Gas cloud harvesting

Gas cloud harvesting is the process of collecting gas from interstellar clouds, for use in combat booster, Tech III and capital ship production.

Players harvesting (or "huffing") gas locate a "nebula" in known space or a "fullerite reservoir" in wormhole space, and collect it with a gas cloud harvester module. Note that although the in-game probing window classifies "chemical labs" as a type of gas site, they are actually combat-and-hacking locations, and should be avoided by gas harvesting ships.

Note that the new mining critical hit mechanic from the Catalyst expansions does NOT apply to gas harvesting.

Types of gas

The three types of gas are all found in cosmic signatures which need to be probe scanned down in order to harvest.

Most Nebula sites will display the following pop-up message when warped to. This can be useful to determine if a bookmark is still connected to an active site or if it has despawned. The message's title will be the name of the type of gas within the site.

Pop-up message — (Type of gas in site)
Originally thought to be little more than a picturesque deviation from the monotonous emptiness of space, scientists and unscrupulous entrepreneurs alike have begun to appreciate the various gas cloud formations that have been discovered in recent years. Initial research into the properties of the gaseous phenomena revealed that when it came to facilitating the growth of certain types of crystal, they were one of the most conducive environments in the entire cluster. At first the crystal byproducts were viewed as a potential military innovation, offering slightly improved cost efficiency in electronics and weapons manufacture. When their massive potential for use in booster production was discovered however, viewpoints shifted dramatically, and nowadays they are coveted as a fundamental resource driving the burgeoning booster industry.

Mykoserocin

Mykoserocin is used to produce synth variation of combat boosters, and neurolink enhancers, which are part of all capital ship production chains. Nebulae with Mykoserocin can be found in high, low and null security space. All of them reside in non-deadspace areas and are not guarded by NPCs.

Please note that list of locations where each Nebula site spawns is not exhaustive. It was expanded and new data is still being added.

Gas Flavor	Nebula Type	Location	Units per Cloud	Total Number of Units
Lime /Frentix	Sister Nebula	Aridia Curse Derelik Kador Khanid Kor-Azor Omist Solitude Wicked Creek	1000, 1000	2000
Lime /Frentix	Helix Nebula	Aridia Curse Derelik Khanid Kor-Azor Solitude	2000, 2000, 2000	6000
Malachite /Mindflood	Wild Nebula	Aridia Insmother Kor-Azor Curse Omist Solitude Tash-Murkon	1000, 1000	2000
Malachite /Mindflood	Blackeye Nebula	Aridia Curse Khanid Kor-Azor Omist Solitude	2000, 2000, 2000	6000
Amber /Blue Pill	Sunspark Nebula	Black Rise Lonetrek Outer Passage Sinq Laison The Citadel The Forge The Spire	1000, 1000	2000
Amber /Blue Pill	Diablo Nebula	Black Rise Everyshore Lonetrek Outer Passage Sinq Laison The Citadel The Forge Vale of the Silent	2000, 2000, 2000	6000
Golden /Crash	Smoking Nebula	Black Rise Etherium Reach Everyshore Lonetrek Outer Passage Perrigen Falls Sinq Laison The Citadel The Spire	1000, 1000	2000
Golden /Crash	Ring Nebula	Black Rise Etherium Reach Everyshore Lonetrek Malpais Outer Passage Perrigen Falls Sinq Laison The Citadel	2000, 2000, 2000	6000
Celadon /Exile	Calabash Nebula	Domain Genesis Placid Solitude Fountain (Pegasus constellation)	1000, 1000	2000
Celadon /Exile	Glass Nebula	Domain Solitude Pure Blind Placid Genesis	2000, 2000, 2000	6000
Viridian /Drop	Bright Nebula	Essence Fountain Placid Tenal Venal	1000, 1000	2000
Viridian /Drop	Sparking Nebula	Domain Essence Fountain Genesis Placid Pure Blind Tenal	2000, 2000, 2000	6000
Azure^{[note 1]} /Sooth Sayer	Ghost Nebula	Curse Derelik Devoid The Bleak Lands Heimatar Molden Heath	1000, 1000	2000
Azure^{[note 1]} /Sooth Sayer	Eagle Nebula	Curse Derelik The Bleak Lands Devoid Heimatar Insmother Metropolis Molden Heath Tenerifis	2000, 2000, 2000	6000
Vermillion /X-Instinct	Flame Nebula	Curse Derelik Devoid The Bleak Lands Great Wildlands Detorid Heimatar Insmother Metropolis Omist Tenerifis	1000, 1000	2000
Vermillion /X-Instinct	Pipe Nebula	Curse Derelik Devoid The Bleak Lands Heimatar Immensea Metropolis Tenerifis	2000, 2000, 2000	6000

