EVE Online Guides

Welcome to my Free EVE Online PvP guide. There are a lot of guides and information available on EVE PvP, everything from strategies, tips, load outs, and leadership to electronic warfare, ship selections, group dynamics, etc, etc. Much of this information is spread across multiple sites and guides, often in PDF or text format and often difficult to sift the great information from the downright awful.

I have researched and studied all the best EVE online PvP guides and information available to the EVE player. Consolidated the most useful strategies,  guides and tactics into a single document. The aim of this guide is to help EVE beginners, new to PvP players and advanced players always looking for the extra edge. I will structure the guide in an easy to read format without bodies of text… …after all PvP is often about following simple rules like don’t panic, good communication, planning, experience and strong leadership.

Please contribute your own experiences and tactics to the EVE Online PvP guide, no-one is ever 100% correct and knowing all views makes for a stronger PvPer.

Contents

1 ) Golden Rules
2 ) Leadership
3 ) Communication & Co-ordination
4 ) Know Your Adversary – Espionage
5 ) Electronic Warfare (EW)
6 ) Battles – Static, Moving, Camping
7 ) Scouting
8 ) Warping In and Out
9 ) Bookmarks (BM) and Safespots (SS)
10) Tips and Tactics – run away,  insta lock, tanked bait, mobile warp scramblers, Overview Settings, Pursuit

Click here to learn how to create the perfect PvP build.

Golden EVE Online PvP Rules

1. Prepare yourself to lose your ship and pod – you need this mindset (the ultimate warrior is one who is not afraid to die, a dead man walking as such)
2. Only fly what you can afford to lose
3. Don’t panic and be aggressive (not fool hardy). Often people freeze on suprise contact and scramble for warp. Often your best option is to fight back, stick to your tactics, and you will often survive or at least take a few with you (you have already decided you’re a dead man, why not take some with you)
4. If you are transporting expensive cargo – make multiple trips, don’t be a fool!
5. Move carefully! Check the map for recent ship/pod losses and try avoid them. Get an alt to move ahead of you and scout out the route
6. Bookmarks and Safespots are essential (more on this later)
7. Aggression (again your friend, but in a different way). Remember that once someone is aggressed they can’t follow. So if you warp-in on a gate camp try not to jump straight away! If you jump before they lock they will follow, let them lock and agress, then jump and they won’t be able to follow
8. Local – a useful EVE Online PvP tool, make sure you use it. Add known hostiles to your inappropriately named buddy list (and delete all your friends). Add new people as you uncover their hostile intent and clean it out when hostiles become neutral. It goes without saying, but before you enter a system with your main (or when you are still cloaked if you don’t have a scout) do a ’show info’ on everyone in local and scan for known hostiles.
9. Do not log to escape! Ever, ever ,ever!!!!
10. Death and Glory – Fight to the last – a brave but futile final stand is always good. Try and take at least one of the buggers down with you!

Leadership

This  goes without saying, leadership is massively important in EVE Online PvP. Without good leadership you will die very, very quickly.

1. ONE person must be in command. He makes all the decisions, he calls the targets, he sets the strategy, and he dictates the terms of the battles you will fight. It’s a tough job and only worse when people are barking orders randomly.
2. Do what your leader says – no arguing, hop to it fast  (if it fails, or succeeds, it’s down to them – you don’t want to be the idiot doing his own thing and the one responsible for failure)
3. On the plus side a good commander will win you wealth and renown,  never leaves anyone behind, and will lead the gang into hopeless odds to try and save someone.
4. Support your leader, it’s a very difficult job, they have to know what everyone is in, what their skills are, what range they are fitted for, how much experience they have and where they all are at any given point in time. And everything is always their fault. Remember this!

Tips For Budding Commanders

1. Need to have a lot of experience in fleet battles (there are many different things that can happen yet so many familiar and learnable issues that you need to know how to address.
2. Use your authority – you will have to beast people who won’t stop talking. Its not personal just necessary
3. LAG. This will never be removed completely so get used to operating in it.
4. Learn how to pick targets. Simple but effective tactic is to stick to one area of the enemy fleet which is at optimal firing range for the majority of your fleet, start with the closest and work your way back. Call for your second target to be locked so pilots can swap guns to it immediately.
5. Know your enemy (covert ops and battle experience is you most valuable tool)

Communication & Co-ordination

It goes without saying but voice chat is undeniably essential. If you want to PvP get a microphone and get on voice coms immediately. CCP have their own voice chat  program for EVE but people still use outside programs. Main ones are Teamspeak and Ventrilo. I prefer Ventrilo but you will likely use what your friends/Corp have settled with.

