Welcome to null sec, carebear | Part 2
Living in null sec is vastly different from high sec. You have to assume that whatever you undock, you may lose. CONCORD and the Empire police forces do not patrol null sec, and there are no gate guns. Alliances, their member corporations, and the corporation’s members are essentially responsible for their own security.
Because of this new responsibility, you will need to learn how to achieve a relative degree of safety to avoid losing ships while not engaged in PvP. Although we all enjoy PvP more than anything else (that’s why we live in null sec), there are always carebear tasks to attend to. Be it running anomalies, mining, POS maintenance, logistics, PI, research or manufacturing, it all has to be done.
In null sec, if another pilot hasn’t been labeled friendly, we generally assume they are out to kill us. Assuming anything else is ignorant and irrational. Friendly pilots in EVE are known as “blue”. This comes from the blue square that appears next to their name in local, in their portrait, and in your overview.
You might be wondering, what’s “local”? Local is one of the most valuable safety tools available to null sec pilots. It’s the chat window for people in your current system. The reason it’s so valuable is it lists everyone who’s in the current system. Using this list, you can quickly check a system to find out if it’s safe (if everyone is blue, it usually is for the time being).
Color is very important in EVE. Other players are color coded in your local window, on their character info, and the overview. The different colors mean:
| Color | Description |
| Blue | Friendly. Never, EVER shoot a blue pilot. If you are engaged by a blue pilot, run if possible. Do not return fire. Immediately ask in alliance channels, and over voice chat why the ____ a blue is shooting you. |
| None | A neutral, or so called neut. Not friendly. Assume they are out to kill you. |
| Orange | In order for a player to appear orange, they have been marked as being unfriendly. This is most likely for some kind of past offense against your alliance or corporation. As with neuts, assume they are out to kill you. |
| Red | This player has been marked with the worst possible standing. As with anything not blue, assume they are out to kill you. Reds may carry special significance within your alliance or corporation when reporting intel. |
| Red + Star | A war target, or WT. They have declared war against your alliance or corporation. They are most certainly out to kill you, and can do so anywhere in EVE (including high sec). |
Another important tool for staying safe in null sec is the directional scan, or d-scan. This scanner will show you ships near by, and can be filtered by range and, naturally, direction. I’m not going to cover how to use it, but you should look around the net for tutorials, and ask your alliance or corporation.
We’ve talked about the alliance and corporation almost as if they were one. Since null sec space requires a large number of pilots friendly pilots to defend and effectively utilize, good corporations work closely with others in the alliance. From this point forward, we’ll just be referring to the pair as an alliance.
One of the most difficult parts of this journey is finding an alliance to join. Joining one that isn’t good at what they do can seriously change your experience in null sec. I’ve been in a bad carebear null sec alliance (basically IT pets aka renters), which I left for the PvP oriented alliance that I’m in now (which owns several systems and stations). The difference is incredible.
There are a lot of ways to go about choosing. You could try joining one of the massive alliances like IT, AAA, Atlas, or look for a smaller alliance. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. If you want to do a lot of PvP, most of the north occupants (IT, Atlas, etc) are blue to each other, so you’ll have to travel quite a bit to reach decent hunting grounds.
Another option is joining one of the smaller alliances in the Providence region. The region has a long ugly past, but now, it’s a well populated area, with plenty of stuff to shoot. With smaller alliances, essential things like maintaining a local market that isn’t massively inflated and good logistics aren’t always a given. When you sit down for an interview with the CEO, remember, you’re interviewing them as well. Most CEOs will think more of you if you ask questions that show a general knowledge of null sec. Things like:
- Where do your jump freighters pick up?
- Do you have a local market for ammo?
- How often do you run PvP roams?
- How many systems do you own? Are they upgraded (there should be a system with anom upgrades)?
- How many stations do you own? What types? Can we use all the services (at least one station MUST have jump clone facilities)? Are they taxed?
- What voice comms does the alliance use? If the alliance doesn’t use voice comms, find another alliance. Null sec corps usually use the alliance’s voice comms.
One of the best ways to get into an alliance is to know someone who’s already there. They can tell you about how the alliance is run, which corp to join, and they can assure their CEO that you aren’t a spy.
I know I said I’d cover what you should bring down to null here, but this post is getting a little long, so we’ll cover that in part 3.
