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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.

2. Exit the game and use Windows Explorer to navigate to the following folder:

C:\Users\your username\Documents\Egosoft\X Rebirth\random number\save

. 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

5. Scroll up a few steps and look for the word “wrecked”

6. Change “wrecked” to “collapsed”

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:

After repair:

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”:

Enjoy your new freighter!

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.

In order to take over another ship, four items are required:
– Missiles to take out sub-systems, like engines and jump drive
– Marines to board the ship with
– Marine officer to lead the boarding party
– Captain to run the ship after the takeover

Missiles:
For missiles, enter a station listing an “Arms dealer”. Find him / her in the station and purchase the missile types desired. Personally I have a preference for Sunstalker missiles since they are guided and very easy to use for precision destruction of ship subsystems. The more the merrier. A fair few (15 or so) will be required to take over a typical Rahanas freighter.

Marines:
Enter a station listing a “Recruitment officer”. Find him / her and select “hire marines”. I recommend at least 20 “Recruit marines” to be successful in boarding. Some may be lost depending on how well armed the target ship is.

Marine officer:
Find a marine officer in a station by looking for the gun (or gasoline pump handle?) icon. It’s also possible to ask any NPC to provide guidance. In that case an icon will light up, helping to locate the type of staff being looked for. Select the marine officer and choose to hire him / her. Viewing the skills only lists question marks and is completely and utterly useless. So far I haven’t come across a marine officer who haven’t been able to get the job done however, so it shouldn’t be a big deal.

Captain:
Finding a captain is the same as the above. Find him / her in a station by looking for the star and stripes icon and select to hire. Between 45k~75k seems to be a normal hiring fee. The below captain is a bit on the expensive side, but we’ll take him anyway.

Congratulations! You’re now ready to go ship hunting.

When starting in free play mode, the first area is in the region “Far Out”. To get cash fast the easiest way is to travel to “Big Empty” and scan for drifting containers. The contents can be sold in stations later. Sometimes cash is also found directly in the containers, making this a very efficient way to get some starting capital.

When starting a new game, the below screen is the first to be displayed. Enter the express way straight ahead. Travel until the end and ignore any stations between. The last station is “Big Empty” and is an area particularly full of drifting containers.

Arriving, it’s possible to bring up a map showing the local area by pushing “.”:

Switch to long-range scanning mode by:
1. Push [Enter]
2. Select [1]
3. Select [5]

You are now in long-range scanning mode. Press and hold [r] until the sound reaches it’s peak. Then release and the scanning pulse will be released. Press for too short or too long time and it will fail. Items will be highlighted on the screen. Aim the ship towards any of the items and travel to them. Repeat the scan pulse a few times to ensure the ship is on track.

When the item has been reached, use the primary weapon (pulsed maser: left mouse button) to break the container:

Once open, the items inside will be available. Simply run the ship into them and they will be picked up automatically:

Some containers contain nothing, but almost all contain something. Keep doing this until bored. Even a short run of 30 min or so will result in great increases in the bank account.

Selling the items found:
Navigate to a station. Aim for cocktail glass-icons or icons with “R”. When close enough, select the icon to see who are inside. Double-click to get the docking menu option:

Once in the station, walk up to any NPC (non-player character) with a briefcase above their head. Select the NPC and see what he / she is offering. Prices for purchase and sales are displayed for each item. Select the icon on the far left to view the default / regular pricing for that item and compare with the price offered. This way it’s possible to separate good deals from bad ones: