Fractured Skies In Focus
Steadfast capsuleers,
The Fractured Skies expansion launches on 10 November, marking the start of a new chapter in lowsec Factional Warfare that builds all the way to the first Conquest in February.
Ancient artifacts are surfacing across New Eden, and the four empires are racing to claim them in two-month Military Campaigns that any capsuleer can join.
EVE Vanguard goes live 24/7 in a paid Alpha, with a connection to EVE Online, four navy attack battlecruisers join the fight, including the long-awaited missile Naga, and nine new Synchronizer Rigs reward commitment to a single faction’s modules.
The first phase of the evolving HUD lands in Feature Preview, and new pilots get free, pre-fitted AIR Academy Ships, a refreshed AIR Career Program, and dozens of the most popular level one missions become clearer and more visually stunning. Additionally, there are several new quality-of-life additions and multiple ships get a balancing pass.
Let’s take a deeper look at everything coming in November, as well as a peek at what lies ahead.
The Path to Conquest
The Fractured Skies expansion begins in November. Use the time to rally your fleet and shape the battlefield for the fights to come. The empire escalates from here, building toward explosive Conquests in February and by spring one engine will fall.
A Race for Drifter Technology
All four empires have been quietly developing massive and dangerous Conquest Engines, built on what they’ve learned from studying Drifter technology. For now, a CONCORD-brokered pact bans their use for aggression, keeping them as a deterrent and nothing more. But pacts are fragile, and the arms race is already underway.
Now, something is shifting. Ripples in hyperspace have shaken loose ancient artifacts, surfacing across the cluster. Whoever claims them could gain a decisive edge in the race for Drifter technology, and each empire is determined it will be them.
The empires are calling capsuleers to arms. With whom will you side?
Military Campaigns: Claim the Artifacts
On 10 November, each empire launches a two-month Military Campaign to track down the artifacts and uncover where they will emerge. Any capsuleer can contribute, whether you’re enlisted in Factional Warfare or not.
Each campaign is a race against a rival empire: Amarr against Minmatar, and Caldari against Gallente. Pick a side, get to work, and help push your empire across the finish line first.
Four Objectives, Every Playstyle
Every campaign has four objectives in Factional Warfare space. You can contribute by hacking containers, destroying non-capsuleer forces, dealing damage to enemy capsuleers, or mining ore.
These activities yield faction-specific campaign items. Deliver them to item traders in your chosen empire’s headquarters system to advance the matching objective.
Rewards for Every Delivery
Every contribution pays off. You’ll earn ISK and Loyalty Points (LP) as you push an objective forward, and the item traders have their own exclusive rewards on offer, for example:
A new Glamourex booster
A new faction salvager module
Blueprints for a scanning upgrade module
Rare faction apparel
New achievements and titles are also up for grabs, with brand-new Penumbral SKINs waiting for those who earn them. Make sure you don’t miss out!
Bonuses for Your Whole Empire
Completing an objective unlocks a system-wide bonus tied to that objective, such as increased warp speed, stronger defenses, or greater damage. Bonuses apply to every ship in the designated systems, regardless of who’s flying it.
They take effect in every system under the faction’s sovereignty. In the Factional Warfare warzones, the occupying faction decides which bonuses are active, so holding territory matters more than ever.
Earned bonuses activate on 5 January, and remain active until the first Conquest begins in February.
The January Confrontation
Everything builds toward a live event mid-January, when all four empires collide in lowsec over the artifacts, and call on every capsuleer to join the fight.
Your efforts in the military campaigns will shape the battlefield. The first empire to complete all four objectives decides where the final confrontation takes place and brings its earned bonuses into that system. The bonuses are tailored to each empire’s strengths but apply to all pilots on the battlefield. In addition, the winning empire brings command carrier reinforcements, led by a faction general, to the fight. The faction that wins the battle gains a limited-time, exclusive Drifter module in its LP store.
And the losers? They won’t sit quietly. Falling behind in the arms race leaves them with one option: deploy their Conquest Engines.
Navy Attack Battlecruisers: Earned in War
With the Empires scaling up their war machines, each is fielding a new navy attack battlecruiser, a natural escalation after the navy destroyers of Cradle of War.
Attack battlecruisers are already a Factional Warfare favorite: battlecruisers that can fit battleship-sized weapons, at the cost of very low HP. That makes them glass cannons, ideal for coordinated strikes against larger targets.
The navy versions build on those strengths, gaining additional speed and firepower, an extra fitting slot, a utility high slot, and a new bonus that gives each one a sharper faction identity. If you need both mobility and firepower, these ships have it in spades.
