A Look into September 2024 Destruction in EVE Online – Is the Summer Slump Over?

Well, Betteridge’s law of headlines fits in here, otherwise I would have just said the slump was over I suppose.  Then again, we’ll still have to see what the data says.  But yes, it is time for another post about destruction as the September Monthly Economic Report landed last week.

Here are the usual places to look if you want more details or different coverage of New Eden economic activity for the month.

Overall Summary

September saw reported 456,571 hulls, structures, and capsules destroyed, down slightly from the 462,589 reported in August.  But September had one less day to go, and give that the daily haul of kills in the low five digit range, that means the daily activity was up a bit.

Specifically, the average destruction per day in September was 15,219, up from the 14,922 per day in August, which represented the lowest value for that metric since October of 2023, before the Havoc expansion set the numbers on fire.  Still, in June that number was still up at 17,534 per day.  Things did slump over the summer, but maybe they recovered a bit in September.

Jester’s average online users chart comparing the last four years still looks a little flat in September.

But that is also a 30 day rolling average, so it always influenced by the previous month, and August was a low point.  My own, less granular average kills per day chart shows a trace of an uptick.

Then again, August was a low point for 2023 as well.

On the ISK front, September saw the loss of 38.73 trillion ISK, an uptick from the 37.89 trillion ISK lost in August.  So things were up these, though even August was up a bit from July, so more expensive things are being lost…or CCP’s management of the economy is just making things more expensive.

That shows the mineral price index at a new all time high, and all our ships are made with those minerals.

The month itself showed mostly the usual pattern of weekend peaks and mid-week valleys.

Saturday, September 7th seemed to be the pinnacle of destruction for the month, but I don’t know what happened.  I was in Hawaii sitting on a beach or floating in the ocean that day.

Top 20 Most Frequent Losses by Class and Hull

Once again to the chart I both like and dislike.  The raw data is of interest, but its somewhat unchanging nature does make it feel a bit stale at times.  There are always the usual suspects on this chart.

Class	Count	% of Sep	Hull	Count	% of Sep
Capsule	111,962	24.52%	Capsule	110,969	24.30%
Shuttle	64,763	14.18%	Caldari Shuttle	28,444	6.23%
Frigate	50,335	11.02%	Amarr Shuttle	17,125	3.75%
Cruiser	41,855	9.17%	Ibis	16,426	3.60%
Corvette	30,469	6.67%	Mobile Tractor Unit	11,923	2.61%
Destroyer	28,495	6.24%	Gallente Shuttle	10,652	2.33%
Combat Battlecruiser	14,313	3.13%	Venture	9,479	2.08%
Mobile Tractor Unit	12,451	2.73%	Minmatar Shuttle	7,894	1.73%
Interdictor	8,992	1.97%	Vexor	7,114	1.56%
Hauler	8,649	1.89%	Reaper	6,952	1.52%
Heavy Assault Cruiser	8,430	1.85%	Algos	5,778	1.27%
Assault Frigate	7,148	1.57%	Exequror Navy Issue	5,429	1.19%
Battleship	6,959	1.52%	Ishtar	5,349	1.17%
Interceptor	6,810	1.49%	Heron	4,914	1.08%
Stealth Bomber	4,184	0.92%	Velator	4,254	0.93%
Strategic Cruiser	3,967	0.87%	Sabre	3,903	0.85%
Mobile Warp Disruptor	3,765	0.82%	Stabber	3,689	0.81%
Mining Barge	3,409	0.75%	Catalyst	3,585	0.79%
Tactical Destroyer	3,368	0.74%	Thrasher	3,479	0.76%
Command Destroyer	3,242	0.71%	Caracal	3,197	0.70%

I guess the lesson from capsules making up nearly 25% of the total might give some insight into the likelihood of you being podded when you lose your ship.  You’re still more likely to get away than not, but clearly lots of pods died to bring you this chart.

And shuttles are, overall, in second place.  But you know I’ll get to that, as I inevitably do.

Hulls Lost only Once This Month

The once per month club, excluding POS towers and modules along with fighter squadrons, if fairly short this month.

Probably the biggest deal on that list is the Azariel, the Angel Cartel pirate faction titan introduced with the Havoc expansion, of which there are scant few in New Eden.   As it turns out, Brave lost the first Azariel.  Also, Brave killed the first Azariel.  They built one and blew it up themselves to get the first such kill.  I was going to do a post about it, but somebody else went into much greater depth than I would have, so read all about it here.

