Table of Contents

Combat Booster Manufacturing


Step 1: Acquire Gas

Since Apocrypha the Gas Cloud Harvester I BPO and Gas Cloud Harvesting skill have been seeded on Empire markets. The skillbook is only seeded in a few stations and is 21.6 million ISK. Harvester I modules run around 1.5 million ISK. Additionally, the patch introduced Harvester IIs which can be invented and are currently priced around 2.5 million ISK each. For aspiring drug magnates, training Gas Cloud Harvesting V for the T2 harvesters is recommended as it's only a rank 1 skill. One Gas Cloud Harvester can be used for each trained level of Gas Cloud Harvesting. Named Gas Cloud Harvesters exist but are not worth the high cost.

Gas clouds can be found in Ladar sites in an associated COSMOS constellation. Additionally, COSMOS missions can be run to farm gas, but COSMOS agents can only be run once. There are eight 0.0 COSMOS constellations, each produces a gas required for one of the eight available combat boosters. Gas sites are most frequently found in the COSMOS constellations, but can spawn nearby within the same region. Additionally, all gas cloud sites require either Archaeology or Hacking to make use of them.

Gas Type by Region

RegionConstellationGas Cloud TypeDrug Type
Catch 9HXQ-G Lime Cytoserocin Frentix
Cloud Ring Assilot Viridian Cytoserocin Drop
Delve OK-FEM Malachite Cytoserocin Mindflood
Feythabolis I-3ODK Vermillion Cytoserocin X-Instinct
Fountain Pegasus Celadon Cytoserocin Exile
Tenal 09-4XW Golden Cytoserocin Crash
Vale of the Silent E-8CSQ Amber Cytoserocin Blue Pill
Wicked Creek 760-9C Azure Cytoserocin Sooth Sayer

What Ship?

Cruiser/Battlecruiser hulls are best suited to this task. Whatever ship you use, some important factors are:

  1. Must have 5 turret hardpoints. Seriously Gas Cloud Harvesting is a 1x skill, why not get it to V and not be fail?
  2. Must have at least 350 CPU, because 5 Gas Cloud Harvester IIs take this much CPU.
  3. As large of a cargo hold as you can muster. The cargo isn't because gas is large, but rather because it just makes it less annoying when you don't have to stop every 5 minutes to empty your hold.
  4. A relatively fast (<5 second) align time is also desirable, in case you need to GTFO.

The Venture mining frigate is the only ship with a bonus to gas mining speed or quantity, however, though it would mean a reduced yield when compared to cruisers/battlecruisers as it has less turret slots. The only implant that affects gas mining is GH-80(1/3/5) implant series, which gives a 5% boost to harvesting speed (8 gas per minute).

It should be noted that gang boosted mining DOES improve gas mining speed. A perfect rorqual pilot, sieged, will increase you to 259m3/min.

The Dangers of Harvesting Gas

Each time the harvesters cycle, there is a chance that a hazardous gas cloud will form. Damage from gas clouds various from region to region and can deal anywhere from 800 to 3000 damage. They are currently estimated to form around 20% of the time.

Due to changes in deadspace obfuscation, anyone in deadspace can be easily probed out. Harvesting with anyone not blue in local is very dangerous. Exploration rats can also spawn in sites.


Step 2: React the Gas

Standard Booster Reactions

Reaction Name Ingredient 1 Junk Ingredient Refined Product
Standard Mindflood Booster 20 Malachite Cytoserocin 100 Water 15 Pure Standard Mindflood, 95 Water
Standard Frentix Booster 20 Lime Cytoserocin 100 Water 15 Pure Standard Frentix, 95 Water
Standard Blue Pill Booster 20 Amber Cytoserocin 100 Water 15 Pure Standard Blue Pill, 95 Water
Standard Crash Booster 20 Golden Cytoserocin 100 Water 15 Pure Standard Crash, 95 Water
Standard Drop Booster 20 Viridian Cytoserocin 100 Water 15 Pure Standard Drop, 95 Water
Standard Exile Booster 20 Celadon Cytoserocin 100 Water 15 Pure Standard Exile, 95 Water
Standard Sooth Sayer Booster 20 Azure Cytoserocin 100 Water 15 Pure Standard Sooth Sayer, 95 Water
Standard X-Instinct Booster 20 Vermillion Cytoserocin 100 Water 15 Pure Standard X-Instinct, 95 Water

In order to process the gas into a useful form, you will need a Standard Sooth Sayer Booster Reaction, which may be found reliably in certain Ladar Exploration Complexes. All sorts of standard reactions tend to sell for 1-3m on the Jita market, although there isn't much of a customer base.

You will also need a good quantity of gas as well as a POS to react it in. A single reaction can easily be done on a medium tower with some defenses, or you can shoehorn a pair of reactions on a Caldari Medium with few to no defenses (not recommended). Although the game states the reactors run at half speed on a medium, tests on Sisi show the reactions still run at full speed. The tower will require a Medium Biochemical Reactor Array, two General Storage Silos, a Hazardous Storage Silo, and a Biochemical Silo. 20 units of Azure Cytoserocin reacted with 100 units of water will produce 95 units of water and 15 units of Pure Standard Soothsayer Booster. This is not an actual dose of booster, but rather the main ingredient used to make them.


