PSA - Transitioning null to low

Lots of people write guides on things of this nature, so I won't go into the details of how to do each; such as making a tactical and setting up your overview. I will assume that you already know all this or have read all the different guides out there. Ripard Teg, for example, has some excellent ones in his blog, go there and become enlightened in case you have doubts.

What I intend to do with this post is speak from the perspective of an ex-nullsec pilot who's moved to lowsec and begun a dangerous life of crime. Which habits and lessons learned in null work? Which apply and which don't? That's what I'm here to document; life in low is different and exciting and requires some paradigm shifts.

Implants in your head

As a null pilot I am used to having a highsec training alt with all the nice juicy implants, another one with good but inexpensive implants somewhere near where I live and a clean, empty clone in the deployment area.

You all know how to do this. If you'll be busy for several days you jump into highsec and let your toon train. For normal normal life in null (bearing, roaming etc) you use the cheap clone. If however you get called on CTA and expect to fly in the bllob then you use the empty one.

In blob warfare death is almost assured; Murphy is an asshole and even though your name starts with M and is middle of the overview list you know you will be primary. Traveling null-sec in an expensive pod is not for the feint of heart and saving it when caught in a bubble is very difficult. 

In low-sec this may not hold true. Sure, keep your clones and their different uses; it's always good and saves you money on expensive breached pods. However, since there are no bubbles in low, loosing a pod is very rare so your loss rate will be much lower. Besides which low-sec is full of pirates like me and you bet your ass we have fitting and shooting implants and all sorts of things in our dastardly heads to give us an edge. After all if we explode the other guy first our pod is, for the moment, safe.

Safespots and bookmarks

Keep doing this, in fact ramp it up.

Observation tacticals and safes are a common-sense obligation anywhere you plan on spending time in. These include tacticals at gates, safe-spots to scan spacial features from etc. Safe-spots are very useful in lowsec as most intended victims don't carry probes since they are flying cheap ships meant to kill you fast and ask questions later. Gate observation tacticals WILL save your skin; sure there are no bubbles here but every fleet has some insta-locking bastard in their ranks with a long point. Same as null.

Insta-docks  which in case you're unfamiliar with the term is a bookmark right at the point where you un-dock off a station, are very important. People do and will camp stations even without the benefit of an interdiction bubble, so simply hitting the "dock" button on your screen can be suicide.

Insta-warps for the same reason are also very important. Many people in null-sec make them out of habit but if they become lazy about this then it's still no big issue. If the station is camped it is probably bubbled as well. Not so in lowsec, insta-warps here will save your ship.

Directional scanning 

Yup, keep this up. Never stop spamming that freaking button. Lowsec is much more crowded than null and there's a damn POS at every moon, so make sure you got your overview setup right and that your scanner filters out the noise.

Local Paranoia

It is difficult to adjust to this since in null one is used to seeing only blues in local, followed by a spike of neutrals or reds which is your  queue to ship up, form up and go shoot them. Lowsec is different and much worse. You know that feeling when you jump to highsec and suddenly everything in your overview is grey/neutral? You panic for a second and then remember 99% of them won't shoot you.

Well in low 99% of them will. And they're all around you all the time. You're sharing space which no one owns and cannot evict you from (there are methods, that's another topic) so you will have all sorts of strangers around you. It's not a reason to panic, you'll get used to it, but it is a reason to be very wary and for keeping an eye out in local ALL THE TIME. You never know who can show up.

The overview

You'll have to change this as it works slightly differently in low-sec. Here you DO care who is a criminal and an outlaw as well as who has low security status. Instead of worrying about who has standings here you have to worry about who is elite pvp, who are the (other) pirates, who are their alts etc. Make sure you have your color and categories organized right as always knowing who is who in local is vital; make a habit of adding people to your contact list at red or orange as you find them and experience their abilities first hand.

Also make sure you're showing the right objects in space. By default in null-sec you don't have things like factional warfare beacons active, instead opting for useful things like jump bridges and POS modules for bashing. In low-sec you'll find great victims at the FW beacons and you'll be doing far less POS bashing than you do ice mining. 

Travel in a cloaky

Cloaked ships are awesome and having one in a ship really increases your chances of survival in lowsec; there are no bubbles! A ship that can fit covert ops cloaking devices however is nearly impossible to catch a gate so travel in them is flawless. You'd have to make a stupid mistake, get distracted by your wife in that crucial moment or have a brain seizure to get caught in a Nemesis or a Viator for example. 



Obviously everything depends on what you are doing in low-sec, whether it's mining, faction warfare, exploring or just being a pirate; so take this advice with a grain of salt and adjust to your particular activities and play styles. Like the banner says above, flying internet spaceships isn't that hard.

Thats it for now, fly safe everyone!