The Cybele is an ATXIX ship, of which only three have been blown up to this point.

Another Echelon bit the dust in September as well.  These were given out as part of the Incursion expansion and have a bonus to hacking data sites.  I happened to be in Amarr space where mine is parked, so I stopped in and undocked it for a screen shot.

It only has one mid slot for a data analyzer, so I guess you need somebody scanning for you.  Also, it will not make this list for October, because three are dead already this month.  A crimson harvest indeed.

Top 20 Total ISK Lost by Hull Type

Which hulls accounted for the most ISK lost in September.

Hull	Count	Sum of ISK Lost	% of Sep	ISK per Loss
Capsule	110,969	3,136.66 billion	8.10%	28.27 million
Vargur	1,197	2,412.85 billion	6.23%	2,015.75 million
Ishtar	5,349	1,295.45 billion	3.34%	242.19 million
Paladin	620	1,198.62 billion	3.09%	1,933.26 million
Loki	1,644	1,177.12 billion	3.04%	716.01 million
Golem	466	902.63 billion	2.33%	1,936.96 million
Tengu	1,140	806.60 billion	2.08%	707.55 million
Gila	2,195	804.63 billion	2.08%	366.57 million
Kronos	411	766.10 billion	1.98%	1863.98 million
Praxis	2,290	624.62 billion	1.61%	272.76 million
Revelation	114	538.26 billion	1.39%	4,721.60 million
Nestor	236	495.64 billion	1.28%	2,100.19 million
Proteus	703	493.96 billion	1.28%	702.65 million
Exequror Navy Issue	5,429	478.12 billion	1.23%	88.07 million
Athanor	253	443.22 billion	1.14%	1,751.88 million
Redeemer	264	410.93 billion	1.06%	1,556.56 million
Orca	246	382.17 billion	0.99%	1,553.53 million
Legion	480	322.60 billion	0.83%	672.08 million
Hulk	840	317.70 billion	0.82%	378.22 million
Phoenix Navy Issue	90	307.01 billion	0.79%	3,411.17 million

As always, capsules win through sheer quantity, Vargurs for a combo of quantity and expense, and capitals though just being expensive hulls.

Top 20 Regions by ISK and Hull Losses

Now to where those ships were lost, starting at the regional level.

Region	Sum of ISK Lost	% of Sep	Region	Count	% of Sep
Pochven	3.52 trillion	9.10%	The Forge	51,081	11.19%
Vale of the Silent	1.52 trillion	3.92%	Pochven	25,780	5.65%
The Forge	1.42 trillion	3.66%	Heimatar	21,454	4.70%
Delve	1.41 trillion	3.64%	Lonetrek	18,971	4.16%
The Citadel	1.37 trillion	3.54%	Delve	15,983	3.50%
Querious	1.33 trillion	3.43%	Black Rise	15,756	3.45%
Genesis	1.19 trillion	3.06%	Vale of the Silent	14,652	3.21%
Detorid	.92 trillion	2.37%	Essence	14,108	3.09%
Fountain	.83 trillion	2.14%	Querious	13,204	2.89%
Lonetrek	.79 trillion	2.05%	The Citadel	12,050	2.64%
Perrigen Falls	.79 trillion	2.05%	Metropolis	12,044	2.64%
Sinq Laison	.75 trillion	1.93%	Genesis	11,959	2.62%
Metropolis	.73 trillion	1.89%	Sinq Laison	11,726	2.57%
Black Rise	.71 trillion	1.82%	Placid	11,302	2.48%
E-R00024	.70 trillion	1.81%	Perrigen Falls	10,045	2.20%
E-R00028	.65 trillion	1.69%	The Bleak Lands	9,831	2.15%
Domain	.60 trillion	1.55%	Fountain	9,080	1.99%
Essence	.59 trillion	1.51%	Catch	8,386	1.84%
Catch	.59 trillion	1.51%	Domain	7,826	1.71%
Geminate	.58 trillion	1.50%	Pure Blind	6,598	1.45%

Say what you will about Pochven being an ISK faucet, a lot of expensive stuff gets blown up there.  Quality and quantity, as it is in second place on the overall hull count, and would be in first place were it not for that ONE system in The Forge you know I am going to mention.

