Loot. Treasure. Resources. Commodities simultaneously of questionable origin and mutable ownership rights. For the less verbose- stuff.

In this guide, we will cover a method for mid to late game advancement of wealth- Pod raiding.

Pod raiding is the use of transport pods to collect stuff, turning a mass of chemfuel, steel, and components that seems like an expensive frivolity in the early game into a rocket that powers your industry, makes components and steel plentiful and cheap, and literally makes it rain gold and silver on demand.

We'l cover required tech, skills, plans,order of operations, and a slick montage that segues into ten minutes of low effort exposition and tired tropes that hold the secret to making plot driving quantities of valuables...

disappear!

Pirates and raiders are dumb. You are reading this guide, so you already have one up on them. Congrats!

Unfortunately for you, being smart is required for the (very)real job of high speed tactical resource extraction. I've got a list of techs here that need to be researched before you start hoarding wealth like a dragon in heat.

Pemmican- Starving is bad. rotten food is bad. This prevents both.

Complex Clothing- Freezing to death far from home is bad. Avoid it.

Smithing- Metalworking is a core part of a pod raider's skill set. It makes weapons, armor, buildings, and more. It's also a requirement for other techs on this list.

Electricity- Power. You want it. You want to impose it on others. You need it to go fast and be more threatening than a tribal with a spear and a muffalo.

Machining- See what I said about Smithing? More and better.

Gunsmithing/ Flak Armor You want at least one of these techs when you start. You are going to be coming into a great deal of wealth very soon, and you want to have a plan to defend it. Flak requires Plate Armor.

Chemfuel Refining- High speed remote resource extraction requires jet fuel for the revolution. Have a source.

Microelectronics- Yeah I told you brains weren't optional. Get it.

Long Range Mineral Scanner- Also known as the Ground Penetrating Scanner That Knows How to Party. It let's you know where the getting is good so you can go there.

Transport Pods- Your chariot awaits.

You need to spend money to make money, and high speed raids are often more like trading with extra steps. Be prepared to spend resources starting out, and make sure you have enough to send with your landing party.

Not having what you need means a long walk home at best, and not getting home at worst. Before you transfer away from dumb raids and muffalo schlepping, have the following in reserve:

A larder full of pemmican- You will need to supply your raiding party for 3-10 days depending on the take. You may not eat all of it, but starvation kills more than pirates and you want more dead pirates than dead colonists.

Long range mineral scanner- Lets you know where the party is. Lets you target specific resources and not rely on your friends Hope and Cope so much.

4 transport pod battery- This is the launch pad from which you will build your empire. You need these to go fast. You wanna go fast.

Biofuel refinery- Jet fuel for the revolution. You can tame boomalopes, to be sure, but this little wonder lets you crank out chemfuel with a purpose.

500 chemfuel- a starting stockpile that will enable early raids.

Basic firearms- You technically don't need to make them yourself, but you will want a way to sanitize drop points. Also keeps you company on the way back if you make a mistake. Pump Shotguns are preferred early on, but anything is fine as long as it can kill a raider or two.

Basic clothing- Dress for the weather. Your landing party will have to spend extended periods outdoors.

A backup plan- Be prepared to treat injuries onsite. Have a stock of medicine.

Bedrolls- You'll need at least 3 to take along for the trip. Never underestimate a good night's sleep.

A torch- You'll need a light in the dark. Torchlights work and cost 20 wood.

If you haven't been listening to heist music while reading this guide, feel free to start now. If you think heist movies are overdone, remember that every failed raid is somebody else's heist gone wrong. You may be right, but that doesn't mean you win.

You'll need a crew to plunder the resource nodes outside the colony. And not just anyone who can read the line "[pejorative phrase], I'm in!" Pod raids take a significant amount of colony resources and time. They work best when pawns specialize in their roles. A well trained crew can pull off a raid in less than half the time compared to novice schmucks.

The Home Team
These guys stay at the colony. They have the task of getting more raid targets, or processing the booty. They form a microcosm within your greater colony, supporting the raiders while they are away, and making the colony better able to do without the raid team in emergencies.

A Scanner- A researcher that can man the scanner. The better they are, the faster you loot.
Your scanner spends his days running the long range scanner. His job is to find you things to appropriate. Research speed and time on the scanner are king here, so pick a pawn in good health that can accept long hours and has a passion for intellectual. Keep him in beer and the occasional dose of wake-up.