Built for Asymmetric Warfare
These ships thrive when the odds are against you. If the enemy brings 200 ships and you bring 50, navy attack battlecruisers let you pick off targets of opportunity, hitting hard from the edges of a fight and disappearing before the enemy can answer.
They’re just as useful flying solo in Factional Warfare space, clearing out other battlecruisers, or dealing damage from range while your fleet brawls up close. Just don’t expect them to win a head-on slugfest. They still need support against frigates.
Naga Navy Issue
The Naga Navy Issue is the biggest news of the four, swapping large hybrid turrents for cruise missile and torpedo launchers. That’s right: the Caldari Navy has heard you, and the missile Naga is finally here.
It also gains an extra mid slot, giving it plenty of flexibility, and ig can rain missiles on targets from long range.
Tornado Fleet Issue
The Tornado Fleet Issue gains serious firepower, with a very large rate of fire bonus to projectile weapons. Add an extra mid slot and a large reduction to the microwarpdrive (MWD) signature radius penalty, and you have a highly evasive ship that dishes out tons of damage.
Oracle Navy Issue
The Oracle Navy Issue gains an extra low-slot and a utility high-slot, giving it added versatility and the ability to rain down destruction from afar.
Talos Navy Issue
Taking inspiration from the Exequror Navy Issue, the Talos Navy Issue is far more mobile, with a reduced armor plate mass penalty and an extra low slot. Its tracking bonus becomes a falloff bonus, letting its blasters strike further and harder, perfect for clearing damage dealers off the field at medium range.
How to Get Them
The new navy attack battlecruisers will be available exclusively from the Factional Warfare LP stores.
Synchronizer Rigs: Strength in Loyalty
Synchronizer Rigs are a brand-new rig type that grants a small set of different bonuses, often at a slightly inefficient rate on their own. The real power comes from loyalty, as every bonus increases when you fit matching faction modules.
For example, the Federation Navy Synchronizer grows stronger for every Federation Navy module fitted to your ship. Go all-in on one faction, and your rig goes all-in with you.
Nine Sets, Three Sizes
Fractured Skies introduces nine sets of synchronizers, each in three sizes:
Empire synchronizers: One for each of the four empire factions.
Pirate synchronizers: One for each of the five major pirate factions: the Angel Cartel, Blood Raiders, Guristas, Sansha’s Nation, and Serpentis.
The pirate synchronizers are a bit special. They feature unique bonuses that can’t be found on any existing rig, but they come with a large penalty. High risk, high reward, just the way pirates like it.
Where to Find Them
Empire synchronizer blueprint copies: Exclusively in each empire’s Factional Warfare LP store.
Angel and Guristas synchronizers: Insurgency LP stores.
Blood Raiders, Sansha’s Nation, and Serpentis synchronizers: The regular pirate LP stores.
A Job for Industrialists
Synchronizer Rigs need a combination of the Tech I salvage materials used by the rigs whose effects they boost, plus additional components.
For the Amarr, Caldari, and Minmatar rigs, those components come primarily from low-class wormhole content. The Gallente rigs instead use rogue drone components. Pirate synchronizers are built from a combination of the empire synchronizers, so expect demand to ripple all the way down the supply chain.
EVE Vanguard: The War on the Ground
Fractured Skies marks a major milestone: the first evergreen, 24/7 connection between EVE Online and EVE Vanguard, feeding directly into the empire conflict.
How Vanguard Shapes the Campaigns
Warclones in EVE Vanguard complete contracts and expeditions, and every completed contract increases the number of special campaign sites appearing across highsec and lowsec in EVE Online.
These sites appear as anomalies, covering PvE, mining, and exploration, and they’re packed with more campaign items than regular sites. They also vanish quickly, so act fast. You can run them on their own for rewards, or turn their items in to push your empire’s campaign forward.
This introduces a new strategy in New Eden. Have friends playing Vanguard? Coordinate, and give your empire the edge.
From February onward, Vanguard can enlist in Factional Warfare and aid their chosen empire’s Conquest,, so warclones can impact the war in the skies and on the ground.
What’s New in EVE Vanguard?
EVE Vanguard is getting a massive update in November:
New ways to find your feet: A refreshed tutorial and missions with narrative briefings introduce life as a warclone. The new Job Board offers short missions with rewards and resources.
Three new maps:
High Castle, the highsec area, offers a siege-like fortress where you can operate without PvP damage. Deploy solo or with a squad to tackle shared objectives.
