I assume he sold some plexes or bought some toons...there's no way to get in an orca in a month that I know of And yes, there are no roids in lowsec that make it an improvement over hisec.

As for AFK cloakers, they are either a solo recon/sbomber in which case you'll lose one or two barges tops if they go for them (hint: use the cheap barges when cloakers are in system) which makes them baitable, or they are a cyno ship and you'll lose one or two barges tops as they uncloak/point/cyno you (hint: use the cheap barges when cloakers are in system) which also makes them baitable, or they are true afk cloakers and they wont do anything (hint: use the cheap barges when cloakers are in system...are you seeing a pattern?). Keep your orca boosting with your nose sticking out of a POS and either jetcan mine like the old days or hit the station when your ore hold fills up. If you are using cheap barges then your orca is the best target out there, so keep him safe. Congrats, you are still making money now with an afk cloaker in system

As for rats, be creative. Don't want to waste a slot on a fighting ship that sits and does nothing but kill rat spawns? Get a mining dominix with a civilian gun and big tank to tank the rats while his drones eat them. Or bring a RR Domi to keep barges up while his drones eat them and he can use mining drones the rest of the time...things like that.