Privateer: How do you get started?

I'm probably the only one that does this...

When starting Priv, I always sell my Iris MK-II and buy a MK-I for an extra 10,000 credits. True, you won't be able to lock targets and can only buy HS missiles, but with the 10,000 you can afford 2 Meson Blasters and a Proton Torpedo Launcher, which is a much better initial payload to me.

From there I do Bounty and Defend Base missions. I've noticed that your bounty quarry is more likely to be in your starting system (Troy) earlier in the game. If I'm searching nav points and come across Retros I just turn around and afterburn away...once you get 15,000m from the nav point you can safely autopilot. Any other bogey--even Kilrathi--gets the ol' negotiation tactic (continually sending that trusty #3 comm response--does anyone else do this?) to make em friendly.

Another good strategy is to mount a tractor beam early on and collect cargo from Merchant ships. Shooting them down isn't too scrupulous, I guess...but at least it helps your standings with the pirates (however killing too many will turn the Mercs and Confeds against you). The next best thing is to find a navpoint with pirates and merchants, beg for mercy from the pirates to make them friendly, and wait for them to pop the merchant, then scoop up the goodies. :D

"Used to be a pirate had to do a little shooting to earn his daily bread. Nowadays, the only trigger he's gotta pull is wired to a tractor beam!"
 
Interesting idea with the scanner trade-off. If you think it's worth it, you should probably go for it.

I tend to avoid any sort of combat in the first few flights, so I took patrol and scout missions, and just afterburned from any mission baddies all the way home! (Yeah, sometimes I have far too much patience.)

The comm #3 trick works only on non-mission specific enemies.

I do that trick with the pirates and merchants all the time - even when I don't need to! :)
 
With some practiced timing, you can fire a couple of Proton Torpedoes as soon as you confront a foe (5000 m is best range) and destroy them consistently before they can fire off a volley or launch a missile.
 
Or, you can just rough it out for the first couple of missions, fight like you have some sort of skill, and survive to pay for whatever repairs you may need, and then buy upgrades. Wow . . imagine that. Enough skill to kick the asses of a couple reprobate pirates/retros.
 
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