The Catalyst expansion in Eve Online is set to release on November 18th. There are a few things you can be doing to be ready. Some of them are things I'll be doing myself. There is also stuff I'd stay away from.
With the expansion focused mainly on mining, and there is a new exploration ship as well. These are the areas you want to think about ahead of expansion. Those include anything you can get now and preparing for the possible effects of the expansion itself.
Expecting a renewed interest in mining in general, with new ships coming out. Along with alpha accounts getting a new ship to mine in. The markets, as you might expect, have been showing that they are expecting mineral prices to go down.
Usually, when it comes to market speculation, such as this. I want to have enough materials on hand to do enough industry for a couple of weeks. I, however, don’t want to be hording about anything. Expect a massive wrench to have now been tossed into that thinking.
One of the largest alliances and null sec collisions is now in turmoil. An alliance controlling almost 25% of null sec sovereignty systems is relocating, and they left their giant null sec block of alliance as well.
It’s so bad that they are just being told to get items into “asset safety” while they still can. In Eve Online asset safety allows you to at a cost of 15% of the assets worth moving the assets elsewhere if they can’t be in the same solar system. This system also takes a couple of days.
On top of that, they are losing their industry park. Each massive alliance has one of these, where most of the crafting for the entire alliance gets done. So not only will they be unable to produce items like they were. They don’t even have anything they can use at this time.
While people usually lose their minds when reports of battles start showing up, these show hundreds of billions of ISK in losses. I would not be shocked if all that turmoil ends up having a cost north of a quadrillion ISK. That is 1,000 trillion ISK. If you think that sounds crazy, a Keepstar structure alone is worth about 200 billion in materials. They can’t defend any at this time. 200 billion ISK titans are getting taken out. Then you have things like Fortizars showing up with around 20 billion in losses each. Add in a few so far failed evocations of things like Rorquals holding a lot of people's entire life in them at another 130 billion ISK.
So, what does that mean for everyone else? You have people needing ships and stuff that they can’t right now spend the months needed to farm for and make themselves fully. They also need a new place to call home, which means killing for it. Prices could skyrocket, so even with an expedition coming out that is going to bring up mining outputs short term, there is just not enough to go around.
With that said, if you plan on going mining with the older ships, like mining barges. So, you can enjoy the new look of asteroid belts, new sites, and see what getting critical mining hits is all about. It’s time now to buy them and perhaps set up a mining fleet with some friends for the day of the expansion release.
Screenshot from when I was on the test server.
If you want to try the new mining destroyers. I’d honestly hold your breath for about a month, if not two, for the T2 or better. The good news is that everyone is going to be able to do a tutorial at the start of the expansion to get one free Pioneer. So, with some alts, you could end up with a couple of them.
Since this new mining ship is from ORE corporation, it’s expected that the blueprints for manufacturing them will be in null. They are only at a couple of stations, and those stations already get heavily camped. So, getting a blueprint for a fair price for a while is not going to be a thing. Thankfully, there will be some free Pioneers. The other new mining ships, it’s going to be a while before the average person is willing to pay the price they will be selling for.
If you really want to get your hands on some ORE blueprints. The best approach is not to try to buy and get it out yourself. The best chance is trying to gank for it in Pochven. Since the station and the gates around where these blueprints can be bought are going to be heavily camped. People will be using Pochven. A lot of people are, however, going to be in Pochven systems looking for combat scanning down anyone trying to use that method of getting to high sec. So, not only expect a lot of competition, but you should be out there right now learning all the rules and tricks in that area of space.
Despite that, if you are into manufacturing, now is the time to have stockpiles of mining modules. I will be ready in time to seed my local area with mining modules. Along with a few other possible markets around me.
I’ll personally be releasing my stockpiles in waves. A little bit as prices go up, leading up to before the release. Then it’s always shocking how many people just don’t think ahead. People will need fittings for their new Pioneers and other mining ships. Just don’t get too greedy and be stuck with way too much when prices crash from people getting late into manufacturing mining modules after release.
Screenshot from when I was on the test server.
Beyond that, there is also going to be the Odysseus for exploration that many, including myself, are extremely excited about getting our hands on. Naturally, people are going to be asking way too much ISK for the first couple of months of this ship.
While there is still a lot of speculation about this ship in general. Anyone smart can work out a lot of the kinds of modules people will be needing for this kind of ship as well. It’s time now to manufacture those modules. Not after release.
Since the ship is also a Sisters of Eve (SoE) ship. It’s expected to have the SoE NET Resonator as one of the main manufacturing components. Prices for these have been sky-high for weeks now. I myself have plans to go out and farm some SoE missions. To not only take advantage of the increase in price from demand. I also want an Odysseus sooner than later, and I might just make my own.
Final Thoughts
While I do have plans to enjoy some mining. Mining, I'm not sure, is still going to be that rewarding. Granted, the new mining ships are easy to get. Might make low sec and wormhole nija mining and gas farming a thing to do with a small gang.
All I know for now is that there are a lot of upcoming opportunities to profit from not only the upcoming expansion. All the turmoil that is going on as well. Eve can sure be quite a volatile game with a lot of unknowns coming up quickly.
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Screenshots were taken, and content was written by @Enjar about Eve Online.