This is the third iteration of this guide, aimed at giving you all the information you need to start up in this line of work.

The basic premise of a safari is that you put a character in a corp for the exclusive purpose of killing their dudes. There are subtleties here about what sort of dudes to kill and if you can make any money off of it, but that’s the basic idea. So I’ll go through the most basic version of it, and then talk about some of the embellishments you can add. A Safari and an AWOX are very closely related things, and you can use the words more or less interchangeably unless you’re a huge sperg.

1) The character you want to do this with.

For this job, just about any sort of character works, but some are especially good. The most important thing is that you want to look like a good recruit. So a clean-ish corp history, a clean-ish killboard, and some desirable skills are all good ideas, although none of those are required. As always, you can catch the dumber CEOs even with the the dirtiest histories, killboards, and bios simply because they don’t bother to check. If you have reasonably high SP then that tends to blind potential victims to your faults.

Many CEOs will ask for your API. That’s fine. Give it to them. If you’re using an account made for this purpose than go ahead and give them everything. If it’s a character on an account with existing stuff, just give them the character API. They probably won’t check it beyond making sure you have the SP you say you have. Leaving out the wallet history and assets might be wise, especially since if this is an alt you probably funded it with your main. If they mention it, you can act hurt and ask them if they want to know so they can steal your stuff. That usually gets them off your back.

The other method is to make a brand new character and get into a corp almost immediately. Your choice of corps is a bit more limited here, but as long as they’ll accept newbies there’s not a thing that ties you to a life of crime. After a couple of safaris you can even delete the character and make a new one, having only lost a couple days of skill training. (Note: don’t do this with suicide gank characters. Recycling negative sec status dudes is an exploit.) The trick with brand new characters is that you probably want to have a logi dude nearby to support you. More on having friendly logi in a little bit.

If you’re making a brand new character, go for a catalyst or a cormorant, be able to fit a full rack of guns, a damage control, a scram, and all the damage mods you can. You’ll be partially speed-tanking and partially logi-tanking, and a damage control is often enough for most purposes. Make sure to play up the newbie thing. Be naive, but not annoying. Be proud of your destroyer. It’s the best ship you can fly, after all.

2) The corp you want to do this to.

The corp you’re looking for is a large-ish highsec corp. You’re probably looking for at least 20 people. More importantly than that, you’re looking for activity. You want people actually in space to be doing things. Corps that advertise industry, incursions, and mission running are best. A corp that advertises everything probably does nothing, but the individual pilots will undoubtedly be in space doing things at some point.



Also, ask how frequently they have corp ops. These are great opportunities to kill stuff.

Additionally, under the new method of being accepted to corps, you can apply to many corps and, for those that accept you, you can use your watchlist and some locator agents to go hunting, choosing your target before you accept the corp invite. This means that you can pick from any number of targets in any number of corps, find the one flying the shiniest thing, and kill it. Corp invites never expire, so as long as they don’t get withdrawn you can go hit them at any time.

The bad news here, though, is that once you accept an application to a corp, all the other corp applications are withdrawn, so if you have a big list of target corps lined up, you can only hit one, rather than just going down the line and hitting them one after another.

3) Okay, so you’re in a corp, now what?

Here’s the fun part. Open your map, go to ‘My Information’, and tick ‘My Corp Members Now in Space’. This map is delayed by up to twenty minutes, so if they’re travelling somewhere it’s not the most accurate method of finding dudes, but it’s a good start.

Look at those people who are in space and online (note that the map shows you people who logged off in space as well). Check Battleclinic or Eve-kill to see what sorts of ships they’ve lost. You can also check the corps losses in game in the war tab of the corp window. Listen to corp chatter to see if there’s any ops going on. If there aren’t ask if anyone will help you get established with the local mission agent or whatever. This works especially well if someone has some super-pimp mission boat that they want to show off.

If you start an op or get invited to join someone who is doing stuff on his own, it’s better for you if you make the fleet. That way you can right-click the fleet properties button thingy and click ‘show fleet composition’. This will allow you to see exactly what they’re flying and exactly what system they’re in, in real time.

Once you’ve decided on your target, either join the op (if there is one) or go to the system they’re missioning/mining/incursioning in or to a neighbouring system. If you’re joining an op, simply warp to the op and commence the killing.

If you’re hunting a target that thinks he’s going to hang out and mind his own business, get a covops in system first and drop some probes. If he’s in a major mission hub like Motsu, scanning down every sig could be a problem, so make sure you check his kb to get an idea what he might be flying. Also, when not actually warping to a mission or whatever to see if that’s your dude, park your ship at the station he’s most likely to use and you might just see him drift by, which will let you know exactly what he’s flying and, if you’re quick to reposition your probes, will even get you a signature ID.

4) What ship should I use for this?

My favourite and most hilarious are the Catalyst or the Cormorant. They take as little as ten hours to skill into and allow you to slap around much older characters with less than a million skill points. Obviously, you need a logi buddy to help with this, which I’ll talk about in a minute.