Next month I am going to predict that Delve is going to jump up to at least second place, if not first, bases on all the losses we’re seeing as people try to move their stuff on their own, as I mentioned in my post yesterday.  Titans have been exploding.  Those add up.

Top 20 Systems by ISK and Hull Losses

Then we drill down to the system level destruction.

System	Region	Sum of ISK Lost	% of Sep	System	Region	Count	% of Sep
Ahbazon	Genesis	534 billion	1.38%	Uitra	The Forge	34,609	7.58%
G3D-ZT	Detorid	488 billion	1.26%	Jita	The Forge	8,822	1.93%
Otela	Pochven	468 billion	1.21%	Ahbazon	Genesis	8,543	1.87%
Uedama	The Citadel	394 billion	1.02%	Malukker	Heimatar	8,479	1.86%
Jita	The Forge	363 billion	0.94%	Jouvulen	Lonetrek	7,012	1.54%
Tama	The Citadel	339 billion	0.87%	Otela	Pochven	5,957	1.30%
Chamja	Genesis	316 billion	0.82%	Tama	The Citadel	5,457	1.20%
YMJG-4	Vale of the Silent	288 billion	0.74%	Nennamaila	Black Rise	5,249	1.15%
A2-V27	Querious	245 billion	0.63%	Akiainavas	Lonetrek	3,727	0.82%
Ichoriya	Pochven	241 billion	0.62%	Deepari	Domain	3,700	0.81%
AXDX-F	Omist	224 billion	0.58%	Heydieles	Essence	3,457	0.76%
Angymonne	Pochven	216 billion	0.56%	Kourmonen	The Bleak Lands	3,340	0.73%
Nennamaila	Black Rise	208 billion	0.54%	Trossere	Sinq Laison	3,336	0.73%
K7D-II	Querious	207 billion	0.54%	Amamake	Heimatar	3,077	0.67%
Kourmonen	The Bleak Lands	202 billion	0.52%	Siseide	Heimatar	2,713	0.59%
Sakenta	Pochven	199 billion	0.51%	Auga	Heimatar	2,444	0.54%
Bordan	Kador	193 billion	0.50%	4-HWWF	Vale of the Silent	2,382	0.52%
J130735	E-R00024	191 billion	0.49%	K7D-II	Querious	2,375	0.52%
Komo	Pochven	191 billion	0.49%	Aldranette	Placid	2,374	0.52%
Ala	Pochven	190 billion	0.49%	MJ-5F9	Perrigen Falls	2,350	0.51%

As always, you can often pick up on the system losses by ISK as they tend to favor hot spots in low and null sec.  For example, K7D-II is on the list… for that Azariel Brave blew up, as mentioned above.

You can also see where in Pochven the action is.

For the count though, once again we see Uitra at the top of the list for count while being in 26,15th place for ISK, ringing up just 2.2 billion ISK in losses.  That is a mere 64K ISK per loss.

The Obligatory Count from Uitra

Once again, let’s see what was blow up in Uitra where 7.58% of all the hulls and capsules blew up in New Eden this past September

Hull	Count	Sum of ISK Lost	ISK per Loss
Caldari Shuttle	11,922	312.34 million	26,198
Ibis	10,431	920.52 million	88,249
Amarr Shuttle	4,485	112.03 million	24,978
Capsule	2,592	4.46 million	1,721
Minmatar Shuttle	2,288	44.56 million	19,477
Gallente Shuttle	1,683	34.47 million	20,483
Velator	938	87.87 million	93,682
Merlin	127	22.29 million	175,482
Impairor	45	4.16 million	92,463
Bantam	29	3.47 million	119,652
Reaper	18	2.30 million	128,008
Gnosis	13	600.55 million	46,196,484
Heron	11	7.06 million	642,087
Venture	6	4.36 million	727,414
Griffin	5	1.79 million	357,155
Cormorant	4	5.66 million	1,413,847
Kestrel	3	1.32 million	439,938
Sunesis	2	8.37 million	4,183,584
Badger	1	.54 million	541,470
Corax	1	1.41 million	1,413,211
Cormorant Navy Issue	1	19.88 million	19,880,350
Executioner	1	.32 million	316,707
Incursus	1	.31 million	308,020
Procurer	1	17.41 million	17,407,165
Slasher	1	2.31 million	2,307,724

All told, that is 20,378 shuttles, or nearly 1 in three of all shuttles blow up in September.  That percentage holds true for corvettes as well, with over 10K Ibis blowing up.

