Missions & Complexes

Well I'll start on the 'is it profitable' part. Exploration is like playing at the craps table. You want to get as many rolls in, because its not a matter of IF you hit it, its just when it'll hit. On a per-site basis you'll crap out most of the time, but when you hit the jackpot it more tahn compensates for the bad rolls.

That being said, for high-sec you'll want to aim towards a Heavy Assault Cruiser (high sec 4/10 sites are favorites for a reason), and that ship is typically the most effective. An Ishtar, Cerburus is usually the go-to ship. That training path can also take you through Assault Frigates, which work great for the small sites (1/10 to 3/10). Also a good Tech1 Frigate/Cruiser can run the sites, you will just most likely lose if anyone else find its before you complete it. Vexor (cruiser) is a great little starter ship, and if you aim for an Ishtar (HAC) the training completely crosses over to the next ship.

Not only will you be aiming for a agile ship with great damage, but you'll also want to have at least lv4 in the basic scanning skills. Not only do you have to 'outrun' other explorers when you find the site, you will need to find them fast enough to even compete.

An Ishtar sounds great. Thanks for the advice. Do you happen to have Ishtar fits that I can check out or should I just go to battleclinic or something?



Will do, thanks!

Choose your hull according to what factions combat sites you will be doing, to match their damage profile and EWAR characteristics. You will also need to research the sites to understand how to blitz them. The market value of potential drops also widely varies between the factions.

There are several tricks to beating competition, but those are more fun to learn the hard way, when someone takes gour 100mil drop from infrint of yout nose, so I wont spoil that for you

The Pirate and Fleet issue Cruisers provide interesting hull options till you can fit your butt into a HAC.
And as Cruisers they allow you a short respite from hard teching to HACS/T3 in a good hull that its worth raising the standard Cruiser related skills up while actively leveraging those to the result of faster and better Site completion. So there is no "time lost", all those skills are just as useful in your future HAC/T3, as they are in your stopgap vessel.

I dont recommend Frigates for high-sec combat exploration. They can do them, especially Assault Frigates, but they lack firepower and it takes longer, which in turn makes you more vulnerable to someone arriving at taking your loots. There are also some specific higher level Signatures with Stasis Towers that Frigs cant tank cos no mobility paired with destroying the towers adding waves to unmanageable extents.

Instead, use a Destroyer. This only restricts you out of 1-2 lower value sites, but allows you to quickly run some Cruiser level sites instead in the same hull. Its time better spent as the drops are better, and Destroyer DPS output is no joke. As long as you can tank it, youll clear them faster in a Destroyer than you will in a Cruiser or Frigate (counterintuitive as that is to an extent, it bears pointing out)

A T3 Cruiser can no doubt do all high sec combat sites with absolute impunity, but by that point it sort of starts raising the question whether you might want to graduate to the "next level of exploration", by following the rabbit down the wormholes, where risk/rewards are both greater but a T3 has many tools to cope that a HAC just cant as effectively diversify into.

Two important tips though: Traffic and location. High sec is crowded. Use dotlan and map info to determine your exploration routes.
Either roam through a string of systems, or consolidate in a constellation where you can keep track of new sig spawns.

Ive even gone so far as to make exploration charts out of old picture frames.I have the constellation drawn on a piece of card inside the frame, and write down the signature codes I am not interested in on the glass over it with a whiteboard marker (that I can wipe clean with a cotton bud)., so that the next time I pass through the system I can immediately tell if there are any new ones to probe.

Ive also taken up the habit of running the systems Combat Anomalies while I am probing the systems Signatures. With a little practice, micromanagement, right hull and a few tricks, use of the interface, you can clear the sites with no trouble entirely while still within the F10 map screen and still actively probing. Good for some incidental bounty income, and the occassional Faction spawn at the end.

As to profit, with my current limited means due to being a new player, its very good. Once you know the sites intimately, losing a ship is unlikely. Its also unlikely that gankers will track you unless you seriously **** someone off by stealing their loot (hence, a degree of diplomacy is good, try not to make enemies as its bad for this line of business). Ive heard of insane income from low SP farming of FW plexes, but I havent tried it. But to me, atleast, this profession beats the living hell out of the tedium of Mission grinding, and the profit is potentially much higher at my current SP, depending on luck of drops and how many sites I find, and no hastle about LP conversiin rates. Im terrible at keeping accurate accounts, but I think Im at about 2bil total brutto assets earned from Combat sites in the month+ Ive been learning the ropes and doing this. I play a lot though, so dont let the figure mislead you, and it really is dependant on luck as to sites found and drops. For a week I was convinced Rubicon 1.2 had nerfed drop rates lol.

As to high-sec Data/Relic exploration, I recommend against it. The drops are poor compared to time invested. For that, Ive heard its much more lucrative to get into a covops ship and run those in null sec. Im currently training an alt to do exactly that but cant report on risk/reward till that is done and Ive made the imminent rookie mistakes and learned the ropes out there. I hear profit is very good , and the risks manageable with the proper precautions and procedures. And having a cloaky scout alt is something I gather is extremely useful to anyone who ever steps outside high sec, so might as well make one anyways.

I probably shouldnt give away info like this, but wth, Im proud of my little exploration business, and I was "new" too not so long ago, and Im sure the galaxy is big enough for both of us.

Fleet stabber works and is cheap. navy vexor also works and is relatively cheap.

That's where it gets tricky. You can use mobile depots to refit a cruiser from scanning fit (probe launcher + the midslot scanning mods), to combat, or you can refit at a station - plenty of those in highsec.

Or you can dump your cruiser, scan faster with the covops and then go fetch the cruiser, but obviously that limits search patterns in other ways, ie if you can't loop around in your seach you'll get a long way from your cruiser.

You can also go to places like highsec islands where there might not be much competition and sweeping effect is in your favour. most days when I lived in the little solitude island I didn't have to scan more than 3 systems. The worst case in main highsec was 110 jumps without a ded.

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vexor < navy vexor < gila < ishtar in the current balancing pass, the gila may be better in the next one. I have done serp and blood ded 4s with a vexor, can easily see why I could do the gurista and sansha ones. expect I could also do the excavator but it might be a bit slow for wanting the extra hardener.

To my understanding, missile/drone ships have a general advantage if you want a ship capable of going after any and all factions sites.
This because they are well positioned, at range and characteristics, to negate the effects of NPC EWAR.

But there are better ships for some specific factions that will run them faster and with less chances of someone stealing your drops (and better chance of of you stealing theirs).

Like for Angels, the Arty Cynabal is quite awesome. Missile/Deone ships have no chance of getting the killing blow, or clearing as fast, and even less of reaching the loot, because Cynabal is very fast indeed (Barring Vagabond, but that has less DPS iirc, substituting it for better tracking).

I've been comparing that with the ishtar too, the general concensus is that it's a great ship but the ishtar has the edge once you've got sentry drone skills, although stratios would possibly be better if you run data/relic sites alongside combat ones

Practice using your drones individually too rather than setting all 5 on one target at a time, using a 2-2-1 split of drones with your guns on the target with only 1 drone kills frigs superquick without wasting shots with overkill insta-blaps. It also seems to stop the frigs targeting your drones quite as much as they have other concerns :D

Also practice recalling and rotating drones as they take shield damage, and recall to orbit to repair. micro-managing your drones really pays of in my experience (so far)

Which is the highest site number I can find in highsec? 7/10? I read somewhere that T3s can not enter highsec sites so I guess that those are out of the question. Why can't a Stratios do sites above 5/10? Not strong enough tank or lacking dps?

There are gate entry limits on the DEC sites but they vary depending on the level which is why I still use my algos for the 3/10's (though a vexor would be better/faster probably I still like my algos too much) I think you only get up to 4/10 in hisec which are doable in cruisers and relatively straightforward in a BC you can tale up to a BC into a 4/10 but not checked if T3's can enter so it is entirey possible they can't as such a site would be trivial to them.