Farming

[Sebastiani]

So I am just in the few systems past St. Kat's, and I want to take advantage of farming.

Which stations respawn enemies, and which do not?

[sun1404]

the Sung would call more Wind Slavers if those already guarding are destroyed, but Wind Slavers aren't much to farm. The best thing they've got is a particle cannon. The Urak Fortress may be a better choice. They will, IIRC, call in a new Urak Destroyer if the one present is destroyed. That thing have a lot of Blast weapons, and it can drop a 100 MW reactor too.

If you don't care about their quest, the Huari too will call in extra reinforcements if their guards are destroyed. Beware though, if you destroy one of their ship, you'll never ever be able to befriend them anymore.

The Ranx Fortress should call in Dreadnoughts from time to time. These too are good for farming, they have Transuranic Plate, a good armor, Kiloton Cannon, a Thermo weapon, Patch Spiders, which everyone wants, and a few random things. The Ares too will call reinforcements when they're attacked. The Ares Shipyard, particularly, may randomly spawn Phobos Dreadnoughts when threatened. They're arguably the most fearsome ships in the game, even more so than the final boss. The loot is, of course, very good. You can get one of the best endgame weapon from it, and nowhere else. You can get a great endgame shield from it, and nowhere else too. Sadly it's armor is too heavy for any of the starter ships. I'd done a run with a mod ship using a complete Phobos's set once. Weapon, shield, and armor. Though I don't have as much armor segments, the final boss stood no chance.

[PM]

Charon pirates are good for missiles and broken lasers (for Tinkers, at least before 1.2).

Sung can be farmed for their armor and more broken particle weapons.

Huari are great for SN2500 reactors, superconducting coils, Duralloy armor, and pteracnium fuel. Killing them yourself does have the problem of locking out their storyline.

Ranx gunships carry Akan shells and armor repair kits. The latter can repair any armor (as of 1.1, not sure of 1.2), including neutronium armor, which cannot be repaired otherwise (it's treated as level 21 or so for repairs). Dreadnoughts have been mentioned by others.

Ventari, with ion disruptors, are very dangerous, but are great loot piñatas. SN2500 reactors, orthosteel armor, and fuel.

Ares ships, especially capital ships, have good loot too.

Ferians, though not unlimited, were designed to be farmed. After you attack the miners enough, the warriors spawn from their nests. Kill the nest and its remaining bugs turn red and attack you en masse. Extremely dangerous, but can be exploited by the devious. Collectively, Ferians have plentiful loot.