Catalyst ganking guide ~ Wow Tech Support

The solo ganker

People usually gank in fleets. The New Order runs 5-10 men fleets, Goons on their highsec visits run 50+ fleets. These fleets are highly successful, but very inefficient. The larger the fleet, the more waiting for everyone to get ready. I've seen the 50-men Goon fleets undocking twice an hour. Even if they hit a 800M Orca and it's 800M pod, that's mere 3.2B ISK damage caused every hour. A solo ganker can act on his own, waiting for nobody. I could safely keep 3.5 ganks/hour. Even if most targets are just 40M Retrievers with 60M average pods, the same 50 people can gank 17.5B/hour. That's almost the cost of a supercarrier.

The fleet makes large noise. You need to be seriously dumb to stay in the way of the Goons. Therefore the fleet often can't find worthy targets and hit lesser ones that they overkill. A solo ganker is largely ignored and can relocate easily, he can always find targets.

The solo ganger is not bound to appointments. You have half an hour in launch time? You can carry our two ganks solo, which is impossible in fleet, unless you are extremely lucky: one is just up where you are.

Solo gankers can always form a fleet because each of them are ready to lead it. Those who fly in fleets are bound to a Fleet Commander. The fall of TEST alliance shown that numbers mean nothing without experts and leaders. The solo ganker is an expert, and the leader of himself. Stepping up from solo ganker to the commander of a Freighter-ganking fleet is just counting down on fleet chat and using "warp fleet to" instead of "warp to". Everything else is the same. On the top of that, you can have a very small fleet on your own: dual gank!Here you can see what damage and two catalysts can do:

Finally the solo ganker has a philosophical value: his success is his and cannot be attributed to "having friends". Socials believe that the power is in "friends" and objects don't matter. Killing him solo (without friends) is the ultimate proof that it's bullshit, he needs to get knowledge about fittings and ships (objects) instead of trying to get people to protect him.

So my corp will be the place for solo gankers and this guide teach you to solo gank miners with Catalysts. Ganking with Catas is DPS gank, therefore you need time to carry out your act. It practically locks you out of 0.8+ systems (these are the playground of alpha-ganking Tornadoes).

Ganking Catalyst and pilot

A Catalyst pilot needs about 2 months of training for the skills to fly a 700+ DPS Catalyst. These are the needed Intellect primary skills:

Hull upgrades 4 (Armor)
Mechanics 4 (Armor)
Propulsion jamming 2 (Electronic Systems)
Capacitor management 3 (Engineering)
Capacitor systems operation 3 (Engineering)
CPU management 5 (Engineering)
Powergrid management 5 (Engineering)
Thermodynamics 4 (Engineering)
Acceleration control 3 (Navigation)
Afterburner 3 (Navigation)
Evasive maneuvering 4 (Navigation)
Navigation 4 (Navigation)
Warp drive operation 3 (Navigation)
Cybernetics 3 (Neural Enhancement)
Hybrid weapon rigging 4 (Rigging)
Jury rigging 3 (Rigging)
Science 4 (Science)
Shield management 2 (Shields)
Magnetometric sensor compensation 3 (Targeting)
Long range targeting 3 (Targeting)
Signature analysis 4 (Targeting)
Target management 3 (Targeting)

Perception primary skills:

Advanced weapon upgrades 4 (Engineering)
Weapon upgrades 5 (Engineering)
Controlled bursts 3 (Gunnery)
Gunnery 5 (Gunnery)
Motion prediction 4 (Gunnery)
Rapid firing 5 (Gunnery)
Sharpshooter 4 (Gunnery)
Small blaster specialization 4 (Gunnery)
Small hybrid turret 5 (Gunnery)
Surgical strike 5 (Gunnery)
Trajectory analysis 4 (Gunnery)
Spaceship command 4 (Spaceship command)
Gallente frigate 3 (Spaceship command)
Gallente destroyer 4 (Spaceship command)

While there are more Intellect-skills, they aren't trained high, so if you use a new pilot, I'd suggest to remap to Int/mem, start with Cybernetics, plug in +3 learning implants and learn all skills, then remap Perc/Will and start learning those skills. If you want to gank faster, map to Int 5, Perc 9 at start and learn skills as you need them. You can go gank after 3 or 4 days having 300-350 DPS. If you use Cerebral Accelerator booster, you can learn fast and gank early with its +20% damage.

