EVE New Citizens Q&A

You had quite the adventure there :)

To profit by exploration, the low-risk way is to fit Data & Relic analyzers and hack open the corresponding sites (in forms of Cosmic Signatures) in high-security space. You start there, then perhaps one day fly a cloaky ship to do low/null-security hacking.

Get out there and explore :-)

There are no exploration missions other than the career agent. Exploration is something you do for yourself, not for someone else

Security status by killing rats, any rats, including the ones in exploration sites. You want LP, run normal missions. You want fat exploration loot, explore.



Industry has no missions (other than the mining missions). R&D agents while they exist they're not there to offer missions, the missions they offer are very quick, once a day and give no ISK or LP.

Wormholes are not really good exploration material. As you found out, the relic/data sites there are infested with tough NPC enemies. You can solo those enemies in a C1 or C2 wormhole, or even a C3 if you have a tough enough and equipped enough ship. But as a newbie, you won't have that yet.

So wormholes are pretty-much out. The quickest thing you'll be able to do in a wormhole solo is sneak in to mine gas in a Venture before the 15 minute timer runs out and the Sleepers arrive at the gas cloud. And even that has an estimated 20 million ISK skillbook you have to buy before you can gas harvest.

I know that everyone equates wormholes with exploration, but there's not a lot you can do in them as a newbie. They're biggest use, honestly, is as an escape route from one part of known space (K-space) to another. More on that in a second.

Your best bet for exploration is to train up all your scanning skills to III or IV, and your hacking, archeology skills to at least III and train up cloaking. In the meantime, practice scanning down anomalies in highsec.

Once you get fast at scanning and finish training for a cloaking device, I'd recommend moving out to lowsec to do this. Relic/data sites in lowsec don't spawn NPC rats. Your main worries will be watching local for new players entering or leaving the system, and constantly hitting D-scan to see if anything potentially dangerous is poking around in your vicinity, and of course, watching for combat probes (which the odds are good - are looking for you). The payout from relic/data sites in lowsec is much, much higher than the highsec ones. And the biggest advantage is that there are a lot more relic/data sites left untouched in lowsec than in highsec.

Since Odyssey, everyone and their dog is scanning in highsec. It's hard to find a relic/data site even available out there. Lowsec, you have much better chances and a higher payout. The increased risk of dying can be viewed as an added fun bonus.

Once in Lowsec, you'll still want to keep wormholes in mind. The biggest problem in deep lowsec - far from the high sec gates where all the best farming is - is getting your loot back to highsec to sell. The markets in deep lowsec suck. Everything is either overpriced or unavailable, and there is no market for exploration loot out there at all. You have to get to highsec to sell your wares.

But it can be a dangerous trip out with pirates gatecamping the border systems and choke points out of the region.

This is where wormholes can come in handy. Go out in a cheap ship and probe down a wormhole, enter it, and scan down the other wormhole exits (bookmarking everything of course). Check out the exits. If you're fortunate, you'll get an exit leading straight to high security space, and you've suddenly found a shortcut around all the pirate traps in lowsec.

Anyway, that's how I'd do it in your shoes.

For exploring hacking sites, you don't have to stick to hisec. You can lowsec with a t1 frigate.

Here is a great video from JonnyPew that shows how to fit up a t1 exploration ship and at least in his hands, he makes up the cost on I think the first hacking site he goes to in lowsec.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGxioo5usaQ

To add to this, after you hack the can that you want, I would speed through the ones you don't, purposefully failing and blow them up just to clear the site, thus forcing it into another system in that constellation.

All great advice here.

In my travels, I haven't really found any amazing loot from relic or data sites, just once I saw a tech2 ammo bpc, and unfortunately, I blew it up failing the minigame.

I spend a lot of time in nullsec; is lowsec going to have better items or am I just unlucky?

Awesome tips here guys, everything from sites, security systems, fittings and strategies.

Thanks!

Last theory I heard from someone heavily into exploration after they did some major testing on Sisi was that respawn is probably not limited by region, definitely not in the same constellation, but are only limited by security level (high, low, null) and rat type. So a highsec Sansha site can respawn anywhere in highsec that has Sansha rats.

This makes more sense. I have been exploring for years and still have no clue regarding respawn mechanics. Thought maybe there had been a reveal.
That being said, I take the good stuff then cloak to await these new weaponless explorers.