Missions & Complexes

From my experience I can tell that exploration is only really profitable in low or null sec. Everything else is just for fun. Except if you use wormholes to hunt sleepers, but that's then null sec in another way.

here are some random tips i came up with from the top of my head:
- ignore magneto, ladar and grav sites in hisec. they are almost always a waste of time
- also ignore any rogue drone related combat sites
- the question of where to explore is a religious one. some people swear on low population areas, others claim that it's more important to optimize the process (be quick at scanning, cover many systems, not scan the same system twice etc.
- hisec exploration is hit and miss. you will not find anything worthwile for days or weeks, then you suddenly find this, this and this on the same day.
- combat sites are rated by difficulty. the ones in hisec are rated DED 1/10 to 4/10. 1 and 2 will not let in cruisers and above, 4/10 can be tough even in a battlecruiser but also often drop >100mil modules.
- overseer wrecks (the ones with the expensive loot) can have expensive salvge. if you are not too lazy, you can bookmark them and later come back with a salvager and have a try.

edit: stay away from wormholes until you know what they are all about. if you don't mind losing your ship and waking up in a new clone, you can take a look but do not expect to come back out alive before reading up on wormhole life.

edit2: another small trick i picked up while exploring is using FoF (auto-targeting) missiles. you can often just warp into the site, turn on your missile launchers and continue to scan down the other sites. just don't forget to check the wrecks for anything valuable before warping off.

Exploration is pretty much hit or miss. I have also been running radar and combat siter with a Heron / Harpy combo. Some night I make 100 mill on the hour I play with a lucky faction loot from a combat site. Others I get my normal 10-20 mill for Radar site loot. Others still I get jack all.

Compared to mission running it's like comparing a day job to gambling. The other one is boring as hell, but pays steadily. The other one can be exciting at times, but you might end up with nothing in your pocket while searching for that jackpot.

anomalies are those combat sites that you can find with just your ship scanner (without using probes). they are mostly worthless in hisec; i only ever do them while scanning other sites if at all. they can have a faction spawn and can trigger escalations but the chance is too low to be worth your time.

1- Couldn't say really. Explorers can be anywhere and I can't see any noticable pattern.

2- High sec magnometric sites generally aren't worth your time. You get low quantities of T1 salvage and occasionally a piece of T2 salvage (you could make more profit just scanning down mission runners and salvaging their stuff). I gather mags are more profitable in low-sec

3- Most combat signatures contain faction NPCs with the chance to drop faction or deadspace loot. You might also get escalations which are a string of signatures only you have the bookmarks for that might also contain deadspace/faction loot drops. Anomolies have a lower chance of loot drop and only 'escalate' to public signatures. It's all very luck based for both loot drops and expeditions. The only consistant thing is drone sitestent to be rubbish. It is possible you might get rogue drone loot dropes but I've personally never got anything good.

4- Rupture is alright and will get into most unrated complexs and 3/10 and 4/10 plexes. For 1/10 and 2/10 plexes you will need a rifter as cruisers can't get in but they tend to only contain frigates and destroyers. Battlecruisers can only fit in 4/10 sites which are profitable but difficult. Aim for a loki eventually (you can get it bonused for scanning)

5&6- Practise scanning quickly to try and clear systems as quickly as possible. Train your scanning skills and upgrade your scanning ship and probes/probe launcher when you can. Bypass high-sec mags, ladars, gravs (mining is consistant but average profit, even for optimised fleets) and drone combat sites. Radar sites are best run in a frig. An astronautics frigate with prop-mod could work and could double up as your scanning ship. A big cargohold isn't important if you have somewhere to off-load, you just want speed and codebreakers. An astronautics frig with a small drone bay to clear potential hostiles would be perfect, otherwise fit some light weaponry for NPCs. I find radars to give between 5mil and 30mil and take minutes to clear once scanned. If you do eventually get a T3 then make sure it has a prop mod (afterburner or micro-warp drive) so you can get between cans quicker.

To optimise in combat sites, follow standard PvE advice. Namely make sure you aren't overtanked. If you have extra tank you can trade for more applied DPS then do so as long as you're confident you can still tank the sites. Try and fit a prop-mod to get betwen gates/NPCs quicker. If you have a spare high slot then fit a salvager as sometimes faction and overseer wrecks can drop T2 salavage as well as faction loot. Don't compromise your main weaponary to fit a salvager if you don't have a utility high-slot but consider salvage drones instead if you have a large enough drone bay.

Most sites have an evelopedia entry. When you've scanned a combat site, put it's name into google and find the evelopedia entry to find out what you're likely to face.

Only other thing I can say if you want to stick to high-sec is try and get a T3 cruiser eventually. They can be optimised for scanning and radars and still put out DPS rivalling a heavy assault cruiser.

Fly safe 0/

As others have said, exploration is random. When I was new I used to hunt radars in HS all the time. I followed the same circular route of systems. One day I might see 1 radar. Another day I'd get 10.

If you are only going for radars, I would personally find a quiet area. If I remember correctly, Caldari space is popular for DED site drops, and is usually overrun with explorers.

Radar sites drop pretty much the same stuff regardless of the faction, so I'd go somewhere not as over farmed with explorers.

It's good to see your enthusiasm for exploration :) But as an explorer in null sec angel space, onto your questions.

