PvE Piracy - Fit for Cobra Mk III ?

[Red Fox Four]

After the new raider kits came out I found an urge to play the game again after being on (yet another)
a break from the game.

I promptly bought the raider kit, engine colors and some nameplates and here's the result from that.

Spoiler

So ship looks ace at least.

Next was outfitting it, and since I haven't really done piracy to any large degree (besides knocking off a few Powerplay cargo ships for the whatevertheywerecalled-cargo-cans for merits), I was hoping for some input or tweaks to my current setup.

From coriolis.edcd.io

https://eddp.co/u/lKo7Q7Ki

I only did a couple runs with this and noticed I didn't really need to use weapons. Just stick the limpet on them and goodies start popping out. Makes me wonder if a Collector limpet might be useful as well?

Hoping someone can help me tweak the setup some more.

And again, it's for PvE Piracy. I honestly have zero interest in PvP-Piracy.

 

[Marra Morgan]

Get rid of Discovery Scanner. It has no place on a pirate ship.
Replace with Collector limpet controller.
Have fun!

 

[Red Fox Four]

Get rid of Discovery Scanner. It has no place on a pirate ship.
Replace with Collector limpet controller.
Have fun!

I had the disco scanner on so I could find stations in systems I hop into if it is unexplored. Guess I've rolled around far too long in bounty hunter and mission runner ships with discos and fuel scoops.

But yeah, you are right it might not be needed

Anything else that jumps out at you that should/could be changed?

Also, I have a question regarding the whole multicrew (which is why the guns are Turreted, for now): does a friend who joins you to do piracy get a share of the money when you sell the booty on the black markets, or share the mission rewards if doing pirate missions?

Thanks.

 

[NSR2]

Are your hard points turrets? Is there a reason for that?
Also you don't have a collector limpet controller. are you getting the loot by hand?

I'm thinking I might start pirating in a conda. So I'm interested in piratey setups..

I had the disco scanner on so I could find stations in systems I hop into if it is unexplored. Guess I've rolled around far too long in bounty hunter and mission runner ships with discos and fuel scoops.

But yeah, you are right it might not be needed

...

You can stop at nav beacons and scan those to find stations in systems...

 

[Red Fox Four]

Are your hard points turrets? Is there a reason for that?

Cause I might want a friend to join through multicrew, and if the weapons are turreted then there is literally nothing he can do. Plus, in the few runs I did so far the NPC ships never fired back, and the hatch-breaker ignores shields so I don't need to shoot them at all (unless I want to disable their drives or something).

Also you don't have a collector limpet controller. are you getting the loot by hand?

Yeah I was scooping it by hand. I have a lot of experience with cargo scooping from salvage missions as well as forking up cargocanisters from planetsurface using the ship so, while slower than a limpet, it was pretty fast to scoop the cargo cans anyways.

You can stop at nav beacons and scan those to find stations in systems...

Right... forgot about that. What I get for being on breaks from the game... end up missing tidbits of information like that

 

[Pyrobee]

I had the disco scanner on so I could find stations in systems I hop into if it is unexplored. Guess I've rolled around far too long in bounty hunter and mission runner ships with discos and fuel scoops.

But yeah, you are right it might not be needed

Anything else that jumps out at you that should/could be changed?

Also, I have a question regarding the whole multicrew (which is why the guns are Turreted, for now): does a friend who joins you to do piracy get a share of the money when you sell the booty on the black markets, or share the mission rewards if doing pirate missions?

Thanks.

You don't need the scanner to see the stations, you will be able to see them without a honk or going to the nav beacon.

 

[Jezzah]

You can take PvE piracy to some lengths in order to make it easier and/or more profitable. But the cobra is a good starter ship.

