Tips and Tricks

The point of this page is to list any misc tips and tricks that you've encountered/discovered that don't merit a more in-depth write up.

To see the origin of some of these contributions please visit Contributions Page or the original forum thread http://www.eve-ivy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22000

Traveling

• Don't autopilot in low-sec or 0.0 or if you are carrying something valuable -- nothing attracts pirates and suicide gankers faster than a ship that shows up 15k from a gate and heads for the gate at normal speeds.
• The autopilot isn't useless, though: with a route set for the autopilot, warping to zero and activating the autopilot while still in warp will make your ship instantly jump as soon as you arrive on the gate. Just deactivate the autopilot as soon as the jump is initiated to prevent it from warping to 15km on the next gate.
• If you set the route to a system, the next stargate on the route will show up in yellow, so you can find it easily. (If you take a different gate, the autopilot will re-route automatically.)
• When you come through a jump gate, you're cloaked for 60 seconds, or until you move. If you jump into trouble, pause a few seconds to analyze your situation, let the panic subside, and decide what to do.
• If you have a cloaking device and in unfriendly territory you can minimize visibility by doing the following: 1. Jump through gate and pick destination to warp to. 2. Align to destination then immediately hit your cloak. Once aligned then warp off. (Some techniques use a burst of AB or MWD as well)
• Leave a cheap item at stations you visit frequently. This will turn your assets tab (available on the left of the screen) into a handy collection of bookmarks.
• Be wary of your security status. Below certain levels, means Faction Police may shoot you if you enter a high enough security system. E.g. Sec status -2.0 or below means you will be shot in systems with sec status 1.0-0.9. Sec status of -5 or lower means you are kill on sight to everyone. Train diplomacy to remedy this a little.
• Make safespots and bookmarks everywhere you regularly go, especially in low security space. Tired of the masses of bookmarks cluttering your peopleandplaces window? Make a separate folder for them. right click this folder heading to get a window just with your bookmarks for ultra quick navigation.
• Insta-Undock bookmarks are also perfect for getting large ships or ships carrying very high value items, out of Jita 4-4 station without getting bumped all over the place (or scanned).
• If you use a bookmark a lot, and want it near the top of the folder, edit its name and put “ #” in front of it (“space” then “hash”), this will then push it to the top of all the other bookmarks
• An easy way to create safespot bookmarks is to run some encounter missions in the system you need bookmarks in. If missioning complex is at least 14AU away from all gates, bookmark it.
• When traveling lowsec frequently, espec. in a hauler, keep warpcore stabilizers in your cargo to refit if needed. Remeber this wont help you with escaping "Heavy Interdictor-class ships which are often used for gatecamps.
• * When traveling through hostile territory ALWAYS keep local chat seperated from the other chat windows. This allows you to see pirates and wartargets appear more obviously giving you vital seconds to make decisions.

Salvaging

• Destroyer class ships make great salvaging ships. Many are able to fit 4 salvagers and 4 tractor beams. Good cargo space as well. Now small rigs are affordable, make use of them!
• If the wrecks are in large clumps many kilometers apart, clear one clump and bookmark the next set of wrecks, then warp away and warp back to the bookmark you just made -- saving you from having to slowboat to the next set of wrecks.

This works really well if the mission had multiple rooms since the warp point you can use is close by.

• Despite detailing in their description that they are for pulling in cargo containers, tractor beams CAN pull in wrecks also. Indeed, pulling in wrecks is the reason you'd want them. The description is left over from a previous release of EvE.
• Remember you can also bookmark mission locations, allowing you to hand in the mission and return to the wrecks, especially if your running low on time for bonus reward. This means you'll also beable to use a microwarpdrive - which, may save time. If ur salvaging a level 4 when stuff is very far apart i.e. over 30-40+km then mwd is good idea. For anything less, u might find yourself overshooting ur targets, as the mwd cycle has to complete (higher ur skill, makes this worse!^^). Make sure u bookmark every room in the mission if u wanna do it this way, as warpgates vanish when u hand in the mission.
• While you are salvaging with some tractor beams, you can drag the wrecks behind you and salvage them at the same time while you travel towards another wreck that's outside tractor beam range. This speeds up salvage time somewhat.

• While you are salvaging with some tractor beams, you can drag the wrecks behind you and salvage them at the same time while you travel towards another wreck that's outside tractor beam range. This speeds up salvage time somewhat.

Hauling

• You can fit an improved cloaking device to your hauler for some added security during wormhole ops. Ask the miners to drop the can some distance from the asteroid belt, and stay between 2000 and 2500 m from the can in the direction that you want to warp to. If trouble arises and you don't think you have time to align and warp out (or you're bubbled), you can instantly activate the cloak and head away from the belt in an open direction. The loot you save may even pay for all those dead retrievers :)

Exploration/WormHoles

• Learn how to use probes quickly - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwBqnXruZuo&feature=related

Market

• Don't rush.
• Use the scroll wheel on the mouse to adjust orders by 0.01 ISK.
• Try to avoid updating your buy/sell orders at the same time each day. This keeps your market competition guessing.
• If possible, leave your trade character logged on at all times. That way, if you were added to your competitor's address book, they'll never know when you log on and off.
• When buying from contracts READ IT what you are actually paying for. Don't become the fool that loses all his money because he didn't READ the contract and the number of ZEROS in it.
• When buying set market to Region (top left corner), and go to the settings tab and tick the box to avoid low-sec and/or 0.0 systems if this helps.
• Setting up buy-orders for items you don't need right away will save quite some ISK.
• Remember, you don't need to sell straight away. If you set up a sell order for a 1000 items of x, and someone decides to sell the item at a stupidly low price, don't jump in and change your order to beat him. It might not sell this week, but it will eventually, and you will make much more isk.
• When setting the range on your buy orders, check to see how far away is the nearest lowsec system. If you don't want to go to lowsec to pick stuff up, set the buy range accordingly.
• A day of very high volume or a trade at a very high price can cause the market graph's axes to adjust, making it difficult to read. Use the "Show Table" button below the graph to display the same data in table format.
• The relationship of the median price (yellow dot on the graph) to the day's high and low gives you a clue about the flow of the trades, whether the action is mainly selling (median is close to day's high) or buying (median close to day's low), assuming there is no overlap between the high buy order and the low sell order. In particular, for items that are dropped as mission loot but are not very useful (i.e. energy vampires) there will only be action on the your buy side (that is, you will only be able to buy them, not sell). If you want to buy these (and don't plan on trucking them extra-regionally), make sure you only pay up to the salvage value.
• Playing the .01 ISK game benefits people who like to play it. You don't have to play if you don't want to. Feel free to drastically slash sell orders or raise buy orders.
• Consider using a particular number of "isk cents" on the end of your order prices to make your orders easier to locate on the list.
• Be very, very careful typing your prices! Don't skip that decimal point!

Mining

• When you first warp to an asteroid belt you may be up to 70-80 kilometers away from the rocks. Bookmark an asteroid, then warp out and back to the bookmark to save time getting to mining range.
• If you have a really long belt, you may save time by warping between two sets of asteroids >150km from each other when changing rocks, rather than slowboating to the next asteroid.
• Use MLU's - Mining Laser Upgrades instead of cargo expanders especially when group mining.
• Have your mining drones go to the nearest rock you want to mine. Get as close to it as possible as they have to include travelling time there and back and are a lot slower than other drones.
• Don't mine someone else's rock, not only is it rude if you don't know them but if you are in a group it is terribly inefficient as when the roid is close to popping whoever's lasers finish first will pop the roid and get all the ore. Anyone else mining the same roid will get nothing, wasting up to 3 minutes. Use "Look at" before you lock on. Also this applies to solo mining, mine different roids with each laser.

Missioning

• NEVER, ever fall asleep when doing a mission (So a "quick mission" before bed after a heavy night boozing is a bad idea). You will lose your faction fitted CNR etc.
• Fly a ship size appropriate for the mission. Lvl 1 - frigates, Lvl 2 - cruisers, lvl 3 - battlecruisers, lvl 4 - battleships.
• If you have the choice between Light drones and Medium Drones and can't take both, always go for light drones. They can eliminate Warp scramming frigates and webbing frigates much faster, which is critical if you need to do an emergency warp out to save your multimillion isk battleship.
• Buy a hull repairer when you move up from frigates. Keep it in your cargo bay and if you hit structure during a mission warp out, dock locally and use it to repair your ship saving you station repair bills. Remember to swap it back out before going back to the mission.
• Drone users: Make sure you have all the NPCs in a given group locking/attacking you before you launch your drones. Refer to EVE-Survival for info on spawn triggers and the possibility of drones attracting the attention of other NPC groups.
• After training Social to 3 and Connections to 3 you can almost instantly access L2 agents without the need to grind lots of L1 missions.
• If you mission in a fleet with somebody else, you'll get standings increases with that faction. This can save you some grinding, as a couple of shared L3 or L4 missions will give the same increase as many more L1 or L2 missions. Many Uni missioners will be happy to have you come in with a salvage destroyer and do the salvaging on a shared basis, if you're not up to taking on L4 combat yet.
• Similarly, the E-Uni missioning channel runs a spider fleet -- you join and run missions solo, but share the profits and standings with other Uni mission-runners. That can get you standings with companies you couldn't access otherwise.
• Train up salvaging as soon as possible -- salvage can double your mission profit, and a team running high-level missions with a dedicated salvager can be much more profitable and safe than a solo missioner.
• Check yourself before you wreck yourself. Look at the mission before accepting it: Note the RAT type (telling you what ammo to use and resist to fit).
• Check the location of the encounter and right click it and set destination. Bring up the map and you can see what kind of space you will be traveling through.
• Remember the courier missions, You can work up your standing just fine without shooting anything!
• Keep a short summary of the missions your agent regularly gives you in your notepad. Important info : Damage types/resists/webs/scrams/Difficulty etc. Once u have them all, will save a lot of time alt-tab'ing if a fullscreen user.
• Longer range weapons are generally better for encounter missions than their shorter range counter-parts. Why? Because they give you the ability to eliminate ALOT of incoming potential DPS (Damage per Second), thus maintaining your tank more easily as your enemy cannot get within range to use their weapons effectively.
• Destroy smaller ships at range first, they generally shoot harder than they can take damage. Battleships absorb a lot of damage, and deal damage that can be avoided more easily e.g. with speed.
• If the situation looks bad, align.
• On courier missions, always check twice before undocking to make sure you have transferred the courier items from your hangar to your hold.
• Always check you have accepted the mission before undocking. Will save you unnecessary travel time and feeling like "DOHH!!".
• Usually, it's best to concentrate all your fire on one target rather than spreading it out, as this eliminates incoming DPS quickest.
• To get aggro from an npc you don't have to actually hit it. Lock the npc and fire a shot, might take some time for it to respond to your aggresion but the npc will come to you.
• If your tank is being broken in a mission, especially if your using undersized ships for the mission, Move. Even if your battlecruiser doesnt move fast, moving make it that much harder for the 10 battleships orbiting to hit you, and can pull your tank back without having to warp.

Combat Techniques

• During Encounter Missions - Take advantage of the fact you can centre your view over the enemy and look from behind them. double clicking in the direction they are travelling in is now easy as your view is locked on the enemy. Repeatedly clicking in the direction he is travelling will constantly change your direction to match his, minimising the angular velocity and increasing your chances of good hits at ranges closer than u previously thought were impossible. (Works best with large/medium guns against large/medium rats)
• If you are having problems with a large ship demolishing you or staying far away from you, let a light drone speed tank it and go to town.
• when buying ammo make sure you look the information(attributes) its possible that you can be buying the wrong ammo for your needs. look at the bonuses to range in particular.
• learn to use your size and speed to your advantage. Orbiting a target fast and close will mitigate a lot of damage and allow you to beat ships much larger than you
• Learn manual piloting. Double click in space to fly. The orbit AI is very easily exploitable and you can close on/get away from a faster ship using the AI. Not to mention, gun transversal tricks.

Interceptors -

• Fly t1 frigates for a few months before you step into an interceptor hull. Once you fly a t1 frigate well, you should be able to fly an interceptor well.
• There are two kinds of interceptor: tackling and dogfighting. Tackling ceptors should always be speed fit and should try to stay out of heavy neut range. They have bonuses to disrupt range. Dogfighting interceptors should focus on tank and damage output before tackle.
• don't be afraid of warping off and know what you can and can't handle. call out your points and make sure your fc knows if you need to get out.
• if you get warriors on your ass, don't freak out. you can handle those for a while before you need to get out. Neuts and scrams, however, can ruin your day.
• never EVER directly approach anything. Always approach at an angle, otherwise you will die. You should be manually piloting a lot of the time anyway.

PVP/Low/NullSec

• Choose your fights carefully. In pvp space you are a shark or a fish. If you can't avoid the sharks, then you are food. Learn safespots, gate scouting and safe undocks.
• Rat in lowsec or nullsec. Not for money, but to learn how to not be sharkfood while still being being able to do something undocked. You can't hunt down prey untli you aren't prey yourself.
• do not trust people if they say "come here u can shoot at my ship to test your damage"
• Bookmark locations you use regularly - e.g at least 170km+ above (and/or below) gates you use/camp frequently, to allow you to warp up to it and back to the gate as you wish, yet remain on grid to see what’s happening. These are especially useful on 0.0 gates that lead to empire. These bottle neck systems are often camped and bubbled, if you arrive in system and there’s no obvious bubble on the gate but there ARE reds/neuts in system, don’t warp directly to the next gate! Instead, warp to your bookmark 180km above it, this will stop you being ‘sucked’ into a warp bubble directly behind the gate and will allow you time to see if you should fight, run or just warp down to the gate and continue your journey. These bookmarks are also great for cloaky ships to sit at and give intel on general traffic or the enemy.
• “Insta-undock bookmarks” are great for haulers/BS's, use them. If in 0.0/lowsec try to not use the same insta-undock bookmark all the time – especially if the system is near a war front and has a few ‘reds’ in local, as one day someone might work out where you land, and will be waiting for you the next time you undock! Use a small fast ship to make these at a distance of at least 400km from the station - for safety they should not be on the same grid as the station you left from.
• During roams or when moving through unfamiliar hostile space... every now and then link your present location (drag the triangle that is next to the upper left system name) into your private player channel and hit return. After a while you'll have a perfect note of the reverse route home or to safety if things go pear-shaped, you'll also be able to guide your corp mates home if things get a little chaotic and the FC gets podded (lol).
• if you join a 0.0 or lowsec corporation that has capital fleets/pilots (most corps do these days :), try to train a NEW character as a cyno pilot asap (not your main as you'll want it to be expendable), this will mean your cap-ship flying corp mates will love you, and this love goes a long long way. The grateful cap ship pilot will often ask you if want something moved with the cap ship (maybe a ship a small can or whatever) and this can be very helpful, especially if you cant fly/own a cap ship yourself. After a while people will be asking you for cynos and offering to move stuff all over eve for you, in my experience "being the cyno guy" means getting lots of offers of help in return :) Everyone wins :)
• A very basic cyno alt: (use a fresh character) The new 100% bonus to training speed is perfect for training an expendable cyno alt in double quick time!!! They need to be able to fly any race frigate, as you never know what will be for sale in 0.0/lowsec, and this will require only racial frigate to level 3 for each race. Also you will have to be able to use and fit a Cynosural Field Generator, I recommend Cynosural field theory to L3 to allow 2 cynos worth of fuel in a frigate. FYI: 350 units of Liquid Ozone (LO) per cyno at L3, this equals 700 LO for 2 cynos, and 700 LO takes up 280m3 cargo space)
• For a much better cyno alt: (still use a fresh character) they can still be trained with minimum time with the new 100% bonus to training speed. You can get a Cyno using alt that can cloak and use a MWD I with cap recharger I, The cloak is invaluable if you are doing a mid point cyno in the middle of nowhere, you can just get in position and cloak up until needed. If you train this 'better' cyno alt AND train for a bit of extra agility/speed too, you have a very useful and EXPENDABLE character that will be able (with a bit of practice) get almost anywhere you need a cynoguy to be put!!! And as a bonus you will still be well under the 800,000 skill point limit for needing to purchase medical clones every time you get pod killed (it happens sometimes - i'm afraid you just have to get used to this) Over all the benefits of having a cyno character far out weigh the training time used up. You will be a true corp asset.

