Phase Two: Infiltration

So you've defined The Target. Now you need to infiltrate. There are a plethora of methods in doing so, so again: I cannot tell you exactly how it will go down. By this point you should have collected a great deal of information on The Target. You should, ideally, know where their members typically fly and what stations they typically hole up in. Instead of telling you exactly how to infiltrate the target I am going to give you some basics information on different types of infiltrations.

There are two types of corporations when it comes to infiltration: Open recruitment and invitation only.


Infiltrating Open Corporations:
Under normal circumstances, you will get into open corps very easily and sometimes have an easier time rising through the ranks, but there won't be very much for you to take. Open recruiting corporations are normally the least profitable. They are normally miners, mission-runners and casual PvPers. They rarely have a significant chunk of Null-Space and don't have much of an internal infrastructure to speak of. They have revolving-door membership, meaning leaders will come and go much quicker than invitation corporations. This gives you more chance to prove yourself to them. However, odds are they won't give you much access to funds or hangars and they rarely have more than junk and meager funds in them. Maybe you'll get away with a couple battleships, modules and ISK. If you're lucky you might find some minerals and a BPO or two.

Infiltrating an an open corporation is as simple as opening a conversation with the right person, but there are some things you need to keep in mind. You need to make THEM want YOU. Don't appear too desperate or excitable, you ought convince them that you are the right fit. If they are miners, you should already have a mining barge and some capacity for profit. If they are mission runners they may want you to have a "try-out" with them on a mission or two, in which case you need to kick enough ass to get noticed but not too much ass that they doubt your alias. If they are PvPers you will probably need to prove you are proficient at fighting, which means you'll need to have trained your character proper before making the approach.


Infiltrating Invitation Corporations:
Invitation corporations are difficult to infiltrate and slow to trust, but this is almost always because they have a lot of shit worth protecting from bastards like you. Getting into an invitation corp is a lot more complicated than just answering a recruitment post on the forums. Like mentioned above, THEY need to want YOU. However, unlike above, getting them to want you is a much more difficult process. The easiest way of doing this is befriending a member of The Target who can sponsor you. Either have a few friendly exchanges on the forum or even get an invitation to the corp on an entirely different community. You need to be noticed by them, and making a solid contact within The Target before you even begin to infiltrate them is a great start.

If you find yourself incapable of making friends, you can use other methods. Pirate corporations tend to recruit based on first-hand interactions and observations. If you prove yourself to be an able pirate publicly you might just get an invite, but the likelihood of getting an invite from the corporation you want is slim. Otherwise, you can lie your way into conversation with a member of The Target. Perhaps you completed a contract for them and you offer to do more for less. That gets your foot in the door. Clearly, if you were a God in PvP or industry you wouldn't be fucking about in scams to begin with. You need to know how to make people think you're better than you really are. This means you need to lie like a son of a bitch.

Let's say you kill a member of The Target in low-sec during a PvP scuffle. You can strike up conversation right there, and be civil about it. If you're modest, civil and nice you can turn an enemy into an ally. Don't brag, compliment THEM on their fighting. Tell them they would have had you if it weren't for that last chunk of your capacitor's power. Downplay your skill and exacerbate theirs, PvPers love nothing more than to have their ego stroked.

You don't even need to win a fight. You can out-and-out lose, start up conversation and ask how they got so damn good. Present yourself as a new but competent player and you might just be able to finagle your way into an invitation.

There is no sure-fire way to infiltrate a corporation. You do what you can and take what you can get. Roll with the punches and improvise.