Today, I would like to revisit an old post I made when I was still relatively new to the world of MTU hunting. In that post I showed my largest (in terms of ISK destroyed) MTU kill at that point in time, which I had labelled as the Holy Grail of MTU kills. Here it is again for you:
Kill: Wulfgar WarHammer (Mobile Tractor Unit)
Quite a beauty, I’m sure you’ll agree, the loot fairy was even kind enough to grant me a decent payout. But how does that kill hold-up to more recent standards, and do I still consider it the Holy Grail? Since the above kill, I have indeed had a much larger kill (again, in terms of ISK destroyed), so sit back and let me tell you that story.
I remember the night well, I had spent most of it chatting with corpmates and other fellow hunters in the MTU Hunting chat channel. I’d only had a couple of unremarkable MTU kills that night, one of which was empty, the other filled with White Glaze, which I didn’t even attempt to haul. My hunting route led me to the system of Mastakomon, one of the quieter systems in the busy region of The Forge. I noticed an MTU on D-Scan named “northwest bouy”, and went through the usual procedure of probing it down.
When I landed on-grid with the MTU, I noticed immediately that something was quite amiss. CONCORD was also on-grid which meant that something had recently gone down there, and when I checked the MTU for it’s owner (right-click, show info), I found that he was in local with me. The race was on, then, to pop this MTU before the owner came back for it, and with a Noctis already on D-Scan, I wasted no time.
Kill: DAS BOOT Saraki (Mobile Tractor Unit)
The Noctis never appeared, and the kill went smoothly, as most do, giving me the largest MTU killmail I have ever received (at the time of posting this). But what exactly went down here? Why was this MTU filled with the remains of what was quite obviously a big ol’ missile boat? The MTU’s owner didn’t have any recent losses that would indicate he lost such a ship, perhaps he chose not to sign-up to zkillboard, meaning any losses to NPCs wouldn’t show? Even if that was the case though, why was CONCORD on grid?
I always share my interesting MTU kills with my fellow hunters in the MTU Hunting chat channel in-game, and in this instance, I’m very glad I did. Fellow MTU hunter, Rosov Aulmais, had actually heard of this corp before, it seems they actually had a reputation for losing expensive ships in failtastic ways to CONCORD.
This prompted me to dig a little further, and looking back through my screenshots, I noticed that one of DAS BOOT Saraki’s corpmates (most likely his main) named loren cushing was also in local. I checked loren’s killboard and there it was, the missle boat loss in all it’s splendour:
Kill: loren cushing (Raven Navy Issue)
Mystery solved? Well, it still doesn’t explain how or why he is getting himself CONCORDed, only that it is just something he does from time to time. I would’ve asked him, but I didn’t think he would’ve been too cooperative with someone who just gave him yet another red mark on his already-quite-colourful killboard.
So, do I consider this kill to be the Holy Grail of MTU kills? Well, in terms of ISK destroyed, it is certainly my largest, but the ISK received is still lower than my original kill, earning myself only 100m ISK this time thanks to the faction ballistic control that dropped. We also have to consider that other hunters get much larger MTU kills than this all the time.
To answer my own question, no, I don’t think the above kill is the Holy Grail, nor do I still consider my original kill all those years ago to be it either. Perhaps the amount of ISK an MTU is worth is just a facade in this respect, and the only thing that gives an MTU kill true worth is a good story to go along with it? I have a feeling that if I actually do find the Holy Grail of MTU kills, I’ll know it instinctively.
The search continues.
Bonus Edit!
I spoke with fellow hunter, Rosov Aulmais, again after uploading this post, and he had a new theory as to why the pilot CONCORDs himself on the regular. Some mission runners actually shoot the cheap wrecks in their mission site so that their MTU will tractor-in the good stuff faster. Shooting a wreck that belongs to an alt will get the space police on you pretty fast. This would certainly explain the sheer frequency in which the pilot lost his ships.
Sage advice. Unless you’re a ganker, there is no need to set your button red.
MTU Hunter 