The ganky ship is the Catalyst. There are 4 relevant fittings:
[Catalyst, Biggun]
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

Initiated Harmonic Warp Scrambler I
Prototype Sensor Booster, Scan Resolution Script

Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S

Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I
[empty rig slot]
This is the largest DPS Catalyst, 673 overheated DPS with the skills above. Costs 9-10M ISK. You can't fit it without implants, see them below. It can pod untanked Retrievers, Hulks and Covetors, kill but not pod untanked Mackinaws or badly tanked Hulks, Rets, Covs in 0.6. In 0.5 it can pod badly tanked Hulks, Rets, Covs, untanked Macks, kill badly tanked Macks. Everything without DCII is "badly tanked", these barges and exhumers doesn't have enough shield HP to save them, even with resistors. If you can fit T2 guns but don't have the CPU to fit it, do not mix with metas. Mix with Light Electron Blaster IIs, just don't forget to manually load ammo into the Electron(s) in the station fitting screen.

[Catalyst, Anode]
Gauss Field Balancer
Gauss Field Balancer
Gauss Field Balancer

Initiated Harmonic Warp Scrambler I
Prototype Sensor Booster, Scan Resolution Script

Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Anode Light Neutron Particle Cannon I, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I
[empty rig slot]
This is the same ship, except using Meta3 guns. Meta4 costs more than T2, don't use it. 537 overheated DPS. Costs about 3M. It can pod untanked Retrievers, Hulks and Covetors, kill but not pod untanked Mackinaws or badly tanked Hulks, Rets, Covs in 0.5. Should not gank in 0.6.

The third fit is the same as the first except it replaces scram with a meta afterburner. It is to catch orbiting ships.

The fourth fit replaces a magstab with a DCII module. It doubles the EHP of the Catalyst, it's used when there are dumb "white knights" are in the belt who never heard of ECM.

In the first times you'll lose pods due to silly mistakes. After you stopped making them, you can upgrade your pod, but don't go crazy, you'll still lose it now and then. You should use Genolution set fitting implants, WU-1003 fitting implant, SH-603 (maybe 605) and RF-903 gunnery implants. These allow the first ship to be fit and increase its DPS to 730.

Scouting

Since faction police chases your ganker after your security status dropped below -5, you can't just peek around with it hoping to find something. Your ganker must land on top of the target. To do it, you need a scout pilot on a different account, so you can be online at the same time and in fleet.

There are two scouting methods for two ships. Both have pros and cons. The first is using a procurer mining barge:
[Procurer, Scout]
Damage Control II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II

10MN Afterburner II
Ship Scanner II
Passive Targeter II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Ice Harvester II
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I

Hobgoblin II x2
Hornet EC-300 x3
This ship simply approaches the miner and starts mining 4-500 m from it. The ganker can warp to it and that's it. Pros:

Doesn't need skilled pilot.
Procurer is cheap, if your pod is cheap too, you don't have to care for it.
Easy to manage.
Your dead catalyst and the corpse can be instantly looted.
Can mine some side income while scouting
Spreads the example of using Procurers

It has one problem, but it's a big one, "white knights" who want to protect the miners from "evil", will figure out who is your scout alt and the Procurer will give out exactly where you'll gank. Their response can range from convoing the target to placing instalocking ships or ECM on the belt.

The other scouting method uses a cloaky T3. Fit it with MWD, Ship scanner, Passive targeter and tank. Have passive tank too, you might get decloaked while alt-tabbed and can't turn on active tank. With this ship you don't go near the miner. You warp in the belt, scan the target and if found good, you place yourself "behind it" 10-30km. I mean, your ganker will arrive from a station, gate or celestial. Place yourself in a way that the target is between you and the celestial. Cloak up. This way the "white knights" can't find you. They might arrive in the belt, find it empty and leave. You can check them via Dscan. The ganker will warp 10-30 km from you, directly on top of the target. Pros:

Safe from "white knights": what they can't see they can't gank.
Faster due to its MWD. If the procurer arrives 30km from the target, that's 2 minutes of slowboating.
Can fit probe scanner and scanning subsystem to find targets another way.
Can fit salvager to get intact armor plates from exhumers.

