We talked about the Abyss on a few occasions already and it’s still my favourite PvE activity in EVE. With Onslaught hitting the live server – it’s time to take a look at the new fleet Abyssal content.

Into the Abyss (again)

Nothing much changed when it comes to finding your way into Abyssal space. The same types of filaments are used whether you’re jumping in solo in your cruiser or in a fleet of up to 3 frigates. The only difference is you need 3 of them to create the fleet entrance to the Abyssal pocket.

To make the whole process as clear as possible – you will get a prompt after you use your filament to enter solo or as a fleet. Unlike running Abyssal sites solo – fleet pockets are entered through a wormhole-like portal that will not port you in immediately, but rather once you jump in manually. The 20-minute timer will start ticking after the first fleet member jumps through.

Fits

Damavik - Abyss

Now, this blog post won’t go into much detail about fleet fits mostly because, to get you started, you can pretty much grab any Tier 1 frigate, spank an active tank and some DPS on it and dive right in. I tried a few runs in a T1 frigate fleet using T1 weapons on a 5mil SP Alpha clone and it went smooth as butter.

What I am going to talk about is the awesome Worm fit that enables you to easily solo Calm Abyss sites in a matter of minutes!

“But – why would I want to do this?” – you may ask. Well, first of all – because it’s fun! The Abyssal pockets are easily the best-looking parts of EVE and if it wasn’t for the 20 minute timer, I’d probably never leave the place.

It’s also challenging if you don’t have highly trained skills and, unless you’re one of those players that rat in null-sec for major ticks, Abyssal pockets can net you a very nice sum of ISK especially if you get lucky with the new skill-books that sell for a noticeable amount of cash.

To do this on our own – we’re going to bring an awesome little frigate – the Worm. It’s a pirate faction ship with a 10% bonus to both kinetic and thermal missile damage per each Gallente Frigate skill level and an extra 4% bonus to all shield resistances per Caldari Frigate skill level. This literally makes it a frigate-sized Gila! Both fits listed below are almost exactly the same with a small variation in mid-slots.

[Worm, Calm Abyss solo Worm v1]
Ballistic Control System II
Drone Damage Amplifier II

Small Shield Extender II
Small Shield Booster II
1MN Y-S8 Compact Afterburner
Supplemental EM Ward Amplifier

Light Missile Launcher II
Light Missile Launcher II
Light Missile Launcher II

Small Semiconductor Memory Cell II
Small Semiconductor Memory Cell I
Small Semiconductor Memory Cell I



Hobgoblin II x5

Inferno Fury Light Missile x1000

This first fit currently sits around 180mil ISK, and the high price here is mostly because of the Supplemental EM Ward Amplifier that gives you some extra resistance since the ship’s base EM resistance is a bit low, so you need to be a bit more careful when running EM penalizing sites.

The alternative fit is noticeably cheaper, uses a bit weaker shield repairer and Afterburner which allows us to fit an extra Shield Booster.

[Worm, Calm Abyss solo v2]
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Ballistic Control System II

Small Shield Extender II
Small C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
1MN Y-S8 Compact Afterburner
Small F-S9 Regolith Compact Shield Extender

Light Missile Launcher II
Light Missile Launcher II
Light Missile Launcher II

Small Semiconductor Memory Cell II
Small Semiconductor Memory Cell I
Small Semiconductor Memory Cell I



Hobgoblin II x5

Scourge Fury Light Missile x1000

The current cost of this fit is around 93mil ISK.

Now, if you think these are expensive – let me assure you, you’ll be bringing that ISK back in no time. I’ve ran multiple sites with the cheaper fit and the last 4 I did got me 230mil ISK profits (I did get lucky with a new skill-book but even without that it would still put me at 100mil + 130mil for the skill-book)

Edit: Another fit to consider for capsuleers with a higher amount of skillpoints posted by gatorgrips

[Worm, abyssal buffer]
Navy Micro Auxiliary Power Core
Drone Damage Amplifier II

Coreli A-Type 5MN Microwarpdrive
Republic Fleet Medium Shield Extender
Republic Fleet Medium Shield Extender
Basic EM Ward Amplifier

Light Missile Launcher II
Light Missile Launcher II
Light Missile Launcher II

Small Ancillary Current Router II
Small Core Defense Field Purger II
Small Core Defense Field Purger II


Hobgoblin II x2

Inferno Fury Light Missile x500

Worming it up

Vedmak - Abyss

If you’ve done Abyssal pockets before – I’m sure you’re aware of the ship types that can spawn and what to watch out for. If you’ve never done any here’s a quick overview:

Each Abyssal pocket randomly spawns a set of ships. These can be Drifter/Sleeper ships and/or drones as well as Triglavian fleets. They range from drones and Frigates up to Battleships. Since you’ll be flying a fast frigate – you will rarely have to worry about anything bigger than a destroyer class ship mostly because they will not be able to track you, and even if you encounter a sniping cruiser – you can easily run away from its range by overloading your Afterburner for a few cycles.

Both fits should run stable with all weapons firing, your Afterburner and the shield repper on which makes flying and target management the only thing you need to worry about when diving into the Abyssal pocket.

Upon entering, turn on your Afterburner and toss out your drones immediately. Calm filaments will rarely spawn many enemies so orientation should be easy enough. Tackle the enemy frigates first since those can easily catch up to you and deal some damage – then move onto larger targets prioritizing ones that have special abilities and the ones you need to keep either at range or boost away from ASAP (see enemy ship types below).

Ignore the drones if there’s a drone ship tossing them out. Just take out the ship and the drones will just shut down immediately upon the mothership destruction. Take special care of your drones if you run into any drone suppression pylons since they can do massive damage in a generally short time. If that’s the case – just pull them back into your hold and swap them for another pair so the damaged drones can regen their shields.

Once the pocket is cleared – scan around for extra loot caches. There will always be a standard Triglavian cache near the exit gate, and several extra loot boxes scattered around the pocket in the distance. Once you get the hang of it – you can orientate yourself immediately upon entering the pocket and plot the best route around the pocket to pick them all up. Note that sometimes they might not contain loot at all.

Enemy ship types

The list below should help you out on managing enemy ship priority:

  • Webs & Scrams - Snarecaster, Tangling, Anchoring, Entanglement, Nullwarp, Spearfisher
  • Tracking, disruption, sensor dampening, target painters - Fogcaster, Ghosting, Gazedimmer, Blinding, Spotlighter, Harrowing
  • Logi – Fieldweaver, Plateweaver, Preserver, Renewing
  • Neuts – Dissipator, Firewatcher, Nullcharge, Starving

Make sure to immediately take down neuting ships because the last thing you want is to run out of cap in a deadspace pocket. Focus logistics next since those will rep up other ships prolonging your stay in the Abyss and just deal with the rest of them after.

Once you get comfortable with flying the ship and target priorities – you should be able to clear all 3 pockets in 7-8 minutes if you don’t run around looting extra caches and don’t encounter a fat Dominix like in the video below. But even if you do – this fit can easily finish all 3 pockets in 10-15min.

Happy hunting and fly safe o7