Wormholes

I'll echo some of the advice here, but I want to mention a couple of things others have not.

I'm a new player too, been in ships for about two weeks now, and I'm really, really enjoying the intensity of exploration. I originally couldn't afford anything but tech I frigates, and now I stick with them for the reasons below.

1) When you see anyone else in the system, cloak up if you aren't already and stop doing things. If you see multiple ships enter the system, cloak up and scuttle (blow up) your core probes. Even if they can't see you, they can see your probes.

2) ** Important... I can see you want to bring enough firepower to take on the sleepers, which makes sense because those sites are far more common than the anomalies, but your ship has a 295m signature radius. The frigate I usually do wormholes in has a 40m signature radius. It's much harder to find me than it is to find you. Still possible.

No matter how much firepower you bring, the gankers will bring more. The only defense against them is seeing them first and hiding or running. If you're in a big ship like a drake, you're also a much more interesting target for them. A ganker who isn't hunting for money but rather for kicks isn't going to chase down a little imicus, but is going to put a whole lot of effort into killing a drake just because it's more interesting for him.

I have developed habits for hitting d-scan every 10 seconds or so (it's not as difficult as it sounds) unless I'm cloaked, and even then I do if I have probes out. If I see anything on the list, even other core probes, I make sure I'm cloaked and either recall or detonate my own probes. I never sit stationary and scan, and I never scan from any location to which someone can warp without scanning me down.

Even with all the above, you still get ganked. There are a lot of players in Eve for whom the only joy seems to be finding another player can get away with killing. A few will only kill you to take your cargo, others will defend territory, but the majority of them seem to be children from broken homes or who are bullied in real life and ganking is the only time they get to feel powerful.

My worst night I got killed three times, I lost a Probe and 2x Imicus. Even with that I was still cash positive, since the three ships cost me maybe 5m combined, and I got close to 15m from data and relic sites. The only thing that really annoyed me was the time lost. If your ship is only worth 1.5m or so ganking is just the price of doing business.

Final note... C1-C3 wormholes take patience and stealth, but they pay off. I had a good night two days ago, I got so involved in looting a wormhole system that I failed to notice the hole I'd entered through close behind me. Cue two days of looking for an exit in highsec reasonably close to my "home" system. As I jumped from wormhole to wormhole system, I kept hidden and looted sites when I could. It was intense, but very absorbing and fun. Kind of like "silent running" in the old submarine movies.

Yesterday I finally found an exit only 26 jumps from home... let me tell you, you've never been nervous until you've taken a half hour flight through systems from 0.5 - 0.9 sec level with 120m isk in cargo...in a frigate with no weapons.

Extra mid - consider an AB

Could you swap the DLA for a smartbomb for frigs? I doubt you'll be hurt by drone range, esp in magnetar where you can't target that far.

You COULD orbit your depot, for faster refit, but these sites don't scram, so you don't need to refit for stabs. That said you'll be safer further away from things that can be BM'ed and warped to such as wrecks, MTU, etc.

Consider staying away from the warping to give yourself a few extra seconds to escape.

Also, I doubt that you'll have enough capacitor when you have BS neuts on you. Look at cap recharge in mids/rigs. I also imagine you'd benefit from more armor tank, but I'm not sure as I haven't attempted low-end solo sites in awhile.

hey, as far as i read everything is said about minimizing the risk of getting ganked while ratting solo in w-space. there is no 100% way to avoid it but if you stay alert it won’t happen too often.

and thank you for your loot. guys like you are our PvE and we honour even the drop of a t1 frig.

Yea... i wont blow up my sisters every time xD

if you slap a T2 ECCM in your mid slot it'll make you twice as hard to scan down, I run 2 in my gas mining ship all the time.

the bubble didn't come from the tengu. it can't drop them. the bubble came from my sabre. the tengu can only point you via scram or disruptor. we prefer scrams as someone mentioned above you could have fit a micro jump drive. maybe this is something for the last mid in your brutix.

and i don't worry about the 1m. one 1m is 1m and it's our way to make ISK because we're very lazy in farming NPC rats.

Just want to add to this because often the response is "but alts I don't wanna", you don't have to actively "watch" the hole that you park an 'alt' on, wormholes are the only time in my ... many years of EVE time that I've felt the need to ENABLE sound (yes, Eve has sound!). You will hear the hole fire, and you can then:

1. safe up your pve ship
2. see who comes in with the alt
3. prepare to kill them with your non-pve ship.

Barring ability to do steps #1 and #2, the audible alert of a wormhole should be enough warning to you to get moving, at least for now until you establish the threat.

I often invite friends to a gank I did all the work for, and could have easily done alone. Why not? Friends share.

Anyway, the best high-level advice for how to avoid ganks, or stay alive in general, is to start ganking, and start killing other players.
Once you have seen what you have to do while hunting someone, you will see what can be done to make it harder. It would almost be better to ask people what tricks they use when hunting someone, and analyze that... IMO, solo hunting is the greatest game in Eve anyway, and one even new players with can partake in (shout-out to wingspanTT - I love his vids).


But for a partial, more immediate list:

• After scanning a system out, lurk and watch for a long time (about 1/2 to 1 hr) to identify those who may be lurking about. It also gives hunters who spotted your probes time to get bored and look elsewhere.
• Scout adjacent systems as well. The larger the sphere of your awareness, the better your odds of survival.
• Verify every wormhole is no further than ~14.6 AU from where you plan to run sites.
• Check dscan every 3-5 seconds. No less. Seriously.
• Watch for new sigs popping up while you run sites. Verify their range immediately if possible. If further than 14.6, you could be in trouble.
• Maintain high alert. When you get tired, or get carpal tunnel from dscan, just leave.
• Do NOT warp back to the wormhole in an emergency. Make safe spots and ping spots.
• Have the mindset that every cloaky ship is hunting you and currently creeping up on you. Even that buzzard you saw on scan for 3 seconds.
• Be aware of what enemies have to do to find you. Run their process over in your mind. How would you kill someone like you? Eg: If you are at a sig, they either need to probe, or have pre-probed and waited until you showed up.
• Set goals. Get in and get out. If your goal is to just run sites all day, then your day will end with an (attempted) gank.
• Don't just warp to the site from the wormhole. Bounce somewhere else in the system first. If they are going to find and kill you, at least make them work for their supper.
• Never do anything the same way twice. For example, don't run all of one kind of site, then all of another kind. Try to avoid patterns in everything you do in wormholes. This is general advice, and applies to more than just site-running.

Some more high-level stuff.
Every action tells a story. Take action to project the narrative you want them to have, and not the true story. It will slow their reactions. For a practical example: Instead of scanning out the system, then returning to highsec to get your drake, take your scan ship out a different hole, or scan more systems. Don't make it obvious that your focus is on that one system. Contrary to how it may seem, there are not 10 gankers in every single wormhole. They pick up your activity and then move assets to where they believe a gank is probable. Try to confuse them, and it will buy you time.
Be the fox and not the hen. This is the mindset you need to have.


Also, ask those who gank you for their side of the story. Wormholers are actually a very friendly group, as ruthless as they may seem. Tons of people would be happy to take you under their wing, if you ask.

Yeah. Blowing them up is an option, too, if they're cheap.

Yea, the people who ganked me seem to be nice (btw do you mind if I messge you?) , I just made some bad experience when I got ganked the first time, after saying good fight I got a reply like this wasnt even a fight scrub. But yea, besides that all gankers and people who tried were nice, and once i also was able to help a ganker with his fit.