The Saba Pit Revisited

After a not-so-good Feff hunt last night I decided to take a trip down memory lane and visit the Saba Pit (about 2 min. East of Atlas Island North) and see how it is these days. I had recommended it again to someone in the forums who was closing in on graduation, and thought it would be a good idea to see if the advice was still sound.

This is an Opalo +A101 hunt with no armor. I had FAP's on hand but barely, if ever, used them. I did use my Breer M1a +A102 on couple of Providers and the one Guardian that popped up. I brought 2600 rounds of medium cells, so with decay my costs were right around 32ped. I did use the TT pistol to finish, but relied on looted ammo. I didn't use any of the looted medium cells.

There was one ava there sweating when I arrived, so I tried to give him space and not hunt the Saba's in his immediate vicinity. It started out terribly, the spawn seemed to be slower and not as dense as in the past, and loot was terrible for the first 600 rounds. I was temped to quit, but I decided ride it out a bit longer. In the past I was always able to hunt my way through the dry spells soon enough. I also had not looted any orange paint yet, and that had always been a staple of Saba loot both before and after the coloring change VU.

The sweater left and I had the whole pit to myself, and the spawn seemed to be getting faster, if not denser, with time. After it while it seemed much the same as in the past.

Then the first item dropped - Shogun gloves(f). Good to see they still drop, although only male gloves have much markup. Then a loot window with another pair of Shogun(f) plus Gnome arms(m), which I had never looted from a Saba in the past (despite killing what seems like millions of them). Still no Orange paint but a steady diet of Saba skins along with ammo and oil. Later, another pair gloves, this time Gnome(m), and I concluded that Saba's are still glove crazy - I once looted 8 pairs in one hunt.

I kept on hunting through this positive cycle and looted some paint at last, 4 colors in all but only a few cans of Orange. It seems clear that Saba's no longer drop Orange like they used to, but otherwise loot seemed similar to my past experiences.

The loot dried up again for my last 600 rounds or so, but when I put it all in the TT to add it up it was about 34ped in all. That made for a small profit at TT value, and several PED's more with markup - mostly from the Gnome arms - so it was a nice hunt.

I used to look at the Saba pit as a great place for free, or very cheap, skilling. This was just one hunt and is in no way definitive, but it still seems like a good place to skill. The biggest change to me was the difference in my evade skills - I got hit much less than in the past. I used to need to FAP now and then, or go to a bigger gun more often - like when an Old spawned at my feet - and that was not the case now.