Pod saving

This guide is provided as a tutorial resource on how to save your pod, or capsule, when you're likely to lose your ship in PvP. Simply going through this will help you understand but nothing beats practice.

There are going to be times in PvP situations where you'll lose your ship and you'll find yourself in your pod. At the moment you are in your pod, you are in imminent danger of being "podded", which is when your capsule is destroyed, along with your current clone. When you lose your ship in PvE to rats, sleepers, and such, you are not in danger from the NPCs, however, you can be in danger from hostile capsuleers, depending on the security sector of space you're in and/or if you're under a wardec.

With both knowledge, practice, and confidence, you should be able to save your pod almost all the time when you're in hisec, as capsules are very difficult to lock-up, and unless you panic, or don't react, warping off will be achieved. In lowsec there are some new factors that can make this more difficult, such as smartbomb use, but again, with knowledge, practice, and confidence you should be able to save your pod. In nullsec and w-space the added danger of warp interdiction spheres, or bubbles, can increase the likelihood of your being podded. When operating in those sectors of space be prepared to lose your pod more often.

This guide will focus on the basics of saving your pod.

Being Prepared

In order to successfully save your pod you first need to be prepared. If you're not prepared no amount of information will help you the moment you find yourself in your pod.

Pod Saver Overview Preset

You will need to have a proper "Pod Saver" Overview preset created. Note that the default Overview provided to you when you first enter the game does not have what most PvP pilots consider to be an effective Pod Saver preset.

• The EVE University Standard Overview profile has a proper Pod Saver preset. You should familiarize yourself with the Standard Overview profile on our Overview Guide.
• A Pod Saver preset can be created by following these instructions in the linked guide.

The concept behind an effective Pod Saver preset is to provide you a number of celestial options to choose to warp-to without extraneous choices that may prove to be fatal. For example, if you had options such as stargates, stations, you'd be warping out to locations that have a high probability of hostile ships present or that you'd be easily followed to, plus the added complication that you'd have a weapons timer in effect and could not jump or dock-up.

Clone Preparation

Quite simply, when you know you're going to go into a PvP situation you want to be in a clone that you're prepared to risk losing. Many pilots will jump to or already be in a clean clone, which is a clone that has zero implants installed in it, or perhaps only combat skills hardwire implants. Experienced pilots are probably more prepared to risk non-clean clones.

• If you're unfamiliar with jump clones you can read up on them here on our jump clone guide.
• EVE University will reimburse you for the NPC seeded cost (1 million ISK) for the needed Infomorph Psychology skillbook.

Plan ahead and be sure that you have a clean clone available in the station(s) you operate from for PvP fleets and ops.

Practice and Practical Training

Nothing beats practical training to help new pilots experience ending up in their capsules and successfully saving their pods.

Currently, the game mechanics allow you to aggress a fellow corp-mate without legal or sec-status consequences. Should this change, or if the instructor and trainee{s) are not in the same corporation the instructor can use the dueling challenge mechanics. The trainee would accept the challenge to duel when they are ready to go through the practical exercise.

• The instructor and trainee should meet at a prearranged bookmark both for safety and to ensure you're not interrupted by random pilots. In wartime please ensure to get others to help act as pickets to provide early warning.
• All pilots involved will need to be in the same Mumble channel.
• The trainee should be in a rookie frigate. They don't need to have any additional modules. This will also ensure there is no worries of ISK loss or worrisome killboard entries.
• The instructor will need to be in a frigate or destroyer and have weaponry equipped with T1, non-faction ammo or crystals, and with a warp scrambler or warp disruptor. Webifiers are optional.
• The instructor should explain to the trainee(s) what they will experience, and how to be ready to use their Pod Saver preset.
• Once ready, the instructor will engage the trainee with both their weapons and point, and they should experience the trainee ending up in structure relatively slowly to allow for explanation.
• The instructor should indicate when the trainee should be switched to their Pod Saver tab (with the Pod Saver preset loaded) and when they should start "spamming" the warp-to for the selected object.
• Once the trainee is in their pod, the instructor should attempt to lock and point the trainee. Trainees should never be podded. Please exercise caution.
• As confidence grows the practical scenario can be increased to show how quickly things can happen for a pilot to end up in their pod.

