The pilot: any port with a crew lounge. Listed under station services, like the passenger lounge, commodities market or contacts. Choose one, or go to the next port. Depending on their initial rank, they will sap a certain percentage of (all!) of your income, so some people prefer "hire and fire": buy a pilot at the lounge, do whatever you want to do, then fire them before you cash in your profits. Other people prefer to buy a low ranked pilot and train them up in combat rank. That way, you lose less income to your pilot. In any case, until they're Elite, they will also sap off any experience points from killing enemy ships - so if your goal is to rank up in combat yourself, that pilot will slow you down.
Which fighter: the wiki has an overview, they all have their strong and weak points. Weak pilots do better with gimballed weapons or a fixed beam. Better pilots can use anything. I like the Guardian hybrid "XG-8 Javelin". It looks good, and anything that gets hit by that shard launcher tends to notice it. The problem is the actual hitting. If you want to go that route, you'll need to visit some specific Guardian ruins in order to obtain the blueprint and materials.
Which fighter: the wiki has an overview, they all have their strong and weak points. Weak pilots do better with gimballed weapons or a fixed beam. Better pilots can use anything. I like the Guardian hybrid "XG-8 Javelin". It looks good, and anything that gets hit by that shard launcher tends to notice it. The problem is the actual hitting. If you want to go that route, you'll need to visit some specific Guardian ruins in order to obtain the blueprint and materials.
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