Finding pirates on planetary/lunar surfaces?

[Kelthor]

Ok, so I have this rank-up mission having me killing 32 pirates. But the mission does not specify where to look for them, except the system. So I read somewhere that you can use a Navbeacon to scan for them, but that didn't do nothing and I even got a message from the questgiver saying I have to find them "the old fashioned way". Alright, so next tip was to find an RES. But... this system has none :(

Although when I accepted the mission it had the cresting sun symbol next to it, so my guess is that I am supposed to find these guys on a few moons that can be landed on. I shouldn't have to say this though, but the moons are HUGE when you're on the ground. Am I really supposed to wander out there and just look for them? As if 32 of them wasn't enough to begin with... *sigh*

[Wolf]

sounds like you have to interdict them from supercruise :)
the symbol may mean near the planet. i had a recovery mission that had the mission symbol on a sun... wasnt sure how to find a crash stie there lol but a "mission target" poi showed up

[Kelthor]

Yeah, that was one of the ways specified in the mission details. Doesn't it seem excessive though 32 of them?

[Arya]

The "old fashioned way" refers to using Nav Beacons and cargo to lure & trap pirates. This is how most Bounty Hunters start their career, hence the name.

What you do is, you install a cargo pod and then buy a small amount of cargo. Fly to the Nav Beacon in the target system and approach it how you would a station - slow down and then Safe Disengage. You should have ships all around you. Now, pretty soon somebody will scan you and see your cargo and pretty soon after that they'll try to steal it - identifying your first victim. In the words of a Storm Trooper: "There they are! Blast 'Em!"

Rinse and repeat until you've blasted all 32 pirates. Might take you a while, but at least you'll have a reliable stream of them coming to you - cargo draws NPCs pirates like a dropped ice cream draws ants.

[Kelthor]

Very good tip. I'll try it at once tomorrow :)

[Arya]

Originally posted by Havouk:

Very good tip. I'll try it at once tomorrow :)

Your mission may not last that long. They have strict time limits, usually 24 hours or less.

[Ray Robertson]

I have completed a few of these. Don't waste your time at nav beacons or resource extraction sites. Look for mission targets travelling in the shipping lanes and interdict them. Also look for Distress call and weapon fire detected signal sources, some of those will have mission targets in them. Some degraded emissions are sometimes traps and might have mission targets.

Do fly around in shipping lanes with some valuable cargo, you might get interdicted by mission targets.

[Kelthor]

Originally posted by Ray Robertson:

Look for mission targets travelling in the shipping lanes and interdict them. Do fly around in shipping lanes with some valuable cargo, you might get interdicted by mission targets.

Yeah, I know how to see those on the Galaxy Map, but how do I see/find them in the System Map, or just in the system by itself?

[Ray Robertson]

Shipping lanes are the direct line between the jump in point and stations and between stations in a system. In the bottom left hand corner of your HUD you'll see either the name of a body, shipping lane or deep space. When it says shipping lane, then you know you are in a shipping lane.

[Kelthor]

Is there anyway to see missiong progression, since I (think) I've shot down a couple, but the number of needed pirates in the mission details, doesn't seem to go down. And what kind of cargo do I need to be carrying for the pirates to get interested?

[Ray Robertson]

Did the targets say "mission target" in the bottom left hand corner of your HUD when you had them targeted?

They particularly like engineering commodities.

[Kelthor]

Hmmm, I'll have to look that up. Certainly an interesting mission. The only way it could be less specified was if they said "go shoot something" instead of "Tufo nationalists"... But also, am I completely wrong, thinking that the cresting sun symbol in the mission menu had something to do with landing somewhere?

[Ray Robertson]

The Horizons symbol might mean that the mission needs to be or could be redirected to hand-in at a planetary base on completion.

[Kelthor]

Ended up scrapping that mission. I don't have time to sit and watch my beard grow for 1 target an hour. And yes @Ray Robertson, they were very much "mission targets" :) I went back to my home station, and got another mission to transfer data lol

[Ray Robertson]

Yeah, 32 targets is a lot.