Originally posted by the infamous and beloved Janice Le Darke
Before i go into the pro's and con's of piracy - one word
d o n ' t
there are many steps to take before you should even think of going into piracy, it is a whole game plan - not something to just end up in. There is also the potential to ruin your whole game experience and set yourself down a seriously disadvantaged route. if you get there by accident - stratch your game and start over. now having said that, here is how to be a truly great - and respected - pirate captain.
before i go into the pro's and con's of piracy - one word
when am i a pirate?
you are defined as a pirate when your pirate standing is greater then zero - unless you are a sworn enemy of the pirate faction - you are pirate. you can find all your current standings under the right hand interaction menu on the main play screen - see under "view standings". you can have standing with ConFed (you probably will) but as the tutorial later will show - you can also have standing with GalFed/Alliance. The moment your standing with the Pirate faction goes positive - like it or not - you're a pirate!
why do i want to be a pirate anyway?
there is only one real reason to go pirate and that is to complete NPC mission trees. there are a total of 6 NPC's who you will need to "go pirate" to complete. most NPC's will not talk to you unless you have faction standing of their prefered faction. the recognised (known) NPC's with pirate standing are detailed below. so without any further delay let's look at them in turn.
the Incomplete Guide to Piracy I
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the Incomplete Guide to Piracy I
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Sukayo
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Re: the Incomplete Guide to Piracy I
the NPC's (or why you go pirate anyway)
listed below are the current pirate faction NPC's - the rewards they offer are the only real reason to go pirate anyway. let's take a look at them - including the two ConFed NPC's who you will probably end up on speaking terms with anyway.
Boris Volt, Ignitus, Tanari
XP 71,000
C$ 774,500
IP 2,000
Boris Volt is stunningly handsome, rich and has a coach and four to drive you round his parkland in (straight up honest, he's a girl's wet dream, guys). his mission tree needs rather odd loots and is a good deposit for secure mail, pulse rifles, nabaru artifacts and other odd ball "wtf?" stuff which appears in your combat career gains, although the alien pets might be hard to find. on the other hand, you need to be fairly desperate to work for the IP gained, the XP is meagre and with the price public data cubes are changing hands - the credits are pitiful. spoiler for lady pirates, don't fall for him, you put out for him and the b******d dumps you and goes back to his wife.
Korey Fox, Hawks Hideout, Kell Expanse
XP 93,000
C$ 1,055,000
IP 5,000
this evil man is typical of primitive system mafia types, he's incompetent, bungling and can't organise a decent team if he tried to. he gets us a bad name. you will need a fairly decent sized cargo hold to complete (250 tops) but this is fairly reachable even for low spec fighters and assault craft. the total of 480 narcotics is a harder call and they fetch high prices on the GBM. the seriously bad news is you are not getting paid anything for them. the IP reward stands on it's own and for this reason alone Korey Fox is probably the only pirate NPC both easy(ish) to complete and worth the effort.
R9 personal assistant
XP 170,000
C$ 325,500
IP 5,000
weird one this, R9's employer is a dribbling psychopath who makes less sense than the average bad trip. he enjoys having gardeners brutally murdered so he has some serious issues but anyway. the hard part about R9 is that like Casandra McConnell, R9's missions are single target "named" hits, but the downside is that you have NO clues as to where to find your targets. you just have to make an intelligent guess as to the law level and tech level of the target's "hangout" and start looking. the bounty paid isn't impressive but the nice trickle of IP vouchers (500 each mission) is pleasantly rewarding to start with. although by the time you hit "Robin Gentry" (groan...) you are probably wondering if the ends justify the jeans. you will have a further curiosity to contend with. R9 needs pirate standing to enter - however all of R9's targets are themselves Pirate or red "unfriendly" aligned ships. take your commercial trackers off - they will not help you. to detect your targets specifically will need an array of threat detectors. strange but there you go.
Lottie Savage, Jabboria Outpost, Vassa
XP 119,000
C$ 553,000
IP 8,000
this b**** is the worst case of pms i've yet to meet. don't be taken in by the IP reward only the last 4 missions give IP vouchers and you will need to be a seasoned combat pilot and know all the tricks to earn them. the money shot at the end, Gilbert Grisuum is a seriously tough nut who needs a special trip out to Anvil (and back) to get him and he is tougher than i can take on in a fully kitted level 55 ship and loadout. allegedly, Lottie will hack the GalFed computers and zero your bounty but i cannot prove this as there is no means of checking your bounty currently and it probably counts for very little anyway. by the time you have finished trashing GalFed shipping, your ConFed standing will be enough to pass muster with both the ConFed NPC's which brings me neatly to...
Selena Hasker
XP 153,000
C$ 1,429,600
IP 4,000
when NPC faction requirements were introduced, Selena Hasker's decision to side with ConFed caused more wailing and gnashing of teeth than anything else. with a mission chain end needing 500 animal pelts (she buys 2370 of them in total), she needs a good sized haulers ship to complete, she was the explorer's saviour and her sudden allegiance to ConFed meant Animal Pelts became basically worthless and the bottom dropped out the market for them. at 600 cpu she doesn't pay great money for them but she is a hauler's NPC and the XP award is good and the 4,000 IP is a serious boost for the generally dull life of the average cargo hauler. the irony - that you have to attack "friendly" shipping to earn ConFed reputation means you will probably be well into a combat career without a ship (or the device skills) to carry 500 units in hold, delaying completion until later in your game when the rewards are worth rather less for the effort.
