Mare Sargassum

Site Details

Mare Sargassum
Type	Expedition
Rating	Unrated
Found in	High. Low
Max ship size	Unknown
Faction	Rogue Drones
Best damage to deal	EM Th
Damage to resist	Ex Kin Th
Sig. strength	N/A

Overview

Mare Sargassum is an expedition found by completing Desolate Site combat sites. It may contain up to four parts. The first three will be in high-sec space, while the fourth can be in low-sec or high-sec. The sites do not have gates, and can be easily completed in a cruiser.

Incoming transmission

At first it seems strange the drones have picked this barren and resource deficient place to build a new hive. But then again, while you were blowing up the place, you noticed a few vessels that might have been used as transports, indicating the drones were pulling in the materials they needed from someplace else. As to compliment you on your reasoning, your communication systems start indicating several different incoming transmissions in drone beeps and clicks and after a while you manage to coerce your instruments into pointing out an approximate spatial origin of the message.

Walkthrough

Part 1

---

Warp-in message
Heuristic analysis of this location indicates that attacking the Trash Construction would greatly improve your odds of uncovering further illicit activity.

The initial defenders can vary wildly.

The initial defenders consists of around 6 frigates and one sentient drone.

• Note: Trash Construction is not vulnerable (despite warp-in message) - just approach it to trigger reinforcement wave. (On 26-Nov-YC124 destroying elite frigates didn't trigger reinforcement wave.)

Initial defenders

		WD	EWAR	L
	4-6 x Frigate Sunder/... Alvi
	0-2 x Elite Frigate Strain Infester Alvi
	1 x Commander Frigate Sentient Alvi

Reinforcement wave triggers when the elite frigates are destroyed. It is possible to have this wave included in initial defenders, possibly due to warping through the trash construct.

Reinforcement wave

		WD	EWAR	L
	3-4 x Frigate Devilfish/... Alvi
	3-4 x Destroyer Ripper/Shatterer Alvior

Two additional spawns triggered by killing ships from initial spawn

Wave #2

		WD	EWAR	L
	4 x Frigate Barracuda/Devilfish Alvi

Wave #3

		WD	EWAR	L
	2 x Frigate Silverfish Alvi

Dead end message
All the drones have been obliterated, no clues are offered on where more can be found and your expedition seems to have come to a dead end.

Escalation message

Most of the drones have been obliterated, but a few made it away. Luckily the average drone operates in part like a jukebox trying to play all its tracks repeatedly at the same time over the airwaves, relying on the other drones to filter out the information they need and disregard the rest. Therefore they are usually easy to find while within reasonable range and this time is no different. Your instruments concentrate on messages from one of the escaped drones and after having filtered through several thousand repetitions of electrical manuals for every hydraulic system built the last three hundred years this side of the Myridian Strip, the entire known literature on the theory of relativity recited three times and for some obscure reason a text on the effect of oriental gardening on the human condition played simultaneously on four parallel channels, they finally come across a new location:

Part 2

---

There is at least one reinforcement wave. The escalation can be triggered by killing either the Sentient drone, or all enemies except the Sentient drone.

Initial defenders

		WD	EWAR	L
	9-10 x Frigate Decimator/... Alvi
	3-6 x Destroyer Predator/... Alvior
	1 x Commander Destroyer Sentient Shatter/... Alvior

Timed Wave

		WD	EWAR	L
	3-4 x Frigate Hunter/... Alvi

Local chat channel message
Drone Signal: Location ðrzs found, location þeðy alerted.

Escalation message
The current strategy chosen by the drones seems to be running away as fast as they can. Your instruments have no problems tracking their destination

Escalation fail

The current strategy chosen by the drones seems to be running away as fast as they can in every conceivable direction. For a while you are getting transmissions from all over the place and your tracking devices try desperately to make sense of all this information, but all of a sudden all waves are quiet and you realize that the drones deception has succeeded, you have no clue where to go to hunt them.

Part 3

---

Fewer rogue drones, and killing the sentient drone once again triggered the escalation. As a bonus, you get to see a great big red cube in space. The Borg turned more evil?

Initial defenders

		WD	EWAR	L
	5 x Frigate Raider/... Alvi
	0-2 x Elite Frigate Strain Infester Alvi
	2-3 x Destroyer Marauder/... Alvior
	1 x Commander Destroyer Sentient Ripper/... Alvior

Wave 2

		WD	EWAR	L
	4 x Frigate Barracuda Alvi
	4 x Destroyer Predator/... Alvior

Escalation message
You notice that all of these cans bear the markings of the same space station. After checking in your databanks, you find that this particular station was destroyed decades ago and has remained deserted ever since. You retrieve the location...

Part 4

---

This part may be in a low-sec system (26 Feb 2017 ended in a .5 system / 26 Apr 2017 ended in .6 system / 26 Aug 2019 ended in a .3 system / 9 Dec 2019 ended in a .5 system / 3 Sep 2020 ended in a .2 system / 18 Mar 2024 ended in Ahbazon).

5 small rogue drones waiting on warpin, and 5 "Drone Hold" cans. Completion popup happened after blowing up the first wave and starting to open cans. Strain Splinter drones can warp scram and web. Two reinforcement waves later appeared, one with a Rogue Mining Overseer dropping T2 salvage. One of the Drone Hold cans contained some drone goo (Dark Compound, Condensed Compound).

Initial defenders

		WD	EWAR	L
	4 x Frigate Raider/Hunter Alvi
	1 x Elite Frigate Strain Splinter/... Alvi

Timed Wave

		WD	EWAR	L
	3 x Frigate Hunter/Silverfish Alvi
	4 x Destroyer Marauder/Dismantler Alvior

Reinforcement Wave

		WD	EWAR	L
	2 x Frigate Hunter/... Alvi
	2 x Destroyer Marauder/... Alvior

Reinforcement Wave

		WD	EWAR	L
	1 x Overseer Cruiser Rogue Mining Overseer

Completion
As expected, the drones were busy turning this old station into a hive, which if they had succeeded would no doubt be spewing out innumerable copies of their kind to haunt this part of the constellation for years to come. You wonder if sentient machines can dream...if so, then this one is at least permanently broken.

Rewards

Each part has a commander rat which, when killed, will drop T2 salvage and Rogue Drone components. Lootable cans may contain drone alloys.

Loot

Overview

	Est. value
Bounties	1 million ISK

Commander and other valuable loot

Item Name	Est. Value	Note
Rogue Drone components and/or Faction modules	10-200 million ISK

Exploration logs

Date	Loot	Est. value	Comments
July 2017	Sentient Drone Navigation Computer	200M ISK	Commander Loot
July 2017	T2 Salvage	1 million ISK
July 2017	Drone Components	10 million ISK
April 2018	Drone Components + Sentient Sensor Booster	34 million ISK
August 2018	Drone Components + T2 Salvage	17 million ISK
January 2022	Drone Components + T2 Salvage	1 million ISK
February 2022	Drone Components + T2 Salvage	1 million ISK
January 2023	Drone Components + Rogue Drone 46-X Nexus Chip + T2 Salvage	56.2 million ISK
March 2024	Drone Components + T2 Salvage	1 million ISK