EVE New Citizens Q&A

I know nothing of DOTLAN so I won't answer that.

As far as finding a specific nullsec region, Thera is usually the quickest way. Check out this site which usually has up-to-date info on current connections to Thera and find something close to the region you're looking for. If you open it in the in-game browser it will even show how many jumps to the closest high-sec connection.

It's possible to find a specific region without Thera but it will be much more tedious.

Edit for clarity: Thera is a large wormhole system which, unlike other wormhole systems, has stations. At any given time it has several static connections to high, low, and null sec systems, making it a great way to get around quickly.

Just a few thoughts.

If you have not done so spend some time in high sec learning to fly cloaked everywhere you go. Pay particular attention to mastering the art of minimum exposure when going from gate cloak to on board cloak since that is one of your most vulnerable times.

If you do not know how to make them, practice making safe spots while you are in warp, one day they may save your ship or pod.

Carry many sets of extra probes, more than once I have seen players leave them behind in a WH and not be able to get back to reconnect to them.

Go in a pod with no implants, or implants you can afford to replace. If you get caught in a WH and lose your ship you might have to take the POD express to get out because your ability to scan blew up with the ship.

Nul sec will add the potential for warp bubbles so reading up on them is a very good thing to do.

Warping directly to a gate is not always the best idea, but warping to any of the predefined distances can be a bad idea as well so you will have to decide how to deal with these things.

If you have high enough skills combat probes can be an excellent option for general use. They can be used to scan for everything that the core probes can and they offer you the ability to use them as a form of scout to see what is around the gates before you jump to them. If you have never used them then I suggest some time in high sec learning to use them for general scanning and for scouting gates.

Thera is THE hub of New Eden offering shortcuts to a all over New Eden, but be careful the hunters know that as well, so exploring in the adjacent holes and systems is dangerous and competetive, instead venture deaper into regions, search for quiet places.

From highsec it can be be very time consuming to scan a random chain into null, the other way is easier, hence placing a jump clone with the scan ship in NPC null like Stain or freeported Provi is a good idea. Then you can focus on scanning and exfiltrate the loot when you find a good connection.

If you can fly a covops I think you may be overestimating the dangers of simply jumping to your destination in the standard fashion. It is possible for you to get caught in a gatecamp and killed, but there are ways that you can minimize this risk. First of all, have a look at dotlan and try to identify the most likely places for a gatecamp. Usually these are the first jump into lowsec and the first jump into null. Filter your map so you can see ship/pod kills for these systems. Tons of recent kills are pretty good evidence of a gatecamp. Then filter it by number of jumps. Even if there haven't been a lot of recent kills, be cautious of systems which have heavy traffic, as they too are somewhat likely to be camped/bubbled. If you want to get really clever you can check which alliance owns the space and what their most active time zones are, then plan your trip for the opposite time zone to even further reduce the risk.

Ok, now let's imagine that you have planned your route but in spite of your best efforts you have run into a nullsec gatecamp. You jump through a gate and find your ship enveloped in a bubble. A bunch of ships are flying around trying to decloak you. What do you do? First of all, take a few deep breaths. You still have a gate cloak - being bubbled does not negate this. They won't be able to see you until you make a move or until something gets within 2000m and decloaks you. If it's a large gatecamp, they'll put their drones out and orbit the gate and they might be able to find you, in which case you are boned. Fortunately most gate camps aren't big enough to reliably make this happen.

At this point you have two options - you can try to slip away or you can jump back. In most situations if you approach the gate and turn on your microwarpdrive, then spam the jump button you will succeed in getting back through the gate alive, and any of the campers who aggressed you will not be able to follow. Of course, if they are smart their interdictor did not aggress and you will be bubbled on the other side as well. In the jump-back scenario your best option is to immediately pick a celestial, hit align, turn on your cloak, and start spamming the warp button - you have a solid chance of getting away in this situation.

If you decided to try and slip away from the gatecamp rather than jump back, then you should take a look at where you are positioned in the bubble, pick a celestial in the approximate direction of the closest edge, hit align, hit cloak, and spam warp. Your ship will move cloaked to the edge of the bubble and warp off. If they were quick enough they will see where you were in the instant before you cloaked and start approaching that location to decloak you, but often they aren't quick enough or fail to get within range before you warp off.

The other think that deserves to be mentioned is that it is generally unwise to warp directly from gate to gate when traveling around nullsec. If you bounce off a celestial first and thereby approach the out-gate from an unpredictable direction you will be much less likely to be caught in a bubble.

I believe you can still lose your active probes if for some reason you disconnect and are unable to log back in before they expire. So it's always a good idea to carry a spare set (a set of t1 probes is quite cheap).

To expand on this a bit.
I have lost probes due to glitches in the communication between client and server.
Lost probes on a disconnect.
I have even lost probes because I was to close to the gate and they did not have time to auto return to my cargo bay before I jumped through the gate.

In the end when you are dealing with maintaining the ability to scan your way out of WH rather than taking the POD Exress (sefl destruct) a few extra sets of probes is cheap, requires very little cargo space and just makes sense overall. Especially for a new player just starting their journey's into WH and nul.

^ This!

I started exploring a while back and at the beginning I used my Anathema (covops frig) to explore wh and go for data/relic sites.

At one point I entered a wh and without noticing, my entry point collapsed and the only other connections i found led me to other wormholes/null sectors.
I panicked a bit tbh and even thought of suiciding ... but Im glad i didnt.

All other wh connections led to c4+ wormholes and some null sectors. I even ended up in system at war, one side was attacking with a large fleet of capital ships and all sort of other ships. It was a pretty sight, i stayed cloaked and watch for a bit, was awesome :)

I took the challenge of returning to high sec in one piece. After a few hours i was lost, I had no idea where i was, i started popping up all over the null sec regions and couldnt find a hs connection.

It took me over 8 hours totals to find an exit but in that time I managed to make a few hundred million isk from all the data/relic sites i hacked, not to mention all the knowledge i gained in this adventure.

It was great, exciting not knowing what the next system would bring me to ...
I've returned home with a tale to tell to my friends :)

Nowdays I fly Stratios and my legion for exploration purposes, really good ships.