Welcome to 2.0! This section will cover the aspects of the game that generally dont make you isk but are still important to know. This post might end up being a bit long but I aim to cover everything you need to know in order to at least participate in a Brave Fleet. You will not need to be in Brave to learn though.

Finding & Joining The Correct Fleet

The first step to participate in a fleet is to of course find and join the fleet you need to be in. In order to do this you need to open the fleet window, The fleet button can be found on the left hand side of your screen by default and will open the fleet window.

Now you have the window open you will see a list of fleets, Any fleet listed here can be joined. Some of them will be irrelevant and some may even be public fleets. If you are in Brave then you will be almost always joining the Brave Standing Fleet which is referred to as Standing or Armada.

Alternatively you may be looking for a different fleet, again if you are in Brave the fleets are “Pinged” more often then not and these pings will contain the fleet name for you to look for and join and also tell you which channel to join on comms.

Once you have found the correct fleet simply right click and select join fleet. Brave Fleets will be open to all Brave pilots to join without passwords or FC’s confirmation.

If you are not joining a specific fleet that has been pinged then you should join the Standing/Armada fleet.

Selecting The Ship To Fly.

If you join the Standing/Armada fleet then you are welcome to fly any ship you choose so long as you are happy to potentially lose it. The Armada contains Miners and ratters so expect to see mining ships and Ratting ships in here as well as PVP players. Basically anything goes.

Alternatively once you have joined a fleet the fleet window will change and a new chat window will also open. In Brave when a fleet is “Pinged” it will often contain a ship in the name or description. These ships are considered preferred and are in most cases not mandatory. For example ” HARPY VS CORMS” indicated that Harpies are the main ship and are being used to fight Cormorants.

Many newbros believe they cannot join that since they cannot fly the Harpy. As a newbie you have a few choices available to you right from the start of your EVE Career. These t1 frigates are actually much more useful then you might think and are almost always required or usable in fleets regardless of the main composition.

Tackle: Atron, Condor, Executioner & Slasher

Cheaply Fitted T1 Frigates, Expendable and provided free if you are low on funds simply as the Dojo for a handful. These ships are designed to get in close and slow the target down and prevent them from warping away, This allows the fleet to get in position and annihilate them.

Most common one in Brave is the Atron, however the rise of Alpha’s sees Slashers, Executioners and Condors becoming more popular each with their own benefits. You will die a lot, however most kills will not happen with out a tackle on the field and in big fights you are forcing the enemy to drop the dps on the main target in order to spend time locking you then firing on you. This results in more time for logistics to assist the main target and also more DPS to be applied to the enemy.

Variations of “Heavy tackle” have been seen on fields which are tougher but slower t1 frigates. These are generally considered to be the combat frigates for the nation of choice fitted with oversized tanks compared to the faster counterparts they can survive much longer. Usually these ships will be the second on field to hold the target. The standard tackle is still required to chase and capture targets first.

Extremely Cheap, Fast and always in on the action. You will die a lot whilst you learn the ropes but a good tackle pilot is something everyone fears. Reports have been made of these small ships moving so fast and close to a target they cannot be hit by the opponents weapon systems.

EWAR: Crucifier, Griffin, Maulus & Vigil

Frigate EWAR boasts some of the most powerful and incomprehensibly annoying ships for the enemy to see on field in the game. With the ability to turn even the most powerful ships in the game into useless hunks of space metal they are always welcome.

The most common EWAR ship fielded by Brave is the Maulus, This incredibly cheap ship is designed to do two things. Firstly it can reduce the targets locking range forcing them to abandon the fight or move in closer for the kill or be rendered useless. Secondly it can increase the time it takes for the target to lock their own targets, This is particularly useful against enemy logistics who are required change targets often to counter the damage being applied.

Again with the rise of alphas we are seeing more and more EWAR ships on the field and the Griffin & Crucifier are not to be mocked either. The Griffin is more chance based and has a chance to prevent the target from locking anything at all. Meanwhile the Crucifier hinders the enemies ability to apply damage through the use of weapon disruptions.

The Vigil on the other hand is slightly different, it does not prevent the targets ability to deal damage but makes them more vulnerable to damage by effectively target painting them for your friendly fleet to hit them easier.

Ewar ships usually have no anchor and are left to fly at their own discretion, you should generally stay at your maximum range of your EWAR. This allows more surivability. If anyone starts you yellow box you, Simply warp out and then come back.

We have heard reports of Braves EWAR ships effectively swarming targets hindering entire fleets and single ships able to force the enemy to let friendly ships go free and survive to fight another day.

Logistics: Bantam, Inquisitor, Navitas & Burst

These ships are rarely used in “Pinged” fleets due to the cruiser variants requiring small amounts of training but restoring significantly more Armor/Shield.