The shuttle tally so far in 2024:

• September – 20,378
• August – 20,298
• July – 35,739
• June – 39,863
• May – 37,008
• April – 27,446
• March – 22,149
• February – 26,778
• January – 20,674

It has been much higher, but I think the shuttle lords have shifted a bit over to rookie ships, which are free, for some aspects of this.  And on it goes… but what is “it” in this context?  That is the question I keep asking.

Last month somebody wondered why I didn’t just go there to see what was going on.  The system is only a few gates from Jita and I have a couple high sec alts in the neighborhood, so I did.

There I ran into the nature of time, space, and New Eden… which is to say, you don’t have to just be in the right system, but in the right spot in the right system at the right moment.  There are 43,200 minutes in the month of September, so something was being popped about every 90 seconds in the system, but some of that was in batches or in parallel, some of it on the undock and some of it at a safe spot somewhere in the system.

So I saw things.  I saw the undock littered with abandoned Ibis and cargo containers from kills.

The overview showed a little more detail.

And there were new characters with dubious names, as one might expect.

I even went there in a Buzzard to see if could use combat probes to catch somebody in the act at a safe, but no such luck.

So there are all sorts of telltales that some group is using Uitra to grind out quick characters.

So I flew my alt back to their home without much in the way of an answer.

I still find the idea of it being for skill farming alts to be unproven, though I am now considering the possibility that it is, in fact, suicide gank alts being ground out for use by Uedama multi-boxers.  Uedama is in 4th place for ISK destroyed on that system chart.

This came to mind when I saw somebody complaining over on r/eve about a stream multi-boxing a couple dozen gank accounts in Uedama.

A suicide gank alt doesn’t need much in the way of skill points, but they do end up being useless after a certain number of such ganks as their security status drops to the point where CONCORD will just find them and blow them up as soon as they undock in high sec.

So that is my current working theory.  Skill farmers could be using the location as well, but as I noted in the past, there is a cap on how many of those New Eden can support.  A skill farming clone never wears out, there is no need to replace them.  But ganking alts, those are like ammo, to be expended and forgotten.  Easier to grind up some new ones that fix their security status.

Bottom 20 Regions by ISK and Hull Losses

Then, as the chart of the month, I thought I would look at which regions have the least amount of losses, both in ISK and count of hulls.

Region	Sum of ISK Lost	Region	Count
Yasna Zakh	.24 billion	Yasna Zakh	38
H-R00032	2.72 billion	H-R00032	47
Immensea	16.03 billion	D-R00017	188
D-R00017	20.63 billion	D-R00018	224
K-R00033	22.79 billion	ADR01	226
Impass	23.98 billion	ADR03	260
A-R00003	27.38 billion	ADR05	262
A-R00001	34.84 billion	ADR02	267
ADR01	40.25 billion	ADR04	275
D-R00023	40.63 billion	D-R00023	277
D-R00018	41.00 billion	Immensea	366
ADR02	49.71 billion	Outer Ring	372
Outer Ring	50.16 billion	A-R00003	423
ADR05	53.29 billion	Solitude	475
ADR03	58.33 billion	Impass	507
G-R00031	59.10 billion	C-R00010	514
ADR04	63.73 billion	A-R00001	536
C-R00010	64.96 billion	D-R00020	538
Solitude	68.88 billion	C-R00015	583
Verge Vendor	70.69 billion	K-R00033	633

Regions is about as much as you can zero in for something like this, as there are nearly 450 systems that had just one kill in September and probably more still that saw zero, so didn’t make the chart.  But it is hard to image a whole region failing to have a single kill.

At the top of the list is Yasna Zakh, which has one system, Zarzakh, which was under siege for most of the month… so not much happened there I guess.

I am kind of surprised to see Immensea and Impass on the list.  But, then again, Pandemic Horde abandoned its small allies in the area, so they all just evac’d to safer space closer to Gobbins.

There are also a lot of wormhole regions on that list, but I don’t really have a sense as to how many systems there are to those regions and what class of wormhole the represent.

So it goes.  I expect next month I will be focused on how the Goonswarm Federation move from Delve to Tenerifis and other regions east will impact the MER and the destruction.  Will it top the regional chart?  With 1DQ1-A be at the top of the ISK list for systems?

And will Uitra still rule the count?  Indications are that it will.