting the cargo really difficult.
Many thanks for your extremely detailed and well thought out response. The time spent is appreciated and you make some really great points! I'll revisit armour penetration / module damage because that's very interesting. It doesn't matter how long you play this game, there is still stuff to learn! I'm in the process of making a range of further videos on piracy - in particular the use of a wake scanner to pirate in secure systems. I glossed over it in this video to keep the time below 15mins. I'm also looking to provide a clear description on how to identify good systems for wake piracy - surrounding populated systems, secondary economy, power play, faction state etc. I'll take note of your points for those vids. Yup, point defence turrets are a nightmare - that's why I carry lots of limpets and dump the excess. I run a 2A interdictor on most of my builds - cobras and asp etc. For the python I found that 2 collectors get overwhelmed when I have a T7 or T9 spewing cargo. The second size 3 collector module pushed the inderdictor up to the size 4 slot. No point using a 2A in a size 4 slot unless I want to save power. That said, I do take your point and agree that range really isn't an issue for an interdictor. I could perhaps use a size 5 collector and a size 3 interdictor here. Might net me a few more tonnes of cargo space. Fly safe commander.
"I'm in the process of making a range of further videos on piracy - in particular the use of a wake scanner to pirate in secure systems. I glossed over it in this video to keep the time below 15mins. I'm also looking to provide a clear description on how to identify good systems for wake piracy - surrounding populated systems, secondary economy, power play, faction state etc. I'll take note of your points for those vids." First, NPC's cheat. Upon exiting interdiction, NPCs will almost immediately begin the jump process while you're still in the cool down phase. Having a Wake Scanner with the Fast Scan upgrade is almost essential. I pirate in any system. You get a fine for interdiction (pffft. whatev's) in most systems. I then manifest scan them to see if they're worth chasing. If so, I then Wake Scan after they jump and follow. I repeat this until they jump into an uninhabited system or Anarchy. Then I interdict to pirate their cargo. Pirating is actually done better in a wing. One ship to keep on the power plant and the other to loot the cargo. Just have to trust the other CMDR to give you the even split.
You have a lot of good info in this reply phyvo, however you appear to be missing a huge aspect of armor penetration. The size and shape of the ships hull has a dramatic affect on armor penetration and if you are aware of the mechanic you can use positioning to your advantage when your goal is penetrating the hull. I recommend reading this post from the devs on the official FD forums, it's far more important than the penetration stats you refer to in actual combat: forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=170205
Hey CMDR Arsen Cross, Yes, I kind of glossed over how exactly that works when I wrote "as long as your line up your shots carefully," This is because Wiggy already covered the best way to take advantage of those mechanics starting at 8:45, describing that again would be rather redundant. I'm not trying to write an entire pirating guide underneath a pirating guide video. Nevertheless perhaps I could have caused some confusion with the way I worded things, and that thread is a useful resource for explaining exactly how module damage works. But be careful of calling your ability to breach the hull "armor penetration". What you (and the devs in that thread) are calling "armor penetration" is not what the game calls armor penetration right now. The devs only call it "armor penetration" because at the time of that thread they hadn't added the current armor penetration mechanics to the game. The module damage mechanics are all still there, yes, so being above/below the target makes a huge difference in terms of breaching the hull to do module damage, but calling it armor penetration is only going to confuse new players because weapons all list armor penetrations before you buy them these days, and these values have nothing to do with actually hitting the modules beneath the hull.
You sir are a true hero. I've been farming low temp diamonds with your method. Been grinding a couple hours a night and I'm at 700 mil from this piracy alone.
700M - fantastic! That's probably more than I've made! I pushed my trade rank from 2% Tycoon to Elite by selling diamonds - that's about 600M all told. Since then I've been too busy making videos about piracy to actually go pirating for cash. Back to in now though - I want money in the bank ahead of 2.4.
RNGesus is clearly not on your side! I tend to find that systems in boom with either RES sites or asteroid fields spawn the most ships. Keep moving on to the next system if you don't find anything. There are lots of reasons that the BGS spawns other types of ships. Wars, power play, tourist beacons...
probably the best tutorial i've seen. also I would appreciate if you could make a low level ship piracy tutorial like you said in the video. I'm a new player on PS4. I'm doin ok but still learning each day.
Thanks! The budged piracy tutorial is still a work in progress. Probably 3 or 4 weeks away as I'm busy researching some of the ideas, locations and techniques.
So I stumbled across this video the other day after browsing through some other ED videos and it inspired me to give PvE piracy a go again. I was already proficient in a number of areas of the game, but had never quite gotten the hang of where and when to hunt for the best piracy profit. So I already had the ships, just needed a bit of refitting of my Python and I was good to go. Found a decent Ag system in anarchy and in the space of an hour had bagged 3 T7's full of LTD's - 118 tons each (sale value of $6M per ship). With a close by station drop off was a breeze to get paid, refit and back out there. So that was around $18M in just over an hour - and it's a surprisingly satisfying game play loop. So thanks for a great tutorial and good tips. Greatly appreciated! [I play as CMDR Millycent on Xbox - if you ever see a Python called "Army of Synthesis" that'll be me pillaging poor traders!]
Brilliant Video WiggyB, Clear, concise and informative with a minimum of or virtually no waffle. Ive just walked away from ED for 6 weeks to have a break and question its longevity as I got bored engineering my 5th Anaconda. This has given me something to come back and try. Keep it up, Subscribed
That's great to hear. Thanks! I totally understand why you'd walk away. I had reached the same point myself but then stumbled across a few videos on piracy and thought I'd give it a go. It's taken quite a bit of investigation and practice but the journey was well worth it. Fingers crossed for the Thargoids.
Thanks for this. I've been out of the game for a long time and didn't want to rely on cheap tactics to make my $$$ like Quince scan mission stacking, but RES' just weren't cutting it in my poorly fitted conda. Time to trade it in for a Python and give this a go!
Thanks. Sadly taking out the power plant is bugged at the moment. Has been for a few months. There are several alternative methods that I've described in my latest two piracy videos. Hope that helps. Have fun.
So, watched this vid, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Been pirating for a while, but only players, relying on my corvettes size and firepower to intimidate players into giving me cargo. Tried a set up with the vette for this. I know you said your not able to hit modules with fixed weapons, but id highly recommend putting 2 class 3 PA's onto your ship if you can fit them. Nail the PP and it goes down in one shot typically. I found this easier then manually targeting the PP with gimballed weapons. Also, if you have a ship capable of using a fighter bay, id highly recommend having two players multicrew with you and giving them Imperial fighters with gimballed beams. While you focus on taking out the PP when ship reboots, each fighter can target one of the drives or even take out point defenses. Still fine tuning the use of different set ups with my vette and multicrew pirating, but so far its been working out well. Id also like to point out that in the next update they will be adding in repair limpets. Wondering if it might be useful to carry a low grade one to repair the ship your pirating so it doesnt blow up?
Stumbled across this vid when contemplating coming back to ED after several months away. Not tried piracy before, refitted my Python and gave it a try. First mining T6 was worth 2.4MCr! This is going to be fun and profitable!
Hey great guide ! made a mint trying this last night , noticed that the low rank npcs in type 6&7 will just sit there shooting you while you rob them ,no need to shoot out the pp. Also best to sell your loot in one of Archon Delaines systems for the smuggled goods bounus .