Melamore Cubin
XP 39,000
C$ 247,680
IP 0
let me say that Melamore is probably the most useless NPC in the game and is not a reason to consider building the ConFed standing needed at all. at the moment... Melamore needs 620 galactic news to complete her mission tree, she gives no IP points (she is not in a position to, she is working under the "official" radar as it is). she pays an average of 400 creds per unit for delivery and the XP reward is pitiful. a mall store (goods) returns 385 credits per unit - if you are stuck with a heap of hundreds of "dead tree" editions of galactic news - open a mall store and get rid of them there. Melamore may not be the dead end she appears. she is well placed underneath ConFed society (she has survived at least) and ironically completing her mission chain may open up opportunities with GalFed looking for a well placed agent to spy on ConFed. be aware that dealing with Melamore could in the future put you at odds with the ConFed hierarchy for aiding subversive behaviour but for the moment you are probably safe from any repercussions.
listed below are the current pirate faction NPC's - the rewards they offer are the only real reason to go pirate anyway. let's take a look at them - including the two ConFed NPC's who you will probably end up on speaking terms with anyway.
Boris Volt, Ignitus, Tanari
XP 71,000
C$ 774,500
IP 2,000
Boris Volt is stunningly handsome, rich and has a coach and four to drive you round his parkland in (straight up honest, he's a girl's wet dream, guys). his mission tree needs rather odd loots and is a good deposit for secure mail, pulse rifles, nabaru artifacts and other odd ball "wtf?" stuff which appears in your combat career gains, although the alien pets might be hard to find. on the other hand, you need to be fairly desperate to work for the IP gained, the XP is meagre and with the price public data cubes are changing hands - the credits are pitiful. spoiler for lady pirates, don't fall for him, you put out for him and the b******d dumps you and goes back to his wife.
Korey Fox, Hawks Hideout, Kell Expanse
XP 93,000
C$ 1,055,000
IP 5,000
this evil man is typical of primitive system mafia types, he's incompetent, bungling and can't organise a decent team if he tried to. he gets us a bad name. you will need a fairly decent sized cargo hold to complete (250 tops) but this is fairly reachable even for low spec fighters and assault craft. the total of 480 narcotics is a harder call and they fetch high prices on the GBM. the seriously bad news is you are not getting paid anything for them. the IP reward stands on it's own and for this reason alone Korey Fox is probably the only pirate NPC both easy(ish) to complete and worth the effort.
R9 personal assistant
XP 170,000
C$ 325,500
IP 5,000
weird one this, R9's employer is a dribbling psychopath who makes less sense than the average bad trip. he enjoys having gardeners brutally murdered so he has some serious issues but anyway. the hard part about R9 is that like Casandra McConnell, R9's missions are single target "named" hits, but the downside is that you have NO clues as to where to find your targets. you just have to make an intelligent guess as to the law level and tech level of the target's "hangout" and start looking. the bounty paid isn't impressive but the nice trickle of IP vouchers (500 each mission) is pleasantly rewarding to start with. although by the time you hit "Robin Gentry" (groan...) you are probably wondering if the ends justify the jeans. you will have a further curiosity to contend with. R9 needs pirate standing to enter - however all of R9's targets are themselves Pirate or red "unfriendly" aligned ships. take your commercial trackers off - they will not help you. to detect your targets specifically will need an array of threat detectors. strange but there you go.
Lottie Savage, Jabboria Outpost, Vassa
XP 119,000
C$ 553,000
IP 8,000
this b**** is the worst case of pms i've yet to meet. don't be taken in by the IP reward only the last 4 missions give IP vouchers and you will need to be a seasoned combat pilot and know all the tricks to earn them. the money shot at the end, Gilbert Grisuum is a seriously tough nut who needs a special trip out to Anvil (and back) to get him and he is tougher than i can take on in a fully kitted level 55 ship and loadout. allegedly, Lottie will hack the GalFed computers and zero your bounty but i cannot prove this as there is no means of checking your bounty currently and it probably counts for very little anyway. by the time you have finished trashing GalFed shipping, your ConFed standing will be enough to pass muster with both the ConFed NPC's which brings me neatly to...
Selena Hasker
XP 153,000
C$ 1,429,600
IP 4,000
when NPC faction requirements were introduced, Selena Hasker's decision to side with ConFed caused more wailing and gnashing of teeth than anything else. with a mission chain end needing 500 animal pelts (she buys 2370 of them in total), she needs a good sized haulers ship to complete, she was the explorer's saviour and her sudden allegiance to ConFed meant Animal Pelts became basically worthless and the bottom dropped out the market for them. at 600 cpu she doesn't pay great money for them but she is a hauler's NPC and the XP award is good and the 4,000 IP is a serious boost for the generally dull life of the average cargo hauler. the irony - that you have to attack "friendly" shipping to earn ConFed reputation means you will probably be well into a combat career without a ship (or the device skills) to carry 500 units in hold, delaying completion until later in your game when the rewards are worth rather less for the effort.
Melamore Cubin
XP 39,000
C$ 247,680
IP 0
let me say that Melamore is probably the most useless NPC in the game and is not a reason to consider building the ConFed standing needed at all. at the moment... Melamore needs 620 galactic news to complete her mission tree, she gives no IP points (she is not in a position to, she is working under the "official" radar as it is). she pays an average of 400 creds per unit for delivery and the XP reward is pitiful. a mall store (goods) returns 385 credits per unit - if you are stuck with a heap of hundreds of "dead tree" editions of galactic news - open a mall store and get rid of them there. Melamore may not be the dead end she appears. she is well placed underneath ConFed society (she has survived at least) and ironically completing her mission chain may open up opportunities with GalFed looking for a well placed agent to spy on ConFed. be aware that dealing with Melamore could in the future put you at odds with the ConFed hierarchy for aiding subversive behaviour but for the moment you are probably safe from any repercussions.
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Sukayo
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Re: the Incomplete Guide to Piracy I
why you do not want to be a pirate
if you start your game by saying "right, i want to be a pirate here and away i go killing anything that moves", you are going to fall flat on your face and stuff your game entirely. this advice is from the greatest pirate captain in the known universe, take it for what it is. do not start out by going pirate, stupid is stupid.