Modules/Rigs

• Different versions of standard laser crystals (Multifrequency, Gamma, X-Ray, Ultra, STD, etcetera) all have different capacitor modifiers. If you're (barely) capstable with Standard crystals, you won't be stable with Multifrequency.
• You have to unload your guns before you can group them. You can group in the fitting screen, or whilst in space.
• Thermodynamics is a skill worth getting if you intend on PVP. Rightclick show info on a module to find out the potential increase in performance if the module is overheated. e.g. you may beable to increase warp scram range by 5km and surprise your enemies.
• Overheating modules causes them damage. Once "broken" or "Completely overheated" the module must be repaired, either in Station in the standard repair bay, or with Nanite Paste in space.
• Modules installed next to a module you are overheating will also be damaged slightly due to close proximity.

Overview

• Set up your overview according to the guide from Varius Acrturus.
• Hold the CTRL key and left click on an entry in your overview to target it.
• Holding CTRL will also freeze the overview so things don't change position. This is useful for making sure you click the right thing in busy situations.
• Export ur overview! Just do it now! Save in safe spot. Overviews a notorious fustrating to reconfigure after you've got it exactly how u want it.
• You can zoom like a telescope to any location on your screen, just hold down right click and look at the area u want to zoom into, then hold down both mouse buttons and go up and down ==> it will zoom. (Start at bottom of screen for maximum control. With practice, u can see targets over 100km away giving a lovely movie-action shot of your guns pounding the enemy.)
• Moving stacks of things around your hanger/ship cargo etc : Shift + drag will bring up a box allowing you type a number to split out.
• Hit esc and check out the options window. Lots of options you can fiddle with to your preference e.g. an option that allows windows to be immovable if pinned.

Drone Usage

• The commands "All Drones: Engage", "All Drones: Return & Orbit" and "All Drones: Return & Dock" can be assigned to hotkeys.
• In your drone window in the overview, don't forget to keep the tab under "Drones in Space" open, so you can moniter your drones health and call them in in case they are attacked. This is especially important if you are using Tech 2 drones, as they are expensive to lose.
• Gallente drones for sheer damage output. Minmatar drones for speed and reasonable damage. Amarr and caldari drones does not really got a role. They are overshadowed by gallente and minmatar
• Gallente drones will even outdamage other drones vs npcs with vulnerbilities against the other damage types. The gallente got that high a base damage that it hardly matters.
• Minmatar drones are a good option in pvp, since they are fast and can catch the enemy. Especially true for warriors vs interceptors and valkyries vs. frigates in general.
• When fighting larger/slower ships you can use a fast drone to speed tank. Just send it in first before the enemy engages you and you're good to go! Be warned, if there are multiple enemies, the drone's transversal velocity may not be high to some of the ships it is not orbiting and may die a fast death...
• Drone shields do not instantly regenerate when they dock to your ship.
• You cannot see your drones health whilst docked in your drone bay. Make a mental note about how long you should leave a drones shield to recharge if damaged.
• Recall your drones before warping. But, if you forget to recall, return to the original spot and they'll be sitting there not under control. You can scoop them to your cargo bay if you get within 2500m. You cannot tractor beam drones.
• When getting jammed and losing lock try to recall/scoop your drones (if they are not engaging the ecm ship) set them to aggressive and relaunch, you might get lucky even if theres more enemies around.

