Halloween Season, 2022
This is another lucrative event. Besides daily login rewards, there are event data sites and combat sites. I ran a number of each. The loot does not seem to vary between high, low and null sec. While my experience with past events is that a lot of the loot value is in skins, and that value is questionable, this event was different. Yes, there were skins, but they were a much smaller percentage of all loot.
The data sites can be failed multiple times. Sometimes they're easy, sometimes not. No particular surprises. Loot varies from a few million to 50+. Their scanning difficulty is always 3. They always contain a single can. If you warp to 0 on the site, you will always drop in about 33 km from the can.
Loot from the combat sites is on the average higher than the data sites. The combat sites do not have to be scanned down. They are readily visible as combat anomalies. They can be challenging. If you have a pass key, you can go thru the secure gate in the first room to the final room any time you're not warp disrupted or scrambled. I never ran one of these combat sites without one of those keys. Those keys will be occasionally found in data sites and as loot from the combat sites.
I used a Gila for all the combat sites. It was dodgy at times.
If you use my fit (shown below), be certain to kill all neuting ships first. The neuting can spell your death. They are always frigates. And since you're using slower moving medium drones, be sure to also use missiles on those particular ships. Your reload time is quite long, so plan accordingly. Often you'll have multiple ships neuting you. I would often put missiles on one and drones on another. By all means, before the boss ship appears, you want to have a full load of missiles.
There were a few times when I went to zero cap when fighting the boss. Keep the faith. Before your cap gets too low, turn off one or both of the multispectrum shield hardeners.
You will be warp disrupted and scrambled almost the entire time you're in any of the rooms, so once you enter, you're in the site till you complete it or are destroyed.
During the entire event, I lost no ships, and lost maybe two drones due to inattention. Micromanagement of your drones is essential. Almost all the time, I used the Caldari Navy Vespas, but occasionally used one Hammerhead II and one Vespa. Vary your missile ammo based on enemy vulnerabilities. When the boss appears, ignore everything else. Burn towards him, and be sure to put both missiles and drones on him. As soon as he is destroyed, any other rats on grid will warp away.
The fit has no prop mod. You do need all the shield EHP you can get. Cycle one or even both of the multispectrum shield hardeners as needed to preserve cap. The smart money would have dropped a mobile tractor unit, as it's darn slow to move between wrecks with this fit.
Approximate cost of this fit as of this writing is 350 million isk.
[Gila, Runner2] Damage Control II Drone Damage Amplifier II Drone Damage Amplifier II Large Shield Extender II Large Shield Extender II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Large Shield Extender II Large Shield Extender II Rapid Light Missile Launcher II Rapid Light Missile Launcher II Rapid Light Missile Launcher II Rapid Light Missile Launcher II Medium Core Defense Field Extender II Medium Core Defense Field Extender II Medium EM Shield Reinforcer II Hammerhead II x3 Caldari Navy Vespa x4 Vespa II x3 Inferno Light Missile x1000 Mjolnir Fury Light Missile x1000 Scourge Fury Light Missile x1000