This is a really good guide. Been playing this game for years and piracy was one of the few things I've never dabbled in. I think I'll be giving it a try now, though.
Wow this was an amazing guide! I love how everything you talked about you explained why and how... I wish more guides were this good! Earned a sub you deserve more mate! Keep up the great work!
Fantastic video, concise, to the point and really informative. I used to pirate a lot and its been a year or so since I last did anything as fun. figured id have a little refresher course, your'e video was perfect and even taught me a few things!
Excellent video, I like to think I'm a half-decent pirate but I learned a lot from this tutorial. Interesting technique using spin to keep the target centred durin interdiction, I'll give that a whirl (pun intended).
just subbed after watching second vid of yours u really deserve more subs BUT with content this good your fan base will increase no doubt keep up the excellent work o7
You should probably be able to work it out from the video. I'm away from my ship at the moment. From memory... in the first group I have my interdictor, manifest scanner and wake scanner all on the primary trigger. They can all be active at the same time as only one will operate depending on circumstance. The other trigger has my sniping weapon. I think it was a rail during the video. Having this on its own fire group without the laser and multis avoids the confusing clutter of targeting dots. The second group has my combat setup. All the gimbles on the primary, fixed sniper repeated on the secondary. The third group has the laser only as the primary. This lets me target the power plant gently and quickly without mashing it with the multis. The secondary has all the limpets. Successive pulls launches lots of collectors and then a breaker. Hope that helps.
Considering the only piracy I do is either during community goals or when I'm doing power-play I might actually try this out with the following changes as personal preference. Two medium burst lasers with efficient weapon, a large multi-cannon with the sturdy modification with corrosive rounds & the other large hard-points will be containment missiles so my target can't high wake if it doesn't go to plan.
Very informative video thanks for putting it out, I'm sure many new CMDR's will find it usefull. I have not tryed this style of play yet even though I have been playing since early beta and have banked over 2BN Credits. But I think I will have to give it a go one day. You can be sure I will probably be refering to this tutorial for a refresher. Stay safe CMDR o7
at 8:30 ish - target the power plant. THis was great in 2.1 or so, but nowadays, anything novice and above reboots. Back when no NPC ever rebooted, I was able to steal the entire cargo of a type 9 in diamonds. That was fun. That was really worth the time. Nowadays, finding a type 9 with diamonds below novice rank is like finding a unicorn. Bleugh. EDIT: The pulse laser solution. Having to monitor your target for ten plus minutes isn't much fun. Worse than mining - asteroids don't run away. Besides, the power plant usually gets blown to bits anyways. Again, bleugh.
Up until now I'd never even considered pirating... you have me intrigued. I'll try this out soon. Thanks for the inspiration. One little criticism (if you can even call it that) In some places the game audio was a bit too loud, which made it hard to understand what you were saying.
Just stumbled across this, great tutorial. +1 sub! A question, though: Would it also be possible to force the cargo to be released when you destroy the cargo hatch entirely, after you disabled the ship? Or would that risk blowing up the target entirely?
You get a few tonnes doing that. Equivalent to a handful of limpets. Once the hatch is below 10% (from memory) nothing else comes out. You could maybe empty 20t out of a DBX but nowhere close to the 200+ from a T9. Useful bonus if you run out of limpets though.
Thanks for this information! I never knew piracy could be so profitable! I've stuck to mining and bounty hunting for income until now, but I really need to refit my python and give theft a try...
I have tried pirating, but I suck. This guide makes it a whole lot clearer... but I think mining will still be my profession. Great video, and maybe I’ll try pirating once I have cash to throw around.
Cheers. Just to warn you, the method in this video is now bugged and has been since January. Have a look at my piracy in 3.0 video. ruclips.net/video/5b-liHBVSBE/видео.html for methods that work at the moment. o7
I don't know if it's different on PS4, but you can launch your next hatchbreaker immediately after the first disengages. The second hatchbreaker will attach and begin hacking even though cargo is currently being dropped. That should speed up your siphoning significantly.
I would just like to say that if your planning to make more videos, please make sure to lower the game play column so that it does not override your audio. It was hard to hear you talk in some parts of this video. Other wise great tutorial. Thank you.
Thanks for the useful feedback. I've been lowering it further in recent videos. I think this first pirate video was run with the game play at 50% of full volume. Latest vids use 30%. If you watch any of my other items, please do let me know if you feel that the audio is still crap.
this was really useful as quince should be dying in 2.4 and it might be fun to mess up a fed system. thanks for the tips, i'm gonna have to see what i can do with a clipper.
Imp grind is one of the last things on my Elite to do list, so I haven't tried the clipper yet. Supposed to be an excellent pirate ship - possibly better than the Python. Have fun.
Thanks for letting me know - love his videos. He left a really supportive message on one of my guides last week which was great. Very pleased that he gave it a go - and with some success it would seem.
Python is a good allrounder and will be implementing mine for some Piracy trips or I may just buy another, engineer it like you have , great guide and thanks for putting it together for us. o7
Thanks for that. If you do build a pirate ship, make sure you try a few different systems. Zomba has been rather over fished since I made this video. The target system must be agricultural and must have rings or an asteroid belt. I've a few other videos which may help you start out, show you how to test your build and refine your skills. Happy hunting.
Just remember to try more than one system. If you don't get any luck, move on. The background sim is very hard to predict. Once you've got the knack you should make good cash. Enjoy.
Thanks! I'd suggest watching my latest piracy videos before you build a ship. Some aspects have changed in the last few years, particularly the power plant mechanic.
Great to hear. Make sure that any system you try and pirate in has rings or asteroids. You won't find diamonds if it doesn't. If nothing good spawns after 10 to 15 mins move on to another system. Once you find a good one, fish until you drop. Have a look at my high security piracy video for tips on finding systems. Have fun Cmdr.
Piracy is still one of my favourite features. The mechanic has changed since this video was made. Check out my two latest piracy videos for up to date methods.
NP. There have been a few changes since this video was made. In particular a bug with the power plant of NPCs causing them to remain active even at 0%. Have a look at my 3.0 update for new and improved strategies that get round the bug. o7 commander.
Should have mentioned the video - didn't want to blow my own trumpet! Glad you found it useful. Takes a lot of practice - but great fun when you master it.
so... is there some kind of LOGICAL REASON... that we find diamond laden miners in AGRICULTURAL systems? Does not seem to make sense to me... why not extraction or refinery systems?
Executed like a pro. I bought the Python and hated the agility, it felt worse than its stats so I decided to park it until now, I knew id need it one day, I never sell a ship even if im on my arse.
Hello. Great video, very informative. I have a question, are the hatch breaker limpets necessary? Can't you just blow the hatch up, resulting in all of the cargo being ejected? Then destroy the prey?
Unfortunately not. Damaging the hatch does release some cargo - similar quantity to a hatch breaker after each time you damage it. Below about 10% it stops dropping. The total dropped is nowhere near enough to empty a T9 or T7. That said it's a good tactic if you're flying a cobra as you'll probably get enough to fit your hold and save the hatch breaker slot. Hope that helps.
