Last Updated on 2023-05-07 by Kshal Aideron
For some reason, Vanguard Incursion tagging breaks people’s brains in Eve Online. This is a very short guide explaining what tagging is, and why it’s tagged the way it is.
Blasters, Count to 9
In Eve Rookies Incursions, blaster ships will follow the tags 1-9 unless the FC tells you something differently.
Your FC is likely to use the “tag item from sequence” hotkey so that the tagging goes 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,1,2,3. So, once the sequence gets to NINE, it starts over at ONE.
This means when following tags, if wave 1 has you shooting Tama’s 1,2,3,4,5 then wave 2 you’ll more than likely shoot Tama’s 6,7,8,9,1.
You will ALWAYS follow the entire sequence to 9 before starting back at 1. ONLY shoot out of sequence if the FC tells you to. This is something people have problems with, but you need to learn to do it since this is how it’s most commonly done as it’s the fastest way to tag for the FC.
Snipers Learn Your ABC’s
Where blasters follow numbers, the snipers (long range) ships will follow the letter tags. So this means that snipers need to know their ABC’s.
Just like with numbers, the FC will tag in the ABC order. If wave 1 has 3 things for the sniper to tag, they’ll have A,B,C. In wave 2, they’ll see D,E,F and in wave 3 they’ll have G, H, I and then it’ll start over at A. If you’re a sniper and you see H,I,A then snipers will lock up and shoot H first, then I, then finally A.
Why Do We Follow Tags?
This is to focus fire. Blasters should be locking up number tags, painting and webbing the thing they’re shooting at.
Snipers will be locking up their tags, painting and shooting them.
When rats get too close for snipers to effectively shoot them, then they should switch to the blaster’s tags to paint and web.
Tagging Column on Your Overview
Make certain your tagging column is active so you can see the tag order. If you don’t know how to set your tag column on your overview, watch the short tutorial video below.
If you follow this little guide, we’ll burn down sites quickly and make more isk!