1. Voice coms are useless unless instructions are coordinated effectively
2. The best set-up is to nominate 2 fleet commanders prior to engaging with 1 in charge, the other backup. (Must be experienced and understand how fleet battles work)
3. Unless you’re the commander (or back up) SHUT UP, silence, keep quiet! (When in, or about to enter the action that is). Push to talk help with this.
4. Security is a risk! Corp spies may try to infiltrate your coms. Setup multiple channels/rooms:
   1. Have an un-secure welcome room that all user’s are put into when they initially log
   2. One room for each individual Corporation
   3. Secure rooms for meetings, operation’s etc.
   4. To enter the secure rooms a person must be registered to the server, with there own private username and password

Know Your Adversary – Espionage

The first thing you need to know in a fleet battle is what you are facing. Covert ops are essential in EVE Online PvP!

1. Scout the area!
2. Your spy should warp in and list the ship types and numbers.
3. Someone should be detailed to write this down.
4. The Commander will need to know the names of the ship pilots and which ship they are in so they can make a cunning plan.
5. What is the enemy fleet doing? Is it all at full speed and aligned (and if so where to) or is it stationary and pointing every which way?
6. A covert ops ship is to continue to fly around and get all this essential information and relay it back to the commander. He will use this information when calling targets.

(Even without covert ops use the scanner to narrow down what they are in and where they are in the system. You can usually get ship types and a pretty good guess at where they are.)

Electronic Warfare (EW)

While most players understand EW few players understand the true potency of all the EW modules; especially when they are most and least useful.  EW is something that requires dedication to be good at. A strong team will never ignore EW, it may not win a fight all by itself – but it damn makes sure who loses.

1. As a new player, one of your greatest assets in neutralizing the advantage of older players is to understand precisely how these modules work, and utilizing them correctly to counter the advantages of your foes.
2. EW refers to any of the following: Tracking Disruptors,  Remote Sensor,  Dampeners,  ECM-Jamming units (Jammers), Target Painters
3. Each EW unit also has specific advantages and disadvantages. The most important lesson about EW is that you should recognize what they are (and are not) good for.

When planning an attack:

1. First, look for any Scorpions or Blackbirds in you enemies fleet. If they are there you need to be careful.
2. It is always a good idea to have a few EW ships along with you. If you both have them in it becomes “who locks first” wins the game, so make sure you have Sensor Booster IIs fitted.
3. The most devastating EW tool is widely considered the jammer. If you are jammed you can’t lock anything so you can’t fight. The best jammers are race specific so you need the right ones fitted for the enemy you are attacking. (More value to covert ops)
4. Your commander will know what jammers you have fitted and will tell your EW pilots who they are to jam before you warp in. That way no one gets missed and no one gets double jammed. (The commander should already know your enemies ships and types from covert ops)
5. If you know you will be facing EW – fit counter measures – this is one time where you don’t just fit for Gank. If in doubt ask your commander.
6. Target painters, tracking disrupters and dampers are also used a lot and often it is worth every ship having at least one fitted (again discuss with your commander)

EW requires experience and understanding. There is tons more info and guides available on this aspect of EVE Online PvP. Click here for a more detailed look at the advantages and disadvantages of the different EW modules.

Battles! Static, Moving & Camping

Static EVE Battles

A lot of the time one or more of the apposing fleets will be static (or relatively so). They will be camping a gate, a station, a POS, or even just sitting at a safe spot.

The trick here is to engage so that you have the advantage. This does not have to mean out blobbing them, a well organized and decisively led gang can almost always get kills of a larger fleet by working fast. The trick is to get into an advantageous position.

1. If your enemy is fitted for long range – go for ultra short range gank and get under his guns.
2. If the fleet is full of gankers, go get some snipers and shoot from a distance.
3. Completely out gunned? – that’s what scorpions are for, pack them full of racial jammers and lock down half the fleet.
4. If you are in a frigate fleet keep warping in and taking pot shots & get out quick, sooner of later you will find lone ships and be able to kill it.
5. Never Relax! Remember your enemy will be trying to do the same thing. I have seen fleets devastated in a safe spot after a successful engagement. Just because you can’t see scan probes does not mean your safe spot is not compromised.
6. Always delete your safe spots and re make them every couple of days if you continue to fight in the same system.
7. In static battle your covert ops pilot are at their most important. They will be sniffing out enemy safe spots, spying on their fleet, making safe spots or working his way into position for a sling shot.

[Sling shot is when a pilot positions himself behind the enemy from your position at a known distance so you can warp in at your preferred range].

