The Tool Desk
Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Space Engineers has no pirate-spawn command or menu. The reliable, documented way to create pirate attacks on demand is to build or paste a pirate-style outpost, give it a powered radio antenna with a recognized pirate trigger name, transfer the outpost to the SPRT faction, and then return to Survival. Enable drones first, and keep the antenna’s broadcast range away from your own base so you do not call attacks onto yourself.
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What “spawning pirates” means in Space Engineers
Pirates are not selected from a spawn screen. The documented setup creates an enemy outpost that can call attack drones. You supply the base, turrets, antenna and faction ownership; the game then treats the antenna as a pirate signal and generates attacks when the conditions are met.
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This is different from placing a pirate character or instantly dropping a fleet beside your ship. The result is a defendable enemy installation and drone attacks tied to that installation. The procedure is therefore useful when you want a repeatable combat scenario, a test range or a custom raid location.
The method below follows the official Space Engineers wiki’s documented pirate-outpost process. Names and behavior can change with game updates, so check the current wiki and the game’s own PirateAntennas.sbc file if a trigger does not work.
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Requirements before you build the outpost
- Enable Drones: In World Settings, make sure Enable Drones is active. If drones are disabled, the outpost cannot perform the attack behavior this method relies on.
- Creative access: The documented construction workflow uses Creative mode so you can paste or assemble the base quickly.
- A powered base: The outpost needs a functioning power source, defensive turrets and a radio antenna.
- A radio antenna: Use the radio type, not a laser antenna. The pirate trigger is attached to the radio antenna’s name.
- SPRT ownership: The completed base must belong to the SPRT pirate faction before you return to Survival.
- Separation from your settlement: Plan the antenna’s range so its coverage does not overlap your own base or its operating area.
These are functional requirements, not optional difficulty settings. A decorative station with no power, the wrong antenna type or the wrong owner may look like a pirate base but will not follow the documented trigger path.
Step-by-step: create a pirate outpost that attacks you
1. Turn on drone behavior in World Settings
- Open the world’s settings before starting the encounter.
- Find Enable Drones and set it to active.
- Save the setting and load the world in Creative mode.
The setting matters because the pirate outpost defends itself with drones. If you change it after building the station, save and reload if necessary so the world uses the new rule consistently.
2. Paste or build a powered defensive base
In Creative, place a base that has working power, defensive turrets and room for a radio antenna. You can paste a prepared base or construct one yourself. The important point is that it must be an operational grid, not an unpowered shell.
Confirm that the turrets and antenna belong to the same base grid and that the station has enough power to keep the antenna energized. The documented behavior depends on the antenna being able to call drones; a powered grid also lets the turrets defend the outpost when you approach.
3. Add the correct antenna and assign a trigger name
Place a radio antenna on the outpost. Do not substitute a laser antenna. Open the antenna’s name field and enter one of the pirate trigger names recognized by the game.
The wiki gives NO TRESSPASSERS as an example, with that spelling. Treat it as a literal example rather than silently correcting it. The documented list is incomplete, so a name that works in one version may not be the complete list for your installation.
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For the current names, inspect the game’s ContentDataPirateAntennas.sbc file. Search that file for the entries used by the pirate-antenna system and copy a name exactly, including spelling and spacing. If you update the game, check the file again because trigger names can change without matching older guides.
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4. Set a safe antenna range
Reduce or configure the antenna’s range so its broadcast area does not overlap your own base. The official procedure specifically warns that an overlapping range can lead to constant attacks against your settlement.
Place the outpost far enough away that the two antenna areas remain separate, then test the range in Creative before committing the scenario to Survival. Do not assume that turning your own antenna off later is a guaranteed escape; player reports disagree about that behavior, as explained below.
5. Transfer the outpost to SPRT
Use the grid’s ownership controls to transfer the base to the SPRT faction. Include the antenna, power system and defensive equipment in the transfer. Save the world after ownership changes so the faction assignment is preserved.
Ownership is what turns your constructed station into the pirate side of the encounter. Leaving the base owned by your player faction can produce a hostile-looking station without the documented SPRT pirate behavior.
6. Return to Survival and approach the outpost
Save in Creative, switch the world back to Survival and travel toward the SPRT station. Keep the station’s antenna active and powered while testing. The game should treat the named antenna as a pirate signal and the outpost as an enemy installation.
Approach carefully. The exact response depends on the particular outpost design and trigger entry. A functioning setup may begin with a warning beacon and then call drones when you enter the relevant detection area.
How the pirate attack is triggered
The 20-kilometre example
The wiki’s Raiding Outpost mk.1 example illustrates the sequence. When you come within 20 km, a beacon named BEWARE OF TRESPASSING acts as the warning trigger. The example then begins spawning attack drones when you enter the outpost’s sensor range.
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The 20 km figure belongs to that documented outpost example; it should not be read as a universal distance for every custom station. Your own antenna range, beacon placement, sensor setup and base design determine how the encounter feels in practice.
What the antenna does
The named radio antenna is the call signal. It identifies the outpost as a pirate installation capable of requesting attacks. The antenna is not merely a navigation beacon, and the trigger name is not cosmetic text: the game checks the name against its pirate-antenna entries.
Keep the antenna powered while you are testing. If the signal is unavailable, the outpost may not be able to call new drones even if the station and turrets remain intact.
How spawning stops
For the documented behavior, drone spawning stops when the antenna that called the drones is destroyed or de-energized. This gives you a clear way to end the assault: disable the calling antenna rather than trying to dismantle the entire station first.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsDestroying or depowering the antenna does not necessarily mean every drone already in flight disappears immediately. It stops the antenna’s spawning function; existing attackers may still need to be avoided or defeated.