Ashar and Wesbec
the moment your pirate standing is anything other than sworn enemy, Ashar and Wesbec will NOT talk to you ever again. you can be a Wesbec Ambassador or an Ashar Pointy Haired CEO but you have 1 point of Pirate standing and you are off the board, persona non grated. after this you will never see another Ashar or Wesbec hauling mission again, and no further increase in your Ashar/Wesbec standing will be possible - unless you crawl back to the GalFed scum on your knees and spend the next year killing pirate aligned ships to zero your Pirate standing again. you need good standing with Ashar and Wesbec to talk to at least twelve NPC's (including Ron Micah for your landing gear) - getting this wrong will trash your game, end of. there is 45k of IP points you will never see and crash landing on planets without a docking bay is not an option.
GalFed and Alliance
GalFed makes a convincing argument why piracy is a bad option, 52,000 IP points, left and right hand implants and several million credits. that's why you don't want to go pirate. Casandra McConnell alone gives more IP points reward than all the Pirate/ConFed NPC's put together. Carl Schultz in the Expanse is an unknown but if you don't have the standing to get to talk to him this could be another game crasher. Tomar Stubbs is annoying and Lt.Stevens will get you a bad name with ConFed but you need those precious implant release forms!
R.A.I.D.S.
this is a fairly new trip up, i've only just discovered, evidence is pointing to a recent code change. if you have ANY pirate standing - you cannot attack RAIDS. nothing is stopping you from cutting them to bits after they are dead, good news for Pirate haulers but the investment in energy weapons doesn't make sense in the long run. the fun of joining in the mass bunfight round a new RAID is gone for good.
those Verecians
hauling cargo to Verec-per does wonderful things for the Verecian ecomony (hint: do you ever see iron/ steel/ plasteel resources in Verec-per - no, what do you think the verecians want more than anything? what are Wesbec and Ashar bringing in?). there is good verecian standing to be had running Ashar / Wesbec missions to Verec-per. what happens when you go pirate? well, without doing Ashar / Wesbec hauling, the cargo runner is stuck with Outlaw Services (more later). despite what the in game message says - there is NO verecian standing to be earned by doing Outlaw services missions - about 2 seconds of consideration will reveal to you why the verecian "honour" council will have no truck with trucking contraband in. the in-game message is wrong and needs re-coding. it gets worse than this, there's more...
you need verecian standing to go into verecian shops and buy all their cool toys. without it all you can do is plead with other goody, goody players to buy you stuff on your behalf (and pay through the nose for it). guess who else won't talk to you - verec-per combat services. another source of standing and cash in verec-per dried up on you.
Outlaw Services
you can't do Ashar/Wesbec missions - what can you do? Outlaw services. okay, for a start the mission "refresh" is twice as much as Ashar missions refresh at and just as annoying in the location distribution. the cargo sizes can range upto the size of Wesbec missions but that isn't often enough. there are few Outlaw Services in central Sphere, a cluster of 3 in the very middle of Verec-per - but none either end and NONE in Anvil or Forge at all. you are left with vast parts of space which have nothing going for them. the fuel waste is considerable if you don't pitch all the missions into one spot and the refresh rate will kill you.
Outlaw Combat Office
you can't do GalFed missions - what can you do? the Outlaw Combat Office provides the same sort of missions but indiscrimate killing is not what a smart pirate is about anyway.
Combat loot
there is a misconception (mostly my fault) that pirates can loot better and more loots by attacking merchant shipping. after quite a bit of research - this isn't what shows up in the data. sorry.
Union passenger office
this is the only bright bit of news i have for you. being pirate doesn't stop you carrying passengers. if it did, even i'd give it up as a bad job.
so after all this - is there any point in being a Pirate?
in short. NO
so how come you're such a great pirate?
historically speaking, the most famous successful pirates tended to be those who survived and managed to avoid being hung. a famous pirate hanging off the end of a rope is not a successful pirate - there is a difference. avoiding getting hung is best achieved by not being a pirate all the time and Core Exiles is no exception here. the "privateer" attacking "enemy" shipping under letters of mark and the spanish "Costa Garda", who were basically pirates by any other name, were officially sanctioned pirates. they were prone to changing sides and attacking friendly shipping but were often seen as a necessary evil or even heroes like Sir Francis Drake. it is possible to be a privateer in Core Exiles and my tutorial below will show you how to become a famous and successful pirate. it doesn't involve dangling off the end of a rope, in fact the worst that can happen is you get endless rude comments made about you in irc#chat but at least, you get to be famous.
how to be a famous and successful pirate (without being hung)
level 1 to 10: the easy bit
complete the starter missions, Jonas Hawke and Gunny. Start Winston Harper and Temperance. attack only what you need to attack, avoid combat. begin surveying and extracting early on. acquire mining drones and put them down but don't bother with refining their output just let it pile up.
level 11 to 20
finish Temperance. buy basic cargo expander and do long distance hauls for Ashar. keep the extractors down. leave the mining drones mining. network and acquire hermes drones for level 15. leave the ore for later.
essential store buys: bio engine mk5 and a mk4/mk5 fuel tank
level 20 to 25
at level 23 buy a Trader (hauler class) - beg, borrow (but don't steal) the funds from guilds, other (rich) players, anybody. if you can't - hold back and continue running the extractors, haul for Ashar and at 25 buy a Wanderer. upgrade all your extractors at level 25 to commercial extractors. upgrade your mining drones. finish Winston Harper,
essential store buys: premium account for the extra fuel - burn it, you need to build up credits.
level 25 to 34
start hauling for Wesbec. start mining but haul out to Verec-per as much as you can. finish Cedric Marshall, Trudy Dalmar, Carole Carmine, buy gators and do what you can of Darina Toomes. keep extracting and don't give the stuff away - make as much money as you possibly can. at level 34 throw any remaining IP into refining and refine all that lovely ore you have had piling up in the refinery.
essential kit: Midas Device Type 1, leave it fitted and running overnight after you log out.
level 35 - all change here!
buy a Betty! Bettys rock, they are super multi-role ships, you can do an Archon but hold off to level 35 and go for a Betty. use an IP reset now.
you will have unlocked several implants already - change to or buy level 2 implants, re-fit them now before you add skills. skill up as follows.
