By Bobb Bobbington and Silvatek
¶ Before you start
Hunting Zohar's Chosen Machariels is a lucrative but dangerous activity; numerous expensive ships were lost in the making of this guide.
This guide also covers hunting down lesser Chosen NPCs (Mekubal, Cynabal, Khizriel) but these pay out signifcantly less and are not particularly dangerous.
¶ The Concept
Zohar's Chosen Angel rats are the "high-value targets" of the insurgency NPC world, and appear in insurgency systems once the corruption level reaches a certain point. They drop tokens which can be traded for loot crates which contain (amongst other things) Mutaplasmids, some of which can be sold for hundreds of millions of ISK.
Larger chosen ships drop more tokens, but are tougher to kill and have more escorts. A lot of tank and a lot of DPS are required to break the toughest ones, the Zohar's Chosen Machariel.
¶ Requirements and Initial Investment
This guide is based on using a T3 cruiser with an X-type shield booster, plus mid-grade Crystal implant set and a supply of boosters. The initial investment is about one and a half billion ISK, and numerous level 5 skills are required (especially for the shield tank).
You don't need to be signed-up to either a militia or pirate faction to hunt the Chosen.
¶ Fitting
While other similar fits are viable (see "alternative fittings" below), this guide is based on the one shown below. Other options will kill the Chosen Machariel a bit faster, but are easier to gank. The NPCs we are hunting only spawn in systems dominated by players who have chosen to be pirates, and who are are largely controlling those systems; getting tackled, and not being able to clear that tackle, is one of the bigger risks so it is important to be able to hit small fast targets. Also, the Chosen Machariels only spawn in corruption level 5 systems which allow warp disruption bubbles.
The NPCs deal a wide range of damage types, making an omni-tank necessary, and also have fairly balanced resists themselves so the ability to switch damage type is important. The Chosen Machariel neuts heavily, so you need a lot of excess capacitor regen.
General requirements are...
- Project to 20km to kill webbing ships
- Tank approximately 1,000 DPS
- Withstand 37.5 gj/s neut pressure
- Without relying on sig tanking
Kiting is difficult as the Machariel has a lot of HP and can hit a long way out (100+ km falloff), plus you also need to get in close to collect the loot at some point.
[Loki, Covert Chosen Hunter]
Gyrostabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Federation Navy 10MN Afterburner
Republic Fleet Large Cap Battery
Pith X-Type Large Shield Booster
Republic Fleet Shield Boost Amplifier
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Hail M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Hail M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Hail M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Hail M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Hail M
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Expanded Probe Launcher II, Sisters Combat Scanner Probe
Small Tractor Beam II
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Core Defense Operational Solidifier II
Medium Core Defense Operational Solidifier II
Loki Offensive - Projectile Scoping Array
Loki Defensive - Covert Reconfiguration
Loki Core - Augmented Nuclear Reactor
Loki Propulsion - Wake Limiter
Hobgoblin II x5
Mid-grade Crystal Alpha
Mid-grade Crystal Beta
Mid-grade Crystal Gamma
Mid-grade Crystal Delta
Mid-grade Crystal Epsilon
Mid-grade Crystal Omega
Eifyr and Co. 'Gunslinger' Motion Prediction MR-703
Eifyr and Co. 'Gunslinger' Medium Projectile Turret MP-803
Eifyr and Co. 'Gunslinger' Surgical Strike SS-903
Synth Blue Pill Booster
Synth Sooth Sayer Booster
Agency 'Hardshell' TB5 Dose II
Hail M x5000
Nanite Repair Paste x100
Republic Fleet EMP M x5000
Synth Blue Pill Booster x2
Synth Crash Booster x2¶ Finding the Chosen
The insurgency systems themselves can be found using the Insurgencies window from the Activities NeoCom menu. There will be a Guristas insurgency in Gallente/Caldari FW space and an Angel insurgency in Minmatar/Amarr FW space. Each insurgency starts from a single Forward Operating Base (FOB) system and expands from there as the corruption levels increase.
