Hi commanders,
I am back to piracy since the release of collector drones (before that, manual scooping was a deal-breaker to me). Unfortunately due to low participation in the recent CGs as well as tiers set way too high, I either struggle to find a non NPC prey or simply feel bad at bothering other players who are brave enough to participate in an unprofitable CG which is likely to fail with no reward (feel to me like a waste of time, kinda depressing).
Hence I gave a try to NPC piracy. Here are my thoughts/methods:
1) The funniest, low investment, giving the feel to do an actual profit:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Use a Cobra, cheap (3millions) and fast:
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=702,5Rr5Rr5QR5QR3RY01Q,2-4s6Q6u5K4s5K6k,7Re0720725Pe5Pe9qm
- Interdict T6/T7/T9
- Cargo scan
- Focus on high value cargo only, otherwise, go back to supercruise and find another prey
- Drop its shield, target cargo hatch
- Once it starts to drop some cargo, do not damage to 0% the hatch or it will stop dropping cargo
- Once 5-10 cargo have been dropped, take down your prey (if not, at this point it may jump out, but even with 5% hull left, it might actually go silly, turn back and fire at you which is an annoyance)
- Throttle down, open cargo hatch, launch your collectors
- Try to collect all cargo, then get the hell out before the cops show up
=> You may then end up with over 100k profit (imperial slaves) in about 5 minutes which is not bad considering the price of your ship and did actually something fun and challenging.
2) More profit, somehow more challenge, but actually painful and boring:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Use a bigger ship with large cargo and enough slots for collector and hatch limpets. I currently use a Python but an Asp would do as well:
http://edshipyard.com/#/L=705,5TP5T...,2-9Y9Y7_6QB6A08I,7UI7k40AA08c50y9tu5Sm5SmA2M
- Focus on T6/T7/T9 carrying a large amount of valuable only, otherwise go back to supercruise and find a better prey
- Shoot its drive, let it drift and follow it for some time
- At this point, it may still be firing at you, so try to find a blind spot, or put 4 pips to shield and pop shield cells
- The cops will show up at some point. Either ensure they they show up behind you and are not following, or if they are heading back to you, fly away, in the same direction as your prey is now drifting, until you lose radar contact.
- Then let your prey drift and catch up with you. You may want to 180° turn to spot it and ensure you do not miss it (I noticed that it runs cold since thrusters are down, and may disappear from radar at medium range)
- Follow it slowly, drop its shield, use hatch breaker
- Once it starts spilling cargo, drop another hatch breaker
- Throttle down, let your collectors get the first batch of canisters, DO NOT CHANGE DIRECTION
- Once done, fly IN A STRAIGHT LINE to the next batch of canisters, throttle down, collect them
- Your drifting prey should now be a dozen (if not more) kilometers away from you...FLY STRAIGHT, you should hopefully catch up with it
- Repeat (hatch breakers, collect, catch up)
=> Good news, 100 canisters of imperial slaves are worth over 1million profit. Too bad it took you so long, via a painful and repetitive tasks to get there...
Remark: I also tried to launch a dozen of hatch breakers, then turn back to collect the line of floating canisters...then realized that the line ended after 20 canisters, though the last one collected still had over 40% integrity... It seems that the 20 canister limit still apply for canisters dropped via hatch breakers / damaged cargo hatch!!!
Remark 2: I have also tried to knock my drifting prey from front, in an attempt to bring it to a stop...I have not succeeded so far... It's very hard to hit actually and it always ends up drifting in another direction...or even faster than initially!
I hope this guide will be useful to some of you. While combining both NPC and player piracy may bring you greater profit, I am not satisfied with the way pirating NPC works (no fun!). So if you have experience on this, please share your methods to pirate efficiently NPCs while having fun!
I am back to piracy since the release of collector drones (before that, manual scooping was a deal-breaker to me). Unfortunately due to low participation in the recent CGs as well as tiers set way too high, I either struggle to find a non NPC prey or simply feel bad at bothering other players who are brave enough to participate in an unprofitable CG which is likely to fail with no reward (feel to me like a waste of time, kinda depressing).
Hence I gave a try to NPC piracy. Here are my thoughts/methods:
1) The funniest, low investment, giving the feel to do an actual profit:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Use a Cobra, cheap (3millions) and fast:
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=702,5Rr5Rr5QR5QR3RY01Q,2-4s6Q6u5K4s5K6k,7Re0720725Pe5Pe9qm
- Interdict T6/T7/T9
- Cargo scan
- Focus on high value cargo only, otherwise, go back to supercruise and find another prey
- Drop its shield, target cargo hatch
- Once it starts to drop some cargo, do not damage to 0% the hatch or it will stop dropping cargo
- Once 5-10 cargo have been dropped, take down your prey (if not, at this point it may jump out, but even with 5% hull left, it might actually go silly, turn back and fire at you which is an annoyance)
- Throttle down, open cargo hatch, launch your collectors
- Try to collect all cargo, then get the hell out before the cops show up
=> You may then end up with over 100k profit (imperial slaves) in about 5 minutes which is not bad considering the price of your ship and did actually something fun and challenging.
2) More profit, somehow more challenge, but actually painful and boring:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Use a bigger ship with large cargo and enough slots for collector and hatch limpets. I currently use a Python but an Asp would do as well:
http://edshipyard.com/#/L=705,5TP5T...,2-9Y9Y7_6QB6A08I,7UI7k40AA08c50y9tu5Sm5SmA2M
- Focus on T6/T7/T9 carrying a large amount of valuable only, otherwise go back to supercruise and find a better prey
- Shoot its drive, let it drift and follow it for some time
- At this point, it may still be firing at you, so try to find a blind spot, or put 4 pips to shield and pop shield cells
- The cops will show up at some point. Either ensure they they show up behind you and are not following, or if they are heading back to you, fly away, in the same direction as your prey is now drifting, until you lose radar contact.
- Then let your prey drift and catch up with you. You may want to 180° turn to spot it and ensure you do not miss it (I noticed that it runs cold since thrusters are down, and may disappear from radar at medium range)
- Follow it slowly, drop its shield, use hatch breaker
- Once it starts spilling cargo, drop another hatch breaker
- Throttle down, let your collectors get the first batch of canisters, DO NOT CHANGE DIRECTION
- Once done, fly IN A STRAIGHT LINE to the next batch of canisters, throttle down, collect them
- Your drifting prey should now be a dozen (if not more) kilometers away from you...FLY STRAIGHT, you should hopefully catch up with it
- Repeat (hatch breakers, collect, catch up)
=> Good news, 100 canisters of imperial slaves are worth over 1million profit. Too bad it took you so long, via a painful and repetitive tasks to get there...
Remark: I also tried to launch a dozen of hatch breakers, then turn back to collect the line of floating canisters...then realized that the line ended after 20 canisters, though the last one collected still had over 40% integrity... It seems that the 20 canister limit still apply for canisters dropped via hatch breakers / damaged cargo hatch!!!
Remark 2: I have also tried to knock my drifting prey from front, in an attempt to bring it to a stop...I have not succeeded so far... It's very hard to hit actually and it always ends up drifting in another direction...or even faster than initially!
I hope this guide will be useful to some of you. While combining both NPC and player piracy may bring you greater profit, I am not satisfied with the way pirating NPC works (no fun!). So if you have experience on this, please share your methods to pirate efficiently NPCs while having fun!
Last edited: