Mission 1 The Great Escape
Overview: This mission takes place immediately following Cal and his crews escape from prison. You must first scrub off the IFF code on your stolen tug and then locate your grandmother’s base.
1) After the initial intro cut scene, fight off the two tugs that engage you. Once they are either destroyed or driven off, they will drop a distress beacon.
2) The beacon will bring Marshall’s in pursuit if you wait too long. Smith will suggest looking up his old mate Maurice, who lives in the vicinity of Hoffer’s Gap and will bring up a waypoint to fly to.
3) Set course for Maurice’s. Upon arrival, dock to the base. Smith will be able to reset your IFF and, upon undocking, give you a waypoint to your grandmother’s base labelled ‘Lucrecia’s Base’.
4) Fly to Lucrecia’s base.
5) On the way the police will ambush you. The police tell you to hold still. If you do, you should be able to talk your way out of it by saying: : You’re on a tour of the Effrit. : You’re ship is named after your favourite piece of classical art. : You’re last ship got written off. If you can’t talk you way out, blast your way out!
6) Fly on to Lucrecia’s Base.
Mission 1(a) Candy from a baby
Overview: You encounter a distress signal from a Corporate freighter on the edge of the Effrit. This gives you a chance to learn the basics of space piracy in a risk free environment.
1) Upon launch from the base, you will receive a prompt from Smith about a distress call that you have received. A waypoint will appear on the contact list, fly to this.
2) Once you come into range of the waypoint, you will see an un-escorted freighter loaded with cargo ripe for the picking. You have the choice, talk the cargo out of the freighter or shoot it up. Note: shooting up the freighter can damage the cargo!!
3) When you have got the freighter to unload its cargo, either tag the pods manually or call Jafs in to auto-tag the pods for pickup. Once the cargo is collected, return to base and see what Jafs managed to get for trades.
Free form sequence Piracy
Overview: At this point in the game, it is up to you to pirate loads of goodies. This is not only to kit out your ship, but also to get the attention of any space pirates in the area.
1) During this time, you receive e-mails from the Stepsons. These give hints on good piracy spots and, as you make more and more hauls of cargo, the Stepsons will send you congratulatory e-mails.
2) General comments on doing piracy: An important tactic to take into consideration is, when making a good haul of cargo; go back to the base and save your game. Over enthusiastic piracy can lead to you getting destroyed and losing any cargo still floating around or collected since the last save. When you start out pirating, pick on ships with fewer/weaker escorts. If you start small, you’ll be able to get a few upgrades on your ship, allowing you to take on harder (and more profitable) targets. Try not to destroy freighters entirely. This could destroy valuable cargo docked to them. Also watch where you fire, you could inadvertently shoot off cargo pods from the freighter that you wanted. Be selective. If you know what you want to make a trade back at base, try going to stations that may possibly be likely suppliers of the cargo your after. I.e. if a trade wants livestock, try hunting around agri-orbitals for your goods. Also, don’t forget you can find out what a freighter is carrying by sub-targeting it and looking at its cargo pods.
Mission 2 The Stepsons
Overview: The Stepson gang have noticed the increasingly successful piracy activities of your gang. They invite you to join them as a probationary member, but first you must prove your worthiness. They set you a small task; steal a Maas Systems cargo itinerary for them.
1) Dock to Lucrecia’s Base to receive an e-mail from the Stepsons. Launch and go to the Stepson meeting place that will appear as a waypoint on your contact list.
2) Once there, you will see 2 or 3 Stepson ships.
3) Follow the dialogue and say ‘Yes’ when asked if you want to join them.
4) They will explain that they want you to steal the cargo from a Maas vessel that is going to be entering the system at Touchdown L-point and heading to Grimwald Collection Station I. They will also warn you that it will be well guarded.
5) Go to the Touchdown L-point.
6) When you get to the Touchdown L-point, watch your contact list to see the Maas ships arrive. There are usually about 3 of them.
7) Kill them all and a cargo pod will be dropped labelled ‘shipping manifest’.
8) Once the Maas ships are dead, dock to the cargo pod. Note: if the Maas ships escape, you will have to follow them to Grimwald, which is in the Hoffer’s Belt Asteroid Field and kill them there.
9) Fly back to the Stepson meeting point. The Stepsons will then greet you and congratulate you on making the grade.
