Ships & Modules

Cargo value is the most important thing in a freighter gank.
Low value = low chance of gank.

As far as shape, they're all huge. Very easy to bump. An experienced crew , if they select you for a target, is about 100% sure to finish the job.

Moustachio says 'Bzzt'


Permit status is the most important thing

This may not be the answer you like, but use courier contracts for runs between hubs and freighter yourself from regional systems to the local hub. i.e. if you are sourcing stuff from Domain and selling them in Jita,

1. use your own freighter to move stuff from various systems in Domain to Amarr station

2. Courier contract the lot from Amarr to Jita

If you really want to fly the freighter yourself between the hubs, either make it totally not worth it (like carrying 2~500mil cargo in max hull tanked Obelisk) or get a webber support. Bear in mind though that even a max tanked Obelisk with empty cargo can be ganked for lulz.

With web support (and preferably a falcon scout on stand by too) it could actually be safer to take low-sec route between some hubs instead of going through the heavy traffic high-sec only routes. I mean if there's no one in local in low sec that's safer than ganker populated high-sec. Heck, if you had a proper support fleet, it's actually safer to move freighters through 1 or 2 low sec gates with your gang escort than moving a freighter in highsec with support. In low sec you can preemptively clear the gate with brute force if anyone's hanging around the gate.

I've done this a few times myself (moving freighters with escort), but also experienced indignity of watching a fleet move multiple freighters through low sec I was hanging out solo at the time because they had like a 20 men fleet escorting the freighters.

So basically pushdogg is right. If gankers are prepared to coordinate a fleet to gank you, don't expect an easy ride through their route in a solo freighter with no scouts and supports. Take the low sec route I say. At least you have potential for fun fight in a 'protect the VIP' kinda tactical scenario. I once lost a freighter in low sec while I was part of a small gang escort but at least that was some pretty fun 4 vs 4 small gang pvp involved around the gate. With the low slots+hull resist buff we have now though I think we would've made it through at that time.

CCP Fozzie announced a change in bumping mechanics during the ships & modules presentation at Fanfest. A bumper will not be able to prevent your ship from warping - they can only delay the warp for 3 minutes. To prevent a warp they must apply a point. He did not say when this is expected to be implemented.

Cause webbing alts are immune to suicide ganking and NOBODY has thought of using a sacrificial ship to point the freighter, while the bump is on the way...

But yes, I'm a fan of the 3 minute max bump timer. It's not uncounterable(is this even a word?) and it forces the gankers to either be prepared or have to do some sacrificial characters to cycle points every 2m 59s while the gank party is on the way.

Also, if you really want to be safe ish while moving a freighter. You'll want up to 2 webbers, depending on your warp lengths, also want a scout/warp in frigate. Daredevil's a good one.

Gankers generally use scouts along the trade pipes. To know juicy targets. If they see a webber, they can either:
a) kill the webber
b) jam the webber
c) the easiest one which is just use a sacrificial ship to point the freighter. This buys enough time for the bumping ship to get a bump onto the freighter.

At that point, your only recourse is to use a warp in frigate like the daredevil. I prefer the daredevil, because I only need 1 web as opposed to 3 to reach the same effect.

I'm not saying a webbing alt is a bad idea. Infact, you shouldn't be boating a freighter without one. However, I don't want people under the assumption that they're safe just because they have one.

Gully never implied that, you are just being an @ss.

What 3 minutes?

I'm pretty sure when you use the word ALL. It's inclusive to all things that can go wrong, which a webbing alt does not solve.

But you will be pointed if they are really trying to kill you. Sacrificing a noobship for a shot at a billion ISK payday is a no-brainier.

A webbing alt is a good counter, but not perfect, especially if you are silly enough to put many multi-billions of ISK in your flying loot piñata. If you have to move something that valuable, just use a more robust and bump-immune form of transport like a DST or a brick-tanked T3 cruiser.