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Table of Contents
Travelling Between Focuses
Once a focus finishes, there is a wait of between 12 and 36 hours before the next focus spawns. The new focus is generally in a different constellation, and there can be a large number of jumps required to move to the new focus.
Travelling in EVE Online, especially with expensive items, is not a simple task. Incursion runners make attractive targets to gankers because of the value of the items we transport.
There are three primary things you need to move between focuses.
- Your capsule/pod with your implants.
- Your incursion ships (battleships in general).
- Your expensive modules (faction, deadspace, abyssal, etc).
There are different ways to move each of these items.
Note: There is no such thing as 100% safe in EVE Online. The best you can do is minimise risk.
Capsule/Pod/Implants
If you're flying with us, we highly recommend (and sometimes require) that you use implants, not only will these improve your efficiency and speed when running with us, they will also make moving a lot less painful since you can warp so much faster in some implant sets. Take a look at the Implants page for more information on implants.
Although the implants we tend to use are quite expensive, there's very little value to gankers to killing you for your implants (except around Easter, where there's a 50% chance for each of them to drop for a killer to loot them during the Easter Egg Hunt event).
If all you're moving is your pod, move in a cheap quick aligning ship (a Shuttle is generally fine), do NOT fly through lowsec/nullsec, and do not autopilot.
You can combine moving your pod with moving either your primary incursion running ships and/or your expensive modules. When doing this, follow the same rules you would follow for the incursion ship or modules.
The Basics of Moving Safely
The basics of moving safely can be summed up as follows:
- Avoid lowsec/nullsec. There's simply too many things that can go wrong here.
- Scout ahead. If you can, send a second character (in a cheap ship - any faction Shuttle works nicely, though you may want something with a faster warp speed such as a Dramiel, Sunesis, etc) ahead to see who is in the system you're about to jump into and warp through.
- Be an unattractive target.
- Use out of game resources to plan your route and check for activity on the way.
Use the EVE Gatecamp Check.
Put in your starting system and your destination, choose “Prefer Secure” and then press Go.
Then look at Dotlan as well, looking for systems on your route with a high number of deaths in recent times. Pay particular attention to systems that are difficult to avoid, and systems that are 0.5 -0.6 security status. Look for any systems with any numbers in the Kills column (kills in the last hour).
If you think something looks suspicious, look at it closer. Click on the system name in Dotlan and go to the “Kills” tab which is powered by zKillboard. Look for freighters or other expensive ships dying, if even one has died recently it may indicate an active gank fleet.
You may be able to get intel from incursion chat channels about active ganking fleets during moving periods. Please do NOT advertise where or when you are moving your assets, as these channels are also monitored by gankers, and you WILL be providing free intel to potential hostiles.
Be an unattractive target - use a tanky travel fit. The idea here is simply to be worth less as a kill mail than the cost to kill you. Do NOT carry expensive modules on your incursion ship when travelling between focuses.
For all of our incursion ships, a travel fit involves removing expensive modules and replacing them with cheaper options - T2 armor plates, T2 damage control units, etc.
Use the MWD Cloak Trick if you jump through a gate and find yourself on grid with gankers (provided you have a cloak on your travel fit).
Move your expensive modules in a taxi. A ship with a small sig radius, a low align time and enough cargo space to carry your expensive modules. Tank is largely irrelevant on a taxi, the idea is to avoid being caught, it's unlikely that you'll last long enough to avoid dying once someone tackles you, irrespective of the security status of the system you're in.
- < 2 second align is key (< 1 second is ideal)
Incursion Ship Travel Fits
Battleships
For all battleship travel fits - Ignore the rigs listed, use the rigs you normally fly with. If you want to fly a truly passive fit, replace the two Multispectrum Shield Hardener IIs with a EM Shield Amplifier II and a Thermal Shield Amplifier II.
