Missions & Complexes

Join a 0.0 corp/alliance and let real explorers and pvp'rs guidance make your eve experience much better..... join a 0.0 corp and LEARN from some of the best. Also you will have good intel regarding surrounding systems and much more. Most important, have FUN! ( I would be happy to show you the ropes), message me anytime with your questions. or chat me if I am online.

Good Luck,

Decimager

This is the worst possible attitude to have in this game.

You don't need to use combat probes. Combat probes are a big sign saying, "I want to violence your space boat!" You want to find the sites, then bookmark them, and then either patrol a route waiting for ninja relic hunters, or wait inside the site. Directional scan is extremely useful once you have the sites bookmarked. A core probe launcher is sufficient.

My alt's Astero has a nasty tank, very adequate DPS, T2 core probe launcher, dual scrams, and web. Only downside is that you do not have the insta-targeting after decloak, but if you ram right into your target just before the loot spew, you can usually get them before they can warp away or cloak up.

For those of you who do not want to die, I highly recommend not running sites with anyone in local. The rest of you I will have fun warping in on you or decloaking next to you.

I was chatting with one ninja relic hunter the other night who is pulling in 100m/hour in 0.0 (with 11m total SP). And he now has the discipline to never run a site with one of us in local. The only time we catch him now is with an interdictor on a gate with a lucky decloak

Ah, that was unclear. Obviously an Expanded Probe Launcher won't work well on a Heron or most other exploration ships. I meant to play around somewhere safe in high-sec with one to get used to how they work. No substitute for experience in seeing how people can hunt you down.

Ditto on the ISK/hr. Anybody saying they're consistently pulling 100 mil/hr is lying. Yeah, you can pull that out of one site if you're lucky, but there's also a lot of flying around and scanning down signatures that are of no value to an explorer.

My only trouble lately has been with competent Interceptor pilots in gate camps. But that's why I fly a cheap ship. Tip your hat to them, knowing the next site you loot will pay for the ship and fit you just lost...and 5 more.

One thing I think I forgot to mention. Exploration is an exercise in caution and patience. You need to develop good safe procedures and follow them at all times, no matter how safe you feel. A few things I think that is often overlooked with new explorers and was never really mentioned in any of the guides you can find. It's the mindset. Exploring isn't just able finding sites and hacking them. The art of exploring is different. Don't get in the mindset that as a solo, independent explorer, that cracking cans is the end game of the profession especially if you have aspirations beyond high sec/low sec exploring. You need to spend a lot of time exploring out items like Wormholes to look for short cuts into other areas of the map. You need to come up with a system to keep track of these jumps as they can save you 20 systems worth of jumps through very hostile areas.

1) For me using a T2 exploring frigate, I never warp to the gate in null sec unless I know the system or I am back tracking and know gate bubbles aren't there. It seems the few times I break this rule, I always in up in a bubble, which in my Cheetah isn't the end of the world, unless by some chance I end up within 2000 meters of the warp disruptor and end up with my cloak dropping. While I've not been popped as a result, it has gotten me into sticky situations.

2) Do lots of safe spots. Even if a system is empty of signatures, spend 5-10 minutes making some safe spots in the system if its new for you. Preferably, what I call 2nd or 3rd tier safes. I mark my safes that way. Tier 1 safes are between celestials. Tier 2 are between T1 safe spots, and T3 are between T2 safes. Also, make safe spots around the gates. I've learned this the hard way. This is why exploring isn't the most profitable profession on average in my opinion. You spend a lot of time setting up systems to be safe for yourself. May favorite is to find sites way outside any celestial and use that to bounce off safes from that are greater than D Scan range to anything else. Its slightly easier once you fly a T2 that can move around and set up safe spots easier. If you worry about losing the T2, just use it to set up safes, then park it and use the T1 to move around your new safe routes.

3) I will back track on my Expanded Probe Launcher for null sec. If I got to a system that has 1-2 people on local in it. I will launch combat probes. I use that to locate them. I don't try to pin them down, just trying to see if I can find their general location and ship they are flying (if out of DScan range). If I can't find them, I assume they are flying a cloaky. Then I'll just do #2 listed above for the system, and move on. I assume if there are cloakies in the system, they are sitting on the sites, or have started to look for me once I'm in the system, which means I should move on. If they are in something like looks like they are running combat sites, I don't worry as much but usually still move on.

4) When hacking a site, I hit DScan everytime i reveal a node. I also stay 3000m away from the can until I find the core. This way if I miss something on DScan, I can possibly cloak up and get out of there in a hurry. I don't move in until I'm one attack away from cracking the core.

5) If you get a big score or have 50M or 100M isk sitting in your cargo, go out and dump it in a station somewhere. Can't count how many times I've gotten lazy/greedy and had 100-200M isk sitting in my hold only to get blown in the next system I wanted to look at. And be even more cautious on the ride home. You actually have something worth losing now.

Exploring I have found is less about cracking cans and coming away with treasure. Its about methodically setting up routes and safe spots through dangerous systems. I've gone hours without even hacking a site, just to set up safes and avoid gate camps. But like I said, it is the most exciting, but likely one of the lowest paying forms of earning ISK/hr in the game. But hey, do you play for ISK or fun?