The problems are its pricetag and the learning time to sit in it. Also, you need some practice with that "get behind it". You will also fail ganks because of warp to zero.

Your scout should also be an Orca pilot who can carry ships and fittings after your ganker.

The actual scouting needs you to find the miner first. He is in an ore/ice anomaly or a belt. You can find him with Dscan or ship probe scan. For Dscan scouting, you need an overview that shows belts, mining barges and Exhumers. You can see targets within 14.4 AU. Decrease ranges and when the belt disappears together with a barge, he is in that belt. You can also decrease the angle of the scan and look at a specific belt or anomaly to see who is inside. I don't cover probe scan, the internet is all over it since Odessey.

However I do outline a combined method for very fast target finding. Using Dscan you can easily determine which belt cluster the target is. However one planet can have several belts or several planets can be in close proximity. Set your Dscan distance to 300 million km. That's about 2 AU. Verify that the target is within this distance. Launch probes in pinpoint formation, centered on your ship, 2 AU scan range. You shall get perfect location in one scan, you can warp to it instantly.

One scanning tip: if you are in an ice belt system with no ice belt, you can scan down AFK barges who were at the old ice field and were left there floating.

After you arrived on grid with the possible target, look around. Are there ECM ships, logies or instalocking Tornadoes on grid? If not, get within 50km and activate passive targeter before anything is locked. It starts to flash. Then lock the target and you see the passive targeter icon on it. After you have a lock with the passive targeter, he can't see you locking him while you scan him. Activate ship scanner and you see a list of modules. Many scans needed to see all modules. The point is to determine the tank of the target. After you gathered the module list, put it into EFT and determine if you can kill it. Create a damage profile for Antimatter/Void ammo and calculate its EHP against it. Divide it with your DPS and you see how many second you need to kill it. You have 25 in 0.5, 20 in 0.6 and 16 in 0.7. If you want to kill the pod, you need 3 more seconds. If you determined that the target is worthy of gank, approach with Procurer or get behind it with T3

After the gank, loot your catalyst wreck, scoop the corpse of the target and salvage the wreck of the target and your catalyst wreck.

The gank

Your scout provides the warpin and gives the name in fleet chat.
You add him as terrible contact, so he is red on the overview.
Check your fittings and undock.
If there are ships on the undock, warp to an insta-undock bookmark
Group guns, load ammo, load script, start the sensor booster, pre-overheat guns.
Warp to the position provided by your scout.
Start locking the target
If the target is out of 2200 m, approach, using the "keep at range 1000m" button. Concord timer starts when you start shooting, but faction police timer will start when you land. Don't approach too much. If it's out of 4km, and you have no AB, just warp out.
When within 2200m, open fire and activate the warp scrambler
Switch to a pod overview that has only pods and celestials on it.
When the target pops, start locking the pod and pre-activate guns.
When your ship is destroyed, instantly warp to a celestial and not to a gate or station. You can't jump with weapons timer.
Warp to the instant-dock bookmark of the station, set the station to destination and activate autopilot. It will instantly dock after you arrive to your bookmark.

Important notes:

