Piracy

Attacking another commander turns you into a pirate in every universe the game runs — draw first blood and the power that would have protected your victim turns against you while their rival welcomes you as one of its own, and make a habit of it and the police stop waiting for a reason, human stations shut their doors, and the raiders start treating you like family.

The frontier does not ask why you fired first. It only asks how often.

First Blood Takes Sides

Landing the first shot on another commander is an offence against whichever power would have answered their call — the Nexus Protectorate for a victim in its good graces, the Crimson Corsairs for one who holds their truce. It costs the aggressor exactly what destroying one of that power's own ships would, charged down the same reputation ladder everywhere the game runs — only faster in PvP, where the slide runs three times as quick and the police lose patience a full tier sooner. Riposting is never held against you: the commander who opened fire is the one who pays. And nothing you do to your own characters counts for anything — a shared account is never charged, closing off the easiest reputation farm in the game.

Hunting Pays

Destroy a commander who has fallen into open hostility with a power and that power rewards the kill exactly as if you had destroyed one of its declared enemy's own ships — the Protectorate pays for pirates, the Corsairs pay for whoever has been hunting them. A commander's declared enemy now shows beside their name in the contact panel, so you can see who is who before you commit to the interception.

The Protectorate Answers

Draw first blood on a commander the Protectorate does not already call an enemy and a patrol moves against you — up to two hulls, three in PvP's secured home region — pulled from whatever garrison already holds the system rather than spawned for the occasion, crossing it one sector at a time rather than appearing on top of you. A strike and a withdrawal is still a viable way to fight; camping a victim in secured space is not. Where the garrison is thin, the protection thins with it, and in the deep dark, where none stands at all, nobody comes. The Corsairs answer the same way for their own, with one telling difference: they protect a commander who holds their truce only against an outsider, and leave two of their own to settle it themselves.

A Permanent Record

The public standings page carries a leaderboard for PvP that never resets, ranked on the value of the cargo you have taken off other commanders rather than the number you have destroyed — intercepting one loaded freighter counts for more than hunting down ten empty hulls, on purpose. Kills and losses are shown beside it.

Dispatches

A destroyed commander is announced on the broadcast board, in a channel of its own, naming the hull lost and the system and sector it happened in. In a galaxy of seven hundred and twenty-nine sectors it is the only way to know where the fighting is, and the only lasting record that you were the one who won it. Dispatches run in PvP and Tournament.

The Galaxy the Law Walked Out Of

PvP is the same persistent galaxy as the shared one, never reset and never seasoned, and it starts every commander in the same fully-secured home region. That region is the only place the Protectorate still answers a call, and it answers harder there than anywhere else — three hulls instead of two. Cross a gate outward and no patrol will ever come for you again, in any of the other regions. Killing a commander there pays triple the experience it pays elsewhere, and their wreck breaks up into salvage on top of whatever they were hauling.

Tournament Fights Harder Too

Destroying a commander in a Tournament season pays double experience on top of its already heightened rates, their wreck leaves salvage exactly like it does in PvP, and every kill is announced on the board, so a season's fighting is legible from the outside while it is still being fought. The podium itself is unchanged: seasons are still decided on experience, and a season still wipes the galaxy without ever wiping the standings.

By the Numbers

Sectors in the galaxy — 729
Protectorate responders — up to 2 (3 in the PvP home region)
PvP kill experience — 3x the shared-galaxy rate
PvP standing slide — 3x faster, and the police lose patience a full tier sooner
Tournament kill experience — 2x the season's own heightened rate

No season, no timer, no reset — the same fight runs for as long as the server does.