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Space Engineers has no pirate-spawn command or menu. The reliable, documented method is to build or paste a powered pirate-style outpost in Creative mode, give its radio antenna a recognized pirate trigger name, set the antenna’s range away from your own base, transfer the outpost to the SPRT faction, and then return to Survival. When a player enters the outpost’s detection area, its drones attack.
What “spawning pirates” means in Space Engineers
Pirates are not selected from a spawn screen. The documented on-demand setup is a hostile outpost whose radio antenna acts as the call signal. The outpost must be powered, contain defensive turrets and a radio antenna, and belong to the SPRT faction. Once the antenna uses a recognized pirate name, the game can use that grid as a drone-sending pirate base.
This is different from simply placing a pirate ship or drone beside your station. A manually pasted grid remains a player-built grid until you transfer ownership, and a normal antenna name does not call pirate drones. The antenna name, faction ownership, drone setting and antenna coverage all matter together.
The official Space Engineers wiki describes this Creative-built outpost method. The exact trigger list can change with game updates, so treat the name in the example below as a current example rather than a permanent complete list.
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What you need before building the outpost
| Requirement | What to set or use | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| World setting | Enable Drones: On | The outpost’s defense system needs drone spawning enabled. |
| Build mode | Creative mode while preparing the grid | Creative mode lets you paste or build the complete outpost before converting the world back to Survival. |
| Grid | A powered base with defensive turrets | The base is the pirate outpost that defends itself when approached. |
| Antenna | A radio antenna, not a laser antenna | The pirate trigger is tied to a radio antenna name. |
| Antenna name | A name from the game’s pirate trigger list | The name tells the game that this antenna should call pirate attacks. |
| Faction | SPRT | Ownership identifies the outpost as pirate-controlled. |
| Placement | Antenna range that does not overlap your own base | Overlapping your base can make the outpost attack continuously. |
Have a save point before changing ownership or leaving Creative mode. That gives you a clean recovery point if the antenna name is rejected, the grid is not powered, or the outpost attacks earlier than intended.
Step-by-step: create a pirate outpost
1. Enable drones in World Settings
- Open the world’s settings before entering the build session.
- Find the drone option and turn on Enable Drones.
- Apply the setting and load the world in Creative mode.
If drones are disabled, a correctly named antenna and an SPRT-owned grid still will not produce the intended defense behavior. Make this the first check when an otherwise correct outpost remains quiet.
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Switch to Creative and paste a complete base, or build one yourself. It needs power, defensive turrets and the antenna described in the next step. The method is not based on a decorative beacon or an unpowered shell: the outpost must be able to operate as a functioning grid.
Use a layout that you can approach safely during testing. Keep your own station outside the future antenna coverage, and leave enough separation to observe whether drones are coming from the outpost rather than from another encounter or grid.
3. Add the correct antenna
Place a radio antenna on the outpost. A laser antenna is a different block and is not the pirate trigger used by this method. Ensure the radio antenna is connected to the powered grid and can remain energized after you transfer ownership.
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4. Rename the antenna with a pirate trigger
Open the antenna’s name field and replace its ordinary name with one of the recognized pirate trigger names. The wiki gives NO TRESSPASSERS as an example; the spelling is shown exactly that way in the source, including the missing second “e” in “tresspassers.” Do not silently “correct” the spelling if you are testing that exact example.
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ContentDataPirateAntennas.sbcLook in the installation’s ContentData folder and use a name listed in that file. This is the safest way to catch a changed or additional trigger after an update. A name copied from an old guide can stop working if the game’s data has changed.
5. Set the antenna range away from your own base
Adjust the radio antenna’s range so its coverage does not overlap your own base. The documented warning is important: if your station is inside the trigger antenna’s coverage, you can face constant attacks rather than attacks that begin only when you deliberately approach the outpost.
Keep the outpost and its antenna coverage in a separate area of space. During testing, use a location where you can see the outpost’s beacon and approach from outside its coverage. If your own base is already inside the selected range, move the outpost, reduce the range where practical, or relocate your station before testing.
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6. Transfer the entire outpost to SPRT
Use the grid’s ownership controls to transfer the base and its functional blocks to the SPRT faction. Check the antenna, power blocks and turrets after the transfer; a block that remains owned by you can change how the grid behaves or leave the antenna unable to operate as intended.
Save the world after the ownership change. The transfer is the step that turns a Creative-built player installation into a pirate-controlled outpost for this setup; simply naming an antenna on a player-owned base is not enough.
7. Return to Survival and test the approach
Leave Creative mode and resume the world in Survival. Approach the outpost from outside its antenna coverage and watch for its warning beacon and drone activity. Bring enough equipment to retreat, because the outpost is intended to defend itself rather than provide a harmless visual effect.
How the pirate attack is triggered
A documented example is the Raiding Outpost mk.1. When a player approaches within 20 km, a beacon named BEWARE OF TRESPASSING identifies the threat. Entering the outpost’s sensor range causes it to begin spawning attack drones.
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The 20 km figure is the approach distance described for that example; it is not a universal promise that every custom outpost will display the same distance or timing. The beacon and the sensor are separate parts of the encounter: seeing the warning does not necessarily mean drones have already spawned, while entering the sensor area starts the attack behavior for that outpost.
