The Solo Skyhook raid of an (EVE) lifetime

So, a second post in a day, I'm frankly spoiling the four readers I have left.

When I left off last time, I mentioned I was about to try out Skyhook raiding, specifically after watching this video by Span Matsutake. I fitted myself up a Squall in Jita, warped out to a safespot, and lit a noise filament to Null. Nothing like diving in head (or hull) first!

To cut a long story short to get to the meat, I spent about two hours pottering around NullSec getting ignored by ratters trying to work out how to raid a Skyhook without making a tit of myself, until I finally found a Skyhook with a decent size "loot bar".

Despite two people in Local with me I thought screw it, free PvP, and started the link after knocking the silo's shields down to 10%.

As I was warned to expect, a 10 minute timer system alert went out to everyone in Local Chat, but there was no reaction from the locals.

Weird.

5 minutes left. Another alert. Still nobody coming to shoot me

2 minutes remaining. Nobody moves. Nothing on scan

Unironically tabbed out on my alt for most of this

1 minute...

20 seconds...

5 seconds...

Complete.

Well okay. That was easier than I expected.

I warp out to my ping and warp back at zero to the spawn container, expecting 200-300mil in gas:

Oh shit

I think my reaction in Discord speaks for itself:

I was uncloaked the whole time I was typing on Discord, definitely not thinking straight

Luckily, Span Matsutake had prepared me for this. Once I got the theft shakes under control, I warped to my safe, dropped a depot and refitted for travel with probes, interdiction nullifier and a warp core stab, before lighting a filament into Pochven.

Now I've never really been to Pochven before so I have no clue about mechanics, like how local works, where you land when warping to wormholes etc. Unfortunately I took basically no screenshots at this stage because I was busy panicking, so you'll have to deal with my wall of text to describe the scene.

One Triglavian system, covered in the light of a corrupted star

One Squall, poofed into existence in the middle of space

One pilot, absolutely shitting bricks as he spams the cloak button

"Oh fuck", I realise I didn't launch probes before I cloaked, and D-Scan is showing literal hell (10+ Golems or some shit, a Legion, a Stabber Fleet Issue and two Erises... Erisi?), but no combat probes yet. Feeling like I'm firing off a flare that shouts "COME SHOOT ME I'M AN IDIOT!" I decloak, launch probes and wait out the sweat inducing re-cloak timer. Hopefully nobody caught me on scan during that...

Yeah right this is EVE, surely I'm dead meat?

Busy imagining T3s speeding towards me, I check the signatures in system, knowing I need a wormhole out into regular HighSec. Only four to check, thank god, I don't want my probes out for long enough the locals realise it's not one of them. I start scanning the first, struggling a little after spending so much time in an Astero with a Virtue set (first world problems am I right?).

First is a... Combat site - not ideal

Next one is a... Combat site again - uh oh

Third time's a charm?...Combat site - fuck

At this point my internal panic meltdown is going nuclear. I had/have no clue about Pochven mechanics, I assumed they always have a static wormhole out but I didn't actually know that. I also had no clue if I was able to dock in Trig space, I've never bothered to farm standings but I know that some things like gates and services don't work unless you're at certain levels. Clicking show info on the stations showed nothing obvious blocking me docking, but I really didn't want to find out I couldn't dock with nearly 1bil in cargo and lots of hungry locals around. 

The thought of trying to safe log with at least 12 other people in system with me who almost certainly had combat probes available made my teeth itch. This last signature might literally be do or die. Here we go.

30% scanned... 

58%... 

Wormhole!

The relief is like I've jumped in a cold pool, but then a new anxiety hits me. Technically two:

1) What if it's not to HighSec?

2) What if it's a deadspace pocket and I need to slowboat 80km cloaked at like 80m/s?

I figure I can't do much about the first problem; I'll just have to go look and deal with the outcome. The second problem can be solved by Google surely:

Christ I'm about to trust 900mil cargo to an AI overview, EVE 2026 things

Well that sounds promising, but the referenced EVE forum post just states "All Pochven WHs use the Drifter WH mechanic of being deadspace", so...?

I don't really have many choices besides 1) die or 2) maybe die. I'll warp to the signature at 100km and pray I can bookmark and warp directly to the wormhole after bouncing to a safe.

"Shit, I guess this is it" I think. One last D-Scan check. Legion and SFI are still around, but outside 5au. Nothing in the direction of the wormhole, unless it's cloaked. Probably best to not worry about that.

Deep breath.

