Ships & Modules

It is possible to do this with a Pilgrim, but it's not recommended, after the relic/data changes you really need a bonused ship or doing the sites is really hard. You're also wasting the neut bonus on the Pilgrim. The ideal ship for this role is the Stratios, you will need a mobile depot to refit for the harder combat sites but it has everything you want, relic/data bonus, scanning bonus, cloak and enough dps/tank to do all the lowsec sites.

Hi Danny,

First dont get disillusioned, keep looking for a corp, this game gets a lot better when you have peeps to chat with and help you out.

As for exploration, the stratios is up there as the best ship for exploration (relic/data) and is very capable in doing combat sites up to and including "some" 6/10. However it is pretty expensive (300mil atm i got mine early at 500 lol), and at those numbers you start looking at T3's which are much more capable at the higher end combat sites.

Regardless, these are overkill for hi-sec combat sites, you can do 99% with a cruiser and the rest you can bring in something a bit bigger if needed.
Low sec exploration is best done in a cov-ops. Cheep, get in and out easilly, happy days. The combat sites get tough and more varied, T2 cruisers are prob best here but you will likely need more experiance with the fun of getting shot up before doing this.
Null sec exploration, stratios is king. You need good skills and the ship bonus to reliably complete the relic/data sites. Otherwise and mostly used are T3's, they can do the explorations sights competantly with good skills, and most of the combat sites too which the stratios will struggle with.

For your hi-sec needs:

[Arbitrator, Hi-sec Exploration]
Energized EM Membrane II
Energized Thermic Membrane II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II

10MN Afterburner II
Cargo Scanner II
Data Analyzer II
Relic Analyzer II

Core Probe Launcher II, Sisters Core Scanner Probe
Heavy Modal Laser I, Microwave M
Heavy Modal Laser I, Microwave M
Small Tractor Beam II

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

Hobgoblin II x5
Hobgoblin II x1
Warrior II x6
Hammerhead II x6
Light Armor Maintenance Bot I x1
Salvage Drone I x5

Change to meta 4 where needed, if you have T2 lasers go for it theyre only used for getting aggression. Aim to get a T2 tank first if you dont already.

Warp in, get aggro, release drones, orbit something at 5k with AB on, pulse repper as needed.

Edit: change resistances depending on space... this one is set up for amarr space (blood raiders/sansha)

Ishtar are cheaper and pretty much as effective as any non overly blinged T3.
Refit for scan/combat with a mobile depot.

It's a much better combat drone cruiser than the Pilgrim.

With how easy they have made to probing, the bonus ships are only "REQUIRED" for a handful of nul sites. And likely you'd want to avoid them anyway without significant skill investments.

For hi and most of low moderate scanning supports (and maybe a few mid slot scanning mods) are more than enough to make up the difference.

As to the actual mini game in nul I've never really noticed any difference when using T2 mods. But you'd want to swap those out for the combat sites anyways.

Thinking of astrometrics as the primary skill, the supporting skills would be range finding, pinpointing, etc. They improve things like probe str, deviation, and scan times.

I believe there is a uni page with much better details than my off the cuff from work can.