Angel insurgency systems have numerous roaming "Angel Lookout" NPCs, but we are generally not interested in these unless they have a Chosen with them. Only the "Zohar's Chosen" NPCs drop the loot tokens.
Chosen Machariels (the most valuable) only spawn in corruption 5 systems, and the others in corruption levels 2 to 4. They do spawn in corrupted highsec systems.
| Spawn | Corruption | DPS | EWar | Data Sequences |
| Chosen Mekubal | 2 | ~200 | none | 0-1 |
| Chosen Cynabal | 3 | Web | 1 | |
| Chosen Khizriel | 4 | ~600 | Web+TP | 1-2 |
| Chosen Machariel | 5 | ~1,000 | Web+TP+Neut | 2-3 |
To find them, set up a new overview filter: deselect everything, then search for "insurgency" and add back all matches.
Warp to near the sun, open d-scan and select this new filter, set to 360 degrees 14 AU distance, open the solar system map and scan. If no angels are on scan but there are are stargates or asteroid belts out of range, move so they are in range and repeat.
Once the Chosen angels appear on 360 degree max-range dscan, reduce the range one step at a time until they disappear; this gives a distance range for them (if they show at 10 AU but not at 5AU they are between 5 and 10 AU). Next, warp at 100km to a celestial in that distance range, switch to 5 degree scan 5 AU scan, and click-scan (hold v while clicking on the item in overview) every gate or belt in that range until they show up.
Obviously, they might move while scanning them down, which resets everything and requires starting again.
Note that the Chosen stop spawning when the insurgency is won, even though the affected systems remain corrupted for a couple more days. They take somewhere between 60 and 120 minutes to respawn in the same system once killed.
¶ Killing the rats
Once you've found the Chosen Machariel, warp in at 30 and align out. There should be 8 "lookout" rats and the single Chosen; if there are a lot more then you've probably found a "stacked" Chosen - see below for how to handle this.
Two of the lookouts will be Dramiels, and two Mekubals (which are easy enough to kill). Two will be Khizriel BCs that do a lot of damage and target paint, but are quite tanky so not worth shooting immediately. There will be two Cynabals which web you and make you unable to get close to the Machariel, and the Chosen Machariel itself does a lot of damage and neuts 900gj every 24 seconds (37.5 gj/sec).
Once aligned, decloak, activate the afterburner, then target and shoot the cynabals (which web) with faction ammo; put drones on the frigates then destroyers.
Once the cynabals are down, hit “keep at range” (1000m) om the Chosen Machariel, load faction EM ammo, and put drones on it; we want max DPS here to keep the time spent not aligned-out to a minimum. Switch to Hail once it is into armor and hull.
If your tank isn't holding, pop drugs and get reeady to warp out.
Once the Machariel dies, align back out, turn off the AB, lock up the wreck and put the tractor beam on it (unless it is empty) . Swap back to faction ammo and kill the remaining lookouts. When the wreck is in range, loot it.
Once the last rat dies, cloak and warp out. Deposit the loot in a station (or mobile depot) and repeat.
Note that while you don't need to kill anything other than the Chosen to get the loot, any you don't kill will stick around and protect the next Chosen along with the lookouts it would normally get, so if you plan to hunt more than one in the system you should kill them all.
Spam short-360 dscan constantly constantly, especially when not aligned.
The resists of the all the Chosen NPCs are:-
| EM | Thermal | Kinetic | Explosive | |
| Shield | 12% | 30% | 48% | 56% |
| Armor | 66% | 45% | 36% | 23% |
| Hull | 60% | 60% | 60% | 60% |
So shoot thermal at small rats (to avoid having to switch damage types), and EM (shields) then Explosive (armor) at tankier ones. Kinetic never seems to be a good choice, which is unfortunate for hulls that get a bonus to that like the HAM Tengu.
¶ Lesser Chosen
If you are hunting a Chosen Mekubal, Cynabal or Khizriel then you can be much more ad-hoc about the fight as they are far less dangerous. The peak incoming DPS from a Chosen Mekubal swarm, for example, is 66 DPS after resists. You do still need to be wary of stacked spawns and other players though.
