Basic Survival In NullSec
Travel Guides
Essential Information
Travel Techniques
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Unfuck Your Overview
- Main article: Overview Settings
The default overview settings when you just install the game are only suitable for highsec pubbies. They focus on security status and Crimewatch flags, instead of standings, and out in 0.0, we care about standings more than anything else.
Returning players also have to worry about their overviews, new ships, structures, and NPCs that have been added to the game since you last updated your overview simply won't show up, meaning there will be things trying to kill you that will be invisible to you.
Follow the guide in Overview Settings when you first join us, after reinstalling the game, and after major patches to make sure your overview settings are correct. Failing to do so will cause you to see friendly players as hostile, not be able to see hostiles at all, and generally, be a clusterfuck that will get you killed.
Pay Attention To Local
The local chat channel is a powerful tool. Anyone who is currently in the system will show up in local. Un-Fuck your overview and they will all get proper color labels to show you if they are likely going to be good or bad for your life. If they have a red icon next to their name, that means they have a negative standing with our alliance and you should be cautious, as they will probably attempt to attack you. If they have a red star icon, then they are on the opposing side of a war and can even attack you in empire. Flashy skulls if you have that feature enabled only means that they are carrying suspect timers or crim timers. Means they recently took part in something PVP and the NPC's saw it (this means very little unless NPC police are involved, and there are no NPC police in Null). Anything Grey is neutral. This includes all the pubbie junk of the cluster who will like as not take a shot at you. Light blues, blues and greens are part of the coalition or they are valued allies to us. Purple icons are for people in your fleet.
Keep Your Intel Channels Open
Intel channels have up to date information on where enemy ships are and what they are doing. Keep the intel channel for your region open at all times. If you want to travel via a known hot spot on the map you can also simple ask in there. e.g. "D-W Status pls?"
Hint: you can left-click drag a channel into another part of your UI screen estate so you can see that channel as well as any other chat channels like fleet & local all at the same time. If you have different channel tabs open in the same window they will flash if any new messages arrived there.
VERY IMPORTANT: If you see bad guys post this up in intel. But only once you yourself are safe or beyond hope. Good example: "1-SMEB Sa Matra +3 Maledictions" System, Who it is, ship types. Doing this alerts the rest of us. And it helps friendly FC's hunt for the intruders.
Use Travel Interceptors
Travel-fit interceptors are interceptors fitted to have alignment times of under 2 seconds, which due to the mechanics of the server tick, are practically impossible to catch. Not impossible. But just very difficult and more to do with luck than skill. We still advise you make use of warping to bookmarks, celestials or signatures off to the sides, top or bottom first just in case the bad guys are arsing about with smartbombs or titan AOE doomsdays.
- Interceptors no longer have passive nullification, you now need to use an active module called Interdiction Nullifier see below.
To achieve the necessary align time of under two seconds you should use a combination of inertial stabilizer modules and low friction nozzle joint rigs. Consult this chart and see what combination of those components you'd need and what level of spaceship command (which really should be at V if you're even thinking about interceptors. Also confirm your fit using a tool like pyfa and/or the in-game fitting window.
As of the Great Escape update [1] passive nullification has been added to all shuttles. Interceptors, yachts, and T3 cruisers with nullification subsystems now require you to us an active module called Interdiction Nullifier. In a nutshell, shuttles will get through bubbles with no action on your part, whilst the rest need a button click and have reactivation delays (as well as 80% targeting range penalties for the ship while installed).
Do Not Undock If Enemies Are Around
Are there neutral or hostile players visible in your local channel? It's probably not a good idea to undock unless you have confirmation from an intel channel that the undock is clear. Hostile ships will usually check the station first, so there are good odds you'll get hit. And this is yet another reason we no longer use stations. Your safest spot is inside one of our citadels, or riding at citadel tether in a tight orbit (so you can't get bumped).
It may also be a good idea to check the fleet finder and see if there is a defense fleet formed. If there are and the FC is ready do try to reship into a defense ship if you have one on hand. Even just rage-forming a sufficiently scary sized fleet has been known to show bads the door. Bonus of course if you also get to ruin their day.
Use Warp to 0
Don't autopilot. Autopilot is slow and leaves you vulnerable while you are "slow-boating" to the gate. Even in highsec it's a bad idea, but in nullsec it is suicide.