Vorago, the lowsec battleground, takes you deep into a hostile chasm, where enemy forces and rival warclones stand between you and a successful extraction. Fight for your haul and try to make it out alive.
The Vault, the nullsec map, pits three squads of three against one another in a deadly PvP labyrinth whose layout changes between deployments. Fight to extract with rare Weapon Cores used to craft high-tier weapons. Three squads go in, and only one makes it out with the prize.
More to work toward: Using a weapon family earns Weapon Telemetry, opening access to more powerful variants and new loadout choices. The Gallente BR-60 Battle Rifle also joins the arsenal.
A new look and improved movement: Deploy in a new suit, vault and mantle across medium and high cover, and use refreshed interfaces for squad formation, fitting, deployment, and post-battle reports.
How to Play
The EVE Vanguard Alpha will only be accessible through the EVE launcher.
From 10 November, all players can purchase Founder’s Access to join the Alpha through the EVE launcher. This is separate from Omega status in EVE Online. Stay tuned for more details and how to get access and get ready to live out your mercenary fantasy on the ground.
Take on contracts for the four empires, advance your warclone, and help fuel the wider struggle across New Eden.
The HUD Evolves
The HUD is evolving, and a new version arrives in November. The goal isn’t to make EVE simpler, but to make its complexity easier to engage with. Clearer for new pilots, and more precise and informative for veterans, while keeping the identity of EVE’s iconic HUD intact.
This first release keeps all the existing functionality of the medallion and modules, but focuses on improving clarity, legibility, and control.
What’s Changing
Speed controls move out of the medallion, making them easier to understand and to use for complex maneuvers that need manual speed control.
Shield, armor, and hull stay grouped around the capacitor, with clearer proportions and status.
A new capacitor gauge shows how quickly you’re gaining or losing energy. Cap is life, after all.
Rack heat indicators move to the side of the medallion and point toward their respective racks, putting all overload information and interaction in one place.
Utility buttons are grouped with the parts of the HUD they relate to.
Module states make it clearer whether a module is active and how its cycle is progressing.
Built With You
The new HUD arrives in Feature Preview as an opt-in feature, so you decide when you’re ready to test it out. Try it, send feedback, and switch back anytime. This will be a long process, and the HUD will be shaped together with the community, step by step, to get it right. in fact, feedback for the first HUD dev blogs has already led to changes.
A Better Start in New Eden
Cradle of War introduced Exordium Starter Space, a PvP-free zone where new capsuleers can find their own path. With the war heating up across the cluster, Exordium remains an oasis of peace and is only getting better.
AIR Academy Ships: Fly Now, Fit Later
Pilots in Exordium now get access to free, pre-fitted AIR Academy Ships. There are 13 to choose from, covering combat, exploration, and mining, all fitted for the entry-level content in Exordium.
No need to master the fitting system or train extra skills first. Just pick a ship, undock, and discover what you enjoy as you learn by playing. No ISK spent, no risk taken.
Lost your ship or want to try something different? Swap to another Academy Ship for free at any Exordium station. Each one you fly teaches you a little more about which modules, fits, and skills suit the way you want to play.
Once you find a ship you love, you can buy a standard version of the same ship and fit from other capsuleers on the market in just two clicks.
To protect the wider economy of New Eden, Academy Ships and their modules can’t be reprocessed, and can only be used within Exordium.
The AIR Career Program Joins Achievements
The AIR Career Program (ACP) moves into the Achievements system and the ACP milestones will become achievements. This means that almost 80 new achievements will be added as a part of this move, and you now also get a title for completing each career, as well as the overall ACP journey. Your first goals in EVE now live in the same place you’ll keep using for the rest of your career: goals, progress, and rewards, all in one spot. Going from Career Program goals to everything else New Eden has to offer is now seamless.
Got unfinished ACP tasks? Complete them and claim your rewards before the move as all current progress and rewards will disappear. Afterward, you can complete the program again and claim the rewards a second time.
New early-game achievements also make those first wins visible and memorable, giving new pilots a reason to explore and something to work toward.
In addition, several new achievements will be added to recognize more playstyles and reward capsuleers for doing what they love. Among them are some elusive ones. Can you figure them out?
Level-One Missions, Reimagined
Dozens of the most popular level-one security missions receive a visual overhaul. They’re also much easier to read. The overview is less cluttered and mission-specific objects always appear in your overview, so new pilots can see exactly what to focus on to complete their objectives.
