Bounty Hunters: What decides how strong their attack will be?

[Defendor]

I want the Bounty Hunters to attack me with Big, Large and Huge hull ships so I can get their blueprints. But how can I be sure that their attack will have that instead of only Medium, Small and Tiny hull ships?

1. Is it how far in the story I have come that decides how strong their attack will be?
2. Does the tech level of the Star System I'm in matter?
3. Does the tech level of the Bounty Hunter base Star System matter?
3. Does my Bounty Hunter Threat level matter?
4. Does my own Tech Level matter?

[CobaltNinja]

1. Nah not really.
2. I don't think so.
3. Yeah probably.
4. Likely, but the only thing I know of it is that it affects their chances of coming after you.
5. Yes, Bounty Hunters will not attack if the battle would be too easy for you. They have brains.

[The Last Helldiver™]

Large hulls don't really appear until 20-30+
Huge hulls don't appear under 40 (freighter is the exception)

It is also infinitely easier to farm zombie maps for huge hulls rather than provoke bountyhunters.

[CobaltNinja]

Originally posted by Cyriel -APPROXIMUS MAXIMUS-:

Large hulls don't really appear until 20-30+
Huge hulls don't appear under 40 (freighter is the exception)

It is also infinitely easier to farm zombie maps for huge hulls rather than provoke bountyhunters.

True, but bounty hunters have a slightly higher chance of dropping their huge hulls. They like to bring the big guns.

Also, go ahead and BASE KILLINGTON if you want to. It's really simple just make sure you have the manta ray

[Palandus]

I've played the game extensively so I'll answer your questions regarding bounty hunter strength:

1+2 = Star System difficulty level heavily determines the hull size of ships sent against you. So, to have the best results, you need to either be in Chapter 3 or Chapter 4 of the game, as Chapter 3 introduces you to the core systems and similar with Chapter 4.

3a = It only matters if you attack the base. The level of the base determines the hull size of the defenders that comes to defend the base when attacked. However, systems with bases in them are far more likely to send ransom demands when trying to warp out of them.

3b = Your bounty is critically important for determining the size of hulls sent after you if you refuse their ransom demand or if they decide to attack you when you are say trying to clear a warp gate.

4 = As far as I know, your own tech level is not important.

However, with all that said...

If you want bounty hunter hulls, the best to get them is to actually do Civ vs Zombies, UTA vs Zombies or Threeway Battle, as the zombies frequently come in as a Zombified Bounty Hunter ship.