If your pirating experience maxed out at downloading a video game off a sketchy website or streaming pirated anime, this guide is for you. This is going to be a guide for benign, everyday torrenting of media, video games, software, etc. I won't be going in depth about much of anything for the sake of brevity.


Before we do any field work, let's talk about the leeches and the seeders.
Seeders are clients who own the file, and are uploading pieces of it for the Leeches to download.
Leeches are clients who take what the Seeders give, their computers reconstructing the file(s) from the various Seeders.
Each torrent file has a fluctuating amount of seeders and leechers, depending on who's downloading or uploading at any given moment.
TL;DR, The more seeders there are, the faster the torrent will go.



There are two things you need before you can consider torrenting. A torrent client, and a VPN.
A torrent client manages and unpacks your torrents, and you cannot torrent without one. I recommend qBitTorrent.
A torrent client can appear complicated at first, but much of the interface are things which don't concern the average user.


The second is a VPN, set in a country where you can speak the language, with good data privacy laws. I usually choose Canada or New Zealand.
When it comes to what VPN to get, be careful. Some VPNs (especially ones you might see getting promo'd on Youtube) keep logs of users' traffic, which can lead to you getting nasty letters or fines from your ISP in the case of torrenting.

I choose Mullvad VPN, which lets you buy time like an old AOL account rather than running on a debatably predatory subscription model. Their rate is EUR5/mo; Pretty affordable in comparison to Ludd-knows how expensive streaming is now.
Another option is RiseupVPN, which is a donation-funded free-to-use VPN made by an activist group dedicated to piracy as an individual right. I haven't used it, though my impression from reviews is that it is good- but quite slow.
I wouldn't recommend going for any other free VPNs though- As the saying goes "If it says it's free, you are the product." I only give RiseUp the benefit of the doubt as it's supposedly funded by donations and run by activists.

!WARNING! You should ALWAYS have your VPN on while torrenting! Copyright holders often stalk torrents of their media to catch unsuspecting torrenters, and can report you to your ISP unless you live in a country where piracy isn't totally illegal (read: the vast minority of people reading this).
Getting caught by your ISP can lead to them shutting off your internet for a while, sending you nasty letters, or sticking fines on you.



Once you've downloaded a torrent client and enabled a VPN, now you need to find a torrent site. I have used all of these, and can personally attest to their quality.
  • thepiratebay.org - I usually shun TPB for 1337x in general use due to rumors of lax moderation leading to malware, but its incomparably massive library keeps bringing me back.
  • 1337x.to - For general-purpose torrenting like TV, music, and games, 1337x is my go-to. They vet their uploaders, and so are usually safer than TPB.
  • nyaa.si - A specialty site for Japanese media of all sorts. Anime, manga, and light novels- subbed and dubbed in a rainbow of languages and tagged for user convenience.


To torrent a listing, click on the listing and select the option to download via a Magnet link. Depending on your browser, this may show a little note at the top of your screen. Accept it.
On your client, you will get an interface showing the torrent's details, and a file destination selection. You can leave most of this default, just select your destination and go.

Once the torrent has started downloading, it will boot you back to your main client screen, where you can see your library of torrents. After a while, the torrent will be downloaded!

Now, one last time, let's get a simple step-by-step right here.
  1. Download a VPN.
  2. Find a listing on a torrent website.
  3. Click on the listing, and find the Magnet link.
  4. Activate the Magnet link, and accept any permissions your browser asks for.
  5. Select the file's destination on your hard drive.
  6. Click download.
  7. Wait for it to download
  8. Profit.


    And... you've successfully torrented a file! Good job! Now, let's talk about some manners and common sense.


    After you are finished leeching a torrent, you will automatically start seeding it. This is good! It's always good manners to seed for as long as you can, though remember your VPN!
    If you get malware from a torrent or reasonably believe it might carry malware, leave a comment on the torrent if the site allows it. Protect and empower the Pirate Collective!

    Speaking of malware and safety, torrenting is very safe so long as you keep common sense with you. Unfortunately, common sense isn't so common, so here are some tips.

    1. Does a torrent have *way* more Seeders than Leeches? Stay away, it might be a honeypot getting artificially inflated.
    2. Does it download way faster- or look smaller, than expected? Delete it. Did your AAA video game download as a single .exe file? Don't run it, just throw it away.
    3. Got a gut feeling of unsafety? Listen to it. Your gut is often right, and there's always other torrents of the same thing, or just other things to torrent.

    Getting malware from torrents nowadays is like getting poison in your halloween candy. Yes, it might happen, it might've happened to you before! But life is choices, and millions of kids
    gorge themselves on pounds of halloween candy every single year, and come out scott free. Don't overinflate your odds of getting a stomach bug from a Three Musketeers.


    For more info, please check out Mental Outlaw's videos about torrenting. He goes into way more detail than I do, and is an actual computer nerd instead of a dog on the internet.
    He has to vet his YouTube videos for the sake of channel safety, but he uploads all the juicy stuff to his Odysee account. Here are some links.


    You could also check out Easy USSR's longer, far more superior written guide on the matter. HOW TO PIRATE

    for comment, inquiry, clarification, or criticism, please contact me at @danku.chan on discord, or DM me on twitter.