Warfare & Tactics

Introduction

I'm going to share with you, how as a new or old pilot struggling to find or create content for yourself, you can jump into an assortment of ships and have some fun. We'll take a look at the whole process from beginning to end. I'll show you how to find a good system to set up shop, how to be effective with an alt or a couple buddies, how to fit your ship, how to stay safe, and how to deal with your inevitably destroyed security standings. Let's dive in.

Reconnaissance

The first thing we'll do is look at how to find a good place to do this and to start we'll look at the kinds of systems you can work in and the benefits of both.

There are two different kinds of systems you can work in, pipes and stars. Pipes are systems that have only 2 gates in it, there's essentially a front and a back door. The benefit of these systems is that even in low traffic systems, pilots will always go through your blast path, and if you have a ship that can chase down capsules and shuttles, there's nothing you can't chase down besides Leopards. Pipes are great too because it's low maintenance. You're just facing one way, and keeping an ear out for gate fire behind you.

Stars are a system that have many gates, so if you can imagine the visual traffic patterns of pilots traveling through from gate to gate it'd look like a multi-pointed star. The benefit of these systems can only be enjoyed if you have a ship fast enough to chase things down. By not being tied down to just 1 or 2 gates and being able to fly around in an unpredictable manner it becomes difficult for people that are after you to grab you.

There are two resources we'll use to find our system(s), Dotlan and zKillboard.

Dotlan

Go right to the Universe page so that you can see all the regions. I recommend staying in Low-sec. Pick a region and when it shows the star map of all the systems in the top right there are 3 pull-down menus. The second from the right, click that and choose Security. Now you can see the security system of each system which makes it easier for you to see what you're looking for, a star or a pipe.

When I look at systems I look for similar ones so that I can compare the jump traffic to see what is a good number. On any given day 30-50 jumps per hour is good solid traffic. Any more than that for a pipe and you may be taking on more than you can chew, and keeping tabs on the Local will be near impossible.

You're also looking at how the systems go into each other. Low-sec pipes that pour into High-sec are the best. You'll have shuttles with blueprints, tags and other small items go in and out. Low-sec pipes going into Null-sec are absolutely terrible. Don't do these. You'll rarely have pods or shuttles leave, and with bubble camps nothing much is escaping.

The next thing you're looking for is that there are stations that have a clone bay and repair services, but this is optional. A clone bay allows you to put a ship there in the system, jump to another clone, and then jump back in case it's too hairy one particular evening. Repair services allow you to repair your ship of armor and hull damage. You can certainly just pack modules, undock, use them, and then redock and unfit them.

Let's use Dotlan to look at good examples of pipes and stars. A great pipe is in the region of Derelik. The system Asabona has good traffic of 30-50 jumps per hour. It also has a station that provides cloning and repair. The station is owned by CONCORD and you can turn in soldier tags there to repair your security status. We'll cover this more later. A great star is Egghelende. It has 6 systems pouring into and gets about 75-100 jumps per hour. Because it's a star, that many jumps is no problem, but you just need to stay active and keep moving.

zKillboard

The next thing we'll want to use is zKillboard. Once we've scoped a good system we can plug that system into zKillboard and see the activity over a period of time. This allows you to see if there are regular outfits that gate camp, which would obviously hinder your ability to do your thing. Additionally, you can see who the regular locals are that live there. I will cover local management later, but if there are regulars in your targeted system, for right now set them to blue and don't **** with them until we cover that topic.

Staying Safe

Now let's turn our attention to keeping you safe. We'll cover bookmarks, local management, deciphering different timers you'll incur, and also dealing with being caught which will happen! By the end of this section you should have a sound ability to drastically increase your chances of staying alive.

Bookmarks

Undocks: These need to be made EVERYWHERE that you'll have clones set up. You don't want to be trapped in a station by cheeky Tornado snipers, or small camping gangs. And in case you have a trading clone set up while there are active kill rights, you're going to want to squeeze by any attempts to lock and pop your ship when you undock.

Docks: Just as important as undocks, dock points allow you to get into your station when a Stabber is waiting for you to attempt to dock up just after you take armor damage from the gates so he can bump you off of station. Even more realistic is when a Tornado is hanging out there on the undock and can lock you and take a shot real quick.

Safe Spots: When you're in a pipe system especially, these safe spot bookmarks can be a lifesaver. Your safe spot will be exactly in the middle of the two gates. There will be many times that a ship that is warping in on your gate will decloak you. It happens about 1 in 5 times no matter the size of the ship. And when it does if you're AFK or just not ready for it they can cut warp/jump and immediately target you, and if you're still suspect they can tackle you with no repercussions. If I pop someone from corporation A and then later another member of corporation A comes my way, I'll align to my safe spot in case they attempt to decloak me and grab me quick. Hell hath no fury like a man just removed of his HG Snakes.

