Ship Capture Guide: X2 Version 2 (Updated for 1.4)

[Al]

I wasnt realy in need of help with capturing i have found that my nova does the job quite well though i think your advice should up the likelyhood of my captures and the value of them.

advice i would give to people though is i found that if you try and sort yourself out with an equiped nova early on and concentrate on pirat ships rather than the other fighters you have a fairly easy to tackle target.

i go to sectors with pirat bases and just fly around waiting for the pirat ship convoys and then pick them off one by one. i think my best collection took about 3 hours of playing i total'd about 15 pirat ship captures. I owe the large stock of 25mw shields now sitting on my captured pirat ship (portable armoury and swag bag ) to this kind of milk run capturing but now i understand what makes them bail out im sure ill go home tonight and smash that reccord.

Question:
Whats the best type of ship (value wise) to capture whilst useing a nova.

and how in the hell do you go about capturing larger capitol ships? i so want one!!!!

I would go for Orinocos as there are plently of them around (just poke the local pirate base if you want some) and they generally sell for abour 300k credits which is 3x that of a good condition pirate ship.

Capturing larger cap ships (M2/M1) isn't possible with one exception:

Spoiler

Show

The Xenon K that is spawned in the BBS transport from the Xenon missions when you are Ace of Aces 1st or above can be captured but its not easy.

I have to admit that due to a severe lack of time I've not managed to try capturing M6s properly but I am working on sorting this out.

good luck and happy hunting.

Al

Note: to read the text between the spoiler bars just highlight it.

[little jobbie]

Hi ive lead a life of catching pirate ship's and killing over 1044 pirate craft in all with an argon nova , yup as you said 87%
is what i look for and the fight's take for ever, i pirate hunt most days

I mostly use just the nova, what a work horse when it come's down to catching orinoco's
that is my prime ship to sell

Not bad cash for them too ...

Well i use the Alfa impulse ray emmiter with ion cannon to knock out thier shield's , and hull down to 87% then switch to ion's to wear the weapon's down to no lasers and shield's.
soon the pilot will abandon ship, and just send ship to nearset shipyard.

Ive sold about 279 orinoco's alone, not including all the rest of the pirate craft that ive sold also..

I also have a boron hydra with full cargo space docked at the shipyard in paranid prime to port over any goods or equipment that make's it past the ion onslaught ...

Ive just been capturing ship's from just one sector { priest's pity} then send all captured ship's 2 sector's west to paranid prime to the shipyard for sale...

but i would have had alot more sale's and kill's if i played it all the time but as life goe's on ive hadly played it for month's
but i will get back into it ...

well enjoy X2 and live a good life lol

Little jobbie :-b

[blackfire83]

Just wanted to say that this is an excellent guide. I can't say that I do capping 24/7, but it is one of my many sources of income. I simply don't have the patience, however, to IonD something for 15 minutes for 300k...

Anyway, great stuff, and I look forward to Al expanding it to include M6 capping, as I've been trying for awhile now and it's driving me mad.

-blackfire83

[Al]

Its on my list but I haven't played X2 in about 10 days now, just dont have the time. Hoping to get back to it soon though and once I've had a chance the guide will get an update.

Al

[2verb]

Hi all

mercurior above mentioned using drones to cap ships.

I tried this over the weekend with mixed results.

I went for a Pirate Ship, released 7 drones, and blasted away with 1 IonD.

Eventually I capped this ship, but it took significant hull damage before the pilot bailed.

I picked up the drones and went for another pirate ship.

When I found it, i released the 7 drones and IonD's away. This time the pirate ship outlasted the drones. I finished it off myself.

So there is a little anecdotal evidence on the use of the drone method. Maybe there is more to it?

Also, is the IonD harming the drones?

[Al]

Not sure what good drones would do apart from perhaps drawing incoming fire away from the player. Seems like an expensive methods if you are just starting out and probably pointless if you are an established player as you'll more than likely have a half decent ship.

Al

[hallusk]

What type of ships can you capture ? I have TS/TP/M5/M4 and M3. Is it possible to capture higher value ships ?

[CBJ]

Only as part of specific missions.

