X Rebirth: Free play guide – Getting started as a pirate – 5: Reparing a ship by editing a save file

Disclaimer: This guide shows how to directly edit the XML save files for X Rebirth. Mistakes during editing can easily render the save file useless. BACK UP ANY SAVE FILES BEFORE EDITING. I take no responsibility for damage done to the save files, your computer or your general health if the below guide doesn’t work. The guide works for me at the time of writing though and should work fine for anyone looking to fix their broken ships as long as care is taken when changing the save file.

Guide:
After a hostile takeover the ship will be in pretty poor condition with both engines and jump drive blown to pieces. So far I haven’t been able to fix a ship to the point where it’s able to move about and be of use through the game itself. Others seem to have the same problem. Maybe there is a way to do it. Please do let me know if you know. In the meantime this workaround is useful.

To repair a boarded ship via a save file, follow the below steps:
1. Save the game and make note of the number of the save. Also make note of the captains name.
Viewing the captains name can be done by: [Enter] -> [2 Property owned] -> Select “DE” for the ship to view details for.
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2. Exit the game and use Windows Explorer to navigate to the following folder:

. Substitute “your username” with the user account currently logged on to the computer and the “random number” with the number shown for your particular installation. It appears to be random, but since it’s only one folder it will be easy to find.

3. Find the save file and open it with a text editor. Personally I highly recommend “Notepad++” since the save file is XML and Notepad++ supports syntax highlights. This makes it easier to edit the file

4. Search for the captains name in the save file
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5. Scroll up a few steps and look for the word “wrecked”
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6. Change “wrecked” to “collapsed”
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7. Scroll down, past the captain until the “jumpdrive” is listed

8. Change “wrecked” to “collapsed”

9. Scroll down further and look for “engine”. There will be multiple entries (two entries for each engine on a Rahanas).

10. Change “wrecked” to “collapsed”

11. Save the file

12. Start X Rebirth and load the saved game. The ship will now be repaired.

Before repair:
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After repair:
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Add to squad:
Finally, to enable trading with the new ship it needs to be added to the players squad. To do this, double-click the ship and select “Add to squad”:
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Enjoy your new freighter!

X Rebirth: Free play guide – Getting started as a pirate – 4: Taking over another ship

Once the prerequisites (missiles, marines, marine officer and a captain) are taken care of, we can go hunt for a suitable ship. For bulk and container cargo, the Rahanas freighters are a good catch. They are also usually easy to take over thanks to the low number of guns on them. The Rahanas are easy to find due to their distinctive look (below). Once a suitable ship has been located, double-click it and select “Board”. The option will be greyed-out unless all prerequisites have been met.
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Yisha, the co-pilot, will provide guidance through the boarding. She will start by suggesting to make the target immobile by taking out the jump drive and engines. Note: Once those two are taken care of, the boarding party will launch automatically. Ensure you are close to the target and away from any turrets at the target at that time. Otherwise the boarding party risk getting wiped out before reaching their destination. Select each sub-system with the mouse and press [r] to launch missiles. The missile type can be changed by pushing [m]. Sunstalkers are recommended for sub-system attacks.
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Follow Yisha’s guidance to take out each subsystem. After a while the boarding party will notify of their success. If Yisha’s guidance is followed, this is usually quick. Once the boarding is successful the target ship will change from red to green and “Ren Otani” will be listed as the owner.
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Assigning a captain:
In order to make the ship useful it needs a captain. Assign one by:
1. Docking with the ship
2. Go aboard and press: [Enter] -> [5 Crew] -> [2 Call remotely]
3. Select a captain from the list
4. Select [4 Work here]

Captain moving in:
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Returning the Marine officer:
From the time of boarding until the assignment of a new captain, the marine officer has been in charge. We want to re-use the marine officer in future boardings and therefore need to recall him / her. This is done by docking with the ship, locating the marine officer and asking him / her to return to the Albion Skunk (the player ship):
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Now the ship is yours and under the command of a captain. Unfortunately it still isn’t in a working condition due to the damage done during the boarding. To make it useful the engines will need to be repaired. This is explained in the next post.