Can you actually earn cr pirating?

The reason I ask is because it seems everything in the black market is so cheap--plus you have to spend a lot of time scooping/money repairing your damaged ship. Seem killing pirates is a lot more profitable as you can usually earn 200-300k in 5-10 min at a nav beacon. On a side note, if you become unfriendly to a power do you use your navy rank?
 
You aren't making as much money from pirating as you would bounty hunting, definitely, but that is mostly due to luck, things like military intelligence, AI artefacts, etc will bring in a lot more than anything else. It also helps to pick your systems wisely as well, a lot of planning goes into piracy.
 
I also have been looking into piracy recently. There are many questions. One question I could not find an answer to is about blackmarkets. Do the prices vary from station to station? Are there some blackmarkets that have better pay? If so is there any clue where to find them?
 
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Apparently pirating ships equipped with mining lasers entering super cruise from ice rings gets you a lot of diamonds.
 
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I also have been looking into piracy recently. There are many questions. One question I could not find an answer to is about blackmarkets. Do the prices vary from station to station? Are there some blackmarkets that have better pay? If so is there any clue where to find them?

Generally speaking, you want to go to systems controlled by Archon Delaine (spelling is probably wrong, so, the pirate power play guy), as those systems pay out more, but besides that, there is a general variation between systems, based a lot on what kind of economy it has.
 
Yes.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...e-low-temperature-diamonds?highlight=Diamonds

Piracy isn't a get rich scheme though. Piracy is more of a play style that involves all of the others. You have to be canny like a trader, search out good potential systems. Stake them out for problems such as wars or Outbreaks. Groom the good ones into Boom. Then you have to have the patience of a Miner. In my case I'm looking for Diamond Dealers, and not the little ones neither. These take time. When you catch one you have to be able to snipe out a Powerplant with better accuracy than most Bounty hunters. After that it's all limpets and paranoia. Then finally you need to Smuggle those stolen goods like the sharpest Robigo mode switcher. Getting caught with 200 tons of stolen Ice is no joke.

So yes it does pay well but it also involves a lot of work. Plus, starting out is hard. I used a Cobra for a long time and was hitting the rebuy screen quite often because I couldn't fit all the kit I needed in it. I couldn't take an interdictor, wake scanner and cargo scanner plus collection and hatch breaker limpets without checking out the shields and weapons.

I would say for a beginner the best way is to focus on lawless anarchy systems, keep a cargo scanner and go for hatch breaker limpets. Hang around Nav Beacons so you don't need an Interdictor. Cargo scan likely targets. T6 and Keelback often have fancy rares on board which are worth a good deal. Watch out for the Keel backs though as they can be a handful at the higher Ranks.

Prices at Black Markets do change. For Diamonds the price varies by a quarter and a low price can really eat into your profits. Im not 100% sure if there is a better economy type to offload goods at but State type makes a difference. Boom states typically offer better prices and anecdotally it seems Tourist economies pay very well for Diamonds although i haven't checked that out properly yet. I can see a spreadsheet coming in the future but for now experience is the best indicator!

Since I turned full time bandit I've had a lot of fun and started to learn new things all over again. I would absolutely recommend everyone tries it to enhance their gameplay. Like I said at the start though it's not a get rich scheme and if chasing credits is your thing then this is likely not for you. Trading and Poop hauling will always be the big earners.

But let's face it, being a Jewel thief is way cooler than hauling Poop.

Happy hunting you scurvy lot
 
Can you actually earn cr pirating?
The reason I ask is because it seems everything in the black market is so cheap--plus you have to spend a lot of time scooping/money repairing your damaged ship. Seem killing pirates is a lot more profitable as you can usually earn 200-300k in 5-10 min at a nav beacon. On a side note, if you become unfriendly to a power do you use your navy rank?

You can earn credits pirating, but currently not that much I believe. It does make your life harder, with the wanted status, bounties on your head etc.
I think it is not worth the trouble.

Piracy needs to get fleshed out. There is a lot of potential for cool gameplay here.

- Fist of all I would like to see the introduction of real cool pirate bases. Asteroid bases for example. These bases should specialize in piracy missions. Perhaps pirates would have to pay a cut of the profits to the owner of the pirate station where they take on such missions. If they do not pay they will get other pirates hunting after them.
- I am not sure if this has improved but in general npc traders with valuable cargo seem rare. Pirating ships with grain is a waste of time. We need more npc cargo ships with valuable cargo,
- Perhaps pirates should be able to buy information about ships with valuable cargo. FD could add a new contact to stations: The informant.
- The black market mechanic needs looking into. A lot has been said about this in other threads already.
- I'd like pirates to get their own ranking system, with piracy missions tied in to that.

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Yes you can, quite nice money, too. In my 128t clipper I can make between 5 and 7 million per hour.
See my guide here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...us-money-with-piracy-and-combat-zones-A-guide

That is an interesting guide.
repped
 
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Been reading all of this and all the links; it looks like a ton of fun. I don't have any Imperial rep or that much money, so a Clipper is out of the question, but I think I have an Asp Pirate build worked out that should be fun to try.
 
What is a good ship for starting out pirating (that isn't a clipper)?

I too tried out a cobra and found I couldn't fit enough internals to make it work, and the shields were too weak to prevent getting damaged enough to wipe out my profits.
 
Cool, thanks everyone! I'm considering pirating in Torvals territories (don't like her haha). I'm sure this will drop my empire rep but will it effect my navy ranks? I don't want to lose access to cool imperial ships.
 
Cool, thanks everyone! I'm considering pirating in Torvals territories (don't like her haha). I'm sure this will drop my empire rep but will it effect my navy ranks? I don't want to lose access to cool imperial ships.

Pirate away, navy ranks never go down :)
 
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