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Tips For How To Get Started With PVP In EVE Online


After a while, some PVE activities like mining and missions can become a bit boring in EVE Online. Then it might be worth it to spice up your gameplay with some PVP. But PVP is not always so easy, especially solo PVP as a new player, because older players have much more skillpoints, ISK and experience. 

Here are some tips how you can get started with PVP in EVE.

Not Purple Shoot It (NPSI) fleets

Rather than going out to PVP as a solo player, it might be worth it to get your feet wet with flying in fleets that have experienced fleet commanders to guide you in PVP. If you are in a PVP corporation or alliance, you may already have the opportunity to do so. 

But if you are unaffiliated or in a PVE centered group, then you might want to consider NPSI fleets where anyone can join and fly in PVP fleets together. There are a few groups that regularly host these kind of fleets.

#1 Spectre Fleet

One of these groups is Spectre Fleet, they host a variety of sub-capital ship fleets in nullsec, lowsec and Pochven. Usually they are not too active in wormhole space, except for travel through Thera or drifter wormholes to nullsec or other areas of space.

The ships they fly do require some amount of skillpoints, but usually there are also low SP newbro alternatives that newer players can fly and participate with.

In-Game Channel: SF Spectre Fleet

#2 Bombers Bar

If you are into flying cloaky and stealthy ships, then Bombers Bar may be an alternative worth considering. They do fleets with mostly cloaky ships like stealth bombers, recons, strategic cruisers and black ops. Bombers Bar owns a wormhole with a nullsec static connection that they sometimes use to hot drop people in nullsec through. But they also sometimes fly in lowsec, although then you better watch out for your security status!

Unfortunately there are not many opportunities for alpha pilots to fly with Bombers Bar as the minimum requirement is usually to be able to fly a stealth bomber. So you need an omega account for that.

In-Game Channel: Bombers Bar

#3 F.U.N. inc Even Better With Friends (EBWF)

Finally there is EBWF which is more similar to Spectre Fleet than Bombers Bar. Their main fleet commander is keacte who hosts Raptor fleets in nullsec called K-FLEET. So you need to be able to fly a Raptor interceptor with tech 2 weapons. I am unsure if there are any options for alpha pilots to fly.

In-Game Channel: EBWF public

Faction warfare in lowsec

Nowadays you can enlist in faction warfare individually, you don't need to be part of a faction warfare corporation. Faction warfare provides similar opportunities as NPSI fleets, except there are also some solo PVP possibilities. But again if you are a new pilot it will be a challenge to get kills as there are many more experienced pilots engaged in faction warfare solo PVP. But you can join militia fleets and get some PVP experience that way.

The good thing about this is that you can engage enemy militia in lowsec and highsec without getting in trouble with Concord. If you do it outside of faction warfare your security status goes down after attacking pilots.

The downside is that if you enlist in faction warfare you won't be able to travel safely in some regions and systems in highsec. The faction police will attack you, and it's also possible faction warfare pilots may hunt you down.

Hunting PVE pilots in dangerous space

This is perhaps my favorite type of PVP: stalking and hunting PVE players in nullsec, lowsec and wormhole space. Depending on the area of space, it requires different ships and tactics.

#1 Lowsec hunting

Lowsec hunting is probably the easiest, personally I tend to use a Hecate or strategic cruiser like the Proteus for that as they have the possibility to use combat probes and have the tools to evade gate camps. The Hecate can instawarp in propulsion mode and a strategic cruiser can have a covert ops cloak fitted. Stratios is another alternative, but you can also use a Catalyst or Thrasher if you don't mind losing a few to gate camps and what not.

The strategy is simple, just fly around lowsec and use directional scanner to find targets. If they are doing missions you can combat scan them down. It's also worth it to check asteroid belts and green anomalies. The downside is that after attacking people in lowsec you get suspect timer and your security status goes down.

#2 Wormhole hunting

Wormhole space is a lot like hunting deer in a blind. You find a good spot and sit there camping until a target comes by, and then you pounce on it. Recommended ship type is something that can fit a covert ops cloak and a probe scanner in addition to combat modules or drones, like for example stealth bomber, Astero, Stratios, Pilgrim, Legion etc.

Basically try to find a wormhole close to a trade hub or mission hub. Then scan all the signatures and if there is something like a relic or data site, you can hunker down and camp it until your prey arrives. Alternatively you can camp the green combat anomalies on your probe scanner for combat PVE ships. Either way, it is advisable to make a perch, a spot hundreds of kilometers away from the site, so that you can quickly warp down to a can or wreck, to get close to your target to tackle them as fast as possible.

#3 Nullsec hunting

Hunting in nullsec is probably the most dangerous and difficult, depending on the area. A recommended ship is something like a Proteus or Loki strategic cruiser, although it can be done in a Stratios as well. Stratios may be a bit less skill intensive, but the price is not too different from a strategic cruiser.

The strategy is to fly around nullsec systems that have some amount of NPC kills as per Dotlan EVE Maps, and once you see pilots in system with you, use the directional scanner to pinpoint them and see which green combat anomaly they are running. Then just attack them and pray they aren't bait. Although with a Proteus or Loki, you can stay outside of warp scrambling range.

That's all for now. Fly safe!
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