I like to be opportunistic in my ISK-making endeavors, and one of the things I ended up doing is Ninjaing C5 Relic and Data sites. Here is how it’s done.
Strategy
If you are not familiar with the idea, here is how it goes down. The Forgotten Core Data Field (Relic Site) and the Unsecured Frontier Server Bank (Data Site) have a really small first wave and might contain some valuables in their cans. For the Relic Site these are Ancient Relics (used to produce T3 components) that can be found in all the containers, while for the Data Site there is the usual Data Caches (almost worthless) as well as the Abandoned Talocan Battleship (might be worth something), which is hackable by a Relic Analyzer. This makes it possible to hack the containers without clearing all the Rats, and therefore not having to deal with the much stronger later waves. There is also an even faster tactic called Jedi-ing (or something like that). This is where you lure away the Rats and then steal the best cans without shooting anything.
The most famous demonstration of Ninjaing a C5 is by Erstschlag with a Stream/Youtube Video. He uses a passively shield tanked Stratios and first clears the Rats, then refits and hacks the cans. This takes him about 30 minutes per site. If you ever say to someone that you Ninja C5 Sites, he will ask you if you use a Stratios next because of this video.
A demonstration of Jedi-ing can be found here (Please ignore the Terminology of Ninjaing used in the video, this is clearly Jedi-ing as defined by Emperor Yodik)
The rewards for this can be in quite a wide range. You will always get about 35m ISK in Blueloot. In the Relic Sites, there is often stuff that is on sellorder in Jita for 80-120m ISK, but the buyorders might only be half that! For the Data Sites, there is the “Talocan Battleship”, which needs a Relic Analyzer and contains around 20m ISK on average. The rest of the containers are usually worthless, on rare occasions, there might be up to 50m in one.
I wasn’t quite happy with the way the Stratios worked so I decided to do my own testing and realized that you can probably be faster if you can hack and shoot at the same time. This will make your clear times faster, or your fit cheaper, or both. The key to doing so is in having enough cap to run your Relic/Data Analyzer. This can be done by either using a cap stable ship (you will run out of cap charges before the Site is done for most conventional cap injected fits, a hybrid running a cap injector on a passively tanked ship only when you want to start a hack and sitting at 0 cap otherwise might be possible).
With this new kind of fit there is also a few things we should do differently:
- You should warp in @100km, bookmark a structure near the containers that you want to hack, then warp out and come back (You can also do this with a cloaky scout). This way you can immediately start the first hack and don’t have to slowboat to the first can.
- Drone aggro can be another big problem with the Stratios, but sadly this isn’t fixed with our method. I found out that only the Sleeper Frigates will go after your drones consistently. This means that you can kill these with your Guns/Missiles and only launch your drones once you are left with cruisers.
Fitting Requirements
As always, I like to listen the requirements that such a ship should have before trying to come up with fits. For this one, we have a few from Karr’s Modified Rykki’s Guide
| Number | Sleeper Type | Class | Scram | Web | Neut | Orbit | DPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Emergent Sentinel | Frig | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6,5 | 29 |
| 5 | Awakened Keeper | Cruiser | 1 | 1 | -6 | 30 | 55 |
| Total | 10 | 10 | -30 | 422 |
And then there is a few more soft requiremnts as well that I found during testing. Here is the total list.
- Tank 422 EHP/s Omni
- Resist 30 GJ/s Neut pressure
- Deal 70 DPS (to be faster than Erstschlag), more is better
- Be as fast as possible under 10 Webs and Scrams
- Have a Relic/Data Analyzer while we do this
- Have a way to get out of the site at the end (a Warp Core Stabilizer, or EC-300s like Erstschlag). You could also just wing it and kill the trigger while aligned
- Have enough Cargo to store all the Loot (Especially T3 components can be quite bulky)
Fits
Alpha Fit
So now let’s try to beat this Stratios. To start this of here is the cheapest fit that I could find that satisfies all the requirements. It is definitely not the fastest, but it gets the job done, has a big cargo hold, works for Alpha characters as well, and costs 56m ISK at the time of writing! For an Alpha character with maxed (alpha) skills in missiles, capacitor, and shield tanking this reps 477 EHP/S and is cap stable at +35 GJ/s . Since you can’t just warp out of the site at any time you should however check the requirements with your skills! The main reason I opted for rapid lights is that the frigates in this site are quite hard to hit (Having a Signature of only 35m) this means that your applied DPS will be better than other types of missiles. I did not try other turret-based weapon systems, so there might be other options that I am unaware of. Either way, please make sure you can hit up to 30km (bring faction light missiles) otherwise you might become stranded in the site.
C5 Ninja Cheap Gnosis
[Gnosis, NinjaC5 RLML XLSB]
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Damage Control II
X-Large Clarity Ward Enduring Shield Booster
Large Compact Pb-Acid Cap Battery
Compact Multispectrum Shield Hardener
Compact Multispectrum Shield Hardener
Relic Analyzer I
Copasetic Compact Shield Boost Amplifier
Upgraded 'Malkuth' Rapid Light Missile Launcher
Upgraded 'Malkuth' Rapid Light Missile Launcher
Upgraded 'Malkuth' Rapid Light Missile Launcher
Upgraded 'Malkuth' Rapid Light Missile Launcher
Upgraded 'Malkuth' Rapid Light Missile Launcher
Core Probe Launcher I /OFFLINE
Medium Core Defense Operational Solidifier I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Hammerhead I x5
Warrior II x5
Caldari Navy Scourge Light Missile x2000
Core Scanner Probe I x16
Mobile Depot x1
Mobile Tractor Unit x1
Data Analyzer I x1
Warp Core Stabilizer I x2
Omega Fit
The next fit is very similar, but it needs Omega Skills to work properly. It also costs quite a bit more at 161m ISK, but that gets you an afterburner, which will significantly reduce your clear time, as well as an RLML Rangebonus, allowing you to run fury missiles out to the cruisers. If you are Omega you could also bring EC-300s and jam the last NPC, getting you out that way. At this point the hacking might still be the limiting factor, so losing 1-2 Combat Drones for a lot more cargo space might be an option for you. I personally don’t like the idea of leaving drones behind everywhere tbh.
