Explaining The Crimson Harvest - Patch Notes and Dev Blog

Today is the beginning of the Crimson Harvest annual event in EVE Online. Normally I would try to combine the latest dev blog and the patch notes into something both useful and informative. But since both s dropped this morning and work is busy at the beginning of fiscal quarters. So I figured I'd turn to the Unofficial Official AI Sponsor of Fenris Creations, Google DeepSpace, to mash up the two.

I don't think Gemini did a bad job. So what I am going to do is be a little selfish. I'm in the middle of a big grind in Final Fantasy XIV but I still want to participate in the Crimson Harvest. I'll include this year's trailer, which turns out to be the latest episode of The Pulse. Then I'll finish with the event information. Since the event is running for 4 weeks (6 October thru 3 November) I'll use this article as a reference instead of trying to search through all the Gemini chats.

1. Crimson Harvest: The Bloodgates Are Open (Oct 6 – Nov 3)

The Crimson Harvest event is now live, centering around an escalating three-way war: Blood Raiders are invading Pochven through spatial rifts in pursuit of Triglavian blood, while the Order of St. Tetrimon and native Triglavian forces fight to halt their expansion.

Long-Term Stakes & Story Consequences

• If Blood Raiders Win: They will establish a permanent foothold and continued presence inside Pochven.
  
  
• If Order of St. Tetrimon Wins: Triglavian minor victory status will be officially cleared from contested systems in Amarr space.
  
  

Allegiance, Standings & Faction SKINs

Capsuleers choose their allegiance in the Agency, earning points along their faction's seasonal track:

• Blood Raiders: Grants Blood Raider Crimson Mark SKINs for Triglavian hulls (Damavik, Vedmak, Drekavac, Leshak).
  
  
• Order of St. Tetrimon: Grants Tetrimon Crimson Mark SKINs for Triglavian hulls (Nergal, Kikimora, Ikitursa, Leshak).
  
  
• Standings Rules Clarified:
  
  
  • Defeating Triglavian NPCs inside Criterion of Fitness sites does not harm Triglavian Collective or EDENCOM standings.
    
    
  • In standard combat complexes, defeating rift Triglavians incurs no standing loss, and destroying Drifter/Rogue Drone escalations awards positive Triglavian and EDENCOM standing.
    
    
  • Warning: Attacking Triglavians guarding Pochven-style wormholes in lowsec/nullsec will cause a negative standing hit with the Collective.
    
    

Combat, Exploration & Sites

• Criterion of Fitness (Solo): Accessed using Criterion Ciphers recovered from Crimson Harvest sites. These are timed, 3-wave solo combat encounters available across highsec, lowsec, nullsec, Pochven, and wormhole space; faster clears increase rewards and risk triggering elite boss spawns.
  
  
• Crimson Gauntlets & Tetrimon Bases: Standard combat sites return across empire space. Unstable rifts can trigger sudden escalations featuring Triglavian, Drifter, or Rogue Drone reinforcements (even in highsec).
  
  
• Hollow Outbreak Sites (Upwell / Avalanche Wrecks):
  
  
  • Class 1 (Highsec, Pochven, Wormholes): Geared toward Tech I frigates (ideal for AIR Career pilots).
    
    
  • Class 2 (Highsec, Lowsec, Pochven, Wormholes): Up to Tech II frigates and Tech I destroyers.
    
    
  • Class 3 / Hollow Origin (Lowsec & Delve Nullsec): Up to Tech III tactical destroyers; keep an eye out for fleeing automated shuttles carrying extra loot.
    
    
• Exploration / Hacking Sites: Located across New Eden (especially Delve, Eugidi, Angils, and Essin). Look for bonus hackable Triglavian containers for rare loot.
  
  
• New Pochven Wormholes: Roaming Pochven-style wormholes spawn across Blood Raider lowsec and nullsec regions, defended by armed fleets.
  