I uncloak, spam Warp to 100km.

My Squall, painfully slowly, lumbers up to warp speed. I cross my fingers and grit my teeth as I fall into a warp tunnel.

I land on grid, 158km from the Wormhole, Gallente NPCs are surrounding it (didn't even think about that problem). Show info says HighSec!

YES!

Trying to not let my hands shake I start to save it as a bookmark, then I realise.

I'm at 158km.

The warp to button is lit.

Surely not?

I click warp, and hear probably the best audio notification in years:

Warp drive active

Holy fucking SHIT

I land on the hole and spam jump

Infinity takes me, and spits me out in...

I spam dock on the nearest station and finally celebrate once I'm in the hangar on Discord

I courier contract that shit straight to Jita, and then a wild idea hits me. Why not again? Maybe another billion haul? ISK dancing in my eyes I launch myself back into NullSec with another filament.

However after two jumps:

Ah... shit

Well nevermind I guess

Brutally podded back to my base in Derelik by a Northern Coalition gatecamp that seemed to form literally just for me, I sit and laugh. 

47mil loss for an 898mil gain? I'll take that any day.

Anyway, that was my first experience Skyhook raiding. I might try again in a few days, but first I need to buy and fit this suitcase carrier, as well as load all my ships for a nomad life. See you in the next post, where I'll discuss my ship choices and my first holiday location in my shiny suitcase carrier!

The 2026 EVE Addiction Relapse

 Damn it's been a while!

There's something every year or two that pulls me back to EVE for a week. Typically I'll log in, buy the weekend Omega pack, check out what the latest update is, potter around doing some Abyss content or a little exploration for 3-4 days, then I'll lapse into Alpha again and repeat each year.

This year has been a little different and more sustained, mainly due to the fact I've had a second child!

Insert celebration gif etc

Since I've had nearly 2 months off due to both my employer's relatively good paternity policy and some tactical use of owed holiday, I've found myself with a lot of "free" time. Anyone who's had kids knows they don't really do much for the first few months, just sleep, eat, and cry. So I often found myself sat at 3am many nights feeding a baby and needing something to keep myself awake (falling asleep holding a baby is very dangerous, other great parenting advice available on request).

Obviously, my thoughts turned to a video game of some kind, and as you can tell from the fact I've made this post, that ended up being EVE. 

So all that said, what have I actually been doing?

The Vision

Before I won EVE last time, I had the idea of living a nomadic lifestyle through LowSec/NPC NullSec by using a suitcase carrier and a plethora of PvE/PvP ships in the SMB. I never actually actioned this besides doing a little research on how to actually fit a carrier for this sort of task. I only ever used ratting-fit carriers in Null and I suspected that wouldn't be suitable (shockingly I was right). However, before I actually tried putting any of this into action, my attention lapsed as did my Omega status.

When I came back this time around, I was determined to test out my nomadic dream, but there was a small issue:

I sold my ratting carrier when I left NullSec in 2021 and the only capitals I have languishing in stations for the next Null dream are a Rorqual, a Naglfar and a Minokawa, none of which are suitable for this task. 

"Well Seraph" you say "that's no problem, just buy one, they're actually cheaper now after the rebalance"

Well it is a problem because:

Zendrak is mostly poor

Seraph is poor

"Okay but what about those capitals you said you had? Or your old ships? Sell them surely"

No no no, forget all that, what we need is a new goal! A project to keep me interested at 3am! What we need is:

The 5bil Nomad carrier fund

Okay, a lot of words so far to say basically nothing (very on brand for me).

So obviously to make this money I started with what I knew, Level 4 mission blitzing and Abyss sites out of Umokka, a 0.6 Caldari system near Jita.

For those wanting to run CN level 4s, this is a great location!

However I basically stopped after the first hour, I was burnt out from doing this so much last time and was immediately bored. My next thought, well maybe if I'm going to be doing NullSec life, I should get back into the NullSec mindset and shake off the rust. So NullSec exploration farming was the next choice, and this actually kinda slapped:

420mil in a few hours farming, not bad

Unfortunately I was doing this in Scalding Pass (Goonswarm space) and I was frequently chased and hunted by local residents, or I'd have to pause for random roaming solo PvPers/gangs that had combat probes. I decided to fuck off to Curse instead, mostly because it was dead during my timezone, but also because it was still in range of the Sov upgrades that give "Detected" exploration sites that can escalate. While I was in Curse, I had a little fun bullying other explorers too:

Didn't even tackle him, just rammed him with MWD to mess his align

However, my fun was cut short by the discovery that my favourite constellation (and access to the outer edge of Scalding Pass, where Goons often didn't run any sites) was usually camped by the same corp each day, as recorded on my Discord messages to my old corpmates:

It turned out I was fully incorrect, Goons did not come slap them because they didn't really give a shit about the access to their space. Understandable since they were already in it, unlike me who was trying to sneak back and forth between Curse and Scalding Pass to steal their sites. 