Great video, well explained. One small point: are you sure piercing increases module damage? I'm fairly certain it's only used when calculating the damage you do to a ship with bigger ships having higher hardness.
Type 9s have a high armor rating, so it's good to have better AP to drop the hull to a point where you'll have the highest breach chance. This can also be accomplished with any grade corrosive MC, super easy to engineer and does the same job.
Skill5able Hardness decreases the damage done to modules, so having a weapon that ignores a bit of hardness does indeed help with knocking out modules.
There's currently a bug that allows ships to continue operating when the power plant is disabled. Frontier are aware of it but haven't fixed it yet. Have a look at my 3.0 update video here... ruclips.net/video/5b-liHBVSBE/видео.html
I've found that if you're in an anarchy system, you don't actually need any of the utility scanners. You just know if they have a refinery, they're gonna have those diamonds, no need for manifest. Stay in anarchy systems, no need for wake scanner either.
You're right. However, I normally pirate in higher population non anarchy systems as the spawn rates tend to be better. I also enjoy the chase. This equipment is definitely needed for that.
Anyone else find it really odd that you can only scan a targets cargo hold *after* you've interdicted them? Surely it'd be better to scan them first to see if they're worth it...
So yeah I outfitted my Anaconda with the stuff you described and went to Zomba, a Agricultural system, Anarchy and booming, but only found haulers with military plans and biowaste. What am I doing wrong?
The background sim has a huge amount of stuff going on and I don't pretend to understand all of it. Since I made this video, a large number of people have tried piracy - and many of them have started in Zomba. It seems that the background simulation recognises when a system is suffering from piracy and changes the types of ship that spawn in response. To begin with, you get T9s and T7, then you get Gunships and Keelbacks. Not sure what you get after that because I don't try and pirate after that point. The best advice is to search for your own systems and build up a list. I jump between 15 or so. Make sure that each system has at least one asteroid belt and/or ringed planet or you won't get any miners. I would also recommend looking at the local traffic report (middle column below Galnet in the station menu) to see how many ships have passed through the system in the last 24 hours. A quiet system is likely to perform better than a busy one. If a system isn't spawning ships within 5 or 10 mins, move on to the next one. Hope that helps. Oh, have a look at my guide to high security systems for a way to locate more target systems.
o7, CMDR. Best piracy tutorial. I was just the same and sold my pirate cobra a year ago because I just kept getting biowaste. Now You tell me they come fully laden with low temp diamonds? $.$
This tutorial is just spot on! What system do you recommend or have been pirating in ? I've searched for a good system but only found 2 ships worthy of pirating within an hour
Cheers for the feedback. I'm in the process of editing a video about how to pirate in secure systems to increase the pool of available targets. This will also touch on how to select the best systems. In general though, the RNG spawning mechanic does seem to be quite variable and you do have to be patient to find the right target. Lots of different factors seem to change how many ships spawn. In advance of the next vid, my advice is simply to try a range of different locations. Refresh your super-cruise instance regularly by jumping into normal space and back. I tend to do this once my list has reached about 10 ships / a full page. One final thing - systems WITHOUT either an asteroid belt or a ringed world do tend to spawn fewer target ships, avoid. Look for an anarchy with at least one mining location. Hope that helps and enjoy pirating.
New video uploaded this morning with tips on how to find systems. Fingers crossed, I'm hoping these tips should significantly improve the spawn rate you're seeing.
Been trying to get some miners in the Zomba system and surrounding anarchy systems aswell. Seems when conflict zones are present even transport ships only carry combat weaponry , any tips to avoid that ? Or am i just extremely unlucky ?
Search for high population agricultural anarchies in a boom state on EDDB. Single star systems with small travel distances and rings are best from my experience. Hunt around until you find a good system.
I have some questions, how long does it take on average to find a good ship to pirate? Because I've been searching in LHS 1067(agriculture system with anarchy government) for an hour and I didn't find any good ships, is this just my luck or am I searching in the incorrect area? Also, can you give me some systems where you have had decent succes, so I can go there and see if I will get more. This Python cost me a fair amount of money, so not being able to use it would not make me happy.
You'll find that some systems are better than others and that this varies with time. The states of the minor factions do change what spawns. War, civil war, tourist beacons and power play all change what spawns. LHS 1067 is a rather large system which means that ships that spawn may not even be visible to you. I'd suggest patrolling near the asteroid belt or near the ringed planet. Personally, I prefer smaller systems (less than 1k ly populated radius). Ringed planets and asteroids belts also seem to increase spawns. I have more than 10 systems that I visit regularly. Some days system x spawns ships within minutes all evening, the next day zip. I just move on to the next system. Zomba (the system in the vid) is in boom at the moment but isn't spawning well at all for some reason. Be aware though - piracy does require patience and persistence. On a really bad evening I make 10M, on a good one it can be 30 or 40. Hope that helps and your luck improved.
Thanks for the quick response! I just travelled to Zomba(since in the video you had succes there) but also noticed that not a lot of ships spawn. Is hopping around the systems listed in eddb a good plan or are there some systems that always give a lot? Edit: I just got my first catch: a keelback with 38 tonnes :D
Good to hear. I'd also watch my second video on high security system piracy. The anarchy systems from this video are a bit over fished at the moment. Pirating in other systems gives you far far more to choose from.
Sadly not. Shooting the cargo hatch will randomly result in some cargo to be ejected once the hatch is damaged below a threshold. 80% for memory. The number of canisters released is similar to one limpet. After that it closes again. Repeated shooting drops more, but eventually it stops dropping anything once the damage reaches a lower threshold. Can't remember the value. Around 10 or 20% probably. This means you can't fully empty a target if it has a large hold. Limpets will let you get everything. Hope that helps.
You have the wrong mod on your Distributor... This is High Charge Capacity not Charge Enhanced... you used the correct one in your explanation though... I hope you are aware of that...
17k views and you're the first to mention that! Not quite sure why I've enhanced charge capacity here. I usually use charge enhanced. Seems to work though.
"Not quite sure why I've enhanced charge capacity here. I usually use charge enhanced".....isn't enhanced charge the same as charge enhanced??? Don't you mean "Not quite sure why I've high charge capacity here"? Anyway- excellent video!
Avaddon Nephilim It isn't. Charge Enhanced increases the recharging rate of all your capacitators, while decreasing the capacity. High Charge Capacity increases the capacity of your capacitors, while decreasing the recharging rate. If you are just getting at his wording (Enhanced instead of High), then your point is partially valid though. 😶
Hello great tutorial but could it be that theres more to the spawn rate than just agriculture because im in "LHS 278" right now (Agri and Boom state) and i havent found any ship carrying diamonds only lifestock and such and not even one with mining laser
The background sim has a huge amount of stuff going on and I don't pretend to understand all of it. Since I made this video, a large number of people have tried piracy - and many of them have started in Zomba and the surround area. It seems that the background simulation recognises when a system is suffering from piracy and changes the types of ship that spawn in response. To begin with, you get T9s and T7, then you get Gunships and Keelbacks. Not sure what you get after that because I don't try and pirate after that point. The best advice is to search for your own systems and build up a list. I jump between 15 or so. Make sure that each system has at least one asteroid belt and/or ringed planet or you won't get any miners. I would also recommend looking at the local traffic report (middle column below Galnet in the station menu) to see how many player ships have passed through the system in the last 24 hours. A quiet system is likely to perform better than a busy one. If a system isn't spawning ships within 5 or 10 mins, move on to the next one. Hope that helps. Oh, have a look at my guide to high security systems for a way to locate more target systems.
