Newbie Industrialist Guide to Surviving Null Space

Overview 

If you are adventurous and want to try your hand at null space, I will share what I have learned so far from my null space travels to avoid being ganked there.  If you think I am wrong about anything, or have other suggestions, please feel free to contribute in the comments.  I am still learning myself.

There are several reasons for an industrialist to visit null space.  You may have your own, but here are some of my reasons:

1. To learn more about null space and how to operate there.
2. To mine the rarer ore types.  You could just buy on the market what you need, but if you are like me, you like to mine it yourself...just because...even if it doesn't make sense from a monetary standpoint.
3. To have more interesting NPC rat encounters.  You also get much better bounties and security status increases than you do from high sec space.

Is it still ganking if you are attacked in null space?  You should expect null space to be heavily PvP.  But ganking is a special category of PvP defined by the aggressor being a massive a-hole.  Null space may be heavy PvP, but I think it still qualifies as ganking if you are flying a mostly defenseless mining or industry ship and are attacked without warning or provocation.  There is the question in null space of whether or not someone was just brushing you off of their sovereign space, but I think in such cases a warning asking you to leave is justified first.  Otherwise, it's still a gank. 

Things are different in null space.  Here are the things I think are most notable:

1. Null space can and will have warp disruption bubbles, most often encountered by mobile warp disrupters left behind in space near gates.  But they can also be generated in other ways, like by certain properly equipped player ships.
2. The NPC rats are packing some serious firepower and will use nastier tactics on you than you might be used to, like webbing and other ECM attacks.  Don't dismiss them like you would rats in high sec space.
3. Sovereignty.  Different alliances can lay claim to the systems, and most all systems are claimed.  You will notice Territorial Claim Units in the systems.  This doesn't really change much for the lone industrialist, but you should be aware that you are cutting across someone else's lawn and picking their flowers, even if nobody is home and the flowers regrow every day.
4. There is no Concord space police.  I shouldn't have to say this, but it is a newbie guide, so I'll include it.

The goal of tanking your ship in high sec space is to survive being attacked long enough for Concord to arrive and stick their boot up your aggressors behind.  Is there any point to tanking in null space?  Yes!  No one will come to your aid, but you still need tank for NPC rat battles and it may give you enough time to escape through a gate if you get caught by a ganker near a gate.  So tank up.

What ships to fly?  For scouting, I recommend using a cheap frigate equipped only with a microwarpdrive and maybe some agility equipment.  A cloaking device is optional; personally, I don't use them for scouting.  A tank or weapons won't be of much use either, in my opinion.  A special ops cloak might be worth it, but many won't yet have the skills for that.  For mining, either a Prospect, a tanked Procurer or a tanked Skiff.  I'm not sure there are any other good options.  The NPC rats are all over the place and you need a tanked Procurer or better with the firepower of at least 5 tech 1 scout drones to survive the rat battles.  What about the new Prospect?  A cool ship, but if you are a newbie, you won't have the skills for it.  And even if you did, it doesn't have the hit points or firepower to stand up against the roaming rats, so your opportunities will be limited to whatever few sites don't already have rats roaming them.  Still, it's a lot less of a hassle to just cloak instead of playing cat and mouse with a Procurer or a Skiff.  Your choice.

Getting Started

First, do some research.  Figure out what part of null space you want to be in.  Research the systems.  Use the various online resources to get a feel for what the sovereignty of the systems are and how active they are.  I won't go into a ton of detail here, because I need to keep this post from getting ridiculously long.  Ideally you want to find systems that have very little activity.  When you are in the null sec system, you want to typically be the *only* one in the system, if possible.  It's also nice to have a circular loop of systems in the area (3 or 4 systems with gates that link them in a loop); I'll touch more on that later.

Once you pick your area, find a nearby base in high sec to operate out of.  I recommend not starting until you have multiple scout and mining/industry ships already at the station.  If you are far from trade hubs, which might be a good idea to avoid higher activity areas, you probably want to be stocked up and prepared for at least a couple of ship losses without needing resupply.  Don't go overboard either though, as you may end up deciding to move later if activity gets too high or you get annoyed by locals who seem obsessed with hunting you.

Before you fly any industry ship into null space, you need to scout first and set up bookmarks with your cheap scouting ships.  Come up with a way to name your bookmarks that will allow you to identify them easily, as you will end up with quite a few that you need to be able to pick through quickly in a pinch.  The bookmarks I recommend are:

1. Two or more near-gate bookmarks for every gate.  These will help you get through the gates safely.
2. Three or more safe spot bookmarks.  These will help you avoid others in the system.

The near-gate bookmarks allow you to scout the gates and help in avoiding warp disruption bubbles.  Warp bubbles will often be placed near a gate and in line between the gate and either another gate or some other landmark in the system. If you warp through a bubble, it will catch you.  Once in a bubble, you cannot warp out until you clear the edge of the bubble.  Furthermore, if your warp destination is near a bubble and you warp line intersects the bubble past the warp destination point, you will still be dragged to the edge of the bubble.  You want your entire line of warp even past your destination to be clear of bubbles.

Systems tend to be set up in a plane, and some players may not think well in 3D, so I think the best places to put your near-gate bookmarks are at locations somewhat perpendicular to the general plane of the system.  They need to be at least 150 km away from the gate to be able to warp between the bookmark and the gate.  You probably want them further away than that to give you good distance between your bookmark and any hostile ships that may camp near the gate.  Once you enter the system in your scout ship for the first time, assuming there are no hostiles near the gate, pick a good direction from the gate for your bookmark away from everything else, double click to head that direction, hit your microwarp drive, and wait until you reach a distance from the gate you feel comfortable with (noting that it must be more than 150 km away).  Then create your bookmark.  Repeat until you have a number of bookmarks you feel comfortable with.  I think 2 is enough, but you could do more.

After doing this for your first gate, I then recommend setting up your safe spot bookmarks.  Create several of these, preferably as far away from everything else as possible.  To do this, pick something far away to warp to (be careful what you pick though while setting up the safe spots, as you want to avoid dropping out of warp somewhere dangerous while setting up the bookmarks).  Warp to it.  In the middle of your warp, click the add bookmark button.  I'm not certain at what point it actually takes the bookmark location -- the time you press the add bookmark button, or the time you click save.  I just do it quickly, name it something random like "ffff", then go back and edit the bookmark once I get back to somewhere safe.  Just turn right around and warp back to your bookmark you just placed (it is supposed to be a safe spot after all), then edit it.  For added safety, you can go a step further.  Instead of keeping that bookmark, fly back to it, then fly from there to somewhere else and set a second bookmark in the middle of that warp, and make that second spot your safe spot.  Then delete the first.  This is better, because it means your safe spot is no longer directly between two common warp points.  Don't get lazy and only create one safe spot in the system.  Create at least two -- more than two preferably. 

With your safe spots set up, now go add near-gate bookmarks for the other gates in the system.

Now repeat for any neighboring systems that you want to include in your area.  If there is a system loop (series of 3 or more systems that connect in sequence with the last connecting back to the first), make sure to include all the systems in the loop.

Once all your bookmarks are set up, you are ready to operate in the system.

Begin Industrial Operations

It's probably a good idea to always check the system first with your scout ship before flying any mining or industry ships there.  There is the risk that the mere act of scouting will alert clever hostiles that you will be operating in the system soon, but I still think it's better to check first.  See who is in system, and if you think it's sufficiently safe to operate in at the time.  Note where any mobile warp disruption bubbles are near the gates and determine if they intersect any of your paths between gate and your near-gate bookmarks.  If everything looks okay, go get your mining or industry ship.

Once in the system, if any bubbles are blocking your way, just warp to your near-gate bookmark first.  Then warp to your destination from there.  If you have to think about where you are going (didn't decide in advance?), just warp to one of your safe spots next. 