Below, find fits for those boats that are meant to be as cheap as possible and maximize killing power for SP invested:

[Catalyst, 10 hour]

Gauss Field Balancer I

Gauss Field Balancer I

F85 Peripheral Damage System I

J5 Prototype Warp Disruptor I

Limited 1MN Afterburner I

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S



[Cormorant, Safari alt]

F85 Peripheral Damage System I

Gauss Field Balancer I

J5 Prototype Warp Disruptor I

J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

Limited 1MN Afterburner I

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

[Empty High slot]

These can be trained in as little as ten hours and I frequently hand these out to people getting into the life for free. As a highsec criminal, think of these destroyers as your box cutters. While they may not be appropriate for much more serious business endeavours, they can certainly kill the fuck out of basically everything.

These boats do have some issues to be aware of, though. They have a very low buffer, so if individual hits start to bleed through to armor or structure between rep cycles it’s only a matter of time. Also, their sensor strength is quite low, so they’re susceptible to jams, which can ruin your day. Some projected ECCM will mitigate that somewhat, but not entirely.

If you want to invest a bit more time you can gain some sensor strength and buffer by getting into a t1 cruiser. Most of them are good, but my favourites for these purposes are the Thorax and the Moa.

[Thorax, Safari Thorax]

F85 Peripheral Damage System I

Gauss Field Balancer I

Gauss Field Balancer I

Limited Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane I

Limited Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane I

J5 Prototype Warp Disruptor I

J5 Prototype Warp Disruptor I

Experimental 10MN Afterburner I

Patterned Stasis Web I

Anode Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Anode Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Anode Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Anode Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Anode Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Hammerhead I x5

[Moa, Safari]

F85 Peripheral Damage System I

Gauss Field Balancer I

Gauss Field Balancer I

Gauss Field Balancer I

J5 Prototype Warp Disruptor I

J5 Prototype Warp Disruptor I

Experimental 10MN Afterburner I

Patterned Stasis Web I

Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I

Anode Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Anode Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Anode Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Anode Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Anode Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M



And then, finally, I should talk about logi. Having a logistics boat on hand vastly increases what you can kill. A t1 logi cruiser like the Osprey or the Augorer can turn you from a mugger into a super-villain. Currently, giving remote repairs to those doing corp-on violence doesn’t cause any kind of suspect flag, so your logi dude is untouchable. This is incredibly broken and should be changed, and I expect will be, so enjoy it while it lasts and if, by the time you read this, that’s no longer the case then don’t blame me.

[Augoror, Newbro]

F85 Peripheral Damage System I

Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane I

Beta Reactor Control: Capacitor Power Relay I

Beta Reactor Control: Capacitor Power Relay I

Beta Reactor Control: Capacitor Power Relay I

Experimental 10MN Afterburner I

Phased Muon ECCM Caster I

Phased Muon ECCM Caster I

Medium ‘Solace’ Remote Bulwark Reconstruction

Medium ‘Solace’ Remote Bulwark Reconstruction

Medium ‘Solace’ Remote Bulwark Reconstruction

Medium ‘Solace’ Remote Bulwark Reconstruction

Medium ‘Regard’ Power Projector

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

[Osprey, Newbro logi]

F85 Peripheral Damage System I

Mark I Generator Refitting: Capacitor Power Relay

Mark I Generator Refitting: Capacitor Power Relay

Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I

Experimental 10MN Afterburner I

Phased Muon ECCM Caster I

Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array

Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array

Medium S95a Partial Shield Transporter

Medium S95a Partial Shield Transporter

Medium S95a Partial Shield Transporter

Medium S95a Partial Shield Transporter

Medium ‘Regard’ Power Projector

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

Hobgoblin I x4

5) Okay, I’ve killed stuff and they’re mad. Now what?

I don’t normally talk smack, but if you’re so inclined, now is the time. I prefer to soak up the hate and let it power my cold, black, clockwork heart.

That aside, pop that map open and go see who else you can kill! There’s probably somebody not paying attention to chat doing something else in some other part of space. Go kill him, too. Whatever you do, don’t log off and don’t dock up. I don’t normally advise cloaks on non-recon combat ships, but this might be a situation for one. I often make them pay me a ransom or give me a medal before I’ll go away.

Embellishments:

1) Make money!

This one is a beauty. As someone to help you haul your stuff. Freighters and Orcas are great, but even a T1 industrial works for this. Give them a courier contract of a couple of empty cans, put 600m collateral on it. Hell, offer to escort them, even. Then, when you kill their shit, they can’t deliver the contract, so you get the isk.

You can even go further by demanding a ransom. Let’s say your victim is a freighter. You put up a contract with 600m collateral, and then ransom the freighter for 500m. You’ve just made 1.1b isk and cost your victim a total of 1.7b! Not bad for an afternoon of work.

2) Milk tears

Demand a medal. I’m serious. Tell them you won’t dock and won’t log off until you get a medal. Or an isk ransom. In fact, if it’s a separate account and you have nothing better to do with it, actually leave it logged on. If you’re in NA, like me, downtime is just before you would get up to go to work, so you can even log on then and cloak so they have a very small window to kick you out. Point out that you’re completely shutting down their operations until you are out of corp.

If they ignore you, just wait and gank more things.

Medals are the most hilarious thing, though.

P.S. There are certain circumstances under which you might get kicked in space. If this happens while violencing somebody’s boat, overheat your guns. You’ll still be able to shoot fine, but you will get a delayed blast CONCORD-ball. Petition it later. You’ll probably get your ship back and the CEO that did it might get slapped on the penis for it.