Abyssal Deadspace
The Abyss is about actively engaging with PVE, and reaping substantial rewards for that effort. We, and EVE generally, lack any centralized, updated, thorough guide on what to fly, how to fly, and what you might encounter while doing PVE in THE ABYSS. The goal of this guide is be useful and accessible, whether you're a cute new bee in an Alpha clone, or a vicious bittervet with more ISK than sense. Despite how scary it may sound, the abyss can be a fun and engaging place to spend space pixel time.
Below are some reference links to other resources for flying in the Abyss:
- This is a basic EVE tracker that can be very useful in tracking your progress through the Abyss. It collects data on everyone else doing abyssal runs so you can see what is popular and what isn't in terms of ships and fits. It does not give you much in the way of context so be wary as using it as your only source of information, lest you want lose 144 million ISK Worms in T1 Dark sites.
- https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Abyssal_Deadspace This is obviously someone in EVE Uni's dissertation on the Abyss but like a lot of information in EVE Uni while it is great at describing the ins and outs of what something is, it falls short in giving solutions on how to actually do it. Still, it's a wealth of information so definitely give it a read.
WHAT IS ABYSSAL DEADSPACE
Abyssal deadspace is (mostly) a series of 3 deadspace rooms in a chain connect by TRANSFER CONDUITs (basically an acceleration gate with a triangle RP name). You can enter abyssal deadspace by using a tradeable item carried in your cargo hold, called an abyssal filament.
Entering abyssal deadspace via filament requires that you are currently in a fleet, and that you use the right number of filaments for the ships you plan on bringing. The current breakdown is this:
- 1 filament = 1 cruiser sized hull (no T3Cs)
- 2 filaments = 1-2 destroyer sized hulls (you CAN use T3Ds)
- 3 filaments = 1-3 frigate sized hulls
The number of filaments is based on hull type. You cannot mix and match, and you have to use the right number of filaments, even if you're only bringing in 1 frigate. If you are in a frigate or a destroyer and are going solo, you also need to be in a fleet and bring the correct number of filaments for whatever type of portal you are opening. So, if you are running a solo Kestrel, you need to form a fleet for yourself (don't even put an advert up just open the fleet window and hit "form fleet"). Next, you'll need to make sure you have the correct amount abyssal filaments for whatever type of abyss you're running, so if you're running a Calm Dark (Recommended most for newbie Kestrel runners) you'll need 3 filaments of Calm Dark, you'll need to be in fleet, and you also need to be away from structures and somewhere in space. General advice is to make a safe in the system you are using and run it there. If you are running them in lowsec or nullsec, be warned, your gateway can show up for people hunting juicy ships so take that into consideration. Most abyssal runners use an alt in Highsec for this reason.
Abyssal filaments come in 7 tiers, numbering from 0-6. This corresponds to the difficulty of the rats spawned in each room, and the average value of loot you will fail to extract when you die to the timer.
- Tier 0 - Tranquil
- Tier 1 - Calm
- Tier 2 - Agitated
- Tier 3 - Fierce
- Tier 4 - Raging
- Tier 5 - Chaotic
- Tier 6 - Cataclysmic
A large part of abyssal deadspace encounters is how random they are - each room is chosen from 12 different seeds of 7 faction rats (see: below), and populated by a semi-random distribution of rats. Each room also has 1 bioadaptive cache (loot box), 0-3 resource caches (many players rightfully ignore these), 0-2 triglavian towers, and 1 TRANSFER or ORIGIN CONDUIT. These are gates to the next rooms in the chain, or back to the spot where you filamented in (respectively).
The structures cannot be destroyed, and the towers can either help you or fuck you over because that's how the abyss do.
NB: the entry point spawned by an abyssal filament doesn't despawn. This means that people can, and fucking will, scan down where you entered the abyss and gank your dumb ass when you extract. https://zkillboard.com/kill/88439908/
ABYSSAL WEATHER, EFFECTS, and TOWERS
By now you’ve probably noticed that there are several different flavors of abyssal deadspace filament. These correspond to the weather and effects present in the rooms you will encounter. Each type of filament offers one penalty, and one bonus. The bonuses are always the same, but the penalties range from 30%-50% in T0-T3 filaments to 50%-70% in T4-T6 filaments. The weather and effects apply to ALL SHIPS AND DRONES inside the deadspace pocket. That means that your new EM hole is also a new EM hole for that fucking triangle burning through your structure.
