Hauling: Can you make money as a blockade runner?

Is there any money to be made here?

I can fly a prowler with covert ops 2, but I’m just not sure how to make money doing it. I flew through null sec and got trapped in a bubble and immediately killed upon jumping through a gate.

Any advice? Is the cargo hold just too small to find any value here?

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Most logistics in and out of null happen through Jump Freighters. There may be a niche market for smaller scale hauling, but that would be hard to get into. At least if you don’t belong to a large null-sec group.

there are always ways to make money if you have right mindset. BR excels at going in and out of LS, so you have to leverage this. For example, you can use BR to import modules, consumables and charges to FW systems or LS market(s) in general and export tags and other commodities. It does require a lot of research to do.

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There is a reason many players have hisec market/trading alts…

Perhaps either find a niche market in null to supply in some way or go do some interregional trading of low-volume, high value items in hisec.

Maybe look into ways to try and avoid bubbles and how to use wormhole chains?

gl o7

^^^ This

A BR can cloak, but it cannot avoid bubbles and is slow enough that it’ll get decloaked if it does get caught in a bubble. So:

  • Null sec is a no go area (unless scouted.)
  • Wormholes can be fairly safe unless someone spotted you going through and is camping the way back (no one is just going to bubble camp a random wormhole unless he expects a return.)
  • in low and high sec you are pretty much uncatchable.
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I’m going to have to disagree with that.
Certainly scouted is great, but as someone who has done many unscouted jumps in 0.0 security space in a blockade runner, it’s not so bad. Using the f11 key to get the system map to see which (hopefully unexpected) angle to warp to the exit gate and warping off to a celestial cloaked immediately after entering a system (and then a couple more if someone saw you at the gate…many more if they chase you) are useful.

I agree that low security space is good blockade runner flying territory.

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How do you avoid bubbles on gates in null sec? I got caught on one of those and a guy warped in shortly after I did and managed to ram me and de-cloak me before I could get out of the bubble.

Big advantage of flying a ship that can warp around cloaked, you can make hasty safe spots out in the middle of nowhere in the system and use those to warp to a gate from an angle probably not covered by an automatic bubble or expected by most using bubbles launched from ships. “Using the f11 key to get the system map to see which (hopefully unexpected) angle to warp to the exit gate”

If it’s a system you will be going through frequently, It might be worth your while to make more and better safespots in the system to warp to / around.

You could make safespots between 151-250km from gates in a system (150km being the minimum distance one can warp to something from), warp to the spot cloaked, and if the gate is clear you can jump it.

You can narrow the beam of your D-scan and check if somebody is at a gate from quite a distance, also.

If you do get caught in a bubble with a blockade runner, your chances of not having your best day are unfortunately fairly high if someone(s) are there. If caught in a bubble often your choice will have to be to slowboat cloaked out of the bubble. Try not to panic and be ready to warp your pod off if your ship gets blown up. A decent, lucky, and / or prepared opponent has a decent chance of uncloaking you if you’re caught by a bubble, and uncloaked is a bad thing for a BR. So your efforts are best put into trying to avoid getting bubbled in the first place.

Be a slippery, paranoid, and aware fish. Warning - getting away from an “impossible” situation and doing the “impossible” / going where players don’t want you to is fun and addicting and you might find yourself doing it intentionally for your entertainment! :slight_smile:

gl

Use gate bookmarks. If it’s a route you’ll do more often first scout it using a covert frigate and make several bookmarks per gate at different angles at 250+ km. Now you can warp safely to those avoiding the bubbles or at the very least be able to assess the situation.

Going in to null sec blind, without bookmarks, in anything costly that can’t defend itself is a mistake, don’t do it.

If it’s worth doing the run then it’s worth scouting it first. If it’s a one time only run you feel is not worth scouting then it’s not worth doing.

Trigger Unit - Estimated price 1,320,000 ISK
buy orders in Heimatar at 950,000 ISK
Buy orders in The Forge at 1.264,000 ISK
That’s 314,000 ISK difference.

The quickest route between Heimatar and The Forge hubs takes you through the Aeman constellation, a lowsec area which is hotly gatecamped (Miroitem in particular).

Set up buy orders and haul them out to Jita as desired. Keep an eye on the estimated price because it’s not uncommon for better deals to be found elsewhere. Look for low volume, high value items. As they say, trade in what you know - A lot of new players are explorers, these days.

I recently took a 1.9b haul through Miroitem in my Cheetah. I’d even forgot to refit a cloaking device. I even hit the inside of a gatecamp - thank BOB they didn’t have anyone on the other side.

I managed to lose my Deep Space Transport just recently, though. Thankfully it’d paid for itself twice over and i wasn’t hauling anything of value. Shout out to the X13 boys!

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You know there is a safe (albeit a longer) route from Hek to Jita, right? There is no real reason to take extra risk during highsec-to-highsec hauls, especially if alternative takes you through Rancer and Miroitem, imo.
One discobattleship and/or unlucky spawn on the other side of the gate is all it takes to lose your cloaky Cheetah and your pod.

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trade routes are probably the easiest way to make isk moving things. There’s a lot of small volume high value goods that BRs are perfect at moving.

The difference is something close to 20 jumps. I’ve little experience with HS gankers but in all honesty i’d prefer an engagement i could actually perform in, not just wonder what happened. There’s a thrill in the chase, even more so when you’re the quarry.
I think it’s worth running the risk, if only for the potential of !FUN!

Alough saying that, there’s definitely something to the highsec lanes, expecially if you’re looking for Sleeper Caches and Covert Research Facilities along the way.

Quite an exaggeration. Its 9 jumps vs 19, but in 9-jump route 4 are low sec that are known to have gate camps.

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Join “Haulers channel” in game (without quotes)
They can advise, at least about running HS contracts. There are some, myself I made 5,5bil collateral contract once for a BR

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According to the autopilot route it’s 15/25 jumps, Rens to Jita. You can understand how i’d see 25 and relay that as ‘close to 20’, especially when you consider the return journey. But I’m clasping at straws. You’re right.

:slight_smile:

I’m interested to hear how @Cargo_Virpio is getting on :grey_question:

Bump for Haulers Channel; they’re a great bunch of folk.

i counted Hek to Jita

I started looking for longer range courier contracts and have been making out pretty well. I can usually find a contract that works out to 300k+ isk/jump (including my trip out to pick it up). It works out to something like 25m+ per hour, so I’m pretty happy with that.

I wish I could find more consistent work, but it seems ok just now.

I don’t want to do the station trading thing because of the risk involved in tying up so much capital in inventory. If the price drops by the time your buy order is filled you could end up sitting on inventory.

I had thought about joining PushX but they require interviews and such. Not sure about all that.

two mistakes imo:

  1. eve should not be a work. You should play, for fun, it is a game. If you like to do hauling, and the thrill of risking to get ganked etc. Do it. Not as a “work”. You will soon get bored

  2. eve is a mmo, if you don’t want to talk to other people, join a corp etc, maybe you should try a solo game, but you miss a large part of eve’s fun

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By “work” I just meant contracts, and I do play with people and am in a Corp, but I am leery about being interviewed so I can play a game with people.