Meet the Gatac Hyūn: the Xi'an's first combined mining and salvage ship, launching at IAE 2956 on November 21

The last mystery ship of IAE has a name, and it does two jobs. RSI introduced the Gatac Hyūn on X this morning, calling it the alien manufacturer’s “first combined mining and salvage ship.” That’s the first time CIG has said out loud that it mines and salvages. Gatac is the Xi’an builder behind the Syulen and Railen, so this is a Xi’an ship through and through.

When you’ll see it

CIG’s IAE 2956 press release lays out the new-ship days. The RSI Galaxy and a standalone RSI Skylark kick things off on November 13, then the Anvil Liberator on November 15 and the Drake Marauder on November 17. The Hyūn closes it out on November 21, the shared Aopoa, Banu, Esperia and Gatac day. That’s the hall to be in if you want a closer look.

What we actually know

Not much beyond the role yet. The reveal art shows a tall, dark, marbled hull standing on four angled legs, and in the in-flight views those arms fold forward around the nose. CIG hasn’t posted a price, crew size or full specs. The one hard number is from CIG’s own patch notes: in the 4.10.3 PTU, the Hyūn’s internal salvage buffer went from 32 to 40 SCU, in the same pass that grew the Reclaimer and Moth. CIG hasn’t said how mining works on it, or how much ore it can hold. I’ll update this when the ship page goes up.

PPR take: A mining and salvage hybrid is something a lot of solo players have wanted for ages. Today, if you want to do both, you’re swapping between a Prospector and a Vulture and juggling two hangars’ worth of ships. One hull that can scrape a wreck and then crack a rock on the way home is a real loop, not just a gimmick. The big question is the tradeoff. A 40 SCU salvage buffer is above the Vulture’s 16 but nowhere near a Reclaimer, so this looks like a ship built for flexibility over raw hauling. I also love that it looks nothing like a human ship. That marbled shell is pure Xi’an. Between the Galaxy, the Marauder and now this, IAE is getting expensive for a lot of us before it even opens. I’m holding off until we see real specs on the 21st…