A Craftsman- a crafter back home that can process your take.
A good craftsman is a Crafting specialist with bonuses to work speed. If you have a Production Specialist, he's your guy. He ideally has bonuses to work speed and at least a 6 in construction. This lets him build transport pods on your battery immediately after launch. His job is to set up the launch bay after a launch, refine replacement chemfuel, and process the latest bounty into guns, armor, and turrets. Because you will be taking large chunks of wealth into the colony quickly, you'll want quick turnaround.

The Away Team
These guys do the wetwork. Each of them benefits from high mining skill in addition to the skills you brought them for, and each benefits from high mental toughness and good mood. Mental breaks can turn a precision operation into a days long slog.

A Miner- A taker of valuables from the vaults of the earth.
Your miner has a single, and incredibly simple job. She breaks rocks. Drill arms are a bonus. Traits that increase mining speed are a boon. You want to avoid pawns that are married to someone not on the away team, and pawns that hate being outdoors and/or away from the colony. Being able to support with a shotgun is a bonus.

An Enforcer - A man with a gun. Ensures that your new stuff belongs to you.
Your enforcer has the task of sanitizing the area around the take. They kill enemy combatants, dangerous wildlife, that suspicious six pack of beer you launched with, etc. Having a reasonably high melee skill is important in addition to shooting, as the enforcer's other job is to prevent harm (and subsequent infection or incapacitation) to the rest of the squad. Having the ability to haul is also important, as it will be the most available job after everything in the area with a pulse is on your payroll.

A Longshoreman- Your return ticket, faster than a thirsty muffalo with at least 6 construction skill.
The Longshoreman has the duty of building a transport launcher and pods, assisting with mining, and building supporting structures. He's the backbone of the team and the fixer when things go wrong. As such demands mental fortitude in addition to the prerequisite construction skill,

This is the start of it all. Your first resource raid to get enough components to spend is an important first step that drags you out of resource scarcity and into a modern economy. It uses components found onsite, but needs steel to build pods and a launcher.

The Take: ~150 components

The Crew:
Enforcer
Miner
Longshoreman

Invested resources:
3 fueled pods
290 Steel
300 Fuel
4 days Meals for 3
20-100 wood
10 medicine
non optional drugs (Now is not the time to admit that you have a problem.)
optional drugs (I send psychite coffee and beer)

Your enforcer is the key to making sure that your landing zone is safe. Everybody needs to be able to fight, but only your enforcer needs to be good at it. After sanitizing, the enforcer helps mine and haul.

Land at center, defeat any incident ambushes, treat any wounds, and preemptively hunt any predators. kill any scavengers to protect your food supply.

Your longshoreman is the key to making sure that your campsite runs smoothly and that you get back home. He's the last one out in any scenario, so it's critical that you protect him. Your longshoreman builds the campsite and launcher, and deconstructs targets of opportunity for extra steel. Afterwards, he helps mine.

Buildings onsite
3 bedrolls
a pod launcher and pod
a torch
optional- a larder/bivvy to stop animals from eating your food
optional- a horseshoe pin

Your miner is the force that extracts resources at speed. Everyone mines for want of something to do on this run, but your miner is chosen for this skill

After mining the pocket, your miner helps load resources and gathers resources of opportunity like steel and slag.

When you are ready to go, the longshoreman builds the pods that launch everyone home.
Avoid sending partially loaded pods. Send your Miner back with half the loot, then your enforcer with the rest.

Only load your pod launcher with enough chemfuel to get you home. your goal is to leave an empty launcher in the wild, and setting the launcher to the minimum will let you take the rest home with you.

Your Longshoreman gets the lights on his way out, packing up extra food, fuel, steel, medicine, and bedrolls.

Congrats, you now have more components than you could buy, manufacture or trade for in a quadrum. And your scanner has just about finished locating your next take.

There are those that say the ground penetrating scanner is a surer supply of steel than remote raids, and they aren't wrong. A bird in the hand and all that. There's just one problem with that though: birds start in the bush. And you want to specifically target steel for your second resource raid. Not wait for lady luck to gift you a pocket. This raid uses locally sourced steel to keep weight and component costs down.

The Take: 1500-2000 Steel

The Crew
Enforcer
Longshoreman
Miner

Invested Resources
2-3 fueled pods
4 days food
20-100 wood
5 medicine
3 bedrolls
optional/ non-optional drugs
400-500 fuel
15 components (see why we got these first?)

Launch close to the center, clear any ambushes, and treat any wounds.

The Enforcer sanitizes the area of threats, predators, and scavengers. After completing cleanup, he assists the Miner in clearing the pocket.