Pop Points: These are where you'll be warping to on 0 to activate your bombs. Tedious explanation incoming: It's important to get these right. Enter the system through one of the gates in your pipe system, immediately warp to the next gate at 0. Turn around and go to the gate you JUST LEFT and hit it at 0. Now that you've hit both gates at 0, turn around and hit the other gate from 10km away while cloaked. When you land you'll be about.. you guessed it, 10km away. Slow boat towards the gate until you're at 8250m then make a bookmark. I like to title it as the gate. You will land anywhere from 7250 to 9000 meters. From here you can slowboat to 7500+ in just moments.

Timers

The only timers you need to worry about are Weapons Timer and Suspect Timer. Whenever you take a shot at someone on the gate you will have 60 seconds before you can jump that gate or dock a station. This is the Weapons Timer. This is important when we cover what to do when someone grabs you. Your Suspect Timer is what you will need to keep in mind in case you jump into High-sec from Low-sec after you've escaped but think that you're free. Nope. People can still take shots at you for 15 minutes.

Junk

When you pop shuttles and rookie ships you're going to have wrecks, and most of the time they're going to be empty. In my fits I put one small laser in a high-slot because there's no cargo space required for ammo, and 1 or two cycle eats up the wreck. And you don't want people to see you're hanging around operating solo. This isn't Tama where all your wrecks and corpses act as trophies and warnings for those who just jumped in. You want people not to even know you're there. Pick up your corpses, eat the wrecks and stay hidden.

Local management

Listen: Gate fire will let you know that someone has jumped in behind you. And when that happens, if you're chasing pods and shuttles go ahead and start aligning for the other gate. When you see that you can grab the new local pilot, take warp. Listening allows you to know that someone is coming in from behind when you see that someone came into Local. With your volume down you have to turn around your camera or zoom out to see the gate fire flash to confirm that someone entered behind you.

Speak: Don't talk **** to people you pop. People will put together a BLOPS gang to hot drop right on top of you if you push them to it. They may just do it anyway, but don't provoke. You're mostly stationary and at a disadvantage because you can very easily be baited with an empty capsule.

When you pop a shuttle or a rookie ship and the capsule escapes they may say something. Most of the time it'll be like 'omg' or something similar. Be a good winner and a good loser. Wish them safe travels and win them over with kindness. Learn who the locals are, be brief and cordial with them. You're in their space where they rat, mine, perform logistics and don't interrupt that by being a nuisance in Local. Set them to blue and let them pass. Many will scoff at this suggestion, but do it. They'll figure it out that you're not popping their capsules.

Watch: If there is a number of people in Local that are residents there and you know for a fact that they're not a threat, or if there's anyone whose in your system that is conducting business there unrelated to you, just hit Ctrl-A in the window with whose in Local, and when someone enters the system you'll see that they're not highlighted. Confirm with what you hear that they are coming towards you, or coming in from behind you, all in a split second.

Drugs

Blue Pill: Get them, and keep one in your cargo at all times. Don't ever sit on a gate and smart bomb if you're not going to have a Blue Pill in your cargo hold. You will mostly always be able to get to the gate if you get caught so you can jump over and escape, but you will not always have the buffer, resistances and active tank to stay alive. Give yourself the best chance and have a Strong Blue Pill. It's worth the ISK. Visit the in-game channel Narcotics if you'd like them delivered to you.

Ships & Fits

We'll look at each ship in a very general way in order to see the differences between them regarding cloaky bombing, and then we'll look at each fit that I've come up with. There are those who use faction battleship, BLOPS ships, and then also T1 cruisers in High-sec, but we wont be looking and discussing those since I have no experience flying those ships. But I will provide those fits at the end of this taken from notorious pilots.

Proteus: This ship is the go-to status quo for cloaky bombers. It has the ability with its Gravitational Capacitor subsystem to push the ship to upwards of 7.4 AU warp speed which is faster than any shuttle, and with Ascendancy implants you can reach even greater speeds. But rest assured, you cannot catch a Leopard.

For this particular fit you have a nice buffer of 28k EHP. With this fit you will be chasing shuttles and pods. The Nanofiber is for getting in position quicker while cloaked, and the Inertial Stabilizer is for of course also getting into position at your gate, especially when chasing things down. This is a standard-ish Proteus fit, and if we were playing Mario Kart it would be Mario. Good at everything, great at nothing.

