Plasma Beam Cannon

[Falynn]

Are the pirate bases the only place to get these weapons? Or is there some where else to find these?

[Deianeira]

Try the black market or make friends with Strong Arms in Rhonkar's Trial. Check this site for all the answers: https://roguey.co.uk/x3fl/lasers/id-26/

[ThommoHawk]

In FL now, maybe getting them from pirates is the only way -

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In X3 AP used to be able to (still can maybe?) hack the lasertowers for plasma beam cannon - iirc had to do it before the towers booted up, best way was *save*, then blast them to bits for the chance of getting a PBC crate, no crate? reload and try again, unless you want to waste a few dozen LT's just for a few of the PBCs.

I recently tried this in X3 FL with no such results - stopped trying after 30 or so attemps with zero crates. I really want some for the pirate Carrack.

[Falynn]

I forget about the black market. Do you have to search every trade center or can they be linked in the sat net under one list?

[DirkHardpec]

Theres a special weapons factory that makes them in the strong arms sector. Usually you need a pretty high notoriety rank to buy them, but that's actually not necessary if you're willing to roll the dice.

Instead, you can use the cargo bay hacker to steal them from the station, have a trader then sell resources back to it, wait until more are produced, then steal again etc etc.

Its risky, but I managed to grab 4 of the 8 I wanted without being caught. Probably could've done more, but didnt want to push my luck (or if you're not against save scumming, you can always just reload and try again over and over).

[-XeNoN-]

Are the pirate bases the only place to get these weapons? Or is there some where else to find these?

Pirate bases (Hatikvah's Faith, Loo Mank Strat's Legacy, Lost Order)
Strong Arms (Rhonkar's Trial -> SA HQ, Military Outpoust, Special Weapons, Shipyard -> you can buy factories )

[RunGiantBoom]

I forget about the black market. Do you have to search every trade center or can they be linked in the sat net under one list?

you have to search each trade center separately. For some reason all other beam weapons appears frequently but not PBC. I found some in

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Profit Center Alpha

[blackice7777]

Just found that

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Argon PBC Forge sold by Strong Arms, so could be bought or retrieved by agent

[BrigandPhantos77]

Easiest solution is to steal the factory blueprint and build the forge yourself. Power Circle is a great place to put it. That's what I did anyway. Or build your own complex.

7/3/2023 Edit: Using the best buy software you can see what in system merchants are selling; includes "barter and black market". So all you gotta do is send a ship to a system, or even us a satelite, and you can view remotely without docking.