1) Yes the sites are tougher than a cruiser can handle, typically many will spawn battleships and elite cruisers/frigs either on entry to the site or attempting to hack a can. Of course this follows the eve theory of greater risk comes greater rewards. I've never attempted to just run a magno/radar site with just a prober but I suspect it will not end well.

On the bright side if you can fly a battle cruiser you will probably succeed in completing many of the profession sites. As you have mentioned the vexor I would suggest trying the myrmidon. Test the waters and see how it goes.

2) No you will not be able to complete any combat sites in cruiser, for the previously mentioned reasons. For most you will require a hac or battleship, along with multiple ships to complete them.

3) Yes it is well worth completing these sites, but you need the right ships!!

4) If you intend to stay gallente/minmatar the Ishtar is an excellent ship for completing many sites, make great use of its speed and many battleship NPC's will not be able to hit you. It can also fit utility mids/highs.

Hope that helps,
Cydo.

3) Is it worth running the combat sites, should I avoid certain groups of these sites?
Where is the money in this? Just bounty + loot or am I supposed to come back and salvage the leftover ships aswel?

Maybe some deeper information on that here is important. In those 4/10 sites or unrated but valuable sites (those are varying from faction area to any other) like in my region "Sansha Vigil", "Sansha's Nation Occupied Mining Colony", or "Mul-Zatah Monastery" have had a fair chance to drop some faction loot or plex loot. The value then mostly depends on what you have found. It can be several few 100K up to like 200 million in high sec. Sometimes you even find 2 pieces of loot in one wreck, which could even top out the 200 million easily if you are lucky :)

When ever you kill an overseer or "True Sansha XXXX" NPC you also have a somewhat high chance to find t2 salvage (by salvaging) in those wrecks and those can quickly increase the value of an else plain site. Especially the drone plexes like "Haunted Yard" or "Chemical Yard" rely on this fact - the sentient drones can contain t2 salvage (when salvaged that is) and 1 intact armor plate or alloy beam is like 10 million per piece. But again, this also adds to the causality "IF you are lucky ...".

Another issue. If you are doing combat sites there is a chance to get an escalation or expedition. Following these until to the point you are able to make, brings in best case further faction or plex drops and of course on each escalation site another chance for t2 salvage. What isnt mentioned often (dunno, maybe it's kept secret or so) is the option to change escalation scripts for an alternative end which can lead to an escalated expedition. The deepest level ive found so far was 3rd level (The expedition ended up in an alternative way that gave me another escalation which triggered by forcing the alternate end another escalation - in which i lost my ship then *g

Maybe some other explorer has deeper knowledge about this escalating the expedition, but i found only 2 in the Sansha areas that allow alternate ends and only could follow one of them until to another escalation. Those are so rare that i did not get any information so far if you are able to trigger that on purpose or if it is like expeditions being triggered randomly.

For example a run down i experienced 2 weeks ago:
I think it was a Sansha Vigil (4/10) in which i got a message about True Power Shipyards escalation. I followed the escalation to the system in the log and warped to the site. After i started killing i noticed a message in local i was not familiar with (not literaly but like this here): "... the call for help was answered by a nearby fleet, so you better be quick before they arrive ..". Something like that. I was recalling that the last time i saw this message, i had to buy a new ship. So i decided to go on a bit of distance and wait, uncloaked. Was like 15-20 mins after the last wreck was salvaged that hell came over me. Well, when prepared for that, it is not that harsh :) but unprepared you go boom for sure. (first time they caught me pants down, while i was there with my Orca and my salvage vessel when the fleet appeared like 20 mins after the last kill). I won the battle and got another piece of plex loot. So i decided to make it this way always, since it is shorter than following the whole expedition. The site i got from first escalation was a dead end when i came to there. So i had to change it and waited for the battle fleet at the last site in lowsec in escalation 5. Well, bad idea. Some kind of subcapital nearly one-hitted my T3.

Next time i had this trigger i was well prepared. And i killed the fleet in lowsec and look there *bright smile*: Another escalation! Name was in german and i did not find any information in web. Well it's pure lowsec from there on and the loot was very nice. I did that so far with 2 different escalations which both of them offer then and when alternative ends. Since i found that out, i read the messages in local much more concentrated :)

Just mind, that those escalated expedition escalations are to estimate in difficulty like the DED ratings. So by triggering in a Sansha Vigil 4/10 its escalation is the same difficulty 4/10 which when escalated further it will end up in a 5/10 (the fleet that warps in), which will, when again escalated, have again overall a 5/10 and when choosing the alternate way to solve it, again it will be increased to a 6/10 - which then was a bit too much for a t3 and a hac, when you dont have any spoiler avail and have to find out what will be going on. Not to mention that ewar in lowsec is somewhat annoying from NPCs and web + scram is like the standard then. So once you escalate, be prepared for an "interesting time ahead" :)

Cheers

Is this site still up - I am getting URL not found from swiftandbitter.com ...

nvm: working now...

Battlecruisers. For most stuff that I do with an ishtar, I could also do with a single rep / 3 garde II myrmidon 50km snipe fit (tanky ishtar for me is ~650 dps, single rep myrm is ~500 dps), just a little more slowly. Drake, myrm and prophecy I often don't read as battlecruiser on scan, I read as bait on scan.

They do get whacked at lot on gates though. I've burned my myrm back to the gate a few times because aus lag not always conducive to mwd/cloak warp trick actually working.

T3 gets through a lot easier with its travel fit though.