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Drone spawning is tied to the antenna that called the drones. According to the documented behavior, spawning stops when that antenna is destroyed or de-energized. This gives you a defensive interruption: disable or destroy the calling antenna if you can reach it, or break the outpost’s power connection so the antenna is no longer energized.
Why each setup step matters
Enable Drones
This world setting controls whether drone behavior is available at all. It is the first dependency, so changing names, ownership or range cannot compensate for a disabled setting.
Use a radio antenna and an accepted name
The antenna is the signal that identifies the grid as a pirate caller. A random name, a beacon-only setup or a laser antenna does not satisfy the documented trigger. If the outpost is visible but never sends drones, verify the block type and exact spelling before rebuilding the base.
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Transfer ownership to SPRT
The faction transfer makes the grid pirate-controlled. A player-owned base with turrets may be hostile to other players through ordinary game mechanics, but it is not the documented SPRT pirate-outpost setup.
Keep your station outside the range
The range warning is not merely about radio visibility. The documented setup says that overlapping your own base can result in constant attacks. Plan the antenna’s coverage as a boundary around the outpost, not as a signal you automatically maximize.
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Testing checklist
- World: Enable Drones is on in the world settings.
- Mode: The outpost was prepared in Creative, then the world was saved before returning to Survival.
- Grid: The base is powered and has defensive turrets.
- Antenna: It is a radio antenna, connected to the outpost’s power system.
- Name: The antenna name exactly matches a current entry in
ContentDataPirateAntennas.sbc, including capitalization and spelling. - Faction: The outpost and its important functional blocks belong to SPRT.
- Distance: Your own base is outside the antenna’s range.
- Approach: You tested from outside the coverage area and then entered the outpost’s sensor range.
Troubleshooting a silent or overly aggressive outpost
| Symptom | Checks to make | Likely correction |
|---|---|---|
| No drones appear | World setting, antenna type, exact name, power and faction ownership | Enable Drones, use a radio antenna, copy a current trigger from PirateAntennas.sbc, restore power and verify SPRT ownership. |
| The antenna is visible but does not trigger an attack | Whether the name is a recognized trigger and whether you have entered the outpost’s sensor area | Rename it with a current trigger and approach far enough to cross the sensor range; the warning beacon distance is not itself the spawning event. |
| Attacks start immediately or never stop | Whether your own base lies inside the trigger antenna’s range | Separate the bases or adjust the antenna range so the coverage does not overlap your station. |
| Drones stop during an assault | Power and condition of the calling antenna | Check whether the antenna was destroyed or de-energized; either condition stops spawning from that caller. |
| The setup worked before an update | Current trigger names and game-version behavior | Recheck the installed ContentDataPirateAntennas.sbc file and the live wiki. The documented steps have no patch number attached, so behavior can change between updates. |
Can random encounters spawn pirate bases?
This is not settled by the available documentation. A Steam guide claims that particular world settings produce pirate bases, but comments on that guide disagree about which settings are required. One player reports that SPRT bases appear whenever Random Encounters is enabled.
The wiki information shown for this method says that there are no pirate bases in the PC “Star System” scenario. Those statements may refer to different scenarios, versions or encounter systems, and the conflicting reports do not establish a dependable random-spawn recipe. If you need a pirate attack on demand, use the Creative outpost method instead of relying on Random Encounters.
Does switching off your own antenna stop attacks?
There is no confirmed general answer. A player report says attacks continued to find the player after the player’s antenna and beacons were turned off, but that is anecdotal rather than an official rule. The documented control is the pirate outpost’s calling antenna: destroying or de-energizing that antenna stops its drone spawning.
For that reason, do not assume that disabling your personal antenna is an emergency stop. Treat it as an unverified experiment in your own save, and use the outpost antenna’s power or integrity as the reliable test.
Keeping the setup current
The available instructions do not identify a specific game patch or publication date. Space Engineers updates can alter scenario behavior, faction logic or data files. Before investing time in a large outpost, check the live wiki page and inspect the PirateAntennas.sbc file installed with your current build.
Record the trigger name you used and keep a backup save. If an update removes or renames that entry, you can replace the antenna name without rebuilding the entire base. If a future version changes the outpost rules, the same checks—drones enabled, powered radio antenna, accepted trigger, SPRT ownership and non-overlapping range—remain the logical places to begin diagnosis, but the live game data takes precedence over an older guide.
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- In World Settings, turn on Enable Drones.
- Enter Creative mode.
- Paste or build a powered base with defensive turrets and a radio antenna.
- Rename the antenna with a current trigger from
ContentDataPirateAntennas.sbc;NO TRESSPASSERSis the documented example. - Set its range so it does not cover your own base.
- Transfer the outpost to the SPRT faction and save.
- Return to Survival and approach the outpost. At the example Raiding Outpost mk.1, the
BEWARE OF TRESPASSINGbeacon appears within 20 km, and drones begin spawning when the sensor range is entered. - If you need to stop that caller, destroy or de-energize its antenna.
This procedure creates a controllable pirate encounter without depending on uncertain random-encounter behavior. Keep the trigger list and live wiki close at hand, because the game’s installed data—not an old name copied from a video—is the authoritative check for your version.
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