EVE Online at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

Moving to null-sec from high-sec can make for something of a cultural shock. Things are different in so many ways, with changes to game mechanics, player perspective, and more. Unfortunately, the nature of the null-sec beast is such that alliances rarely want to teach new members about living there.

Instead, such alliances usually try to recruit members that already know what they are doing, or just sort of leave their members to fend for themselves. The result is that even players that have lived in null-sec for several months can sometimes have gaps in their knowledge. This guide contains ten points intended to help acclimate newbies to life in null-sec, and will hopefully see use by corporations looking to help players make that transition.

1. The World Is Your Enemy

Never trust a neutral pilot.

Unless somebody is in your alliance or has positive standings, they are hostile. In virtually all areas of null-sec, neutral people are by default assumed to be enemies. This policy is known as 'not blue shoot it' or NBSI, because once upon a time not all alliances were like this. Some few alliances in the old days would only shoot at people with negative standings. Such alliances were said to have a 'not red don't shoot' policy, abbreviated NRDS.

Over time, the vast majority of NRDS alliances have been pruned from the intergalactic garden. In practice, even the few modern groups that are NRDS still shoot most neutrals. In the specific case of CVA alliance and associated parties, for example, being in a NBSI alliance is grounds for being shot. Since literally every other null-sec alliance of any significance at all is NBSI, the result is much the same.

2. Getting There Is The Easy Part

The easiest way to get to your null-sec destination of choice is to join whatever corporation you have selected, dock in a station with medical facilities, make sure your clone is good enough to save all your skill points, set your clone location to an office in your null-sec location (your corporation does have an office out there, right?), undock, and self-destruct your pod. When you wake up in your null-sec location, upgrade your clone immediately so that you don't forget. This process is sometimes called 'pod-jumping'.

Flying out to your new null-sec home is basically a crap shoot, especially if you do not have a second account available to scout for you. The route might or might not be safe. You might or might not be able to get some friends to convoy out with you. Many people just find it simpler and safer to pod jump out and buy things that are already out there.

3. Getting Your Stuff There Is Harder

Unlike your clones, moving ships and materials to null-sec can be a big pain. If your null-sec home is close to high-sec then it can be a bit easier to get things out there, but even then the connecting gates are often camped with pirates. If your null-sec home is at a more remote location, you may be reliant on people using jump freighters to import things.

When living adjacent to empire, it may be a good idea to have some fully-fit combat ships and/or fully-loaded industrials in the closest station to your null-sec jump off point. Then, any time you notice that the pertinent gates are camped by friendlies, you can start moving your stuff over. This will usually be much cheaper than buying locally produced or imported goods, and more likely to allow you to fully-fit your ship without making any compromises.

4. Alliances Have Advantages

Being in an alliance with sovereignty has its advantages. Some of these potentially include:

• Jump Bridges: Private stargates that can be anchored at POS, these are one of the best things about controlling space because they offer speedy travel with more safety.
  
• Pirate Detection Arrays: By far the most popular space upgrade, these allow more anomalies to spawn in a system so that more people can make ISK there at the same time. Due to a recent change, the sites resulting from this are linked to how low a given solar system's security status is.
  
• Intel Channels: Every alliance worth its salt will have in-game channels to join for reporting hostile activity. Most will also have forums of some sort for coordinating long-term plans. Make full use of all of these.
• Knowledge Base: EVE Online is a huge game, with so many complexities that it is impossible to learn and master everything. Therefore, do not be afraid to ask your alliance-mates questions. Most players are happy to answer and show off how smart they are.

5. Docking Is Not A Given

This is a little thing that just might not be obvious to some players. Most of null-sec space is conquerable, meaning it is controlled by players rather than non-player characters. If a corporation that controls a given station doesn't like you (usually because of the corporation you belong to) then you can't dock in their stations. This is totally different from high-sec and one of the key differences between it and null-sec, but players still make this mistake and have it ruin their days.

Note that for various reasons some corporations will fiddle with their station settings to keep even some friendly people out. This might be because they want to make that system more exclusive, or some other reason.