Newcomer / Intro How the hell do you find pirates?

[MrsTrellis]

OK, been flying round and round for an hour now. Checking out unidentified signals.....about 12 I reckon....nothing. Had 1 interdiction which let happen and nobody was there.

Been flying between Nav Beacons, orbital, extraction zones.....nothing.

Any tips?

 

[bilgatus]

Go into unidentified signals and scan every ship you see. I one of them is wanted thats your pirat.

I didn't find any pirats in secluded star systems only in main systems. That may have been bad luck.

Important! Scan ALL ships before attacking. Maybe all are "pirats" - you will not survive that :|

 

[Mr. Bridger]

Sounds like your doing the right thing, although maybe in the wrong places. Try some systems where things are a little lest settled, anarchies etc

 

[Sim Star]

Try carrying cargo, that way when you get scanned by an npc in a USS they will attack you if they are a pirate. Simples!

Alternatively use a KWS.

 

[VagabondStarJXF]

I was having trouble with this at first but it turns out it's really simple... Go to the system you'd been told they're at. Hit every USS you can and attack WANTED pilots. Sometimes you'll get someone who offers you an 'upgrade' to your mission, sometimes you'll find the big fish who'll blast you to kingdom come in a single shot (happened to me twice today), and sometimes you'll come across pilots who will give you info on where the big fish is.

 

[Nosher]

Hello MrsTrellis

Pirates will sometimes find you, while you are supercruising around systems you might get interdicted by a pirate, sometimes it's police in the higher security sytems. To find them, you need to buy a frame shift drive interdictor from a station in a reasonably developed system , you can then fly around systems in supercruise, select targets, scan them, they have to be in front of you to scan them, and if they show up as wanted you can deploy your interdictor, make sure you are behind them, some will try and evade you, once your behind and in range fire your interdictor, there will be a short minigame where your target will try a squirm free, keep them in your "sight" and your interdiction will complete. Deploy weapons and let them have it.

Sorry if it sounds like in trying to teach you to suck eggs

In some system where you are trying to gain influence with a certain faction you might want to check you're not killing the guys your trying to get on side with, you can do this by selecting the contacts tab and have a look at your target.

Happy hunting

 

[CMDR Sheehy]

I have heard reports that the mining areas are awash with pirates. The mining areas can be identified in your left-hand system list.

 

[Brad Avidro]

It's simple enough, put a ton of gold in your hold, go to an anarchy system, fly to a USS (Unidentified signal source) and wait. You won't need to wait long before you get scanned, if it's a system authority vessel he'll tell you to move along, if it's a pirate he'll attack. Let him get the first shot in then blast him to bits

Be careful, the only way you can shoot first is if you scan him with a KW scanner first. otherwise you could end up with a bounty on your head too.

 

[CMDR Sheehy]

Er.. yeah. Be careful with the KWS.

The Kill Warrant Scanner (KWS) will tell you if he has bounties in other systems, which you can then collect after killing him. However! Here is the pinch. If he is clean in the system you are in, as soon as you attack you will be fined and if you kill him, another fine and a wanted status.

Anarchy systems it does not matter so long as there are no stations you might want to dock at afterwards.

 

[Ttaskmaster]

Drop out of a USS, get your guns out (if you really want to provoke people) and start scanning the ships.
Anyone who comes on the comms with, "Hmm, now what are you carrying, I wonder?" will be a pirate.
If you're carrying just a single unit of cargo, they will probably attack. At this point, if they're not already WANTED, so long as you have enabled Crime Reporting they should turn red and become WANTED the instant they land a hit on you... and you're free to blow them the heck outta the sky!!

 

[Sargon]

If you carry cargo as bait... they'll find you with more frequency upon entering unidentified signal sources.

 

[MrsTrellis]

Thanks everyone for the tips. Will try the cargo bait option next.

 

[Starnoob]

Drop out of a USS, get your guns out (if you really want to provoke people) and start scanning the ships.
Anyone who comes on the comms with, "Hmm, now what are you carrying, I wonder?" will be a pirate.
If you're carrying just a single unit of cargo, they will probably attack. At this point, if they're not already WANTED, so long as you have enabled Crime Reporting they should turn red and become WANTED the instant they land a hit on you... and you're free to blow them the heck outta the sky!!

Good Lord, that sounds like too much fun! I'll have to try that approach tonight.