X4 Foundations: Starting as a Space Pirate Guide

The Untested Explorer game start gives you everything you need right at the beginning to be a space pirate in X4: Foundations 4.0. I'll also show you how to jink your ship to avoid turret fire! During recording I couldn't find a dual pulse turret ship but I found that the bolt tracers worked really well in showing how to dodge so in the end it all worked out.
0:00 Intro
0:25 The Discoverer
1:58 Choosing a Target
2:50 Claiming Your Prize
4:16 Evading Turrets
5:51 Fly Safe! o7
Closed Captions available.
store.steampowered.com/app/39...
X4: Foundations is the latest title in the popular X series of space simulation / sandbox games, played as action games from a first-person perspective in a living breathing universe, with TRADE FIGHT BUILD THINK as the common tag-line. X4: Foundations is unique in its depth, simulating an entire universe of NPC ships and stations, forming a realistic economy. It consists of a huge universe, simulated from the bottom up. Hundreds of stations, and thousands of ships, trade goods among themselves. Prices change based on supply and demand; resources are mined and processed in several stages. This economy is linked directly to the simulation of major conflicts in a universe with dynamically-acting factions. Every player decision can dramatically change the future of the game universe. Step in and live your very own space adventure!
#x4foundations

[@follerbr]

"and I wish they explained this mechanic better" a recurring theme in X4

[@RahzZalinto]

yeah, it's one thing if its intuitive and you need to figure it out - but it's another thing if its a complicated series of steps and you need to figure it out. Like in star citizen I could approach the idea of stealing a ship, kinda any way I want - but in this, you can't, and the method to do so, is hidden lol.

[@TurKlack]

You'd think the Pilots would value their lifes higher than the ship.

[@XxKidnoffxX]

It's well explained and showed if you play a Tide of Avarice start. But yeah, I don't know why they don't put that as Tutorial on the main menu and that's it. That's why i'm here right now. I forget some things and I don't want to make a new game and play hours to get where the game showed me how to do...

[@michaelmacdonell4834]

Agreed, but this is the allure of all the X games. The discovery, the exploration, the learning experience is something we've come to expect and revel in.

[@MrProthall]

@@RahzZalinto X3 was just far more clear about everything, gotta say. X4 is a jumbled mess of hidden menues that you can barely find because the icons have absolutely no contrast to them

[@Epochalypse1234]

I had no idea about the 30 sec bail mechanics, or the small vs large hull mechanics. TY, ty, ty...

[@mauleymaule]

Thanks for the tips man, easy to follow and straight to the point.

[@JKNinja]

Thank you, glad you found it helpful!

[@net2000man]

Thanks for kickstarting my own Pirate campaign, really appreciate this video! One thing I've always done to make sure I don't lose engines/weapons is this: I step out into my spacesuit and claim the vessel myself. Next, I repair the ship's hull to full, and reassign one of my ship's crew to be captain of the captured ship. I have them fly it to a nearby friendly wharf, and if there's any consumables I want I will dock at the same wharf and transfer equipment between ships before I sell the ship's components. Lastly, I sell the ship, as this method maximizes your profit. Before selling the ship I re-assign my crewmate back onto my ship so I don't lose them. Rinse and repeat for max benefit. The only trouble I had was trying to capture 4 SCA ships with a total of 4 crew (I had to leave one behind, which I'll hopefully pick up this evening)! Still, having a ton of fun as a pirate, and not missing the headache of mining, station building, blah blah blah!!

[@JKNinja]

That is a great way to make sure you get the most credits per capture! Selling ships was originally part of the script, but I felt that the video was going on for too long so I decided to cut it. Glad I could help out with your campaign!

[@jimmydilweed9806]

So what else does the game offer for you to do as a Pirate other than capture ships and rinse and repeat? Fun, but it would get dull after a while.

[@wiktorwektor123]

@@jimmydilweed9806 Station hacking and sov warfare.

[@majorplothole2620]

Their logic KINDA makes sense if you think of it this way: If your ship suddenly takes fire from a pirate Frigate, or gunship - you'd expect that kind of damage. You'd EXPECT to lose shields and be barely holding on to dear life. If your ship takes all that damage from a ship much smaller than you, and in such a time frame - the only conclusion would be that the other pilot is 1) crazy and/or 2) a Grade A badass. This would demoralize anyone if they were getting their ass handed to them by a much smaller target. Is the logic. I mean it wouldn't hold up in every situation but it's like you said, it gives these smaller class ships a niche for middle and later game.