However in standing these ships can mean the difference between you and your fellow pilots surviving an engagement. These ships lock friendly targets instead of the enemy and use Remote Shield Boosters & Remote Armor Reppers to effectively heal the friendly target. If you wish to learn this role standing is an excellent place to start and these frigates offer an easy entry for very little cost.

Thanks to the enemy using small numbers of hit and run ships often one or two attacking ships these frigates can bring a friendly back from the brink of destruction and allow them to fight another day.

Most of the time Logistics will be clumped together for safety in numbers and anchored up on a single target.

Rumors of these mythical space beasts receiving showers of isk donations after saving a target are rife. Wealthy players may reward you for saving their life in moments of certain doom.

Exceptions: Some fleets simply do not work with some ships an example of this is Bomber fleets. You cannot join them unless you have a bomber no ship in the game is capable of doing what they need you to do apart from a bombers.

Do not be disheartened if you cannot fly a ship and must leave, often these fleets are just for fun and have no real important other then blowing stuff up. These ships often cost a lot as well or require long training. Remember to focus on your skill plan if you are in Brave so you can join as many fleets as possible whilst figuring out what you want to do.

Setting Up The Fleet Window

Now you are in fleet and have got a ship sorted it is time to set up your fleet window. The fleet window should looking like this.



The Settings Button allows you to access the settings for the fleet experience you have, You cannot change the fleet in anyway if you join it but you can customize how it passes information to you. You should check your settings and adjust them every time you enter a fleet.

When you join a fleet you will be put into one of the available spaces in one of the many squads. Some instances may ask for you to change squad, You can do this by dragging and dropping your name into a different squad.

Received broadcasts will display important information based on your chosen settings. Everything that appears here is important. Primary targets, Locations and even friendly requests will display here so it is important your settings are done to display only what you need.

The buttons at the very bottom are shortcuts you can click to broadcast information to the fleet. In general as a fleet member you will only need to broadcast for reps, this includes Shields and Armor. You can also set keybindings up for these in the settings menu under “Shortcuts” then “Navigation”

The next window you will use is the “History” window. this is a tab at the top of the fleet window. This window has the sole purpose of display the broadcast history. In large fights multiple broadcasts will be made and this can help you keep track of targets that are lined up. It can even be used to find the fleet if you get lost by following the steps you missed until you reach them.

The Settings Menu offers you the following choices

Leave Fleet – Well Duh… You leave fleet

Flag Exempt From Fleet Warp – This prevents the FC or Sqaud leaders from warping you as a group. You should never touch this unless told to do so. Some instances include you flying a ship that warps slower then everyone else so you flag exempt and warp yourself to the target. Since the fleet warp speed is determined by the slowest warp speed in the fleet this can help the fleet speed up response times.

Broadcasts – Allows you to broadcast from a list instead of the buttons at the bottom or keybindings. You can if you want but why…

Broadcast Settings – very important, Allows you to filter out what messages you receive and also colour code broadcasts. For Example if you are in a Combat ship you dont need to see people broadcasting for Armor, Capacitor or Shields so you can turn them off.

If you are in logistics you might want to colour code the request for reps so that they stand out. A logistic fleet will still use a target calling system so you should not turn of “Broadcast Target”

You should always have the travel based broadcasts on since the FC will broadcast destinations.

View as Flat List/Hierachy – This changes the main fleet window to display an alphabetical list of players in the fleet or display a list of wings/squads with members in them.

Export Loot History – Allows the looting history to be exported to external programs. Yes loot history is followed. If you take loot that doesnt belong to you such as an NPC Dreadnought spawn it will be spotted and you will be killed repeatedly and asked to reimburse the loot.

Store Fleet Setup – Allows the fleet compostion to be stored. More useful to FC’s then general pilots. Allows MOTD’s and fleet settings to be easily transferred between fleets

Understanding & Using Comms

Comms is an important part of the fleet and good communication ensures a much better response and increases the effectiveness of the fleet. Firstly you should set up a whisper key.

Due to the layout of comms used when on operations in brave Command leaders or FC’s will be in a different channel using a “shout key” to instruct everyone in fleet on what to do.

The Whisper key allows you to chat among fellow squad mates and discuss the operation without interrupting the command channels. A shout key can also be set up in the same way allowing you to shout important information to the Command leaders or FC’s without having to change channels.

At first you may find comms very hectic and a lot of information not making sense or coming in to fast. Try to listen carefully for key points and information that is relevant, In some situations it may be called for battle comms. Battle comms means that nobody says anything unless it directly relates to intel or the fight that is happening.

The single most important thing to remember is Refer to yourself in 3rd person, Give a location & info – “Marroc Needs help at P33 gate in D06, Brutix has engaged me” That is much more useful then “I need help here warp to me now!”

