Pirate
Pirates inhabit all galaxies of the Hazeron universe. Pirates are unambitious and lazy; they do not build large cities. They survive by stealing cargo, smuggling goods, slavery and any other profit they can gain by plundering spacecraft.
Pirates are factionalized into different empires. They do not accept requests by players to join their empire. They always take an enemy stance toward other empires.
Pirate Ships
Pirate ships plunder all forms of spacecraft that have online avatars on board. They will attack space ships and space stations.
Pirates ships are cowardly and remain outside of air defense identification zones, preferring instead to lie in wait. From there they launch surprise attacks on ships that depart the relative safey of the ADIZ.
Pirates will usually break off pursuit if their prey escapes into the safety of an ADIZ or if the prey enters the atmosphere of a world.
Pirates prefer areas with more spacecraft traffic than areas with less. This increases their chances of intercepting trade ships. They are attracted to systems that have been explored by multiple empires.
Each pirate empire has its own spacecraft blueprints. Pirate spacecraft blueprints are not published in the exchange. Pirate empires of higher difficulty have bigger and better equipped spacecraft.
Plunder
Pirate ships may decide to plunder a victim spacecraft. The pirate commander issues a Plunder mission order to do this.
AI crew treats the plunder order a lot like an attack order. They attempt to maneuver their ship close to the target vessel and they attack the target vessel. When executing a plunder order, the crew stops attacking when the target vessel's current order becomes a Stand Down order.
Once the victim stands down, the pirate officer transfers as much cargo, passengers and money from the victim ship to the pirate ship as possible. The Cargo (F5) window enables cargo to be transferred from any ship nearby that is executing a stand down order, for this reason.
Players can issue a Plunder order to their own crew, for the same behavior. The crew attacks the plunder target until it stands down. The officer in command loots the victim ship when they stand down.
AI officers who have the con, including your own, may decide to stand down when their ship is damaged by an attacking ship that is executing a plunder order. Their willingness to stand down increases as the damage to their ship increases. Their rank influences their probability of standing down, with low ranking officers slightly more likely to surrender than high ranking officers. Officers will not stand down while their posture is berserk.
Pirate officers never stand down.
Pirate Bases
Pirate empires claim worlds and build military bases. Each pirate empire builds its bases using its own unique building blueprints. Pirate bases get bigger and tougher as the difficulty of the pirate empire increases. Once a pirate base is established, pirate ships operate from there to harass and plunder spacecraft in their sector.
Pirates vigorously defend their bases.
Shipment Plundering
Broker shipments may be plundered when they originate in a sector that contains a pirate base. Broker shipments may also be plundered when they are delivered to a sector with a pirate base. Plundered broker shipments are reported in the city report's event log of the sending or receiving city, depending on where the shipment is plundered.
Pirate Cities
Pirate empires sometimes control cities but they do not build them. They do not capture cities overtly. They may acquire cities that player empires surrender to them.
City surrender must be accepted by the receiving empire. Pirate empires always accept surrendered cities. Cities can be discarded easily by surrendering them to pirate empires.
Tips and Tricks
A few tips to avoid or deal with pirates.
- Build an airport radar or military radar before trying to use a spacecraft for the first time. This will ensure you have a safe zone to prevent the pirates spawning and keep them a distance from your worlds.
- Enter the atmosphere of a world to evade them. They will not pursue a target into the atmosphere of a world.
- If pirates are determined to plunder your ship and you have no other options, let them. Issue a stand down order and wait. If you have no crew, you must issue the order then configure the ship to stand down yourself. The pirates will take what they want and leave you unharmed. They don't take crew.
- If you are about to be plundered, transfer the ship's fund to your personal account.
Pirate Empires
There are fifteen pirate empires in Hazeron. They originate from the backstory of Gravity Well.
Pirate empires are most common in their home galaxy. They become less common as the distance from their home galaxy increases, to varying degrees based upon the empire. This results in a distribution of pirate empires throughout the universe that varies with each galaxy. Not all pirate empires are present in every galaxy. Some galaxies have more pirates than others.
Difficulty level of pirate empires is based on the vertical position of their home galaxy in the universe map. The least difficult pirate empires originate at the bottom of the universe map. The most difficult pirate empires originate at the top of the universe map. Difficulty level affects the size and capability of their spacecraft and bases.
| Name | Flag | Home Galaxies | Difficulty Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Akson | 
|
|
9 |
| Balorite | 
|
|
3 |
| Dendrae | 
|
|
13 |
| Haxu | 
|
|
14 |
| Kla'tra | 
|
|
5 |
| Malacon | 
|
|
7 |
| Myntaka | 
|
|
12 |
| Ogar | 
|
|
2 |
| Otari | 
|
|
11 |
| Seledon | 
|
|
1 |
| Syth | 
|
|
6 |
| Tassad | 
|
|
10 |
| Vilmorti | 
|
|
8 |
| Vreen | 
|
|
4 |
| Zuul | 
|
|
15 |
See also Category:Pirate_Empires.