Me micro-blogging on Discord to friends who are working and not reading my messages

After a few days in Null where I raised around 3bil and managed to evac my loot through a convenient set of wormholes (C3->C2->HS in Lonetrek), I decided to test out another part of my plan - Nomadic living. For this phase I decided to use an Orca and head to Derelik. My plan was to have ships for numerous situations and ISK making opportunities that may arise, namely:

• Gas mining
• DED escalations from farming combat anomalies
• Besieged Covert Research Sites (BCRS) in adjacent LowSec
• Combat signatures

Ideally the ships for these would fit in an Orca's SMB to simulate what I would be doing with the suitcase carrier in the future, but I quickly realised the number of cruisers I wanted rapidly outstripped the space in the Orca, so I ended up with:

1 x Stormbringer - Escalation farming Sansha Refuges and Dens, completing 3/10s and 4/10s

1 x Muninn - Specifically for completing the Sansha 5/10 (final room is brutal)

2 x Ventures - Gas mining fit (there's a surprising amount of gas spawns in Derelik)

1 x Buzzard - For scouting the Stormbringer into LowSec and scanning for gas sites

2 x Manticores - For duo boxing BCRSs in less than 5mins

So a pretty potent farming fleet, but you'll notice, basically no ability to defend myself in terms of PVP. This was mostly by design, my planned nomadic lifestyle isn't really supposed to pick fights and stand ground, it's more a sneak in the back door and take all the food while everyone is looking out the window.

Anyway, I've been pretty successful so far farming out Sansha 3/10s, 4/10s via scanning and 5/10s, here's the current loot including some BCRSs I've done, some gas and a few random faction spawns while doing anomalies: 

Netflix and farm refuges

Also a confession to make: while I did hit 5bil, I spent 1.4bil on a Vargur.

Oops.

This was because I did a quick side quest farming Angel Refuges next door in Heimatar for the Angel Red Light District 5/10s. Ironically I gave up on this after about a day. I had basically no good drops, didn't enjoy the autotargeting Orthrus I was using, and the 5/10s took ages to run unless they were in HighSec (and I could use the Vargur that I'd purchased for this exact reason).

Also, I got killed taking a LowSec shortcut and couldn't be bothered to replace it:

Also got my pod smartbombed, managed to rip out most of my implants first

I'm not coping, stop looking at me like that.

Anyway.

At this stage I was looking for a decently priced carrier that I could bring close to HighSec for fitting and loading up with a ship roster until I got distracted on another sidequest:

Skyhook raiding.

But that story will have to wait until next time...

See you in space o7

Slow news day

 So in my last post, the whole "I'll have another post out in a couple of days" really fell through. 

In my defence I've actually got 3-4 posts in various stages of "cooking" to come out, including a massive guide on Jump Freighters and a "30 Run Abyss" ISK/hr discussion. Unfortunately my time to play EVE this last few weeks has been scattered and I've spent my precious few hours online exploring how things have changed since I was last sucked into this massive universe and making plans for how I want things to proceed "EVE career" wise. It's not as financially viable for me to be paying for 3-4 accounts with RL money these days now I'm a "real adult", so I currently have 2 accounts on Omega (Seraph and Zendrak) that run out of PLEX end of December and then a current Alpha Account character that's about 15-20 days skill training from being a solid Rorqual pilot that I'm strongly considering selling on the character bazaar, since I:

1) Barely use/play on this account anyway now I'm not in NullSec

2) Currently don't have a desktop since I'm living between two houses, and my laptop gets pretty hot running two clients let alone three

3) Think mining is really fucking boring

4) Know that even if I lived in NullSec, I don't need a second Rorqual pilot (Zendrak is also a Rorq pilot) and I don't have a second Rorqual hull for him to fly anyway. 

5) Can't face Alliance mining ops (see 3), my heart can't take neutrals being spotted in the pipe while I'm stuck in siege on two Rorquals even with a cap/supercap umbrella.