Travel Kronos
[Kronos, Travel Kronos] Damage Control II Multispectrum Energized Membrane II Multispectrum Energized Membrane II 1600mm Steel Plates II 1600mm Steel Plates II 1600mm Steel Plates II 1600mm Steel Plates II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Large Shield Extender II Large Shield Extender II 500MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] Improved Cloaking Device II Large Hybrid Burst Aerator II Large Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Travel Vindicator
[Vindicator, Travel Vindicator] Damage Control II Multispectrum Energized Membrane II Multispectrum Energized Membrane II 1600mm Steel Plates II 1600mm Steel Plates II 1600mm Steel Plates II 1600mm Steel Plates II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Large Shield Extender II Large Shield Extender II 500MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] Improved Cloaking Device II Large Kinetic Armor Reinforcer I Large Thermal Armor Reinforcer I Large Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Travel Paladin
[Paladin, Travel Paladin] Damage Control II Multispectrum Energized Membrane II Multispectrum Energized Membrane II 1600mm Steel Plates II 1600mm Steel Plates II 1600mm Steel Plates II 1600mm Steel Plates II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Large Shield Extender II 500MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] Improved Cloaking Device II Large Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II Large Energy Burst Aerator II
Travel Nightmare
[Nightmare, *Nightmare] Damage Control II Multispectrum Energized Membrane II Multispectrum Energized Membrane II 1600mm Steel Plates II 1600mm Steel Plates II 1600mm Steel Plates II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Large Shield Extender II Large Shield Extender II Large Shield Extender II Large Shield Extender II 500MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] Improved Cloaking Device II Large Explosive Armor Reinforcer I Large Kinetic Armor Reinforcer I Large Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Travel Nestor
[Nestor, Travel Nestor] Damage Control II Multispectrum Energized Membrane II Multispectrum Energized Membrane II 1600mm Steel Plates II 1600mm Steel Plates II 1600mm Steel Plates II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Large Shield Extender II Large Shield Extender II Large Shield Extender II 500MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] Improved Cloaking Device II Large Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II Large Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II Large Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Other Travel Fits
Whilst it's important to move your ships between focuses, as your ship fits become more valuable, moving the “shiny” bits becomes critical too.
*NEVER* move a ship with its incursions fit between focuses, even in highsec. Some of the modules we use are very expensive, and will make your ship a large and juicy target for gankers.
Bowhead
Welcome to the world of freighter travel. It's a dangerous world. You don't have a cloak and if anyone decides they really want to gank you, they probably can!
You should be carrying the assembled rigged hulls and nothing else in your Bowhead, all the mods should be going separately via Blockade Runner/Taxi/etc.
Bowhead Max Tank 707k EHP
[Bowhead, Max Tank] Reinforced Bulkheads II Reinforced Bulkheads II Damage Control II 500MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Capital Transverse Bulkhead II Capital Transverse Bulkhead II Capital Transverse Bulkhead II
Blockade Runner
A correctly flown Blockade Runner can be hard to catch (please do NOT make the mistake of thinking it's impossible - a well/badly placed ship or container or any item in space can REALLY ruin your day), the important things you need to do to fly it correctly:
- When warping gate-to-gate:
- Click the jump button on the next gate to initiate warp
- As soon as you see your capacitor level drop indicating initiation of the warp, click your cloak
- When undocking from a busy, camped system (e.g. any trade hub), you should have an insta-undock bookmark which you use immediately and cloak as soon as it catapults you forward. Otherwise you will be vulnerable and unable to cloak for several seconds in which a gambler playing the “Blockade Runner Lottery” can gank you under the assumption that most Blockade Runner pilots are carrying something expensive.
You should, if possible, fit a Large Shield Extender (Compact Meta4 usually) to your BR along with some passive shield amplifiers. These will help prevent you getting instablapped by a Tornado/Talos on an undock.
For your lows, simply fit sufficient Nanos to reduce your align time to a reasonable level. For rigs, Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizers are excellent for those super fast warps.
Taxi
“Taxi” is a nickname for a ship designed to safely move relatively small volumes of expensive modules across space in as safe a manner as possible.
Please Note: We do NOT recommend traversing lowsec or nullsec systems with your incursion ships or modules. There are additional tools that attackers get in lowsec and nullsec (free use of smart-bombs in lowsec and nullsec, warp disruption bubbles in nullsec, just to name two) that can entirely negate your ability to safely warp away with your cargo intact.
In general, if gankers get a lock on your ship, they can put enough firepower into it to destroy it and loot the wreck before Concord ships arrive. So, really, what you want to do is avoid being locked to start with. Conventional wisdom has a few suggestions around this:
- Use a Scout. This is always advisable, but knowing who's ahead of you is not fool-proof. Whilst if there's obvious ganking activity in a system you'll likely see it, “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” - just because you can't see gankers around doesn't mean they're not there.
