Factional warfare takes place in low-sec where players fight for the control over systems. Caldari fight against Gallente, Minmatar against Amarr. FW is a good place to learn about small gang PvP and the fight in small ships (Frigates/Destroyers). Some people take it more seriously than others, but in my opinion, it is a place to meet and prove yourself in combat against other capsuleers. FW-PvP is a bit like chess, it needs knowledge, tactical thinking, the ability to make fast decisions and sometimes a little luck.

The plexes are dead-space pockets, accessible through an acceleration gate. In there, there is an outpost, a beacon, a timer and a NPC. The player needs to be within 30km of the outpost, the beacon marks the entry point, coming from the acceleration gate and the NPC is a defender of the plex. The timer runs out if the player is within 30km of the outpost and there are no enemies with him. As soon as the timer is done, the capsuleer gets awarded by a certain number of LP. When pilots have finished enough plexes, the system gets vulnerable and can be turned to the other side.

To get control over a system, players need to finish special combat sites, named complexes (short: plexes). They can be found in the probe scanner window; you don’t need to scan them down. After the first pilot has warped to the plex, it also shows up in the overview. They come in different sizes and types and every size/type has some ship restrictions. Navy plexes (NVY) only allow T1 and Navy Faction ships, advanced plexes also allow T2 and Pirate Faction ships.

Careful, open plexes do not have ship restrictions or acceleration gates, the enemy can warp in from outside d-scan range and land right on top of you in a Raven Navy Issue (but usually in T2 Frigs or T3 Dessys) I even met an Avatar in an open (not the most intelligent thing in the world, Capitals are mostly useless in FW).

• Scout-NVY: Tech 1 Frigates and Navy Faction Frigates (No Corvettes/No Capsules)
• Small-NVY: Tech 1 Frigates and Navy Faction Frigates, Tech 1 and Navy Faction Destroyers
• Small-ADV: Tech 1, 2, Navy- and Pirate-faction Frigates and Destroyers,
• Medium-NVY: T1 and Navy Faction Frigates, Destroyers and Cruisers
• Medium-ADV: Tech 1, 2, Navy- and Pirate-faction Frigates, Destroyers and Cruisers, Tactical (T3) Destroyers
• Large-NVY: T1 and Navy Faction Frigates, Destroyers, Cruisers, Battlecruisers and Battleships
• Large-ADV: Tech 1, 2, Navy- and Pirate-faction Frigates, Destroyers, Cruisers, Battlecruisers and Battleships Strategic (T3) Cruisers
• Open: Unrestricted
• Battlefield: Same as Large-NVY

• Scout takes about 80 dps to kill the NPC
• Small takes about 120 dps to kill the NPC
• Medium takes about 240 dps to kill the NPC
• Large takes about 450 dps to kill the NPC
• Open takes 600+ dps to kill the NPC

When a system is vulnerable, it is time to attack the Infrastructure Hub (short: I-Hub, ihub or hub). The I-Hub has 25.000.000 HP and a maximal shield regeneration of about 1.700 HP/s. It needs a middle-sized fleet to capture it. Sometimes, the enemy faction brings a response fleet and there is a big fight, most times, it is a quite boring process. If the I-Hub reaches 1% structure, the system switches sovereignty.

Every faction is (usually) in control of some systems. Players can defend their own systems (deplexing). This way, they do sites to reduce the contested level. They can also attack enemy systems (oplexing) and raise the contested level. If they oplex, they need to destroy the NPC in a plex. If they deplex, the NPC is an ally, it should not be shot. The easiest way to know if the NPC is an enemy or not, is to wait a moment: if it attacks, it needs to be destroyed. Oplexing gives more LP than deplexing, but both are important.

The factions gain advantage through different actions. Every faction has a certain amount of advantage between 0 and 100%. The difference between the two percentages is the actual advantage of one faction (if the Minmatar have 30% and the Amarr have 28% in a given system, the actual advantage is 2% for the Minmatar). Actual advantage gives a gain on victory points, earned by plexing. A system needs to reach a certain amount of VP to get vulnerable. This means that advantage makes is easier and faster to capture a system.

Battlefields (BF) are special plexes. They are particular difficult and need to be done in groups. Bfs are deadspace pockets, like the other complexes, but they have three beacons inside instead of one. One of them, the Own-Faction Rally point, marks the spot where a pilot and his allies land when using the acceleration gate. The Enemy-Faction Rally Point marks the place where the enemies will show up, and the Neutral Rally Point marks where neutrals, pirates and members of allied factions land (in a Minmatar-Amarr BF, Caldari and Gallente pilots will land at the Neutral Rally Point for example).

In addition, there are three capture points, called A, B and C. Inside a certain radius of every capture point, there are two NPC fleets, one allied and one hostile. The enemy NPCs will attack if you get to close and the easily take down frigates and even destroyers. To run the BF successfully, each point needs to be captured by one single ship, usually a battlecruiser or battleship. Everybody else should get to the Enemy-Faction Rally Point as fast as possible and help fighting against potential incomers. It is very important as a new player, to stay out of the capture points, this is no place to fight for new guys. There will be tackle needed in every BF, not people who want to help but get killed by the NPCs. You should always join the fleet that is attacking a Battlefield and listen to your FC.

The BF gives 150.000 LP to 30 pilots. If there are more ships inside, the total LP gets split equally between all the pilots. It may take between half an hour and maybe 1h30.

Finishing plexes rewards the player with LP, loyalty points. They can be used in the LP-Shop to buy valuable modules. The modules can be sold at the market. This way, FW-players get their income.

FW missions are a good place to make money. They should be done as fast as possible. Warp in, kill mission objective, warp out. There are no bounties and very little loot. They are in low-sec and easily accessible for other pilots, searching for a fight. Unlike usual missions, they can be done in quite small ships. A lot of players use sniping Jackdaws. They reward in LP and some ISK. More information can be found here.

As an FW-player, you can not enter high-sec areas controlled by the enemy faction without being chased by the NPC faction navy police. A fast ship can travel trough such systems but the police will even warp to your safespots if you spent too much time at one point in the system. Players from the enemy militias can attack you in high-sec without being penalized from Concord.

Fits & Tips: https://discord.gg/WwArj4uNHj (Tribal Education Force)

FW Map: http://jerkasauruswrecks.com/t/map/galcal/

• Dreddit: https://discord.gg/dredditisrecruiting
• Sheriff. (USTZ): https://discord.gg/N8VfVxSa
• Black Phoenix Rising (Lots of frig gangs after DT) https://discord.gg/eFDPfXAF
• Kenshin 2.0 (Fraternity Corp, mostly AUTZ): https://discord.gg/2d9K65NM
• Outer Path: https://discord.gg/2PJWDbBC
• Mercury Arms (Mostly EUTZ): https://discord.gg/Auwd9Mzk
• Templis CALSF (Mostly USTZ): https://discord.gg/WU2w6kZf
• UCSC (AllTZ): https://discord.gg/agK9NFQz
• Space Traffic Control (Russian Primary/English Secondary): https://discord.gg/vyPzazun