^ Azure Mykoserocin is available in unlimited quantities from the Gas Training Sites in the Career Agent Systems. Each site contains a single circular cloud that has 100 units of gas in it. The sites immediately respawn when someone enters them. There is, however, a bug where some clouds may occasionally mysteriously despawn after only giving up 2 units even though when scanned, they appear to contain 100. All the Career agent systems contain Azure gas in their gas sites regardless of the racial gas type of the region. Thus, these sites can prove to be a valuable source of Azure gas in areas that would not normally have access to it.

A long, long time ago...

Mykoserocin used to spawn similarly to Cytoserocin, highly concentrated in a specific constellation of a specific region. This was changed on 13 April 2014, when its spawn locations were significantly extended to accommodate increased demand. List of old spawn locations is below:

Amber: The Forge (Mivora)
Golden: Lonetrek (Umamon)
Viridian: Placid (Amevync)
Celadon: Solitude (Elerelle)
Lime: Derelik (Joas)
Malachite: Aridia (Fabai)
Azure: Molden Heath (Tartatven)
Vermillion: Heimatar (Hed)

Now, these areas don't seem to be special when it comes to gas harvesting. But, each constellation always has a synth booster laboratory, a hacking site which drops synth reactions, among other things.

Cytoserocin

Cytoserocin is used to produce stronger variations of combat boosters. It is used in neurolink enhancers' production just like Mykoserocin, but amounts needed for that are much more modest. Unlike most exploration sites, nebulae are not randomly distributed throughout space. Each flavor of gas will be concentrated in one constellation of one region, and some regions will never have a cytoserocin nebula appear.

Majority of Cytoserocin nebulae are unstable. Every time a Gas Cloud Harvester finishes its cycle there is a chance that the cloud will "explode", dealing some damage to your ship. For exact numbers and damage types refer to the table below. There, each row represents an individual possibility. Bear in mind that damage area seems to be defined separately from gas cloud area. Depending on nebula type, damage area center might not coincide with the gas cloud center, and damage radius might be bigger or smaller than the cloud's radius as well.

