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?
- The gas harvesting skillbook represents a significant initial cost, with the skillbook going for roughly 30 million isk. The dojo does have this but requires a 30 million isk donation.
- Gas huffing in Catch has one major risk not present for wormhole gas, the gas has a chance to explode on each attempt at harvesting the cloud. This means your fit must differ from a wormhole gas fit (fits below) and you may find it difficult to huff in groups.
- The loss of ventures should be expected as you go about your huffing adventures. Luckily they are cheap, so don't get too attached!
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.
| 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.
| 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.
|
Prerequisites
Before you can gas huff you'll need to have some prerequisites as well as some basic game mechanics under your belt.
- An exploration ship. Ship fits here.
- Familiarity with exploration mechanics by using the probe scanning window and probe scanner. Click for more info.
- Being able to use external site mapping tools such as Pathfinder. Click for more info.
- You will need an Overview tab with gas clouds on it. The default eve Mining tab has it as well as the Z-S mining tab. More info here.
- Finally, a sense of how to be safe in nullsec. As a helpless mining ship you stand as an easy target so be sure to know how to use d-scan and stay alive.
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
- Warp to the gas site and bookmark each cloud. (Make sure you have Gas clouds in your overview/brackets)
- 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.) - Turn on your shield hardener module.
- 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.
- Huff until your ore hold is full.
- Dock up and deposit the gas and repeat until the cloud(s) has been all mined up.
- 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 |