¶ Non-insurgency rats
Sometimes the Chosen will be somewhere that has other rats that might also attack you, increasing the incoming DPS or - even worse - scramming you. If this happens then prioritise killing anything that scrams or points; this can be tough if you have a HAM rather than AC fit.
¶ Cashing In
Each Chosen drops between 0 and 3 Angel Insurgency Data Sequences, with larger ships dropping more.
Take these to Amo and access the "Republic Counter-Insurgency Outpost" next to the Shipcaster (large collidable object, so use your "everything" overview filter). There will be a pop-up asking you to input the token: click "accept" and the data sequences in your hold will be replaed with Republic Counter-Insurgency Reward Crates.
Dock up and open the crates; each will give some ammo and fireworks, a number of Minmatar Loyalty Tokens and a Vorton Tuning System Mutaplasmid. Decayed mutaplasmids (worth around 40 million) are more common than Gravids (worth around 280 million), and we haven't had an Unstable one drop at all yet.
The loyalty tokens can be sold to NPCs for 100,000 IKS each.
| Item | Roll chance | Value |
| Loyalty tokens | 100% | ~10m ISK |
| Faction ammo | 100% | ~1m ISK |
| Fireworks | 100% | negligible |
| Navy Frigate Blueprint | <10% | ~5-10m ISK |
| Decayed Vorton Projector Mutaplasmid | ~80% | 40m ISK |
| Gravid Vorton Projector Mutaplasmid | ~20% | 200m ISK |
Overall, the rewards depend heavily on how many Gravid mutaplasmids you get (either around 50 or 300 million per crate), but seem to be averaging about 80-120 million per crate.
Earnings per hour is dominated by the time taken to hunt down the Chosen, and preparation activities such as making bookmarks or dropping loot off. If you can catch two Chosen per hour you will probably make about 250m ISK for minor Chosen and about 750m for Machariels. However, the number of Chosen Machariels available to be caught is fixed no matter how many players are hunting at the same time, and so the available loot is shared by all those players.
While you can cash in at any time, it is better to wait for the insurgency to end then gather up all the data sequences and make the trip to Amo. While the insurgency is ongoing, level 5 systems can have bubbles on the gates and you don't want to get caught with potentially billions in your hold. If you must travel with valuable loot through corruption 5 systems, use a travel fit.
¶ "Stacked" Chosens
If you don't kill all the lookouts protecting the Chosen then they will remain to guard the next one to spawn, leading to "stacked" spawns which can do a lot more damage than normal and can overwhelm or volley the strongest tank. As noted above, it is best to kill the remaining NPCs once you have taken out the Chosen to avoid creating this situation for yourself or others.
If you find that all the Chosen Machariels are stacked and want to take them on anyway, you'll need to whittle them down.
Warp in at range from a safe, align back out to that safe, decloak and start taking out the rats, starting with webbing cynabals. When your tank starts to break, bookmark the nearest wreck and warp out. Warp back in at range to the wreck and continue. Repeat this until the DPS is tankable, then kill the rest.
¶ Damage Analysis
Analysis of combat logs from a Chosen Machariel hunt:-
- The battle took 6 minutes 49 seconds from first damage done to last.
- Total of 75,482 damage to the Angels, and received 85,014 back...
- The Machariel did 29,359
- The 2 Khizriels did 28,449 (almost as much as the Machriel)
- The 2 Mekubals did 13,479
- The 2 Dramiels did 8,462
- The 2 Cynabals did 5,265
Based on the damage types specified in the “Show Info” pages for these NPCs this gives the following split by damage type:-
|
EM |
Thermal |
Kinetic |
Explosive |
|
18% |
19% |
37% |
26% |
Maximum raw (after resists) damage received in any 10 second period was 418 DPS, about a minute into the fight.
The cloaky AC Loki fit has a sustained shield tank of 452 HP/s (1149 EHP/s with the profile described above) without drugs, but with the Crystal implants.
