I was looking through the list of unique items to see if there were many I didn't recognize and hadn't come across.  Among those were a few items that seem to drop from headhunter ship captains who come after you only if you reach -2 or -3 reputation with a given faction:

Akola's Apex Ward (shield) for negative reputation with Huana

Gipon Prudenso (armor) for negative reputation with Principi

 

First- does anyone know if there are similar items that drop from headhunter captains when you get negative enough reputation with RDC and VTC?  Also- how do you go about getting negative enough reputation?  I'm doing a Principi run but I still have positive reputation with the other factions just from doing quests with them along the way.  Will my reputation drop precipitously down the road when I get towards end game and accessing Ondra's Mortar?  I can't remember if that was the case in previous runs.  Or do I have to go out of my way to avoid other faction's quests and try to resolve quests in a way to piss them off?  As a side note- I find myself not fully committing to being a pro-Principi guy and still doing things like getting the Valera and Bardatto families to make peace when I should have probably been more pirate-ish and tried to loot the vault or something so maybe that has something to do with this...

From VTC you can get Wicked Beast pike. If I can remember correctly you can not drop rep to -3(to spawn hunting ship) if you have +2 or more (basically you need metaknowledge what quests need to be avoided/postponed). 

This is making me want to start over this Principi run and explicitly make enemies of the other factions...  I feel like I've already done too much positive stuff to ever get my reputation low enough. 

Then again, I don't know how much I'd enjoy the process of making them hate me, at least with the Huana.  I like helping the people in the gullet, for instance.  Maybe I can just purposely make VTC and RDC hate me...

Though I would think that late game gives opportunities to drop your rep?  Saying no to the Hazanui's plot to kill Onekaza has all of the Brass Citadel turn hostile- does that not automatically set your rep to -3?  

Well, killing members of a faction is a rather fast way to lower the rep.

Never had issues with getting the Principi to hate me - even though I usually try to get Engoliero de Espirs ASAP (which is about the end of their questline), sometimes also Scordeo's Edge.

Forcing your way into the Undercity trough the thug controlled elevator kinda helps...

I ended up loading a save from when I first got to Neketaka in order to avoid positive rep with at least VTC and RDC and be all around more piratey in my Principi playthrough.  I'm not totally sure what I'll do in some quests where you almost have to get positive rep with someone (restoring or not restoring the adra vein on Poko, etc) but hopefully I can find ways to drop it down enough to spawn those headhunters and be a proper pirate

If your rep is too high you can't drop it to negative levels. For example if you max out your Principi reputation you can kill both Furrante and Aeldys in combat and you'll still have neutral reputation with them.

The best way to lower your reputation is to just farm factions ships before starting their quests. 

I thought you don't lose rep attacking ships on the high seas?  No witnesses and all...

57 minutes ago, crdvis16 said:

I thought you don't lose rep attacking ships on the high seas?  No witnesses and all...

Yeah, in fact you should just intimidate them...