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.
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.
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.
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:
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):
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.