¶ Roaming Insurgency Enforcer Token Drops
It is much rarer for a system to achieve high surpression levels than insurgency. As such, locating roaming insurgency enforcers is much more difficult and farming them en-mass even more so.
Roaming insurgency enforcers largely work exactly the same as roaming insurgency pirates. They sport similar DPS (albeit different types), the same EWAR suites, and also drop tokens. Instead of being brought to faction warfare hubs, these tokens must be taken to the corresponding pirate FOB system. In that system will be an anomaly called the “(faction) laundering facility”. Warp to it, and there will be a structure at which the counter-insurgency tokens can be turned into. You do NOT need to be part of the pirate militia to turn counter-insurgency tokens in. Additionally, killing counter-insurgency NPCs do not give any standings penalties. As such, even those in allied faction warfare militias can happily hunt and cash out counter insurgency NPCs.
It is theorized that, whereas insurgency pirate crates drop vorton tuning system mutaplasmids, insurgency enforcer crates drop the faction and officer vorton tuning systems. However, due to a lack of public knowledge and of enforcer spawns, this has not been verified.
¶ Travel Fit
Insurgency systems at level 5 allow warp disruption bubbles and are full of hostile players who have chosen the pirate lifestyle. Refit for travel when moving around where possible, especially if carrying high value loot. Carry an Interdiction Nullifier subsystem and module for this, and swap your low-slot modules for Inertial Stabilizer IIs to get your align time down to under 5 seconds. Combined with the covert ops cloak this makes you pretty hard to catch.
It can be useful to keep a mobile depot in cargo to allow refitting in space if there are no stations, or they are camped.
¶ Fitting Variations
Using HAMs instead of autocannons on the Loki allows for more DPS at range, but can make it harder to clear tackle frigates and getting tackled (by NPCs or other players) is a good way to die.
Swapping the Covert Reconfiguration subsystem for an Adaptive Defense Node significantly increases the tank but you can't warp cloaked which makes you easier to catch and gives you less time to set up after landing on grid.
Any changes to the fit will obviously require some level of change to the tactics, but the general principles will hold.
[Loki, Full Tank HAM Zohar Chosen Hunter]
Republic Fleet Ballistic Control System
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Pro-Nav Compact Missile Guidance Enhancer
Damage Control II
10MN Afterburner II
Republic Fleet Large Cap Battery
Pith X-Type Large Shield Booster
Shield Boost Amplifier II
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
[Empty High slot]
[Empty High slot]
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit II
Medium Core Defense Operational Solidifier II
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Loki Offensive - Launcher Efficiency Configuration
Loki Defensive - Adaptive Defense Node
Loki Core - Augmented Nuclear Reactor
Loki Propulsion - Wake Limiter
Hobgoblin II x5
Mid-grade Crystal Alpha
Mid-grade Crystal Beta
Mid-grade Crystal Gamma
Mid-grade Crystal Delta
Mid-grade Crystal Epsilon
Mid-grade Crystal Omega
Zainou 'Snapshot' Heavy Assault Missiles AM-703
Zainou 'Deadeye' Guided Missile Precision GP-803
Zainou 'Deadeye' Target Navigation Prediction TN-903
Zainou 'Deadeye' Rapid Launch RL-1003
Mjolnir Rage Heavy Assault Missile x1000
Nova Rage Heavy Assault Missile x1000
Scourge Javelin Heavy Assault Missile x1000
Scourge Rage Heavy Assault Missile x6000
Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Assault Missile x1000
Nanite Repair Paste x250
Synth Blue Pill Booster x2
Synth Crash Booster x2It is difficult to make a viable Tengu fit because neither missiles or hybrid weapons can avoid shooting into kinetic resists.
It is probably possible to make a viable (though expensive) HAM Legion fit, using a pair of medium A-type armor repairers combined with an Asklepian set. A drone Proteus with a similar tank might also work. Neither of these would be cloaky though.
¶ Useful Links
- Insurgency Roaming Pirates EveRef
https://everef.net/groups/4637 - Insurgency Roaming Enforcers
https://everef.net/groups/4638