Gas Flavor	Location	Nebula Type	Units per Cloud	Total Number of Units	Cloud Damage	NPCs	Deadspace
Lime /Frentix	Derelik (low security systems)	Emerald Nebula	200, 300	500	None	No	No
	Catch	Cheetah Nebula	1000	1000	1000 thermal	No	No
	Catch (9HXQ-G constellation)	Duo Nebula	2500, 500	3000	1000 EM + 1000 thermal	No	No
		Leopard Nebula	18,000	18,000	1400 explosive	Yes	No
		Rimy Nebula	1000, 2000	3000	1000 EM + 1000 thermal	Yes	No
Malachite /Mindflood	Aridia (low security systems)	Crimson Nebula	500, 500	1000	None	No	No
	Delve	Cobra Nebula	100, 100, 100, 100, 100	500	800 EM + 800 Thermal	No	No
	Delve	Crab Spider Nebula	400	2000	None	Yes	No
	Delve (OK-FEM constellation)	Hazy Nebula	18000	18000	800 EM + 700 thermal	Yes	No
		Hidden Nebula	3000, 3000	6000	1000 EM + 1000 thermal	No	No
		Whirling Nebula	3000, 3000	6000	1000 EM + 1000 thermal	Yes	Yes
Amber /Blue Pill	The Forge (low security systems)	Bandit Nebula	500, 500	1000	None	No	No
	Vale of the Silent	Fluttering Nebula	100, 100, 100, 100, 100	500	1000 thermal	No	No
	Vale of the Silent	Rocky Nebula	166, 166, 166, 166, 166	832	2500 thermal	No	No
	Vale of the Silent (E-8CSQ constellation)	Dewy Nebula	3000, 3000	6000	1000 EM + 1000 thermal	Yes	No
		Foggy Nebula	3000, 3000	6000	1000 EM + 1000 thermal	Yes	No
		Shimmering Nebula	18000	18000	1400 thermal	Yes	No
		Spacious Nebula	1000, 1000, 2000, 2000	6000	No damage 1000 EM + 1000 thermal	No	No
Golden /Crash	Lonetrek (low security systems)	Profiteer Nebula	500, 500	1000	None	No	No
	Tenal	Moth Nebula	1000, 1000	2000	None	Yes	No
	Tenal	Swarm Nebula	400, 400, 400, 400, 400	2000	1000 thermal	No	Yes
	Tenal (09-4XW constellation)	Lion Nebula	6000	6000	1000 EM + 1000 thermal	No	No
		Shiny Nebula	3000, 3000	6000	1000 EM + 1000 thermal	Yes	No
		Gaseous Nebula	18000	18000	700 EM + 700 thermal	Yes	No
Celadon /Exile	Solitude (low security systems)	Phoenix Nebula	500, 500	1000	None	No	No
	Fountain	Flowing Nebula	,2000	2,000	1,000 Thermal	No	No
	Fountain	Thick Nebula	1000	1000	?	Yes	No
	Fountain (Pegasus constellation)	Diamond Nebula	3000, 3000	6000	1000 EM + 1000 thermal	Yes	No
		Massive Nebula	14,224	14,224	800 thermal	Yes	No
		Peacock Nebula	3000	6000	1000 EM + 1000 thermal	No	No
Viridian /Drop	Placid (low security systems)	Forgotten Nebula	500, 500	1000	None	No	No
	Cloud Ring	Frosty Nebula	1000, 1000	2000	None	Yes	No
	Cloud Ring	Goose Nebula	400, 400, 400, 400, 400	2000	1000 thermal	No	No
	Cloud Ring (Assilot constellation)	Icy Nebula	3000, 3000	6000	1000 EM + 1000 thermal	Yes	No
		Pale Nebula	3000, ?	?	1000 thermal	No	No
		Polar Bear Nebula	18000	18000	800 thermal	Yes	No
Azure /Sooth Sayer	Molden Heath (low security systems)	Rapture Nebula	700, 700	1400	None	No	No
	Wicked Creek	Crystal Nebula	400, 400, 400, 400, 400	2000	400 thermal	No	No
	Wicked Creek	Snowy Owl Nebula	2000	2000	None	Yes	No
	Wicked Creek (760-9C constellation)	Arctic Fox Nebula	9000	9000	700 EM 700 thermal	Yes	No
		Glistening Nebula	3000, 3000	3000	6000 EM + 1000 thermal	Yes	No
		Murky Nebula	1500, 1500	3000	1000 EM + 1000 thermal	No	No
Vermillion /X-Instinct	Heimatar (low security systems)	Saintly Nebula	200, 300	500	?	No	No
	Feythabolis	Boisterous Nebula	2000	2000	1000 thermal	No	No
	Feythabolis (I-3ODK constellation)	Cardinal Nebula	3000, 3000	6000	1000 EM + 1000 thermal	Yes	No
		Red Dragonfly Nebula	18000	18000	700 EM 700 thermal	Yes	No
		Wispy Nebula	3000, 3000	6000	1000 EM + 1000 thermal	No	Yes

Fullerenes

Main article: Wormhole gas sites

Fullerenes are used in Tech 3 and Capital production, and can only be found at sites in wormhole space. It comes in several different flavors of varying value. Fullerite gas sites spawn in all classes of wormhole, but the valuable Instrumental Core Reservoir and Vital Core Reservoir will only spawn in C5 and C6 wormholes, or shattered wormholes of any class.

Most fullerene sites are empty when first warped to, but will spawn several Sleepers after a certain amount of time, usually about 15-20 minutes. Thus, it is possible to "ninja harvest" wormhole gas sites by harvesting gas until the sleepers arrive, and then warping away before they can attack. However, the Ordinary Perimeter Reservoir starts with 5 sentry drones, which will blow up any Venture that warps there, and should be avoided until they are cleared.

Most fullerenes are very profitable, though dangerous to harvest.

Name	Volume (m³)	Found in		Value
Name	Volume (m³)	Primary	Secondary	Value
C50	1	Barren Perimeter Reservoir	Sizable Perimeter Reservoir	Low
C60	1	Token Perimeter Reservoir	Barren Perimeter Reservoir	Low
C70	1	Minor Perimeter Reservoir	Token Perimeter Reservoir	Mid
C72	2	Ordinary Perimeter Reservoir	Minor Perimeter Reservoir	Mid
C84	2	Sizable Perimeter Reservoir	Ordinary Perimeter Reservoir	Low
C28	2	Bountiful Frontier Reservoir	Vast Frontier Reservoir	Mid
C32	5	Vast Frontier Reservoir	Bountiful Frontier Reservoir	Low
C320	5	Instrumental Core Reservoir	Vital Core Reservoir	High
C540	10	Vital Core Reservoir	Instrumental Core Reservoir	High

Harvesting process

Harvesting a gas cloud is very similar to mining an asteroid. Equip the appropriate harvesting module to a ship, locate a gas cloud, approach and target it, and activate the harvesting module. At the end of each module cycle, gas will be deposited into the cargo or mining hold. The visual effect of the harvesters is much more subdued than mining lasers, requiring you to zoom the camera very close to the ship to see.

Make sure you have gas clouds displayed in your overview, as they are not selectable by default. To do this, right click the overview, select open overview settings, select the filter tab, open the celestials folder, and check the Harvestable Clouds box (see screenshot right).

Gas can be stored in the mining/gas holds of specialized mining and hauling ships. Units of mykoserocin and cytoserocin are bulkier than individual ore units at 10 m³, while the various types of fullerite gas range from 1 to 10 m³. The range of the harvester module is much shorter than a mining laser at only 1.5 km, but the clouds are large and non-collideable.

Skills

Gas harvesting has very few skills related to it. The primary skill is Gas Cloud Harvesting, which can be bought for 30M ISK from the specialized NPC vendors, or marked up PC sell orders. This skill is trainable by alpha clones to level II. This skill requires Mining IV. You can only use one gas cloud harvester per trained skill level. Note that this is very different from normal mining, where the number of mining lasers is not determined by skills. Getting the skill to V allows for Tech 2 harvesters to be used, which have 100% increased yield over Tech 1. Gas Cloud Harvesting should be trained either to II (to equip two harvesters on a Venture or Prospect) or V (to use T2 harvesters).

Additionally, Ventures and Prospects decrease their gas harvesting cycle duration with the Mining Frigate skill. This is the only other skill that increases gas harvesting yield, other than command bursts.

General fitting and tanking skills are also recommended in order to safely fly a well fitted harvesting ship.

Equipment

To get gas, you need gas cloud scoops/harvesters and a ship to put them on. There are very few real options in fitting a gas harvesting ship. Unlike regular mining, there are no modules or rigs to increase yield. There are no gas equivalents to the Mining Laser Upgrade. For each level of the Gas Cloud Harvesting skill you can fit one additional gas cloud scoop/harvester(up to a total of 5 at skill level V); all gas cloud miners have a range of 1.5 km

Gas cloud scoops

Gas cloud scoops are placed in the high slots and require a turret hardpoint each. These modules are intended to be used with Mining frigates, but can be fit to any ship that has a turret hardpoint.

Module	Tech	Meta			Cycle	Yield per cycle	Yield per minute	Residue Multiplier	Residue Probability	Skill
Gas Cloud Scoop I	I	0	60	2	30	10	20	0 x	0 %	Gas Cloud Harvesting I
'Crop' Gas Cloud Scoop	I	1	48	2	40	20	30	2 x	100 %	Gas Cloud Harvesting I
'Plow' Gas Cloud Scoop	I	1	60	2	40	20	30	4 x	100 %	Gas Cloud Harvesting I
Gas Cloud Scoop II	II	5	70	5	40	20	30	1 x	34 %	Gas Cloud Harvesting V
Syndicate Gas Cloud Scoop	◇	6	26	2	30	20	40	0 x	0 %	Gas Cloud Harvesting I
Click on the column headers to sort the table; mouse over them for a more detailed explanation. More information: Skills - Tech and Meta levels.

Gas cloud harvesters

Gas cloud harvesters are placed in the high slots. These modules are restricted to be used with Mining Barges and Exhumers. Harvesters mine a larger amount but with a longer cycle time.

Module	Tech	Meta			Cycle	Yield per cycle	Yield per minute	Residue Multiplier	Residue Probability	Skill
Gas Cloud Harvester I	I	0	60	10	200	100	30	0 x	0 %	Gas Cloud Harvesting I
Gas Cloud Harvester II	II	5	66	10	160	200	75	1 x	34 %	Gas Cloud Harvesting V
ORE Gas Cloud Harvester	◇	6	50	10	160	200	75	0 x	0 %	Gas Cloud Harvesting V
Click on the column headers to sort the table; mouse over them for a more detailed explanation. More information: Skills - Tech and Meta levels.

Ships

With the arrival of the Catalyst expansion, options have expanded in regards to gas harvesting.

While gas cloud scoops can be mounted on any ship with turret slots, gas is very voluminous and should only be harvested using ships supporting a mining hold to carry any meaningful amount of gas. The entry-level ship, but also the most widely used ship, for gas harvesting is the Venture, which has a decent mining hold and a bonus to gas cloud scoop yield.

The Pioneer, while having an additional turret slot, has a reduced bonus to yield, which results in a nearly identical harvest rate per second as a venture, while being less maneuverable. It, however, boasts a larger mining hold, as well as more tank and drone bandwidth to defend itself.

The faction ships, Venture Consortium Issue and Pioneer Consortium Issue, have no additional bonus to gas harvesting, and only have a slightly increased mining hold and stronger combat capabilities when compared to their tech I variants. Due to the significant additional cost of the hulls, they are seldom used for this activity.

The Prospect is the second most popular choice for gas harvesting. While having the same bonuses as the Venture, it is more maneuverable, tankier, has more slots for utility and, most importantly, has the ability to fit a Covert Ops Cloaking Device, giving it more safety in the hostile environments in which the more valuable forms of gas are found. In addition, it has a significantly larger mining hold for the gas, and a larger regular cargo hold allowing for a mobile depot to be carried. However, it is substantially more expensive than the Venture and gives up the integrated warp core stability. These two factors combines with the dangerous locations where gas clouds are found explain the general preference for the Venture.

In addition to mining frigates and destroyers, all Mining Barges and Exhumers have bonuses to gas harvesting. However, their low mobility makes them a risky choice. For this reason, they are usually only used in fleets where proper defensive capabilities are in place. Their attributes and bonuses in regards to gas harvesting are in line with their bonuses for mining:

Covetor/ Hulk : Highest yield, low tank, small mining hold
Retriever/ Mackinaw : Medium yield, medium tank, largest mining hold
Procurer/ Skiff : Low yield, highest tank, medium mining hold, +drone damage

As a support to gas harvesting, the Industrial Command Ships, the Porpoise and the Orca, can be used to apply boosts and provide compression to huffing fleets. The usage of these ships is in line with the usage of mining barges, and is strongly discouraged if not part of a properly defended fleet.

Finally, in order to provide boosts to smaller gas huffing fleets, Command Destroyers are a very popular choice. In particular, the Outrider, introduced by the Catalyst expansion, is a perfect fit for this role, as it has a very decent mining hold to carry harvested gas and, as such, can also fit gas cloud scoops.

Boosts

Main article: Command Bursts

While some buffs apply differently to gas harvesting than mining, there are two Mining Foreman Bursts that are very effective when fielding a command ship or command destroyer: Mining Laser Optimization and Mining Laser Efficiency. The mining laser optimization will fully apply, reducing the cycle time (and as such increasing yield) of harvesting modules, and the mining laser efficiency, while having no effect on critical chance since gas cloud scoops and gas cloud harvesters cannot apply critical hits, will nonetheless reduce residue, increasing the total yield per cloud.

Implants

Main article: Skill Hardwiring

The Eifyr and Co. 'Alchemist' Gas Harvesting is the only implant range which affects gas harvesting. It reduces gas harvester cycle time, and is available in 1%, 3%, and 5% varieties. They are sold in most industry-oriented NPC corporation LP stores.

Gas value

Gas does not have to be refined in order to use it, as ore and ice products do. It can be used directly in various Reactions. The difference in value between gasses can be extreme, due to the scarcity of the gas and the value of the end products. While C320/540 is highly valuable, the risk versus reward is often too high for beginners. Many find that a more manageable target is to harvest C50 as the risk is low and the reward is decent. Harvesting C320/540 will normally require several people working together, which usually means using haulers and a dedicated scout.

External links

Fuzzwork - The Forge Gas prices - measured in isk / Venture load.
Wormhole Gas Sites (Google Spreadsheet)

[azure-1] Azure Mykoserocin is available in unlimited quantities from the Gas Training Sites in the Career Agent Systems. Each site contains a single circular cloud that has 100 units of gas in it. The sites immediately respawn when someone enters them. There is, however, a bug where some clouds may occasionally mysteriously despawn after only giving up 2 units even though when scanned, they appear to contain 100. All the Career agent systems contain Azure gas in their gas sites regardless of the racial gas type of the region. Thus, these sites can prove to be a valuable source of Azure gas in areas that would not normally have access to it.

[note 1]