10) You must undock the cargo pod to finish the mission. : Following the Stepsons Initiation mission the player becomes a member of the Stepsons. This gives the player access to new trades. Go back and dock to the base and look at the trading screen to see these.
Mission 3 Joint Forces
Overview: The Stepsons have been scouting the area to try and find the origin of the Marauder attacks that have been plaguing facilities throughout the system. They have turned up the location of what they believe to be their base of operations and request you to lead a strike team against it.
1) Read the email from the Stepsons.
2) Fly to the Stepson Meeting waypoint and initiate conversation with the vessel at this location.
3) Say you are ready to lead the attack. This will provide you with a number of wingmen that will formate with you.
4) Fly towards the Marauder base location waypoint. As you near it you will be intercepted by a number of Marauder vessels; you can engage these and destroy them. Make sure you make good use of your wingmen and any turret fighters with you.
5) Around the base is a gunstar and near by the base is a cargo yard full of explosive cargos. You must destroy the base. If you get too close to the base, the gunstar and base will fire upon you.
6) There are several ways to destroy the base. Any of the cargo pods will cause heavy damage to the base if they are docked to and ‘thrown’ at the base by flying towards it and undocking the pod. Any weapons fire on the base will also cause damage. The current remaining hit points on the station can be seen by targeting the station and looking at its hit point gauge.
7) Once the station is destroyed you can head back to the stepson meeting place waypoint where you will be prompted to dock with a vessel to claim your reward.
Mission 4 The Heist
Overview: You hear about some interesting information regarding some new navy fighters from the Stepsons. They are heavily guarded so you have to obtain a false IFF code, sneak into the base, and steal the fighters by switching them with another cargo pod.
1) Read the email from the Stepsons (you will have to dock to read your email.)
2) Go to the “Stepson meeting place” waypoint.
3) Talk to the Stepsons (Bill) and listen to Clay.
4) The “Junkyard” waypoint will appear; go to it.
5) Talk to Doxer and ask for help.
6) Doxer will ask you to reclaim some cargo to use as a trade for the IFF you require. You must then go and get an item of cargo with a customs value in excess of 2000 and then take this back to Doxer. He will give you the IFF and a waypoint will be set up for you to meet with Jafs.
7) Rendezvous with Jafs at the new waypoint and dock with him.
8) Jafs transports you to the Maas facility and stops on the edge of the garbage dump.
9) Undock from Jafs and hide in the dump.
10) Listen to Clay’s advice.
11) Remote-link to the drone, dock to the cargo pod labelled ‘Useful’ on your contact list and take it to the pod containing turret fighters. It is probably best to do this bit in external view. Fly next to the fighter pod and fly slightly past it.
12) Undock from the ‘useful’ pod so that it slides backwards into position next to the fighter pod. Dock to the turret fighter pod, and take it back to the garbage dump and undock it.
13) Cancel the remote-link (SHIFT-R) again.
14) Jafs will dock to the pod and transport it away.
15) When Jafs flies out of range and the player has escaped, the mission is completed. : When you launch from the base after this mission you will find that you can take part in a wingman-training course. This course is not essential to the progression of the game but is just a little diversion to allow you to get some familiarly to using wingmen. : After the completion of this mission there is a slight pause in the mission structure to allow the player to gather some cargo from piracy and to give them a chance to witness some of the Marauder attacks occurring in the area.
Mission 5 Marauder Cache
Overview: You need to talk to a miner who knows something about the Marauders, and after defending him from a Marauder attack, you locate a Marauder supply cache and steal the contents.
1) Read the email from E.R. Oregon.
2) Go to the “Meeting Location” waypoint and talk to the miners.
3) Defend the miners from the Marauders. Use the turret fighters for added firepower, setting them to defend Oregon is a good method.
4) If Oregon survives, he will tell you about the cache and give you a waypoint.
5) If Oregon dies, but you kill the Marauders to avenge him, Clay will locate the waypoint for you. If you flee, or fail to kill the Marauders, the mission is over.
6) Go to the “Beacon Location” waypoint.
7) Fight the Marauders who are defending the cache.
8) If you destroy the freighter before it escapes you can steal the LDS drive it is carrying.
9) When all the Marauders are dead, call in Jafs to pick up the loot.
10) The mission is completed.