150 scan - you should kit out with asteroid scanners 1,2,3 in all 3 system slots, and a babylon 3 pod.
80 in drones, you should upgrade to Hestia mining drones, at level 36 buy combat drones mk4. it is going to start getting fun soon.
you now need to aim for a cargo hold of 400. your Betty starts off with 310. if you have lots of spare IP - beg or buy a Tesla mk1 reactor, you should have an cargo expander like the Quantum Eon Expander QE3 already by now. if skill points are tight - a Satan-5 Cargo Enhancer R3 is perfect and you won't need to skill up anymore for the next device upgrade at level 38.
upgrade all your extractors to a selection of industrial extractors.
if you have left over skill points, 140 energy to run a Zenith Phaser ZP1 is good. buy or beg a couple of Hull Nano Plating Rev 5 and a couple of Messiah Turret Type 4's, throw out a combat drone at the start of every fight and you have a fighting Betty which will take down small fighters every time and fights more efficently than the Marauder with the extra armour and hull. Bettys 0wn.
but no fighting yet. Joyce Bonner in Verec-per might be talking, with your uber sized cargo hold, finish Arty, most of Mac1623, 8 of Anton Mitchell's, Hopodoplus & Tessa Arno, extract what you can, GBM for what you can't.
essential store buys: Minos Transporter Type 2 - trust me on this one, zapping the contents of your cargo hold to safety without having to move, dock, and faff about will shake your game.
level 36
now you can start combat. start gently, and do as much as you can of Tomar Stubbs (but stop before you get hull breached) and Lt.Stevens (no more than 5 missions). with the combat drone packing it and the messiah turrets going off - even a small basic pulse laser is going to work out against quite a lot. the first few Santos Castillo missions might be doable.
BUT
only hit your mission targets and NOTHING else.
when you've finished having fun, goto Verec-per, deck out the asteroid scanners and mine until you get stupidly bored. don't bother collecting ore, use the minos (you did buy one right?) to empty out. if you get lucky you will hit a red crystal, if you are very lucky hold on to 3 of them and sell the rest. crystals, ROLF's and debris will pop up everywhere. hoard all of them, sell none. you need 31 grey crystals too, keep mining.
put up a GBM for 260 historical artifacts, complete Charles Smythe and hoard 80 away. start Eustace Saltser when you can. offer to sell attractive family members for the 55 hyper o2, then start extracting to finish. keep mining.
level 38
skill up device to 200 fit a Passenger ECO - Module EM3 and start running passengers to build your Union standing. ideally, run round Verec-per a few times and keep checking out Candice Littlefield and complete her as soon as you can - you will need to grovel for the 50 military datacubes, don't be proud. back in Sphere and GBM Edward Smythe's cultural artifacts and do Divine Enlightenment if you are bored and want a giggle. keep mining.
by level 39
by now you should have spare IP - start crafting, do the Jacob Brite crafting missions, follow that with Rene Serrano - with all that mining you should have the 5 grey crystals you need. Angelina Vega is a bigger leap but if you have spare skill points blow them in. you've got that red crystal by now? Marshal Decker and get your very own Intergalactic telemetry beacon. dump your rolf's, crystals and salvage at Delores Malone, she'll love you for it. keep mining.
level 40
now let's have some naughty fun but wait a minute. first check. your Ashar and Wesbec standing are both over 1,000,000 each yes? at least? at this point you are going to leave them behind forever. if a new NPC enters the game who needs Ashar / Wesbec standing, are you "future-proofed" for it? a million points of standing are *probably* going to be enough to see you onwards (but don't blame me if some future introduced NPC needs more than this okay?) if you've neglected this - you need to deal with this now.
the Golden Art of being a Privateer
i'm going to teach you the secret of being a smart pirate. not a stupid mafia thug, but a Privateer. noble, honourable, brave all that, and a lying, cheating thief when nobody is looking. at level 40, you should be a respectable merchant / miner flying a humble unarmed trader. muahahaha! (start working on the evil laugh).
craft yourself lots of ebk units, hundreds of them. buy yourself 3 scanners - a commercial tracker 1, 2 and 3. fit them. commercial trackers look for "green" affiliated ships - your new target. pop back to somewhere quiet and peaceful like Feris or the Farpoints. put the guns out, pod up the messiahs and fit those special hull / armour buffs on too. ready?
if you are already mining then to start with knocking over mining barges, mining scows, mining drones etc. - easy stuff and the loots will be compatible with most of the contents of your commercial stores (which keeps a lid on CS costs for now). move round various locations for different selections of targets but keep to hitting green and yellow threats for now. your GalFed and Alliance standings will start dropping. keep going - soon they will go red - what joyful day! now stop - don't get carried away!
at this point your standings should read GalFed: Sworn Enemy, ConFed: (number greater than 0), Alliance: Sworn Enemy, Pirates 1 to 10 (but no more please).
deep in ConFed territory on Elista, Tomsk is our next port of call, nip into Outlaw Services. surprise - they let you in! pick up as many consignments as your cargo bay can hold, and refresh for any of the following Verecian destinations - Warloro, Tornsul, Vosay (or nearby). haul back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. check in at Hawks Hideout, Kells Expanse. talk to Korey Fox and complete his mission tree, give him all those lovely narcotics for free. keep mining in Verec-per if you are getting bored of hauling. but no more fighting. crafting is good - make thousands of combat drone rev 6's (hellcat 2's) - you will need them.
keep hauling that Outlaw cargo all the time - keep checking that Pirate standing, keep it going up, you need it pretty high because we are going to damage it badly. every time you work for Outlaw services, your Pirate standing goes up.
