Ok, I'm having a blast with the game so far! But there's something that's making me very confused. I was offered some missions where I need to kill Traders or Pirates. The problem is: I can't find them. How can I identify that someone is a trader? A pirate I would guess is someone wanted, but I arrived at a USS and there was a npc offering me to stop and receive an optional reward if I let him live, so I guess that guy is the pirate, but he is clean, I shot him and now have a 19k bounty on me. Then the server went down for maintnence and I couldn't find another guy like this to test if they were the pirates I was assigned to kill
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Newcomer / Intro How to find targets?
- Thread starter deathm00n
- Start date
As you say, pirates are wanted. Kill them for pirate missions.
For traders, I would suggest picking up a cargo scanner and scanning the cargo of targets. If they carry legal commodities, then they are most likely a trader.
Ships such as Haulers/ Lakon's are almost always traders, so target them.
For traders, I would suggest picking up a cargo scanner and scanning the cargo of targets. If they carry legal commodities, then they are most likely a trader.
Ships such as Haulers/ Lakon's are almost always traders, so target them.
I tend to avoid those missions because they lead you in to being a pirate, but if that is what you want go for it. finding pirates is easy, put a ton of gold in your hold, go to the system the mission suggests then find a USS (Unidentified Signal Source). Hang around there for a while, the odds are you will be scanned, if it's a system authority vessel leave them be if it's a pirate they will attack you. As soon as you get hit once that is the signal to shoot back and blow them to kingdom come, 
I think you shot up a clean NPC - quite frequently NPCs will appear at USS's and offer you modifications to your current mission. They will normally end by saying "look in your transactions tab". These normally offer an alternate destination and reward, or somethimes a reward for throwing the mission. Added bonus here is that you get to sell the goods on the black market. Leave these alone. Apart from that - you scan a ship by targeting it and keeping it in view until it is declared clean or wanted (this will be in the lower LH info panel). If its wanted then attack it - it will probably be a pirate and carry a bounty. If clean then its probably a trader, but you will incur a bounty and fine for attacking a clean NPC in controlled space. Good luck.
Ok there's bad advice being given in this tread. A lot of it is just plain wrong.
Bounty/wanted does not equal Pirate. A bounty means that the holder of the bounty has at some point committed a crime. Crimes happen for all manner of reasons, a lot of which are not necessarily associated with piracy. Wanted status is caused either by non payment of fines or by, depending on system jurisdiction, firing upon or blowing up another ship. This can also happen for any number of reasons not necessarily associated with piracy.
Pirates are pirates because they are members of a pirate faction. Each system has a number of factions, one of them will be the dominant faction which defines the system jurisdiction and system of government. If a system is an anarchy system, it is an anarchy system because a pirate faction is the dominant faction in that system.
Pirate NPCs are spawned AI 'archetypes' from a local or nearby pirate faction. You can see which faction the NPC is a member of in the 'target information' sub pannel on the left info pannel in your ship, after an initial automatic forward scan has been completed on that ship. In order to kill pirates, find NPC ships that are members of a pirate faction. Do a bit of research in your current and neighboring systems by checking the system maps and look for an 'anarchy' aligned faction in the system information pannel on the left of the system map. You will have to buy system data when docked at a station if you have not already collected that data personally through direct proximity while having a discovery scanner installed.
Once you have ascertained the local pirate factions. Look for any associated ships when you're out hunting. Ships associated with an anarchy aligned faction will be pirates, because all anarchy aligned factions are pirate factions.
Pirate ships also almost always carry Cargo Scanners and/or FSD interdictors and/or and Limpet Hatch Breakers. You can see which modules a targeted ship has by looking at the 'sub target panel' on the left info panel of your ship when locked on to a target. Pirates will also almost always scan you when close enough and say something like "let's see what you have in your cargo" or "Got anything nice for me?". You should always check this behavior because pirate factions also spawn trader archetypes that courier their smuggled wares about. Shooting one of these, even though they're associated with the pirate faction, might not count as a pirate kill, as they are not a 'pirate' archetype, they are a 'trader' archetype. Likewise, they will almost always be flying something like a Hauler, or a Lakon class Industrial ship.
A small side note: Shooting any ship in any system other than an anarchy or dead system that is not flagged as 'wanted' is considered a crime, and you will receive a bounty or fine (depending on jurisdiction). even if they are pirates. Often times pirates will not even have a bounty in the system you have met them in, certainly if it is an anarchy system.
Ask these questions:
- What ship are they flying?
- What faction do they belong to?
- What modules do they have equipped?
- How are they behaving?
Wanted status and bounties, although often a good indicator, are not exclusively associated with pirates.
Hope this helped. I did begin to twitch a little when I saw the blind leading the blind there
Bounty/wanted does not equal Pirate. A bounty means that the holder of the bounty has at some point committed a crime. Crimes happen for all manner of reasons, a lot of which are not necessarily associated with piracy. Wanted status is caused either by non payment of fines or by, depending on system jurisdiction, firing upon or blowing up another ship. This can also happen for any number of reasons not necessarily associated with piracy.
Pirates are pirates because they are members of a pirate faction. Each system has a number of factions, one of them will be the dominant faction which defines the system jurisdiction and system of government. If a system is an anarchy system, it is an anarchy system because a pirate faction is the dominant faction in that system.
Pirate NPCs are spawned AI 'archetypes' from a local or nearby pirate faction. You can see which faction the NPC is a member of in the 'target information' sub pannel on the left info pannel in your ship, after an initial automatic forward scan has been completed on that ship. In order to kill pirates, find NPC ships that are members of a pirate faction. Do a bit of research in your current and neighboring systems by checking the system maps and look for an 'anarchy' aligned faction in the system information pannel on the left of the system map. You will have to buy system data when docked at a station if you have not already collected that data personally through direct proximity while having a discovery scanner installed.
Once you have ascertained the local pirate factions. Look for any associated ships when you're out hunting. Ships associated with an anarchy aligned faction will be pirates, because all anarchy aligned factions are pirate factions.
Pirate ships also almost always carry Cargo Scanners and/or FSD interdictors and/or and Limpet Hatch Breakers. You can see which modules a targeted ship has by looking at the 'sub target panel' on the left info panel of your ship when locked on to a target. Pirates will also almost always scan you when close enough and say something like "let's see what you have in your cargo" or "Got anything nice for me?". You should always check this behavior because pirate factions also spawn trader archetypes that courier their smuggled wares about. Shooting one of these, even though they're associated with the pirate faction, might not count as a pirate kill, as they are not a 'pirate' archetype, they are a 'trader' archetype. Likewise, they will almost always be flying something like a Hauler, or a Lakon class Industrial ship.
A small side note: Shooting any ship in any system other than an anarchy or dead system that is not flagged as 'wanted' is considered a crime, and you will receive a bounty or fine (depending on jurisdiction). even if they are pirates. Often times pirates will not even have a bounty in the system you have met them in, certainly if it is an anarchy system.
Ask these questions:
- What ship are they flying?
- What faction do they belong to?
- What modules do they have equipped?
- How are they behaving?
Wanted status and bounties, although often a good indicator, are not exclusively associated with pirates.
Hope this helped. I did begin to twitch a little when I saw the blind leading the blind there
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Oh yeah, it helped a lot! Thanks, I will try to avoid this kind of mission for now, I will get more experienced before doing themHope this helped. I did begin to twitch a little when I saw the blind leading the blind there