No one likes a ganker, especially if they are picking on some defenceless, unarmed trader or liner. But when Commander Altsain was in Jameson Memorial recently, after having been blown out of her Beluga, the Queen of the Stars (while returning from a Fuel Rat rescue, of all things), she had something of an epiphany.

It was completely her own fault. Not the ganker’s.

Ganking hits hardest when a commander is in the mid-stages of their career – kind of the area where they have just reached the likes of the Type-7 or maybe the Type-9, and have barely enough cash for a full cargo hold and rebuy insurance. Losing a ship then hurts. There is a lot of time and money tied up in that vessel.

These days, even losing her beloved Corvette or Cutter troubles Commander Altsain less, and the sting from being ganked comes more from the sheer ignominy of it.

However, losing the Queen of the Stars highlighted everything she did wrong in that run from Shinrarta’s primary to Jameson Memorial.

She was completely oblivious to the Krait as it circled around behind her, and initiated the interdiction. Once dragged out of Supercruise, she boosted away from the Krait (good move in an engineered Beluga – and if she had been in her Orca, that would have been the end of things), but low-waked out of the engagement. She continued on her way to Jameson Memorial, confident that she could outwit the Krait should it interdict again. It did, and she didn’t.

Now, the more experienced of you will have seen a world of issues in that little list. However, it was useful, and an important lesson was learned:

If you get ganked, it might very well, on some level, be your own fault.

The epiphany really is about a change in attitude to the way a ship is flown. To explain, the following are some hints and tips that Commander Altsain suggests to avoid being ganked. If a commander follows some, most, or all of these, the chances of them seeing the rebuy insurance screen are greatly diminished.

Gankers Ain’t Random

This is an important one – gankers are not random in their placement. In fact, they can be very specific to location. Any Community Goal system is going to be ganker rich, at any time of the galactic day or night. Unless you are confident in your ability to avoid interdictions (see the tips further on), avoid them. Sol and Shinrarta are also hazardous areas, though not so much (and the commander really does feel there should be an ‘honour’ system in place around Shinrarta, where attacks on other commanders is just not the done thing – kind of like not keying another commander’s ship when it is in the starport, you just don’t do it). Also, the main seats of power for the Great and the Glorious of the galaxy – such as Rhea, home of Felicia Winters.

Have a Way Out

If you enter any system where you have the merest sense that there may be trouble (such as those just mentioned), plot a jump out to a neighbouring system the moment you exit witchspace – or at least have it readily selected in your nav panel. If the worst happens, you will save valuable time when high waking out.

Double Jump

If you are forced to jump out of the system, get ready to jump again the moment you arrive at at the new star – in the commander’s experience, most gankers will not follow you out of the first system (well, not unless you sent them a cheeky message as you waked out) but if they do, you don’t want to be caught by surprise. A second jump greatly reduces the chance of them tracking you down.

Pay Attention

This was Commander Altsain’s prime failing in Shinrarta – always be aware of traffic in the system, and especially other commanders who move into your rear arc (anywhere in the rear arc, some gankers have very capable interdictor systems). If you see a ship heading that way, change direction to keep them in your forward arc. If they persist in trying to get behind you, jump to another system. You can always come back a few minutes later.

Most other ships will simply be heading on their own course, or may just be curious about you. But it pays to be aware – quickly check your Comms Contacts for other commanders, and note what ships they are in. You probably have nothing to fear from a Dolphin or Type-9. A Fer-de-Lance could easily mean trouble.

Don’t Wait for the Triangle

You will know when another commander is taking an interest in you because their contact on your sensors will turn from square to triangle. This does not necessarily mean they are hostile (they may just be interested in what you are flying), but it is a signal that something could happen.

However, just because their contact is still square does not mean you are safe. Many gankers are adept at locking on to you a second before the interdiction starts. Their actual position relative to your ship is far more important than whether their contact is a triangle…

Get Off the Ecliptic

Admit it, most of the time you travel to a station, you go in a straight line from the primary. And most of the time, you will get away with it.

However, whenever you enter a potentially troublesome system, point your ship 45-odd degrees away from your destination, and travel half the distance before turning back round to face the station. This will cause you to travel in a (kind of wonky) arc high above or below the ‘ecliptic’, the imaginary disc that most of the planets will sit on around their star.

This will first get you some distance away from other commanders, and will also make getting onto your tail for interdiction that much harder.

Slingshot

If you think someone is right on your tail and will interdict you as you slow down for your destination, consider speeding up and boosting right past it, swinging round after to re-align yourself. This 180-degree turn might be a bit of a pain in the likes of a Cutter, but it makes things that little bit tougher for the ganker, and a few more seconds may be all you need to reach your destination.

The Right Equipment

Do not fly in an unshielded hauler to save space for more cargo. It is not worth it. When you are outfitting your ship, always have the occasional gank in mind, and modify your ship accordingly. If you have a Type-9, use one of those lovely class 8 slots for the shield generator – you can always reduce it in size when you are confident that you can avoid a gank.

Have a Plan

At some point, despite all these procedures, you will get interdicted. It is inevitable. What is important now is to have a plan on getting out of trouble and sticking to it. If you are going to fight, fight. If you are going to run, run – doing one then changing your mind to the other will almost always result in disaster.

The first thing to do is not panic. Ignore your beating heart and shaking hands, as neither is helpful.

Also, know your ship. If you are in a tooled up Fer-de-Lance, you might well be able to take on that interdicting Chieftain. If you are in a Type-9… probably not. Commander Altsain favours running from combat (she figures if someone interdicts her, they probably have a plan of their own to destroy her, and have picked a target they feel they can beat).

If you are in a fast ship, boost your way out of trouble and high wake out as soon as you can (if you have not plotted an escape destination, low wake out, pull hard back on your stick to put your ship in a loop so you do not get immediately interdicted again, while simultaneously making that jump plot). If your ship is also quite agile, turn to face your attacker before you boost past him, as he will waste valuable time turning back round – you will be long gone by the time he is ready to fire.

If you are in a really fast ship, you might simply boost until the ganker gets bored. If you decide to send a cheeky message about him being too slow, well, that is all part of the fun.

However, if you are in a slow heffalump of a ship with only a light coating of shields, you are already in trouble. Instead of engineering your FSD for range, try doing it for boot time – after all, your fully laden Type-9 is not exactly jumping far anyway, but if your FSD is booting up in little more than two seconds, you can be low waking out before the ganker’s hardpoints have fully deployed, and follow that with a high wake out while he is still flailing about in normal space.

The Aim

Ultimately, your goal is to be able to go to any system, even the nastiest of Community Goal systems, with little to no fear of being destroyed. Build up to this slowly, and start visiting dangerous systems in ships that you have designed to avoid ganking (Commander Altsain did this in her Orca, trolling around for gankers to interdict her before simply boosting away – laughing!).

Build your confidence. When you can visit these systems in your fully-laden Type-9, you know you are ready – and you will have become a much, much better pilot.

A New Attitude

It has been said that 80% of combat is evasion, and if you know you can avoid a ganker whatever trap they spring, you will be happy to throw yourself into any situation.

Commander Altsain believes this starts with adopting a new attitude. Gankers gonna gank, ain’t no way round that. Whether or not you will succumb to them depends purely on your own skill.

You do not need to become a combat god; you just need to become better at evading combat in the first place. It is worth putting a little time into practising this, as you will be developing new skills and improving your enjoyment of travelling the galaxy.

And remember – every commander who gets away causes another ganker to cry…