Recommended test sequence
A short controlled test helps separate a setup error from normal encounter behavior. Use a copy of the world so you can repeat the test without losing your build.
- Verify Enable Drones in World Settings.
- Confirm the base has power and that the antenna is a radio antenna.
- Check the antenna name against an entry in
ContentDataPirateAntennas.sbc. - Confirm the complete grid is owned by SPRT.
- Measure the distance between the pirate antenna area and your own base; remove overlap.
- Save, switch to Survival and approach the outpost gradually.
- Watch for the warning beacon and the change from no attack to drone activity.
- If drones begin spawning, destroy or depower the calling antenna to verify that new spawning stops.
Testing in this order changes one cause at a time. It also prevents a common mistake: assuming that a silent outpost is broken when the real problem is a disabled drone setting, an unpowered antenna or an ownership transfer that did not include the antenna grid.
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Troubleshooting a pirate outpost that does not attack
No drones appear at all
- Recheck Enable Drones in World Settings.
- Confirm you used a radio antenna rather than a laser antenna.
- Check that the antenna is powered and belongs to the same powered grid as the outpost.
- Compare the antenna name character-for-character with a current entry in
PirateAntennas.sbc. - Verify that the base is owned by SPRT, not by your character or another faction.
- Approach the station far enough to enter its configured detection area; the 20 km warning distance in the Raiding Outpost mk.1 example is not a guarantee for every custom design.
Attacks never stop
Locate the antenna that called the drones and destroy it or remove its power. The documented rule is that spawning stops when that antenna is destroyed or de-energized. If new drones continue to appear, check whether the base contains another active pirate-trigger antenna; a second caller can continue the encounter.
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Your own base is attacked constantly
The most likely design error is overlapping antenna range. Move the outpost, reduce its antenna range or relocate your own base so the pirate signal does not cover your settlement. Build the station in Creative first and verify the separation before switching to Survival.
The warning beacon appears but no attack follows
A beacon confirms that you reached part of the encounter setup, but the drone stage is tied to the outpost’s sensor range and drone setting. Move into the sensor area carefully, check that the station is powered and confirm that the named antenna remains active. Do not assume the beacon’s 20 km appearance distance is also the drone-spawn distance.
An old trigger name no longer works
Do not rely on a copied list from an older guide. The wiki’s example list is explicitly incomplete. Open the current ContentDataPirateAntennas.sbc file installed with your game and use one of its current names exactly.
Can random encounters spawn pirate bases?
There is no settled answer for the general random-encounter question. 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, while the wiki information shown for PC says there are no pirate bases in the Star System scenario.
Because those reports conflict, random encounters should not be treated as a dependable replacement for the custom-outpost method. If you need pirates on demand, build the SPRT outpost and trigger it with the named radio antenna. If you experiment with Random Encounters, record the scenario, platform and world settings because results may differ by mode or game version.
Does turning off your own antenna stop pirate attacks?
This behavior is also unresolved. A player report says attacks continued to find the player after the player turned off an antenna and beacons, but that report is anecdotal and is not an official rule. It does not establish that every world behaves that way, nor does it prove that disabling your antenna is always ineffective.
Use the documented control instead: disable or destroy the pirate antenna that called the drones. Keep antenna-off behavior as an experiment, not as your emergency stop procedure.
Version and platform cautions
The documented steps are not tied to a published patch number or date. Space Engineers updates can change trigger names, faction behavior, world settings or encounter logic. Before applying an older tutorial, check the live official wiki and the copy of PirateAntennas.sbc installed with your current game.
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Design choices for a fair pirate scenario
Use a separate test world first
Build and name the station in a copy of your save. This lets you verify ownership, antenna power, range and drone spawning without risking a campaign base. Once the sequence works, recreate or paste the tested outpost into the world where you want the encounter.
Separate warning and combat space
Use the warning beacon as an approach cue and leave enough room between it and the outpost for the attack to develop. The Raiding Outpost mk.1 example shows why: the beacon can warn you at one distance while sensors begin spawning drones closer to the station.
Keep an emergency shutdown route
Make the calling antenna reachable from a service corridor or design the base so you can cut its power. Since depowering or destroying that antenna stops new spawning, this gives you a controllable end to the encounter if the attack becomes too heavy.
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After transferring ownership to SPRT, recheck the antenna name and power state. Clear labels in your build make it easier to identify the calling block during a fight, especially if the station contains decorative antennas or multiple grids.
Quick reference
| Item | Required or documented behavior |
|---|---|
| World setting | Enable Drones must be active. |
| Build mode | Use Creative to paste or build the outpost, then return to Survival. |
| Base equipment | Powered base with defensive turrets and a radio antenna. |
| Trigger | Name the radio antenna with a recognized pirate trigger; the wiki example is NO TRESSPASSERS. |
| Current trigger list | Check ContentDataPirateAntennas.sbc; the published list is incomplete. |
| Faction | Transfer the completed base to SPRT. |
| Range warning | Keep the pirate antenna’s range from overlapping your own base. |
| Example encounter | Raiding Outpost mk.1 warns within 20 km with a BEWARE OF TRESPASSING beacon, then spawns drones in sensor range. |
| Stop condition | Destroy or de-energize the antenna that called the drones. |
| Random encounters | Reports conflict; not a dependable on-demand method. |
| Your antenna off | Behavior is player-reported and unresolved; do not rely on it as the shutdown method. |
Bottom line
To spawn pirates reliably, do not look for a spawn command. Enable Drones, build or paste a powered defensive outpost in Creative, give its radio antenna a current pirate trigger name, keep its range away from your base, transfer the grid to SPRT, save and return to Survival. Approach the station to enter its warning and sensor areas. If you need to stop new attacks, destroy or depower the calling antenna.
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