Thank you for your response. I will look at it and maybe i just got unfortunate with my system but it was still fun so i will definitely keep doing it! :)
okay tried a few system nothing not in one of them i would be lucky to see a transport ship every 10 minutes and when i spottet them they never had a mining laser (i checked all systems had rings with extraction sites) so either my game hates me or im searching wrong on EDDB eddb.io/system?u=1&g=16&e=1&y=0&r=11098
I've been out at Maia for a few days. Just popped back briefly to have a look at Zomba. Nothing spawned for me either after 15 mins of flying around and several drops in and out of cruise. Not even Gunships. It looks like that system has been well and truly over fished. Given the unexpectedly high number of views my video has had, several of the other anarchy systems may have suffered a similar fate. I moved on to one of my non-anarchy pirate systems (BD+23 3151) and picked up a T7 with 145t within 10mins. This isn't a particularly good system, it's just close to home. Anyway, I'd suggest pirating in secure systems. Look for low traffic systems. Hope that helps.
Just of curiosity. How long it usually take you to find good target? Asking because IMO its not worth money invested from what I noticed. Wasting 40 minutes to get 1 worthy ship if lucky
Before I made the video - about 5 mins. Now, quite a bit longer. I used to get several T9s a session, not I'm lucky to get 1. The system is very important. You need to try a variety of boom state systems, not just sit in one place. The back ground sim has a huge influence on what spawns and there are a huge number of variables. Ignore systems without either rings or asteroids. Nothing to mine - no miners. Check Asps, Pythons and Gunships as well as the usual Lakons. Drop out of cruise and then back up once you have a full screen's worth in your target list. Make sure you patrol the whole system, particularly near RES sites and asteroids. Have patience, search for a good system and make sure you have a long list of candidates. Check out my piracy in high security systems video to increase your system list. Bear in mind that the good systems change regularly whenever the BGS ticks. Piracy isn't ever going to be an easy trade - which is exactly why I like it. That said, even with the current drought, I'm making 16 to 25M an evening. Faster than a has RES... Hope that helps.
Gave it another try. I'll pass. Wasted 2 hours in Anarchy/agriculture/boom system with 2 ring planets and 2 stations to get just 1 keelback with 50 diamonds. He couldnt even stand punishement and got destroyed before I could rip off his power plant. I guess I'll go to quincee and farm few billions before its nerfed even though I wish to spend this time on something else.
Hey, I appreciate that there's someone out there making videos for newbie pirates. I kind of wish I could go back and start a new pilot and try to pirate NPCs from day 1, but there's no way I'm doing my rank grinds again and my clipper is too fun.
But I have a correction for your guide. Armor penetration is not what you think it is. In this case the "Armor" being penetrated refers to a value inherent to every type of ship that mostly reflects it's size. Large ships have a big armor number, small ships have a small armor number. Large weapons and weapons of certain types have higher penetration values. A ship with a higher armor value than an attacking weapon's penetration takes reduced damage to it's hull and modules, proportionately. So an AspX has an extra hard time killing an anaconda with just 4x C1 multicannons compared to, say, 4x C1 torpedoes or railguns.
What you're looking for as a pirate is an easy way to damage modules, which is actually tied to the "breach chance" statistic. The "min" value corresponds to your chance of breaching and hitting a module when their hull is at 100%, and as their hull decreases the chance rises to the "max" value (from my reading I am not sure when it hits the max value... it may be near 0% hull, or it may be higher). Most weapons scale from 40% to 80%, but cannons are higher (60% to 90%). Especially at high health there's a big difference. (side note: missiles have a 0% chance to breach but they're great at hitting external modules like thrusters).
Weapons also have breach damage values that are separate from their normal damage values. They have different ratios between the two which affects how much module vs hull damage that they do. But for the most part I don't think it that hugely affects weapon choice. It just shows that pulse lasers are the best energy weapon for module damage. All this information can be found under the "read more" section when you are in the buying or transferring menu for modules.
But this is more complicated than you really need it to be. I still see people posting builds where their only real anti-module weapon is pulse lasers, which is fine as long as your line up your shots carefully, that's how I used to do it pre-engineers. Though your life can sometimes be easier with cannons, sometimes you dice rolls go poorly and your cannon hits hull every time (since they're fewer, bigger hits). Cannons can be modded with high yield rounds to damage more modules when you hit the PP, which can be useful, but is far from necessary. Railguns are mainly good for super penetrator.
Other pointers:
if you're hunting in a system with security, wake scanners are useful for avoiding bounties. Just interdict your target, which only nets a fine, and then follow your target when they high wake out. Repeat until they are in a lawless system and then take their cargo. Just remember to pay your fine.
Most pirates run 2A interdicters since range doesn't make a huge difference most of the time. That doesn't really affect your build but in other ships the space can be valuable.
I actually run B-rated collector limpet controllers because they sacrifice duration for higher range without increasing weight. If your target boosts away from you they're better at cleaning up the mess of canisters afterwards. Unless you've got a huge haul and are low on limpets you don't need 12 minutes of duration on a limpet.
Finally, beware of point defense turrets on higher rated targets. They will demolish your limpets whenever they regain power. It's really annoying and makes collecting the cargo really difficult.
Many thanks for your extremely detailed and well thought out response. The time spent is appreciated and you make some really great points! I'll revisit armour penetration / module damage because that's very interesting. It doesn't matter how long you play this game, there is still stuff to learn!
I'm in the process of making a range of further videos on piracy - in particular the use of a wake scanner to pirate in secure systems. I glossed over it in this video to keep the time below 15mins. I'm also looking to provide a clear description on how to identify good systems for wake piracy - surrounding populated systems, secondary economy, power play, faction state etc. I'll take note of your points for those vids.
Yup, point defence turrets are a nightmare - that's why I carry lots of limpets and dump the excess.
I run a 2A interdictor on most of my builds - cobras and asp etc. For the python I found that 2 collectors get overwhelmed when I have a T7 or T9 spewing cargo. The second size 3 collector module pushed the inderdictor up to the size 4 slot. No point using a 2A in a size 4 slot unless I want to save power. That said, I do take your point and agree that range really isn't an issue for an interdictor. I could perhaps use a size 5 collector and a size 3 interdictor here. Might net me a few more tonnes of cargo space.
Fly safe commander.
"I'm in the process of making a range of further videos on piracy - in particular the use of a wake scanner to pirate in secure systems. I glossed over it in this video to keep the time below 15mins. I'm also looking to provide a clear description on how to identify good systems for wake piracy - surrounding populated systems, secondary economy, power play, faction state etc. I'll take note of your points for those vids."
First, NPC's cheat. Upon exiting interdiction, NPCs will almost immediately begin the jump process while you're still in the cool down phase. Having a Wake Scanner with the Fast Scan upgrade is almost essential. I pirate in any system. You get a fine for interdiction (pffft. whatev's) in most systems. I then manifest scan them to see if they're worth chasing. If so, I then Wake Scan after they jump and follow. I repeat this until they jump into an uninhabited system or Anarchy. Then I interdict to pirate their cargo.
