Newbie FAQ (Piratez)

This page may be outdated. It is up-to-date for version 0.99H. The latest version is v.N1.

This is a FAQ for new players of the X-Piratez mod, written for the version 0.99. Note that according to pretty much nobody "most players", X-Piratez is supposed to be played blind, and this FAQ contains spoilers. So read this only if you wish to receive spoilers or have a brain-fart and are stuck.

• Q. I am completely stuck and going bankrupt! How do I go progress at all?!
• A. Pressing q on the geoscape will bring up the tech tree viewer. Some critical early game techs stay in the fight and avoid going bankrupt are "Recruitment", "Culture", "Chateau De La Morte", "flintlocks and bombs" and "Workshop"

• Q. How do I get my first interceptor?
• A. The Airspeeder and Aircar are available after you have contacts with car thieves. Airspeeder uses missile weapons, and Aircar is for cannon weapons. Early on you'll have to stick to the Aircar, because cannons are easier to research; to receive the ability to buy Seagull missiles for your Airspeeder, you'll have to interrogate a lot of Bandits and Highwaymen until you get Contacts: Smugglers from them. Note that both are pretty sucky interceptors; to get proper interceptors, you should follow most of the steps described for Tiny Drill below.

• Q. How do I get a bigger troop transport? The air bus sucks!
• A. You can get a vanilla X-COM Skyranger from the Mutant Alliance. Research the tech Bounty Hunting and do the missions the Alliance offers you. Buy any of the prizes from them, and you'll receive the ability to unlock Favor from the Alliance, which gives you Skyranger. You can also get the Pigeon, which does not require bounty hunting missions but has flat prerequisites, namely Workshop and Communications; the Pigeon is primarily an AWACS craft but doubles as a semi-decent troop transport for 9 gals. You can also use Expedition, which means your gals taking the heel-toe express to their destination; this is unadvised because the expedition moves very slowly and your base is left undefended while the gals are in the field.

• Q. How do I use the accessory items, such as the gas mask or shawl?
• A. Put them in any place in your gal's inventory, and it will be considered on. However, the accessories have type (e.g. "Mask", "Hat"), and two of the same type will give you nothing.

• Q. I've captured some high ranking dude but cannot interrogate him. How do I do that?
• A. You need the technology of Persuasion to interrogate the higher-ups. It is unlocked through researching Mutant Porn and Slavery.

• Q. The fluff says the Ubers have superior night vision, but I can't see a thing at night! I'm tired of tossing molotovs everywhere!
• A. You should turn night vision mode on. By default, the key is Scroll Lock, but you can redefine it (e.g. if you do not have such a key).

• Q. Why should I use bows? What is this, Skyrim?
• A. Bows have the ability of arcing. They fire over obstacles, like the spit of Celatid in the vanilla X-COM. You can fire at your enemies while hiding behind cover. The Assault Cannon and the grenade launchers also have this ability.

• Q. What's the deal with the Hammer and the Chainsaw? Their combat interface is unlike other melee weapons, it's like they are ranged.
• A. Technically, they are ranged weapons with the range of 1. This is done because only ranged weapons can destroy terrain, and destroying terrain is half of the functionality of the hammer and the saw.

• Q. Why am I penalized for taking down enemy craft and killing hostile dudes?
• A. You are being a jerk, attacking civilian craft and killing civilians. In this game, only the mutants are non-hostile civilians, human civilians are hostile and sometimes armed. This doesn't mean you have to kill them: the Hands are Robin Hood types who rob the rich (the global factions), help the poor (the mutants) and leave the middle class (human civilians) alone. Still, you might want to attack civilians: in the early game, the loot from civilians outweighs the penalties for attacking them.

• Q. How to unlock the Confederate Eagle to be bought?
• A. Do the bounty hunting missions for the goblin cartels. One of the rewards is "Confederate Gear", which includes unlocking the deagle at the black market.

• Q. Where do I get a katana?
• A. In "Help the Lokk-Narrs" missions, you often fight against Ninja Ubers. Yeah, the old ninja vs pirate meme. The katana (referred to as "Fuso Sword") often drops from them.

• Q. What exactly is the deal with Tiny Drill?
• A. It's the beginning of the long research chain that culminates with the construction of your awesome flagship craft, which marks the beginning of the mid-game. Read Tiny Drill (Piratez) to learn more about how to complete it. The choice you make also matters in whether you receive classic X-COM Psionics or newfangled magick instead, and which auxiliary cool crafts and unique items you receive.

• Q. What's the deal with the Officer's uniform? It does stun damage on the gal wearing it!
• A. You should read the Bootypedia description carefully. It says you need a high-Bravery gal to wear it. Otherwise you receive this penalty.

• Q. Why should I bother with the rescue gal missions, if I can unlock recruiting?
• A. The gals you rescue are of the same type as your starting gals, the Castaways. They do not require salary until they rank up, and their stat caps are somewhat higher. So you might prefer using them rather than the hired gals.

• Q. How do I get mutant meat and rare earths to recruit rescued gals?
• A. Learn the Cavern Hunting tech, it will provide you with a steady supply of mutant meat. Rare earths usually drop from Ninja Ubers when you defend the goblin villages from them.

