Calling All Space-poors
I spend nearly all of my time in Eve doing one of two things: Making ISK to PLEX my single account or FCing. I prefer the latter. As PLEX prices rise and generally stay expensive I’m forced to spend more time grinding and less time doing what I love. Two months ago, I decided to change this.
I’ve been in AM0K. for about 2 years. When I joined I felt like an anomaly since I didn’t own a supercarrier. I didn’t even own a capital ship. Heck, I couldn’t even fly a capital ship. Today, I can fit comfortably inside my shiny new Hel that I picked up for a lofty 16.5B ISK sans fittings. I thought it would have taken me a long time to grind the ISK for this baby. Just the hull would have taken about 180 hours to grind in my interim Nidhoggur. I only play Eve about 10 hours a week. You can see how this was becoming a problem.
The Imperium’s FC-4-ISK program, as helpful as it is and as much as I love it, doesn’t fully pay for my account, let alone a super. When I moved to Delve, I left my ratting Tengu behind in Deklein, trapped in the soon-to-be asset safety-able TXME station. I didn’t want to train into a Gallente hull and AFK rat. I had gotten into carrier ratting because it seemed like the best way to make ISK with my skills and interests. But after a month of that eating up most of my Eve time just to PLEX my account, I knew there had to be a better way, especially in a wealthy region such as Delve. So one day while I was carrier ratting in PUIG, I concocted a brilliant plan. I actually concocted a few plans, all of which will remain my secrets, save the one I am about to reveal.
I didn’t know how brilliant it would be at the time. Surely no one could make such a costly mistake, from which I could benefit! Surely they were smarter than that! But I overestimated the intelligence of my fellow Goonies and allies. What I would find would make me space-richer than I’d ever been. Now I know most of my corp-mates will cry “space-poor!” from behind their stash of supers, titans, and rorquals. But if you’re new to the game and think 1 billion ISK is a lot, let this be a lesson.
The Method
Are you ready to learn the method? I can just see the space-poor NewBees™ reading this while drooling out their scrawny, ISK-deprived mandibles waiting to hear it. Or maybe you’re a bittervet about to shrug me off as you recycle your 25 Rorquals next to a Tatara. Fine. Keep in mind this one thing: My point is not that making ISK is easy. It’s simply that the key to being successful at anything in Eve is focusing on a niche while being resourceful.
I combat probe abandoned fighters and drones and sell them. Was that too easy? I thought no one would be dumb enough to leave a full 2x flights of Ametat II’s and 3x flights of Templar II’s out in space for me to salvage. But sure enough, time after time, I found these. I won’t tell you which systems, but they probably wouldn’t surprise you if you live in Delve. I would, however, like to say a big thank you to ASCEE and PLA.
To be fair, it isn’t always pure laziness or amnesia. Sometimes super pilots, foaming at the mouth in anticipation to drop on a hostile fleet unfortunate enough to stumble into Delve, get so antsy that they forget to recall their fighters before they jump. Or they spam the Launch Fighters button in their jump tunnel and the server spits the little tykes out in the previous system. Maybe they were a victim of downtime or an unfortunate disconnect. Maybe the cable down the road got cut because the neighbors are putting in a new fence. Like any good foster parent, it makes no difference to me how the babies were orphaned, I will care for them all the same!
Some may accuse me of screwing over the greater Goon. But I consider it a kind of service I offer of finding lost and orphaned drones, hopelessly floating in the void of space until Uncle ToshioMagic finds them, brings them to his drone emporium orphanage, and allows new owners to adopt them…for a small fee.
If you’re interested in getting into the game contributing to the charity, here’s the relevant info.
The base skills and fitting you need to do this with an Iteron Mk V:
Skills (Alpha):
Navigation I
Afterburner I
Gallente Industrial I
Spaceship Command III
Mechanics I
Hull Upgrades II
Astrometrics II
Science III
Modules:
[Iteron Mark V, not bait]
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
10MN Y-S8 Compact Afterburner
Scan Acquisition Array I
Expanded Probe Launcher I
Medium Cargohold Optimization II
Medium Cargohold Optimization II
Medium Cargohold Optimization I
And the fit I use:
Additional Recommended Skills (Omega):
Cloaking I
Gallente Industrial V
CPU Management IV
Astrometric Acquisition V
Astrometrics IV
Astrometric Rangefinding IV
Astrometric Pinpointing IV
Modules:
[Iteron Mark V, not bait]
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
10MN Afterburner II
Scan Acquisition Array II
EM Ward Amplifier II
Expanded Probe Launcher I
Prototype Cloaking Device I
Medium Cargohold Optimization II
Medium Cargohold Optimization II
Medium Cargohold Optimization I
I wasn’t keeping close track of how much ISK I was raking in; all I knew was that I was rolling in it. I decided to spend some time doing it again to add to this article. Here’s a screenshot of 7 hours worth of work:
I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts…
These suckers sell like hotcakes
A Few Tips
- Focus on systems with the highest ratting activity. Pipe systems are usually bare, although I will admit I have found enough drones and fighters in them to make it worthwhile to check every now and then.
- Make combat probing filters. I have one for fighters, carriers, and supers.
- You can see fighters as probe results at 64AU range.
- Fighters and drones are usually located in ratting anomalies. These spawn within 4AU of planets. So don’t bother checking large swaths of systems far away from planets.
- Directional scanning is your best friend. If there’s a ton of worthless tech 1 drones on dscan with a single group of 5 expensive ones, use the dscan by holding down V and clicking on probe results in the solar system map view to confirm.
- You can warp faster by turning on the afterburner as soon as you begin aligning. Then cycle the afterburner red. Since the cycle time of the afterburner is shorter than the align time, you’ll warp faster. This will also help you avoid gate rats. This trick is useful in other areas of Eve as well.
- Don’t try to rescue orphaned drones from active anomalies. Check for these in your probe results before warping. This is why.
- Make sure you aren’t warping onto a carrier/super with his fighters out. I’ve gotten into the habit of only ignoring fighters while keeping the carriers. This prevents me from accidentally thinking I’ve hit the jackpot when in reality a carrier released his fighters after I started scanning.
- This should be common sense, but pay attention to intel channels if you have them.
- Some of your fellow capsuleers may be confused seeing a hauler vomiting combat probes and question your intelligence. Ignore them. They’re poor. And not just in the ISK sense. If you’re feeling generous, you can share this article with them.
- You might be tempted to go for Excavator Drones. I would suggest ignoring them. It seems that Rorqual pilots aren’t necessarily chomping at the bit to drop their space rock vacuum scaffold crustaceans on unsuspecting hostile fleets the same way week-old skill injected super pilots are.
Before you Start Trolling…
Perhaps you think I’m overselling my method. A bit too much self-patting-on-the-back. Fine. I don’t care. I have a supercarrier. I played to my niche of combat probing (for which I am well known in certain corners of New Eden) and the region in which I live. Maybe that’s not your strength. Maybe you don’t live in Delve. Still, you live somewhere. And you can do something. Make it happen.
I’m sure by the time this article rolls out this method may have been diminished to the point where it isn’t as lucrative. I expect to see many a NewBee putzing around Delve in Iterons in the near future. But I’m not sad about diluting my income stream. I have a Hel and a few other ideas. How bad can it get? We’ll see what happens. I hope to be sitting in the FC seat more often in the future. Whichever side you’re on, I hope our paths cross.
Now which one of our ISK-laden and/or non-Delve resident readers will be the first to post “tl;dr The bloke just scanned down drones?”
Editor’s Note: This article was a user submission by Imperium member ToshioMagic.