Targeting type 6 type 7 haulers to start with. At this level I'd aim to do this in an anarchy system which is in boom so you don't have to worry about bounties and fines. It's a good place to cut your teeth on the mechanics. I'd also definitely fit a FSD interdictor and collection limpets to make collecting easier. However collector limpets are very sensitive things and if you are moving more than 20ms they'll explode trying to get the cargo into your hold taking the cargo out also. Annoying. So you need to bring the target ship to a stop really.

As for the process. Bring them out of SC using interdictor. Target power plant. Take down shields and bring power plant to 0% then hatch break and collect. Keep the power plant targeted with one laser and watch for them repairing it...if they do shoot it out again so they come to a stop. Collect collect collect. Profit.

I don't think you need a wake scanner at this level just stick to anarchy until you are happy with the process at the basic level. Once you get comfortable (and bigger ship with more internals and cargo) it's easy to move onto more profitable items like low temperature diamonds etc where you will likely need to follow ships round through hyper until you get them in an anarchy system.

 

[Red Fox Four]

You can take PvE piracy to some lengths in order to make it easier and/or more profitable. But the cobra is a good starter ship.

Targeting type 6 type 7 haulers to start with. At this level I'd aim to do this in an anarchy system which is in boom so you don't have to worry about bounties and fines. It's a good place to cut your teeth on the mechanics. I'd also definitely fit a FSD interdictor and collection limpets to make collecting easier. However collector limpets are very sensitive things and if you are moving more than 20ms they'll explode trying to get the cargo into your hold taking the cargo out also. Annoying. So you need to bring the target ship to a stop really.

As for the process. Bring them out of SC using interdictor. Target power plant. Take down shields and bring power plant to 0% then hatch break and collect. Keep the power plant targeted with one laser and watch for them repairing it...if they do shoot it out again so they come to a stop. Collect collect collect. Profit.

I don't think you need a wake scanner at this level just stick to anarchy until you are happy with the process at the basic level. Once you get comfortable (and bigger ship with more internals and cargo) it's easy to move onto more profitable items like low temperature diamonds etc where you will likely need to follow ships round through hyper until you get them in an anarchy system.

When I was hunting powerplay ships for cargo for the merits I found that shooting the powerplant would end up blowing up the whole ship the majority of the time.

Isn't it risky to go for the powerplant? I was thinking, if I need to stop a ship, then taking out the drives would be safer. Then again, this is kind of why I made this thread... to get some input on the loadout as well as tips and tricks.

 

[Jezzah]

If you keep hammering it. Yes the ship will pop so you need to be careful. Get it 0 and go gently after that. It's worth noting that Mostly Harmless, Harmless and I think novice ships will NOT repair their power plant so you don't have to worry about those taking off again. Anything higher in rank will repair. Eventually yes you will pop the ship as you shoot the power plant repeatedly but with the size of the cargo in a mk3 this should not be a worry for you just go easy on the size of laser. I always carry something small and surgical for this.

The problem with shooting out drives only is that the ship can still manoeuvre quickly spilling cargo all over the place even worse because of the tumbling motion as it uses its thrusters.

 

[Foozle]

sorry if this is adumb question, I havent done any piracy other than 1 naval mission & I used a hatch breaker for that. what happens if you target the cargo hatch? wont that cause the cargo to drop?

 

[Jezzah]

Nope. It used to but not anymore.

 

[Red Fox Four]

Nope. It used to but not anymore.

So how easy is it to be surgical if you have a friend operating the weapons as a Gunner?

I only tried multicrew a little bit, but I didn't feel like the Gunner allowed for more accurate fire from the short bit I tried it.

Kinda wishing (hoping?) having a gunner would make it easier to strike modules on a ship rather than just shooting a blob of a hitbox.

Also, does multicrew get rewards from piracy (missions, loot sold to black market?). I can't seem to find any info on that part.

 

[StiTch]

Something I put forward on a similar topic around the iClipper:

OP, piracy is a personal affair. We can tell you what the tools of piracy are and give skeleton builds but I can assure that for all the goods I've plundered, you'd soon be rebuilding my ship if you simply copied it.

