Piracy 101

[El Nino]

Piracy is not a good way to become rich fast. Get used to it.

I disagree, having made about 3 bilion by pirating, I dare say It is highly profitable, and making a 900 milion in 4 days (when i had a goal to get a cap 8) is also very fast.

There are a few legendary pirates out there, take Phate for example, I bet he's making a lot of money quick, while having way more fun than powertrading...

Also as a player who bought their advanced train with pirate money, (didn't own a transport before that), pirating can be used from the start,... as this is a tutorial section i'll write up a my path...

So basicly how did I start pirating?

Get a starflyer, find some npcs with expensive cargo, kill their pods and sell the loot, presto money! Get a CSV (resonably cheap) do more of the same, get CSF (combat service freighter), killing npcs and selling their loot,... at this point I gained corsair reputation by killing that many bretonian npcs. I bought a bomber but found out it couldn't hold much cargo, so switched back to CSF.

And then a revelation, someone came along and had the audacity to demand cash from another player. Till then I thought piracy is limited to robbing npcs. And here comes a guy demands 2 mil from another guy and gets it... LOLWUT! I cought on to the "Two milion or die!" very, very fast. buying my first gunboat fairly quickly with the combined npcs and player revenues. It seemed to me very logical, has many guns, great armor, and same cargo capacity as CSF, what's not to like! Now with a gunboat, even as a total nub it was not really like a trader could get away...

demanding 2 milion slowly subsided to a more gredy 3 milion, eventually I pirated my way to a cruiser, only to find out i cannot pirate in a cruiser anymore... (and also that cruisers suck in combat (4.84)) so I had my sights on a battleship, I had enough funds to start a new char, a pirate transport, I've pirated and traded at the same time, eventually switching to advanced train, and powertrading Till i bought a battleship (some 600 milion in cash)...

Up to here I was basicly a fairly experienced pirate, got myself roughly 300mil in taxes and npcs cargoes. Traders didn't find it easy to get away from me, mostly due to the fact that they didn't really try hard.

Here enters the quantum leap from 300mil to 3000mil, I've added roleplay. Green Hawk, a character inherited from my inactive brother, rushed in to the scene and there started the roughly Robin Hood inspired poor pilots fundation.

I've blockadded sigma 13 pirating everything in sight, using corsair gb, junker tag/id (later due to a junker request, corsair tag id).

The concept was single, I'd demand 15 milions for 24 hours, and reward people by placing them on the donators of PPF list, the money did not stick just to me, I donated to many newbs... basicly a two way tax.

If i've spoted an underlevel I would halt them inspect them for a pilots liscence, ask them a few questions and if they showed any resonable roleplay I'd award them a grade from 1 to 10, and that would result in 1-10 milions be given to them.

If i've spoted a powertrader i'd tax them 4 or 3 milion, depending on their cargo and cargo capacity. Since they usually complained that is to much, I gave them a choice to pay 15 milion for 24 hours, and get on the most generous VIP list.

The list granted them warm welcome everytime they passed my system, and newb traders soon realised paying 15 milion was far better than getting raped everytime they pass, or paying 4 milion for a single way trip...

Under these conditions I once in 4 days made 900mil, to be exact 985 mil becouse i thought that's what the Cap8 price was... much to my relief it was just 895, from then on It was mostly fun... The excess money from piracy went to all kinds of strange things... like adv trains that get wiped for inactivity,...

I guess my advice to anyone would be, create a roleplaying event of every sensible pirating activity, I won't say that is easy, or that I do it everytime. But I can say that when I did that I got the most cash in the shortest ammount of time.

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Donate to the Poor Pilot's Fundation via Sirius Bank /givecash GreenHawk 1000000 now, and support poor pilots sirius wide!
Skype: jure.grbec
My primary char: Jose El Nino - Corsair Elder captain of the SS Greenhawk

Currently Inactive due to pursuit of life long dreams, will be back...*edited* As promised am back.