I: Safety

Don’t use Google Chrome. It’s a bad browser to begin with but it’s even worse to pirate with. FireFox is the best one, but literally any other browser is better. Make sure to use an adblocker, the best one is uBlock origin. Check out r/Piracy's megathread for optimized settings. (We'll come back to this thread later.)

Always make sure to use a VPN. Most cost money (but are pretty cheap). If you are like me and you can’t even afford a cheap one, Cloudfare WARP is pretty good, even though you can’t change your country. It still obscures your IP address though. When you pick your torrent client of choice, if possible, make sure you can bind it to your VPN so it won’t download torrents unless the VPN is active.

II: What even is a torrent?

A torrent is a file type that is used for P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing. They’re basically a table of contents and a bunch of files all jammed into one so you don’t have to download a bunch of different pieces like you do with stuff like direct downloads. They’re similar to a .ZIP file, because you can’t actually run anything with them until you run it through a client. Similarly, they have smaller file sizes which makes it faster to download and upload them than getting a million other files. You can download .torrent files directly, or use magnet links, which are faster because they already have a hash generated so the file doesn’t need to calculate one by itself. They are both usually hosted in a process called seeding where you download your torrent from another user, making the download process a lot faster since you don’t have to get it from the original host.

Step 1: Download a torrent client. You’ve probably heard of uTorrent, but there are plenty of alternatives since uTorrent isn’t the best. I use qBittorrent. Bittorrent is only available on desktop, however, uTorrent and others can be used on mobile. Installation of torrent clients works the same as any app: just follow the prompted instructions of your app store or executable file.

Step 2: Search for your media of choice. Due to the way Google functions, it's best to search for torrents via the DuckDuckGo browser, as it doesn't bury or obscure torrenting sites from the results. The r/Piracy megathread is also very helpful in
finding reliable links to sources. I will include others not listed on the thread that I personally use.

Step 3: Download your torrent. If a magnet link is available and working, I would suggest using it over getting the torrent straight from the host.

Step 4: Upload your torrent to your client. In some cases, this is done automatically. But if not, it works like any upload: just open it in the program and you're good to go.

Step 5: Download your files. Once your torrent finishes downloading in your client, it’s kind of like an extracted .ZIP file. Just click a download button and you’ll get access to all the files in the torrent.

Step 6: Reseed when you can. As stated above, seeding is what helps the whole community function. Always reseed if you have the internet connection for it. A good ratio is 1.5 for every 1 torrent you download.