Serpentis Watch

Site Details

Serpentis Watch
Type	Unrated Complex
Rating	Unrated
Found in	High
Max ship size	Battlecruisers/T3
Faction	Serpentis
Best damage to deal	Kin Th
Damage to resist	Th Kin
Sig. strength	5% in High

Serpentis Watch is an Unrated Complex which can be found in Hi-sec through exploration. The biggest ships in this site are two battlecruisers, one in each pocket. Serpentis rats weakest resistance is against thermal damage and they on average deal 55% thermal damage and 45% kinetic damage. If using a drone boat, set drones to passive and focus fire so they won't accidentally shoot the trigger ship and spawn the next wave, overwhelming you.

Difficulty & Ship Recommendation

Recommended ships	Heavy Assault Cruiser T1 Cruisers (with good skills) T1 Battlecruisers

This site is possible to complete in a T1 Cruiser, however the damage can easily become excessive if care is not taken managing the triggers. It is recommended to bring a well-tanked T2 Heavy Assault Cruiser or Battlecruiser.

Total expected enemies

Enemy Type	Count
Frigates	6-10
Destroyers	32-36
Cruiser	49-60
Battlecruisers	2

Walkthrough

Upon warping to the site a popup appears saying:
Previous explorers have commented that one of the gates requires a passkey. Alternatively, it can be bypassed by convincing the commander to unlock it. The overseer guards the Starbase Control Tower vigorously.

You will arrive at an ancient acceleration gate.

First Pocket

There are three options for unlocking the Acceleration gate to the next room.

• Destroy each wave until the fourth wave, and destroy the Corelum Militant Commander
• Approach the Acceleration gate, which sets off the alarm and spawns the fourth wave, skipping waves 2 and 3, and destroy the Corelum Militant Commander. If you cannot tank the rats, destroy all of them EXCEPT FOR THE CORELUM SCOUT.
• Unlock the Acceleration gate by having a Serpentis Silver Tag in your inventory (the tag is consumed).

Attack the Corelum Scout to trigger the next wave.

Initial defenders

		WD	EWAR	L
	5 - 7 x Destroyer Corelior Artillery/Infantry/Soldier/Trooper
	6 - 8 x Cruiser Corelum Chief Patroller/Watchman
	1 x Cruiser Corelum Scout

In local:
As it's attacked, the Corelum Scout immediately calls for backup.

Attack the Corelum Scout to trigger the next wave.

Second wave

		WD	EWAR	L
	1 - 2 x Elite Frigate Coreli Guardian Patroller/Watchman
	6 - 8 x Cruiser Corelum Chief Infantry/Sentinel/Safeguard
	1 x Cruiser Corelum Scout

In local:
As it's attacked, the Corelum Scout immediately calls for backup.

Attack the Corelum Scout to trigger the next wave.

Third Wave

		WD	EWAR	L
	5 - 7 x Destroyer Corelior Artillery/Infantry/Soldier/Trooper
	6 - 8 x Cruiser Corelum Chief Patroller/Watchman
	1 x Cruiser Corelum Scout

In local:
Militant Commander: Well well, look who the cat dragged in. I explicitly told those good-for-nothing rats to prevent anyone from approaching the gate, and yet here you are. I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you now.

Destroy the Corelum Militant Commander to unlock the Acceleration Gate.

Fourth Wave

		WD	EWAR	L
	4 - 5 x Cruiser Militant Commander's Escorter (Corelum Chief Defender/Chief Protector)
	1 x Battlecruiser Corelum Militant Commander (Corelatis Squad Leader)

In local:
Something clicks in the gate once the Militant Commander has been destroyed.

Structures	L
1 x Acceleration Gate

16 x Scordite 26 x Veldspar

Second Pocket

In local:
Someone triggered an alarm near the acceleration gate.

Initial Defenders 40km - 55km

		WD	EWAR	L
	2 - 3 x Frigate Coreli Guard/Protector
	2 - 3 x Destroyer Corelior Soldier/Trooper

Tower wave is triggered by attacking the Starbase Control Tower. It will not spawn if the Gate Wave is already destroyed.

In local:
Smuggler Gate Operator: Intruders! Defend the gate! A distress signal is sent when the Starbase Control Tower is attacked! Hostile reinforcements are incoming! A group of Core activists have jumped through the stargate to defend the Starbase Control Tower!