Pirating is actually done better in a wing. One ship to keep on the power plant and the other to loot the cargo. Just have to trust the other CMDR to give you the even split.
You have a lot of good info in this reply phyvo, however you appear to be missing a huge aspect of armor penetration. The size and shape of the ships hull has a dramatic affect on armor penetration and if you are aware of the mechanic you can use positioning to your advantage when your goal is penetrating the hull. I recommend reading this post from the devs on the official FD forums, it's far more important than the penetration stats you refer to in actual combat: forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=170205
Good read. Many thanks for posting!
Hey CMDR Arsen Cross,
Yes, I kind of glossed over how exactly that works when I wrote "as long as your line up your shots carefully," This is because Wiggy already covered the best way to take advantage of those mechanics starting at 8:45, describing that again would be rather redundant. I'm not trying to write an entire pirating guide underneath a pirating guide video. Nevertheless perhaps I could have caused some confusion with the way I worded things, and that thread is a useful resource for explaining exactly how module damage works.
But be careful of calling your ability to breach the hull "armor penetration". What you (and the devs in that thread) are calling "armor penetration" is not what the game calls armor penetration right now. The devs only call it "armor penetration" because at the time of that thread they hadn't added the current armor penetration mechanics to the game. The module damage mechanics are all still there, yes, so being above/below the target makes a huge difference in terms of breaching the hull to do module damage, but calling it armor penetration is only going to confuse new players because weapons all list armor penetrations before you buy them these days, and these values have nothing to do with actually hitting the modules beneath the hull.
You sir are a true hero. I've been farming low temp diamonds with your method. Been grinding a couple hours a night and I'm at 700 mil from this piracy alone.
700M - fantastic! That's probably more than I've made! I pushed my trade rank from 2% Tycoon to Elite by selling diamonds - that's about 600M all told. Since then I've been too busy making videos about piracy to actually go pirating for cash. Back to in now though - I want money in the bank ahead of 2.4.
Where are you doing this? I've been flying around in Agriculture anarchy systems for about 4 hours and haven't found a single ship with them
RNGesus is clearly not on your side! I tend to find that systems in boom with either RES sites or asteroid fields spawn the most ships. Keep moving on to the next system if you don't find anything. There are lots of reasons that the BGS spawns other types of ships. Wars, power play, tourist beacons...
Will you become WANTED in the system after you committing piracy?
probably the best tutorial i've seen. also I would appreciate if you could make a low level ship piracy tutorial like you said in the video. I'm a new player on PS4. I'm doin ok but still learning each day.
Thanks! The budged piracy tutorial is still a work in progress. Probably 3 or 4 weeks away as I'm busy researching some of the ideas, locations and techniques.
OneButton Dash I agree, I'd like to see a low level one
Great love to see one too, I just got the game! :D
So I stumbled across this video the other day after browsing through some other ED videos and it inspired me to give PvE piracy a go again. I was already proficient in a number of areas of the game, but had never quite gotten the hang of where and when to hunt for the best piracy profit.
So I already had the ships, just needed a bit of refitting of my Python and I was good to go. Found a decent Ag system in anarchy and in the space of an hour had bagged 3 T7's full of LTD's - 118 tons each (sale value of $6M per ship). With a close by station drop off was a breeze to get paid, refit and back out there. So that was around $18M in just over an hour - and it's a surprisingly satisfying game play loop.
So thanks for a great tutorial and good tips. Greatly appreciated!
[I play as CMDR Millycent on Xbox - if you ever see a Python called "Army of Synthesis" that'll be me pillaging poor traders!]
Brilliant Video WiggyB,
Clear, concise and informative with a minimum of or virtually no waffle.
Ive just walked away from ED for 6 weeks to have a break and question its longevity as I got bored engineering my 5th Anaconda.
This has given me something to come back and try.
Keep it up, Subscribed
That's great to hear. Thanks! I totally understand why you'd walk away. I had reached the same point myself but then stumbled across a few videos on piracy and thought I'd give it a go. It's taken quite a bit of investigation and practice but the journey was well worth it. Fingers crossed for the Thargoids.
Thanks for this. I've been out of the game for a long time and didn't want to rely on cheap tactics to make my $$$ like Quince scan mission stacking, but RES' just weren't cutting it in my poorly fitted conda. Time to trade it in for a Python and give this a go!
Great video! It’s nice to see someone actually teaching how to make a profit as a pirate rather than just “role playing”.
Thanks. Sadly taking out the power plant is bugged at the moment. Has been for a few months. There are several alternative methods that I've described in my latest two piracy videos. Hope that helps. Have fun.
So, watched this vid, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Been pirating for a while, but only players, relying on my corvettes size and firepower to intimidate players into giving me cargo. Tried a set up with the vette for this. I know you said your not able to hit modules with fixed weapons, but id highly recommend putting 2 class 3 PA's onto your ship if you can fit them. Nail the PP and it goes down in one shot typically. I found this easier then manually targeting the PP with gimballed weapons. Also, if you have a ship capable of using a fighter bay, id highly recommend having two players multicrew with you and giving them Imperial fighters with gimballed beams. While you focus on taking out the PP when ship reboots, each fighter can target one of the drives or even take out point defenses. Still fine tuning the use of different set ups with my vette and multicrew pirating, but so far its been working out well. Id also like to point out that in the next update they will be adding in repair limpets. Wondering if it might be useful to carry a low grade one to repair the ship your pirating so it doesnt blow up?
Amazing video thanks. I have elite status in combat but have never tried piracy. Clear and concise, exactly what was needed
Excellent well planned and executed video. Best on piracy I've seen yet very clear and concise. Keep up the good work!
I never do piracy but now I am thinking about it
Stumbled across this vid when contemplating coming back to ED after several months away. Not tried piracy before, refitted my Python and gave it a try. First mining T6 was worth 2.4MCr!
This is going to be fun and profitable!
Make sure the system you hunt in has either asteroids or rings. Otherwise miners won't spawn. Have fun.
Don't forget the Asp Exp makes a good pirate ship. Only 64 tons but quite fast and potent when engineered.Subbed.
True. Gonna do a video on the asp soon. Cheers for the sub!
I came here to say this too lol
Just did a review of the Asp a few days ago. Good ship.
You deserve way more subscribers, this information is the best I've found so far, hopefully you get the recognition you deserve, subscribed :)
Why are pirates so cool? Because they ARRRRR😂
This video was really well made and super helpful. You should definitely make more, this is quality content
Hey great guide ! made a mint trying this last night , noticed that the low rank npcs in type 6&7 will just sit there shooting you while you rob them ,no need to shoot out the pp. Also best to sell your loot in one of Archon Delaines systems for the smuggled goods bounus .
Just getting back into ED and came across your videos. Some of my favourite content!! Keep up the great work!
This is a really good guide. Been playing this game for years and piracy was one of the few things I've never dabbled in. I think I'll be giving it a try now, though.
You should do more tutorials you have an easy voice to listen to and a great flow it was very easy to follow
Wow this was an amazing guide! I love how everything you talked about you explained why and how... I wish more guides were this good! Earned a sub you deserve more mate! Keep up the great work!