Legion: While it is considerably stronger than the Proteus with a 35k EHP, it cannot chase shuttles without the use of Ascendancy implants. It has a greater velocity though. This makes this an awesome survival cloaky smartbomber in my opinion because you can still chase down capsules and sometimes after the heat of battle, shiny capsules aren't concerned with docking up to get a shuttle. They're just interested in getting to High-sec.

Loki: This is where we start mixing the medium smartbombs with large. Since your large radius is 7500, you will still have to maintain that distance from your gate, except now your window for maximum impact is at 6000. With a critical hit you are still doing plenty of damage to obliterate shuttles, rookie ships and their capsules in two blows.

The benefit of the Loki is the smaller signature radius making it so that in the case you get grabbed and start getting pounded by a Stealth Bomber, those torpedoes will be doing much less to you than the other T3 ships. That being said you aren't utilizing the Amplification Node subsystem which decreases your signature radius. Just naturally the hull has a smaller radius. And look at the EHP of 38k. You weren't expecting that were you? The Power Diagnostic module is there in place of the Reactor Control Unit because it helps to buff the resistances of your shield. This is a great ship for survival, and while it warps faster than a capsule and rookie ship I wouldn't expect to land and adjust your position quick enough to pop more than 50% of anything you chase. However, if you align and enter warp just as you can see you have a capsule warping to the other gate, and if you can land in a perfect sweet spot of +7500 meters you can chase them. Shuttles are out of the question.

Tengu: The Tengu is an absolute house at 48k EHP, but it is much slower which can be more of a pain with adjusting yourself than getting to the gate if you get caught. You'll make it to the gate with no problem, and with a Strong Blue Pill you're tanking about 440 DPS. Here is the bad: You are not popping anything other than capsules and shuttles, but you have the chance of whiffing on the shuttle in the first blow because you are using the medium faction smartbombs. But with the Gravitational Capacitor subsystems you're still able to fly after capsules, making the Tengu the absolute capsule killer. Throw some Ascendancy implants in and you can chase after shuttles too.

Stratios: This thing is the absolute minimum of cloaky bombing, and I don't recommend being brave or aggressive in this thing at all because if you get grabbed by even a Zephyr that pulls up on its warp it's going to **** you up with its glorious sails. You've got 14k EHP and your resist profile is terrible. Your speed is average and you're chasing absolutely nothing. This fit is made in such a way to assume that you don't have Energy Upgrades to V. The good thing is you're blasting everything that comes your way. You're also super blingy so if you don't feel good, align and GTFO. Go dock up, watch some Netflix and come back later. The Stratios is a stepping stone to the T3 ships.

Battleship Fits: Machariel

Cruiser Fits: Maller

Using Clones (Solo Play)

By using clones you can really put yourself, as a true solo player, in a position to not be held down by your inevitably bruised security status. You also allow yourself to be able to earn an income as a market trader in any of the various trade hubs. While this scenario I am about to describe is mostly specific, it will detail the general capabilities of using clones while being a smart bombing pilot. Afterwards, we will deconstruct it and look at the true potential of using clones, and how to maximize your gameplay.

Scenario

Our Infomorph Psychology skill is only at level 3 so we can only create 4 jump clones currently, which includes our main clone who will remain in Jita.

Three systems have already been scouted and researched for possible bombing. They are pipes, close to High-Sec exits and show good traffic, with no signs of consistent gate camping from any particular entity. These systems all have stations with Cloning and Repair services which is what we will want since we will be playing truly solo and will need to dock and repair at times.

Most importantly, a CONCORD station is within short distance to one of our 3 smart bombing systems which we will use to repair our security status. We will transport and store the proper number and types of security tags to repair a security status of -10.0 to the CONCORD station for future use. We are playing truly solo and do not want to cripple any possibility of doing something extraneous to smart bombing in High-Sec. However, despite our preparations, we are using the clone system to still make enough ISK to fund our pirating ways without putting our ship in harm's way by traveling through High-Sec, and without ever repairing our security status.

All bookmarks have been made for each system, station, safe spot and observation perch.

Lastly, we purchase, fit and move 3 identical ships to each system that we will be bombing in. We place each ship into their station as well create jump clones.

We now have 4 clones, 3 at our bombing stations, and 1 in Jita. We put up a number of market orders that can safely sit there for at least a day without any necessary maintenance. Let's get to work!

We jump to our first system and spend 2 days there really having a blast. We dock up at the end of our second day and immediately jump to our Jita clone where we take care of our market orders and create new ones. Because of the jump clone cool down we have to wait 20 hours, which is no problem because we were done for the night anyway.