The Miner mines the pocket. This raid has a lot of steel for him to crack and because of the sheer weight of it all, he gets less help from the rest of his team.

The Longshoreman is even more important on steel raids, as the pocket will yield several pods full of steel.

Required Buildings:
3 bedrolls
torch
Food Larder(optional)
horseshoe pin
Pod Launcher
Pods

After constructing the camp, the Longshoreman deconstructs all targets of opportunity for even more steel.
While the pocket is being mined, the Longshoreman loads the steel into stockpiles and then into pods. This causes a stream of steel to rain down within the bounds of the colony. The Longshoreman helps mine the latter third of the pocket to ensure that he does not accidentally ship off steel, components, or chemfuel needed for the return trip.

As with the components job, ship colonists home with loot. Avoid partially loaded pods. Remember that you can load steel slag if you have a lot of open space, but don't prioritize it. It is half as weight efficient as refined steel.

Because the resource you are looting is also your ride home, remember that each colonist needs at least 60 steel, 1 component, and fuel to make the trip home. Anything that isn't that can be loaded into the pod

The Longshoreman should build his last pod, and grab anything else left behind on his way out.

Congratulations. If this was your first steel raid, you now have the resources for a comms relay for trade, the best firearms you can make, modern flak armor, and whatever else you want. Be aware that your first run will be consumed faster than you think, as you will need to set up workbenches and tool cabinets. After you have researched and produced modern firearms and, if you can locally produce cloth, modern armor, its time to talk with your Scanner about exotic resources.

Necessary for effective mid to late game weapons, armor, weapons, and structures, exotic metals raids are identical to components raids, except you need a supply of components already under arms.

The Take: ~300 Plasteel, or similar value of gold, silver, or uranium

The Crew:
Enforcer
Miner
Longshoreman
(Optional) Trader

Invested resources:
3 fueled pods
290 Steel
300 Fuel
4 days Meals for 3
20-100 wood
10 medicine
non optional drugs (Admit that you have a problem when you pod home.)
optional drugs (I send psychite... coffee...)
5 components

You can check the components tab for an order of operations. The Trader, when used, is more or less just along for the ride, but hauling is a useful skill.

As the take may consume about an entire pod, it can be worthwhile to forward the take to its intended destination rather than your colony if they aren't the same place. this could mean:

An Allied or Neutral Settlement you wish to trade with for exotic materials (hence why you may want to bring a trader

A Neutral or Enemy Settlement that you wish to buy off. Exotic materials pack a lot of value into a pod, and your economy doesn't run on them. So they make good direct trades for alliances and the subsequent ability to call trade caravans.

Some people are just short of luck and in want of everything. Your colony runs on food. And so you need food. But food can be in short supply, so it's important to stockpile frequently and to get more before you run out.

There are a few places to get food in mass quantities. Here, local production is still king, but assuming that you don't have endless fields of hydroponics churning out rice and beef feed, there are a few options for remote sources of food and kibble. One can change the focus of a different raid target to food, attack a farming work site for what they have on hand like a dumb pirate, but the surest way is a hunting party.

Hunting Parties

Dumb pirates and tribals look at these as a source of hides, as the meat is useless to them. They can't cook it before it rots. You read this guide. You are not a dumb pirate. Pod meat directly home for immediate freezing and refining!

The Take
Remarked Meats
Varying Amounts of Kibble
Remarked Hides
Hides of Mysterious Origin

The Crew
Enforcer xN
Cookx2
Longshoreman
After arrival, sanitize the area, hunt all nearby predators, treat any wounds , and get to work.

The Enforcer's job is to hunt all animals on the map in addition to all non-friendly people. Once this is done, he may assist with pod loading or kibble making, depending on the resources required. He should not butcher. You brought a specialist for that.

The Cook's job is to butcher all the animals on the map. If the raid is in desperation for food, Then he should be prepared to cook a few meals on the campfire or stove for the squad. If the raid is for desperation for fuel or feed stock, he should make kibble as he goes. Kibble makes one of the best stocks for chemfuel.

The Longshoreman's job is to construct a pod launcher and pods for shipping the meat back to your waiting fridge. Have porters available onsite to load the booty to the freezer. If the raid was done for desperation for fuel, he should harvest berries to make kibble.
As always, the Longshoreman's job also includes deconstructing and sacking targets of opportunity, which here includes sandbags, power generators, gibbets, floors, and turrets.

He can also pod prisoners back to your other fridge.

