Table of Contents

Catch Gas Huffing

Introduction

Gas sites can be divided into two broad categories, WH gas and K-space (regular space) gas sites. WH Gas is used in the creation of T3 Cruisers and destroyers, and is found only in WHs. K-space gas sites are used in the creation of combat boosters aka. drugs. In general, WH gas is more valuable than K-space gas by volume, but the process of harvesting the gas is very similar. For the purposes of this guide, it will be assumed that you are harvesting the K-space gas in Catch, Lime Cytoserocin.

Why should I huff gas?

The equipment required to huff gas is fairly cheap, with a fitted Venture currently costing roughly 12 Million ISK. This will easily be made up after just one load of gas huffing, making huffing an extremely good return on investment. Huffing can be ideal for newer players who cannot afford more expensive ratting or mining setups to be able to make the isk they need to enjoy other aspects of the game.

What are the drawbacks to huffing gas? What's the catch?

General Information

In our Catch home constellation of 9HXQ-G there exist three types of STATIC gas sites. Static means there will always be a set number of them at ANY time and the moment one despawn, another will respawn somewhere in the constellation to take its place. The 3 different statics differ greatly and each have their own benefits and tradeoffs.

Duo Nebula Leopard Nebula Rimy Nebula
This is by far the easiest site to begin your gas huffing adventures. Duo's do not have rats of any kind and house 2 seperate clouds (500 Units + 2500 Units), allowing multiple people to harvest at the same site. The Duo Nebula cloud explodes very frequently and causes 1000 EM + 1000 Thermal damage upon explosion. Avoid huffing in groups.
  • Always 2 in 9HXQ-G
  • 3,000 units (500 + 2,500)
  • 1,000 EM + 1,000 Thermal damage very often (Groups beware!)
  • No Rats
Leopard Nebulas are the motherlode of Lime Cytoserocin. The site has many Sansha battleship rats and webbing towers, but killing the rats can be worth it because the site's single cloud has 9,000 units of gas! The Leopard nebula cloud explodes much less frequently and only does 1,400 Explosive damage, making it a breeze to tank with even a single explosive hardener. Huffing in groups in these clouds can be much more doable. A audio guide on how to clear the site can be found in the Class Recordings below.
  • Always 1 in 9HXQ-G
  • 9,000 units
  • 1,400 Explosive damage less often
  • Sansha Battleship rats & webbing towers (VNI's beware!)
Rimy Nebulas are the bastard son of the 9HXQ-G constellation. Housing a measly 3,000 units of gas (same as duo nebula), the site is disproportionately protected by many Angel, Mordus, and rogue drone rats making it difficult to do these sites effectively. It is not recommended to run these considering the other ones respawn instantly.
  • Always 1 in 9HXQ-G
  • 3,000 Units (1,500 + 1,500)
  • Unknown damage types
  • Mixed Battleship rats

Prerequisites

Before you can gas huff you'll need to have some prerequisites as well as some basic game mechanics under your belt.

Gas Huffing Procedure

Before you can start huffing gas you must find a gas site. Gas sites are similar to relic or data signatures; Gas sites must be scanned down using core scanner probes. One way you can more easily track down these sites is to ask other explorers if they've spotted any nearby or use a signature tracking website/tool such as SMT or Pathfinder. Travel to the system where the site is, scan it down and once scanned 'Right Click → Save Location' to a bookmark. What you do next depends on the site.

Duo Nebula
  1. Warp to the gas site and bookmark each cloud. (Make sure you have Gas clouds in your overview/brackets)
  2. Dock up your exploration ship and bring out your fitted mining frigate. Travel to the system, and warp to one of the bookmarks you made for the actual clouds.
    (This will warp you to the very center of the cloud itself which offers some protection from cloaked enemies since the cloud may decloak them.)
  3. Turn on your shield hardener module.
  4. Activate both gas harvesters at once and then click on the gas cloud. This is very important. It is crucial your harvester modules are on the same cycles. This is because the harvesters are on the same 'cycle tick', so each time you 'extract' any amount(s) of gas from the cloud there's only ONE chance for the cloud to explode. Unsynchronized cycles will essentially cause the cloud to explode twice as much.
  5. Huff until your ore hold is full.
  6. Dock up and deposit the gas and repeat until the cloud(s) has been all mined up.
  7. Once both clouds have been harvested, the site itself will despawn and should respawn somewhere in the constellation. This is where you can attempt to find it yourself using your exploration ship again.

Fits

Venture Fits
This venture fit should be cheap and effective.
A good starting point is:
Once you've trained up your skills but still cant fly a Prospect hull, then try this next fit.
(If you're having fitting issues, swap one or both of the Medium Shield Extender II's for the compact variant.)
[Venture, Minimum Skill Duo Nebula]
Type-D Restrained Shield Power Relay

Medium F-S9 Regolith Compact Shield Extender
Medium F-S9 Regolith Compact Shield Extender
Compact EM Shield Hardener

Gas Cloud Harvester I
Gas Cloud Harvester I

Small EM Shield Reinforcer II
Small Thermal Shield Reinforcer II
Small Thermal Shield Reinforcer II
[Venture, T2 Harvesters Duo Nebula]
Shield Power Relay II

Medium Shield Extender II
Medium Shield Extender II
EM Shield Hardener II

Gas Cloud Harvester II
Gas Cloud Harvester II

Small EM Shield Reinforcer II
Small Thermal Shield Reinforcer II
Small Thermal Shield Reinforcer II
Leopard Nebula Fits
This is the Dominix fit used in the audio guide linked below. This is the Nereus fit used in the audio guide linked below.
[Dominix, Leopard Dominix]
EM Armor Hardener II
Thermal Armor Hardener II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Large Armor Repairer II
Large Armor Repairer II
Reactive Armor Hardener

Cap Recharger II
Drone Navigation Computer II
Heavy Capacitor Booster II
Large Cap Battery II
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II

Drone Link Augmentor I
Drone Link Augmentor I

Large Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Large Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Large Nanobot Accelerator I



Warrior II x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
Curator I x5
Imperial Navy Praetor x5

Cap Booster 800 x28
Optimal Range Script x1
Tracking Speed Script x1
[Nereus, Leopard Nereus]
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Damage Control II
Expanded Cargohold II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Medium Shield Extender I
Medium Shield Extender I
Medium Shield Extender I
Medium Shield Extender I
Compact EM Shield Amplifier


Medium Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer I
Medium Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer I
Medium Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer I



Hornet EC-300 x3

Cap Booster 800 x93

Gas Huffing Class Recordings

2018.02.10 Sun-Li Sakamoto Intro to Gas Huffing and why your mother told you not to ~40 Minutes
This is a laid-back impromptu class run by Sun-Li Sakamoto where he answers questions on gas huffing while giving general information about it.
2018.03.25 Sun-Li Sakamoto How to clear the leopard nebula