[@kageshimunamae]

In X1, the ship would just fly a 180 and rush through your hull like a mad honey badger. game over xD Pilots are not what they used to be back in the days :kappa:

[@DevineAbyss]

@@kageshimunamae Hmm still, if I approach a small freighter with a meidum military ship and like 3 destroyers of mine in tow.... and I shoot at the freighter just a single time ... removing 100% shield and bringing him to 50% hull ... then communicating with him to give up the ship... He REALLY should NOT get any ideas that he could get away or actually win this. He would last 0,5 seconds if my ship breathes on his. From roleplaying perspective this is kinda weird.

[@LeonserGT]

Tbh, I would understand if all of that was reversed. If I'm a trader and a puny Discoverer is about to destroy me - I'd rather die with my ship (recurring theme in X4 anyway) than have to tell everyone that I abandoned my ship because of one damn scout. On the contrary, if I'm a medium trader and a fucking destroyer approaches me, contacts and tells me "surrender!" - I will do that immediately, I do understand its overwhelming firepower just from its looks... With medium battle ships - maybe after they act openly hostile by shooting me once, then I'd surrender. But a damn scout? No way!

[@CreeperDude-cm1wv]

It's like in ace combat. Everyone is scared of the gigantic super weapons but everyone is absolutely terrified of the mute psychopaths flying a plane ten times smaller than said super weapon and still winning

[@joshwhittaker1637]

I think the real reason is mechanical somthing to do with if the bigger ships had this terror effect all the fights would bail constantly fighting against l and xl ships it’s to stop the ai bailing in big fleet battles

[@GameBos]

Good stuff bro, and in 4k even. Its good to see X4 getting some more attention from KZbinrs.

[@Jeslijaro]

I really love how you convey info. Fun and very clear. Thank you for making these guides!

[@sgt.bonkers8706]

My headcanon about bigger ships getting more intimidated or bail faster against smaller targets, is because they know that those flies outmaneuver their turrets more easily, have the initiative advantage when it comes to boost > reload shields > reengage, and will usually catch up to their prey easily and repeatedly, resulting in it being hopeless for them to defend themselves effectively without additional fleet support. Hence they abandon ship and hope they don't face a bloodthirsty maniac on top of a greedy one. If you face someone who punches up several times of his weight-class, outmaneuvers you 100% of the time, while still soaking up all you dish out, you'd give up, too. That lucky hit that shuts them down, simply isn't going to happen.

[@Ronalddegroote]

Nice. Thanks for the work. Much appreciated. Liked and subsribed.

[@K0JIKABUTO]

I just recently started playing X4 last month. Your guide is funny short and concise and very useful Your ship boarding tips helped me snag medium ships which I then used to succesfully board 2 Osakas, 2 Buffalos and 3 Construction ships(these ships being my main source of income on top of trading. I have a request if at all possible. It would be fun to see you attempt to board the Asgards, Raptors and all the Fleet carriers :) with some tips. Great work! Looking forward to your next videos.

[@JKNinja]

There is not a lot difference in boarding a battleship, just takes longer and requires more marines. Once you find a ship's blind spot (usually near the engines) you can take out the turrets one at a time before sending in your boarding party

[@whiskizyo2067]

@@JKNinja wonder if it'd be worth to use shield pen weps to blow up shield generators on bigger ships to knock shields out, maybe their weaponry too etc if can manage it

[@CaneMcKeyton]

I legit did not know that weaker hulled ships had a better chance to make your targets bail. I switched from my Katana to the Discoverer and saw a night and day difference in ship bailing

[@fritzstudios8571]

Love the starting commentary mate - trash compactor. Made me really laugh out loud.

[@nonotachance7935]

What is a good controller scheme for fighter piloting? I cannot use key board and mouse due to a not fully functioning left hand.

[@madlarkin8]

You know what I just realized? The Quasar fighter (the garbo-max Argon Fed heavy fighter) is actually useful for capturing because while it is worse than every other heavy fighter, it DOES mount four weapon slots while still being super cheap, and with very low hull points, this makes it probably the most affordable quad weapon capture craft. Other fighters have more weapons, other fighters are better protected, but no other fighter has super low HP AND four weapons... which... I guess makes it good for capping enemy ships? Maybe they just feel so bad for you flying the Quasar and give you their ship out of pity.

[@res2590]

Nice Video! How do you avoid / minimise Reputation loss?

[@JKNinja]

If you attack someone in neutral space you will not suffer reputation loss. But don't kill them, that will still count against you regardless of where you are at.

[@res2590]

@@JKNinja great, will give it a try

[@TurKlack]

Does this also work with Captial Ships and L Freighters? And how does the destruction of weapon or shield modules affect the success rate? And while I'm at it, how did you figure that out anyways?

