Pirate's freighter mission, reward to protect civils?

[ka-pow]

I destroyed the pirate freighter and got some goddies for that, including the option to buy s pirate frigate, but the other freighter was destroyed.

I'm missing some interesting reward by not saving the civil freighter?

[Vocko]

its impossible to destroy the pirate freighter before it destroys the Freighter! After about a dozen times, i decided to cheat, just to try to beat the thing and guess what! Still didnt matter. I fly in and i don't even get close enough to the pirate ship before it takes out the freighter. I'm going in full throttle too. I even tried to chase it off in cheat mode. If you do enough damage it flies off.. but same problem can't even get close enough before Freighter Goes BOOOOOM!

[ka-pow]

Good to know, thanks.

[Aurelia]

That is false, it is absolutely possible.
First thing you need to do is run the two trenches to destroy the shield generators. Then immediately wipe out the torpedos in the air targetting the freighter. Once the torps are gone, start taking out the anti-freighter turrets on the pirate freighter. Every time you see the message that torpedoes are launching, take them out then return to destroying the turrets.
Once all the turrets are destroyed, the freighter will begin it's retreat. At that point, you need to fly behind the pirate freighter and take out it's engines.
After that, just pummel the thing into the ground with all you've got.

To answer the question though, if you defeat the pirate freighter without the civ freighter being destroyed, you get a large unit payment.

[ka-pow]

@Aurelia thanks.
What you use against torps? missiles? a mix of things?

[Aurelia]

Originally posted by ka-pow:

@Aurelia thanks.
What you use against torps? missiles? a mix of things?

Anything. They die in a single hit from any shot. Even squad members shoot at them and destroy them. If you have a laser, use that, as it's pretty easy to sweep them all down with it.

If you have enough firepower, you can actually ignore all of that and just take down the shield generators and then mow it down before the first wave of torpedoes hit. 64k infra-knife does it well.

[Vocko]

not sure what your talking about.. soon as i warp in i'm unable to get even close to the pirate ship, before it takes out the freighter. to do any damage you have to get inside its shields and i haven't done that yet... just as I'm about to cross passed its shields i get the message civilian freighter has been destroyed. hmmm my ping is at 50, so maybe just maybe i may be lagging! Maybe!

[Lindy Bomber]

Originally posted by ka-pow:

@Aurelia thanks.
What you use against torps? missiles? a mix of things?

Beam work well.

[frazzled]

I've not seen the pirate take out the civilian freighter that quick.

I fought this battle several times before I found an approach that works for me.
- I fly in close, inside the shields, to do most of this.
- I first take out the Pirate hyperdrives. Otherwise it always warps out before I can destroy it.
- Next I take out the pirates big laser turrets. This decreases how quickly the civilian ship dies. But, if I do this first, the pirate warps out.
- I now destroy the shield generators in the 2 trenches. I fly slow, so I can also take out the fuel rods. Not sure if that's needed.
- Then I just shoot the pirate till it starts to blow up.

This has worked for me several times now, and each time I've been awarded an S-class freighter upgrade tech.

[Zak]

Originally posted by Vocko:

its impossible to destroy the pirate freighter before it destroys the Freighter!

I've done it several times. Not only totally possible but quite easy once you figure this out. Ignore the torpedoes and guns, destroy shield generators in both trenches and the engines and boom! Some people suggest destroying the engines first, gonna try that next time.

I don't even bother with turrets, just the generators and the engines, usually by that time the hull took enough damage so that shooting the engines destroys the entire ship.

[Aurelia]

Originally posted by Vocko:

not sure what your talking about.. soon as i warp in i'm unable to get even close to the pirate ship, before it takes out the freighter. to do any damage you have to get inside its shields and i haven't done that yet... just as I'm about to cross passed its shields i get the message civilian freighter has been destroyed. hmmm my ping is at 50, so maybe just maybe i may be lagging! Maybe!

They do not die that quickly. Not by normal means.
You mentioned you "cheated", i'm really not sure what you meant by that. Are you using mods of any kind? Could it be that a mod is unintenionally increasing the firepower of the pirate freighter?

The only times i struggled with this, was the first three times i fought them, as i learned the different phases. After i learned how it was done, i've killed every pirate freighter i come across without fail or difficulty.

[frazzled]

FYI, I've since gotten this pirate freighter battle in level 1 conflict systems. I had thought they were only in level 3 conflict systems, but was incorrect.

[Malferellon]

Originally posted by Aurelia:

That is false, it is absolutely possible.
First thing you need to do is run the two trenches to destroy the shield generators. Then immediately wipe out the torpedos in the air targetting the freighter. Once the torps are gone, start taking out the anti-freighter turrets on the pirate freighter. Every time you see the message that torpedoes are launching, take them out then return to destroying the turrets.
Once all the turrets are destroyed, the freighter will begin it's retreat. At that point, you need to fly behind the pirate freighter and take out it's engines.
After that, just pummel the thing into the ground with all you've got.

To answer the question though, if you defeat the pirate freighter without the civ freighter being destroyed, you get a large unit payment.

If you destroy the engines before the turrets, the dreadnought will not be able to warp away while you destroy turrets. It reduces the pressure of trying to destroy the engines AFTER the turrets are destroyed.

[The Cog (O.T.H.G.)]

The only time the dreadnought has escaped me was the very first time I encountered one (because, well, I had no idea what to do).

I kill them every time now, even with the photon cannon.

First, I go to the trenches; I fly up to the front through the first one, then back to the rear in the second. I destroy the generators AND the fuel rods during my run through the trench so I do not have to go back. After the trench run, I take out the engines. After the engines I start working on the anti freighter cannons (not the small anti ship cannons, the big ones shooting at the civilian fleet). After those are gone, I start taking out the anti ship cannons (lil guys) until the dreadnought is destroyed.


I NEVER worry about torpedoes, as it really is just a waste of time.

I ALWAYS get either 3 cargo expansions or "S" class freighter upgrades.


Before you leave the area, you have to either recruit the pirate frigates or destroy them, or they launch fighters and the fight remains active. Afterwards, I check to see if the freighter I just saved is an upgrade to my current freighter and if so I buy it (buying is the only option from the ship to ship battles unfortunately).

[The Cog (O.T.H.G.)]

Originally posted by frazzled:

- I now destroy the shield generators in the 2 trenches. I fly slow, so I can also take out the fuel rods. Not sure if that's needed.

Killing the fuel rods causes additional damage to the dreadnought making the kill faster.

[<RED>Pirate King Undead<>]

i help the pirates out by taking down the civ freighter.