The latest expansion for the long-running EVE Online brings dramatic changes to the star systems that players have called home for over 20 years. Developer CCP Games’ MMO has long offered players a sandbox to play out their sci-fi dreams. Unlike other games where professions and roles are defined, in EVE Online you can play how you wish, becoming whatever mix of miner, trader, mercenary, or pirate you like.

With the Equinox expansion, CCP Games enriches that sandbox even further by adding a suite of new megastructures. Territory has always been important in EVE Online. Each star system is connected to its neighbors by jump gates. When a region is held by a Corporation—the game’s equivalent of guilds—it can make travel through this space hard for the Corporation's enemies.

Equinox takes this territorial ownership further. The new megastructures enable players to alter the fabric of the space they control. A Corporation can significantly increase the value of its territory—but also, in doing so, make itself a target for its enemies.

Along with these new structures, the Equinox expansion also brings new features, resources, and ships that will ignite wars across EVE Online, with thousands of players encouraged and incentivized to battle each other for control of star systems and the valuable rewards that Sovereignty provides.

There’s a huge amount to dig through in the upcoming expansion, so we’ve put together this guide to explain the most significant changes.

Sovereignty Hub and nullsec space upgrades

At the heart of the Equinox expansion is a new structure called the Sovereignty Hub. When a player-run Corporation builds one of these massive space stations in a nullsec region, it takes control of that star system, unlocking the ability to make significant changes to its territory.

Corporations can fit their Sovereignty Hubs with upgrades that alter the region, introducing more dangerous combat anomalies, new pockets of resources to mine, and even creating a permanent jump beacon that makes it easier to call in reinforcements at short notice.

With Sovereignty Hub upgrades, Corporations can shape their star systems to fit their strategic goals. If there's a particular resource they need, for instance, they can tailor their hub to spawn anomalies packed with that ore, allowing them to mine it locally in well-defended space rather than try to source it in enemy territory. If the Corporation is more combat-focused, they can fit their hub with upgrades that spawn more combat anomalies. Defeating the enemy waves that appear in those locations then provides players with a steady source of valuable loot drops.

Corporations that own and operate Sovereignty Hubs stand to earn huge bonuses from the space they control. However, with only one hub able to operate in a star system, they must be prepared to defend the megastructure from their enemies. In this way, Equinox will kick off a whole wave of galactic conflicts.

Orbital Skyhook and colony resources

It’s not enough to build a Sovereignty Hub. To reap the benefits of the facility, you'll need to keep it supplied with a steady stream of colony resources—Power, Workforce, and Reagents. These new resources will create a lot of challenges and opportunities for EVE Online players.

Corporations can extract colony resources from the thousands of planets that populate the star systems of New Eden. Once players install an Orbital Skyhook above a planet’s surface, the structure will receive a steady supply of resources generated on the surface.

The Orbital Skyhook extracts different resources depending on the planet's type. Barren, oceanic, and temperate planets provide Workforce. Gas, plasma, storm planets, and suns provide Power. Lava planets produce the Magmatic Gas Reagent. Ice planets produce the Superionic Ice Reagent.

Sovereignty Hubs require Power to operate, and each new upgrade increases the energy it consumes. As you can’t transfer Power between systems, and there are only so many planets in each system, there's a hard limit to the number of upgrades you can have running in any given Sovereignty Hub.

Workforce is similar to Power, but the resource can be transferred between systems. Corporations may run a system that has many temperate planets, and, with the right upgrades, it could transport laborers to work in Sovereignty Hubs in less-well-populated areas of space.

You use Reagents to fuel Sovereignty Hub upgrades. Unlike Power and Workforce, you can also sell reagents on the market, creating a new commodity for EVE Online’s industrialists and economists to start trading.
 

Fuel for war, betrayal, and theft

Colony resources are the backbone of Equinox’s new features and structures, and they will also drive the most opportunities for players looking to create a little chaos.

The galaxy of New Eden is full of star systems, but they are not all created equal. The number and variety of planets differ from star system to star system, as does the number of jump gates that connect them to neighboring territories. When capturing a star system and building a Sovereignty Hub, Corporations must think hard about how they will power and defend the structure.