[@JKNinja]

Boarding capital ships and L freighters work very differently, I cover the mechanics here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/op_Xn2yaaJdqh68 Alot of information is available in the discords from data miners and even the developers. Of you can extract the game files and see all the values directly, but I would recommend backing up yours saves first in case you accidently make some changes that require a reinstall to fix 😅

[@darthvegan]

Argggh, matey, thanks fer teachin' us the pirate code!

[@gawni1612]

Dude, you just fucking changed my life!

[@xezqeznunya6671]

Dun need rep laser to claim it, just scan mode and move close to signal Not sure if it is available in this game but used to be in previous X games u could buy a system that allowed u to claim from the ship.

[@EveryTimeV2]

Another important factor is thermal disintegrators and the faction owner of the sector you are pirating in. Destroying a ship incurs a rep hit with the target faction in any sector, so does destroying a ship component. But attacking them in a sector that the police are an enemy to them in? You don't get the attack rep hit, so if you are careful you won't lose rep.

[@Maethendias]

i always tought the way bailing worked in the x games was the dumbest part about the whole series... it is so illogical to have "slow tickle" from smaller ships have a higher bail chance... than extremly high burst from bigger ships... you know SHELLSHOCK

[@MrJBARRON]

This video is a big help. Question: if you shoot at ships in neutral space, do you lose permanent rep with the faction owner?

[@JKNinja]

You will lose reputation only if you destroy the ship in neutral space. If you damage, board, and let the crew escape then you won't take a hit

[@LeonserGT]

@@JKNinja that's a very important point, you should've mentioned that in the video

[@geordievillan]

@@JKNinja I THOUGHT that was the case, thank you for confirming.

[@BlackRainEntertain]

its strange... the s class mineral miner from Split, does have even 200 less hullpoints while it still has 2 guns... double boombursts equiped and it onetaps all m class ships down to 50 % hull but especially with the kdh it seems not not count the hull points there... seems like the game says s mineral miner is bigger than a scout...

[@MrMinas88]

i also use a used a old sca behemoth to fight pirates and boarding other behmoths , cause why not ahah

[@Parallax359]

how are you hitting the target without aiming at it? it seems like your guns are doing the aiming for you. @5:40

[@cembanditx1]

All still relevant but one thing you didn’t mention - repair that ship after it’s yours with your spacesuit repair laser, it’s worth so much more then.

[@ajaxmcjones9387]

What happens to the ship you left behind when you board the new one to sell it?

[@JKNinja]

Your ship will stay put if there is no captain on board to pilot it

[@augustust2110]

@JK Ninja This has brought my game entirely back to life and I want to thank you for sharing the mechanics. Can you tell me where you found the game mechanics for "A ship will lose a maximum of three crew every 30 seconds" & "The game does a dice roll every 30 seconds to see if any crew will bail and that first happens when the ship is at 75% hull"? I did a new custom start to check this out and my first engagement was with a Falx escorted by four Kukris. I was able to cap all of them with minimal hull damage to them or my Discoverer Vanguard. I'll be filling up Raptors with this method way earlier in this playthrough...

[@JKNinja]

it was from a data mine, you can find the original post here: www.reddit.com/r/X4Foundations/comments/a93lhf/bailing_capturing_s_and_m_sized_ships/

[@augustust2110]

@@JKNinja Thanks for the relpy. Finding good information on X4 has been hard for me (x3 and albion prelude had a much broader community, but rebirth threw a wrench in that). I've got 4k+ hours clocked up on the game and have made a lot of assumptions for event triggers and mechanics. My assumption was 'once the game saw you in an M or larger ship, it made capping for S impossible and M difficult'. I was right for the wrong reason....I am going to tryout the Quasar...got to find a new player ship I lke. Thanks again!

[@nolgroth]

Can Gunboats, Frigates, and Corvettes be capped, or does the presence of marines mean that they need to be boarded?

[@JKNinja]

they can be boarded once all the crew eject, just like with small ships

[@skysoftware4581]

How do you pirate without pissing off the owning sectors faction? when i try i get lots of enemy attacking me?

[@JKNinja]

Attack the ships in neutral sectors and don't destroy the target to minimize reputation loss

[@jrfo9988]

👍 comentario para el algoritmo

[@Necreon021]

Holy shit. This is the dream David Braben sold me and fails to deliver in 9 years of Elite.

[@AndreasNK]

Man i dont know what i do wrong crew never bail after 30 sec they remain at the same numbers as when i started the attack even if i try to stall and let some shield to recharge so it dont blows up. They do not bail sometimes they do not even respond to my coms even if hall is less than 20%.