Tower Wave

		WD	EWAR	L
45km - 55km, right of the Smuggler's Gate
	4 x Destroyer Corelior Artillery/Sentinel/Soldier/Trooper
	3 - 4 x Cruiser Corelum Chief Scout/Chief Spy
Near Smuggler's Gate
	4 x Cruiser Core Gate Guardian (Corelum Chief Scout/Chief Spy)

Gate wave is triggered by attacking the Smuggler's Gate. Simply using an EWAR module(preferably Target Painter) works. Shooting at the gate will also trigger tower wave if it has not been triggered already.

The gate wave consists of one large group by the gate and three smaller groups scattered around the site. Once all groups are in range the incoming dps can be too much for t1 cruiser or even a battlecruiser.

In local:
Core Militant Overseer: Imbeciles. I'm surrounded by imbeciles. I spent a fortune on this place and you can't even defend it from some rag-tag outsiders. Pfft! I deal with you all after I mob the floor with these pests. The overseer has come to defend the stargate. Prepare for a fight.

In local
As soon as the smuggler gate is attacked, it activates and out comes a group of angry Core guardians.

Gate Wave

		WD	EWAR	L
Near Smuggler's Gate
	3 - 5 x Elite Frigate Supervisor's Henchman (Coreli Guardian Guard/Safeguard)
	7 x Destroyer Corelior Sentinel/Trooper
	7 x Cruiser Corelum Chief Sentinel
	2 x Cruiser Supervisor's Guardian
	1 x Battlecruiser Core Militant Supervisor
35km - 55km from gate
	3 x Destroyer Corelior Sentinel/Trooper
	3 x Cruiser Corelum Chief Sentinel/Infantry
35km - 55km from gate
	3 x Destroyer Corelior Sentinel/Trooper
	3 x Cruiser Corelum Chief Sentinel/Infantry
35km - 55km from gate
	3 x Destroyer Corelior Sentinel/Trooper
	3 x Cruiser Corelum Chief Sentinel/Infantry

The commander wave is triggered by destroying Supervisor's Guardians (in the Gate Wave). The Shadow Serpentis frigate will approach you very quickly, at 1700 m/s. He can be separated from the others, therefore avoiding a lot of DPS. Supervisor's Henchmen tend to keep behind the supervisor and regularly retarget drones.

Commander Wave, near Smuggler's Gate

		WD	EWAR	L
	0 - 1 x Commander Frigate Shadow Serpentis Guard/Safeguard
	2 x Cruiser Corelum Chief Protector

Escalation

This site has a chance to escalate to Jet-Set Hooligans.

Expeditions: Jet-Set Hooligans
As the dust disperses, you receive a transmission from a few jumps away. You feel a certain temptation to go and investigate.

Previously the escalation message was much more entertaining and read

Expeditions: Jet-Set Hooligans

As the dust disperses, you receive a transmission from someone claiming to have had some rather intimite relations with your sister and that he is waiting for you a few jumps away, to see what you are going to do about it. Despite the fact that you have no sister that you know of and the guy sounds like he has been drinking more than just Quafe, you feel a certain temptation to go and see what this is all about.

Loot

Overview

	Est. value
Bounties	4M - 5M ISK
Commander Loot Avg.	5M ISK

Commander and other valuable loot

Item Name	Est. Value	Note
Mid-Grade Snake Alpha/Beta/Gamma/Delta	10M - 150M ISK
Mid-Grade Asklepian Alpha/Beta	40M - 55M ISK
Daredevil blueprint

Exploration logs

Date	Loot	Est. value	Comments
Nov. 2014	Mid-Grade Snake Alpha	9M ISK
Nov. 2014	Mid-Grade Snake Beta	25M ISK
Jul. 2017	Shadow Serpentis Thermal Plating	0.5M ISK
Nov. 2019	Shadow Serpentis Tracking Computer	166M ISK
May 2020	Shadow Serpentis Warp Scrambler	72M ISK	Doable in a double armor-rep tank Gnosis, though the supervisor wave has very high DPS.
May 2020	Mid-grade Snake Delta	135M ISK
Jul. 2022	Mid-grade Snake Alpha	21M ISK
Jul. 2022	Shadow Serpentis Sensor Booster	41M ISK
Sep. 2024	Shadow Serpentis Damage Control	218M ISK	Done on an Alpha Prophecy with T2 fit. Slowboating away from gate wave and shooting provides 0 challenge. 320 DPS on Standards is enough, NPC didn't focus drones at all.