Set your safety red
Do not gank with ECM ships or Tornadoes on the belt
Have insta undock and dock bookmarks for every system you gank in. Make your own, don't ask from others unless you want to land on smarbombing battleships or instalocking Tornadoes.
Have your fittings saved so you can instantly fit.
Have 120 ammo in your saved fittings, that is enough for a 0.5 gank.
Have a stockpile of ships and fittings with you. Your other account pilot should be flying an Orca and carry it for you.
Watch your capacitor while ganking. If it instantly changes with "capsule ejected" red text, you are dead and should warp out instantly.
You can take gates between your base and the target, but you are easy mark for anyone sitting on the gate. Move your stuff with and Orca, travel in the pod.
Set your "auto-target back" to 0 ships. You don't want to shoot belt rats.
Do not Alt-tab away while you are flying in a pod with GCC. Be ready to instantly change course if something went wrong.
The Notifications and Logs window gives detailed combat log. If you see "grazes" and "glances off", you were either too far, or moved too fast transversally
Check your warning icons on the top. If you see limited engagement, check who shot you. It can be the drones of the target, but if other players were on it, you have "white knights"! Watch out for them, be ready to move away, switch to stealthy scout or fit DCII to your Catalyst.
Before ganking in a system, prepare Concord: shoot a customs office in a noobship or gank a smaller target, like a Retriever in 0.5 (you have 5 seconds less without Concord). After you have GCC, you can jump around in nearby systems, dock, get your noobship and undock. Since you have GCC, Concord will spawn and shoot you. You can't warp or dock in the noobship, but you can in the pod.
If you are catched by a "white knight" on a gate, on a station undock (mistake, use instawarp) or on your instawarp location, do not try to fight him, you just split your attention and lose your pod. Select a celestial and prepare to save your pod.

I'm a newbie, how to start? Put your scout in a Procurer in an empty belt and initiate Duel with him. Do everything as outlined above and "gank" one or two cycles on your scout. Then warp out with your ship and dock. You can practice infinitely as you have no GCC, you are not yet a criminal and you lose nothing. You need the practice. The difference between a successful gank and losing your pod is 1-2 seconds waiting or warping to the wrong spot. While the task isn't complicated, you need to execute it perfectly which needs muscle memory. You will fail several times, so did I and everyone else.

Until you get to T2 Catalyst, you are practically locked to 0.5, hunting Retrievers for 6 weeks. Check the maps at the bottom of this post, there are lot of 0.5 hunting grounds, especially in Genesis, Kador and Lonetrek. And it's not at all dull and uneventful: these Retrievers sometimes hold 1B+ pods. The ave average pod value is 83M. Add the 47M barge value and the average newbie kill is 130M for a 5M meta-fit Catalyst. Of course there is the easy way that Miniluv walks: you can gank Orcas on day 1 in a fleet of 50, but then you'll never be able to do anything on your own and you'll be spending your time waiting for the other guys to get ready.

Looting

The destroyed criminal Catalyst is free for all loot, so your scout can safely take its contents. He should as it recovers half the fitting, practically halving the cost of the gank. Salvaging is free too, you should salvage especially the T2 Exhumers.

Looting the ganked miner is optional. The average loot of a T2 mining ship is 5-6M, so covers your losses. Some ships have much better loot. Please note that as you can gank 3-3.5/hour, the loot income is somewhere around 15-20M/hour which isn't great. It should only be taken constantly if you are only ganking and this is your only income source. It will not pay for your PLEX, you have to subscribe the game if you only gank, but don't need to convert PLEX-es for ISK after the initial two for the Orca. It's somewhat ironic that the ganked miners can pay for your Catalyst.

Occasional looting can be done by the scout: bookmark the wreck, dock up, get in your looting cruiser which has strong shield tank and warp stabilizers in lows (Moa is great), warp back to the wreck, set your safety yellow, loot and dock up. Set your safety back to green. After that you need to wait out the 15 minutes timer. The reloging is a waste of time and should only be done if the target dropped some deadspace or faction module, named mining upgrade or other 20M+ loot.

To loot regularly, you need a looter pilot, who should not be on the same account as your scout. She can share the account with the ganker, third account is better. She can fly a looting cruiser. Warp to the scout, loot and warp out.

If the target had lot of ore or had ore containers, you can loot that too by jettisoning your own can and moving the ore into your can. The act is stealing but after that the loot will be yours, so your scout can loot it with his Orca without becoming a thief.

Printable maps

These are created from Dotlan, usually cover a region, but not exactly. Their limits are the natural ganking borders: lowsec and 0.8+ systems. They omit the systems we don't care for and let you just look at your desk and know where to continue. They all belong to continuous highsec, you can travel between them safely in an Orca. The first one is an overview showing the regions and how can you travel in highsec: