Wars aren’t won on the front lines; they’re won in factories, planning rooms, hearts, and minds. Faction Warfare (FW) is no exception. That’s why we asked our veteran EVE Online community to share ideas and insights on the best non-combat ways to support the war efforts. While the bounty was aimed at FW and Insurgencies, most of the advice below holds true for EVE’s other grand PvP wars.

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Stock the markets

If you want to profit from the deaths of your enemies, there’s no better way to do it than joining the arms trade. Between prayers to Bob, your allies will thank you for their ammunition reserves as they’re facing down a titan. Though in EVE, arms can take many forms. Here’s greybill’s take:

“Warriors need weapons. In New Eden, those weapons are ships, modules, ammunition, drugs, and drones. Stocking the local markets of your preferred faction is an effective way to keep your fighters on grid. If they can restock or reship fast, that’s a clear advantage. And it can be profitable as well - for both parties.”

Some unscrupulous EVE Online players have even been known to supply both sides, keeping guns loaded and pockets full. Not that that would ever happen IRL cough cough.

Greybill goes on to recommend two particularly useful items to sell: navy cap booster charges and nanite repair paste. “Almost all PvP fits utilise them in one way or another. Keep the good fights going and give your guys and gals in the field the ammunition to do it.”

Cpt Armarlio agrees, adding some extra detail for Insurgencies: “Keeping the stations closest to the Insurgency FOB (Forward Operating Base) topped up with a variety of drug boosters always works for me. It helps everyone in the FW effort, and helps me make a little ISK on the side.

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Buy salvage

The victor takes the spoils. But who takes the spoils from the victor?

Stocking the markets in a war is useless if its belligerents don’t have enough currency to purchase your stock. In light of this, orik Kado highlights two overlooked services for supporting the fighters at the front: “buying the loot recovered from the cold wrecks of their rivals and finding ways to purchase allies’ LP so they have more ISK to equip themselves for the battles ahead.”

You might even nab a bargain, assuming you don’t mind a few bloodstains.

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Courier

Whether it’s a brand-new battlecruiser or a bespoke module, folks fighting a war often have specific requests that the entrepreneurial can fulfil. EveOnlineTutorials provided us with a whole host of non-combat help ideas, but chief amongst them was hauling. As well as the ships themselves, you can haul rigs, subsystems, blueprints, and minerals to supply in-demand ships like frigates and destroyers.

Orik notes that couriering is the perfect partner activity for the salvage trade. You can ferry goods in, offload them, then refill your ships with loot for the journey back.

There are at least two established courier services who are often ‘hiring’: NERDS and Wingspan. Although enterprising pilots who don’t like the idea of having a boss can go it alone, here’s EveOnlineTutorials again:

“Create an in-game mailing list for PvP pilots who need specific modules for fits they often run, then move those to staging systems for them.”

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Scout

In times of war, explorers make great scouts. Melicien Tetro (Melicien Tetro) knows the importance of surveying the battlefield:

“Faction Warfare zones are disproportionately littered with Drifter holes, and Pochven is Pochven. Explorers are the ones who secure the lines of attack and retreat; they give you tools to pivot around ‘that one gamecamp’ when stuff gets too hot.”

If Fleet Commanders (FCs) are the brains of the operation, scouts are the eyes and ears. Here’s Melicien:

“Explorers are the ones who keep FCs from having to take the most predictable routes. As an explorer, just explore, bookmark, and get it on Pathfinder or Galaxyfinder. Give your FCs better tools and, if you can, scream loudly if you find something strategically viable.”

Scouts can get as close as their nerves allow. If yours are made of steel, then get up close and personal. EveOnlineTutorials recommends “using Astros or covert ops ships to scout down and scan enemy ships for your fleet without ever becoming involved in the clash.”

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Deep space reconnaissance (DSR)

Scouting can go deeper, literally. Here’s FUN INC:

“I’m going to go off-tangent from the usual answers. I have three words for you. Deep. Space. Recon. Go full DSR pilot, and bookmark staging systems, bookmark structures where fights may occur, and generally attempt to get a strategic advantage on your enemies.”

None of this is theoretical. Funinc is speaking from experience:

“A while back, one of the leads for a large NPSI group declared war on the region of Providence. It was kind of farcical - a ragtag group of unaligned pilots waging war - and it went as well as can be expected, i.e., it didn’t happen at all.

“That said, I stepped up to offer DSR for the NPSI collective and provided more than 1,000 strategic bookmarks within each of the systems in Providence. This included a standard of three bookmarks on gates and stations, with a further 20 tactical points on some of the likely muster/fight points. All in I spent around a week prepping so that we could gain some strategic advantage on our enemies.”

EveOnlineTutorials has three more ways in which you can acquire and share intel with your corp:

1. Create deep safe spots and gate pings for pilots in your corp

2. Create above-station insta-docks and insta-undocks 

3. Keep abreast of system changes and send a daily message around 8pm covering all of the day’s developments

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Spycraft

We received loads of bounty submissions about spycraft, but after ten seconds they all self-destructed. Spies are so commonplace in EVE that some corps welcome them with open arms. Some of EVE’s most legendary stories come from players who have worked their way into trusted positions within their enemies’ ranks. If you can hold your nerve, you could be the next of them. Here’s EveOnlineTutorials one last time:

“Create alts to infiltrate enemy corporations. Steal their movements and plans and get them back to your fleets so you can counter them, ambush them, and destroy them with ease.”

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Some text has been amended for brevity. You can find the original wording at the bounty post.

Image credit: Razorien on Flickr