So the third account "Main" looks to be on the chopping block but I'll have to decide in the New Year since I'll be away with work for a while and unable to actually log in. In the mean time I'll be allowing Seraph and Zendrak to lapse into Alpha and make a decision in January/February. Since my EVE time is going to evaporate for a month and a bit, I'll try to get as much done on my drafted posts that I can without logging in so that when I'm actually back I'll easily smash out a couple in a week.

Anyway, sorry for the slow news day, I'll see you in space, fly safe

I'm back, and I have opinions about the Crimson Raider Halloween event

It's safe to say I've been away from the black expanse of EVE's skies for a long time now, but it's always been in the back of my mind, tickling away. Memories of a spaceship fantasy game where I've met some of my oldest friends who I've never met face to face, where I spent alot of my teenage years growing up, and through this site developed my writing skill (though I still cringe reading some of my older posts). 

It's crazy to think that I was 17 when I first started playing EVE, and now it's over a decade later. Seraph, my first main and frankly the name I've most associated with my online "persona" was born on the 3 July 2011. Over 11 years! His "brother", my second main, Zendrak (or just Zen to my friends) was born just over 6 months later in September 2011. True, I've been the king of on and off playtimes, but I don't think I've played any other game anywhere near as long (even inconsistently). So all this to say that, although things have changed alot, theres still something pulling me back to EVE, and by extension this little blog. 

Previously on "I suck at EVE"

So what have I been doing in the last week or so? Mostly re-learning things I've forgotten, finding out new changes since I've been gone (often by running facefirst into them) and making incredibly dumb mistakes while trying to move stuff that was put in asset safety. 

Oof 1. 

Oof 2. 

Yeah that was painful, but considering it was the first PVP I'd experienced in a couple years, I don't think I did too bad, plus my Orca actually survived a lot longer than I expected. Plus I was able to be positive about it, a few years ago the thought of losing 4bil in the space of 30minutes would be enough to have me literally sweating. 

Immediately after my ships popped I said: "Well that was stupid" and laughed. 

Besides losing billions of ISK over stupid mistakes, I've also been checking out the Crimson Raider Halloween event and trying out the sites (both combat and hacking). 

Spooktober etc

Frankly the hacking sites have not impressed me. While the scenery is nice and I appreciate all the loot is in one can, the difficulty level to scan them down plus how tough some of the cans are to open vs the rewards you get seems very lopsided. I've got max scanning skills on Seraph (thanks Wormhole living era), a fully rigged out scanning Astero with T2 scan modules etc, and the sites aren't "easy" to scan out compared to most HS/LS data and relic sites I encounter, and the cans can actually be tricky even with max skills. I rarely fail hacks except on some Sleeper Caches or really tough NullSec sites and yet these event sites have had me fail a hack or two in a row often enough for me to be like... "hmm". 

This is a particularly bad can but it proves my point

I wouldn't mind if the rewards were 20-30mil per site but the average I've been seeing (and I've easily done 30-40 of them by this point of both Tetrimon and Crimson Raider sites) is closer to 5-8mil, which for the difficulty of the hack seems a bit shit. Maybe there's NullSec versions that pay better (I haven't checked) but the HS/LS sites aren't great. If the average ISK per site was higher, even if that meant hacking 2-3 cans instead of one, I'd probably like them more. The combat sites however (both Blood and Tetrimon) have definitely been worth it. The average loot I've been getting from site bosses is 45-50mil, but I've had a couple big boosters drop that were 100mil+ on their own which is pretty sick. My site completion time in a Paladin is around 10-15mins, the only thing that sucks is actually finding enough to run them consistently. If you're lucky with spawns or play in a quiet timezone you can sometimes find systems with 2-3 or even 4 sites in them, which is a nice little earner if you can keep them to yourself, or you're running such an overkill fit that you can easily contest people who show up to kill the boss (like a 3k DPS marauder). 

Lol, early morning (6am) EUTZ

After doing three sites in a row the other day I had an EVE estimated 180mil in loot which took me about 40-45 mins to complete. Admittidly I'm definitely on the "higher" end of PVE players running these (maxed skill marauder, bling DPS mods, running with an old Incursion clone with 5% gunnery implants etc) but even a conservative ISK/Hr estimate is 200mil+ which is in the same ballpark as T5 Abyss runs. T5 Abyss runs are FAR more dangerous/risky for your ship than this event so my recommendation is to milk these sites during quiet times as much as possible if you've got a ship that can run them. I'll post my Paladin fit at the end of this post but I'm toying with switching to a Kronos because so many of the rats are between 8km-20km, perfect for being slapped with Neutron Cannons. However the event ends in a couple days and it seems like a waste of money to be buying and fully fitting a Kronos to literally do 10-20 sites with it and then have it languish in a random hangar for a year until the next event. There's not many things you can use a Kronos for that I enjoy doing often, so maybe I'll try it out next year.