Cradle of War Campaign Outcomes
The results of the Cradle of War Military Campaigns are now part of New Eden:
Minmatar Republic: Arzad II is renamed Starkman Prime, and sovereignty of the Arzad and Ezzara systems passes from the Amarr to the Minmatar. A new Starkmanir Tribe station is built in Arzad, and the Starkmanir uncover new Phased Fields in Minmatar highsec. Phased fields, until now only available in null-sec, are rare mining sites that offer erratic ore which can be transformed into any mineral.
Gallente Federation: New stargates between Renyn and Jufvitte cut the route between Intaki and Dodixie to six jumps, all through Federation space. A new low-waste Excavator drone variant is available in the Federal Defense Union and Federation Navy LP stores.
Caldari State: New stargates link Ienakkamon to T-LIWS. The Intaki Syndicate is dissolved, its member corporations absorbed into the State, and some former Syndicate LP offers move to the State Protectorate LP store.
Amarr Empire: The Deaconry of Economic Oversight is established at the Emperor Family Academy station in Amarr VIII (Oris), bringing a 50% reduction in taxes and broker fees there for six months. New Imperial Issue tackle modules are available in the Amarr Navy and 24th Imperial Crusade LP stores. Test them out with the new synchronizer rigs.
Conquests on the Horizon
The CONCORD pact is holding, for now. But once those Conquest Engines are deployed, Factional Warfare will change with the introduction of Conquests, time-limited Factional Warfare conflicts that build toward a Final Siege battle that will determine the winners of each Conquest.
Once activated, a Conquest Engine can take control of an entire solar system, and the only counter is a rival empire deploying its own engine.
During the Conquest, enlisted pilots complete objectives for personal rewards and help their faction win Directives: capture a system, hold it until the deadline, or complete objectives before the enemy does. Each Directive has a time limit and only one winner. Winning earns your faction Conquest Power, unlocking advantages for the Siege.
In the Final Siege, defend your Conquest Engine and destroy the enemy’s. The first faction to destroy its opponent’s engine wins the Conquest.
There’s much more to share as Conquests draw closer. Until then, it's time to gather your crew, reconnect with old friends, and recruit new ones. When the fighting begins, fly together, and give your enemy a reason to remember your names.
SHIP BALANCING AND BOMB COUNTERPLAY
This update brings underused ships and subsystems back into the fight, provides more fitting options for New Eden's theory crafters, improves fighter application for carriers, and gives capsuleers a few more tools to combat bombing waves.
Stay Calm and Carrier-on
We’ve been gradually iterating on Carriers and their role in the capital meta, and we’ve been very impressed with how you are using them. However, they still lack the ability to readily apply damage, so in Fractured Skies we’re adding two application bonuses for light fighters, but tying them to the Integrated Sensor Array module. This will allow carriers to apply their damage much more reliably in both PvP and PvE scenarios without encroaching on the role of other capital ships.
Heavy Assault Cruiser and Assault Frigate Adjustments
Following feedback from the Major Update, the Sacrilege, Cerberus, and Vengeance receive a few additional changes. The Sacrilege's previous buff is scaled back, although it remains stronger than before the major update. Meanwhile, the Cerberus regains its kinetic damage specialty, and the Vengeance gains a stronger focus on armor.
More Strategic Cruiser Options
The Legion, Proteus, and Tengu receive targeted improvements to speed, fitting, defenses, and damage, alongside new bonuses for their least-used subsystems. These changes open up more viable strategic cruiser builds for both PvE and PvP.
More Ways to Counter Bombs
Defender missiles become cheaper to use, gain additional range, and perform better for lower-skilled pilots, making them a more accessible option for countering bombs.
Void bombs will also travel and detonate more slowly, giving capsuleers more time to react without directly reducing their effectiveness.
…And There’s More
Fractured Skies also brings several quality-of-life improvements and visual upgrades on 10 November, including a range of “Little Things” based on player feedback:
Updated lighting calculations bring more realism and less light bleed, for greater immersion.
Some frigates get visual effects (VFX) and lighting updates.
Add yourself to the fleet watchlist, change colors for multiple entries at once, and turn off the watchlist’s auto-open. 🤝
Fleet broadcasts now have a radial menu.🤝
Site pop-ups can now be disabled. 🤝
Inventory can be filtered by item ID. 🤝
Improved XML fitting import. 🤝
“Resign as CEO” and “Quit corp” are moved from the right-click menu to the character sheet, so no more accidental exits. 🤝
The full list of changes will be included in the expansion notes on 6 November.
The empires are mobilizing, and the path to conquest starts now. Rally your forces, choose your side, and get ready to make your mark.
See you in space.