Fantastic video, concise, to the point and really informative. I used to pirate a lot and its been a year or so since I last did anything as fun. figured id have a little refresher course, your'e video was perfect and even taught me a few things!
this looks like a nice bit of end game shekanery. great guide aswell.
Excellent video, I like to think I'm a half-decent pirate but I learned a lot from this tutorial. Interesting technique using spin to keep the target centred durin interdiction, I'll give that a whirl (pun intended).
just subbed after watching second vid of yours u really deserve more subs BUT with content this good your fan base will increase no doubt keep up the excellent work
o7
Brilliant video. Well informed and clear. I would have liked to have seen your fire groups but I guess it's similar to other piracy layouts.
You should probably be able to work it out from the video. I'm away from my ship at the moment. From memory... in the first group I have my interdictor, manifest scanner and wake scanner all on the primary trigger. They can all be active at the same time as only one will operate depending on circumstance. The other trigger has my sniping weapon. I think it was a rail during the video. Having this on its own fire group without the laser and multis avoids the confusing clutter of targeting dots. The second group has my combat setup. All the gimbles on the primary, fixed sniper repeated on the secondary. The third group has the laser only as the primary. This lets me target the power plant gently and quickly without mashing it with the multis. The secondary has all the limpets. Successive pulls launches lots of collectors and then a breaker. Hope that helps.
Considering the only piracy I do is either during community goals or when I'm doing power-play I might actually try this out with the following changes as personal preference.
Two medium burst lasers with efficient weapon, a large multi-cannon with the sturdy modification with corrosive rounds & the other large hard-points will be containment missiles so my target can't high wake if it doesn't go to plan.
Amazing! I really liked your voice over too with good details everywhere!
Very informative video thanks for putting it out, I'm sure many new CMDR's will find it usefull. I have not tryed this style of play yet even though I have been playing since early beta and have banked over 2BN Credits. But I think I will have to give it a go one day. You can be sure I will probably be refering to this tutorial for a refresher. Stay safe CMDR o7
Thanks for making these, it's sham FD have not fixed the poweplant issue still
at 8:30 ish - target the power plant.
THis was great in 2.1 or so, but nowadays, anything novice and above reboots. Back when no NPC ever rebooted, I was able to steal the entire cargo of a type 9 in diamonds. That was fun. That was really worth the time. Nowadays, finding a type 9 with diamonds below novice rank is like finding a unicorn. Bleugh.
EDIT: The pulse laser solution. Having to monitor your target for ten plus minutes isn't much fun. Worse than mining - asteroids don't run away.
Besides, the power plant usually gets blown to bits anyways. Again, bleugh.
I actually really enjoy the new mechanic. Keeping the ship in place adds a bit of spice!
Up until now I'd never even considered pirating... you have me intrigued. I'll try this out soon. Thanks for the inspiration.
One little criticism (if you can even call it that) In some places the game audio was a bit too loud, which made it hard to understand what you were saying.
Thanks for the feedback. I'll watch it back and see how I can improve for the next one.
WiggyB looking forward to the next one :)
Just stumbled across this, great tutorial. +1 sub!
A question, though: Would it also be possible to force the cargo to be released when you destroy the cargo hatch entirely, after you disabled the ship? Or would that risk blowing up the target entirely?
You get a few tonnes doing that. Equivalent to a handful of limpets. Once the hatch is below 10% (from memory) nothing else comes out. You could maybe empty 20t out of a DBX but nowhere close to the 200+ from a T9. Useful bonus if you run out of limpets though.
Oh, so instead of opening up completely it gets closed up for good! Didn't know that, thanks for the quick response! o7
It's been mentioned, but I'd love to see an early game guide in a similar fashion to this, more out of curiosity than anything
Thanks for this information! I never knew piracy could be so profitable! I've stuck to mining and bounty hunting for income until now, but I really need to refit my python and give theft a try...
I have tried pirating, but I suck. This guide makes it a whole lot clearer... but I think mining will still be my profession. Great video, and maybe I’ll try pirating once I have cash to throw around.
Cheers. Just to warn you, the method in this video is now bugged and has been since January. Have a look at my piracy in 3.0 video. ruclips.net/video/5b-liHBVSBE/видео.html for methods that work at the moment. o7
time to get the good ol' python from the dark end of the garage I guess
I don't know if it's different on PS4, but you can launch your next hatchbreaker immediately after the first disengages. The second hatchbreaker will attach and begin hacking even though cargo is currently being dropped. That should speed up your siphoning significantly.
Great video! I did the same thing waaaay back with a cobra, wasn't fast money (no diamonds back then) but it was a lot of fun.
Nice vid man, just getting back into Ed since release only to discover I've joined the pirates, I'd be keen for a video on pirating on a budget
Thanks. Pirating on a budget is now a work in progress. Probably be ready in a couple of weeks. It's amazing how long these take to make.
Yeh now doubt, is quality though cheers man I'll check back in a few
Nice work, explained really well. look forward to more videos. thumbs up here.
I would just like to say that if your planning to make more videos, please make sure to lower the game play column so that it does not override your audio. It was hard to hear you talk in some parts of this video. Other wise great tutorial. Thank you.
Thanks for the useful feedback. I've been lowering it further in recent videos. I think this first pirate video was run with the game play at 50% of full volume. Latest vids use 30%. If you watch any of my other items, please do let me know if you feel that the audio is still crap.
This is a great video. I'm heading into this career and this is invaluable!
Great to hear. That's why I made the video, every other career was well documented except this one.
Thanks for info. I've been trying to find a practical use for my Clipper and this just may do the trick!
Nice tutorial. This got me interested in piracy. I have more than 2000 Elite hours under my belt, but never tried it.
The mechanics have changed since I made this video. Have a look at my latest two piracy videos for the current methods. o7
this was really useful as quince should be dying in 2.4 and it might be fun to mess up a fed system. thanks for the tips, i'm gonna have to see what i can do with a clipper.
Imp grind is one of the last things on my Elite to do list, so I haven't tried the clipper yet. Supposed to be an excellent pirate ship - possibly better than the Python. Have fun.
Great work, informative and covered all the details!
Great Video Cmdr subbed. I was tipped off to your channel by Oddball 1975.
Thanks for letting me know - love his videos. He left a really supportive message on one of my guides last week which was great. Very pleased that he gave it a go - and with some success it would seem.
Great video, thanks! Just a thought, but, you might be able to get away with a 6A engineered PP to reduce a lot of weight. 20T, if I recall correctly.
Very informative video, also thanks for all links in the description ! O7
Thanks for this video! I'll be checking this out once/if I play again!
Python is a good allrounder and will be implementing mine for some Piracy trips or I may just buy another, engineer it like you have , great guide and thanks for putting it together for us. o7
Amazing video m8, well explained and shown, 5*****
Thanks for that. If you do build a pirate ship, make sure you try a few different systems. Zomba has been rather over fished since I made this video. The target system must be agricultural and must have rings or an asteroid belt. I've a few other videos which may help you start out, show you how to test your build and refine your skills. Happy hunting.
Great video. I've always wanted to try my hand at piracy.
Just remember to try more than one system. If you don't get any luck, move on. The background sim is very hard to predict. Once you've got the knack you should make good cash. Enjoy.