Weather
The forecast is not sunny.
Electrical: ELECTRICAL: 30-70% penalty to EM resist, 50% bonus to capacitor recharge
By far the most costly type of filament, and the easiest to run due do the relative prevalence of active-tanking (read: shield boosters and armor repairers) in abyssal deadspace. electricals were insanely profitable to run but like everything else that becomes popular, they've also become the most expensive to buy on the market. Electricals are fun to run because you can do things which are normally impossible, but people have a very hard time transitioning from electricals to anything else for exactly that reason. They are good way to expose yourself to abyssal deadspace but the cost of the filaments makes them the least profitable to run.
EXOTIC: 30%-70% penalty to KINETIC resist, 50% bonus to scan resolution.
Exotics have a pretty good loot table and the penalty to KINETIC resist makes them generally not very intimidating, as most of the dangerous rats inside abyssal deadspace will use OMNI, EM, or THERM/EXP damage (im looking at you, Pythagoras). The scan resolution bonus is stupid and bad because :ccp:, but at least the guys shooting you aren't benefitting from it either. Exotics are also one of only two types of filament which can consistently be run at high tier with a passive shield tank.
DARK: penalty to TURRET OPTIMAL and FALLOFF RANGES, 50% bonus to maximum velocity---
Dark filaments are in a very weird spot. The penalties mean that bringing any drone or turret based ship into one is almost a guaranteed loss mail, but the velocity bonus also hurts missile DPS. That being said, they are hands-down the most beautiful thing in this game, and the fucking art department deserves a god damn medal for how good they look.
These are almost exclusively run by frigates and jackdaws (do not bring a fucking T1 destroyer into the abyss unless you are trying to be stupid), and with some fairly good results at higher levels (only a 30% loss rate, for a trio of HAWK/HAWK/NEMESIS which is usually paid for by your second loot cache).
Running these can be suicide if you get a spawn of Sansha rats, as they apparently don't care about optimal range or tracking and the speed makes these guys even harder to hit than normal. Leave these alone, generally, unless you're running low-tiers in a missile ship or know what you're doing.
FIRESTORM: penalty to THERMAL resist, 50% bonus to armor HP
Firestorm filaments are great for active tanked ships relying on armor. The most commonly used ships in these filaments are triaglavian assault frigates, and the dreaded ikitursa - both of which fit purely for resists and active tanking, and enjoy the added bonus in lieu of fitting a buffer which would kill their impressive speed and extremely low sig radius. It helps that they also put out shitloads of thermal damage.
Unfortunately this also makes every triglavian rooms suck that much harder, as the rats thoroughly enjoy their added 50% HP and shit in your brand new THERMAL resist hole. (Don’t forget most trigs remote rep each other at T4 and above). These filaments require a little more skill to fly (read: NEUTS WILL FUCKING KILL YOU VERY VERY QUICKLY), and a little more foresight to plan for (I'M REALLY NOT JOKING YOU WILL FUCKING DIE TO NEUTS), but they are good fun and their loot table is very strong in the mutaplasmid department, even at low levels (WHERE THE RATS STILL HAVE NEUTS).
GAMMA: penalty to EXPLOSIVE resist, 50% bonus to shield HP
Like firestorms, gamma filaments have a nice way of curbing your enthusiasm for HP bonuses once you realize that drifter battleship targeting you is also enjoying 50% more shield.
If you have the dps skills for it, however, gammas are an amazingly reliable source of ISK. they have a reasonably good loot table, but being able to get a shield Gila to 500 hp/s of passive regen with no dependence on capacitor for anything but your AB is crazy good. Before moving up tiers in gamma filaments, always do a few test runs on singularity (see: below), because your DPS output matters way more in certain rooms (Karen, Sanshas, and Concord/Upwell to name a few).
For lower tiers where you're not racing against the clock, gammas are an amazing way to learn the rooms and build up your niche fitting skills, and probably the most forgiving of the low tier rooms outside of electricals (provided you can shoot into the explosive resist hole of the rats). This is where you take your stabber, if you're into that sort of thing.
