Traveling between high sec Incursion focuses are arguable the most dangerous part of incursions these days. Especially since incursions site are extremely well thought out and theory crafted. This guide will provide you with the information needed to make yourself an undesirable target and help you get to your destination safely.
The two parties most likely to be trouble for you while moving are Wardecers and Gankers.
Wardecers are easier to beat than gankers but both still pose a threat. The only way to be safe from these guys is to ensure you are in a non wardecable corporation, such as Brave Empire. Because highsec wardecers are an interesting breed, this simple measure will keep them away.
Gankers are a tough fish to fry, generally, these require you to be more difficult to gank that you are worth. Generally this means you'll look to be travel fit and carry any bling mods in an instawarp ship.
The idea around travel fitting is to remove all you bling for transport in another ship and fit the ship for tank. You don't want Inertia Stabilizers or Warp core Stabilizers either. These will make you easier to kill and I guarantee, they will NOT save you. The seconds you'll gain from Inertia Stabilizers are not worth it.
The idea is to fill you Lows with a Damage Control unit II and Bulkheads, with your mid slot having two Multispectrum Shield Hardener IIs and the rest Large Shield Extender II. Below you'll see some example of Travel fits for the more common incursion hulls.
In general, You can leave things like guns, rigs and meta cap/shield boosters on a hull. You may have to offline them to properly travel fit but that is fine.
[Nightmare, Nightmare Travel Fit] Reinforced Bulkheads II Reinforced Bulkheads II Reinforced Bulkheads II Reinforced Bulkheads II Reinforced Bulkheads II Damage Control 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 Large Shield Extender II
[Vindicator, Vindicator Travel Fit] Damage Control II Reinforced Bulkheads II Reinforced Bulkheads II Reinforced Bulkheads II Reinforced Bulkheads II Reinforced Bulkheads II Reinforced Bulkheads II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Large Shield Extender II Large Shield Extender II Large Shield Extender II
Depending on how much bling you have, there are several different ways to transport bling safely. If you only have say a faction web or target painter, I'd recommend you carry a frigate in your frigate escape bay on your battle ship and fit the faction web on it. For small amounts of bling this will allow you to slip under the radar safely.
As you get more, you'll need to get a insta warp. This can be any of choice but I'd avoid using a Sunesis. Gankers have become wise to these high capacity destroyers being used to carry large amounts of bling. A trusty atron is ideal to start with, I've included a sample fit below. It aligns in less than 2s and has enough cargo space to make it viable. If you get to a stage where you have a lot of bling, I'd recommend investing into a hyper align tactical destroyer. These are expensive but when you start carrying a lot of bling, these are worth it.
When fitting for a bling transport ship, be extremely careful about keeping your sig radius down! Blooming your sig to help align times and/or add little tank may not be worth it
[Atron, Travel Atron] Expanded Cargohold II Expanded Cargohold II Inertial Stabilizers II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II EM Shield Hardener II Medium Azeotropic Restrained Shield Extender Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints II Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints II Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints II
Please do not fit Inertia Stabilizers or Warp core Stabilizers, these are great in null sec where you may be caught or pointed but this is high sec gankers we are dealing with. Fitting these will comprise your tank. Same goes with fitting blingy Shield Hardeners, Shield Extenders, Damage Controls and Bulkheads. These will make you a target. Please do not fit them.
Please do not fit Blingy Shield hardeners, Shield Extenders, Damage Controls or Bulkheads. These will make you a target.
Traveling between focuses is easy, Travel fit your ship, get in it and fly to the next focus. Sounds simple? Well almost. They are some things you should consider.
Stay in Highsec and please always use the most secure route. In Highsec there are several pipes with gankers tend to frequent more often. These are Uedama 0.5 area, the Balle/Aufay/Deltole/Colelie/Uttindar/Hek 0.5 pipe and the 0.6 pipe near around Odin. These areas are favored due to the low (to rest of high sec) security status. Our primary defense from gankers is Concord, thats the idea. Hold out until they arrive. The security status of a system reflects how quickly Concord respond and kill the gankers.
As you can see, the response time between 0.7 and 0.5 is almost 10 second apart! For reference, It will require approx 15-20 cataylsts to gank a travel fit incursion fit in a 0.5 system. Sounds scary right? this is why you should take precautions.
Before you depart, you should check the route on Eve Gate Check, take note of any pipes or if there are any kills in a system and stop a jump clear these and scout. Due to the nature of incursions, they'll always be a high chance of running through a pipe or a gankers hotspot. Please take precautions.
Safely in numbers! Travel with a friend and scout for each other or ask see if someone is willing to help scout ahead of you!
Great! Your moving between focuses and on your way! Well done! Now what? do you just switch off because you've ran a gate camp check? No, you should always keep on eye on intel channel. The following are good places to look:
Incursion runners share a lot of information on moving days, keeping an eye on the big communities in game channel may provide you with the intel that saves you ship! I'd also reccomend you keep running Eve Gate Check as you move to quickly see if anything has changed since you first checked.
If you see any info, please share it! Mentioning that there are catalysts forming in Uedama may save someone elses ship.
Unless you know explicitly know otherwise, assume all neutrals may be connected to gankers.
Do not move on autopilot! You will be ganked. Please ensure you are at the keyboard at all times. Monitor intel and the local situation at all times. Please ensure that before you declock after taking a gate, you check the surrounding area and see if any is any ships nearby, this is important! If you see any number of Catalysts, Thrashers, Nagas or Tornados, it may mean someone is about to gank you. Please ensure you are familiar with the next section to maximize your chance of survival.
You'll probably notice a train of Bowheads or other common incursion ships going the same way as you. That's great! These guys will also be monitoring intel and reporting anything of note they see to the community they normally run in.
So you've jumped through a gate and before declocking you checked the surrounding area and noticed a large amount of suspicious ships, Catalysts, Thrashers, Nagas or Tornados? Well, someone may be trying to gank you. Lets try to keep you alive.
This procedure will give you maximum chance of surviving a gank in your travel fit incursion ship. Its tried and tested. Please follow it.
I've wrote this guide using from experience, as someone whos been ganked, twice, its not pretty or fun but I survived the second time because I travel fit. I followed the procedure above and I go out of there with my ship intact.
Please follow this guide. I don't want to see any more loss mails from people who've got caught out by gankers.
Here is some extra reading from Warp to Me regarding this subject. It goes into more detail on a few subjects. I'd advise you give it a read. I've also included Eve University's page regarding suicide ganking, which is what they'll be trying to do to you.