BUT
because they don't know about what you are doing - this is smuggling right? - your GalFed/Alliance standing is not affected.
you will get to a point where you will have a considerable sum of credits to your name, you should have heaps, way over 100 million preferably more if you've been following my get rich slowly tactics above. at level 45 or there after it is time to start thinking of a new career. you should have an IP reset to hand and be spending time pouring over the ship details in the CEDR. i'm a big fan of verecian ships. those implant devices rock my socks, they are worth the extra credits. credit for credit, they pack more punch than any other ships, the Liberator is a heap of scrap compared to even the smaller Agedar-kel, which would bust a Libby in a straight fight.
if you start your game by saying "right, i want to be a pirate here and away i go killing anything that moves", you are going to fall flat on your face and stuff your game entirely. this advice is from the greatest pirate captain in the known universe, take it for what it is. do not start out by going pirate, stupid is stupid.
Ashar and Wesbec
the moment your pirate standing is anything other than sworn enemy, Ashar and Wesbec will NOT talk to you ever again. you can be a Wesbec Ambassador or an Ashar Pointy Haired CEO but you have 1 point of Pirate standing and you are off the board, persona non grated. after this you will never see another Ashar or Wesbec hauling mission again, and no further increase in your Ashar/Wesbec standing will be possible - unless you crawl back to the GalFed scum on your knees and spend the next year killing pirate aligned ships to zero your Pirate standing again. you need good standing with Ashar and Wesbec to talk to at least twelve NPC's (including Ron Micah for your landing gear) - getting this wrong will trash your game, end of. there is 45k of IP points you will never see and crash landing on planets without a docking bay is not an option.
GalFed and Alliance
GalFed makes a convincing argument why piracy is a bad option, 52,000 IP points, left and right hand implants and several million credits. that's why you don't want to go pirate. Casandra McConnell alone gives more IP points reward than all the Pirate/ConFed NPC's put together. Carl Schultz in the Expanse is an unknown but if you don't have the standing to get to talk to him this could be another game crasher. Tomar Stubbs is annoying and Lt.Stevens will get you a bad name with ConFed but you need those precious implant release forms!
R.A.I.D.S.
this is a fairly new trip up, i've only just discovered, evidence is pointing to a recent code change. if you have ANY pirate standing - you cannot attack RAIDS. nothing is stopping you from cutting them to bits after they are dead, good news for Pirate haulers but the investment in energy weapons doesn't make sense in the long run. the fun of joining in the mass bunfight round a new RAID is gone for good.
those Verecians
hauling cargo to Verec-per does wonderful things for the Verecian ecomony (hint: do you ever see iron/ steel/ plasteel resources in Verec-per - no, what do you think the verecians want more than anything? what are Wesbec and Ashar bringing in?). there is good verecian standing to be had running Ashar / Wesbec missions to Verec-per. what happens when you go pirate? well, without doing Ashar / Wesbec hauling, the cargo runner is stuck with Outlaw Services (more later). despite what the in game message says - there is NO verecian standing to be earned by doing Outlaw services missions - about 2 seconds of consideration will reveal to you why the verecian "honour" council will have no truck with trucking contraband in. the in-game message is wrong and needs re-coding. it gets worse than this, there's more...
you need verecian standing to go into verecian shops and buy all their cool toys. without it all you can do is plead with other goody, goody players to buy you stuff on your behalf (and pay through the nose for it). guess who else won't talk to you - verec-per combat services. another source of standing and cash in verec-per dried up on you.
Outlaw Services
you can't do Ashar/Wesbec missions - what can you do? Outlaw services. okay, for a start the mission "refresh" is twice as much as Ashar missions refresh at and just as annoying in the location distribution. the cargo sizes can range upto the size of Wesbec missions but that isn't often enough. there are few Outlaw Services in central Sphere, a cluster of 3 in the very middle of Verec-per - but none either end and NONE in Anvil or Forge at all. you are left with vast parts of space which have nothing going for them. the fuel waste is considerable if you don't pitch all the missions into one spot and the refresh rate will kill you.
Outlaw Combat Office
you can't do GalFed missions - what can you do? the Outlaw Combat Office provides the same sort of missions but indiscrimate killing is not what a smart pirate is about anyway.
Combat loot
there is a misconception (mostly my fault) that pirates can loot better and more loots by attacking merchant shipping. after quite a bit of research - this isn't what shows up in the data. sorry.
Union passenger office
this is the only bright bit of news i have for you. being pirate doesn't stop you carrying passengers. if it did, even i'd give it up as a bad job.
so after all this - is there any point in being a Pirate?
in short. NO
so how come you're such a great pirate?
historically speaking, the most famous successful pirates tended to be those who survived and managed to avoid being hung. a famous pirate hanging off the end of a rope is not a successful pirate - there is a difference. avoiding getting hung is best achieved by not being a pirate all the time and Core Exiles is no exception here. the "privateer" attacking "enemy" shipping under letters of mark and the spanish "Costa Garda", who were basically pirates by any other name, were officially sanctioned pirates. they were prone to changing sides and attacking friendly shipping but were often seen as a necessary evil or even heroes like Sir Francis Drake. it is possible to be a privateer in Core Exiles and my tutorial below will show you how to become a famous and successful pirate. it doesn't involve dangling off the end of a rope, in fact the worst that can happen is you get endless rude comments made about you in irc#chat but at least, you get to be famous.
how to be a famous and successful pirate (without being hung)
level 1 to 10: the easy bit
complete the starter missions, Jonas Hawke and Gunny. Start Winston Harper and Temperance. attack only what you need to attack, avoid combat. begin surveying and extracting early on. acquire mining drones and put them down but don't bother with refining their output just let it pile up.
level 11 to 20
finish Temperance. buy basic cargo expander and do long distance hauls for Ashar. keep the extractors down. leave the mining drones mining. network and acquire hermes drones for level 15. leave the ore for later.
essential store buys: bio engine mk5 and a mk4/mk5 fuel tank
level 20 to 25
at level 23 buy a Trader (hauler class) - beg, borrow (but don't steal) the funds from guilds, other (rich) players, anybody. if you can't - hold back and continue running the extractors, haul for Ashar and at 25 buy a Wanderer. upgrade all your extractors at level 25 to commercial extractors. upgrade your mining drones. finish Winston Harper,
essential store buys: premium account for the extra fuel - burn it, you need to build up credits.
