The RPG gods blessed one Starfield player who fought a pirate 3 times their level and walked away with an OP legendary gun

gamesradar.com:

One incredibly lucky Starfield player has stumbled onto a space pirate that was three times their level and, somehow, walked away with both their life and a sweet legendary rifle. 

“Back when I was level 32, I stumbled into a random facility on a level 75 moon where I found myself greeted by the level 98 pirate that gave me this,” JaykDoe posts on the game’s subreddit. The weapon in question was the legendary-tier Elemental Advanced Hard Target - basically just a very, very good scoped rifle. On top of the already sweet stats, the rifle came with a random chance to deal elemental damage and the “Instigating” perk that deals double damage to enemies with full health. I can imagine that’s extra deadly when scoping out foes from afar. 

"98 is a lot of levels for a pirate," the poster jokes, "so I decided it was about time he retired. I like to think he felt the same way." Another commenter quips back: "My gun doesn't kill them, it just moves them forward to a time when they are no longer alive."

Other Starfield weapon hunters had some advice for those of us who haven't been so lucky. Redditor Rook7425 mentions that explorers should travel "toward the right of the space map" to find high-level moons. "They will have random encounters with peaceful workers/settlers who will send you to deal with some combatants," they continued." Most of these encounters supposedly contain a couple of elite enemies, plus one "final boss" that has an even higher chance of dropping legendary loot. 

You might want to hold off on high-level loot scavenging until after you reach New Game Plus, however. You lose all your weapons, armor, and credits upon entering Starfield's New Game Plus, which would be disappointing if it weren't for the RPG