Camping EVE Battles

There are many effective methods of hunting static targets, so why do fleets stay in one place at all? The main reasons are that you know your targets will be coming through and can be sure of a fight, you are defending a static object like a station or player owned structure (POS) and you can be reasonably sure (at a gate at least, or if the enemy are docked at a station) of getting your whole fleet at their optimal range.

1. Activating modules short cut. If you are sitting there waiting for someone to jump in activate all you modules (guns, missiles and most importantly scramblers)
2. The moment your target appears click on them in the overview or in space and you will start to target them.
3. Once targeted your modules will all activate without the need for further clicking. This can make the difference between some one getting out and getting taken out.

Remember! the enemy will be trying all the tricks in the book to get an advantage:

1. Keep an eye on local! Keep scanning for them in short range safe spots, keep your Covert ops busy looking for them and telling you what they are doing.
2. Stay aligned to something, and keep moving your sniper spots and creating new ones.
3. Your interceptors can be buzzing round the gate and the snipers at the warp in points in an attempt to uncloak the inevitable covert ops ship.
4. If you are short range hug the gate ready for a quick exit.
5. A tackler can hug the gate, then if anyone jumps through they will be in 20km scrammer range
6. You will want scouts on gates, preferably in adjacent systems.
7. You may want a mobile reserve at a safe spot, at full speed and ready to warp in (remember their covert ops will be trying to work out what’s in your fleet so a mobile reserve often turns the tide).
8. Rename your ship! You will almost certainly know who is hostile, but they might not know what you are in.
9. If you are camping a gate get fast locking tacklers on both sides of it.
10. Have someone with their scanner set a pointing at where you think the enemy are coming from. Then as they warp in you already know their numbers and ship types.

Of course in a real battle things are not so cut and dry. Completely static battles will be rare. You could be camping one minute and trying to break a camp the next. Be flexible, think things through, try and understand what the enemy will be doing and don’t panic!

Moving EVE Battles

This could either be as a prelude to a static battle or it could be a combat patrol through enemy space looking for targets of opportunity. You could be part of a fast frig fleet, or a mixed fleet with Battleships and support. If it’s the latter you will be slower, but the principals are pretty much the same.

1. The fleet will move at the speed of the slowest ship.
2. So don’t slow a frig fleet down with a battleship or cruiser etc. Decide in advance – fast and light, or slow and devastating.
3. You will want your scout further ahead if you are in a mixed fleet. If he spots a big fleet you’ll have less time to run away (if that’s what the commander decides).
4. It’s also worth having at least two scouts as the rest of the fleet will take longer to catch up if they run into someone to fight.
5. It is also a good idea to have someone following on behind. Often people will safe spot or log as you come through, but you can bet that they have told their mates that you are there and you may well have a fleet forming behind you to give chase, or block your escape.

The Mechanics of Fleet Movement

1. A destination system will be given out
2. You will enter this into your autopilot
3. The gang leader will gang warp the fleet (for mixed fleets this usually will be on a route with bookmarks, for a frig fleet it might not)
4. On contact with the gate you should jump through unless orders have been given to hold.
5. Once through the gate, find the next gate (the yellow one) and align for it.
6. The commander will know how many people there are in gang and will be watching for people to uncloak, he’ll give everyone a few seconds to align and then gang warp to the next gate. Rinse and repeat.
7. Do not turn your Auto Pilot on, ever!!! This will really (really) annoy your commander and gang
8. No bookmarks? A couple of interceptors will be detailed to move slightly ahead to create sling shots for the slower ships to warp to.
9. Move fast and but stay together.
10. People not aligning slows the whole fleet down and sometimes gets people killed.

Scouting

Scouting is essential, if you don’t scout effectively you are in serious trouble. On the other hand how do you deal with pesky scouts.

While moving around the Fleet Commander will need eyes up ahead finding targets. If you are in an interceptor you may be asked to do this job. If this happens you need to be able to find those targets or you won’t be very popular! So this is how you do it:

1. When you enter a system 1-2 jumps ahead of your fleet check local.
2. If you see a person there, then open scanner (which should be minimized ALWAYS when scouting) and do a 360′ degree max-range scan.
3. If you see a suitable target drop down to 60-90 degree scan and start scanning planet clusters.
4. If you got him towards planet 5, 6, 7, 8 then drop down to 30′ degree and find the right planet.
5. If the cluster is so close you can’t see which planet then warp to one of the planets and narrow the search to a single planet using 5-15′degree scan.
6. Warp to the target planet and use 30′degree scanning the belts (belts are these in-space)
7. Locate the approx belt and do a 5′degree scan towards the belt to verify.
8. Call the commander about the location belt and if you don’t have scramblers then call in the fleet to the target belt.
9. If you see a person in local, but no targets on scanner then warp to the sun and do a 360′degree scan, if you see an appropriate target then narrow to the planet and then to belt as explained above.
10. If he’s not near the sun, then open wordpad (or just remember) which planet(s) are further away than 15 AU (which your scanner cannot reach)
11. Warp to those planets in order and do a 360′degree scan and narrow down.