Around two and a half hours of mixed Tetrimon
and Raiders sites this morning, over 250mil ISK/hr!

What's next?

Definitely some more PVE to get me used to EVE again before I dip back into PVP. I've heard FW is getting a change to mechanics, so maybe I'll head over into my old haunts in Black Rise and try a little solo PVP again. I've already lost 4bil, what's a few Thrashers and Taranises going to hurt?

I'm wanting to do some more "experiment" type content, I actually quite enjoyed doing the Amarr Epic Arc and I'm toying with the idea of an Abyss "What I got in x number of Tier 4/5 Firestorm/Electrical/Dark Abyss Runs", which would have the dual benefit of building me up some ISK and also giving me content for this blog. Plus I've been doing a lot of exploring recently, so maybe set myself a challenge of earn "x" amount of ISK in a day/two days etc from exploration sites (data/relic and combat) would be interesting.

We'll see what RL allows and what I actually manage to achieve of course.

Paladin fit

[Paladin, Event Pally]

Imperial Navy Heat Sink

Imperial Navy Heat Sink

Imperial Navy Heat Sink

Multispectrum Energized Membrane II

Multispectrum Energized Membrane II

Centus C-Type Large Armor Repairer

Syndicate Damage Control

Republic Fleet Large Cap Battery

Heavy Stasis Grappler II

Republic Fleet Stasis Webifier

500MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive

Mega Pulse Laser II, Conflagration L

Mega Pulse Laser II, Conflagration L

Mega Pulse Laser II, Conflagration L

Mega Pulse Laser II, Conflagration L

Bastion Module I

Salvager II

Small Tractor Beam II

Small Tractor Beam II

Large Energy Collision Accelerator II

Large Auxiliary Nano Pump I

Hobgoblin II x5

Hobgoblin II x5

Salvage Drone I x5

Conflagration L x8

Scorch L x8

Imperial Navy Multifrequency L x12

Mobile Tractor Unit x1

So quick mention of the Paladin fit, Conflag for cruiser and bigger, Multifreq for destroyers and frigates. Frankly this thing is overtanked, the Syndicate Damage Control is more for anti-gank peace of mind than actually needed for the site. If you're just T2 fitting this, which would work totally fine, then you could probably switch this for a Tracking Enhancer II.

I have Hobgoblin IIs but barely use them, with the dual grappler/web combo you can track close in frigates and I hate dealing with my drones being aggroed. Tractor beam lets you grab the boss wreck (and loot) while you wait for Bastion to run down.

With all V related skills I'm doing the sites in 15mins or less which is decent, the main trick is timing your Bastion cycle so when the gate opens and the next wave spawns you don't get tackled on the gate during Bastion and waste time.

Thanks for reading this far if you're still watching my blog, but otherwise I'll probably have another post up in a few days

Fly safe!

It's not paranoia if they're actually out to get you (JF pilot diaries)

Why do I always check killboards before moving my JF out of station to the HighSec gate? 

Because despite what most people would assume, this is typically the most vulnerable (and therefore the most dangerous) point in your journey. When jumping onto stations within docking radius and using the benefit of session change invulnerability, you're almost 100% safe if you discount pilot error and server glitches (not accepting jump/dock commands). However if you're undocking and slowly aligning to your outgate and you don't check who else is in system with you:

You can die when you think you're safe.

"Oh Seraph you're just paranoid, chill out"

Words to live by for any JF pilot

Here's an example...

Yesterday Afternoon

While doing my usual JF trip to Jita, I almost always use Ignoitton. It's a 0.4 LowSec within 3j of Jita, with a suitable NPC station to jump onto and it leads directly into a 0.8 HighSec system (reduces likelihood of suicide ganks due to faster Concord time). This has made it very popular as a JF endpoint for routes into Jita, which of course has led to people camping it in the hopes of killing them. This hadn't previously stopped me from using it because in all honesty, there aren't many groups who are actually good at killing JFs.

However I'm paranoid enough that I don't want to take the risk of "just winging it", so I always check local before leaving the station I've just jumped on to. I think today that paranoia may have saved my Ark from a brutal death.

