The Grand Heist Hits EVE Online's Test Server, Coming To Live Server Later This Month

EVE Online's latest event centers around The Grand Heist, seeing players fight over large ESS reserve banks holding trillions of ISK for hungry players to loot. Players can take part in the heist right now on the test server, with the event coming to Tranquility late July.

The event revolves around the reserve banks around New Eden. Over the past year both the Dynamic Bounty System and Encounter Surveillance System were overhauled, which resulted in what CCP Games calls "greater wealth generation with environmental danger." Now, more than a year after these systems were tweaked, the size of reserve bank caches has grown to a point where, as CCP states, "huge opportunities await."

The Grand Heist will see players seek out ESS reserve bank keys to unlock some of the ISK held within these structures, which could see capsuleers claim up to 2 trillion in ISK over the course of the event.

In case you're keeping score at home: that is a lot.

Effectively, pilots will need these keys to begin transferring the funds from the reserve bank to their cargo holds. Once an ESS reserve bank is unlocked, any ship within 10 km will be elligible to start transferring the wealth gathered there through bounties in the system, this until the bank locks again. 

However, the Secure Commerce Commission isn't just going to hand over the keys. Players will need to seek them out, and CCP states some of the caches will be restricted to certian numbers or even ship types.

"To acquire the extremely coveted reserve bank keys, you will not be able to simply ask the SCC to hand them over. Instead, your plan should be to locate and trespass into the SCC’s secure key storage sites hidden throughout low security space to get your hands on a key, and these sites will be guaranteed to always have a key inside. There are certain restrictions to ship numbers and class that will be allowed into one of these sites, but that challenge will ensure that only Capsuleers who show patience and skill will be able to pull off the heist. The reward is significant, so be prepared and good luck!"

Obviously too, NPCs aren't the only threat, as you'll also need to ensure your fleet secures the bank for themselves and not any opportunistic enemy fleet popping out of cloak to take advantage of your unlock.  Just make sure your crew isn't just there for show.

You can read the full details on the EVE Online website. As of now the Grand Hesit isn't live on the main server, but you can check it out and test its functionality ahead of time on the Singularity test server in EVE Online.