How to get started pirating video games?

FitGirl repacks are generally considered safe. Make sure you have the right site, and use a VPN if you're in a country that cares about piracy.

There's a bunch of other good resources in the megathread

+1 for the vpn. The last isp letter i got was from one of her torrents, and it wasn't even that popular of a game.
- Woah really? ISPs coming out and bothering you cause you pirate stuff? Never heard of it. I'd jump ship immediately if I got one such letter.

Check the megathread man!! Has all the info you need. But here's a quick summary

There's generally 2 routes of pirating video games (on windows), and those are either Torrenting or Direct Downloading

Torrenting

Torrenting uses the bittorrent protocol to share files p2p, meaning it is direct IP connections. Torrenting a copyrighted file (such as a movie, cracked game, etc) can be illegal depending on your country. Usually, in first-world countries it is illegal, while in 3rd world/developing countries they could care less. This all depends on your country, research it first. To avoid any legal issues (in countries where this applies) people use VPNs (virtual private networks) to mask their IP from people who want to report you to your ISP.
The torrent indexer I recommend for games would be 1337x.to since they are heavily moderated and have a low chance of having malware inside the file.
A torrent client I recommend : qBittorrent
VPNs are to be taken with a grain of salt. Many VPNs pay for reviews and have horrible software and/or privacy policies. I would recommend you stay clear of any popular VPN which is recommended on youtube videos, podcasts or billboards; they have the scummiest advertising methods, lack essential features and sometimes are owned by ex-adware companies (such as NordVPN, Surfshark VPN, ExpressVPN, Atlas VPN, Private Internet Access, Cyberghost, etc).

Direct Downloading (Commonly referred to as DDL for short, which I will be using.)

DDL consists of downloading files from file hosting websites, such as mega, zippyshare, google drive, 1fichier, etc. You will want to use this method if you either cannot torrent in your country (meaning it's illegal) and do not want to invest into a VPN to hide your torrenting business.
The easiest way to download games through DDL would be with fitgirl (fitgirl-repacks.site). Simply download the files through the DDL mirrors, extract together, run setup, wait, and there you go. Takes a long time to install with a bad CPU, but it is very easy.
If you cannot find the game you're looking for on fitgirl's website, the next best option for DDL would have to be https://cs.rin.ru. It has a learning curve if you have no experience with cracking/pirating, but easily learnable.

zippyshare
I have bad news friend.
- totally forgot that they shutdown. thanks man, really sad indeed.
For people who ddl from mega, check out (megabasterd) on github. It'll be worth your time.
- I’m looking at the GitHub now, but I’m not seeing anything that screams “must have,” is there something not obvious that it does?
The megathread recommends using Mullvad but afaik Mullvad has stopped port forwarding support recently. I've been using Mullvad for a while (albeit not for Torrenting) how safe do you reckon is it to use Mullvad without port forwarding support for Torrents?
- It's safe, just that your seeding capabilities will be ass, aswell as the download speed on small torrents (<20 seeders). It's also needed for private trackers. Imo you should be fine if you don't seed much or aren't in a private tracker.

If you are looking for some sites, here are some:
https://toolbox-list.github.io/Toolbox/toolbox/gaming/game-piracy.html

and also look at FMHY:
https://fmhy.pages.dev/gamingpiracyguide/#download-games

1337x.to For Dodi and Fitgirls
rutor.info For RG Mechanics, Fitgirls and maybe other good repacks for yourself.

aHR0cHM6Ly9jcy5yaW4ucnUvZm9ydW0vaW5kZXgucGhw

When you know, you know.
???
- It’s a link that’s base64 encoded. Decide it with something like https://www.base64decode.org

all you need to know is how to extract compressed files. if youre familiar with that then installing cracked games will be easy for you. as most have said, fitgirl is a great place to get games because she has been in the game a long time and is considered a credible source. most installers will copy the crack for you but generally the most work you have to do after a pirated game install is copy the crack folder over the files in the game folder, disabled firewall access if it asks, and possibly run as administrator. thats it. if the place youre getting games from is trustworthy youre safe to ignore any anti-virus warnings because generally game cracks can cause false positives.

Always check for gog versions, they are much more easy and safer to work with since they still have the certificate.

This is my personal strategy, works pretty well:

Grab a repack from fitgirl /dodi / kaoscrew via torrent when possible. Use the official sites.
Check gog-games, if it's available without drm
Check rin (Steam Underground) if it's not too large
Grab from GGn or whatever other private tracker might have it.
Get straight scene release, if available, as last resort.

This covers probably 99% of PC games, emulators are a different story.

As for getting started, grab 7z (an archiving utility) and know how to mount an ISO. Stay safe, don't download from sketchy sites. Since you are dealing with executables, some things will look (and act) like viruses, use your best judgement.

I recommend 1337x as it's heavily moderated and most of its uploaders are trusted.

Beware of 1377. sometimes 1337 domain would transfer you to a 1377 one.

https://steamunlocked.net/ is not too bad

That site is not considered to be completely trustworthy due to some virus infected downloads being found in the past. Just be sure to check for malware as you should be doing for all downloads.
- AFAIK there was no malware found, unless you are talking about their ads on the site, then yes, those can be malicious. I think one reason why people don't like SteamUnlocked is that they just reupload games from other sites

Buy a shared game account. Of course if it's available in your country. This is for Denuvo stuff usually.

Any ideas as to where one might be able to find such a service?
- I don't know where to look for other countries. Because for me it's on mainstream marketplace. IIRC they're in game forums fo trading and stuff.