SPRT faction pirate base
SPRT faction pirate drone Fleeting Rival approaching a player base
The SPRT Space Pirates were the first faction introduced to the game, depending on how you look at it.
SPRT Space Pirates[]
The Space Pirates are a hostile NPC Faction of pirates that harass the Engineer relentlessly. Their aim and purpose is unknown, but what is known is that they desire the destruction of anything the Engineer produces. The SPRT Founder is simply credited as "Space Pirates". SPRT's color scheme seems to vary between bright red, obsidian black, dark grey, and light grey.
The pirate's faction tag is SPRT, but their victims often misread and report it as SPAT, either due to panic or due to the suboptimal HUD font.
Default Pirate Encounters[]
Among the Custom Games, only the named planet starts (Earth Planet, Mars Planet, Moon Base) come with pirate bases on planets and in space.
Occasionally, the Engineer discovers a pirate base, which defends itself with drones from a distance when the player enters a certain range. Drones are their favorite method of attack against the Space Engineer. The drones have names such as Fleeting Rival, Drifting Pursuant, Stinging Adversary, or Spiteful Aggressor.
SPRT faction pirate drone Stinging Adversary attacking
Most of the pirate vessels seem to be en-route to a destination set past the boundaries of the map.
If Economy is enabled, it is possible to encounter a rare pirate-owned trade station, you recognise it by its safe zone. They sell the same components as traders. Even if your reputation with the pirates is hostile (red HUD signal), the trade station is not armed, so you can approach and enter unchallenged, but since trade stations do not do business with hostiles, it is possible that you cannot trade there. If you have attacked other faction's cargo ships, your repuation with other factions decreases and your reputation with SPRT improves. As soon as you lose your ability to do business with other trade stations, the pirate trade stations will start doing business with you.
An unarmed SPRT trade station.
Which Maps Contain Pirates?[]
Note: There are no pirate bases in the "Star System" on PC (on Xbox, this Custom Game corresponds to “Home System”/“Alien System”/“Distant Moons”). The “SPRT Mayday” signals encountered there are owned by the same pirate faction, but are part of the Random Encounters.
How to trigger Pirate Encounters on any map?[]
You can add pirate enemies to spice up an existing Survival game that did not have them from the start!
- Switch the game to Creative Mode and load it.
- Add (powered and armed) bases to your Blueprints menu — either self-made or from the Workshop.
- Paste the base blueprints into the world.
- Set the name of the antennas to one of the names listed below, e.g. “NO TRESSPASSERS”.
- Set the antenna range to not directly overlap with your base unless you want constant attacks.
- Transfer the ownership of the whole base to the SPRT faction — and run away quickly. ;-)
- Close the game and switch it back to Survival Mode.
The following list of pirate-spawning antenna names was collected by Spaceman Spiff:
| Antenna Name | Valid Locations | Spawn Range | First | Interval | Drones |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "NO TRESPASSERS" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 80 m | 30 seconds | 5 minutes | Escort Drone, V2-Gunboat, Assailant_mk.1 |
| "TARGET LOCATED" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 3,000 m | 10 seconds | 1 minute | V2-Gunboat |
| "Hostiles detected - Requesting Backup" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 3,000 m | 30 seconds | 5 minutes | V2-Gunboat |
| "EMERGENCY - REQUESTING ASSISTANCE" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 80 m | 30 seconds | 5 minutes | Assailant_mk.1 |
| "BEWARE OF TRESPASSING" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 80 m | 30 seconds | 5 minutes | Assailant_mk.1 |
| "Raid in Progress" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 80 m | 4 minutes | 9⅔ minutes | Salvage Drone, Raider Drone |
| "Heavy Drone Manufacturing Started" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 80 m | 20 seconds | 4 minutes | Raider Drone |
| "MiningOperationSite" | ATMOSPHERE ONLY | 80 m | 1 minute | 5 minutes | Fleeting Rival, Stinging Adversary |
| "RemoteDroneAssembly" | ATMOSPHERE ONLY | 80 m | 1 minute | 5 minutes | Fleeting Rival, Stinging Adversary, Spiteful Aggressor |
| "Headquarters" | ATMOSPHERE ONLY | 80 m | 30 seconds | 5 minutes | Drifting Pursuant, Stinging Adversary, Spiteful Aggressor |
| "MoonMiningOperationSite" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 80 m | 1 minute | 8⅓ minutes | Spur, Tusk |
| "Hostile Signal" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 3,000 m | 1 second | 30 seconds | Salvage Drone, V2-Gunboat, Red Drone |
| "Homing Beacon" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 1,200 m | 1 second | 20 seconds | Red Drone MK1, Escord Drone, Blue Drone MK1, Blue Drone MK2, ProtectoBot |
| "HIGH ALERT" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 1,000 m | 1 second | 30 seconds | Snub Fighter |
| "Hiding Pirate station" | SPACE ONLY | 300 m | 1 second | 10 minutes | Light Patrol Drone |
| "Mine Beacon" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 300 m | 1 second | 10 seconds | Seeker Mine |
| "Pirate Raider" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 1,000 m | 1 second | 10 minutes | Raider Drone |
| "Salvage Station" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 500 m | 1 second | 10 minutes | Salvage Drone, Escord Drone |
| "Vulture Drone Antenna" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 500 m | 1 second | 1 minute | Vulture Drone |
| "Stash Beacon" | SPACE ONLY | 1,000 m | 1 second | 6 minutes | Stash-Satellite |
| "Drone Facility" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 1,000 m | 1 second | 10 minutes | Red Drone MK1, Escord Drone, Blue Drone MK1, Blue Drone MK2, Homing Beacon |
| "Mining Outpost" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 1,000 m | 1 second | 10 minutes | Hostile Miner, ProtectoBot |
| "Scanning Antenna" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 3,000 m | 30 seconds | 5 minutes | V2-Gunboat |
| "Detection Range" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 3,000 m | 30 seconds | 5 minutes | Assailant_mk.1 |
| "Argentavis Scanning" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 80 m | 4 minutes | 9⅔ minutes | Salvage Drone, Raider Drone |
| "Close Proximity" | SPACE & EARTH MOON | 80 m | 20 seconds | 4 minutes | Raider Drone |