Another free expansion is now available for all members of the EVE Online universe. However, it’s those who dedicate their online careers to resource mining that will get the most out of the new “Lifeblood” expansion.

The new content is headlined by a new group of structures called Refineries. If you and your corporation (guild) want to grab valuable resources from moons, you’ll need one of these massive stations. The process begins with the Refinery extracting a giant portion of a target planet’s surface and bringing it to space. That chunk is then broken up to create a small asteroid field near the refinery, which players can mine to get precious materials. In addition to this process, Refineries are the only station that can perform reactions, which turns the gathered resources from the asteroids into “advanced materials that can be used for a number of advanced industries.” This includes the creation of powerful ammunition and ships.

In addition to the new Refineries, miners will also get a Mining Ledger tool. This allows you to see the type of materials collected from many celestial objects. You can even see the amount of resources collected and where the mining process occurred in the massive galaxy of New Eden. Corporation leaders also have access to an additional Corporate Mining Ledger, which will track players who gather materials from the asteroid belts created by Refineries.

Even if you don’t specialize in mining, you can still help out your comrades through the new Resource Wars missions. A small fleet will enter a pirate-infested area, and those with combat ships will have to protect the mining crew from waves of enemies. Speaking of pirates, you’ll also notice multiple forward operating bases from the Guristas and Blood Raiders factions throughout the galaxy. With other players, you can take down these bases to get money and valuable “armored caches.”

The Resource Wars and pirate bases are all designated as player-versus-environment (PvE) content. EVE Online has a plethora of these PvE activities throughout New Eden, and you can view them all in the improved Agency tab. You can filter missions that range from mining excursions to intense combat scenarios, look for specific agents who provide new missions, or discover new anomalies in the space less traveled.

Other highlights of the update include ship balances, UI improvements, and multitude of fixes. For the full and detailed release notes visit the game’s website.

The expansion arrives the day before the “Crimson Harvest” event, which will see the return of the Blood Raider Covenant faction. Players can band together to defeat this powerful threat to gain new rewards and prizes.

