Friday 20 November 2009

Get Rich Or Die Trying'

Wormholes, wormholes, wormholes...
The places with no blobs, no local chat, juicy targets and unpredictable exits. I've been visiting them quite often in the last few months when lowsec became too blobby or empty.
After scoring kills like this, this and this in unknown space I've decided to share some tips on wormhole piracy with my readers.
So, what do you need to kill stuff in those weird places? First, of course, you have to find those wormholes. If you are new to probing, check out this great guide by pirate-turned-merc Hallan Turrek.
Is it possible to use the same ship for probing and killing? I'd say yes if it's a force recon, I've used a Rapier to both scan down holes and then kill smallish stuff inside. But probing becomes longer and the Rapier's firepower and tank are insufficient to kill a battlecruiser or a battleship under Sleeper fire so my favourite approach is to fly with a wingmate in a covops.
Now that you found a nice-looking wormhole, read its info (00sage00 has some nice resources here), bookmark it adding a date (you don't want to end up with dozens of identical bookmarks) and get in. If you are a scout for someone else, it might be convenient to have them warp to the 'hole and bookmark it as well to make a potential incursion easier.
Once inside, look around for bubbles (this is 0.0 after all) and check your directional scanner for targets. If it returns any targets, try warping cloaked to a planet outside of scan range and lay your probes there. Don't forget to bookmark the wormhole again before leaving it: you don't want to waste your time reprobing it.
Your targets could be miners, plex runners or other explorers like yourself. Killing miners is fairly easy (you might want to equip several scrams/disrputors), but you need to be well tanked to take on w-space plex runners. Apparently, as soon as you scram, web and neut/nos them, Sleepers will see you as a major threat and will switch fire onto you.
Another important thing is to bookmark the inner side of the hole with your killer ship to avoid getting stuck in case something happens to your prober. Also, if the prober is switching into a combat ship, make sure the hole is not going to collapse shortly ot you have at least one other wormhole probed out.
Unfortunately, more often than not you will find empty systems, occasionally with people sitting at a POS. Don't hesitate to go deeper by scanning 8AUs around every planet. Also, return to empty wormholes later to see if their inhabitants come out of their caves. The Orca kill linked above followed several hours of spying on a mining group during which I bookmarked their belt but made them aware of my presence. When I returned later, though, I was able to make a surprise landing on top of them.
To sum it up, patience and proper preparation is your best friend when dealing with 'holes. And those patient and prepared will be rewarded.

1 comment:

  1. Some of the most fun pvp'ing I've ever had was wormholes. When I was into high sec wars/merc work, when the WT's were hiding, we were probing WH's. And in Caldari space, they were ACTIVE! We got 2+ kills a day. My broadsword got ALOT of use during that time. Probe someone out in a WH, drop a HIC on them, pop the bubble, they are screwed! (I spent many hours bubbling people in them as well, lol) Was alot of fun, but I have never seem to have had much luck in low sec WH's. Glad to hear you are getting some kills!

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