Finding Mission Pirates

[Masta Squidge]

Fed. Navy Mission.

Pirates.

16 of them.

Flying between stations with a cargo full of junk, sitting at the nav beacon, signal sites, etc..... 4 hours. 3 mission pirates and about 50 non-mission ones.


COME ON GUYS. And yes, I am in the right system. Can you seriously not provide us with a more positive means of finding these things?

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

If you are completely stuck, often the target of an assassination mission in the same system will also be a mission target for a kill pirate mission. It's not quick, but kills two birds.

 

[Masta Squidge]

If you are completely stuck, often the target of an assassination mission in the same system will also be a mission target for a kill pirate mission. It's not quick, but kills two birds.

I'm just no longer going to play that game. Dropped it and got a fed navy courier mission to pop up after a couple relogs.

 

[FrogsFriend]

The latest update fixed Kill Pirate missions pointing at non-pirate Factions. However, very occasionally there will be two or more anarchy Factions in a system and only one of them will generate the vast majority of the pirates in that system. In that case it's still possible for a mission to target the 'wrong' pirate Faction. If that happens your only hope is to use an Interdictor.... or give it up as a bad job.

 

[Vingtetun]

Hunt in supercruise with an interdictor...

 

[Masta Squidge]

Hunt in supercruise with an interdictor...

You know, the last time I tried that everything I stopped just ran away from me. Got annoying. You aren't wrong though, just tonight I didn't have one available in the area and it was quicker to drop it and get a new fed mission.

I probably would have had 5 instead of 3 in that time because I was scanning ships in SC and found a whole whopping 2 additional mission pirates all night. But hell, I figured why not give it the old college try, and read up on it while doing it. Maybe I was screwing something up?

Maybe I still am? Either way not worth the effort.

 

[Aashenfox]

Hunt in supercruise with an interdictor...

I do these missions all the time and this is the only thing I don't do, but you can pick up a couple of extra targets this way.

I go to the nav beacon of the relevant system and see if there are any mission targets there. I kill any, usually 2 up at this point. I go back out to supercruise and simply fly slowly around near the star and more popular bodies, looking for 'weapons fire detected' USSes. 50% of them contain a mission target or two. I won't lie, it takes me usually a couple of two hour play sessions to complete one of these, but it does pass the time decently, you don't have to wait long for a fight, even if it isn't always the fight you want.

Tips... Make sure the system you are being sent to is high populated, this means more USSes and more traffic in general (as well as more main targets interdicting you). Look for these missions to systems with ringed planets, as a high RES makes them trivially easy. Good luck.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

You did ask for help though.

 

[insanephoton]

Compared with the 'kill smugglers' missions, the 'kill pirates' ones are a breeze. But I will agree that they aren't great in terms of how long it will take you to complete them.