EVE New Citizens Q&A

What are the chances of getting special spawn in asteroid belt like i know it depends on region and sec status but i cant find numbers anywhere,and ccp doesnt want to show them so is there any veteran out there that can give me aprrox how many cleared belts to get one with special spawn in -0.5 sec sov space

To expand on that number a bit:

1 in 20 is an average with no guarantee. The special spawns have a 50/50 chance of being a hauler spawn or a faction spawn. So it's about 1 in 40 for each one individually.

as far as I know those numbers are the same everywhere with only one complicating factor that is so insignificant that it's not worth figuring in.

The complicating factor is officer spawns. Those are extremely rare and only one can spawn in a region at any given time. As far as I recall reading Officer spawns only stay spawned for 20 minutes and if not killed warp off and despawn. Officer spawns can only spawn in NPC null and -1.0 true sec. IIRC there are only about seven -1.0 true sec systems in the game. I had an alt in a corp that had a station in one once and can recall seeing officer loot the payout for the mining ops.

The reason that I say officer spawns are not worth mentioning is because in NPC null they can spawn anywhere in the region and you don't typically have enough people ratting in NPC null to kick up the spawn rate enough to make the RNG kick in and spawn an officer all that often. Also it's region wide so the chance of someone spotting it and killing it within 20 minutes is probably not good either. So unless you are in a sov holding Alliance with a -1.0 true sec system that is being held deep in blue space where people rat freely, you probably will never see on in all of your Eve career.

Just as a note I'm not sure if the 20 minute despawn timer works for faction spawns but I think it does.

Also keep in mind that my info on this is dated. I know they made some changes in how belt rats spwan a few years ago to eliminate the 'chaining" mechanic from the game. However I don't think that they've changed how special spawns work.

Also worth noting is that I believe the officer spawns figure in on the special spawn rate so in NPC null and -1.0 true sec you'd have something like a 49.99% chance of getting a hauler and a 49.99% of getting a faction spawn and a very low chance of getting an officer spawn when the special spawn number came up. I am not at all certain of the exact numbers on this and the 49.99% numbers are just there as a conceptual example.

Also worth noting is that I believe that you will see people talk about commander spawns which to me are just faction spawns with better loot. For example when you get a faction spawn you could get lucky and get something good or you could get noting more than faction ammo.

So the regular faction spawns will drop regular faction ammo like for Sanshas it will be called Sanshas multi or what ever and for the commander it will be True Sanshas multi or what ever. Other than the True Sansha versus Sansha or Guristas versus Drread Guristas and the likelihood that the commanders probably have a better chance of dropping better loot I'm not sure how to classify them nor am I sure how to tell the difference between a lucky regular faction spawn and an normal or unluck commander spawn. Therefore I've lumped them together.

I think that is because the wreck will be labeled something like "pirate faction size commander wreck" I think faction/commander spawn is pretty interchangeable. so for the expedition I got the other day I killed a dread guristas Plunderer, and got a "Guristas small commander wreck" Also commander wrecks can be salvaged for t2 salvage.

now in say worlds collide you can get a "shadow serpentis" (will change depending on which version you run) spawn that is just a normal rat, generally pretty easy to spot as the bounty is low and the type is a normal rat, but sometimes you get a faction spawn that can drop faction loot, so the bounty is high and the type will also reflect shadow serpentis. and then the wreck will be shadow serpentis large commander wreck.

plexs are a bit different, going with the guristas example:
in the 3/10 there is a dread guristas Irregular in the final room and that is what drops the loot. I'm not 100% sure what that wreck is called
in the 4/10 there is an overseer in the first room that can drop some loot, and a deadspace overseer's structure that drops the loot in the last room. I think the overseer wreck is labeled "Faction size overseer wreck" but I haven't done one in a while and can't remember off the top of my head. the structure wreck is just a normal cargo can if I remember right.