  

Rewards, Loot & Store Offers

• Akoman Attack Battlecruiser Blueprint: The capstone prize of the seasonal track is a BPC for the Akoman, the first pirate attack battlecruiser (carrying battleship-grade weapons alongside Blood Raider energy neuting/drain bonuses).
  
  
• 90% PvP Loot / 50% Pod Drops: Outside highsec (lowsec, nullsec, Pochven, wormholes), player ship kills drop 90% loot, and pod kills have a 50% chance to drop implants.
  
  
• Trader Turn-Ins: Mutated Blood Sample containers can be traded for blueprints for new officer modules, faction modules, remote armor repair mutaplasmids, accelerators, and SKINR components.
  
  
• Daily Logins & Totality Day: 21 days of login gifts including skill points (large cache on Day 21), accelerators, and daily-exclusive Crimson Mark SKINs. CCP teased special Triglavian offers arriving for Totality Day on 13 October.
  
  
• EVE Store & NES: Crimson Harvest Packs and NES store offers featuring the new Sanguinary Savant SKINs.
  
  
• Late-October Escalation: The event escalates during the final week, adding an extended track with extra rewards.
  
  

2. Accompanying Version 24.01 Patch Notes

The Version 24.01 update introduces major balance and structural changes that directly affect event navigation, combat, and hunting:

Ansiblex Jump Bridges & Force Projection

• Capacitor Dependency: Ansiblex gates now have an internal capacitor pool (1,250 TJ) that recharges over ~6.25 hours and cannot be recharged or drained by ships.
  
  
• Jump Costs & Multipliers: Ship classes consume between 1 TJ (shuttles/haulers) and 19 TJ (Marauders/Rorquals), with distance-based jump multipliers (0x within 5 LY of the alliance capital up to 15x beyond 20 LY).
  
  
• Access Rules: Restricted strictly to the alliance holding sovereignty in the starting system; capitals can no longer use Ansiblex bridges (Rorquals, Freighters, and Jump Freighters are still allowed).
  
  
• Cyno Jammers: Reduced to 1 per system (down from 3).
  
  

Pochven & Wormhole Space Updates

• Pochven Wormholes: Extra-Pochven wormholes now feature a 75 km warp-in distance, 30-minute phase shifts (down from 60 min), and roaming scout NPCs. Intra-Pochven wormholes received major buffs: 750M kg mass stability and 12-hour lifetimes.
  
  
• Site Balancing: Observatory Flashpoint optimal fleet size reduced to 12 (reducing total payout by 20%), while Vigilance Points increased to 12 (increasing total payout by 20%). Stirring NPCs now deal double damage to player drones.
  
  
• C1–C3 Wormhole AI Overhaul: NPCs now split damage and EWAR across targets, use MWDs strategically, orbit dynamically, and will ignore player pods, Zephyrs, and drones.
  
  

Insurgencies & Factional Warfare

• Insurgency FOB Timers: FOB armor reinforcement timers slashed to 2–4 hours (down from 24 hours), and campaign duration shortened to 7 days to eliminate stalling tactics.
  
  
• Reward Shift: Winning the Insurgency now pays up to 1,500,000 LP (over 4x the prior maximum), shifting incentives away from farming individual sites.
  
  
• New Complexes: Added Moderate ADV-3 complexes and Small AF-1 complexes (Assault Frigates only, where all NPCs have warp disruptors fitted).
  
  

Ship & Combat Fixes

• Lancer Dreadnoughts: Substantially buffed shield/armor resistances across the Bane, Karura, Hubris, and Valravn.
  
  
• Paladin & Golem: Fixed inertia modifier values.
  
  
• Rampant Drone Fabricator: Structure and swarms are now immune to smartbombs and heavily resistant to Disruptive Lances (5% damage taken) and Vorton Projectors (10% damage taken). Boss waves can now spawn an Infested Drone Naglfar fitted with a capital energy neutralizer.