This raid's cost varies with the number of enforcers you have to bring to clear the camp, along with the weight of their armaments. consider the cost of the return trip against schlepping home. Remember, the take doesn't have legs. Rambo's are bionic.

The Switcheroo is a variant of the steel raid. It starts just like a regular steel raid, using a steel node found on the mineral scanner. It takes advantage of one very important fact: biomes generate at landing sites complete with trees, wildlife, and stone chunks. The point of a switcheroo raid is to either trade steel, components, and chemfuel for significant quantities of wood or stone.

The Take: varies depending on what is targeted. stone chunks, along with wood, meat, berries, and leftover steel

The Crew
Enforcer
Longshoreman
Miner
Woodcutters (optional)

Invested Resources
2-5 fueled pods
4 days food
20-100 wood
5 medicine
3-5 bedrolls
optional/ non-optional drugs
300-700 fuel
15 components

In addition to the usual steel run, you'll be bringing harvesting specialists for wooded biomes, or dedicated haulers. This raid targets the surrounding biome rather than the pocket, so be prepared to call it quits when hauling times get too onerous. Consider these trades.

A component, 50 local steel, and a pod's worth of chemfuel will net you:
350 wood
~6 stone chunks(cut them at home)
Significant quantities of food and healroot

Remember to take the remaining steel that you don't trade before the raid timer runs out.

Well ,you did it. You successfully burned through so much ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ chemfuel that you can't continue launching sorties. You can either wait for more resources to grow (*chuckle*) or you can do what you have become so devilishly proficient at, and simply take them from somewhere else! Contrary to the tribals that wander into your old mining sites, we know that gas stations don't just pop out of the woods.

At least, not without encouragement.

Its best to do this when you don't have a hunting raid available or can't accept the combat risk, as refining meat/kibble at home is much cheaper and less time constrained.

The Take: As much gas as you can make before the raid timer runs out

The Crew:
Enforcer
Miner
Longshoreman
2 woodcutters

Invested resources:
4 fueled pods
290 Steel
300 Fuel
4 days Meals for 5
an art
10 medicine
non optional drugs (Now. Now is the time to admit you have a problem.)
optional drugs
20 components

Your raid target is going to be a forested tile. Steel deposits and lightly defended farming work sites are good options. Remember, you are targeting the woods, not the goods. This job takes advantage of three facts.
1. Forested tiles can contain thousands of wood
2. we can refine wood into chemfuel
3. A single transport pod can hold up to 3000 chemfuel

After sanitizing the area, set your lumberjacks to work felling trees, and your enforcer to hunting.
Set your miner at the pocket, but be prepared to leave some.
Your longshoreman should be building a shack with room for the following:

A wood fired generator-this is cheap an will not burn through a full stack before you have to skedaddle
A chemfuel refinery-this is the reason a steel pocket is a choice pick for this. Refining onsite lets us carry much more back, and components are plentiful and low weight at the point where you are considering this job.
a light
temp control, either a heater, a passive cooler, or a campfire.(optional)
a horseshoe pin
shelves for incoming stocks-refuse transportation waste. You are late from the moment you land.
Sleeping space
an art

After your refining shack is set up and running and your ride home is built, start refining. You want the refinery manned 24 hours a day between your enforcer, longshoreman, and miner. The two woodcutters are responsible for chopping trees to feed the machine. You'll need 3 days of nonstop refining to fill a pod. You can choose to focus on fuel, or recover more resources from the pocket and downed animals.

And a grav anchor!
And why wouldn't I just take my ship to mine?

Good for you. Yes, you can happily mine asteroids. Fantastic. And you left your old lady back at your favorite map tile. Good choice Lex. You go mine that asteroid from the comfort of your fancy ship.

Bless your heart.

I'm not jealous...*sniff*

This guide is focused on transport pods. You can do similar work with shuttles, or gravships. But it's much easier to teach a group of oil drillers and miners to navigate space than it is to teach trained astronauts to operate mining equipment.

I'm sure of it. I saw it in a movie once.

The point is I can reach orbit with transport pods and vacsuits and mine space junk there too. With far fewer resources.

And then I'll build a bigger ship than yours! With cryptosleep! and AI cores! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go seethe with envy.

In all seriousness, though, this guide is for people who don't have access to the new DLC, or who want to try the playstyle I described because it sounds fun. I'm not seriously bashing the ground penetrating scanner, or gravships, or any other method for getting the resources you need. My method doesn't invalidate yours. Only Randy does that.