Naming Conventions

• Name ships so you know how they are fitted or what their role is. This can be handy if you have several of the same type sitting in a hanger. Use a convention that works for you but is not obvious to others, for example don't call your ship Low Armour Heavy Gank PvP ship.

Fleet Movements

• Aligning - You must be moving in the direction ordered by FC and moving at 75% at least of your maximum speed to be aligned properly.
• Offensive Gate Camp - An order where by all ships are within jump range on a gate. Theory is that you are all therefore, ready to jump in and assault the next system.
• Defensive Gate Camp - An order where by all ships are within thier optimal shooting ranges on a gate. Theory is that you are all therefore ready to defend your current system from ships jumping in through that gate.

Words of Wisdom

• Never trust a random player in local chat to help/salvage for you in a mission. Chances are he will try to get you killed. If you need help, ask in your corp.
• If in doubt ASK! Your corp mates are there to help and answer questions, silly or not, just ask them, you’ll be surprised how even in a small corp there will be experts on many aspects of the game, be they pvp, mining, production, invention, pos defense, FC tactics or whatever!
• don't fly something that you cannot afford to lose.
• If you don't know what something does then you're probably not ready to use it. you'll learn what it all does with time and training. You don't want to spend money to fit a ship that you cant maximize.
• Never attempt to rush your skills to achieve the next rank of ships.
• Certificates allows players to work towards certain specified certificate levels found under each ships infomation window, in order to fly that ship it well. Newer players should get used to using this system as a guide at first.
• Insure your Ship at the Insurance tab whilst in Station. Level of insurance bought gives a higher payout if your ship happens to be destroyed. (New Pilots, insure ships the Uni provides you, as you will get positive isk if your ship is destroyed. (Be sensible please)
• Update your Clone in a medical facility in a station. Make sure the clone is set higher than your current SP. If not, and u get podded, you will lose valuble SP! Update your clones now!
• Whilst you are enrolled as a member of Eve University you must abide by our chat channel polices.

Alliance Chat - For forming fleets only. Only type here if you mean to start a fleet, or join on once your role has been called.

Corp Chat - For official corp buisness only, such as skillbooks, Teamspeak issues, questions on events/classes. please only speak here if you mean to.

For everything else, CHAT.E-Uni is your best friend! So keep all other chat in here.

• Read the corp mail. There is a lot, but it's very important stuff. Will answer a lot of your questions, and keep the directors from getting upset!
• Devote some time to learning skills when you start. They will help you train other skills faster in the long run.
• Eve Online is a game for readers as well as thrill seekers. Read as much as possible to get the most out of your careers!
• It may be very good for your E-Peen to fly with shiny fittings, but does the benefit outweigh the costs?
• If what you are doing is fun, then do it. If what you are doing isn't enjoyable then look around for something else to do.
• Use the test server, especially before major updates. You will be able to test new features, new opportunities, and make horrible mistakes without any penalty to your real Eve characters. You will find bugs, and you should report them so you will be a part of making Eve better for yourself and everyone else.
• Using selfdestruct (left click on your ship) on an insured ship will still get you the pay-out.
• Use Eve Fitting Tool and EveMon - 3rd party tools that require your limited API key. Very very useful. Ask if you need help on them.
• Like the game a lot? Think about a second account (not everyone can afford it, but you don't exactly have to be Bill Gates either). A second account lets you have a second character training at the same time. Focus him/her on another facet of the game that interests you. Main a PvP character? Make a mission runner, or station trader, or industrialist. Having another character to haul for you is great as well.