Basic Raiding Guide

Basic Raiding Guide
Recommended for Beginners->Semi-Pros. Not recommended once above Officer-Bogatyr Level.

So, you don't like direct combat and envy the creations around you? This is for you. This is the art of stealing ships from factions and lone wolves. A good practice is to mark down all bases which are not home bases you run across as these are most vulnerable. Build a cloaked ship and scout all the large factions as well as small, you'll be surprised by what small factions can muster. Notice something big you want? Write its location down.

Once you know where and who to steal from, build a ship capable of dropping the shields of the ship you want and fly over there. Unfortunately docked ships at home bases are untouchable save for the rare glitch in your favor, but you'll soon learn that people leave their creations undocked far more than they should. New players, especially, will build a box station, maybe a door, and leave the ships simply floating around inside, having no experience with docking before. Larger ships that carry active turrets cannot dock until their turrets are removed. This is because of the lack of "chain-docking" being implemented. In order for a player to secure their ship to a station, they must first enter each turret and land it somewhere else on said station, or simply turn in its AI and let it fly. If you're lucky, you can find a Battleship or larger undocked, waiting to be unloaded so it can be docked. If you do find this, rush the unlucky chum and you may get away with a sweet score. However, if their faction has declared neutral as hostile, their still-active or already-active ship or base turrets can take you out long before you get close enough to do damage. Beware factions with neutral declared as hostile, as their AI turrets on stations can kill you before you can do anything. A common newbie mistake is to use a "bike-lock" tether. This is a mistake on their part as you only have to drop their shields to reset their faction block and enter their ship. From there, delete the lock and fly away. Around faction bases you can often find even Frigates and Cruisers undocked ripe for the taking. A prime time to steal something that'd normally be docked is right after server crashes because people may have been moving, building, or testing their large ships.

Stealing is often regarded as a fair practice because everyone needs to learn to dock their stuff. Newbies that disregard this fact may learn to dock things the hard way, but it's better to lose a poorly designed frigate now than a battleship down the road.