Is pirating good profit?

[Crumb]

I'm new to the game and not good enough to pirate just yet, but I likely will at some point.

Can someone tell me what kind of fines you can expect from such a life, and how it effects your rep?

Asides from any financial issues, what other consequences are there?

 

[Jreyy Randor]

Just make sure you don't make Hitler's error and not have for insurance. There are psychos that will try to kill you on sight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWPTbB_feNE

Sometimes throwing all your credits in on one credit run is part of the thrill.

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I'm new to the game and not good enough to pirate just yet, but I likely will at some point.

Can someone tell me what kind of fines you can expect from such a life, and how it effects your rep?

Asides from any financial issues, what other consequences are there?

I don't think pirates care about rep too much. There are some "pirate" stations out there run by criminal organizations.

 

[RabidRich]

I pirated for about 4 hours last night, doing my damnest to give every trader I interdicted the opportunity to stop and negotiate cargo. I don't have my stats written down, but off the top of my head (made up stats, but it's close).

15 pilots decided to fight every inch of the way, and run, a lot of which even after repairing their drives and hitting their FSD once again
15 pilots perished

5 pilots decided to fight every inch of the way, and run, and then combat log after I tought them how to repair their engines
5 pilots were reported for combat logging

1 pilot decided to pull throttle to zero, and wait for a scan (a reasonable fellow in an Asp)
1 pilot got away without a hitch and lost a mere 10 tones of gold (I wanted 20, but I misstyped, and he said "deal" before I had a chance to change my demand... he dropped it and ran off. My mistake)

My haul for the day, about $70k. Operating costs for interdictions, about $200k. Until combat logging is fixed and interdiction damage costs are reigned into a normal sane level, I can't see this as a functioning career in this game. Combat loggers are my least liked players in this game. You know who you are.

You can do better than this pirating NPCs only. Just hanging out in SC in an independent anarchy , going after the larger NPC ships only, I cleared a 500k profit in one trip(my canopy was v. Close to blowing after all the interdictions). It is much slower $perhour than bounty hunting or trading, and the novelty wears off after 3hours of interdict/scan/shoot/limpet/scoop...but hey,it is viable if you fancy a change.

Get a clipper/python. A large hold while combat fit is the key to getting a decent profit per hunt, as you have to play the numbers game, multiple siphons on the good targets( shoot drives when they are turning so they aren't drifting fast when they lose control, you can get multiple jettison batches out without losing them off scanners, then tank/kill the fuzz when they show while you scoop last containers).

 

[Alexander the Grape]

I went from 1mill assets to 20 mill assets purely from pirating rare goods. Took a long time but you can make money. If you find some palladium traders who stick to open you might be in with a shot of making serious cash, if you're good....

 

[jk2l]

I kinda give up on pirating. Tried few hours but it doesn't really suit me