[@JKNinja]

The 30 second bail chance is a dice roll. Sometimes it has taken me 5 minutes to get a medium transporter to fully lose all its crew

[@herbertpocket8855]

Will a swarm of other ships in your fleet make this easier?

[@JKNinja]

When bringing AI ships they tend to blow up your target before you can capture when pirating small and medium ships. The video on capturing large ships is done with a Shuyaku, but nothing wrong with replacing it with a swarm instead.

[@nidaren]

Woohooo, I just became 501 subscriber \o/

[@VulpesChama]

Explaining mechanics in an x-game.

[@user-kn7iz8zl8m]

谢谢

When you are a pirate, how do you deal with the reputation loss?

[@JKNinja]

if you want to minimize reputation loss, do your pirating in neutral sectors (it will have a grey border)

[@quixadhal]

Yarrrr!

[@DOOM891]

i really can't seem to get the hang of piracy, i know how to capture ships etc but i can't seem to find targets without getting harrassed by system security...

[@jimmydilweed9806]

This is probably one of the best vids I've seen because it very simply addresses something we all want to do but see few examples of. I would like to know far more however, on how to attack larger, or at least different ships, and what the ideal ship to use for that is. If being a space pirate is limited to only small haulers, it's gonna get dull real quick. Also, are you saying that the LESS maximum hull you have, the more likely the enemy is to bail? Also, you showed a marine, but you didn't really explain that those don't come automatically. I think you have to hire someone and assign them as a marine right?

[@JKNinja]

thanks! kzbin.info/www/bejne/op_Xn2yaaJdqh68 is the video where we go after the larger ships. And yes; the less maximum hull you have, the more likely the enemy is to bail so scout ships are ideal for this

[@jimmydilweed9806]

@@JKNinja So what else can a pirate do in the game? Seems like you can take over ships but then you're screwed. Can't travel anywhere. Can't work for anyone but Teladi I assume?

[@Nzchimeran]

Hiya, Great videos. I'd like to play as Yaki. I have completed the story. Yaki rep is good, Terran rep very bad. I have the PHQ My game start was Terran Cadet I have a Katana and a capped Pirate Minotaur Raider. My PHQ has a wharf. But I'd like to be Yaki in the Yaki player ship. Any tips? Lay beat down on Terran ships in Getsu Fune?

[@JKNinja]

forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=182&t=434917. This post has the spoilers for the Yaki storyline if you're wanting to side with them against the Terrrans

[@cdgonepotatoes4219]

Funny thing: I captured a Discoverer in my first and last act of piracy with the Elite Vanguard. It has horrible strafe and for a while I didn't think it had any guns because the NPC didn't have any installed. My Elite was later destroyed by Xenon, luckily I could hail the Discoverer to pick me up and then I gave it a proper look over. It has a bad strafe and it's very eager to move forward, but the two guns are ultimately still better.

[@MrMinas88]

Debatable i reallllly like nemesis vanguard or dragon because hard points , but boiiiiii Dragon looooks soooo cooool, pity the shields are bad tho, in COh u can have katana too but only 4 hardpoints or go falx and have the marines with u xD

[@jacobbronsky464]

Wait, does it mean that the otherwise pretty bad Pulsar is in fact the ultimate pirate fighter ? Antigonians I swear.

[@JKNinja]

correct, the Pulsar is better but I focused on the Discoverer for this video as you can get that ship immediately

[@LeatherCladVegan]

This game could have been good, but the devs laziness makes it nearly impossible to enjoy. The game should actually be called 'How to Google and watch KZbin instructional videos', because that's all I've ever done in the game. My favourite mission was "Deliver 250 units of medical supplies". They never tell you where they should be delivered. Genius.

[@kedryncaitin9157]

As an FYI, if you have the mission set as active and you are on a ship, you get a bright yellow line on the map and preset navigational guidance. If you are piloting, you can just auto pilot. You won't see this guidance line while standing on a station, though standing in a docked ship should show it. Nearly every mission I've done is like this. If the line disappears on the map, it means you've not found a gate to the next system if you are still early game and don't have much explored or a big satellite network deployed.

[@LeatherCladVegan]

@@kedryncaitin9157 I appreciate the effort, but obviously, yeah nah. Thanks anyway though :)

[@kedryncaitin9157]

Oh, I understand your position and have been a come and go player going back to X3:AP. There are certainly UI issues, AI issues and various problems that existed even in previous games. So I tend to take it in bursts with long stretches between. The answer was also for newcomers that are coming in now and could be lost. I was very confused back in the day when I started. Have fun in the other games you pursue.