Instadock

Vital for stations, especially trade hubs, frequent HS haunts and all LS, NS, Pochven and Thera stations. Also nice (but not vital) for structures.
If you don't use instadocks, about half the time you attempt to dock, your ship can be instantly destroyed before it can do so.

Click to show/hide an explanation of why.

• clicking Dock on a station > 150 km from your ship makes it warp & attempt docking. however, ~half the time, it must travel an extra 1-2,000 m before it can
  • during this short travel time, it can be instantly destroyed by suicidal profiteers in HS or by non-suicidal PvPers outside HS
    • the Jita 4-4 station grid is by far the most dangerous location in EVE and other HS stations and gates follow closely behind
• clicking Dock on structures always lands you just inside tether range if you're not interdicted, but warping to an instadock deep inside tether range is smarter

• production:
  1. if you're in HS and in a player corporation and this crossed swords icon appears at the top left, make an alt for this task (the swords indicate an active war declaration)
  2. if not wardecced, undock in something cheap & quick like a fast frigate with a microwarpdrive fitted, and maybe overdrive injectors and/or nanofiber internal structures
  3. double-click in space back toward the station model. if more speed is required, activate the microwarpdrive (you can also set a specific speed)
  4. save a BM that is:
     1. at 0 distance from the station, as per the Overview
     2. not in a place where a ship will be bumping/jostling against the station's model
        • you can fly into the model to test its boundaries. stations have invisible collision models which are usually quite different from their visible 3D models
     3. at least 5 km inside the docking radius. ships exit warp with their nearest edges randomly placed ~2,500 m from their destination, so account for 5 km variance
        • Larenon en Marland's Station Cyno Placement Guide has screenshots of good instadock placement locations for most NPC stations
        • if the station isn't a kickout, a BM saved right after undocking works as crude instadock. always manually position BMs for kickouts, though!
     4. (optional): away from the undock. useful where bubbles can be used (NS and Thera, and possibly LS with an Insurgency) because bubbles can catch or drag you
        • ideally the BM's as far from the undock and as out-of-line with common warp vectors as possible and at least 5 km inside the docking radius, preferably more

• usage: warp to the BM and dock immediately after exiting warp (activate a nullifier before initiating warp if the situation warrants it).
  click to show/hide a docking trick

  • if a station or structure is set as your current Route destination, you can warp to an instadock BM for it then activate Autopilot mid-warp. your ship will auto-dock
    • don't use Autopilot otherwise. if you don't initiate warp first, Autopilot will warp you 10 km away from your destination then slow-boat the rest of the distance

Insta-undock

Also vital for stations, since ships can be destroyed at any station in EVE while aligning for warp after undocking and warping off.

• production method 1 is easiest & fastest
  1. with a non-wardecced character, undock in a cheap with a probe launcher fitted and loaded with 8 probes ("core" launchers & probes are cheapest)
  2. get a Pinpoint formation of probes on-grid with you (you can do this step somewhere other than the dangerous Jita 4-4 grid)
  3. enable the tactical overlay
  4. check if a probe is on the undock vector of the tactical overlay (one usually is) and save it as your undock BM
     • all non-Amarr NPC stations except the Gallente Military have horizontal undock vectors aligned with the forward-facing enumerated vector on the tactical overlay
       • all Amarr stations but one (and the Gallente Military point down). Amarr Station Hubs point up. conveniently, there are probes for up/down vectors, too!
     • note that my undock vector in the clip above is canted by ~15 degrees; that probe would still work as an insta-undock
       • I've never had an undock BM right on the vector fail me in over a decade of play, but if you're paranoid:
         1. make several undock BMs. warp to the first probe, center probes on your ship again, Analyze & save, warp again, etc. maybe save a 3x3 grid or whatever
         2. if you undock at an especially oblique angle, you can generally re-dock & try again, but be careful at kickout stations and in fast-moving ships
• production method 2 is for rare cases when you use the probe method but there isn't one reasonably close to the undock vector
  1. there will nonetheless be 2 probes on either side of it, so BM & warp between them, saving BMs mid-warp until you get one reasonably-close to the undock vector
• production method 3
  (click to show/hide. this is slower; mostly preserving this as a historical curiosity)

  1. with a non-wardecced character, undock in a fast frigate fitted with a microwarpdrive and maybe overdrive injectors and/or nanofiber internal structures
  2. enable the tactical overlay if it's not already
     • if you are not in an Amarr station, the Gallente Military station or the Ancient Jovian Outpost in Zarzakh
       1. orient the camera so you're looking at the back of your ship & have a rear view of the forward-facing numbered line which is aligned with the undock
          • the Jita 4-4 CNAP (EVE's main trade hub) has many undocks which point in different directions, not all of which line up with a through-line
            • it therefore annoyingly requires several instant-undock BMs. it's the only station like this; all others only need one insta-undock
       2. double-click the 200 at the end of that through-line to make your ship start moving parallel to the undock, then activate your microwarpdrive
          • short video of steps 3 & 4
       3. once you're at least 175 km away from the station (but preferably quite a bit further), save your undock BM
     • if you are in an Amarr station or the Gallente Military station, or the Ancient Jovian Outpost in Zarzakh
       1. double-click straight down or up as appropriate, then activate your microwarpdrive and burn, then save your BM
• usage: after undocking, warp first to the insta-undock before warping elsewhere (activate a nullifier before initiating warp if the situation warrants it)

Perches

AKA bounces, pings, tacs, tacticals. They're for visually surveying grids, dscanning grids without appearing on them, and/or juking interdiction/smartbombers/lancers.