[Jim Parker]

Cool Guide.

I remember way back with X-Tension (or X-Gold which I have) that the faster you disarm a ships shields, the more likely they are to bail.

I reckon this might still be true with X2. They seem much more likely to bail when they take a lot of shield damage (and down to the 87% hull damage mentioned) on the first volley.

I dunno if there is any truth is this, but Teladi seem to bail easiest to me. Followed by Paranid, Argon, Split and Boron (who really don't seem to bail much imo ) in that order. I have no idea if this is just a fluke or not.

My best capture ship early in the game is the Boron Mako. It can outrun any normal missile and is faster than any pirate ship except maxed speed mandalays which aren't a problem really. Best of all, Makos are cheap and you can get one within a couple of hours play.

Another reason I like the Mako is they are unlikely to do fatal damage to a ships hull by mistake. When you upgrade to a Perseus/Nova etc you'll probably end up killing a lot of ships you capture by mistake because of the jump in damage capability.

As a guide, I'd recommend following any ship that doesn't have a tail gun and just keep behind it, blasting away. For pirate transports, you will probably need to employ the 'sweep' which is basically just blasting at it as you race towards it (duck when you see the green lights coming your way ), running through 3km and hitting autopilot in order to start your next sweep. Don't do what I sometimes do and forget to switch off autopilot after I'm locked on again.

I've captured a lot more ships with the Mako that any other. It's got a limit though - 75 MW shields are usually too much because they regenerate faster than you can take them down. You can take out Khaak M3's which only have 55 MW of shielding though, so if you see one go for it...preferably from behind.

[Shooby337]

This guide is what inspred me into capping. I now have 2 SPPs and a Silicon mine (plus all the TSs and ship that buy and sell). I even managed to buy a Nova from it all and currently have about 3mill in the bank. thanks to the guide. I've just discovered a good ahunt that i use for capping all kinds of pirates, Priests Pity. It has a Pirate Base so plenty of em, I've captured about 20+ ships and accidentally destroyed about the same in an hour of game play (So i don't get why some people take 15-30 minutes on one ship). I captured any Ori last night and it had 2x25mw shields left on it and a AHEPT. Several other ships had weapons a couple had mineral and freight scanners. I'd not caught anything that had left me anything as good as that before. I'm still capping in that area. I dunno weather to buy a M6 with the money or invest in more stations though?

[Lithium]

ere right, ive got 4 Khaak M3's and 2 Khaak M4's n 2 capped Xenon K's ye, and like i have an Argon Collossus with many Gamma PPC's n GPACS and GHEPT's yeah, and have captured them all with that. dont know what the fuss is bout tis easy

[hallusk]

If Al reads this please help, how many ships can you reasonably expect to fight when you hit a pirate base. I hit the one in Priests Pity and spawned 5 orinocos, 3 bayamons and 5 mandalays. Simply not possible........I am in a Nova L with ion and bhept/bpac plus missile defense at rear. I consider myself capable at capturing single orinocos (pretty easy I know) but this just seems impossible. I've been trying now for over 2 hours, getting killed and reloading. How do I do it ? Thanks

[Somebody Else]

Two words. Strafe Drive.

[pjknibbs]

If Al reads this please help, how many ships can you reasonably expect to fight when you hit a pirate base. I hit the one in Priests Pity and spawned 5 orinocos, 3 bayamons and 5 mandalays. Simply not possible........I am in a Nova L with ion and bhept/bpac plus missile defense at rear. I consider myself capable at capturing single orinocos (pretty easy I know) but this just seems impossible. I've been trying now for over 2 hours, getting killed and reloading. How do I do it ? Thanks

Simple answer: use a better ship. Problem with the Nova is that it's slow and easy for the enemy to hit. When I tickle a pirate base with my Barracuda I have no problems at all, even though it has less shielding than a Nova does; I just make darned sure to never go below full throttle, because I have no turret and a Silkworm up the rear can really ruin your day!

As for strafe drive--they're for wussies, I never use one when doing a pirate base run.