level 25 to 34
start hauling for Wesbec. start mining but haul out to Verec-per as much as you can. finish Cedric Marshall, Trudy Dalmar, Carole Carmine, buy gators and do what you can of Darina Toomes. keep extracting and don't give the stuff away - make as much money as you possibly can. at level 34 throw any remaining IP into refining and refine all that lovely ore you have had piling up in the refinery.
essential kit: Midas Device Type 1, leave it fitted and running overnight after you log out.
level 35 - all change here!
buy a Betty! Bettys rock, they are super multi-role ships, you can do an Archon but hold off to level 35 and go for a Betty. use an IP reset now.
you will have unlocked several implants already - change to or buy level 2 implants, re-fit them now before you add skills. skill up as follows.
150 scan - you should kit out with asteroid scanners 1,2,3 in all 3 system slots, and a babylon 3 pod.
80 in drones, you should upgrade to Hestia mining drones, at level 36 buy combat drones mk4. it is going to start getting fun soon.
you now need to aim for a cargo hold of 400. your Betty starts off with 310. if you have lots of spare IP - beg or buy a Tesla mk1 reactor, you should have an cargo expander like the Quantum Eon Expander QE3 already by now. if skill points are tight - a Satan-5 Cargo Enhancer R3 is perfect and you won't need to skill up anymore for the next device upgrade at level 38.
upgrade all your extractors to a selection of industrial extractors.
if you have left over skill points, 140 energy to run a Zenith Phaser ZP1 is good. buy or beg a couple of Hull Nano Plating Rev 5 and a couple of Messiah Turret Type 4's, throw out a combat drone at the start of every fight and you have a fighting Betty which will take down small fighters every time and fights more efficently than the Marauder with the extra armour and hull. Bettys 0wn.
but no fighting yet. Joyce Bonner in Verec-per might be talking, with your uber sized cargo hold, finish Arty, most of Mac1623, 8 of Anton Mitchell's, Hopodoplus & Tessa Arno, extract what you can, GBM for what you can't.
essential store buys: Minos Transporter Type 2 - trust me on this one, zapping the contents of your cargo hold to safety without having to move, dock, and faff about will shake your game.
level 36
now you can start combat. start gently, and do as much as you can of Tomar Stubbs (but stop before you get hull breached) and Lt.Stevens (no more than 5 missions). with the combat drone packing it and the messiah turrets going off - even a small basic pulse laser is going to work out against quite a lot. the first few Santos Castillo missions might be doable.
BUT
only hit your mission targets and NOTHING else.
when you've finished having fun, goto Verec-per, deck out the asteroid scanners and mine until you get stupidly bored. don't bother collecting ore, use the minos (you did buy one right?) to empty out. if you get lucky you will hit a red crystal, if you are very lucky hold on to 3 of them and sell the rest. crystals, ROLF's and debris will pop up everywhere. hoard all of them, sell none. you need 31 grey crystals too, keep mining.
put up a GBM for 260 historical artifacts, complete Charles Smythe and hoard 80 away. start Eustace Saltser when you can. offer to sell attractive family members for the 55 hyper o2, then start extracting to finish. keep mining.
level 38
skill up device to 200 fit a Passenger ECO - Module EM3 and start running passengers to build your Union standing. ideally, run round Verec-per a few times and keep checking out Candice Littlefield and complete her as soon as you can - you will need to grovel for the 50 military datacubes, don't be proud. back in Sphere and GBM Edward Smythe's cultural artifacts and do Divine Enlightenment if you are bored and want a giggle. keep mining.
by level 39
by now you should have spare IP - start crafting, do the Jacob Brite crafting missions, follow that with Rene Serrano - with all that mining you should have the 5 grey crystals you need. Angelina Vega is a bigger leap but if you have spare skill points blow them in. you've got that red crystal by now? Marshal Decker and get your very own Intergalactic telemetry beacon. dump your rolf's, crystals and salvage at Delores Malone, she'll love you for it. keep mining.
level 40
now let's have some naughty fun but wait a minute. first check. your Ashar and Wesbec standing are both over 1,000,000 each yes? at least? at this point you are going to leave them behind forever. if a new NPC enters the game who needs Ashar / Wesbec standing, are you "future-proofed" for it? a million points of standing are *probably* going to be enough to see you onwards (but don't blame me if some future introduced NPC needs more than this okay?) if you've neglected this - you need to deal with this now.
the Golden Art of being a Privateer
i'm going to teach you the secret of being a smart pirate. not a stupid mafia thug, but a Privateer. noble, honourable, brave all that, and a lying, cheating thief when nobody is looking. at level 40, you should be a respectable merchant / miner flying a humble unarmed trader. muahahaha! (start working on the evil laugh).
craft yourself lots of ebk units, hundreds of them. buy yourself 3 scanners - a commercial tracker 1, 2 and 3. fit them. commercial trackers look for "green" affiliated ships - your new target. pop back to somewhere quiet and peaceful like Feris or the Farpoints. put the guns out, pod up the messiahs and fit those special hull / armour buffs on too. ready?
if you are already mining then to start with knocking over mining barges, mining scows, mining drones etc. - easy stuff and the loots will be compatible with most of the contents of your commercial stores (which keeps a lid on CS costs for now). move round various locations for different selections of targets but keep to hitting green and yellow threats for now. your GalFed and Alliance standings will start dropping. keep going - soon they will go red - what joyful day! now stop - don't get carried away!
at this point your standings should read GalFed: Sworn Enemy, ConFed: (number greater than 0), Alliance: Sworn Enemy, Pirates 1 to 10 (but no more please).
deep in ConFed territory on Elista, Tomsk is our next port of call, nip into Outlaw Services. surprise - they let you in! pick up as many consignments as your cargo bay can hold, and refresh for any of the following Verecian destinations - Warloro, Tornsul, Vosay (or nearby). haul back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. check in at Hawks Hideout, Kells Expanse. talk to Korey Fox and complete his mission tree, give him all those lovely narcotics for free. keep mining in Verec-per if you are getting bored of hauling. but no more fighting. crafting is good - make thousands of combat drone rev 6's (hellcat 2's) - you will need them.
keep hauling that Outlaw cargo all the time - keep checking that Pirate standing, keep it going up, you need it pretty high because we are going to damage it badly. every time you work for Outlaw services, your Pirate standing goes up.