How do I use the Scanner?

1. Open up the scanner and you will see a plan view of the system, with the location of your ship shown.
2. To get a maximum range scan press “9999999… etc” in the distance box and click on scan.
3. It will default to 2,147,483,647 (or 15AU). You will get a list of everything in that range.
4. To make the list shorter check “use overview settings” and just those things that would show up in the overview are shown.
5. Useful as this is, it won’t help you pin point anyone! The trick is to narrow down the scan angle so you are only seeing what is in front of you.
6. By spinning the camera around in space you can look at specific locations and scan.
7. If you are trying to scan a gate and you don’t get the gate on the list you are out of range and need to move nearer.
8. By gradually bringing down the range and tightening the angle you can get a pretty good idea of where someone is.

Dealing With Scouts

1. Without covert ops you will get enemy interceptors warping in from time to time to have a look.
2. Send someone up after them, drive the buggers off and keep their commander blind.
3. See if they are warping into the same spot, or same set of spots and have a few frigs waiting for them next time.
4. Keep an eye on any containers in space. The enemy might be using them to warp in, and there might just be one near that interceptor that just warped in at 300km. Jump to the can and take it down.

Warping In and Out

Warping-In

This is the crucial moment and is more complicated than it seems. To be effective:

Your whole fleet should be appearing out of warp at the same time because when your enemies overviews suddenly filling with red it can invoke a bit of panic. To use this tactic:

1. Everyone should be aligned for the enemy fleet
2. Be at full speed.
3. When the commander says warp, do it AT ONCE, not a few seconds early, not a few seconds late but right on the mark.
4. The commander will  say “we are warping in 1 minute, we are warping in 30 seconds, we are warping in 10, 9, 8……1, Warp”
5. Apart from losing the effect of a mass warp-in, there are two very good reasons for following the advice here:
   1. If you are first out of warp, you will probably be primary.
   2. If you are last in you will probably be last out which is almost as bad!!!

(Obviously Gang warp is preferred, but you can’t gang warp to member, so often it has to be individual warps)

The next important thing about the warp-in is the timing. Your scout will be feeding you intel and you may need to act on it fast. The fleet might be changing direction or stopping, or just warping in. To do this you will probably need to make a 1AU bookmark near to them so you arrive in plenty of time. But don’t hang around there long – you will be scanned and they will react.

Warping-Out

Just as important as the warp-in. The general rule is the moment you start taking damage, get out.

This can be tricky so make it easier by:

1. Aligning the moment you come out of warp. The instant you do, swing 180 degrees and get aligned. To be completely specific: as you are warping in rotate your view so you are looking backwards. The first thing you do as your warp bubble collapses is to double click on a warpable object behind you.
2. Next start targeting primary
3. As you spin round start shooting the hell out of primary, and lock secondary
4. You may ask why a 180 when there might be a warpable object in your line of flight? At some point the commander will gang warp you out. This will be a disaster if the fleet is not all aligned for the same spot.

Sooner or later your overview will start flashing yellow – this means you need to think about leaving. Don’t go yet:

1. Let them waste time targeting you.
2. The moment you start taking damage GET THE HELL OUT (don’t be fooled into thinking you can tank it because at first your shields start to go down slowly, that will soon change when everyone is on you, and by then it will be to late. So once you take any damage go, go, go!)

Should I come back? This is a tricky one and if you get it wrong it will cost you your ship, or loose the fleet a kill. Things to consider:

1. Most fights like this are running ones and you won’t have time to get back, but some will go on for a while. (keep moving and listen to orders)
2. If the fight seems to be going well, or slowly, get back in when you can. (Be aware if the fleet gang warps out while you are warping in you are a dead man)

Bookmarking and Safespots

Bookmarks are your friend! We all know this and I’m sure we all have a full set to empire and back. But these are not enough. Most pirates and gankers will have interceptors who will chase you, and tackle you while the rest catch up. You need to have safe spots, and you need to have U-Turns.

If you are attacked and manage to warp out:

1. Go to a safe spot not a planet (otherwise they will watch where you go and will follow you.
2. If possible get 3 safe spots so you can keep moving to avoid the probes.

“How do I make safe spots?”

1. While in warp open up People and places
2. Go to the places tab.
3. At the bottom there is an Add Bookmark button.
4. Hit that while in warp, quickly name it (ss1, ss2,  etc) and hit return.
5. The BM is made where you are when you press return, NOT when you click the Add Bookmark button.