- Use a small ship (or a ship with a small signature radius). The smaller your signature radius, the harder you are to lock up (more specifically, the longer it takes to lock you up).
- Use a cloak. Once cloaked you cannot be targeted until you're decloaked. If you're using a T1/T2 or meta/faction cloak, you cannot warp when cloaked, and your sub-warp speed (the speed your ship can move when not in warp) is significantly slower than normal (noting you also cannot cloak and activate a microwarp drive or afterburner to increase your speed, though you can potentially use the “MWD Cloak Trick”).
- Get into warp quicker than someone can lock you. In highsec, this is truly the only way to avoid being caught (at least directly, it IS possible for gankers to use smartbombs in highsec, but it's low accuracy and easily avoided if you're careful and do things like not warping gate to gate to disrupt not only the timing of your warp but also the direction from which you land on the destination gate).
A combination of all these methods can also be helpful, because if one of the methods isn't 100% successful in keeping you safe, the others may be, and you'll warp off safely.
Sub one second align taxi
The safest option is to have a ship that can enter warp in < 1s - this is (effectively) uncatchable in highsec (unless you sit idle on a gate and your post-jump invulnerability times out - nothing will save you then).
Although there are a number of ships that can get to < 1s align, you also need to be able to carry enough cargo to move your incursion modules in a single trip, and we believe the Hecate is ideal for this. A similar configuration is possible on a Jackdaw - it gives more tank (as it's a naturally shield-bonused ship), but requires implants to get to < 1s align.
Hecate Taxi - Cheap(est) < 1s align ship with 500m3+ cargo
[Hecate, Hecate Taxi] Shadow Serpentis Inertial Stabilizers Shadow Serpentis Inertial Stabilizers Inertial Stabilizers II Expanded Cargohold II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II EM Shield Hardener II Medium Shield Extender II Medium Shield Extender II [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] [Empty High slot] Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints II Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints II Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints II Quafe Zero Green Apple
This is the cheapest (currently lists @ 241m ISK including the Quafe Zero Green Apple booster - if that sounds like a lot, consider what it will cost you to lose a single set of incursion ship modules to gankers!) fit for a < 1s warp Hecate that does not require special implants - the Quafe Zero Green Apple Booster *is* required (you need to consume it before the trip, and if it runs out, use another!) to ensure align time is kept below 1s. Note that you will also need to keep the Hecate (or Jackdaw) in “propulsion” mode to be able to enter warp in < 1s - if you change to defensive mode to land on a gate, make sure you change back to propulsion mode first before you warp away from the next gate!
Variations of this fit are possible - if you're willing to use a “taxi clone”, you can use “Nomad” implants to lower your align time and reduce the number of Inertial Stabilizers or Low Friction Nozzle Joint rigs the ship needs to keep the align time below 1s. You could also increase the EHP by using faction or deadspace shield modules (although using shield extenders increases your sig radius, as long as you keep the align time to < 1s, the sig radius really doesn't matter) - this is especially true if you choose to use a Jackdaw due to its natural shield tank capabilities instead of a Hecate.
Sub two second align taxi
If you cannot afford a <1s align ship, we recommend that you use a courier service (see the section below on Public Hauling Services) to move your items, with appropriate collateral on the contract to protect your items. If your align is greater than 1 second, you CAN be caught - here's a loss mail for a 1.87s align Sunesis with ~3B isk of stuff lost:
https://zkillboard.com/kill/88587483/
A single stealth bomber can do over 5,000hp of damage in a single hit, and a single T2 artillery Tornado has an alpha strike of over 10,000hp from over 100km from its target. Cloaks don't help enough to de-risk this sort of thing sufficiently.
Public Hauling Services
A more risk-free approach is to use a hauling service such as PushX or Red Frog (or one of their subsidiary's). Being able to set a collateral value on your items all but eliminates the risk of hauling it yourself, however this will cost you in both ISK and time, as these contracts can take 1-5 days to complete, as well as a not-insignificant service cost. Restrictions will also apply on the value of contracts these services will accept, so you may find yourself needing to make multiple hauling contracts.
A Note on Abyssal DCU's
Some pilots will use an Abyssal DCU on their Bowhead. There are benefits to doing this, namely it makes it very difficult for ganking entities to determine the amount of ships required to kill you (due to not knowing the resist profile of the module). The downside is that it can make you a more attractive target, and gankers may just use an overkill amount of ships to make sure the job gets done no matter what.