Step 3: Produce the Booster

Beginning the final stage of production requires a Standard Sooth Sayer Booster Blueprint Copy. These blueprints are always 50-run, and require the Drug Manufacturing skill at level 1. Like the gas reaction, they are obtained from Ladar exploration complexes. There are no booster Blueprint Originals presently available in EVE.

With modest industrial skills, the ingredients for one run of the BPC are 5 Megacyte and 17 Pure Standard Sooth Sayer Booster. Each run of the BPC produces a single dose of Standard Sooth Sayer Booster.


Improved Boosters

Producing more potent types of Sooth Sayer is even more of a pain in the ass. You need an Improved Sooth Sayer Booster Reaction, which is much rarer than the standard variety. The ingredients are also more costly, requiring 100 units of Spirits, 15 units of Pure Standard Sooth Sayer Booster, and 15 units of Pure Standard X-Instinct Booster. This produces 95 units of spirits, and 12 units of Pure Improved Sooth Sayer. The X-Instinct ingredient is made in much the same way as the Sooth Sayer component, but with gas and a reaction acquired in Ladar exploration complexes located in the Northern Feythabolis COSMOS constellation, rather than Wicked Creek (Azure Cytoserocin).

Still with modest industrial skills, the ingredients for one run of the Improved Sooth Sayer Booster BPC are 5 Megacyte and 14 Pure Improved Sooth Sayer Booster. Each run of the BPC produces a single dose of Improved Sooth Sayer Booster.


Improved Booster Reactions

Reaction Name Ingredient 1 Ingredient 2 Junk Ingredient Refined Product
Improved Mindflood Booster 15 Pure Standard Mindflood 15 Pure Standard Frentix 100 Oxygen 12 Pure Improved Mindflood, 95 Oxygen
Improved Frentix Booster 15 Pure Standard Mindflood 15 Pure Standard Frentix 100 Spirits 12 Pure Improved Frentix, 95 Spirits
Improved Blue Pill Booster 15 Pure Standard Blue Pill 15 Pure Standard Crash 100 Oxygen 12 Pure Improved Blue Pill, 95 Oxygen
Improved Crash Booster 15 Pure Standard Blue Pill 15 Pure Standard Crash 100 Spirits 12 Pure Improved Mindflood, 95 Spirits
Improved Drop Booster 15 Pure Standard Drop 15 Pure Standard Exile 100 Oxygen 12 Pure Improved Drop, 95 Oxygen
Improved Exile Booster 15 Pure Standard Drop 15 Pure Standard Exile 100 Spirits 12 Pure Improved Exile, 95 pirits
Improved Sooth Sayer Booster 15 Pure Standard Sooth Sayers 15 Pure Standard X-Instinct 100 Spirits 12 Pure Improved Sooth Sayer, 95 Spirits
Improved X-Instinct Booster 15 Pure Standard Sooth Sayer 15 Pure Standard X-Instinct 100 Oxygen 12 Pure Improved X-Instinct, 95 Oxygen

Strong Boosters

The Strong version is made in much the same way as Improved boosters, requiring 100 Hydrochloric Acid, 15 Pure Standard Drop Booster, 12 Pure Improved Sooth Sayer Booster, and an extremely rare reaction. This produces 95 Hydrochloric Acid and 12 Pure Strong Sooth Sayer Booster. Due to the rarity of Strong Sooth Sayer BPCs, I do not know what a Strong Sooth Sayer Booster Blueprint requires per run. Even if it requires similar quantities of ingredients as Improved and Standard, it is still drastically more difficult to make these, the most precious class of Combat Boosters.

The Strong Sooth Sayer Booster Blueprint requires the following: Drug Manufacturing 5, 4 units of Megacyte and 11 units of Pure Strong Sooth Sayer Booster. Like the other blueprints, one unit of booster is produced.


Strong Booster Reactions

Reaction Name Ingredient 1 Ingredient 2 Junk Ingredient Refined Product
Strong Mindflood Booster 12 Pure Improved Mindflood 15 Pure Standard Crash 100 Hydrochloric Acid 12 Pure Strong Mindflood, 95 Hydrochloric Acid
Strong Frentix Booster 12 Pure Improved Frentix 15 Pure Standard Blue Pill 100 Hydrochloric Acid 12 Pure Strong Frentix, 95 Hydrochloric Acid
Strong Blue Pill Booster 12 Pure Improved Blue Pill 15 Pure Standard Mind Flood 100 Hydrochloric Acid 12 Pure Strong Blue Pill, 95 Hydrochloric Acid
Stromg Crash Booster 12 Pure Improved Crash 15 Pure Standard Frentix 100 Hydrochloric Acid 12 Pure Strong Mindflood, 95 Hydrochloric Acid
Strong Drop Booster 12 Pure Improved Drop 15 Pure Standard X-Instinct 100 Hydrochloric Acid 12 Pure Strong Drop, 95 Hydrochloric Acid
Strong Exile Booster 12 Pure Improved Exile 15 Pure Standard Sooth Sayer 100 Hydrochloric Acid 12 Pure Strong Exile, 95 Hydrochloric Acid
Strong Sooth Sayer Booster 12 Pure Improved Sooth Sayer 15 Pure Standard Drop 100 Hydrochloric Acid 12 Pure Strong Sooth Sayer, 95 Hydrochloric Acid
Strong X-Instinct Booster 12 Pure Improved X-Instinct Booster 15 Pure Standard Exile 100 Hydrochloric Acid 12 Pure Strong X-Instinct, 95 Hydrochloric Acid