I got into this game knowing that I wanted to be a pirate. My skills limit me a lot in terms of what I can fly, but I’ve gotten the skills necessary to use a brawling tristan. I’ve been flying it arround low sec trying to find easy targets (I don’t wanna go to plexes, what sort of pirate chooses targets with guns?), I’ve used dothan to look up systems with a high npc kills delta, but to no avail. I can only find people who want to fight. I thought this game allowed piracy, but miners and other helpless ships seem to not leave hisec. What am I doing wrong?
Perhaps you are looking in the wrong places. When I started as a pirate the first thing I did was learn the names of T1 industrials. As soon as I saw them on d-scan, I’d scan the customs offices at 5 degrees. When I isolated a T1 industrial I’d warp to the customs office and scram the target. These indy’s are exporting PI materials from a planet and are usually unarmed, but can be tanky.
Later on I started to learn how to “defang” larger ships with guns. One of my best targets (a recent one, in fact) was a Stabber Fleet Issue that couldn’t track my Jaguar. I murdered all his drones. In this case, the pilot himself contacted me to come to an agreement: I accepted his offer and made a nice amount of ISK.
Miners are also a nice target but they tend to be rare in lowsec. In order to find them, d-scan ore anomalies and belts off the “beaten path”. By that I mean don’t jump gate-to-gate, do check if there are belts outside of d-scan range as such locations are where a miner would go to stay outside of your scan range.
Ice belts are also a good place to look though you might run into a skilled Skiff pilot, which are quite tanky and might call in friends to help him out. Skiffs are not “easy targets” but attacking one can get… interesting.
Also, honour your ransoms. That way you might make a friend, which can give you valuable intel about his rival industrial players. Few people will trust you and most might not even honor your convo request, but keep trying. People are pleasantly surprised when they figure out the scummy pirate is actually a trustworthy person.
Also, don’t be afraid to engage and test the limits of your ships and skills. Nothing beats the feeling of punching upward, defanging a mighty Battlecruiser and chipping at it’s tank and getting that convo request.
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I have been warping to asteroid belts, but so far I’ve found 0 miners in low sec. The mining ships i’ve found, were always tethered. I don’t understand the map, nor dotlan very well. Surely there are places with more miner traffic than others, right? How do I scan for this information, or how do I otherwise find them? I’ve thought of making an alpha alt just to spy on some mining corps, but idk, most seem to stick to hisec? Please help a new bro out 
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It’s a genuine question man
sigh. grow some bollocks and fight someone with something to fight back with, at least sometimes.
camp gates and pod pods.
It does. Never said anything about making it easy for you.
As a new player, you’ll get more experience (and faster) if you reach out to those PvPers in lowsec. Ask around and find some people willing to walk you through things and teach you. Trying to go out on it alone is a good way to waste a lot of time.
Did you just assume my Spacegender?
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Nobody wants to be killed easily, so what you learn as a carbear is how NOT to be killed, and there’s some very good working ways, as you’ve already witnessed.
I’d say, try a wormhole, Herons are the easiest targets I’ve met so far - but well, beware the bigger fish trying to catch you! Or choking points in Highsec, shoot at blinkies and get killmails.
But shooting miners is not the easiest task in EVE. A well fit Procurer will even kill you while still mining, and a Venture has two inbuilt warp core stabilizers, so you need a good scram on them. Not talking about Orcas…
If you know how miners work, you may find out how you might trap some of them.
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How to find people? D-scan is your friend. Use the ‘C’ key or Track button to line up scans for belts, anomalies etc. The maps are a bit useless, it’s more rewarding to simply cover more ground and react quickly to an oppurtunity.
Most miners will indeed warp off as you enter local or when your ship appears on d-scan. These are scarce targets of oppurtunity.
That guy in his ratting cruiser however, might be confident enough to stay in his belt or anom, leaving him open to defang & extort. Especially if he flies a Faction ship he does not want to lose, he’s more likely to pay ransom then someone flying a cheap T1 ship.
I want to clear up something: solo piracy is one of the toughest professions in Eve. It’s rewarding in a sense of game mastery, but you will not always find proper targets and it doesn’t pay big stacks of ISK all the time. Do not expect this to be easy.
Last time I went out pirating I had lots of fun in Molden Heath. Carebears everywhere. Maybe check that region next time you go out?
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Oh, I forgot to mention…
Through the Agency you can now find systems with Ice belts. Since Ice is valuable and always in demand, you might find yourself a juicy target there. To illustrate my point, I set out to find myself some targets / fights in lowsec in the hopes of coming across a miner. Et voila:
I did not take into account how much a Procurer costs these days, else I might have ransomed him for 20 mil or so. However, that would have left me without proof for this thread which felt more valuable.
Good luck finding your own targets. And remember: kill the drones first, and bring enough ammo to chew through a large tank.
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Why don’t you join Red vs Blue Flight Academy ? All pvp ships are fitted ready and free … you will be along with new pilots like you … you will have no shortage to find fights close to your skills and will be in an enviroment constantly practice and will be protege of some of the best PvP veterans of New Eden… it’s non profit community on focuse institution.
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If you ransom people does it guarantee you cant shoot them anyway? Becuase if it doesn’t I cant see a smart player paying one.
I never question someone’s intelligence, whether they pay up or not. Some people pay out of sheer curiousity, some out of monetary considerations, some because they do not want yet another loss added to their killboard.
From my perspective, the “dumb” ones are the ones that start to insult you in local. The really smart ones bargain but don’t go more then 20% below my asking price. I usually accept that in order to get off grid quickly.
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