I subscribed you! That's an amazing tutorial, now you need just good pirate music and then happy hunting!
Damn man , the best motivating video to play elite dangerous on pve side thanks !
Another newbie here, a convert from X-Universe. Thanks for the tips, now I need to start the quest to get that ship lol.
Thanks! I'd suggest watching my latest piracy videos before you build a ship. Some aspects have changed in the last few years, particularly the power plant mechanic.
@@WiggyB Have started to, cheers.
This one was really great and informative, well done.
great Vid Wiggy, gonna give this a good go when next in game.
So helpful! You've earned my subscription. Going to try that set up right now :)
Great to hear. Make sure that any system you try and pirate in has rings or asteroids. You won't find diamonds if it doesn't. If nothing good spawns after 10 to 15 mins move on to another system. Once you find a good one, fish until you drop. Have a look at my high security piracy video for tips on finding systems. Have fun Cmdr.
WiggyB much obliged cap'n
Looks like fun. Which I find rare in ED due to the over reliance on spin to win
Piracy is still one of my favourite features. The mechanic has changed since this video was made. Check out my two latest piracy videos for up to date methods.
Sir you have my sub! I was looking for something new to do. This might be thing to hook me on a game again. Thx!
Nicely done and informative thanks for Posting
NP. There have been a few changes since this video was made. In particular a bug with the power plant of NPCs causing them to remain active even at 0%. Have a look at my 3.0 update for new and improved strategies that get round the bug. o7 commander.
Never gone pirate before, Maybe I'll give it a shot.
I used to pirate in an ASP Explorer when the game launched :P
Great tutorial, pirating is much more sophisticated than I thought, might have a go now, cheers, subb'd n like'd.
this is all good to someone who has to run from interdiction constantly.
Awesome I was going to ask you again how to do this. Great video. (CMDR LtEvildead PBSF)
Should have mentioned the video - didn't want to blow my own trumpet! Glad you found it useful. Takes a lot of practice - but great fun when you master it.
so... is there some kind of LOGICAL REASON... that we find diamond laden miners in AGRICULTURAL systems? Does not seem to make sense to me... why not extraction or refinery systems?
"Comment Below"
Because NPC piracy is less understood than FA off.
Executed like a pro. I bought the Python and hated the agility, it felt worse than its stats so I decided to park it until now, I knew id need it one day, I never sell a ship even if im on my arse.
Hello. Great video, very informative. I have a question, are the hatch breaker limpets necessary? Can't you just blow the hatch up, resulting in all of the cargo being ejected? Then destroy the prey?
Unfortunately not. Damaging the hatch does release some cargo - similar quantity to a hatch breaker after each time you damage it. Below about 10% it stops dropping. The total dropped is nowhere near enough to empty a T9 or T7. That said it's a good tactic if you're flying a cobra as you'll probably get enough to fit your hold and save the hatch breaker slot. Hope that helps.
Great video, well explained. One small point: are you sure piercing increases module damage? I'm fairly certain it's only used when calculating the damage you do to a ship with bigger ships having higher hardness.
I'm pretty sure you're right. Too late to change it though! What I haven't tested is whether is also cascades with the hull breach chance.
Type 9s have a high armor rating, so it's good to have better AP to drop the hull to a point where you'll have the highest breach chance. This can also be accomplished with any grade corrosive MC, super easy to engineer and does the same job.
Skill5able Hardness decreases the damage done to modules, so having a weapon that ignores a bit of hardness does indeed help with knocking out modules.
Best piracy video I've seen. Has this technique changed at all with the 3.0 beyond update???
There's currently a bug that allows ships to continue operating when the power plant is disabled. Frontier are aware of it but haven't fixed it yet. Have a look at my 3.0 update video here... ruclips.net/video/5b-liHBVSBE/видео.html
I've found that if you're in an anarchy system, you don't actually need any of the utility scanners. You just know if they have a refinery, they're gonna have those diamonds, no need for manifest. Stay in anarchy systems, no need for wake scanner either.
You're right. However, I normally pirate in higher population non anarchy systems as the spawn rates tend to be better. I also enjoy the chase. This equipment is definitely needed for that.
Investing in the community is investing in yourself : don't just kill your target
Excellent vid
Thank you very much, subscribed!
Anyone else find it really odd that you can only scan a targets cargo hold *after* you've interdicted them? Surely it'd be better to scan them first to see if they're worth it...
So yeah I outfitted my Anaconda with the stuff you described and went to Zomba, a Agricultural system, Anarchy and booming, but only found haulers with military plans and biowaste. What am I doing wrong?
The background sim has a huge amount of stuff going on and I don't pretend to understand all of it. Since I made this video, a large number of people have tried piracy - and many of them have started in Zomba. It seems that the background simulation recognises when a system is suffering from piracy and changes the types of ship that spawn in response. To begin with, you get T9s and T7, then you get Gunships and Keelbacks. Not sure what you get after that because I don't try and pirate after that point. The best advice is to search for your own systems and build up a list. I jump between 15 or so. Make sure that each system has at least one asteroid belt and/or ringed planet or you won't get any miners. I would also recommend looking at the local traffic report (middle column below Galnet in the station menu) to see how many ships have passed through the system in the last 24 hours. A quiet system is likely to perform better than a busy one. If a system isn't spawning ships within 5 or 10 mins, move on to the next one. Hope that helps. Oh, have a look at my guide to high security systems for a way to locate more target systems.
I hope they will fix Power Plant bug soon ;/. Now you can't stop ship shooting down PP.
o7, CMDR. Best piracy tutorial. I was just the same and sold my pirate cobra a year ago because I just kept getting biowaste. Now You tell me they come fully laden with low temp diamonds? $.$
Yup. Just pulled a T9 with 138t.
This tutorial is just spot on! What system do you recommend or have been pirating in ? I've searched for a good system but only found 2 ships worthy of pirating within an hour
Cheers for the feedback. I'm in the process of editing a video about how to pirate in secure systems to increase the pool of available targets. This will also touch on how to select the best systems. In general though, the RNG spawning mechanic does seem to be quite variable and you do have to be patient to find the right target. Lots of different factors seem to change how many ships spawn. In advance of the next vid, my advice is simply to try a range of different locations. Refresh your super-cruise instance regularly by jumping into normal space and back. I tend to do this once my list has reached about 10 ships / a full page. One final thing - systems WITHOUT either an asteroid belt or a ringed world do tend to spawn fewer target ships, avoid. Look for an anarchy with at least one mining location. Hope that helps and enjoy pirating.
New video uploaded this morning with tips on how to find systems. Fingers crossed, I'm hoping these tips should significantly improve the spawn rate you're seeing.
Been trying to get some miners in the Zomba system and surrounding anarchy systems aswell. Seems when conflict zones are present even transport ships only carry combat weaponry , any tips to avoid that ? Or am i just extremely unlucky ?
Search for high population agricultural anarchies in a boom state on EDDB. Single star systems with small travel distances and rings are best from my experience. Hunt around until you find a good system.
How do you drop your enemies shields so fast? Takes me like 5 minutes.
I have some questions, how long does it take on average to find a good ship to pirate? Because I've been searching in LHS 1067(agriculture system with anarchy government) for an hour and I didn't find any good ships, is this just my luck or am I searching in the incorrect area? Also, can you give me some systems where you have had decent succes, so I can go there and see if I will get more. This Python cost me a fair amount of money, so not being able to use it would not make me happy.
