Yaki Pirate Investigation – X4 Player's Handbook

Pirate Investigation

Drop advanced satellites in places, do some sensor scans, end up at a broken ship. There you’ll find several Xenon ships waiting in ambush. Mission command will dispatch several fighters to help, but you don’t need to wait for them. Destroy them and follow prompts to reach a disabled freighter. Scan it.

Now you head into Pioneers space, where you’re encouraged to “ask directions”. Approaching the ships will put you in the middle of a battle against a corvette and several xenon fighters (bring some extra firepower, and you can teleport between ships if you want). Destroy them, listen to the comm you’ll receive.

Pioneer Connection

Follow your new friends to a station in the next sector, dock, and visit the customs office. Have conversations there, and in the bar, with several people. Exhaust the options. Pay for some information.

Eventually, tell the captain he’s under arrest. He’ll send you back to the customs office, and from there you need to undock from the station to follow a ship to a nearby asteroid base. Have a conversation with the customs officer, then find the entrance to the tunnels cut into the asteroid.

Fly into the asteroid with an S-size ship. Bigger ships won’t fit.

Fly through the asteroid. Destroy the group of mines before running into them, then continue on. Pass through the central chamber doors, destroying two laser towers.

Exit your ship (clear all orders so it stays put — it can’t exit the asteroid with you in the system). Spacesuit over to the Yaki vessel, claim it, discover that you have to fly it out through the big green exhaust vent. Exit the asteroid.

Take the ship for examination to either terran command or your headquarters. Your headquarters lets you keep the ship, terran command disassembles it but replaces it with a terran corvette.

Note that once you’ve left the asteroid base (where you left your ship) the physics engine is disabled by you being “out of sector” so you can now order that ship to fly somewhere and it will have no trouble getting free of the asteroid.

Deliver the Rodent

Having delivered the yaki ship to one place or the other, you’ll end up in a ship with a xenon “identity cloak” device installed. When you get close to any xenon, it makes your ship identity turn to Yaki. In effect, it makes you a member of the Yaki faction temporarily.

IMPORTANT: people who don’t like the Yaki may fire on you, and you may be unable to interact with your own ships and factories (giving orders, etc) while you are a “member” of the Yaki!

When you fly far enough away from any Xenon, the cloak drops and you return to being a member of your own faction. You can also cancel the cloak by firing on a Xenon ship.

Net Effect: when you are in this ship, Xenon will never fire at you. You can fly through xenon space and will be completely ignored.

Downside: you can’t assign a pilot to the ship, so it can only do things when you are in the pilot seat yourself. (This will change once you reach a certain stage of the mission.)

Note: you don’t need to continue in the Yaki ship (or the Terran replacement). You can use any ship you like from here on out.

Find the Yaki

Fly off and find the Yaki base. Be prepared to be attacked by a few xenon when you arrive in the last sector (they aren’t fooled by your disguise). Escape or kill them, land at the base, go have some conversations (Kendai and Shinamon).

Tip: if you’re in the ship you acquired, you’ll be able to take your time in the Xenon sectors. It might be advisable to drop some advanced Satellites to monitor the gate entries and exits while you have the chance.

Tip: you can make some (easier) money now by doing Argon/Xenon war missions if you wish, given that you have a ship capable of entering Xenon space safely. (But note that you can’t leave the ship, since you can’t assign a pilot, and the cloak will fail without a pilot on board.)

Fate of the Yaki

Leave the base and fly to the xenon station.

Stop 10 or 20 km away, and wait. Listen to what Shinamon has to say. Wait, and you’ll be contacted by Kendai. Listen to what she has to say. Wait again, and you’ll be contacted by Dal Busta. Listen to his proposal.

Now you’ll have three choices for Fate of the Yaki mission in your mission briefings:

Save them from themselves
Mutually assured destruction
Smoking gun

There are actually two different sets of choices here:

Do you want to destroy the amplifier?
Do you wan to tell the Terrans about the Yaki base?

Whether or not you choose to destroy the amplifier, and regardless of whether or not you make use of the amplifier, you can tell the Terrans whatever you like about the Yaki.

There’s no time limit on any of the steps in missions from here, and you can leave the area(s) entirely and come back later and/or with different ships.

Notes/tips

You’ll not yet be able to assign a pilot to your ship (with the Yaki/Xenon “cover” device). You’ll need to pursue one of the three paths one stage farther before that unlocks.

You’ll start to lose your Yaki/Xenon “cover” device here. It will stop working, so don’t count on it fro here on out to save you trying to fly back to the Yaki base.

The gate from Savage Spur I to II is one-way. You can’t get back to the Yaki base without going the long way around again via Hatikvah’s Choice (and passing through the Xenon sectors).

If you elect to leave the Yaki intact, getting back to their base without your Yaki/Xenon “cover” device can be tough — you’ll reach the base fine, but any angry xenon you pull with you may trigger a cascading firefight between the Yaki station and the Xenon wharf and shipyard that always spawn next door. Save before approaching in case things snowball and you’re not prepared to help.

Destroy the amplifier

Prevents sending the Xenon to attack terran space, but won’t ruin your reputation with the Yaki. You can still tell the terrans the Yaki are “no threat” and the yaki will let you buy blueprints, etc.

Choose the “Save them from themselves” mission. You’ll be attacked, so be prepared for a fight.

If you now complete Smoking Gun by telling the terrans the Yaki are no threat, you can return to the Yaki and they’ll turn friendly and you will be able to buy Yaki ships and blueprints.

Leave the amplifier

Allows you to pick a one-time “sic the Xenon on the Terrans” option, which you can use at any time by talking to the Yaki leader again.

Choose the “Mutually assured destruction” mission, and place the beacons. They’ll remain in place for you to start the Xenon invasion at any time you choose (which could be “never”).

Note that you may find the “Xenon invasion” disappointing, especially if the Terrans are strong (as they usually are). The Xenon are already attacking the Terrans, and a one-time redirection of available Xenon ships may not actually accomplish much. Better than nothing, though, if you’re anti-Terran.

Once the beacons are placed, return to the Yaki for a promotion, after which you’ll be friends with them and able to buy ships and blueprints.

Tell the terrans

Reveal the Yaki base location, and cause the terrans to start sending fleets to attack it.

Choose the “Smoking gun” mission, and then the appropriate dialog option.

The Terrans will assemble a fleet and send it the long way around (via Hatikvah) to attack the Yaki base. They’ll keep doing this until they eventually succeed. You’ll be given a countdown each time, so you can send your own ships to help with the invasion if you’d like.

If the Terrans are strong, this can actually be a good way to weaken them by having them throw resources at the wall of Xenon between Hatkivah and the Yaki.

Lie to the Terrans

Tell the Terrans that the Yaki are not organized. The Terrans will never know about the Yaki base and won’t send any fleets to attack it.

Choose the “Smoking gun” mission, and then the appropriate dialog option with the Terran secret service. You’ll get the Syn destroyer Delilah’s Swan Song after the conversation.

You’ll also be able to return to the Yaki base and buy ships and blueprints from them.

The Yaki base remains intact, though it’s not uncommon for them to get into small skirmishes with Xenon ships. This can trigger an all-out “friendly fire” snowball that the Yaki generally can’t survive long-term. They have only the one station, and with no assets in other sectors the usual “it’ll die down once all forces in the sector kill each other” outcome means the complete elimination of the Yaki.

You may, therefore, want to send some help and work on destroying the Wharf/Shipyard in Savage Spur I to give the Yaki base some breathing room.