• inline on-grid perches are quickest & easiest to make but the least safe, and aren't really appropriate for avoiding/juking stuff
  • production:
    1. hit Control + B while you're still in warp to something you want to create a perch on
    2. save the BM when the distance to your destination changes from tens of thousands to thousands. make it 800+ km away in NS/JS/Pochven to avoid interdiction
• unaligned on-grid perches are superior if you have time to make them. these are what you want if you care about positioning, reliably bypassing threats, etc
  • production:
    1. use probes and/or MWD around to make BMs at useful positions relative to objects of interest
       • it's best to make the perch perpendicular-ish to the line(s) connecting the objects of interest so you can bypass stops & drags (more on those later)
         • some objects are not in a shared horizontal plane, i.e. they may be "above" or "below" each other - pay attention when positioning your perches
           • perches directly above/below an object are better than nothing, but it's generally better to be off at an angle relative to all obvious warp vectors
         • the best perches avoid all object vectors: stations/structures, planets/moons, landmarks/beacons, etc. note: hit Shift + Alt + X to show moon brackets
• dscan or offgrid perches let you dscan a grid without directly visiting it. you can make these unaligned if you want to get more use out of 'em
  • production method 1: BM a spot mid-warp. less useful than method 2 but much quicker to make
    1. warp to something in dscan range of your grid of interest → hit Control + B while in warp to it → save the BM when you're between 14.3 AU and ~50,000 km away
       • closer minimizes warp-to time whereas farther avoids being one-shot combat probed
         • note that if you're sufficiently-far away from a grid, you can't tell exactly where ships are with dscan (e.g. "Is the dictor on my outgate or a moon?")
  • production method 2: use on-grid probes to go off-grid. this lets you make the perch unaligned to anything, which may help you avoid stuff
    1. if there's nothing on the grid other than the gate (e.g. gate guns, wrecks), jettison something expendable so you can tell when you leave the grid
    2. get your formation on-grid and increase its size until a probe in your preferred direction of travel disappears
    3. decrease the formation size one tick, re-Analyze, save that probe as a BM and warp to it
    4. re-center probes & re-Analyze at the new position. if the probe in your preferred direction disappears, shrink the formation until it re-appears, BM it & warp to it
    5. repeat until you leave the grid. you'll know you've left the grid when the gate guns (or your jetcan or whatever) disappear
       • it may be useful to recall your probes immediately after you warp to every BM then relaunch them after landing
         • grids still stretch & snap. if you keep your probes out while warp-chaining, you may just stretch the grid rather than crossing its boundary
• usage: warp to the perch to see, dscan and/or elude what's there. it's good to habitualize warping to on-grid perches instead of gate-to-gate, especially with low-tank ships
  • the BM pack sellers up top offer "all known space" packs at rates that are very affordable for established players. or use my guide to slowly assembly your own
  • it is very satisfying to land at perch and see a smartbombing Machariel who. if your perch is properly unaligned you can warp and jump right in front of their face
    • you can also warp to a perch on your ingate before warping to your outgate perch if you suspect a mid-warp smartbomberis operating in the system
      • here's an 8 minute mid-warp smartbombing explanation and a 36 minute rambly one. give 'em what for as you leave if you're feelin' cute

Safespots

AKA safes, tranquil bivouacs, cozy wilderness campfires... None of these are 100% safe! You can be probed anywhere if uncloaked, except in the Abyss.

• inline safes are dropped midwarp just like dscan perches, although you'll want these off dscan from all grids if possible
  • if you're not a tremendous dingleberry, you'll appreciate why you might use a dscan perch differently than an ad hoc inline safe. this isn't a pointless distinction
• unaligned safes are better since they're harder to reproduce. here's a little image guide for creating them
• deepsafes are best. the definition is vague & depends on who you ask. I'd say they're BMs > 14.3 AU (dscan range) from any normally-accessible grid in a system
  • this May 2025 patch added Electric Stability Generators. they increase dscan range in sov null to ~17.9 AU. if one's installed, this icon shows above the capacitor
  • production method 1: if a Sansha Incursion is occurring in a constellation, you can travel to it and BM its beacons (the BMs will persist after the sites disappear)
    • they're often (but not always) far away from all other celestials in a system & outside dscan range of everything
    • incursion beacons can be saved by anybody else with a notion!
      • if you want max safety, either use probes or inline BMs to save a spot off the beacon grid or just warp between two beacons & save a spot out in empty space
  • production method 2: enter Abyssal Deadspace near downtime, specifically any time between 10:40:30 and 10:59:50 ET, and survive in there until the servers close
    • WARNING: do not go earlier or later than I suggest or you can die or possibly get yourself banned (more on these risks below)
    • use a ship & fit which can either tank the filament's DPS until downtime or kill all rats in the first room. you can also clear all rooms & wait/quit in the last one
      • I use Tranquil Gamma. most hulls can be fit to passively omnitank its 75 DPS so you just quit in the Abyss. you can chain this activity on alts
    • when you login after DT, the ship will be at a random spot in the system. placement seems similar to incursion beacons
    • WARNING: if you've made an Abyssal safe and traveled to another system to make more, DO NOT activate a filament after the countdown reaches 10 seconds
      • activate the filament at least 10 s before shutdown or you may "tunnel" to the last system in which you made an Abyssal safe. this is a bannable exploit
        • deepsafing with this mechanic is not an exploit, tunneling is, and tunneling is completely avoided by not activating within 10 s of shutdown
        • I recommend that specific range because of testing I've done. server shutdown can vary between 10 s before the projected time to up to 70 s after
        • once you've crossed DT in the Abyss from a given system, that pilot can no longer tunnel out until it changes systems
• usage: gosh, beats me. y'know, sometimes I dream about EVE. please send help