Newcomer / Intro Low wake scanning and following a fleeing target

[Neutrino Sunset]

How do I follow a fleeing target into supercruise and what does scanning a low wake do?

If my target enters supercruise are there any techniques or tricks to entering supercruise after him in the best position to achieve interdiction, or do I just enter supercruise pointed in roughtly the right direction and look around for him?

Does scanning a low wake do anything useful?

I can't just test this atm as I'm at work.

 

[Ashnak]

1) You go into SC yourself and look for them.
2) I'm not an expert there - just go into SC and look I'd guess. You might try that specific question in DD, there are a few experienced pirates around.
3) Counterquestion: can you scan a low wake, and with which scanner? Never tried that one.

 

[Neutrino Sunset]

It says in the wiki that you can scan low wakes, but it doesn't say whether there is any point doing so.

Frame Shift Drive Wake

Frame Shift Drive Wakes are left behind when a ship enters supercruise or hyperspace using its Frame Shift Drive. These FSD wakes can be scanned by other ships to identify the first ship's destination for tracking purposes. There are two types of FSD wakes: Low Energy Wakes and High Energy...

elite-dangerous.fandom.com

I did some practise at a nav buoy last night but every target that warped out high waked out of system. Which makes sense since you are not mass locked when hyperspacing.

 

[Ashnak]

Ah.. ok, I suppose in that case I have scanned low wakes (in the sense of the wiki) for years without even realizing it . Usually for following a ship that dropped out of SC into real space. This is required for some missions (where you have to meet up with a contact) and also for some combat scenarios.
Point at the low wake (white/grey target brackets) and select it. You can then drop into it like you would into a POI/Signal Source and find the ship more or less close by.

 

[Faded Glory]

NPC's never low wake, they always high wake in my experience. So when you scan that (in normal space) it will direct you to another system.

You don't scan low wakes, just target them in SC, and that will enable you to drop to normal space in the location that the other ship dropped.

As far as I'm aware, jumping from normal space to SC (low waking) doesn't actually leave a wake, but being a generally solo player I can't be sure of that as it's always NPC's, and they always high wake in my experience. There doesn't seem to be any point in leaving a low wake marker in real space as the other ship hasn't actually gone anywhere different, just jumped into SC.