What’s our life like in high-sec? We are born in New Eden, getting acquainted to our tiny part of the universe. Our daily life is more than comfortable in these Concord-guarded rookie-systems. Narrow-minded as we are, we start our career by earning money through mining or mission-running. Well actually we don’t really have another chance, as we are young and inexperienced. And we needed the money, didn’t we? We still do nowadays, but we found other ways to earn ISK. And they are definitely more fun.

In every capsuleers life there is a moment that changes your perspectives entirely. It was a late evening, when I jumped into my Rupture heading for this small asteroid-belt in Ivar where I already earned a fair amount of ISK the days before. Did I mention that I used to love Ivar for its huge amount of mineable veldspar deposits? I opened my book, letting the drilling beams do their work. They don’t really need your attention all the time, which leaves you with a lot of time to just hang around and follow your favourite leisure-activities. But all of a sudden there was something flashy red catching my attention. Is there somebody allowed to attack me in high-sec? No, he is stealing my hard-earned ore! Well hard-earned while reading my favourite book, but who cares! I called for revenge!!!

I let my warpdrive scream, jumping back to the station to fit my Rupture with some more offensive modules than just those drillers. This guy in his Rifter will soon kiss asteroids in his Pod! To make a long story short, my Rupture lasted another two minutes from the moment  I left the station… And then I was forced to kiss my lovely asteroids. Extremely funny to look at that loadout nowadays. Constant head-shaking included. No well-tracking guns, at least for Rifters. No knowledge of how to fit the Rupture’s lows and mids for PvP. But it was an experience and changed my view to EVE drastically.

And after some more weeks and growing older I thought it was time to give the evil side of EVE a try as well. My corp-mate DieRoteBieroness led my attention to…

Ninja-Salvaging

This is where EVE shines. Your opportunities are manifold compared to other MMOs. It really gets alive when one neglects the daily stereotypes of carebearing. Testing out new paths, especially if it’s harassing other players is sometimes a lot of fun. Probing once was intended to finding those rare places holding artifacts or since apocrypha wormholes. But the community again introduced a different approach to using probes and scanning. There are loads of mission-runners in trade-hub systems. And it pays off to probe them down just to hop into your favourite Salvaging-ship and earn some money with their wrecks. My first attempts were somehow frustrating as you really need to improve your skills, like Astrometrics, Astrometric Pinpointing and Astrometric Rangefinding.

But one evening I headed out for the beautiful Rens star just to put my fully rigged Probe and newly learned skills to a test. After a while of practicing I quickly pinpointed some battleships and battlecruisers. Once bookmarked I changed to my Salvaging Stabber to get my money out of their wrecks! Well it’s my deep believe that I deserve the reward as I spent so many hours practicing this fine art of harassement. And they are harassed! Be prepared to hear some of their finest curses along your salvaging-path. Watch local and your mail to get a glimpse of how the carebears get to love you. Be tolerant, as getting targeted is just another way of appreciating your new profession! Be a nice guy. Take a bow, say thanks and convert those nice goods into cash.

To give you a better idea on how the whole system works, watch this nice beginner’s guide to ninja-salvaging:

• Use 5 Probes. One centered and the other four positioned as a cross around the center probe (seen from upside-down)
• Makes sure that the 4 probes overlap a little bit but not too much. You get better initial results
• If you managed to scan your prey, the overlap can be slightly bigger
• Just track the ships with a high signature. If you don’t get good enough sigs, just make another scan until a nice target unveils
• If you  are unsure that a ship is really at the shown position, don’t decrease your range immediately, but take the time to do another scan at the same range. It could have been a ship just passing through
• I usually skip starting to scan with 16au nowadays, centering the probes in the center of the system with 8au, as most missions are flown in that area (at least in Rens)

Can-Flipping

This is a profession, where you really have to fight with your own morale. At least if you flip noobs. I was taught can-flipping the hard way, as you already read in the introduction. And my first attempts can-flipping newbies were not too successful, as I couldn’t kill them with their big eyes looking at me (remember the cat in Shrek)?

When I jumped through the belts in Ameinaka, this guy in his Thrasher crossed my path and his shiny little can caught my attention from the first moment. So I programmed a straight course  into my navigation-computer. I opened it and put all the ore into my cargo, ejecting it into my own can. The guy instantly convoed me and asked why I was so mean. What should I say? I told him that I was up to a fight with him and he was thinking about it for a while. But to be honest I wasn’t too self-assured with my little non-T2 fitted Rifter. In the end the Thrasher can be quite a pain in the a** as it’s purpose is to kill frigs. And, we had a nice conversation. This is the moment where you look into your prey’s eyes and realize: It’s too late to trick him. You are emotionally involved! In the end I told him to get his ore back. He took it and turned flashy-red. And I left without a shot.

This was the last time I talked to my prey. I blew up a fair amount of miners since then. New ones and older ones alike. But meanwhile flipping newbs got boring as well as there is no challenge left. Last weekend I introduced my corp-mate Naanook into this profession as it is a nice way to get used to PvP, nonetheless. And as we mostly chose characters that are as old as we are the challenge was still there. Did I mention that I never played any other game that let my pancreas spit out a s much adrenaline as this little gem called EVE?

So if you still think you can withstand those BIG eyes, here is a guide to can-flipping: http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=846553

I guess it’s time for our corp to move on. Nowadays I leave cans in Rens or Frarn to look for a good frig-fight. And our first excursions into low-sec are even more adrenaline-pumping. But then: As I needed some money and wasn’t in the mood for carebear mission-running, I gave my good old friend Ninja-Salvaging a try. I was probing and salvaging my way through the system, tracking down loads of BCs and BSs. Additionally, hanging out ’round the Brutor Tribe Treasury, keeping my salvagers ready for those beautiful battleship-wrecks were rewarding as well. Isn’t it fun asking the more experienced guys in local to attack each other? You can always get your little prey in form of salvaged goods, when they play their clash of titans game!

In the end I made 13 Mio. ISK in one and a half hours. Good money for buying some Rifters to head for Amamake!

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