I had just jumped into Ignoitton as I usually do, no issues with jump-in points or bouncing. Two other JF pilots from different alliances had jumped in front of my alt before I was in position on the station, so I was feeling comfortable as I jumped in also. I docked up my Ark, no issues, then sat on my cyno alt waiting to dock her up before I did my usual checks and moved my JF into HighSec.

But something seemed off. I couldn't put my finger on it but I was starting to feel uneasy. My 10minute cyno timer had almost entirely run down before it clicked.

Why hadn't the other two JF pilots left station and warped to HighSec? 

Infact, they had both docked, stayed docked for about a minute, then logged off. That's weird behaviour in my book because usually JF pilots will undock and head straight for the HighSec gate unless it's too dangerous or risky to do so. Did they know something I didn't?

I headed to Zkill and started working through the names in Local. It took me about a minute to find something that confirmed my suspicions.

RIP this Anshar

A week prior to my trip, two Phoenix pilots had killed an Anshar in Ignoitton. They'd also been involved in an Ark kill in Ignoitton about five days before that, though admittedly not in Phoenixes for that one. Both those pilots were in Local chat now.

Specifically they were in station with me. 

Ah crap

Now at this point you're probably like "huh, you should be careful when you undock Seraph, they might try to get you" but have no fear, I was already in full paranoid meltdown mode.

Here's what I knew:

Two Phoenix pilots with a history of killing JFs are in station with me

Ignoitton is a very well known JF endpoint

The NPC station I'm in is the better of the two NPC stations in system to jump on to due to the station model, therefore it's the most likely location for a JF to be undocking from.

The warp distance to HighSec from the station is 50AU, plenty of time to warp a bump Machariel to the gate before I land and bump me away if I'm unlucky with my landing (JF warps at 1au/sec max, Machariel does 3.75AU/sec, or nearly 6AU/sec if rigged for it)

I asked myself "What are the chances that these guys are just innocently docked here?" Based on the evidence it seemed very very likely I was in danger, if not already a target.

Things I couldn't know:

Do they have a cloaked scout watching the undock for JFs?

Are they currently at the keyboard or are they just logged in?

If they ARE at the keyboard, are they waiting for a JF or are they just chatting in Teamspeak/Mumble?

Do they kill on station or do they go for the gate bump? Maybe they try both?

Being the paranoid fuck I am, I decided to act as though they were at the keyboard, already in their Phoenixes with a bump alt ready to try and catch me either at station aligning, or before I jumped the HighSec gate AND they had a cloaked alt watching the undock for when I was leaving.

Me thinking about all this in station with a 6Bil cargo and a 9Bil hull

 

So assuming all that, the question becomes, "How do I get out of this alive?" 

I had two options really:

1) Wait for them to log out for a few hours/attempt a downtime run (effectively the same)

2) Return to my mid-point and use my backup endpoint which is less busy, but requires more jumps through HS

I started to move one of my cyno alts back to my mid-point for this move (which was about 15j away) while I sat and watched to see if they logged out or otherwise showed signs of being alive. To cut a boring story short, they did nothing. They sat and waited, I sat and waited. I went to make some food and do some tidying IRL.

I came back about an hour later and only one of the dreadnought pilots was in station with me but there was now an 11 year straight NPC Corp player in station with us instead who's killboard "strangely" seemed to match the dreadnought pilots. Maybe he just likes to whore on kills and is nothing to do with them?

Yes Mr NPC corp you seem innocent

I decided to jump back to my midpoint and head for my backup endpoint. I'm not risking 15bil on the hope another player is AFK.

My jump to my mid-point was uneventful, then straight onto my backup end-point was totally normal. A relaxed trip through HighSec later and I was safely docked in Jita.

The relief of landing at IV-IV cannot be overstated

So were they out to get me? Would I have died? Did I take a large detour for nothing but a bad feeling? 

Maybe. But I've had this Ark for over five years and I've not kept it alive without being very paranoid.

Fly safe guys o/

Amarr Epic Arc Experiment - Part 3 (The conclusion)

 So unfortunately due to corrupted notes on my computer, I'm missing the loot/salvage and bounties data from the following missions:

Hunting the Hunter

Fate of a Madman (just a choice more than an actual mission)

Catching the Scent

We can work out bounties that I probably would have got based on EVE Survival data, and I'll use the missions with similar amounts of ships to work out average loot value (minus about 10% value to allow for drop rates). I won't include agent pay because it's low enough to not matter alot in the final total.

So Hunting the Hunter, I estimate 15mil in bounties and 8mil in loot/salavage.