Hopefully the system is empty (look at local chat), but you may find over time that there are some folks you feel safe being in the same system with.  If anyone bad or unknown comes into the system, immediately review their bio to get a feel for what threat they might pose.  You may wish to immediately pack up and fly to one of your safe spots to review the bio, or possibly to wait for them to leave the system (they may just be passing through). 

At your safe spot, if you have cloak, use it; your safe.  But you probably don't, so the rest of this paragraph addresses those without cloaking.  Be ready to jump away quickly to your next safe spot by aligning to it and staying at max speed.  Get your dscan up scanning 360 degrees at maximum range.  Make sure it's configured to pick up both ships and combat probes.  Scan repeatedly.  In particular, you are looking for the combat probes.  If you see combat probes, then they are trying to pinpoint your location in space, and your safe spot won't be safe for much longer.  You have three options at this point.

Evade.  

Did you set up multiple safe spots like I suggested?  Here is a case where you will be glad you did.  Jump randomly from safe spot to safe spot.  It will be nearly impossible for them to pinpoint any of your safe spot locations.  Eventually, one of you will have to give up and do something else.  If they leave, great.  But be weary, they may come back with later with friends or try waiting for you on the opposite side of a gate.  If they don't leave, or you just want to bail, proceed to option 2 or 3.

Escape.  

Try to get through a gate and back to safe space.  Jump to your near-gate bookmark at the gate you want to exit through.  Assuming there is nothing obviously in the way (like new warp bubbles), jump through gate.  On the other side, warp away to safety as soon as possible.  If they are waiting for you at the gate or you suspect some kind of trap, use a different gate and go to a different system.  This may be a bit risky, not knowing what's on the other side, but you already have someone actively hunting you so you are already in imminent danger.  Did you set up bookmarks in this neighboring system?  I hope so.  Same jumping rules apply.  You may find that the hostile gives chase and shows up in the system after you.  Did you pick an area with a loop of systems?  If reversing course seems too dangerous, follow the loop.  Once you get back ground to where you started, you should be able to escape back to safe space.

Log.

If you don't have any timers running on you, it is only supposed to take 1 minute for your ship to warp away to safety after you log off.  If you were about done or have something else to do anyway, warp to a new safe point and log off.  Highly unlikely they will be able to pinpoint you, warp to your location, and attack you in less than a minute.

When Things Go Wrong

This probably goes without saying, but if at any point you feel a safe spot has been compromised, create a new one and delete the old one.

When you know someone is after you, whenever you have a moment of safety, add them as a bad standing contact so you can more easily monitor for them later.  If it's a character you run into often in the area, you might consider adding them to your watch list to monitor when they are online.

If you jump through a gate and find hostiles waiting on the other side, then your situation is not good, and is pretty much the same as for any gate camp (minus the option of waiting for Concord to arrive).  Try to warp away, or probably a better idea, reverse course, hit your microwarpdrive immediately, turn on any active defenses you may have, and try to haul ass back to the gate to jump before they finish you off.  Note that if you take any aggressive acts, it results in a timer being set on you that will prevent you from jumping through the gate.  So don't take hostile action even in defense if you are trying to get through a gate.  Beware of your drones being out and being set to aggressive; this is common for easy NPC rat defense, but could wind up in activating an unwelcome timer on you if attacked by a player.  If this happens and you can get away, just do safe spot jumping until the timer ends.

If your ship is destroyed, make sure to remember to try to warp your pod away immediately after the ship goes.  Might save you some implants and the cost of a new clone.

If you get podded, make sure you upgrade a new clone as needed.

After an attack or if things are just too hot in the area, find something to do elsewhere and try again another day.

If you find you are constantly having problems, often with the same people, it might be time to pack up and find a new home.  Just be careful moving your stuff, and try to stick to high security space in a well tanked ship while moving.  If the value of your stuff is particularly high, consider making several trips, possibly moving the more valuable stuff in something heavily tanked and/or fast; special ops cloak if you can.

Good luck, and have fun!