You'll find that some systems are better than others and that this varies with time. The states of the minor factions do change what spawns. War, civil war, tourist beacons and power play all change what spawns. LHS 1067 is a rather large system which means that ships that spawn may not even be visible to you. I'd suggest patrolling near the asteroid belt or near the ringed planet. Personally, I prefer smaller systems (less than 1k ly populated radius). Ringed planets and asteroids belts also seem to increase spawns. I have more than 10 systems that I visit regularly. Some days system x spawns ships within minutes all evening, the next day zip. I just move on to the next system. Zomba (the system in the vid) is in boom at the moment but isn't spawning well at all for some reason. Be aware though - piracy does require patience and persistence. On a really bad evening I make 10M, on a good one it can be 30 or 40. Hope that helps and your luck improved.
Thanks for the quick response! I just travelled to Zomba(since in the video you had succes there) but also noticed that not a lot of ships spawn. Is hopping around the systems listed in eddb a good plan or are there some systems that always give a lot?
Edit: I just got my first catch: a keelback with 38 tonnes :D
I'm close by in HR 7294 ATM. This is spawning T7 and T6s. Not high rates, but I've made 12M so far tonight in an Asp.
Good to hear that you got one!
Awesome video. Is it possible to be an effective pirate in an anaconda? If so, what are some tips?
great video keep up the good work
Very useful, thank you very much!
Hello from 2018 when LTD costs about 700k on a black market -)
Good info , Now I have to get my pirate hat....
Good to hear. I'd also watch my second video on high security system piracy. The anarchy systems from this video are a bit over fished at the moment. Pirating in other systems gives you far far more to choose from.
WiggyB I will check it out,subbed to your channel I have over 500hrs into the game but never checked out npc piracy looks fun. 👍
i love Piracy but how i can do my role play to the BGS as a Pirate please some info and advice will be appreciated
Great stuff, I'm cheap so I'm trying this with a Cobra.
Cobra works well, but could do with engineering. Drives and shields particularly.
Great video sir. o7 please make more.
Cant you just shoot the cargo hatch and that will cause all cargo to drop?
Sadly not. Shooting the cargo hatch will randomly result in some cargo to be ejected once the hatch is damaged below a threshold. 80% for memory. The number of canisters released is similar to one limpet. After that it closes again. Repeated shooting drops more, but eventually it stops dropping anything once the damage reaches a lower threshold. Can't remember the value. Around 10 or 20% probably. This means you can't fully empty a target if it has a large hold. Limpets will let you get everything. Hope that helps.
You have the wrong mod on your Distributor... This is High Charge Capacity not Charge Enhanced... you used the correct one in your explanation though... I hope you are aware of that...
17k views and you're the first to mention that! Not quite sure why I've enhanced charge capacity here. I usually use charge enhanced. Seems to work though.
"Not quite sure why I've enhanced charge capacity here. I usually use charge enhanced".....isn't enhanced charge the same as charge enhanced???
Don't you mean "Not quite sure why I've high charge capacity here"?
Anyway- excellent video!
Avaddon Nephilim It isn't. Charge Enhanced increases the recharging rate of all your capacitators, while decreasing the capacity. High Charge Capacity increases the capacity of your capacitors, while decreasing the recharging rate.
If you are just getting at his wording (Enhanced instead of High), then your point is partially valid though. 😶
How do I get a system where all miners have diamonds?
Hello great tutorial but could it be that theres more to the spawn rate than just agriculture because im in "LHS 278" right now (Agri and Boom state) and i havent found any ship carrying diamonds only lifestock and such and not even one with mining laser
The background sim has a huge amount of stuff going on and I don't pretend to understand all of it. Since I made this video, a large number of people have tried piracy - and many of them have started in Zomba and the surround area. It seems that the background simulation recognises when a system is suffering from piracy and changes the types of ship that spawn in response. To begin with, you get T9s and T7, then you get Gunships and Keelbacks. Not sure what you get after that because I don't try and pirate after that point. The best advice is to search for your own systems and build up a list. I jump between 15 or so. Make sure that each system has at least one asteroid belt and/or ringed planet or you won't get any miners. I would also recommend looking at the local traffic report (middle column below Galnet in the station menu) to see how many player ships have passed through the system in the last 24 hours. A quiet system is likely to perform better than a busy one. If a system isn't spawning ships within 5 or 10 mins, move on to the next one. Hope that helps. Oh, have a look at my guide to high security systems for a way to locate more target systems.
Thank you for your response. I will look at it and maybe i just got unfortunate with my system but it was still fun so i will definitely keep doing it! :)
And also you got a subscriber more :) i like the quality of the videos keep it up!
okay tried a few system nothing not in one of them i would be lucky to see a transport ship every 10 minutes and when i spottet them they never had a mining laser (i checked all systems had rings with extraction sites) so either my game hates me or im searching wrong on EDDB eddb.io/system?u=1&g=16&e=1&y=0&r=11098
I've been out at Maia for a few days. Just popped back briefly to have a look at Zomba. Nothing spawned for me either after 15 mins of flying around and several drops in and out of cruise. Not even Gunships. It looks like that system has been well and truly over fished. Given the unexpectedly high number of views my video has had, several of the other anarchy systems may have suffered a similar fate. I moved on to one of my non-anarchy pirate systems (BD+23 3151) and picked up a T7 with 145t within 10mins. This isn't a particularly good system, it's just close to home. Anyway, I'd suggest pirating in secure systems. Look for low traffic systems. Hope that helps.
Just of curiosity. How long it usually take you to find good target? Asking because IMO its not worth money invested from what I noticed. Wasting 40 minutes to get 1 worthy ship if lucky
Before I made the video - about 5 mins. Now, quite a bit longer. I used to get several T9s a session, not I'm lucky to get 1. The system is very important. You need to try a variety of boom state systems, not just sit in one place. The back ground sim has a huge influence on what spawns and there are a huge number of variables. Ignore systems without either rings or asteroids. Nothing to mine - no miners. Check Asps, Pythons and Gunships as well as the usual Lakons. Drop out of cruise and then back up once you have a full screen's worth in your target list. Make sure you patrol the whole system, particularly near RES sites and asteroids. Have patience, search for a good system and make sure you have a long list of candidates. Check out my piracy in high security systems video to increase your system list. Bear in mind that the good systems change regularly whenever the BGS ticks. Piracy isn't ever going to be an easy trade - which is exactly why I like it. That said, even with the current drought, I'm making 16 to 25M an evening. Faster than a has RES... Hope that helps.
Gave it another try. I'll pass. Wasted 2 hours in Anarchy/agriculture/boom system with 2 ring planets and 2 stations to get just 1 keelback with 50 diamonds. He couldnt even stand punishement and got destroyed before I could rip off his power plant. I guess I'll go to quincee and farm few billions before its nerfed even though I wish to spend this time on something else.
Don’t know why but on Xbox when you destroy the plant the ships still have thrust.
It's bugged at the moment - has been since January with no fix in sight. Have a look at my 3.0 piracy videos for some alternate methods.
Will do and thanks for the reply.