So for an emergency exit in a system where you don’t have safe spot:

1. Warp out to a planet (or moon if you are sure there are no hostile POS in system)
2. Drop a safe spot on route
3. Warp back to your safe spot
4. Pick another (distant) celestial object and warp to it
5. Drop another safe spot and go back to the first one.
6. Keep an eye on the scanner and move the second you see 3AU probes
7. Move every couple of minutes anyway.

U-Turns are bookmarks between gates that you already have bookmarks for. Their value is that you can use your existing bookmarks to get to the gate for a quick exit.

EVE Online Tips and Tactics

Overview Settings

Simple but effective.

1. Firstly! go to your filters and turn of show corp members, alliance members and gang members.
2. Turn off all police, customs, navy, etc ships.
3. Turn off sentry guns, bill boards, stations and cargo containers.
4. There your overview looks a lot nicer now!

‘Sort by’ is a tricky one and will probably change during the mission:

1. If you are in empire sort by corp, then all your hostiles will be nicely grouped together.
2. In a fleet battle sort by name so primary/secondary is easy to find,
3. For general flying around sort by distance to help you chose your targets more easily.

I mainly keep Stargates showing in order to make them easier to find when traveling. The risk here is that you might target one by mistake and, in empire, get Concorde ganked. Just monitor this turn them off if you deem necessary.

The Tanked Bait

1. This is a ruse to make them think they have the advantage so they decide to fight. You get one ship (often a Scorpion) tanked to the max and he moves into the hostile system/gate camp/station or what ever.
2. The enemy commander senses an easy kill and warps in.
3. The tanker has to hold out long enough for the rest of you fleet to arrive and ruin their party.
4. Industrials also make great bait. Put some armour plates in the lows (makes you move slower and looks like you have expanders in), and act like you don’t have bookmarks.

Pursuit

The Insta-lock

Enemies, when out numbered, have a distressing habit of warping off before you can kill them. Obviously this isn’t fair and can lead to much frustration on your part. Shuttles and interceptors are the worst culprits, but some frigs can be almost as bad.

The key here is to get you lock time down to less than it takes your dastardly foe to warp off. The best tool for the job:

1. A specially fitted interceptor, as they have pretty fast lock times anyway (the Stiletto is a good choice).
2. The plan is to fit enough sensor booster IIs and Signal Amplifiers to get your Scan resolution to >3000mm (remember to fit a warp disrupter too).
3. With that you should be able to lock and scramble pretty much anything before it gets away.

In Hot Pursuit

The first scenario here is where your scouts have made contact with the enemy and have engaged. Normal travel rules cease to apply.

1. The frigs will speed after the scouts to help them out
2. The slower ships will continue to move as normal, except that they will wait for no one.
3. If you are slow to align or whatever you will be left to catch up.

The second scenario is when the target has decided to run for it (the first can turn into this quite easily) This is a tougher one to call. You want to catch them, but you risk leaving the fleet spread over a number of systems.

The best plan is:

1. Detail a pursuit squad to give chase and keep the rest of the fleet moving together at the pace of the slowest ship

(In either case the pursuit squad is tying to catch then, tackle them and, depending on the target, hold them till the fleet arrives or take them down)

Mobile Warp Scramblers

These can be a real pain if you run into them, so lets deal with that first. These little buggers do two very nasty things:

1. If you are inside the bubble you can not warp away!
2. If you are warping to a gate say, where one is deployed it can either ruin your warp to, dropping you some distance from the gate, draw you in so you exit warp inside the bubble, or sometimes have no effect at all.

If you see hostiles in local and think the gate might be camped warp to your U-Turn and scan the gate for a warp bubble.

On the plus side these do not mean instant death – they still have to kill you so if you are fast or tanked, or preferably both you can still either get out or make it to the gate.

In fleet ops sometimes you can just ignore them, jump in and fight as normal. People sometimes get careless when they have a bubble up and you can use that to your advantage by doing the unexpected and warping straight into their trap. Doesn’t always work though…..

Bubbles are indiscriminate, so you can sometimes get the other sides one to do your work for you.

Using bubble is another mystical art like using probes. I have read many theories on this one and most disagree with each other. So a common theory is:

1. That the bubble should be placed where you would be if you were making a bookmark.
2. Roughly 15km behind the gate in the path of the warp from the other object.

Click here to learn how to create the perfect PvP build.

(Most of the information here is sourced from my own experience and free to download, free from copyright protection or open source material. I will give credit to the original authors  and offer the location of the source material where available).

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