Some Corporations will want to seize the systems with the potential to power the most upgrades, as this allows them to alter the system to spawn stacks of resource-rich anomalies. However, these systems will be visibly valuable to all of their enemies. Others may want an out-of-the-way system that's less attractive to other Corporations, even if it has limited growth opportunities.

Players need to keep their megastructure resourced to remain operational, which may require drawing Workforce from neighboring systems and buying Reagents off the open market. As such, enemies looking to hurt the Corporation need only cut those supply lines to starve the Sovereignty Hub of fuel.

Equinox’s new megastructures don’t solely present opportunities for Corporations who can afford to build them. The Reagents extracted by Orbital Skyhooks must sit in the station for a while before being transported. Bold players who can get close to the facility can empty the hold of Reagents to then sell on the open market—if they can escape to safety. As Orbital Skyhook owners must physically transport the Reagents the facilities collect, ships carrying valuable commodities are also ripe targets for pirates.

Between Sovereignty Hubs, with their ability to alter entire star systems, and the new colony resources required to power these megastructures, EVE Online’s Equinox expansion imbues new value to all of the nullsec regions in the 20-year-old MMO.

But that’s not all that’s coming in the new expansion.

Metenox Moon Drill

EVE Online players have long been able to mine the game’s moons, but the process is involved and expensive, making it only attractive to mining-focused Corporations. The new Metenox Moon Drill makes extracting ore from space rock much more approachable.

Players can build the giant space laser in range of moons in nullsec, lowsec, and wormholes, and leave the Metenox Moon Drill to extract ore for them automatically. So long as they keep the structure topped up with fuel blocks and Reagents, it will produce a passive stream of valuable ore for them to refine or sell elsewhere.

The Metenox Moon Drill is less efficient than Athanor and Tatara refineries, but it’s also less time-intensive to run, meaning if your Corporation is more combat-focused, you can now get into the moon-mining game without it taking up too much of your time. Alternatively, mining-focused Corporations can use a Metenox Moon Drill to extract ore from less valuable moons while focusing primarily on satellites with richer ore deposits.
 

New ships

The Equinox expansion also features four new ships: the Squall, the Deluge, the Torrent, and the Avalanche. They're all haulers of various types, which makes sense given Equinox's focus on resource-intensive megastructures. However, these cargo ships carry much more firepower than you might expect.

The Squall is a new entry-level hauler that has boosts to infrastructure hold capacity and missile damage, making it a great ship to take on raids where you think you’ll earn a large pile of loot. While they won’t be much use in frontline combat, if you’re flying with other players who can dish out the real damage, you can both attack from the rear and scoop up all the goodies left over.

The Deluge is a capable blockade runner. It carries less than the Squall, and its missiles do less damage, but it’s faster and provides bonuses to cloaking devices. This could be the ship for people looking to rob a rival’s Orbital Skyhook.

The Torrent is slower than the Squall and the Deluge but has a massive hold, more firepower, and more armor. If you’re transporting Reagents through dangerous territory, the Torrent may become your go-to ship.

The Avalanche is a new freighter and the first in EVE Online to feature high-power slots, letting you fit the massive ship with high-damage weaponry and even Capital Flex Hardeners, which would further boost its hitpoints. While the other new ships make hauling cargo a bit safer, the Avalanche could find itself right at home in EVE Online’s biggest battles thanks to its weapon and armor bonuses.
 

Selling skins

In recent years, developer CCP Games has provided more tools for EVE Online players to customize their ships, and in the Equinox expansion, it’s now letting players profit from these tools.

The paint schemes players design in the SKINR tool can now be sequenced and sold through a new market called the Paragon Hub. The price of the skins is dictated by how complex they are and the rarity of the emblems and other design elements included. You can also create ship skins in bulk to sell or distribute to other players in your Corporation.

These are the major additions coming to EVE Online in the Equinox expansion on June 11, but there are also even more granular changes, such as improvements to the Corporation management UI, new progression goals that will encourage you to keep playing each month, and rewards for reaching in-game milestones.

If you’re a long-time player or looking to get stuck into the space MMO, there's a lot to be excited about in the Equinox expansion. EVE Online and the Equinox expansion are available now in the Epic Games Store.