Two examples of orbit evolution in the (1 − e, a) plane. The blue line shows the formation of an EMRI, while the pink one results in a DP. Both are mainly randomised in eccentricity while inside the white kick-dominated region. When the blue line crosses into the GW-dominated region, which is filled with a green grid, it predominantly evolves via GW emission. DPs are identified by the crossing of the loss cone edge, which is represented by the solid orange curve. EMRIs instead must reach the portion of the solid green curve in between the loss cone and the excluded region (see Sect. 3.4). Here we set M_• = 3 × 10⁵ M_⊙.