[Somebody Else]

Having a Khaak M3 fully loaded makes Pirate Base raids ridiculous. Just sitting off to the side of the entrance - about 2 and a half kilometres away, popping everything as it comes out, one by one. No movement required. No effort required. Not much of a sense of achievement, but hey.

[Al]

If Al reads this please help, how many ships can you reasonably expect to fight when you hit a pirate base. I hit the one in Priests Pity and spawned 5 orinocos, 3 bayamons and 5 mandalays. Simply not possible........I am in a Nova L with ion and bhept/bpac plus missile defense at rear. I consider myself capable at capturing single orinocos (pretty easy I know) but this just seems impossible. I've been trying now for over 2 hours, getting killed and reloading. How do I do it ? Thanks

Simple answer: use a better ship. Problem with the Nova is that it's slow and easy for the enemy to hit. When I tickle a pirate base with my Barracuda I have no problems at all, even though it has less shielding than a Nova does; I just make darned sure to never go below full throttle, because I have no turret and a Silkworm up the rear can really ruin your day!

As for strafe drive--they're for wussies, I never use one when doing a pirate base run.

When using a Nova a strafe drive can be a lifesaver. I've taken on pirate bases which throw out aabout 6-7 Orinocos and just as many, if not more, Bayamon and Mandalays.

My trick is to attack each Orinoco as they launch until the first one comes back for you. I sit to the side of the docking bay, reasonably close in. As soon as the first one starts its attack them boost to max speed and get out of the way. From now on actively target Mandalays and just kill them. Same with Bayamons if there are quite a few. The Bayamon in particular are very very bad to have on your six due to good speed and weapons.

If you get one on your six then a quick spin through 180 degrees and blast everything possible with your Ions. This is get them to break off and give your shields a chance to regenerate.

Take each Orinoco (and Bayamon if you left any) down to about 80% hull, dont worry about getting it exactly at 87% as it takes too long and as you do it, someone will be dropping onto your six...... quaranteed!

Once I've done that I chip away using Ions and a low power laser. Keep at max speed almost all the time, only dropping if you are about to over shoot your target and your six is clear. Keep changing targets and direction as this will help keep them on you. Also even when closing in on a ship, dont fly in a straight line, move slightly in both planes to minimise incoming hits.

If you get struck or in a bad patch, you can engage your strafe drive and fly like a lunatic and they shouldn't be able to hit you.

Good luck and happing hunting

Al

[C.G. Crastinus]

Hello all, im new to these forums and the X-universe, ive had X2 for about 2 weeks and ive gotta say for 20 dollars you cant get a better game, im addicted. Anyways, on to the subject.

How difficult is it? Or the better question, how long does it take to capture an M6 vessel?

Right now ive got a boron hydra (i know its a piece of crap, i just want it for the money) down to exactly 86% hull, and ive been blasting away with my ion disruptor for the past 5 minutes.. By now the poor bastards laser turrets are disabled and all he can do is try to outmaneuver me in my barracuda (fat chance).

Will he ever give up and bail, or have i been wasting my time?

[Al]

You can only capture M6s that are spawned in an assassination mission and you'll only get these if you have upgraded to 1.4. I have yet to capture one so its not easy but some folks have reported more success.

Al

[C.G. Crastinus]

Damnit, and i was hoping i could earn an easy couple mil with this bastard.. Looks like its back to pirate ships and paranid demeters for me, lol

Thanks, by the way.

[C.G. Crastinus]

I took an assasination mission and ended up going against 4 mambas and a dragon. I waited for the dragon and two of the mambas to go through the gate to presidents end and then ambushed the remaining two before they could get to the gate...

I captured one of them at 87% hull strength and sent him to Argon Prime.. The other one however proved to resist more stoutly than his comrade. I tried to cap him but he wouldnt give up after at least 5 minutes of following him with my disruptor. i killed him but by this time the mission was a failure (didnt get the dragon in time). i jumped to elenas fortune and to my suprise found the dragon (his two remaining escorts nowhere to be seen). After docking to save progress, the dragon engaged me after effortlessly mowing down a khaak m3. i got him down to 84% hull strength and as of now am still trying to get him to surrender.

My question is, has anyone capped an m6 on an assasination mission after it was failed, and if so, how long did it take?