Previous:
First up, the why.
Gate bookmarks are to help you travel safely around the systems without actually landing on the gates. Travelling to a gate bookmark allows you to view the situation at the gate from a distance, and avoid any gate campers that might be waiting for you, or warp bubbles in nullsec. Warping around between gate bookmarks can be similar to warping around between safe spots. If you have enough of them, they’re not going to try and catch you.
However, make sure you make new bookmarks if you think your old ones might be compromised. If people see where you’re landing on a regular basis, they can come out in a cloaked ship and bookmark it themselves, so that when you come out there next time, they can warp to it and catch you. Always be prepared for stuff like that.
Gate bookmarks are absolutely essential for avoiding catch bubbles. If you’re frequently flying through nullsec areas, make sure you create gate bookmarks at every gate, so that you can warp to them instead of to your destination gate. That will allow you to avoid any catch bubbles on the gate and get past them safely.
Now, the how.
- Step 1: warp to a celestial object and make a bookmark along the way
- Step 2: warp back to that bookmark – it’s your ‘aligned safe spot’ (ASS)
- Step 3: from the bookmark warp to another celestial object and drop another bookmark along the way (use F10 solar system map to ensure this bookmark is not on any celestial-to-celestial flight path) – this is your ‘unaligned safe spot’ (UASS)
- Step 4: warp to the UASS, and from there warp to the gate at 100km
This will ensure that you avoid any warp bubbles, as there’s no way they can be aligned with your random unaligned safe spot.
- Step 5: align to the UASS and when you reach 200km from the gate, drop a “[gate name] 200km” bookmark.
That’s it. Now you have a gate bookmark! Make sure you do this for every single gate.
Bonus tip
Make 1000km bookmarks from station exits by undocking, and then ensuring your ship travels straight out from the station in a straight line, and then place a bookmark at 1000km. (Only do this when it’s safe for you to do so!)
The reason for this is so that when you undock from a station that’s camped by hostiles, you can immediately select your “[station name] undock exit 1000km” and warp away to safety. Do this anywhere in New Eden to ensure you’re safe from hostiles (including your station in highsec, to help you get away from wardec hostiles).
Click here to read the next guide – How to safely enter nullsec