Use Jump Gates
Ansiblex Jump Gates are private jump gates set up by the alliance. The ability to set these up is one of the major advantages to controlling space, and allows us to travel faster and more safely. Once you've jumped instantly warp off to a citadel or your exit gate. Bad guys have been known to camp the jump gates in cloaky ships. As mentioned above it's a good idea to first check in the intel channels if people have seen hostile players in your destination system.
Use Safespots
Sometimes hostiles come into system and you won't have time to dock at a station, usually because the hostile ships can get to the station before you do and pop a bubble. This has become less of an issue now we use Citadels. As you can simply warp directly into tether. But it's still a useful trick especially if the benevolent touch of GSOL have yet to grace the place you're in. And in really hostile situations you can use safe spots to bounce into the safety of a citadel from an angle the bad guys didn't expect.
One option you have is to warp to a planet, moon or star at 100km. This is safer than sitting outside a station or asteroid belt, however you could still be found if the enemy warps from planet to planet, as they often do. A much better option is to warp to a safespot. A safespot is a bookmark out in the middle of nowhere, created by placing a bookmark while you are in warp from one object to another. With the recent changes to the probing system, safespots aren't nearly as safe as they used to be, but not every fleet has a probing ship with them so it is better than nothing. Do not idle for too long in any one spot. More information about safespots (and how to avoid being caught in one) can be found here: Safespot.
Don't Give Your Enemies A Fair Fight
Hostiles visiting our regions will be looking for ganks, not a fair fight. They will 90% of the time be flying fast tacklers (like Interceptors, Dramiels) or Recon ships) and will run away from anything that's not a sure kill. Unless you know what you're doing and have the skills and equipment, you won't be able to kill one before he kills you or runs away. Get a fleet together, set up a trap, and kick the shit out of the hostiles, instead of trying to honorably 1v1 them.
Keep A PvP Ship Ready At All Times
You know that time you asked for help in an intel channel and everybody laughed at you instead of coming to help? That's because they didn't have a ship ready to roll on a moment's notice. Keep a PvP ship ready to fight at all times and you will not limit your options.
Use Cloaking Devices
There are three main classes of cloaking modules. These prevent you from being seen or appearing on the overview, though you are still visible in local chat. They are an essential protection tool, favored by many ratters, miners, and travelers in general. The best kind of cloak is the Covert Ops cloak because it allows you to warp while cloaked (the others hide you but do not allow you to warp) and can only be used by Covert Ops, Stealth Bombers, Force Recons, Blockade Runners, and appropriately configured Strategic Cruisers.
There are some drawbacks: you can be de-cloaked if a player can get within 2500m of you. Some players are quite good at this. Or if you blunder within 2500m of an object like a gate or drone. While cloaked, you cannot target things and move quite slowly. The cloak modules are so powerful that there are even some drawbacks active when you are not cloaked: locking onto enemy ships takes twice as long. If you've already been targeted, you cannot cloak, and if certain objects or any ships or drones move within 2,500 meters of your ship, you will uncloak.
The cloak is best used from places like safe spots and distant perches. But try to use one close to your ship. The risk is that if they brought anything with decent ship probes they can find your safe spot and still warp at you with decent chance of de-cloaking and finding your ship. If you saw too many probes rather immediately bounce from that spot to a far more distant one and try get yourself to a friendly citadel soon as you can.
Use Warp Core Stabilizers
WCS, or "stabs" for short, counter warp disruption/scrambling, giving one point of anti-warp disruption each (Warp Core Stability). Throw a couple of these on if you are worried about enemies tackling you before you get a chance to warp away. Note that they do not help you in the case of a warp bubble generated by Interdictors or the mobile warp disruptoion bubble items. Like cloaks, these also have the drawback of reducing the speed that you lock at.
As of "The Great Escape" update, WCS have changed and Nullification modules added
See [2]
--Olamm (talk) 21:34, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
Nanofiber Internal Structure
"Nanos" for short. These increase your ship's agility, thereby allowing it to align for warp faster. Throw some of these on if you are in a large, slow ship that has trouble aligning, such as an industrial, in order to make warping between gates and jump bridges take less time.
MicroWarpdrives and Afterburners
Also called MWD or AB respectively. These are active speed boosting modules which make your ship go significantly faster by using some of your ships capacitor. These are always useful to have for that off chance you run into a warp bubble or need to run back through a gate that you just jumped through.
