Tile Capture Strategy Season 3 and Veteran – EVE Galaxy Conquest

Intro

This guide outlines best strategies for capturing Resort and Resource tiles in Season 3 and Veteran Season in EVE Galaxy Conquest. You’ll find exact NPC enemy fleet compositions and wave sequences, along with advice on which fleet formations to use based on recon data. The goal is to help you counter not just the first wave of enemy ships, but also the second—and for level 10 tiles, even the third.

I really hope the developers won’t change the system to random after seeing these patterns documented. Even with the sequences discovered, planning an attack remains challenging—you still need the right fleets for the job. It’s a strategy game at its core, and preserving some level of predictability is essential. If everything becomes pure RNG, it would ruin the heart of the genre and take away the fun of thoughtful, strategic planning.

This is part of my ongoing Tile Capture Strategy series. If you’re looking for a deep dive into resource capture mechanics, check out the main hub post. Need help assembling a powerful PvE fleet? My Season 1, Season 2 and Season 3 meta guides can help you find solid team setups.

How to Predict Enemy Fleets

This guide covers tile levels 6 through 10, where fleet battles start to become more complex. The system is fairly simple: each tile level has a fixed sequence of enemy fleets. Once you use the Recon action and identify the first fleet, you can 100% predict the following waves.

Each level will be presented with a visual schematic showing:

• Enemy ship and commander
• Formation type
• Estimated power
• Arrows showing the wave sequence

For example, if you recon a tile and see that the first fleet is Corax, then you know the next wave will always be Polok flying a Stratios. These sequences are unique to Season 3—I’m also preparing separate guides for Seasons 1 and 2.

A quick note: while Resource tiles (ore, ice, alloy, gas) and Resorts follow this predictable pattern and are recon-enabled, other PvE groups like Guristas Pirates, Structure Defenders, and Training Fleets have different formations and rules. This guide focuses solely on Resources and Resorts.

Special thanks to CoZie, Kate and Aria for helping collect and verify the data.

Quick Memo on Formations

Remember, if your fleet formation counters the enemy, you gain +15% damage dealt and -15% damage taken. If the enemy formation counters yours, you take the penalty instead.

In some cases, going for 0% bonus (neutral) while still avoiding being countered is better than risking a disadvantage. Prioritize damage reduction even if you sacrifice the attack bonus.

Resource Tiles – Season 3

We begin with Resource tiles: ore, ice, alloy, and gas. Compared to previous seasons, Season 3 introduces a significant increase in power levels and enemy squad counts. See the full comparison table here.

Disclaimer: If you find any incorrect data in this post, please let me know in the comments so I can update the guide! Keep in mind, this data valid only for season 3.

Level 0-5 Resource Tile Defenders

These levels are straightforward: simply click on a tile, hit the leftmost menu button to “Recon,” and after a 4-second probe, you’ll see who is defending it. Levels 0 to 5 feature only one wave of enemy fleets—what you see is what you get.

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Sample for Level 6 Resource Tile Defenders

• Commander Level: 30
• Fleet Power: 168,000
• Squads: 10,000
• Typical Comps and sequence:

Assault Stratios Polok Falau ➡️	Phalanx Worm Gear Larik ⬇️
Encirclement Corax Amile Kaylyn ⬆️	Intercept Breacher Thumgar Dramis ⬅️

Strategy Tips:

• First fleet is Assault → Use Phalanx or Assault. Best to go neutral and avoid debuffs.
• First fleet is Phalanx → Use Encirclement or Phalanx. Encirclement is preferable.
• First fleet is Intercept → Use Encirclement or Assault. Neither is optimal, but both avoid the formation penalty.
• First fleet is Encirclement → Use Assault or Intercept. Assault is better due to Amile’s stronger presence.

In summary:
Two of these matchups allow for a +15% / +0% or +0% / +15% formation advantage. The other two offer neutral engagements on both waves—no buffs, but no penalties either. Going +15% / -15% is not advised.

Interactive Strategy Calculator

The original post had over 3,000 words breaking down every tile type, covering 100 enemy combinations and optimal counters. But after using the guide myself, I realized that even with a handy table of contents, scrolling through all that text isn’t ideal mid-game.

So I built a lightweight app instead. With just two taps, it instantly gives you the exact info you need—what enemies to expect and which fleet to use. It’s also fully mobile-friendly, so you can keep it open while playing.

I published the calculator as a separate post to keep things clean—no theory, just practical use. All the deeper strategy and explanations remain in the original post.

👉 Try the calculator here!

Final Words

Don’t get discouraged if you can’t beat some of these tiles. Personally, I haven’t completed some of the tougher quests yet either—and I might eventually ask for help from my corp mates to beat these lvl 10s.

From a resource management perspective, I decided it’s not worth trashing 100,000 components just to capture a single difficult tile. Stay smart, conserve your strength, and focus on keeping your progression steady.

If this guide saved you a hassle and spared your fleets, feel free to buy me a coffee – every sip fuels more tactical research. ☕