As mentioned before, all blueprints will be removed from the Dust 514 online store in anticipation of Eve supplying stuff to Dust players. However, they can still be purchased until October 8, so there’s an opportunity to buy stuff before you get locked out.

So, let’s take a tour of the various types of blueprints available.

dropsuit blueprints

With few exceptions, the drop suit blueprints are militia grade. This means each time you are killed in a blueprint drop suit compared to a paid suit, you’re saving 585 isk per death. In addition, you’re wearing a militia-grade suit, so you’re probably going to die more often anyway.

Estimated savings per match

3510 ISK, assuming six deaths per game.

handheld weapon blueprints

Aside from the Toxin SMG, all handheld weapon blueprints are militia-grade. This results in a saving of, generously, 830 isk per death (up to about 1500 isk for militia forge guns). In comparison, a standard-grade SMG is something like 2800 isk which is a big jump in cost-effectiveness.

Note that there are other ways to get standard-grade blueprints (Recruit a Friend, various game packs), but for the most part those will remain after the October 8 deadline, and usually you buy the game pack for the Aurum and boosters rather than the blueprints anyway.

Estimated savings per match

4980 ISK for militia weapons

for militia weapons 16800 ISK for standard weapons (i.e. Toxin SMG)

Vehicle Modules

I originally thought that the vehicle module blueprints had already been removed from the store, but VideoJanitor mentioned that they can be accessed through the ‘marketplace’ section of the fitting screen.

Okay, whatever, CCP.

Moving on, CCP also released their plans for the vehicle rebalance. This threw a spanner in the works, since the relative worth of the various modules is in flux.

Light Shield Extenders

For instance, let’s look at a standard LAV for reference:

♦ Saga: 1425 shields, 900 armour, 155cpu, 170pg, 3 highs, 2 low slots, 40k isk.

Then look at light shield extenders:

♦ Militia shield extender: +390 shields, 11k isk

♦ Shield extender I: +650 shields, 16k isk

♦ Azeotropic Shield Extender: +748 shields, 33.5k

So a militia extender gives +27% more hit points to a Saga, and an azeotropic gives +53% more.

So a militia extender is 52% as effective as a top-tier version for a third the price. Considering the low price of a Saga, it doesn’t really make sense to spend too much on modules, so there’s a valid case that you should buy a militia shield extender to further reduce its cost (so you can abandon it without taking a hit to your wallet)

Furthermore, you can fit two of them from the same blueprint, so your estimated savings are 22k ISK per match, even if you only lose one LAV.

However, let’s look at the rebalanced stats:

♦ New Saga: 1200 shields, 900 armour, 420cpu, 450g, 2 highs, 1 low slot.

♦ New Militia Light Shield Extender: +180 shields for 99pg

♦ New Basic Light Shield Extender: +180 shields for 90pg

♦ New Enhanced Light Shield Extender: +312 shields for 113pg

♦ New Complex Light Shield Extender: +480 shields for 153pg

♦ New Militia Heavy Shield Extender: +689 shields for 322pg

A militia light extender gives +15% more hit points to a Saga, and a complex gives +57.5% more.

This makes militia grade stuff only 37.5% as good as top-tier, which is a strong disincentive to run it. In fact, it’s way more likely that you’d run a basic/militia heavy extender (+689 shields) instead, and skimp on other things to fit it.

Light Armor Plates

Let’s also look at the armour side:

♦ Methana: 503 shields, 2138 armour, 105cpu, 275pg, 2 highs, 3 low slots, 40k isk.

♦ Militia 60mm Reinforced Steel Plates: +408 armor, 11k isk

♦ 60mm Reinforced Steel Plates: +680 armor, 16k isk

♦ 60mm Reinforced Nanofibre Plates: +612 armor, 23k isk

♦ 60mm Reinforced Polycrystalline Plates: +782 armor, 33k isk

A militia plate gives +19% more hit points to a Methana, and a polycrystalline gives +36% more.

So militia grade is 52% as effective as top-tier, while being a third of the price and a viable candidate for saving 11k or 22k per match (more if you subscribe to the disposable LAV theory of mobility)

♦ New Methana: 650 shields, 2450 armour, 310cpu, 560pg, 1 high, 2 low slots.

♦ New Militia 60mm Armor Plates: +385 armor

♦ New Basic 60mm Armor Plates: +385 armor

♦ New Enhanced 60mm Armor Plates: +513 armor

♦ New Complex 60mm Armor Plates: +684 armor

♦ New Militia 120mm Armor Plates: +684 armor

A militia plate gives +16% more hit points to a Methana, and a complex gives +28% more.

Interestingly, we see militia grade plates being 56% as effective as complex plates, while presumably being cheaper and easier to fit. They also don’t give as much percentage benefit as expected, so perhaps hardeners would be better, or hardeners+basic plate.

wait, isn’t this the same balance problem we’re already having with dropsuit plates, i.e. enhanced and complex plates not being worth the grid compared to basic plates? Grr. Not happy.

Reppers

Reppers are less of an issue for vehicles because they (currently) come with an armor or shield repper. So, they’re kinda not worth buying a blueprint for unless you want dual repper fits (which given the paucity of slots in the rebalanced vehicles seems like an invitation to be blapped by forge guns because you don’t have a hardener up)

Having said that, it’s looking like shield boosters are way more effective than shield extenders, and armor reps are about 50% more effective, percentage-wise, than their dropsuit versions (a complex heavy repper can rep an armour tank to full in about 30 seconds, depending on how many plates they have).

Conclusion

Militia light shield extender blueprints are bad

Militia heavy shield extender blueprints are not bad when fit to smaller vehicles

Militia armor plates are okay, but large ones probably won’t fit on smaller vehicles

Militia reppers are redundant because they come for free with your vehicle

You’ll only be fitting militia stuff to disposable vehicles because they get a lot better at enhanced

You’ll probably be fitting hardeners to everything, sadly there’s no blueprints to buy

There are, however, shield resistance amplifier blueprints…