Both instructors and trainees should ensure that any ISK losses are properly taken care of (which shouldn't happen, but you never know).

When and how to use your Pod Saver

Important! The Pod Saver tab with your Pod Saver preset loaded is invaluable. Switch to it when your ship has been tackled and you know you have no chance of escape. Pick a planet or POCO and start spamming the "Warp to 0" button to save your pod. Once you hit the planet or POCO, do not stop. Keep moving as you are probably being chased. Do not forget to switch Overviews to check, as the Pod Saver preset does not show enemies.

When to

These are the times where you should switch to your Pod saver overview:

• The FC calls an order to be prepared to save your pod, a "scatter" command, or just says to get out.
• You’re being "yellow-boxed" (you see yellow reticles on your Overview on the ship icon that's targeted you) and you are in no position to take any fire.
• You’re in danger of getting destroyed or know you’re about to get destroyed.
• Your ship gets destroyed. You may be too late at this point.

By this time it may be too late. You should already be on your Pod Saver.

How to

In any of these cases, do the following:

1. Click on your Pod Saver tab. Your Pod Saver preset should have already been loaded in this tab prior to you undocking.
2. Choose a random planet or POCO and click on it.
3. In the Selected item window, start spamming the Warp to 0 m button (just keep on clicking it). Be careful that you don't over-click this or you will actually delay the warp command as the server tries to catch up to your commands.
   • If you’re not warp scrambled, you will warp to the planet or POCO. In that case, either meet up with the fleet again or dock at a safe station. Listen for instructions by your FC. If you don't have instructions from your FC immediately upon coming out of warp, do NOT sit at the planet or POCO and wait, as this can get you killed. Keep warping between planets at 30 to 70 km range, and try to make midsafe bookmarks between planets, then warp to those instead of warping between planets. Once your weapon timer has expired you can look to dock-up. You should only take a stargate if the FC orders you to, or there are no stations in system.
   • If you ARE warp scrambled, you’re not going anywhere. You should, however, keep on spamming the Warp to 0 m button. This is because when your ship is destroyed, you will appear in your pod. If you’re spamming that button, your pod will warp out as quickly as possible (usually almost instantly) and save both your clone and any implants you’re carrying. If you do this correctly, you should never lose your pod.
4. Switch back to your PvP or PvP travel tab before you drop out of warp, so you can see any enemies on the other side.

Effects of server ticks and lag

When your ship is destroyed, a session change is initiated through you going from your ship to a pod. This can cause lag, and if you’re already spamming the Warp to 0 m button BEFORE this happens, your pod will usually warp out despite any lag that may occur, unless you "over spam" (a chain of commands was built up before you got destroyed by the spamming). However, be warned that in rare cases of extreme lag you may not warp out. The session change timer is 10 seconds long and will prevent you from docking in a station or jumping through a stargate for that duration.

You can diminish lag by disabling your Mail and Notification notifications "Blink" (NeoCom), etc. This will reduce the delay between when you get killed and end up in your pod. Otherwise your client waits for the mail (insurance) to arrive and this might be the time they need to lock you.

Tactical considerations

The reason we use planets and POCOs is because there usually isn't anything dangerous at planets. Enemies could be waiting at stargates or stations, and big enemy POSes could be sitting near moons, so we warp to planets. However, some pirates and war targets will chase Uni members when they see them warping out to planets. For this reason, you should never sit still after coming out of warp at a planet. As explained above, keep warping between planets at 30 to 70 km range until you get new orders. If your ship was destroyed, you may want to dock up and get a rookie ship. Let your FC know that you are docking to do this.

Also, you could have an weapons timer in effect if you've engaged the enemy with an offensive module. Weapons timers stop you from docking or jumping through a gate for exactly 60 seconds after your last offensive action. Once the timer expires you can dock up or jump. If you mouseover the weapons timer icon, it will show the time remaining.

Summary

By following this guide and with some practical exercise you should be able to save your pod in virtually any hisec PvP encounter. The considerations for other security sectors of space will play a factor but your chances of getting your pod out increase with this and the practical knowledge you gain. Remember, don't panic or freeze up.