How you intend to request cargo (if at all), collect it, handle various ships taking a pop at you, handle ships that are disinclined to acquiesce with your request...you'll be comfortable doing that your own way, so it's pretty much best to know the tools and plan your own method.

I don't know if tweaking your build would help because I would inevitably pull it towards my piracy techniques, as would any assistance on the subject. Everyone tends to use the tools in slightly different ways.

Now even in PvE I would build a ship capable of taking a bit of flak. But if I had to make any "tweaks" that would perhaps be quite concrete as a suggestion, then first ask yourself what you intend the weapons to do. Beam and 3 MCs sounds very much like a combat loadout to me...replace the MCs with cannons if you want to shoot out PP/cargo hatch, or use missiles to blow thrusters (not highly recommended).

You can't scare PvE targets, and you don't get the cargo for blowing them up...so unless you want to solely rely on a C1 hatch breaker and no collector, I'd advise you use weapons needed to - if nothing else - immobilise them.

For reference though, this is probably what I'd pirate with in a cobra for PvE:
https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/cob...1/kA==.Aw1/kA==..EweloBhBGA2EoFMCGBzANokMK6A=

Incidentally though, cobra kinda doesn't have a great internal layout for piracy. Having to give up one of your top-level slots for shields is usually a downer.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Do you have access to the CM4? Its a much better ship for piracy with the extra internals and extra hardpoint. You're going after traders, so the lack of speed isn't a major issue.

I spent a while pirating in a CM4 and had a good time picking on Haulers and T6s, even the odd Asp if it wasn't high ranked. Of course, the CM3 is better for the combat aspect of piracy, but more limiting in terms of how much you can get and how quickly.

 

[Red Fox Four]

Do you have access to the CM4? Its a much better ship for piracy with the extra internals and extra hardpoint. You're going after traders, so the lack of speed isn't a major issue.

I spent a while pirating in a CM4 and had a good time picking on Haulers and T6s, even the odd Asp if it wasn't high ranked. Of course, the CM3 is better for the combat aspect of piracy, but more limiting in terms of how much you can get and how quickly.

Cobra Mk IV doesn't have fancy Raider kit

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Cobra Mk IV doesn't have fancy Raider kit

Ah, yes... i'm waiting for a ship kit for the CM4. One day...

 

[Jezzah]

The pinnacle at least for me with pve piracy is a haul of 180ish low temperature diamonds gained using my python which is strip fit for as much cargo as possible and minimal shielding (if your attacking haulers and such you don't need much shielding). The python has a raider kit btw

That was a sweet load but it's been ages since I got one like that. It's usually in the region of 100 or so. It also takes a while to find the right ship to hit also. I'm virtually certain that trading and passenger running is much more profitable.

 

[Marra Morgan]

I'm virtually certain that trading and passenger running is much more profitable.

Yes, but they are not half as much fun as stealing those sweet, shiny diamonds!

 

[Ouberos]

Get rid of Discovery Scanner. It has no place on a pirate ship.
Replace with Collector limpet controller.
Have fun!

But I've got one!

I have it bound to one of my triggers too. I like it when it goes HONK! in the middle of a fight. Also, I know I'm in trouble if I get three HONK! in a row.

I don't know how the rest of you Pirates survive without a triple HONK! alarm to tell you that you are taking too long!

As for the MK3 it's a great Pirate ship but limited to opportunity mugging rather than stalking your targets. You could try hanging out at Nav beacons and leading traders away with a casual shot. They will deploy hardpoints and follow you somewhere away from the responding police. After that you can Hatchbreak and Collect in your own time.

HONK! for the win.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

I can speak for the weapons.

small hardpoints I use burst turrets, and the mediums feature one gimballed multi & one fixed cannon.

These weapons are great for disabling ships, and forcing loot out of them, without the need for hatch breaker limpets.

Most efficient? Not by a long shot. But very, very fun.