Abyssal Towers
There are two types of abyssal towers that may spawn in each room, adding AOE effects to ships within their radius (varying from 15-40km). These tend to spawn more frequently at higher tier. Knowing how react and take advantage of them is part of being "good" at the abyss.
DEVIANT AUTOMATA SUPPRESSOR
This fucker shoots out tracer shells in every direction and is immediately recognizable. In addition to looking like the battle of Britain, this thing will fuck up any drones that get near it, including both drone rats and the drones you're using to kill those drone rats. The AOE damage gets more potent the closer you get to the tower, and I’ve taken advantage of this fact many times to clear entire rogue drone rooms without firing on anything but the cache.
MULTIBODY TRACKING PYLON
Nice little AOE buff of +60%-80% to turret tracking for all ships in a radius around it. Could be good for you, could be your worst nightmare. Depends on what room you're in. generally you can avoid these to be on the safe side.
Clouds
Sometimes in the abyss you will notice poorly render patches of nebula which you can fly through. This is usually bad for you, and slightly less bad for the rats. Keep your eyes peeled, and if you're running dark filaments good luck because they all look the same shade of gray.
Clouds come in 3 flavors...
WHITE: 300% speed boost - aka holy shit i hit my MWD and then i exploded because i got launched from the room at 15km/s. hitting one of these with an MWD on will kill frigates, and letting the rats hit one is a recipe for a BAD time as you will have to wait for them to get back into optimal range, or go chase them. also fucks up your tracking p badly.
ORANGE: -40% shield boost duration, -40% shield boost effectiveness - essentially you don't lose any potential HP/S, but it does turn your boosters into hungry hungry hippos who will drain your cap faster than my ex drained my bank account.
BLUE: 3x multiplier to sig radius - this one will get your drones one-shot by a lot of abyss rats. but it also makes small rats much easier to hit. is it worth it? idk fuck around and find out.
CHOOSING A SHIP, A TIER, AND AN ENVIRONMENT
So somehow you've read this far and decided that this might be the place for you. You’re into the idea of making 300M+ per hour, and you love a good challenge! Because really, how hard can something made by half-baked Icelanders be?
The first thing you need to do before setting foot into the abyss is read this guide - but since you're currently doing that we can move on to the second thing. Every activity in EVE is an investment of your current pool of ISK, and nothing takes that to the extreme like the abyss - but the barrier for entry is incredibly low (unlike literally everything else in this shit game). alpha clones can and do run abyss sites to pay for their omega subscriptions, and then work their way up as they learn skills like target priority, fitting, and the dreaded manual piloting.
For ease of access, I have broken this down into three tiers of players who typically want to get into the abyss:
- I'M POOR AND I DONT KNOW HOW TO FLY (<500m ISK, <10m SP)
- I'M NOT ~POOR~ BUT I DONT KNOW HOW TO FLY (<1b ISK, <25m SP)
- IM SPACE RICH AND I KNOW HOW TO FLY (2-3b ISK, All Cruisers V, Resistance IV-V)
Cheap Forgiving Ships
Players in this situation actually have a lot of options. All environments can be run at low SP if you use recommended fittings and stick to T0-T3 filaments. These players can expect to invest as little as 15m ISK or as much as 400m ISK in a ship and can earn as much as 120m ISK/hr (although they will generally earn lower than that without better skills).
Your hard and fast rules are as follows: always start by running T0-T1 filaments of the type you want to learn first. Plenty of racial frigates can be used safely and effectively, but my personal preference is to run DARK sites in a KESTREL to start. It is also totally possible to run ELECTRICAL sites in a PUNISHER. However there are dozens of low tier fits that work, and many are included in the fitting sections below.
Unfortunately the TRISTAN seems to underperform, not really having enough slots to fit the needed prop mods and an appropriate tank in low tier abyssal deadspace, although I have seen it used to interesting effect (read: dead after 3 runs).
Try to make sure your ship and filament choices complement each other. Don’t take ships with bonuses to armor into Gamma filaments. Don't take shield tank ships into Firestorms, etc.
After you feel comfortable with the type of filament you have chosen and mostly know how to fly in it, you can look into flying cheap T1 and Faction cruisers in T3 and sometimes even T4. These ships will set you back a few hundred million isk, but cheap GILAs (<400m ISK) can run T4 gammas and electricals extremely efficiently.
