Most new pilot ship losses happen at gates or undocks, not in fights. Gate aggression timers, session change locks, CONCORD response, and criminal flags are the invisible ruleset that experienced pilots navigate automatically. This guide makes it explicit. This guide is new — please send feedback if something is off or missing.
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Orientation, direction, and the first mental models a new or returning pilot needs.
The mechanics and habits that prevent the most confusing early losses.
Read damage, ships, EWAR, fits, and engagement selection faster.
Resources, reprocessing, hauling, planetary chains, and industrial decision tools.
Agents, mission hubs, loyalty rewards, standings, and special-agent planning.
Interactive practice and live awareness tools for field decisions.
Timers are the invisible clock that governs what you can and can't do. They don't care that you just jumped into a camped gate. Know them before you need them.
After jumping through a gate or undocking from a station, you cannot jump again or dock for 60 seconds. You're committed to wherever you land.
Firing on another player gives you a weapons timer. You cannot jump through gates or dock while this timer is active. It resets each time you fire or receive aggression.
Committing a criminal act (attacking a pilot with no aggression on you in highsec) gives you GCC. During this timer you are freely shootable by other players everywhere. CONCORD may already be warping to you.
A suspect timer makes you freely attackable by any player without consequence to them. Triggered by looting a wreck you didn't create, accepting a duel, or other suspect-flagging actions.
Your security status (sec status) is a permanent number that reflects your history of criminal acts. It affects where you can travel and who will shoot at you automatically.
No timers, no flags, positive or neutral sec status. Gate guns won't shoot you. CONCORD ignores you. Other players need a legitimate reason to shoot you without getting flagged themselves.
Flashy yellow. Any player can engage you freely for 5 minutes. CONCORD does not respond. Gate guns in lowsec/high won't react. Common trap — baiters go suspect hoping you'll shoot them and bring legitimate response.
Red flashing skull. CONCORD is coming in highsec. Gate guns in lowsec will shoot you. Any player can engage freely. Lasts 15 minutes from the last criminal act. Cannot escape CONCORD in highsec — they will always catch you eventually.
Permanent low security status from criminal acts. In highsec, CONCORD will attack you on sight regardless of current activity. You are freely attackable by any player at any time. Most outlaws operate in lowsec or null.
CONCORD is not a police force that prevents crime. They are a consequence that punishes crime. They do not arrive in time to save you — but they will always arrive.
When a criminal act is committed in highsec, CONCORD gets a response call. They warp to the system and then to the criminal. Response time depends on the system's true security status — higher sec systems (1.0) respond faster than borderline highsec (0.5).
CONCORD cannot be tanked, kited, or jammed. Once they arrive, the criminal ship dies. Period. This is by design — highsec ganking works because you trade your ship for theirs before CONCORD arrives.
These are rough estimates. Actual times vary with server conditions, system population, and where CONCORD units happen to be stationed.
Highsec gankers target 0.5 systems for the longer CONCORD window — more time to apply damage before response.
Gate guns and station guns are automated defense structures in lowsec. Unlike CONCORD they won't destroy you instantly, but they will apply sustained damage that most PvP fits cannot tank indefinitely.
Gate guns do NOT shoot you for: attacking a criminal (flashy red skull), attacking someone who aggressed you first, or being in a war.
Gate guns deal significant damage per volley across all four damage types. Frigates and destroyers will die in seconds. Cruisers typically die within 1–2 minutes. Battleships can sometimes survive long enough to complete a kill, which is why lowsec combat does still happen at gates — at cost.
Before jumping, run a D-scan toward the gate you're jumping to. A gatecamp often shows: multiple combat ships of varying size (dictors, cruisers, battlecruisers), warp disruption bubbles (nullsec), and fast tackle frigates.
A single combat ship near a gate might be bait. A fleet near a gate is a camp. Use Local Intel to check character ages and corp affiliations of pilots in the destination system before jumping.
You have 60 seconds of session change — use it. Your options depend on what's there:
Docking gives you immediate invulnerability once the docking animation completes. You cannot dock with an active weapons timer. Undocking gives you a brief invulnerability window (~30 seconds or until you take any action other than re-docking).
Station campers sit outside station waiting for targets to undock. The counter is to use the invulnerability window to immediately re-dock, or to warp the instant you undock in a direction away from the campers.
Player-owned Upwell structures (Astrahus, Fortizar, Keepstar) have their own access rules. The owner sets who can dock — you may be denied docking access even in a system you previously used. Always have a fallback station that is NPC-owned if operating in contested space.
Upwell structures can be put into reinforced mode and eventually destroyed, unlike NPC stations. The contents of a destroyed structure drop into a loot cloud — be aware of this risk when storing assets.
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