BUT
because they don't know about what you are doing - this is smuggling right? - your GalFed/Alliance standing is not affected.
you will get to a point where you will have a considerable sum of credits to your name, you should have heaps, way over 100 million preferably more if you've been following my get rich slowly tactics above. at level 45 or there after it is time to start thinking of a new career. you should have an IP reset to hand and be spending time pouring over the ship details in the CEDR. i'm a big fan of verecian ships. those implant devices rock my socks, they are worth the extra credits. credit for credit, they pack more punch than any other ships, the Liberator is a heap of scrap compared to even the smaller Agedar-kel, which would bust a Libby in a straight fight.
-
Sukayo
- CE Official Supporter
- Posts: 372
- Joined: Sun Jul 20, 2014 9:41 pm
- Location: Brno, Sothern Moravia
Re: the Incomplete Guide to Piracy
when do you want to start a serious combat career as a Privateer? level 40 - the Enkal-per, level 50 - the Philshy-mor, these work for me. personally, i waited, saved myself, mined and hauled until level 55, crafted my settlement hubs, made my own Stormbringer +D3 (yup, 3 red crystals went into it, crazy waste that was). i IP reset at 55 and bought a beautiful Peres-bur. strange thinking of pirates flying peace-keepers, paint it light blue for bonus evil points.
now i teach you my secrets, okay? haul over to verec-per and go see Madyson White, (Bandela, Phaud) she is your first port of call, complete her mission tree as much as you can. why? you don't need GalFed standing to complete Madyson, Verecians don't honestly give a damn about GalFed. did i mention you need threat detectors on for this? no? lose the commercial trackers for a bit.
you will be shooting pirates - they're just competition, shoot them anyway. you will be shooting "vermin" class ships. strangely - we don't yet know who the "vermin" actually are - just that the verecians, GalFed and the Alliance if you please seem to hate them badly.
watch carefully -
when you shoot pirates -
your pirate standing goes DOWN
your GalFed/Alliance standing goes UP
when you shoot "vermin" ships -
your Verecian standing goes UP
your GalFed/Alliance standing goes UP
your pirate standing is UNMOVED
the verecians HATE "vermin", pirates don't give a stuff about them. working for Madyson might be enough to propel you into favour with GalFed and the Alliance. if you carry on doing Outlaw Service runs, you maintain your Pirate standing. after you have finished Madyson - if your GalFed/Alliance standing is still red - sworn enemy - continue attacking "vermin" "hunted" ships and ONLY "vermin" "hunted" ships, nothing else - until your GalFed/Alliance standing goes back to green and starts clocking up numbers.
go back to Sphere and continue to do more Outlaw Service smuggling runs as you do. complete the combat NPC's Tomar Stubbs, Santos Castillo, and Lt. Stevens - you will now be sworn enemy with ConFed. don't panic - just keep smuggling and focus on keeping your pirate standing high, re-build the damage with Outlaw Service runs. do NOT attack "friendly" green shipping, do NOT attack targets which are not on your hit list. only attack "Confederate" (ConFed) ships which you are specifically instructed to hit.
now we really start to "step rank" this. time to visit ms.psycho-b**** from hell, Lottie Savage. she hates GalFed with a passion. she will send you out all over hunting GalFed shipping down. as a bonus - ConFed really appreciate the damage you are doing and you will quickly find yourself in favour enough to talk to the ConFed NPC's, with no extra work. take time out to visit Sonny Mccoy, she needs help with pirates stealing her crates. sure enough - all that is happening is your standings are levelling out, one goes up, another goes down.
to be a successful Privateer and to stay in good standing, from now on - follow these simple rules:
good, efficient work
INCREASE Pirate standing - haul Outlaw Service smuggling runs
INCREASE GalFed/Alliance standing - kill "vermin" ships in Verec-per
INCREASE Verecian standing - kill "vermin" ships in Verec-per
INCREASE Verecian standing - do passenger runs in Verec-per
neutral, necessary work
INCREASE ConFed/Pirate standing & DECREASE GalFed/Alliance standing
- kill GalFed/Alliance ships anywhere (only if you need/want ConFed standing)
poor, negative work
INCREASE GalFed/Alliance standing & DECREASE Pirate standing
- kill Pirate ships anywhere (avoid this)
INCREASE GalFed/Alliance standing & DECREASE ConFed standing
- kill ConFed ships anywhere (do NOT do this)
if you want to be a more aggressive Privateer, hunt pirates but keep smuggling - you will end up working twice as hard for the standing you do earn.
one last reminder
you have read how simple being a Privateer can be, how you can balance your standing and be regarded as honourable and trust-worthy by all factions - you keep your word, even if you attack faction shipping, you are doing so purely as a contract killer works. it's professional, controlled and inspires fear and respect. but if you take this path remember:
you will never work for Ashar/Wesbec again. sure they respect you but their customers are more picky about who they want taking their parcels. no offence intended but business is business.
you will never work for the GalFed combat office again. they are directly answerable to the GalFed bureaucracy who have a different attitude to say Cassandra Mcconnell who is a bit more practically minded about who she gets to do her dirty work.
you will never work for the verecian combat office again. unlike Madyson White, they are concerned with upholding a righteous image of law-abiding citizens, Madyson White just wants the non-law abiding citizens smeared over the nearest wall.