• Q. How do I determine which ships to attack before I get hyperwave decoder?
• A. Chase all crafts and look at their appearance. If they look like your aircar/bus, they are civilians (only attack if you are poor and desperate). If they have red and blue lights, they are local government (same as civilians), and if they have yellow lights, they are rebels (your allies). Everything else is fair game.

• Q. It's early game and I have difficulties with fending off pogroms.
• A. You don't have to fend off pogroms until you are accepted into the Mutant Alliance. Until that, you can ignore pogroms with impunity. Being a member is not the same as doing missions for them; you can still ignore pogroms until you get *The Mutant Alliance* tech, with the asterisks: this is the formal invitation to join.

• Q. What do Workers do?
• A. They do the same thing as slaves: they increase the holding capacity of your vaults. Workers are paid personnel, so you should use them if you oppose slavery.

• Q. Could you provide the description of various mission types?
• A. OK, very well.
  • • Brothel Attack: one of the rescue gal missions. The unconscious gal is held in the basement of a brothel. Your enemies are Hoes, B-Boys and some Bandits who pack early game weapons and generally pose little danger.
    • Rescue Stranded Gal: another one of the rescue gal missions. These missions are always fought in the wilderness at harsh weather conditions, but to make it harder, a bunch of random enemies also guards the castaway gal.
    • Rescue Stranded Govt Agent: this is an urban type mission where you should find the unconscious government agent. In early game, the enemies are often feral dogs, which makes the mission hard. Reaction fire saves lives.
    • Bring Down the Tower: a relatively easy mission. The map is wilderness with a three-storied tower somewhere. Find the tower, destroy the door-propping robot (it is merely a statue to scare away superstitious Ubers, not an enemy) and storm the tower. The enemies are usually low-level Academy researchers and students.
    • Temple Raid: this mission is harder than the previous one because of the priest, who packs the Heavy Shotgun and likes to lurk in close quarters. Lot of civilians here, so you might want to stun these. The temple can spawn in urban terrain, rural terrain or wilderness.
    • Experiments: an Academy outpost filled with researchers, which can spawn in rural or wilderness terrain. The most danger here is posed by Academy Drones, which are easily neutralized by Molotov cocktails. After the mission you rescue an experiment victim, who can be researched or put to work (research them one after another, they have a high chance to know a technology crucial for the Tiny Drill branch!).
    • Ratmen Rodeo: a very annoying mission with very annoying enemies. It's always fought in rural terrain with a lot of wooden fences making the map a maze. The enemies are ratlings and guard dogs. The latter are the annoying part until you get good armor.
    • Help the Lokk-Narrs: a simularly rural mission that plays like a Terror Site. You have friendly goblins that have to be rescued and hostile invaders (Ninja Ubers or ratlings) that have to be eliminated. This mission is more pleasant than the Ratmen Rodeo because it brings points of infamy for every saved Lokk-Narr, which affects your end of the month score.
    • Shambler Hunt: an arctic terrain mission against a few hand-to-hand-attacking Wampa expies. You can also meet a rival hunting party as enemies.
    • Bounty Hunting D: Traitors: hunt down some hostile mutants in urban terrain. This is an easy mission, but it sometimes degenerates into "Hunting the last alien" if an enemy spawns on a bridge overhead.
    • Bounty Hunting D: Humanists: a fun and easy Nazi hunt in urban terrain. It's like it's 1945 again!
    • Bounty Hunting D: Priest: very similar to the Temple Raid, also easy win.
    • Bounty Hunting D: Punish the farmer: This is a straightforward mission, but you need to come prepared. There is a red barn on the map; your goal is to destroy as many tiles of it as possible within 5 turns. The more you destroy, the more Goblin Zaxx tokens you get. Fire is too slow; bring explosives. Equipping all your Hands with 5 Black Powder bombs (or better, with Assault Cannons and 5 Explosive or Pyro cannonballs) should be sufficient to wreck most or all of it.
    • Bounty Hunting C: Assassination: the main target packs some heavy firepower, so you can be unpleasantly surprised.
    • Bounty Hunting C: Bandits: you are limited to "stealthy" stuff, which means no heavy weapons and armor and no big-crew ships. Still pretty winnable.
    • Bounty Hunting C: Archeological Dig: the map is an underground maze with narrow nooks and crannies, which provides most of the difficulty. Kill everyone, collect the coins and redeem them for Goblin Zaxx tokens.
    • Aircar Race: this one is a freebie if you have a fast ship such as the Airspeeder. Simply head towards the target with 1 crew and bam, the winner is you. You don't have to fight anyone.
    • Organ Grinder: this is a hard mission! You venture into a polluted lair of ghouls who harvest the organs of kidnapped girls. This is an urban landscape full of explodable pipes and plagued with unending smoke emission (which constantly does stun damage) and acid rain (which slowly eats away the HP and armor of your gals). Smoke Ops gear is a must, so are chemical resistant cloak accessories. The ghouls themselves are pretty bullet resistant, even three point blank Confederate Eagle bullets rarely stop them. The prize is some recruitable castaway gals and half a dozen human victims who can be freed or recruited as workers.