And Catching the Scent, I estimate 25mil in bounties and 14mil in loot/salvage.

We're ignoring Fate of a Madman because as I said earlier, it's a choose your path mission, not a fight and kill one.

So, on to the next mission. For those following at home, when we last left off I had been directed to destroy Rahsa's Fleet and capture the man himself (which we did). We then took him back to be interrogated (this was the storyline choice), during which he revealed that he hadn't been working alone but he managed to commit suicide before the interrogators could get a name. In order to track down the accomplice I was sent to retrieve a Sansha Command Signal Receiver from the stragglers nearby by killing them all and looting their wrecks. We've now returned from that mission and now we have been given a fake Sansha distress beacon built from the Command Signal Receiver to bait the accomplices back into the system.

This is literally a head in a jar my dude

Also, I want to note that I have returned to this Arc with the fresh Marauder buffs from the Bastions of War update (double rate of fire in Bastion), so I'll comment on how that feels in the conclusion. Spoiler, it's OP

I flew over to Shaha to place the distress beacon in a broadcast array hub, landing around 20km from it as I warped into the pocket.

Lucky I have a MWD

I placed the beacon, and was soon joined by a couple of battleships and cruisers which were rapidly dismantled by blazing laser justice. I won't wax lyrical about laser death again but trust me it was just as glorious as ever.

After easily wiping out the small force that came to kill me, it was apparently "obvious" from the wreckage that the traitor was Commodore Harkan according to my agent.

Don't worry, I have no clue who he is either.

Total ISK - Falling into Place

Pay + Bonus: 3.02mil

Bounties: 2.8mil

Total for this mission: 5.82mil

Loot/Salvage was estimated at 1.3mil

I was told to arrest Harkan so he could answer for his crimes. An uneventful few jumps later and I was on his doorstep in Polfaly. The big man himself sent me a message.

Hey that sounds totally safe, man without a face! I pootled over towards his mansion to arrest the naughty sausage, when suddenly...

Hey man is your house on fire?

I would have shown the actual explosion but 90% of my screen went white. This is the aftermath

I reported to my agent that Harkan had seemingly committed sudoku, and was ordered to go inform Riff Hebian; our buddy from a few missions ago.

Total ISK - Making an Arrest

Pay + Bonus: 3.01mil

Bounties: None

Total for this mission: 3.01mil

Nil loot and salvage

I flew back to Palas in my trusty frigate and told Riff Hebian that his old friend was both a traitor and probably dead. He took it pretty well since he gave me money and another mission.

Total ISK - An Unfortunate End

Pay + Bonus: 2.19mil

Bounties: None

Total for this mission: 2.19mil

Nil Loot/Salvage 

Yes I literally got payed to fly to him and start a conversation.

Riff told me my "final" task was to wipe out the last of the Sansha who were preparing to mount a desperate last attack against the local Lord. Sounds easy enough! I flew over the two jumps to Moniyyuku and prepared for battle.

Well that doesn't sound suspicious at all.

The mission objective tried to get me to focus on the energy neutralizer sentry but I decided to start melting through the ships, since apparently there was a lot of waves. Sadly I only got through three waves of each cruiser/frigate group before they all warped off and the mission was flagged complete. I killed the sentries so I could salvage in peace, noting that EVE Survival warns you that the neut sentry has a "massive tank".

Haha yeah okay

It died in less than 20 seconds.

Looting and salvage complete, not that there was much, I returned to Palas to report to Riff only to find things had gone batshit crazy since I had left.

Total ISK - Panic Response

Pay + Bonus: 2.2mil

Bounties: 1.6mil

Total for this mission: 3.8mil

Loot/Salvage was estimated at 490k

So it turns out Harkan isn't dead (shocker, who saw that coming?) and he's at the Lord's safehouse right now trying to kill him! Truly disgusting behaviour.

We flew best speed to Choga to defend our man. Landing in the first room, we slaughtered the Sansha forces guarding the gate. This seemed to piss off Harkan.

Well challenge accepted my guy, let's rumble.

I made short work of the second pocket while Harkan got political with me. It was pretty hard to hear him over the screams of his men as they were incinerated with bastion-boosted Conflag laser beams, but he seemed pretty upset about the Empress or something? I'm nothing if not a simp for Empress Kamyl so now he definitely deserved to die.

I warped into the next room, lasers set to justice. Once again Harkan babbled on about politics and weak rulers while I put his followers to the sword.

Don't scratch the paint!