you will never be able to attack a RAID ever again. tough luck. i can't figure this one out but the dev's move in mysterious ways. deal with it.
so after all this - why do you want to be a pirate?
for me it is 3 things:
this is new territory. my standings are unique because i've focused my whole game plan round them. being a pirate is one thing, being a privateer is a totally different approach.
this is harder. this is a challenge. working with all factions and maintaining all standings is three times the work most players do and i am playing now with a lot of options closed. we choose to go to the moon, not because these things are easy, but because they are hard.
this is BETA. i'm one of only a handful, if that, of players with Pirate standing. somebody has to step up and test stuff - even if it damages their game or makes it unplayable. i trust the dev's to bail me out if i am testing something and the code backfires or kills off my game terminally. somebody experienced needs to take the fall if something works out wrong in game play. i'm okay with that person being me.
so there you've got it. all i need do now is say, as the old pirate farewell goes -
"Keep the Solar Wind in your sails, Matey!"
"and the Stars in your eyes!"
now i teach you my secrets, okay? haul over to verec-per and go see Madyson White, (Bandela, Phaud) she is your first port of call, complete her mission tree as much as you can. why? you don't need GalFed standing to complete Madyson, Verecians don't honestly give a damn about GalFed. did i mention you need threat detectors on for this? no? lose the commercial trackers for a bit.
you will be shooting pirates - they're just competition, shoot them anyway. you will be shooting "vermin" class ships. strangely - we don't yet know who the "vermin" actually are - just that the verecians, GalFed and the Alliance if you please seem to hate them badly.
watch carefully -
when you shoot pirates -
your pirate standing goes DOWN
your GalFed/Alliance standing goes UP
when you shoot "vermin" ships -
your Verecian standing goes UP
your GalFed/Alliance standing goes UP
your pirate standing is UNMOVED
the verecians HATE "vermin", pirates don't give a stuff about them. working for Madyson might be enough to propel you into favour with GalFed and the Alliance. if you carry on doing Outlaw Service runs, you maintain your Pirate standing. after you have finished Madyson - if your GalFed/Alliance standing is still red - sworn enemy - continue attacking "vermin" "hunted" ships and ONLY "vermin" "hunted" ships, nothing else - until your GalFed/Alliance standing goes back to green and starts clocking up numbers.
go back to Sphere and continue to do more Outlaw Service smuggling runs as you do. complete the combat NPC's Tomar Stubbs, Santos Castillo, and Lt. Stevens - you will now be sworn enemy with ConFed. don't panic - just keep smuggling and focus on keeping your pirate standing high, re-build the damage with Outlaw Service runs. do NOT attack "friendly" green shipping, do NOT attack targets which are not on your hit list. only attack "Confederate" (ConFed) ships which you are specifically instructed to hit.
now we really start to "step rank" this. time to visit ms.psycho-b**** from hell, Lottie Savage. she hates GalFed with a passion. she will send you out all over hunting GalFed shipping down. as a bonus - ConFed really appreciate the damage you are doing and you will quickly find yourself in favour enough to talk to the ConFed NPC's, with no extra work. take time out to visit Sonny Mccoy, she needs help with pirates stealing her crates. sure enough - all that is happening is your standings are levelling out, one goes up, another goes down.
to be a successful Privateer and to stay in good standing, from now on - follow these simple rules:
good, efficient work
INCREASE Pirate standing - haul Outlaw Service smuggling runs
INCREASE GalFed/Alliance standing - kill "vermin" ships in Verec-per
INCREASE Verecian standing - kill "vermin" ships in Verec-per
INCREASE Verecian standing - do passenger runs in Verec-per
neutral, necessary work
INCREASE ConFed/Pirate standing & DECREASE GalFed/Alliance standing
- kill GalFed/Alliance ships anywhere (only if you need/want ConFed standing)
poor, negative work
INCREASE GalFed/Alliance standing & DECREASE Pirate standing
- kill Pirate ships anywhere (avoid this)
INCREASE GalFed/Alliance standing & DECREASE ConFed standing
- kill ConFed ships anywhere (do NOT do this)
if you want to be a more aggressive Privateer, hunt pirates but keep smuggling - you will end up working twice as hard for the standing you do earn.
one last reminder
you have read how simple being a Privateer can be, how you can balance your standing and be regarded as honourable and trust-worthy by all factions - you keep your word, even if you attack faction shipping, you are doing so purely as a contract killer works. it's professional, controlled and inspires fear and respect. but if you take this path remember:
you will never work for Ashar/Wesbec again. sure they respect you but their customers are more picky about who they want taking their parcels. no offence intended but business is business.
you will never work for the GalFed combat office again. they are directly answerable to the GalFed bureaucracy who have a different attitude to say Cassandra Mcconnell who is a bit more practically minded about who she gets to do her dirty work.
you will never work for the verecian combat office again. unlike Madyson White, they are concerned with upholding a righteous image of law-abiding citizens, Madyson White just wants the non-law abiding citizens smeared over the nearest wall.
you will never be able to attack a RAID ever again. tough luck. i can't figure this one out but the dev's move in mysterious ways. deal with it.
so after all this - why do you want to be a pirate?
for me it is 3 things:
this is new territory. my standings are unique because i've focused my whole game plan round them. being a pirate is one thing, being a privateer is a totally different approach.
this is harder. this is a challenge. working with all factions and maintaining all standings is three times the work most players do and i am playing now with a lot of options closed. we choose to go to the moon, not because these things are easy, but because they are hard.
this is BETA. i'm one of only a handful, if that, of players with Pirate standing. somebody has to step up and test stuff - even if it damages their game or makes it unplayable. i trust the dev's to bail me out if i am testing something and the code backfires or kills off my game terminally. somebody experienced needs to take the fall if something works out wrong in game play. i'm okay with that person being me.
so there you've got it. all i need do now is say, as the old pirate farewell goes -
"Keep the Solar Wind in your sails, Matey!"
"and the Stars in your eyes!"