Commands/Broadcasts to look out for

During your time in a fleet commands will be given over comms and also through broadcasts, the following are some of the most common.

Fleet Align to broadcast – A target has been broadcasted, Right click it in the broadcast section, Broadcast history or the top of your overview(broadcasted targets go to the top of your overview) and select “Align to” or “Approach” which ever is displayed.

Failing to Align to a broad casted target means the fleet lands at the destination one at a time and are picked off by the enemy as they land one after another. Additionally players who didn’t align end up taking longer to warp off and can be caught by enemies when the rest of the fleet leaves.

Fleet Take Warp – The FC is going to warp you and the fleet, Do not stop this action as you are moving in one be group for safety.

“name” Is Primary – This is the primary target, Start locking them ASAP and fire everything you have at them asap unless told to hold fire. Sometimes the FC will instruct everyone to fire at once in an attempt to take out the target instantly.

“Name” Secondary – This will be the next target, you should start locking them now and be ready to attack them once the primary target is dead or you are told to switch. FC’s may call you to lock multiple targets by name.

Cycle Weapons – This is effectively a hold fire. It means you turn of your weapons asap. This is usually a precursor to the FC instructing a Reload or attempting to apply enough damage instantly to destroy a target.

Starburst – This usually comes after entering a new system. You simply pick a random Celestial(Station, Asteroid Belt, Planet, Moon or Sun) and warp to it. if you see an enemy there you shout up to the FC and let them know in chat.

Spread Point/Tackle – When a fleet is trying to clean up or wipe out an enemy fleet this will be shouted. This means you target a random ship and apply your Warp Scrambler or Warp Disruptor to the target. Smaller Faster ships should pick targets further away to maximize the amount of ships you trap and destroy.

AWOX – Kill the friendly target named. Yep thats right KILL HEATHEN!

Gate Is Green – FC’s try to avoid mentioning jump. Instead they will say “Gate is Green” meaning you can jump through. If an FC said “Dont Jump” People will jump having heard the word jump.

Gate is Red – this means you do not jump the gate. Simply hold on it at the designated distance or orbit it at 500.

Get Safe – Stop what you are doing and get safe, warp to a station and dock up or utilize a safe spot such as a POS shield or a deep safe. If in combat with an enemy fleet attempt to leave and get away if you can. If not go down fighting!

Anchor – When asked to anchor you orbit the target at 500m. On some occasions you will be asked to keep at range. Anchor is usually followed by a list of names and you anchor to the first one, if they died anchor on the second one and so on. This allows one player to fly the entire fleet and frees everyone else up to shoot at the required targets.

Overheat/Preheat – This means you need to turn on overheat (little green button above the module) This causes it to perform at an increased rate but cause heat damage to itself. You need to turn it off before the heat damage reaches 100% (Red bar starts to appear around module)

TAC – This one gets asked a lot, TAC simply refers to “-” The dash or takeaway sign. no body really knows why it is used but rumor has it comes from military backgrounds in which DASH was used in morse code and not feasible to be used on a day to day basis. In comms you will here it when people provide locations. Brave Staging is D06H-Q so on comms you would here “Dee oh six tac que”

Preload Parroto/Local Is Primary – Drag and drop your desired Parroto link into Local chat and get ready to hit enter. Their are many forms of Parroto’s available so keep your eyes open and collect them all. :parroto:

All in all comms takes a bit of getting used to and over time you filter out the crap and learn to pick out the key points and combine that with in game broadcasts.

If you are in game and on a Stratop you can ask for the newbro channel and it will be linked in order for you to ask questions without disturbing the fleet.

THE ONLY STUPID QUESTION IS AN UNANSWERED QUESTION so make sure you ask everything, No doubt someone else is wondering the same thing and is just to shy to ask it. There is no mocking for questions in Brave so stay classy!

Thanks to Bartok Rotsuda for the short notice linking of a parroto in game

Broadcasting For Reps

Unlike other MMO’s EVE only allows players to see the “HP” of their players that they have targeted plus the watch list. This means they cannot see HP of the entire fleet and will not know to healing, to alert the logistics you use the broadcast for armor/shield on the fleet window or your keybindings.

When you start getting locked up by anyone a Yellow Box will begin flashing around them on your overview and in space to let you know they are targeting you. This is reffered to as “Yellow Box(ed/ing)”

In the event of a fleet fight if more then half the enemy fleet begins to yellow box you then you broadcast for reps. This gives the logistics time to get you locked up ready to receive them. The fleet might not shoot you but its a precaution.

There are a few instances in which you do not broadcast for reps:

Frigates in fleets with larger ships – You do not broadcast for reps. Bomb Damage – Unless told otherwise you do not broadcast for reps from bomb damage

These are the most common reasons you would not broadcast. Others may apply just listen out for them.

Fly Safe,

Marroc