EVE Online: Revenant Patch Notes - Breacher Launch Pods

EVE Online's Revenant expansion, set to launch on 12 November 2024, is the game's fifth 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. The format of the official patch notes for Revenant is a little unusual as I don't see as many bullet points as in previous expansions. Still, I'll try to add something to the patch notes.

This third post will cover the new weapons system unique to the Deathless: Breacher Launch Pods. Until the patch notes hit the internet on Friday, not much was known of the weapon apart from "a fearsome tool that sends shriker clones to wreak havoc on enemy ships, tearing through shields, armor, and hull from the inside." We now know the developers have now added damage over time (DoT) to New Eden. I guess someone in Reykjavik wants to hear shouts of "More DoTs! More DoTs" over fleet comms.

Players will acquire the Breacher Launch Pods from the same places they obtain Deathless ships.

Much like the Deathless Ships, blueprint copies for Breacher Pod Launchers and SCARAB breacher pod ammo can be obtained by trading Atavums, found from exploration, or Encrypted Infomorphs, generated from Mercenary Dens, in Zarzakh.

But what exactly are Breacher Launch Pods? The patch notes went into a long exposition on the subject.

Revenant brings an exciting brand-new weapon system and the first instance of a damage over time effect in EVE Online! Breacher Pod Launchers come in two sizes, small and medium, and can only be fitted on the new deathless ships - the Tholos and Cenotaph. Breacher Pod Launchers do not consume a launcher or turret hardpoint, and fire SCARAB breacher pods at their targets. If a breacher pod hits a ship, then it’ll apply a damage over time effect. The Scarab Breacher pods are similar to missiles, they will not affect their target unless they actually reach and hit, and can be killed with smartbombs before they arrive. Breacher Pods can only be used on player ships and NPCs, they cannot be used against targets such as capsules, structures, stargates etc.

The damage over time effect from breacher pods does not use signature radius or tracking like other weapon systems in the game, instead, they apply damage every second based on the targets total hitpoints (raw Shield, Armor and Hull HP combined) or a flat damage cap number, whichever one of those two is lower. This means that a ship with incredibly high hitpoints like a Titan will always take the flat damage cap, but a ship with low hitpoints like a Corvette would always take the % HP damage instead.

The damage over time effect lasts between 50 and 75 seconds depending on the users skill level, and once hit, it will not clear until a player leaves the solarsystem or docks up. It can continue doing damage while the player is in warp or while the player is tethered. The damage over time effect also completely ignores resistances, which means the effect will apply full damage to ships which have used modules like the Assault Damage Control and the Emergency damage Control. It also can apply damage to Rorquals and ships under the effect of the PANIC module.

A player ship can only be affected by one damage over time effect at once. Getting hit with additional breacher pods will just add another effect which will take over when the previous one expires. Much like Command Bursts, if two players shoot the same target with breacher pods, then the player who has the strongest breacher pod effect will deal damage to the target, and the other one will remain inert unless the stronger effect expires.

Breacher pods are the ammunition and the pod launchers are the weapons systems. The pod launchers apparently are not classified as launchers, meaning players can theoretically have as many fitted as they have high slots. Below are the stats for both weapons and ammo.

Small Breacher Pod Launcher

• Rate of Fire: 24 seconds (12 seconds with max skills)

Medium Breacher Pod Launcher

• Rate of Fire: 20 seconds (10 seconds with max skills)

SCARAB Breacher Pod S

• Max Range: 4km (6km with max skills)
• HP Damage per second: 0.60% (0.75% with max skills)
• Maximum Damage per second: 160 (200 with max skills)

SCARAB Breacher Pod M

• Max Range: 8km (12km with max skills)
• HP Damage per second: 0.60% (1% with max skills)
• Maximum Damage per second: 800 (1000 with max skills)

The patch notes provided an example that might come in handy when first trying to understand the capabilities of the new weapons system.

It should be noted that while only one target can take damage from a damage over time effect at any time, you can place several damage over time effects on different player ships concurrently. For example, the Medium Breacher Pod Launcher has a rate of fire of 10 seconds with max skills, and DoTs that it applies will last 75 seconds with max skills, this means that a Cenotaph using the Breacher Pod Launcher could potentially have 7 DoTs applied to 7 different ships at once.

The Breacher Pod Launcher apparently is the feature introducing the most new skill books to EVE Online. These skills are also obtained by trading in Zarzakh. While the cost of the books is unknown, we know other details of the five new skills.

• Breacher Pod Launcher Operation - Operation of breacher pod launchers. +5% to the maximum percentage of target HP damaged per second per skill level. 3x training time multiplier.
  
  
• Breacher Pod Clone Efficacity - Specialist combat training of Breacher Pod clones. +5% to the maximum damage per second cap per skill level. 5x training time multiplier.
  
  
• Breacher Pod Projection - Specialist training in the operation of Breacher Pod Launchers. +10% to Breacher Pod maximum velocity per skill level. 5x training time multiplier.
  
  
• Breacher Pod Rapid Firing - Specialist training in the preparation of Breacher Pods. -10% to Breacher Pod Launcher cycle time per skill level. 5x training time multiplier.
  
  
• Breacher Pod Clone Longevity - Specialist research on extending the short lifespans of Breacher Pod clones. +10% to damage effect duration per skill level. 7x training time multiplier.