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 fifth post in the series for Equinox will cover the new.
The patch notes on ship specifications don't really fit well with the format of a blog. What I will do in this post is include descriptions of the ships from the Upwell ship dev blog which aren't in the patch notes along with what I consider the most important statistics. Since my two flown ship classes this year are blockade runners and deep space transports, hopefully my judgement is sound. The full specifications are found in the patch notes.
Before going into the individual ships, the developers created tech 1 and tech 2 resist profiles for the ships. The biggest point of vulnerability across both tech 1 and tech 2 ships is electromagnetic damage.
THE SQUALL – TECH 1 HAULER
Starting with the Squall, this ship serves as an affordable entry-level hauler, ideal for transporting infrastructure and reagents. Priced slightly above a Tech I cruiser hull, the Squall offers comparable cargo capacity, hit points, and defensive capabilities, enabling it to fend off smaller aggressors or participate effectively in larger fleet operations, such as skyhook raids. It has Upwell Hauler skill bonuses that will boost infrastructure hold capacity and missile damage, and a role bonus that dramatically reduces effective distance traveled for jump fatigue. In terms of slots, the Squall has a high/medium/low layout of 4/5/3, capable of fitting three launchers and three rigs.
Slot layout: 4 high slots, 5 mid-slots, 3 low slots, 3 rig slots
Weapons: 3 launchers, 0 turrents
Base Defense
- Tech 1 Upwell Ship Resist Profile
- Shield HP: 2000
- Armor HP: 500
- Hull HP: 1000
Base Cargo Capacity
- Cargo Capacity - 3000 m3
- Infrastructure Hold Capacity - 45,000 m3
Bonuses
Upwell Hauler:
- 10% bonus to ship infrastructure hold capacity
- 20% bonus to missile damage
Role bonus:
- 90% reduction to effective distance traveled for jump fatigue
- Can link to Orbital Skyhook reagent silos bypassing the normal ship restrictions
THE DELUGE – BLOCKADE RUNNER
The Deluge, a Tech II variation of the Squall, trades some cargo capacity and missile firepower for enhanced stealth capabilities, including the use of a covert ops cloaking device. Its improved mobility and warp speed make it the perfect choice for maintaining your infrastructure on the fringes of your space or operating behind enemy lines. The Deluge has similar Upwell Hauler skill bonuses to the Squall, boosting infrastructure hold capacity and missile damage, and also boasts Transport Ship skill bonuses to warp speed and warp acceleration, as well as a reduction in cloaking device CPU requirements. In addition, it has role bonuses to reduce effective distance traveled for jump fatigue, allowing the fitting of covert ops cloaking devices and a covert cynosural field generator, immunity to all cargo scanners, and a cloak reactivation delay reduction. The Deluge has a 4/4/2 slot layout, capable of fitting three launchers and two rigs.
Slot layout: 4 high slots, 4 mid-slots, 2 low slots, 2 rig slots
Weapons: 3 launchers, 0 turrents
Base Defense
- Tech 2 Upwell Ship Resist Profile
- Shield HP: 3000
- Armor HP: 750
- Hull HP: 1500
Base Cargo Capacity
- Cargo Capacity - 4000 m3
- Infrastructure Hold Capacity - 30,000 m3
Bonuses
Upwell Hauler:
- 10% bonus to ship infrastructure hold capacity
- 15% bonus to missile damage
- 5% bonus to warp speed and warp acceleration
- 20% reduction in Cloaking Devices CPU requirement
Role bonus:
- 90% reduction to effective distance traveled for jump fatigue
- Can fit Covert Ops Cloaking Device and Covert Cynosural Field Generator
- Cloak reactivation delay reduced to 5 seconds
- Immune to all Cargo Scanners
- Can link to Orbital Skyhook reagent silos bypassing the normal ship restriction
THE TORRENT – DEEP SPACE TRANSPORT
Its big brother, the Torrent, is another Tech II variation of the Squall. It sacrifices some agility and speed for increased hit points, a larger infrastructure hold, more firepower, a fleet hangar, and substantial bonuses to overheating defensive and propulsion modules, as well as energy neutralizers. This ship is ideal for operations in high-threat environments where both capacity and survivability are paramount. The Torrent has Upwell Hauler and Transport Ship skill bonuses that boost ship infrastructure hold capacity and missile damage, as well as fleet hangar capacity and shield resistances. Its role bonuses add to the ship’s warp core strength, double the benefits of overheating several modules, as well as reducing the effective distance traveled for jump fatigue. The Torrent has a slot layout of 4/6/3 and is capable of fitting three launchers and two rigs.
