Eve is a dangerous game and there are more ways to die in it than moons, planets and suns in any given region.

The following guidelines are meant to teach old and new players how to be more successful at stayin' alive in Eve and specifically Nullsec.

The most important tool at your disposal is the local chat. While the chat can be ignored most of the time, the Member List is priceless.

Four reasons making it so damn awesome:

• Shows every single character as soon as he/she lands in system.
• Covers the whole system, not restricted by any distance.
• Can not be fooled by cloaking devices or any other ship specific bonuses.
• “Capsuleers in channel” allow you to quickly detect “local spikes”, many people entering a system at once (marked yellow in the image to the right).

Like almost everything in Eve there is one exception though, which is Wormhole Space. One of the reasons why Wormhole Space is considered dangerous, is because people will only show up in local when they used the chat. Considering how vital local is for survival, this is a major disadvantage.

Local is great, but to really make use of it, you have to set it up correctly first.

The first thing you want to do is set up your local window correctly:

• Disconnect the local chat from any other chats you have. It should be open and in focus all the time.
• Maximize the height of the chat window. Most players like to stretch it to a maximum on the left or right side of the screen. This allows you to see the full Member List most of the time, without having to scroll. Look at the image on the right side for good and bad positions of the Local Chat.
• Tick “Show Compact Member List” under “Member List Settings” (marked red in the image to the right). This removes portraits from the Member List, allowing for more entries to show.

Secondly, you need to change your Overview Settings to show the correct icon colours. This is part of Unfucking your Overview. If set up correctly it shows friendlies with blue and green, neutrals in grey and enemies in red or orange. This allows you to quickly gain knowledge how dangerous a system is by checking your Local Chat.

• Keep track of new characters to a system you are in by selecting a person in the Member List and clicking Crtl+A. This will select all users in Local, making new ones easy to spot, since they are not selected.
• Look up the corporation and the killboard of neutrals on external websites allow you to guess what ship they are likely to fly and what they plan to do in your system.
• Multiple characters of the same corporation or alliance are most likely in a fleet and work together. While a single neut can be your death, fleets are much more dangerous. Be wary of that.
• Do not spend too much attention to the local chat. People may try to avert your attention by inviting you to a personal chat or asking you questions in local.