With only the loss of a single Hobgoblin II (RIP little buddy) I moved on to the third room. EVE-Survival notes that the important thing in this room is the trigger control based on how much damage you do to the initial BS spawn. I decided to micro jump out and fight this room from Scorch range to keep things simple.

As each new spawn came in I held DPS off the first BS and killed the new spawn, but honestly I think I could have killed it from range and then killed all of the spawns before they reached me, 1600 Scorch DPS from 100k is incredibly powerful, jumping up to 2600dps once they get into Conflag range at around 60km. As it was, I didn't even lose my shield clearing this room.

Using target rows to organise spawns helps alot in not activating the wrong trigger

I cleared the loot and salvage off the field, dropped everything in a station because my hold was nearly full, then headed into the final room for the boss fight.

Oh good, he's going off the edge

EVE Survival warns there's alot of waves in this fight but honestly I didn't think it was that bad. Pretty sure there's more waves/ships in a L4 Pirate Invasion mission, and it wasn't hard to tank Harkan, just the occasional rep pulse, even though admittedly I had bastion helping out with both DPS and tanking.

Harkan pops, rest in pieces criminal scum

After everything was murdered, I returned to Riff Hebian for my reward.

Total ISK - Right to Rule

Pay + Bonus: 1.4mil

Bounties: 27.7mil

Total for this mission: 29.1mil

Loot/Salvage was estimated at 20.5mil

Implant achieved

Riff went on and on about how great I was, then handed me the implant I had lusted for for some months now. I had completed the Amarr Epic Arc!

Conclusion

The implant itself is estimated by EVE at 277mil, which is pretty nice but the market seems closer to 230mil (still not bad). 

Anyway, totals!

Total bounties: 151.9mil

Total Agent Pay: 35.52mil

Total estimated loot and salvage: 188.79mil

Overall Total ISK (Implant not included): 376.21mil

So I guess I answered my original question, though I'm a little disappointed with the answer. Atleast with the implant included the total ISK is over 500mil but I was hoping for higher.

If I did this sort of thing again, what would I change?

1) I think a Marauder is major overkill for Epic Arcs especially after the DPS buff in Bastion. As fun as it is to wipe out rooms in less than 30seconds with nearly 3k DPS, you spend most of your time moving between systems instead of fighting so a T3 cruiser or similar would be more time efficient if you're just farming the implant/faction standing.

2) I would definitely use a spreadsheet to record my results. Manually going back through a notepad on my PC and adding up the numbers would have been so much easier on EXCEL or a similar tool, and much easier to see overall.

3) I wouldn't take a 4month break in the middle because it's a nightmare trying to figure out where you were and find your old notes

Thanks for reading this far, especially if you had the patience to read the entire series!

Fly safe o/

The return to LowSec number 58: Super Electric Magnetic Boogaloo

 Well I'm leaving Null again!

I really need to stop making a habit of this

Basically, I spent most of November 2020-February 2021 not playing EVE for a number of reasons, mainly my job. During this time alot of changes happened in my alliance, half of which I still don't really understand how or why, but the upshot is most of the corps moved home, our old stations are being ripped down, and I have about 10 billion of stuff in asset safety. I  managed to rescue about 14 bil (including my now ancient Ark Jump Freighter that I've owned since goddamn 2016) but it still stings that so much is locked away temporarily. I'm currently waiting out the 20 days to get my stuff back (and pay for 15% of it, the cheeky fuckers at Secure Commerce are making a killing). That had really killed my drive to stay in Null, and by extension to play EVE.

2016 life, still going strong

So ouch.

However like "just one more drink" I logged into EVE on the Test Server today to help some old friends with testing T6 Abyss frigate runs... annnnnnnd I caught the EVE bug all over again. They told me they were knocking around in LowSec and they wanted to know if I wanted to come back and join up again like old times:

• Small gang fights: Check
• Bros to run Abyss with: Check
• Stations that don't vanish if I take a 3-4month break and then make me pay for my own stuff: Check

How could I refuse? And if I'm returning to my old 2014 era corp, I should go back to my cringe 2014 blogging obviously.

So I'll be resuming that Epic Arc playthrough/discussion I was doing because I don't want to leave it unfinished, but after that I'll probably be discussing Solo/Small Gang PvP like I used to and probably more Abyss content (be that guides, theory crafting, losses or epic drops).

In conclusion, blame my fellow addicts for re-introducing me to mainlining EVE into my goddam veins. I'll see you out in the universe.

Fly safe.