Slot layout: 4 high slots, 6 mid-slots, 2 low slots, 2 rig slots
Weapons: 3 launchers, 0 turrents
Base Defense
- Tech 2 Upwell Ship Resist Profile
- Shield HP: 6000
- Armor HP: 1500
- Hull HP: 3000
Base Cargo Capacity
- Cargo Capacity - 3000 m3
- Infrastructure Hold Capacity - 60,000 m3
- Fleet Hangar - 30,000 m3
Bonuses
Upwell Hauler:
- 10% bonus to ship infrastructure hold capacity
- 25% bonus to missile damage
- 5% bonus to fleet hangar capacity
- 4% bonus to all shield resistances
Role bonus:
- 2.0 + bonus to ship warp core strength
- 100 % bonus to the benefits of overheating Afterburners, Microwarpdrives, Local Repair Modules, Resistance Modules, Nosferatu Modules and Energy Neutralizer Modules
- 90% reduction to effective distance traveled for jump fatigue
- Can link to Orbital Skyhook reagent silos bypassing the normal ship restrictions
THE AVALANCHE – A NEW FREIGHTER
The pinnacle of this new fleet is the Avalanche, an immense freighter that not only carries a vast amount of resources but is also the first freighter in EVE Online to feature high-power slots, with enough missile firepower to match most battleships. Unique among freighters, the Avalanche can equip capital shield flex hardeners and benefits from an enhanced bonus to auto-targeting missiles, making it a formidable presence in any logistic or combat scenario. It boasts Upwell Freighter skill bonuses to ship infrastructure hold capacity, missile damage, and auto-targeting missile damage, and role bonuses that dramatically reduce effective distance traveled for jump fatigue as well as capital flex shield hardener capacitor activation cost and powergrid requirements. In terms of slots, the Avalanche has a high/medium/low layout of 6/3/3, and a capacity for six launchers.
Slot layout: 6 high slots, 6 mid-slots, 3 low slots, 0 rig slots
Weapons: 6 launchers, 0 turrents
Base Defense
- Tech 1 Upwell Ship Resist Profile
- Shield HP: 40,000
- Armor HP: 20,000
- Hull HP: 80,000
Base Cargo Capacity
- Cargo Capacity - 205,000 m3
- Infrastructure Hold Capacity - 2,000,000 m3
Bonuses
Upwell Freighter:
- 10% bonus to ship infrastructure hold capacity
- 10% bonus to Missile Damage
- 20% bonus to auto-targeting missile damage
Role bonuses:
- 10 % bonus to kinetic and thermal missile damage
- 90% reduction to effective distance traveled for jump fatigue.
- 90% reduction in Capital Flex Shield Hardener capacitor activation cost and powergrid requirements
- Unable to use cloaking modules
- Can link to Orbital Skyhook reagent silos bypassing the normal ship restrictions
I saw some consternation about Upwell ships becoming to go-to ship for hauling in high security space. But the majority of the cargo carrying ability is tied up in the Infrastructure Hold.
Infrastructure Hold
The Infrastructure hold is a brand-new type of specialized cargo hangar which is capable of carrying a large number of infrastructure related items. This includes upwell related structures such as citadels and flex structures, structure modules, service modules, fuel related items, sovereignty infrastructure, sovereignty upgrades, reagents, moon materials, planetary commodities and more.
Finally, with new ships comes new skills. The addition of the Upwell line of haulers required the introduction of three.
Skill Requirements
We are adding 3 new skills related to the Upwell Hauling ships, this includes one skill for flying the medium sized hauler and the tech 2 variations, one skill for the Upwell Freighter, and an additional skill for inventing and building the Tech II Variations.
- Upwell Haulers [x4]: 2,000,000 ISK at all Upwell Consortium member corporation stations.
- Upwell Freighters [x10]: 80,000,000 ISK at all Upwell Consortium member corporation stations.
- Upwell Starship Engineering [x5]: 10,000,000 ISK and 15,000 LP at Factional Warfare Empire Militia LP Stores.
- Upwell Haulers is required to fly the Squall Tech 1 Hauler at level 1 and needs to be trained to level 5 in order to fly the Deluge and Torrent Tech II Transport Ships.
- Upwell Freighters is required to fly the Avalanche Freighter.
- Upwell Starship Engineering is required to run an invention job on a Squall blueprint copy and needed to manufacture tech II blueprint copies of the Deluge and Torrent Transport Ships.
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