EVE: Havoc Patch Notes: Zarzakh And The Fulcrum

EVE Online's Havoc expansion, set to launch on 14 November 2023, is the game's third full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. The patch notes are fairly extensive. I find reading lengthy patch notes rather boring, so I also like to go to other sources for information. The format worked so well for the Viridian expansion I thought I'd try for Havoc as well. The first post in the series will cover Zarzakh and The Fulcrum.

First, some information about the system of Zarzak. Back in September I pulled out some in-game information about the newly discovered system.

Zarzakh is a system cloaked in the dust, gas and assorted other bits of matter that are being drawn towards the black hole known as "Point of No Return" to most of New Eden, and "Duzna Kah" to the Amarr. The location of Zarzakh places it deep in the void of Divinity's Edge, or "Yasna Zakh", and somewhat notably essentially at the center of the New Eden cluster by virtue of the astronomical co-ordinate system used by CONCORD. Given this system was proposed by the Jove in the early days of CONCORD, it is suggestive that the dominating features of Zarzakh are the ancient Jovian gates and the ancient Jovian outpost known as "The Fulcrum". 

Zarzakh's star has been gravitationally captured by a black hole and is slowly orbiting closer and closer to its eventual merger with the mass singularity. This event will take place many years in the future but the effects of orbiting in the relatively near vicinity of a black hole are already being felt in the form of intense and volatile gravitational tidal forces exerted by the singularity. As the star is within the outer edges of the matter accretion disc of the black hole, the instability is further contributed to by the fluctuations in mass density within the cloud. The local system environment here is harsh and unforgiving to say the least.

An earlier dev blog did give a warning about Zarzakh's environment. Not one found in the patch notes.

Zarzakh itself has a completely different atmosphere to the rest of New Eden. It represents brand new space for capsuleers to explore, including a totally unique environment that is as ancient and advanced as many will come to expect from anything touched by the Jove Empire. It has limited visibility and a lot of it has not yet been discovered. Within the system is an interstellar shipcaster construction site, and this location, plus The Fulcrum, and the four stargates are surrounded by safe zones that do not damage any ships. However, venturing outside of those safe zones will immediately come at a price, as Zarzakh’s hostile environment begins to damage a ship’s hull at an increasing pace.

Going forward, the in-game narrative will develop to allow capsuleers to participate in unraveling more of Zarzakh’s secrets. Linking Turnur, Alsavoinon, Venal, and Curse through Zarzakh may also be significant in terms tactical movements within New Eden in the future.

And finally, we get to the actual patch notes.

Thanks in part to the efforts of Loyalist Capsuleers, The Deathless has managed to unlock more of Zarzakh’s potential. The Fulcrum has expanded services from being powered up through the activation of the Stellar Harvester built into the station, and the Deathless Shipcaster is now also fully functional.

"The Fulcrum is now open to anyone who is not enlisted with an Empire Militia, which have been declared as enemies of the Deathless and are unable to dock." Looks like CCP has addressed the age-old complaint of preventing the opposing faction from docking up in stations your militia controls.

• The Fulcrum features a new Deathless hangar environment.
  
  
• Players who are enlisted for the Angel Cartel will get access to a special Angel Cartel Hangar environment, while players who are enlisted for the Guristas will get access to a special Guristas Hangar environment.
  
  
• Players that have an active Deathless Retribution timer are unable to dock regardless of their allegiance.

The Fulcrum will allow unaligned (Neutral) players to use most of the facilities in the station, including: repair, fitting, market, insurance and industry facilities. Some additional facilities and powerful industry bonuses are available exclusively to players who are enlisted with the Angel Cartel or Guristas Pirates.

• The station Industry facilities include full manufacturing, research, copying and invention capabilities.
  
  
• The Fulcrum has a 6% Material Efficiency bonus and a 70% Time Efficiency Bonus when manufacturing any sub-capital Angel Cartel or Guristas Pirate ship. These ME and TE bonuses are available to both pirate enlisted and neutral players.
  
  
• Players who are enlisted with the Angel Cartel or Guristas Pirates will enjoy an additional bonus that reduces the industry job SCC surcharge by 90%
  
  
• The Jump Clone bay can only be used by players enlisted with the Angel Cartel and the Guristas Pirates.
  
  
• The Offices present in the Fulcrum can only be rented by corporations or alliances which are enlisted with the Angel Cartel or the Guristas Pirates.

The Deathless Shipcaster is now fully functional. Shipcasters were introduced into EVE in the Uprising expansion.

The interstellar shipcaster is a one-way rapid deployment mechanism designed to move capsuleers from their faction's HQ star system closer to the FW warzone. This system is exclusive to FW and serves to help players access FW systems more easily, while also creating new opportunities for both combat pilots and industrialists alike.

• The Deathless Shipcaster will alternate between the Forward Operating Base (FOB) system in active Insurgencies, with a 60s charging phase, then a 60s active phase.
  
  
• Only Angel Cartel aligned players can jump to the Angel FOB.
  
  
• Only Guristas Pirates aligned players can jump to the Guristas FOB.
  
  
• On arriving at the FOB, players will get tethering and can dock at the FOB.

The patch notes listed three updates needed due to the developers making the system available at Fanfest.

• Zarzakh has now been removed from the autopilot blacklist.
  
  
• Zarzakh has been added to the default avoidance list, note, if a player has a custom avoidance list, Zarzakh will not be added to it.
  
  
• Bombs and Interdictor Bubbles can now be used in Zarzakh.

For those who reached the end of the post, here is the Havoc trailer featuring Zarzakh and The Fulcrum.