Disclaimer I'm not really a pirate, per se -- I'm in a mercenary Org whose main goal is to get hired to fight wars for people. This likely won't happen for a while. And so even though we're not really pirates, mercs without work will have to make their own work (say that 10 times fast), and so we'll dabble in a little piracy between jobs. The main goal of piracy is to make money (and also have some fun in combat, but let's ignore that for now). And piracy is hard: to take over a ship and steal the cargo, you can't just win the fight -- you have to totally dominate it. That means finding the most vulnerable targets while also factoring in the largest payout possible. Piracy is inherently unfair to the target, but you can avoid being the target by being stronger than other potential targets. The ideal targets are: under-defended in lawless/unprotected areas large in size (big ships and/or big in number) focused on economic tasks that bring in a lot of money (convoys, mining operations, etc) have a lot to lose, so they are willing to accept an extortion payment instead of fighting to the death. If you want to avoid pirates, just do the opposite of that list! take escorts stay in safe areas stay small and under the radar don't get too greedy It's that easy, guys! Regarding recent reports of pirate activity in the PU Although the vast majority of players agree with CR's vision of a dangerous universe, there is a small group in full panic about some recent pirate activity in the PU. Keep the following things in mind: There are actually CIG-created missions to go to locations like CryAstro to "stir up trouble". Likewise, there are BH missions to kill pirates. This activity cannot possibly be more directly sanctioned by CIG. Yes, money is being asked for (1k UEC, not 10k). But until there is persistence in the PU, backers are playing for fun, to learn, and to help test/make the game. Furthering these goals is obviously what's happening here -- the actual preference is for people to fight pirates, especially if they organize, over paying. The more raging there is against the activity, the more likely there will be organized opponents to fight. It seems better to go down fighting 30 players attacking a piracy operation than killing individual Prospectors to enforce blockades. There's virtually no cost to targeted players. They can reclaim ships + equipment quite easily, and money is reset regularly. Nothing is persistent yet. Pirates encourage econ players to actually be a better part of the SC ecosystem. It's natural that econ players want to maximize their profits by avoiding conflict and paying for escorts. Players that don't want to spend their profits on escorts while going after high-value goods in rough areas will be easier to pick off than NPCs. Pirates ensure that money from economic activity makes its way around to mercs and BH's on top of giving smart econ players a competitive edge.