The next night we check Dotlan to see that 2 of our systems have gate camps currently going on, which is disappointing, but not a night killer because we have a third system which is showing excellent traffic but no consistent PVP that a gate camp would show. We jump to that system and stay there for 3 days just absolutely hammering the through-traffic.

The next day a market exploit reveals itself but the only way to take advantage of it is to travel to and fro from Amarr to Jita in our blockade runner, and with our current standings there is no way we can do that without getting popped. We consider the potential profit gain and decide it's worth using some of our tags at the CONCORD station. Luckily, we're in the system close to the CONCORD station where our tags are so we jump a few systems over to use those.

After repairing our security status we jump to our main clone in Jita, stuff our blockade runner full of profitable goodies, undock and immediately use our undock bookmarks because we have hundreds of killrights on us and there's no telling whose in Jita, waiting and watching. We travel to Amarr, sell our items, make a massive profit, refill our CONCORD station with security tags that we used, dock back up in Jita and call it a day.

The next day we jump to one of our 3 systems and go back to blasting fools and the cycle of life continues.

Skills for creating clones

Infomorph Psychology: For each level you can create 1 extra clone. At level 5 you can have 6 clones which includes your main clone.

Advanced Informorph Psychology: You need to have Informorph Psychology to level 5 in order to train this skill. For each level you can create 1 extra clone. At level 5 you can have 11 clones which includes your main clone. Yes, you can have a lock on 11 Low-sec systems where you absolutely wreak havoc on the locals.

Fixing Security Status

Your security status will take a tumble fast. In one evening you can hit -10.0 and you need to be ready for it. You don't necessarily need an alt to cope with the lifestyle of living with a broken security status. There are things you can do.

Tags: When you're at -10.0 you will need to have 20 tags available in a CONCORD station, at the ready. These will cost you about 200 million ISK. When used they will get you back to 0.0

6 Clone Soldier Recruiter Tags
6 Clone Soldier Transporter Tags
4 Clone Soldier Negotiator Tags
4 Clone Soldier Trainer Tags

Fast Talk: This skill allows you to improve your security status quicker through ratting in belts, anomalies or missions. Train this up anyway, and especially if you're going to rat in Low-sec. Just have a ship there ready for you that you can undock in and get to work. Hell you can pick up tags that way too since the particular rats that carry them are in asteroid belts.

Conclusion

You've got enough here to get you going. There is a lot of nuances that you'll figure out when you're out there. How to react to different things that happen, and when and when not to worry. Many will see you as a **** player who cannot pvp and will give you many tears. I strongly suggest you to not give them the time of day. Wish them safe travels and move on. It can be profitable doing this with bounty payments and shuttle loot. Be patient, don't push your luck and do your part to improve implant sales.

Great write up mate, i was looking for something exactly like this a month or two ago, would probably have saved me a proteus :P

Might i add that it would maybe be helpful if you talked through the steps of what you would do after you found a target and are going for the kill.

Isn't it cheaper to have your scouting/falcon alt do the hauling for you since you don't have to buy tags+the risk of you getting popped by one of the 50 gorrilion killrights on your head while hauling in highsec.

I have no clues about SBing, wanted to give it a go, and was happy to have found this. now I have a few less clues, and will head out and reduce that count furtehr with some trial and, doubtlessly, error.

Two things I'd like to have also seen:
1. The actual nuts-and-bolts 'how to' part. For example do you uncloak and activate the bombs based on a guesstimate warp time of your target, or pretty well as soon as they enter system? I assume that when they're gate jumping into you, you have to wait for them to leave their initial gate-jump cloak before you can do any damage.
2. Why 7.5km? Is it to maximise the time that warping ships spend inside SB range, or is it to reduce likelihood of gate aggro?

Thanks for going to the effort, and don;t listen to the nay-sayers. They get their own feeble sense of self worth by trying to deprecate others.

Two things,

1. Thanks for the excellent write up, I've been considering ways to kill SB campers, not because I'm butthurt, just seems like a fun challenge, a hard task but rewarding to those who do the work :) Same with OGB's

2. F*ck you!, now every punk gonna be at it. At least the current crop have some class (and officer/faction SB's to loot). This next generation are gonna be scrubs.


Seriously though, good write-up o7

Hello there. I've updated the guide in the second to last of the posts with an official HOW DO section where I explain the HOW DO of smartbombing. I apologize for it not being there in the first place. I will be inserting screenshots of each step at my earliest convenience, but for those who needed an actual step-by-step, this should help. Happy popping!

You make meh blush