Stuck on a pirate mission

[Foreverowned]

I've been sent to kill 5 pirates in a nearby system but i can't find any, i go to unidentified signal sources and so far i've found a funeral convoy, a wedding convoy, a couple of lone ships that scanned me then made fun of me for not having anything in my cargo bay, and one ship that told me i can take a different course of action instead of killing pirates, and that i should meet him somewhere else.

But no pirates, where should i be looking guys?

 

[Veldryn]

a couple of lone ships that scanned me then made fun of me for not having anything in my cargo bay

These guys were most likely pirates.

Otherwise: Nav. Beacon near Stars, or Resource Extraction Sites in the rings of Gas Giants are usually good spots to find pirates (In addition to USS, which are not so bad either)

 

[Cutlass]

I think sometimes you can be incredibly unlucky.

Up until a couple of days ago, the most frequent thing I would find in uss was toxic waste, so I accepted 6!!! Missions in ethergeze to collect them. Spent 2 hours in sobek where all the missions were meant to be played out and nothing...logged on the next day and spent a further 1-2 hours looking, had to abandon those that didn't run out of time naturally, wrecked my rep.

Never ever again am I accepting a toxic waste mission.

If you've spent a couple of hours so far just on that mission I'd switch to another but have you tried the nav beacon in that system using a k scanner?

 

[Foreverowned]

These guys were most likely pirates.

Otherwise: Nav. Beacon near Stars, or Resource Extraction Sites in the rings of Gas Giants are usually good spots to find pirates (In addition to USS, which are not so bad either)

But they were clean on the scan, shouldnt they be wanted? And are they actually designated as pirates on the contact screen?

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If you've spent a couple of hours so far just on that mission I'd switch to another but have you tried the nav beacon in that system using a k scanner?

No i haven't tried the Nav beacon, problem is i don't know if i'm looking for wanted ships, or pirate ships that have clean status.

 

[ElectricZ]

Veldryn's got your answer. Resource Extraction Sites and Nav Beacons are better places to look. And if someone scans you and complains that you are carrying nothing instead of something like "You're clean. Move along," that was a pirate looking to take your cargo. When pirate hunting, I like to keep a ton of silver or gold in my hold to give them something to scan, which will then make them try and attack.

Pick up a K-Warrant scanner and go to the extraction sites and nav beacons and scan everybody you can. They can show up as "Clean" and still be a pirate - the wanted status on the main window only applies to the system you are in. The KWS will show if they are wanted anywhere else, and this info shows up on the contact list. (KWS can also net you more bounty credits for the same kill, if they are wanted in multiple jurisdictions.)

Also be aware that not every wanted ship you take down will be a pirate, so don't be surprised if you take down a ship if your target count doesn't go up.

Happy hunting!

 

[krysohmyz]

Foreverowned: These convoys with other ships wandering about are precisely what You're looking for! They are pirates (basically any ship that doesn't keep the convoy formation.)

Don't forget that these missions usually send you to anarchy systems. Without jurisdiction, all ships show up clean, unless you have KWS. But also you don't get fined for shooting first.
Try to shoot one and check your transactions if the mission counter moves.

Good hunting!

 

[Foreverowned]

Thanks guys much appreciated.

 

[Rodder]

I've been sent to kill 5 pirates in a nearby system but i can't find any, i go to unidentified signal sources and so far i've found a funeral convoy, a wedding convoy, a couple of lone ships that scanned me then made fun of me for not having anything in my cargo bay, and one ship that told me i can take a different course of action instead of killing pirates, and that i should meet him somewhere else.

Simple solution to USS: Carry cargo.

They go for everything and try to rob you of one ton of scrap, but you need to have any kind of cargo. No matter what or how much, but it has to be placed in your cargo hold. Mission cargo from a delivery mission works well, too.

 

[terminatahx]

I'm struggling with these missions as well. For pirate kill counts, I've improved, but still have trouble finding pirates by name. IMO these missions arent worth the money. I can make 180k round trip in my t6, taking 5-10 minutes. The missions need to offer much higher payouts.

The cargo tip is a good one. Gonna try this today.

 

[Veldryn]

Well, compared to trading, sure, they aren't worth it. Nothing is. But for a Bounty Hunter who will be killing pirates anyway, taking an additional kill-pirates mission is always a good bonus. Plus, you can stack these missions, and each pirate will count for all missions. So if you have 3 missions, to kill 6, 4 and 3 pirates, killing 6 pirates is enough for completing the three missions.

Mission rewards + bounties from wanted pirates, that's a good revenue. Of course, once again, nothing comparable to trading in a Type 6 or bigger.

 

[J.R.Ehman]

Are Kill X Pirates missions still bugged when you encounter the messenger who updates the mission? Sometimes it reset the kill count, sometimes the original mission was abandonded with no possibility of getting it back.

 

[Warshaman]

YES JR this happened to me last night, I killed two obvious Pirates who scanned me, then somebody offered me a Contract Update, and I killed him pleasently surprised it added to my kill count of pirates however from that point forward, I didn't get any credits for killing any other pirates, including one the Interdicted me and was CLEARLY a Pirate. The Transaction page/note seemed stuck at 3 and wouldn't update to 4, then when I went back the base the mission was there on the BB in its entirety.So I thought maybe I had to abandon the updated mission only to lose all progress and damage my already shaky reputation which was the whole reason I took this small contract to begin with. What a pain, but glad to see I'm not the only one seeing this bug.

Guess I'll stay away from Pirate mission until thiis is fixed I wasted a good hour on it, and I couldn't have done anything differently.

 

[Trickle]

But no pirates, where should i be looking guys?

I don't take those missions unless they have a system with resource extraction points in. Or if I don't mind spending ages at a non Anarchy nav point. [again, sometime the missions give you systems with no stations and therefore no nav points].

Whilst you can just do USSs, you invariably run into the chap giving the alternate offer. The problem with this is you then no longer can see how many pirates you need remaining.

USSs would probably be the quickest way if you can live with not knowing how many pirates remain - I.E. if you are doing USSs for other reasons in that system. [they don't pop quick enough at 30km/s in dead systems tho]