Missions & Complexes

Guristas/Sansha/BloodRaiders/etc Hideaway.

Ded 1 are frigate only. Ded 2 will allow destroyers. You might want to try running combat sites in high sec to get some experience before you run them in low sec. An astero can run those sites if you have decent drone skills + gives you cov-ops and scanning bonuses.

Signatures have a chance of dropping better loot and/or leading to escalations that might drop better loot.

This website is very helpful for a description of the combat sites. Use the links at the bottom to get to the rest of the combat sites.

Im specialized in exploration, so let me tell you what i know about.

Lowest Value is Anomalies.
BUT: Then and when you get at the end a faction rat. Usually those appear in like 1 in 20-30.
BUT: Even more seldom and rare are expeditions from an anomaly. I believe those only come from xxxxx Den and higher.
Infos`-> https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Cosmic_Anomaly

Signatures:
My setup is a t3 pure scanner and a second toon in a heavy assault cruiser, both well over 50 Mio SP.
In highsec i only go for 3/10 and 4/10.
In lowsec i only go for 4/10, 5/10 and 6/10.
In nullsec i mostly go for drone combats (hierarchy and such).

All of them i run solo in my second toon in hac, 45 km range missile boat with drones on AB speedtanking with armor config.
Frigs are 1-2 hits. Cruisers are not a problem, elite cruisers start to become annoying on 6+ of them. BS are easy, just orbit them in below 5km and take em out.

The DONTS: Neural Paralytic's. 3rd pocket is deadly for a speed tank cruiser.
The DONTS: NEVER warp to 0 in a besieged covert research. If you do = scrambled, webbed, bombed to death. Warp to 70km and keep them at least 35 km off of you. But i doubt ud have a chance in cruiser, possibly in a t3 speed tank.
War Complex (6/10) and alike with named rats will probably be above the dps you have (Efotber, Drone Mother etc).

Expeditions: Can be tricky and long breathed with many jumps.

Recommendation:
Check for constellation on borders from high to low. Use a nearby station as base, travel through nearby systems in high during crowded times, travel close lowsecs when few are online. Start marking players u meet in colors, so you get to know who is around and if dangerous or not. Once you are aware about systems and players it is easy to stay out of troubles. mark each and every Sig in high and low. So you dont spend much time in always scanning the same sigs. Keep those data up to date. Be opportunic: no sigs -> do anos. too crowded in region -> scan WH and look if you find WHs to low/null in them. mark entering in other side as HOME and find your way quickly this way. Dont let anything rot -> take everything and u find out that everything somewhen has a value, if only through numbers! :)

Example region? Im based in Thiarer (Ammatar Mandate) which is a pretty good example as a base for what i ve described.

Feel free to contact me online or add me as contact to ask if you have questions about the life of an explorer.

regards, Iko

Indeed, it's all covered !
Thank you all, and specially Ikonia for your answers.
I'm pretty sure that's will help me a LOT !