This is also the time to play with your favorite cruisers (preferably with at least Tech 2 tanks) in the abyss and see how they perform. Most ships aren't great in the abyss, but some of the ships that people swear by nowadays were hazed just a few months ago because no one had figured out a working fit for them (WANNA MAKE MONEY FLYING A SACRILEGE?)
Caveat: do not use T1 destroyers. they are very difficult to fit a proper tank to and remain cap stable, they have good on-paper dps but for various reasons their application can suffer, and the reward increase is markedly less than just running a shitfit T1 cruiser in the same tier filament. If you have a dumb space friend you want to run sites with, either use 2 frigates or 2 T3Ds - but play around on Sisi first!
Expensive, but Forgiving Ships
We hope you like GILAs. In fact, we hope you looooooooove GILAs. Because that's what you're flying for the rest of forever.
Without HAC V there’s no point in bringing out the HACs, especially not the GSF CERBERUS which is, and I cannot stress this enough, NOT A PVE SHIP. DONT BRING DOCTRINE SHIPS YOU CAN BARELY FLY INTO THE ABYSS BECAUSE IT’S ALL YOU HAVE. WHAT THE FUCK.!?!.
If you have to mess around with HACs then try playing with a DEIMOS on Sisi. They are actually pretty good, if you have good gunnery skills and a solid idea of how to brawl without melting.
At this level you have a little cushion of money to spend on using (read: losing) ships in the abyss and playing with the environment. if you're not sure if you have the skills or not, then this is also a good time to look at assault frigates, as you will typically have enough of the associated weapons skills for gunnery or missiles to make them really shine. If you have multiple accounts, T4s are extremely entertaining to fly in 2-3 frigates (I recommend 2 Retributions and 1 Deacon in electricals if you want to experiment with multi-boxing).
Worms and other faction frigates are also viable at this level, but if you're spending the money for a faction ship you should really be using GILAs.
Without spending more than 1b ISK on a ship, you're going to max out running almost every type of T4 (see: fittings), but if you're just starting out PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD RUN T3s FIRST.
The GILA is the go to ship for abyssal deadspace and for a good reason, missiles and drones really shine here. And for less than 500M-1B ISK this is going to be the best ship you can fly. Your fitting should always reflect the filament type you're playing in, and I will have fits posted for the Gila for T4-T5 in every filament type below over the coming days. You absolutely can fly <1b ISK GILAs in T5s and win, but it requires the kind of skills you can't inject.
We cannot recommend exotics enough, as this is also when filaments start getting really expensive. Did you really just pull 40M ISK from that T4 Electrical when it cost you 25M ISK for the filament? No, you didn’t. You brought in a whopping 15M ISK and now some pencil neck day trader is laughing at you for being a dummy. Filament prices need to be considered when you choose what type of filament to run. This is extremely important or you WILL fuck yourself over money-wise.
Expensive, Unforgiving Big Boy Ships
At this level you’re basically evaluating RISK vs REWARD. How long until your ship makes back the money it cost you, and how equipped is it to deal with EVERY POSSIBLE COMBINATION of rooms from the 36 chambers? Think you can't get 3 Karens in a row? You will. Think you won’t get back to back Angel rooms after jumping with 1/4 capacitor from a neuting sleeper room? You will. The purpose of blinging your ships in the abyss is to take that risk and drag it down as close to zero as possible.
At this level people bring the HACs back out. Sacrileges, Ishtars, Ikitursas, Deimos, super blingy GILAs (these poor bastards hit a DPS ceiling and so your bling needs to be on both DPS mods, implants, AND a tank), and even Stormbringers make their home here. You will want deadspace drip. You will want faction drip. That damage mod better be abyssal. You will be doing unspeakable things for a set of mid-grade crystals.
The cost of T5 electricals is still insane, and so your profits will mean that if you can’t run T6s then you're not as effective as doing T5 gammas or exotics. KEEP THIS IN MIND. Everything I’ve said for the space poors goes double for you! Watch those margins, be mindful of your builds, TEST FLY EVERYTHING. Read shitty threads by idiots who lost 5b ISK because OH SHIT THAT SPAWN HAS 5 NEUTING CRUISERS. Plan accordingly, and one day you'll be doing this shit for the challenge and not the isk.
