EVE: Equinox Patch Notes: Sov Upgrades

EVE Online's Equinox expansion, set to launch on 11 June 2024, is the game's fourth full expansion since the return of the content format in November 2022. The patch notes are fairly extensive and dense. I find reading lengthy patch notes rather boring, so I also like to go to other sources for information. For both the Viridian and Havoc expansions I wrote a series of posts based on the patch notes with other information added to hopefully make absorbing all the information less painful. This third post in the series for Equinox will cover sov upgrades.

As with the orbital skyhook, the developers created a nice graphic designed to swiftly impart the basics of the new system.

• Sovereignty Upgrades provide the primary use for the new Colony Resources: Power, Workforce, and Reagents, as Colony Resources are required to online these upgrades.
  
  
• All of the Sov Upgrades BPOs for the Sov Hub in the new Sovereignty mode will be available for purchase on the market on expansion day and can be built ahead of time.
• They will not, however, be able to be installed or functional until the Sov Transition is enabled on 20 June 2024.

As the graphic shows, the sovereignty upgrades fall into one of three types: infrastructure upgrades, PvE upgrades, and mining upgrades.

INFRASTRUCTURE UPGRADES

• Supercapital Construction Facilities - Allows construction of super-capital ships.
  
• Advanced Logistics Network - Allows Ansiblex Jump Gate service module to be put online.
  
• Cynosural Suppression - Allows Tenebrex Cyno Jammer service module to be put online.
  
• Cynosural Navigation - Allows Pharolux Cyno Beacon service module to be put online.

After looking at the requirements for the FLEX structures affected by infrastructure upgrades, I don't believe any new blueprint copies are necessary as they were already requirements for operating the structures.

PVE UPGRADES

• Minor Threat Detection Array 1 - Detects combat anomalies containing hostiles of modest strength.
• Minor Threat Detection Array 2 - Detects combat anomalies containing hostiles of modest strength. This variant has a faster detection capability for new anomalies compared to its base version.
• Minor Threat Detection Array 3 - Detects combat anomalies containing hostiles of modest strength. This variant has a faster detection capability for new anomalies compared to the base and upgraded version.
• Major Threat Detection Array 1 - Detects combat anomalies containing tough hostiles.
• Major Threat Detection Array 2 - Detects combat anomalies containing tough hostiles. This variant has a faster detection capability for new anomalies compared to its base version.
• Major Threat Detection Array 3 - Detects combat anomalies containing tough hostiles. This variant has a faster detection capability for new anomalies compared to the base and upgraded version.

A new type of PvE site was added in Equinox, the Forsaken Sanctum.

A set of new more challenging and rewarding combat anomalies have been added and are exclusively available through the new Major Threat Detection Array upgrades at the Sovereignty Hub. These sites are known as Forsaken Sanctums for the main pirate factions, and Teeming Drone Hordes for the Rogue Drones.

These new sites include larger numbers of higher difficulty NPCs than the existing Sanctum and Drone Horde anomalies, and some of the new NPCs will shoot at drones and fighters more readily than the NPCs in existing nullsec combat anomalies. These sites are especially well suited to be defeated by capsuleers flying battleships and marauders.

New escalation sites can also spawn from combat anomalies. They fall into four categories:

• Pirate-shielded starbase (has the word "starbase" in the site name)
• Pirate capital ship fleet (has the word "capital" in the site name)
• Guaranteed faction spawn (has the phrase "Occupied mine" or "Infested mine" in the name)
• Guaranteed officer spawn (has the phrase "Attack Site" or "Drone Enclave" in the name)

MINING UPGRADES

• Tritanium Prospecting Array 1 - This array locates additional ore resources in a system, prioritizing tritanium-rich asteroids belts.
  
• Isogen Prospecting Array 1 - This array locates additional ore resources in a system, prioritizing isogen-rich asteroids belts.
• Nocxium Prospecting Array 1 - This array locates additional ore resources in a system, prioritizing nocxium-rich asteroids belts.
• Zydrine Prospecting Array 1 - This array locates additional ore resources in a system, prioritizing zydrine-rich asteroids belts.
• Megacyte Prospecting Array 1 - This array locates additional ore resources in a system, prioritizing megacyte-rich asteroids belts.
• Pyerite Prospecting Array 1 - This array locates additional ore resources in a system, prioritizing pyerite-rich asteroids belts.
• Mexallon Prospecting Array 1 - This array locates additional ore resources in a system, prioritizing mexallon-rich asteroids belts.

Back in the New Dawn patch in December 2021 the developers consolidated all of the individual reprocessing skills from 19 down to six. The change was designed to allow the developers to more easily add different types of ore to the game without requiring players to learn new skills or purchase new blueprints for mining crystals. The ability was fully used in Equinox. Here are the new mining anomalies and the minerals found within them.

• Veldspar Deposit - Contains an abundance of Veldspar.
• Mordunium Deposit - Contains a new ore Mordunium that is abundant in Pyerite.
• Kylixium Deposit - Contains a new ore Kylixium that is abundant in Mexallon and contains amounts of Tritanium and Pyerite.
• Griemeer Deposit - Contains a new ore Griemeer that is abundant in Isogen and Tritanium.
• Nocxite Deposit - Contains a new ore Nocxite that is abundant in Nocxium and contains amounts of Tritanium and Pyerite.
• Hezorime Deposit - Contains a new ore Hezorime that is abundant in Zydrine and contains amounts of Tritanium and Isogen.
• Ueganite Deposit - Contains a new ore Ueganite that is abundant in Megacyte and Tritanium.

Finally mining escalations were introduced into the sov upgrade mining sites.

Undiscovered Asteroid Belt Escalation

• Additionally, players completing any of the above asteroid belts have a small chance to get the first ever mining escalation! This site contains a massive amount of all types of Ore.