5 Top Tips For Eve Online Pirates

We all know what piracy is, attacking ships for profit. If you do it for fun, thats greifing and a whole different scenario. This is a guide to belt piracy, which as you can imagine is done mostly in belts and complexes. Theres a few things every pirate should know

1) You will lose your ship. Bad stuff will happen 10 guys will jump you at a gate and you will die. This is why you should fly inexpensive ships.

2) Some people will dislike you. If you have problems with that don't bother with piracy in the game it wont be for you.

3) If you are nice, courteous and don't backtalk or smacktalk, people will respect you.

So now, the guide. This guide assumes you have a decent understanding of pvp.

Rule #1: Never ever ever ever ever kill after a ransom where the target pays.

Ransoming:

Ransoms are a great source of cash, especially pod ransoms. Implants are worth nothing to you but are worth a ton to him, so lock down his pod and open a convo and give him a price based on his characters age. I've heard of pod ransoms going for as much as 50 million or more. Give a price based on character age and how the guy acts. If he tries to log out to save his pod and you manage to get it, double your price for him being a fool also you now you know he has implants. Pod ransoms rock because you get nothing from killing the pod and ransoms can turn an easy, profitless kill into something that pays for your next ship.

Ship ransoms are generally not as popular. Its hard to make the other guy stop shooting so unless you can tank him a long time, its not possible. Good ransoms are on like mining battleships. Lock them down, take then into structure and convo them. Tell them to stop shooting if they still are, then tell them to pay. Usually give them a price around what they would lose. i.e. Insurance cost or cost of the tech 2 ship. Don't be afraid to negotiate, if it makes you money its worth it.

I tend not to like ship ransoms because when they pay really fast and easily, you know they may have had something worthwhile on board.

General ransom tips:

Don't take too long, and watch local. If you see local jump or if he may have friends in the system, ransom quick or not at all. Nothing is more embarassing then opening a convo and demanding money then getting blown up.

How to find targets:

Heres the hardest part and theres not much advice I can give. Get good with the scanner, be able to know exactly whats in the belts withing a few seconds of entering the system. Find a good scanning guide somewhere. A known pirate will very quickly be recognized in local by any smart character. So you need to be fast if you want to get the good targets. Belt Piracy should occur between .4s and .1s. Try to find a nice long 30+ chain of systems.

General tips to avoid being ganked:

1) After you attack someone in a .1 to .4 there is a 15 minutes timer where sentries at gates or stations will fire on you. During this timer, continue scanning belts for additional targets or simply sit in a safespot.


2) Don't enter high sec space if your security status gets messed up. A general guide from eve-o.

Players with -1.5 or greater can enter all systems

Players with -2.0 or worse cannot enter 1.0 systems

Players with -2.5 or worse cannot enter 0.9 systems

Players with -3.0 or worse cannot enter 0.8 systems

Players with -3.5 or worse cannot enter 0.7 systems

Players with -4.0 or worse cannot enter 0.6 systems

Players with -4.5 or worse cannot enter 0.5 systems

Once your security status reaches -5 you are considered an outlaw and can be attacked by players anywhere without CONCORD intervention.

3) Try to pirate in groups. This has 2 major advantages, you can take on tougher opponents and you are more likely to be able to beat whoever might come after you etc. One thing to keep in mind is that if someone attacks you at a gate and you are below -5 only you can retaliate, anyone else, whether in your gang or corp will get fired on by sentries.

Recommended ships/setups:

Almost any ship can be used to great success. Its a good idea to have a heavy tank, this allows you to survive more situations and possibly go through sentries when flagged for attacking someone. Obviously, you'll need at least on scrambler, a webifier is also another good idea. Battleships don't work so well for piracy, they are slow and locking is much more difficult. Also, ganksquads are more likely to see battleships as "worthwhile." In other words if you're in a megathron, someone is more likely to come after you wtih 10 guys and sit in the system for half an hour. People will still do this on smaller ships, don't ask me why, so be careful anyway. Also, rewards in piracy are rare. While you may get a 40 mil ransom, or kill a covetor with strip miner IIs, its not going to happen every day, every week or even every month. Because the money comes in sparse intervals if at all, its a good idea to fly a ship you can afford to lose several times over. Never pirate in a ship you can't afford to lose.

If your ship setup calls for an mwd, its a good idea to carry around an afterburner just in case you see nice targets in a complex.

Behavior:

This is more important then you can possibly imagine. The only thing more important to a pirate then his ship is his reputation. If you want to receive ransoms you need people to trust you or better yet, like you. Always be nice and never smack. If someone asks for advice, give it. Never use warp stabs, if you are afraid to lose your ship, don't pirate in it and buy a cheaper ship. Its pathetic and it shows people that you plan to lose battles. Frankly, if you get killed with them on when you initiated combat, it should be flat out embarassing. Warp stabs belong on haulers and miners, NOT pirate ships. NEVER kill after a ransom, when you do that you hurt yourself, your corp and pirates as a whole.