Pirate Base
Pirate Bases are built by the pirates in uninhabited star systems.
Overview
Bases have the basic functionality of a market and have a station for protection. Killing the station destroys the base, although a new base will spawn in time. Bases will always be found orbiting a planet or within a terrain feature such as an asteroid belt. The station is usually of the Low Tech type, but can sometimes be Midline or even High Tech.
Bases can target a star system to cause the Pirate Activity market condition, which reduces accessibility and stability of all markets in the system. They can also launch pirate raids at the target system.
If a base is causing pirate activity in a star system and its location is not known (not shown in the Intel screen), the player can find it by going to a bar in the affected system. There will be an option to buy the "grizzled spacer" some drinks, after which the base location will be revealed. Factions will also sometimes issue bounties on pirate bases, which reveals their location.
Being friendly with pirates does not reduce the pirate activity penalties.
Base levels
Bases have 5 levels (semi-hidden value), upgrading over time. The level affects the station's strength (lower-level bases will have some modules missing from the station), the severity of the Pirate Activity condition penalties, the size and quality of its fleets, and the bounty rewards.
| Level | Module count | Stability penalty | Accessibility penalty | Raid size mult | Base bounty (credits) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 10% | 1 | 40,000 |
| 2 | 2 | 1 | 20% | 1.5 | 50,000 |
| 3 | 2 | 2 | 30% | 2.5 | 60,000 |
| 4 | 3 | 2 | 40% | 3 | 70,000 |
| 5 | 3 | 3 | 50% | 4.5 | 80,000 |
Makeshift Pirate Station
Makeshift Pirate Station in combat
Typical loot from Makeshift Pirate Station
Tips & Tricks
- If you're having trouble finding a base, you can take over or destroy one of the star system's objectives (comm relay, nav buoy or sensor array), then wait for a pirate fleet to check it out. Said fleet will usually come from the direction of the pirate base.
Change History
v0.95
- Low-tier pirate bases have at least two modules (i.e. no more 1-module bases)
- Greatly decreased pirate base bounty payouts
- Increased interval between new pirate bases being established (1-2 cycles)
- Destroying a pirate base increases this interval by another 1-2 cycles
- Fixed bug that caused pirate bases to send raids against player colonies too far away from the base
- Pirate bases should no longer spawn in systems with neutron stars/pulsars
v0.9.1
- Can no longer repeatedly spawn in the same system without some time passing
- Reduced likelihood of player colonies being targeted by pirate bases that are very far away
- Fixed issue with intel for some of the destroyed pirate bases sticking around indefinitely
- Fixed experience gained not being displayed on defeating a pirate base
v0.9
- Added to the game
- Potentially outdated
- Game concepts