In EVE Online , a group of space pirates has now pulled off the heist of their lives. Following a new patch, the group went on a raid and stumbled upon a gold mine. A single structure, previously owned by players, dropped items worth 4 trillion ISK, about $60,000.
These are Citadels in EVE Online: In 2016, EVE introduced “Citadels”: gigantic space stations that players can build. These Citadels were intended to serve as “safe havens” for players to store their belongings. Even if the Citadel was destroyed, the items were safe. The problem: The Citadels ultimately became “too safe” and limited the chaos that EVE now wants to encourage more.
Over the years, some groups and players who owned Citadels left EVE Online. Therefore, in the patch “Forsaken Fortresses,” EVE decided to make such abandoned Citadels available for plundering. Owners of these “dead” Citadels were warned beforehand, yet it has now become a feast for space pirates.
Player prepares for raid, creates 8 accounts
This was the raid: Player Sulley prepared for a month to strike when the patch went live. As PC Gamer reports, he cleared 32 Citadels in the high-sec region first alone and later with a group of friends. He says most had only smaller fortunes.
But on June 2, he scored big. He and his looting buddies cleared a Citadel that belonged to the group “Future Tech Industry.” There they discovered what might be the “largest haul in EVE Online’s history,” according to PC Gamer.
It was items worth 4 trillion ISK. When converted to game time, that amounts to about $60,000.
The Citadel was actually a relatively insignificant one, a “Raitaru Engineering Complex” in the Stetille star system – essentially in the middle of nowhere. Yet the Citadel spat out valuable blueprints, including 23 “Tech 2” versions, which hold enormous value. With these blueprints, specialized and powerful versions of items can be manufactured.
EVE Online shut off the supply of these blueprints years ago, making them highly coveted collector’s items.
The blueprints are so rare that their price is “negotiable,” and they are sold to the highest bidder. Sulley has already sold most of the collection for 3.8 trillion ISK and still has some of the blueprints left.
Raid was planned, initially intended to run solo
This is what the player says: The raid was not a coincidence. Since Sulley learned that the “Forsaken Fortress” patch was coming, he did his homework. He says he spent about a week searching for Citadels that looked abandoned and ripe for plundering.
He tried to estimate the value of the Citadels and their status by gathering information about the organizations and used a small trick to know exactly when a Citadel was “ripe”: He deposited an item in the Citadel and was thus alerted when it was in danger of being looted.
In the end, he came up with 18 targets that could be worthwhile. And as you can see, there was a bullseye among them.
At first, Sulley tried to carry out the raid on his own. For this, he created 8 new accounts that he raised to pilot “Kikimora” class ships, which he then controlled as a multiboxer. The destroyers are ideally suited for clearing Citadels in EVE Online, as they deal more damage the longer they stay on a target.
But when he started engaging the Citadels, he realized they dropped more loot than he could collect alone. Other pirates swooped in and snatched loot that eluded Sulley. He obviously could not allow that.
Therefore, Sulley ultimately decided to bring in some of his buddies to fend off pesky outside looters.
Sulley says he has been playing EVE Online for 12 years and his share of the 4 trillion ISK has now tripled what he has previously earned in EVE in one fell swoop.
Redistribution from old players to active players
Despite his enormous profits, Sulley sees the change in the Citadels as a double-edged sword: This “redistribution” of wealth from old players to new ones is a great thing for the newcomers. On the other hand, a group of players has now lost everything.
It seems unlikely that players who lose everything while inactive will return to EVE Online.
How it feels to be a victim of such a raid was experienced by a player in March 2020. He had been playing EVE Online for 16 years but then became the “fool of the hour” when he carted cargo worth $5,000 through all and acted far too carelessly:
Player loses $5,000 in EVE Online because he caught the eye of bored pirates.
