The (new and improved) Idiot's Guide to Ship Boarding/Looting

So you have decided that you are bored with the merchant way of life. Welcome to the dark side. Here we will tell you everything from disabling a ship, boarding it, and how to ride a giant salamander while you defuse a nuclear bomb using a toohpaste bottle cap.

starting out

Being a ship looter may be hard at first, but once you get used to it it's a very fast way of making money or getting a new ship for your fleet.

After you sell your soul to the banker and get a choice of 3 starships you (contary to popular belief,) would pick a shuttle/ star barge. This is so you dont have to deal with your mortgage while raiding. Now, do the storyline with james, pay off your debt by trading/ doing missions and go to a shipyard with an interceptor for sale.

I wouldnt reccomend buying a sparrow, but for any masochists out there go ahead. (I would choose a berserker.) Now, go to the south and find the pherkad system. (It is northwest of the T in The South.)
Buy star charts any chance you get, this will make navigating a lot faster and easier.

pherkad is near by 2 pirate planets, and occasionally a few pirates jump into the system. if you aren't having any luck jump into the empty system Beta Lupi which is right next to it.

once you have enough money, buy a light warship (the mule is my favorite.) this will allow you to have enough crew to board ships with a good chance of not losing a crew member.

the next section will explain the controls to dock and loot.

Equipment and things that will help

Boarding and looting can be difficult with the wrong aranment and the wrong ship, so im here to help with that.

The Berserker: (895,000 credits)
This is The cheapest ship you can buy that effectively destroys small ships, The berserker comes with a decent aranment for a ship it's size. Althogh it has a small cargo hold it should be enough to get you started. The easiest place to buy one is Sol Or Tarazed.

The Headhunter: (2.616m cedits)
A step up from the Berseker, The Headhunter Has Better cargo carrying capabilities, a better aranment and even a turret port. It is avaible in many of the Deep planets.

The mule:
(4.349M credits)
One of the best ships (in my opinion.) for being a boarder/looter would be the mule. it has a large amount of cargo/outfit space and has 3 heavy laser turrets by default, it even has a fighter bay. It can be found in the deep in these systems: Alphard, Dubhe, Adhara, Epsilon leonis, Naos, and alruda systems. all of which inside the deep.

The Bactrain:
(25.844M credits)
Easily the largest and most expensive ship in human space, the Bactrain essentially a enlarged Mule, looks and aranment. It has a gargantuan amount of bunks (over 200 by default) and more cargo space than a freighter. also like the mule it has fighter bays and a lot of weapon space.
it can be purchased at Epsilon Leonis, Naos, and Alruda.
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Weapons:

Heavy laser turret: (180,000 credits, 40 tons of outfit space)
This is a very good weapon to have early on since it takes out small ships very easily. It can also fire anywhere regardless where your ship is facing, with a decent dps rate. Not to mention it hits the target instantly instead of having to wait for the projectile to hit the target, making it harder to accidentaly destroy your target.

Electron turret: (720,000 credits, 54 tons of outfit space)
Essentially an older brother to the Heavy laser turret, (however 2 heavy laser turrets do more damage than 1 electron turret.) The Electron laser turret is useful for when you simply want to pack more firepower into your ship when outfit space is not a concern. The only downside is that it is only avaibile late into the free worlds campaign.


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Equipment:

Laser Rifles: (8,000 credits)
(1 per crewmember)
Adds .6 to your attack and .8 to your defense.

Fragmentation Grenades:
(17,000 credits)
(1 per crewmember)
Adds 1.3 to your attack and .3 to your defense.

Security Station:
(42,000 credits)
This serves only as a defensive weapon, it adds 3.4 to your defense. unlike any other hand to hand weapon it takes up 2 mass.

Nerve Gas: (75,000 credits)
(1 per crewmember)
This is an illegal hand weapon, it adds 2.8 to your attack and .8 to your defense, if you get caught in republic space with it you will have to pay a fine of one million credits.

how the boarding panel works

once you disable the ship, press B to dock to it and this panel will pop up.











if you have hired extra crew and are willing to take a risk, you can capture the ship you are docked with by clicking on the Attempt capture button.

if you just want to take the ship's loot you can click on one of its items (the hyperdrive for example) and then click the take button, this will take that item and put it in your cargo, you can only take the items that fit in your cargo.

if you want to capture the enemy ship, click on the attempt capture button, this will do a turn based battle where you have a higher chance of winning and not losing crew, if you have a very large crew, if one of your crew dies you must pay death benefits depending on the value of the captured ship. once you capture the enemy ship you transfer crew and they fly the captured ship.

if you really need to capture a ship and don't care if you get in trouble with the republic, nerve canisters substancially increase your odds of capturing the enemy ship. they can be found in outfitters at pirate worlds.

Tactics

There are multiple ways to disable a ship, here is a list of 2 tactics i have developed.

You will know when a ship is disabled when there target color changes to grey. (pirates colors are yellow and red, and merchants are blue.

Though you can always steal the ships equipment you may not want to directly board. if the other ship has 40 crew and you have 5 its probably not a good idea.

Tactic 1: getting dibs

In this tactic all you do is follow a friendly fleet around, wait until they fight pirates, target one and then as soon as the outline of the pirate turns grey, press B. This will make them stop firing at it and focus at the others, as it signals you want to board it. And since it is disabled you can simply cruise in safely in and board. (You should make sure the other pirates wont target you though.)

Tactic 2: 1v1 me scrub

All you really do here is just sit around in an empty system and wait for pirates to jump in. Merchants may be passing through, so you can just do the last part of step one if they are a strong fleet. once you disable the pirates, press B an enjoy the loot.

Thats it!

well, Thats it, you are now an expert on ship boarding!

some times it may be as fun as building a giant robot with a flamethrower and watch as it sets neighborhood cats on fire, other times its as boring as watching golf.

now, go out there and ♥♥♥♥ up some pirates!

[close]

you have to disable the ship. yeah disabled ships are less common than exploding ones though

[Allenson321]

idk about you guys thewhen i press b its like the friendly ships go, "Oh your boarding them huh? hehe ima blow it up." which its the opposite of what this guide says. Atleast they removed crew death payments.

[BooMSelectA77]

Start as a shuttle, do the james missions, and head to syndicate space. You can cap a quicksilver and sell all outfits for bunks. Now you have 26 bunks, next is firebird or splinter. Then Vanguard. This way I've gotten a Baccy before the "world is falling apart" message one year in.

[Godsfishfingers]

came for the defusing a nuke with a toothpaste cap while riding a salamander. stayed for the piracy tips

[rubydreamer]

Needs updates...
Always pick Shuttle.
Do transport missions, and get Heavy Shuttle ASAP (2 more crew to take ships)
Capture a few ships down south, and get enough for a Scout.
With a Scout, you can start to grab juicer targets. Clippers, Argosy, etc...
Mule is the endgame (for now) of capturing... (purely human space, pre-bactrian license)

[Emily Mewens]

You cant expect to board pirates in Republic or Syndicate Space. The Navy and Syndicate dont give a damn if youre boarding or not. Theyll make sure their target is dead.
Other than that, gud stuff.

[Catterson]

@Abuata to sell a ship you go to the ship dealers select the ship and press sell

[r/report.me]

how do you sell a ship?

[Kit]

the mules prices is now 6.909m

[And-e]

It's beyond frustrating when you're trying to board a pirate and just as you're above the ship a small fighter comes by and destroyes it. This happens like a third of the time.

I really wish the AI would see that i'm trying to board the ship :(