Wrapping 2025 Up

As 2025 comes to an end, I wanted to take a moment to review some stats and figures.  Nothing really to brag about, just a nice little summary of the hunt that took place in 2025.  A little piece of history.

May and June doing group activities from Thera, also not in the chosen killing platform(Stealth Bomber).  July through December all within Pochven.  In October a brief excursion into Thera again.

Also I wanted to review about 4 months of loot that resulted from my hunts.  The amount is not huge, but does showcase that if PVP and hunting is desired activity you can very likely operate on a small budget and focus on hunting without the need to spend time on other activities you don't enjoy.  Not saying that folks don't enjoy PVE, they do.  In fact I want them to enjoy PVE otherwise I have nothing to hunt.

Normally when I am able to successfully eliminate a target I'll retain the modules and other items of value left in the wreck.  I'll store these in the Pochven region until I have a reason to return to HS to visit a trade hub.

Beginning in August I was curious what amounts were possible from my small visits into Pochven.  I didn't really track any of the amounts.  Likely if I would have been more consistently active the quantity and amounts could have been better.

About 195 million ISK from looting the wrecks of my targets.  Based on my chosen Stealth Bomber fit, this is the value for 2 replacement ships and fits.  Depending upon the chosen fit, this amount might field 3 or possibly 4 bombers.

But, it gets better.  One evening I was tracking down a Helios.  Once I pinned it down I realized it was unmanned.  A free ship.  A Helios makes a pretty decent scanning ship, so rather than blow it up I opted to capture it to either sell or use.

Some odd cyno fit and really no idea what it was doing in Pochven.  My guess is the originator using Pochven to transport from NS in to HS to a trade hub.  Not sure.  But their discard was my gain.  Adding another 47.8 million ISK to the bucket.  So 242 million ISK all acquired doing a chosen activity with little to no grinding outside of traversing systems looking for targets.

Side note, I've mentioned it before, but a little sneak peak at my trophy cabinet:

52 frozen corpses.  Mostly by my hand.  Several picked up just floating in space.  These collected over a number of years.  I'm always eager to expand the collection.  Who knows, maybe yours will appear in there at some point.

Happy New Year!  Hope 2025 found you well.  Time to close it out and prepare for 2026...

As always,

Be Well New Eden

Finally, a Taste of the New-New

Success!  I've seen them out from time to time since they were released.  Only a few times were they solo and disappeared as quickly as I could pin down their location.  Another time a collection of 5 or so with a Porpoise providing support.  What are they that I am referring to?  Well, the new Pioneer mining destroyer hull of course.

These arrived a while back along with the new Venture Consortium Issue hull.  These new mining destroyers come in 4 flavors:  

• Pioneer - base level hull
• Pioneer Consortium Issue - Faction variant
• Outrider - Tech II variant
• Perseverance - Faction variant focused on ice harvesting

Likely the Outrider is the only version that would give me grief, with a larger drone bay and number of drones on the field as well as the Tech II bonuses that increase durability.  Also, the ability to provide mining and all other variants of boosting(armor, shield, tackle, speed, etc).  Lastly, it can utilize a micro-jump drive, or 'boosh' as its known by those that use it.  A well executed boosh can jump a number of ships about 100km away.  Spicy.

My unsuspecting target:

This one caught on a mining anomaly in the edge of the system.  I believe they had dropped off a load of ore at a station when I noticed them.  They disappeared as a few Thrashers arrived into the system, but with a bit of patience and understanding the miner's desire to mine, I waited for the system to clear in hopes they would get back to it.  Sure enough they did.

You'll notice they were setup with a 10MN Afterburner.  This is an example of the prey adjusting their tactics to increase the odds of survival.  This particular tactic used to burn away from the tackle of the predator with the hopes of creating enough distance to eventually warp off.  The Afterburner is not deactivated by the Warp Scrambler.  Also a 10MN is over-sized to increase the potentially speed over that of the normal 1MN Afterburner intended for frigates and destroyers.  Luckily I am using a 5MN Microwarp drive so the speed was well within my ability to keep up.

A good catch!

For now,

Be Well New Eden!

Riding Along with Change

Strange.  A few quick tours of Pochven and really none of my historically favorite targets out in space.  Where are all the Ventures?  Where are all the mining enjoyers?  Where are all these new mining ships?

I dipped out for a couple months, come back and the place is changed.  Who moved my cheese(A reference to Spenser Johnson's book Who Moved My Cheese ~ only relevant here as I am dealing with change).

Well, as I adapt to the new activities of the Pochven occupants, I am still finding success hunting.  And with that I've taken an interest in the PI haulers, basically added them to my list of interest along with the miners, explorers, and salvagers.

With the destruction of the recent PI haulers I've found that oddly only 1 in 3 with any cargo of value.  I still have a hunch they are re-loading the cargo into the station as I nibble away at their ship's hulls.  Granted I try to get to them quickly as they seem quite nimble and eager to collect or load or transact with the POCO.  Tonight's offering:

On this outing I also ran across a salvaging Catalyst as well, just couldn't quite pin them down.  The prey can be quite slippery.

Stay vigilant dear reader.  Be ready and open for change.  Adapt and overcome.

For now,

Be Well New Eden!