C5 Ninja 10mn Cyclone
[Cyclone, NinjaC5 RLML XLSB]
Damage Control II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Republic Fleet Large Cap Battery
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
X-Large Shield Booster II
10MN Afterburner II
Relic Analyzer II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II
Core Probe Launcher I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit II
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit II
Medium Core Defense Operational Solidifier I
Hammerhead II x5
Hail M x320
Inferno Fury Light Missile x1000
Caldari Navy Nova Light Missile x1000
Republic Fleet Titanium Sabot M x320
Sisters Core Scanner Probe x16
Mobile Depot x1
Data Analyzer II x1
Mobile Tractor Unit x1
Warp Core Stabilizer I x2
Combat Recon Fit
Now we are slowly getting into the more expensive fits. From here on out these have built-in a Warp Core Stabilizer, so that you don’t have to refit at all. If you can’t match the numbers for Tank, then try dropping the WCS for a DCU. The first one is a Rook. It is quite a bit more pricey than the Cyclone and has some problems with cargo hold, which should be ok if you don’t bring a Mobile Depot. It makes up for all that with its Dscan immunity. This means that no one can actually see you doing the Site (one can still see the MTU and wrecks of course). Whether that is worth 150m ISK more than a Cyclone is up to you to decide. I did think so in the past and managed to kill a few unsuspecting people in the system as well while doing sites. But eventually, I died because I was careless and went into a cataclysmic (don’t do that please xD). And from now on I run the blitzing Loki below anyway.
C5 Double Ninja 10mn Rook
[Rook, NinjaC5 RLML 10mn LSB]
Damage Control II
Warp Core Stabilizer II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
10MN Afterburner II
Republic Fleet Large Cap Battery
Relic Analyzer II
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Shield Boost Amplifier II
Shield Boost Amplifier II
Large Shield Booster II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Medium EM Shield Reinforcer II
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit II
Caldari Navy Hornet x5
Caldari Navy Nova Light Missile x2000
Mobile Tractor Unit x1
Blitzing Fit
The last one is something I am still experimenting around with. Because of the large number of webs in the site, your clear time (once you aren’t limited by DPS) mostly depends on your speed under scram. So going 100mn will help you with that. I tried a bunch of Hulls for this and came up with a Loki and a Tengu fit. I tried hard to make a 100mn Drekavac work, but it just doesn’t want to tank 400+ DPS while being capstable (without bling at least). The Loki is slightly better because of its range bonus. This makes it that with Missile Bombardement V and Missile Projection V you can actually use Fury Missiles and get more DPS. It is also slightly faster than the Tengu. For 430m ISK (at the time of writing), you can get the finest C5 Ninja that is there. If you recall back to the Stratios for 300m by Erstschlag. This thing does the Sites twice as fast for 130m ISK more. Also, please remember to put this into pyfa with your skills before you go out with it!
C5 Ninja 100mn Loki
[Loki, NinjaC5 RLML 100mn LSB]
Damage Control II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Warp Core Stabilizer II
100MN Y-S8 Compact Afterburner
Relic Analyzer II
Large Shield Booster II
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Republic Fleet Large Cap Battery
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Expanded Probe Launcher I
[Empty High slot]
Medium Ancillary Current Router II
Medium Core Defense Operational Solidifier I
Medium Core Defense Operational Solidifier II
Loki Core - Augmented Nuclear Reactor
Loki Offensive - Launcher Efficiency Configuration
Loki Propulsion - Wake Limiter
Loki Defensive - Adaptive Defense Node
Hammerhead II x4
Inferno Fury Light Missile x2000
Caldari Navy Nova Light Missile x2000
Sisters Combat Scanner Probe x16
Sisters Core Scanner Probe x16
Mobile Tractor Unit x1
Conclusion
Here is a list of all the important stats for each fit. As you can see there is quite the difference, and an option for everyone.
| Ship | Alphas | Price | Speed | DPS | Getaway | Site Time | Cargo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gnosis | Yes | 66m | 162 m/s | 81/230 | Refit to WCS | 40 min | 703 |
| Cyclone | No | 161m | 552 m/s | 132/290 | Refit to WCS | 25 min | 250 |
| Rook | No | 312m | 589 m/s | 149/233 | Built in WCS | 30 min | 175 |
| Loki | No | 430m | 1506 m/s | 205/331 | Built in WCS | 15 min | 242 |
As you can see there is a lot of ways you can Ninja C5 Sites, and not just the Stratios that everyone knows. There is definitely a lot of other ways I haven’t touched on, for example, a friend of mine just uses 3 Myrmidons to clear them out really fast, then goes in and hacks with a Stratios. Or you could just straight up Jedi them and only look for valuables using a cargo scanner. For me personally, I run the Ninja the Relic Sites, and I Jedi the Data Sites.
I hope this gives you a general idea of how to deal with these Sites and hopefully make tons of ISK in the process! I tested all of these fits at one point, but some have been meta’d around a bit afterward. Please do not forget your faction light missiles, and double-check your tank and cap before you go into a site, and you should be good. I ran one with 400 EHP/s as well to see what would happen, and it turned out just fine without heat. But if you go lower you will probably need to heat and not be as capstable as you want it, or you might start to bleed some armor at the start.