Missions & Complexes

Hello folks,

For you explorers out there, do the high sec data and relic sites even offer enough reward anymore to even bother finishing the scan?

Maybe I am very unlucky but they dont seem worth the time to even visit them.

Should this be the case, I hope the developers bump them up a bit some time otherwise its just wasted content.

I found superior sleeper cache in Hisec, but couldn't scan it with my skills.

Are you finding sites with all the cans intact? Frequently the best cans are already taken and only the scrap is left. In that case, the site is only worth running because it will respawn somewhere else when it has been completed - and you might be the first one to find the new site.

But as you get more experience and isk, the high sec data and relic sites are very marginal even with all the cans in tact -- perhaps that is for the best because these sites will be available for new players if experienced players don't bother with them.

Pirate Relic and Data sigs in high sec are worthless, only check them for the ocasional faction BPC or valuable T2 salvage (very rare). Now the Sleeper caches are other thing, and you can get nice loot from them, even from the "limited" ones. But those sites are deathtraps for newbro explorers.

A worthwhile sideline when exploring highsec is to have a quick look inside any C1-C3 wormholes you find. They are sprinkled with high-end pirate data & relic sites which can be scanned down with L4 skills - although hacking the cans will prove next to impossible in an unbonussed ship.

With practice you can be in & out of a quiet C1 wormhole in 15 minutes and 50-100m better off, using just a CovOps frigate.

Edit: Confirming that Superior Sleeper Caches can be found in Highsec. I found one and nailed the sig by moving probes individually. I lost a Helios and an Astero in it, and don't plan to do any more until Evelopedia has some decent info on how to run them. Currently, it seems the successful explorers are keeping that closely guarded...

You can also search for ghost sides in highsec, I usually find them in certain areas. The trick is to go in, pick the can with the different name, mwd to it, hack, loot and warp out all in about 30s from arriving on grid. If the rats spawn, don't stop hacking, complete, (loot), warp out. If you fail the hack you are dead ... in theory you can tank the explosion, but I never tried and instead choose a cheap and fast ship (e.g. Heron). You can expect looting 10-20m per site this way. But you won't get rich with this ... it's more for the fun. If you want to be serious about (non-combat) exploration, you have to go to southern nullsec.

i believe that's providence where you won't be relentlessly hunted as soon as you go in.

As someone who scans Signature sites for a different reason, the long and the short of it is, no.

90% of all HS signatures are R9 and X7 wormholes. The other 10% are Data and relic. The relic are mostly junk with a rare Cap console or intact armor plate in Sansha and blood sites. Data will yield anywhere from 20K to 1.8 mill, the 1.8 mill being rare and decryptor based drops. Parity being top end.

The trouble being, you come in to a system, you need to get reads on all Sig and when the amount of time you devote is put together you are making very little progress.

Sleeper sites are around 1:200 scans for me and you really need a T3 to do them, as well as solid skills to clear them. They are fine for veteran players who are running high sec because it's just less commitment at the time.

I spent a lot of time scanning HS mostly looking for A6 wormholes. Less to save time, more because they allow you to move between regions and avoid the Niarja and Uedama fishing grounds. I get around 3 or 4 a month and half of those are remote to remote that are not functional but the whole process let me map HS sig systems and patterns.

short version. HS exploration is a joke.

i get about 15+mil a site in nullsec not including the bpc's, my scanning toon has about 500mil worth of loot in his hanger from about a week of scanning for about an hour a day, scanning is very profitable in nullsec so your doing it wrong if your making nothing

Faction tower BPCs are myth. Never found one in my nearly 2 years exploring, must be really unlucky.


I think it's 1:100 for me. You need T3 for superior only, with proper hacking and flying standard is doable in Astero.