EVE New Citizens Q&A

Well, your goals don't match those of a true explorer. For them it's more about seeing new things, than about the loot. They'd scan the first site in the probe window, find that it's a wormhole, and go "I wonder what's on the other side..." and go through.

But that doesn't matter because whatever its name, the Exploration system is a system where you grind for loot.

You're having problems because:

1. It takes you an hour to ID the sites. Ships with higher scan strength, and aforementioned Sisters probes, reduce that time to 5 minutes tops.

2. You're "exploring" instead of settling in an area and fishing for the good sites in that area.

3. High-sec: everyone's scanning just like you. Low-sec: everyone's looking for PVP / to shoot you once you get to the site. Null-sec: high-payout sites, farmed by the locals, intruders hunted down.

Basically, TLDR you can improve your effectiveness at finding the sites, but yeah you're playing an MMO and others will likely find the sites and get the loot before you do, that's normal.

All PVE is a chore in Eve, it is simply a matter of finding the chore that interests you in a way that you can stand doing it over long periods of time. PVE in EvE is just an income stream.

You could do what some other players do in HS. Let others clear out the rooms, and you just go in and kill the officer take the loot, and collect tears.

Why not try Wormhole exploration, they should usually contain atleast 1-2 Relic Sites (unless they have been cleared) and not being instantly visible in Local sounds like an advantage when trying to avoid threats.

If I choose to focus on exploration I will probably focus on Wormholes for my travels, maybe with the occasional visit to Null if I run across a exit from a wormhole I'm in that leads into Null space.

I haven't done exploration in years but when I did my experience was that in K space you were pretty much just scanning for wormholes. It was in the wormholes or sometimes in the deep null sec systems that they lead to that I found all the sites.

If you are scanning in low sec and then skipping all of the wormholes that you find, then I think that I figured out what you are missing.

Hello and welcome back to Eve,

Sorry to hear about your issue. Yes there's a lot of competition in High Sec and Low Sec is basically target practice. In order to compete, you need to max the exploration skills and yes, buy Sisters Probe and Launcher. Also invest in a scan strength Implant. You don't really need an Astero ship to find and run Hacking sites, the scanning Frigate from the Exploration Career Agent will work just fine for finding and running Hacking sites. However to really get an edge on others, get a Covert Ops Frigate asap, especially if you wanna do Low Sec exploration - have cloak, will travel ........... and hide if necessary.

Speaking of traveling, that's the main aspect of being an explorer. Set up various 'Routes' in different areas. A 'Route' should consist of about a dozen systems or so, with each system in the 'Route' being connected. In other words, don't scan a system and then do a few jumps to scan another system, that's a waste of time. Find pockets of systems and dead-end pipeline areas that are off the beaten path, check map stats and look for systems with low amount of activity, low population, low kills, low jumps, etc. If doing low sec exploration, definitely look for systems that are far away from high sec / low sec border zones. If a 'Route' seems like it's void of sites, go to another 'Route'. Also try them at different time zones. After a while you'll know the best times to scan your 'Routes'.

Speaking of scanning, after you get over 25% signal strength, the Hacking signature group type will be listed in the scanning results. If it's not listed, then the signature is either a W-hole or a Combat site which will show it's signature group type at 75% signal strength. Since you're looking for Hacking sites, there's no need to continue scanning the signature after gaining +25% signal strength. Just select the signature listed in the results list and 'Ignore' it, that will remove it and you can then quickly scan down other signatures within the system.

Personally I don't like the mini Hacking game so I bypass the Hacking sites and only look for Combat sites. I mainly use a T3 Cruiser with Sisters Launcher and Probes with a Scan Strength Implant. If needed, I'll fit up Cloaking as well. Exploration sites are quickly scanned down to 100% due to using top line equipment with max skills.

I hope this is helpful and you don't give up. Currently in game there's low log in numbers so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding exploration sites. You just need to practice at quickly scanning and completing the sites and then move on to another system.


DMC

get yourself trained to at least a T2 exploration setup with covert ops skill at 4 (5 is obviously better but takes time).

Then find wormholes. If you are dedicated to making living from exploring data/relic sites my recommendation is to live in a good/quiet/uninhibited wormhole with nice statics. Possibilities are endless and you will really feel like you are exploring stuff, with new spaces opening up every day, sometimes even deep into some sov null systems which could be quite hard for a new player to enter using normal stargate routes.

And always fit an expanded probe launcher and have combat probes in cargo, even if you never intend to PVP.

If you come across anyone in your travels, drop the combat probes and cloak up and go for a smoke or something. It gets especially hilarious when you get a sov null connection by chance and you enter the systems and you drop combat probes. You will see people docking up and running away from your 0 DPS ship. XD

Be careful when you go back to your hole though. People may be waiting there to catch you if (actually not if, but when) they figure out that you sneaked through a hole.

Have fun!

As active NS i can give you some advice:
-get cov-ops OR Astero. I prefer Astero, despite having Cov-ops at level 5.
-There's ISK in RISK. This is especially true for explorers
-Exiting NS by other means than WHs asks for losing your ship.
-Scanning in regions neighboring LS asks for trouble, especially Catch.
-if you have problems with bubbles, go to NPC null. They are very rare there.
-Scanning strategies are different from region to region. For example, i hack only "Ruins" in Gurista space... if you fit cargo scanner you can pick which cans to hack, however it's time consuming.
-Caches and ghost sites are very often ignored.

People are afraid of Ghost sites and caches... i do them in Astero. Sure, i do get blown up if i mess up, but payouts are huge. My last ghost sites were: Magpie BPC (150m), Wetu BPC (70m), HG Ascendacy Gamma BP (100m) and 50m from covert tools. Just pick easiest can, hack it and gtfo.
As for Caches, limiteds are easy and withou combat, standards are withou combat (first room - 4 cans) and some light combat in second room. Superior caches require EM hardener and armor rep for first room, other rooms are not possible in Astero.
Payout from caches is huge - avg 40m limited, 30/100 standard, 100/? superior...


Also remember, Astero is not expensive if it pays for itself in 3 cans.
Ceptor is overkill, extra warp speed and ability to avoid bubbles is not worth unbonused analyzers and scan strength

I killed enough Asteros to know, that traveling and hacking in one isn't safe ... Also the scan strength and better hacking stats do not make you faster anymore from a certain point. In case you focus on relic sites in nullsec, a scan strength around 80 let you scan each site in maximum 3 runs (figure out in 2). Also from expierience, with 130/30 hacking stats you won't fail cans.

Can confirm there is never ever anything even remotely of value in data/relic sites. 2 Carbon, gee thanks. An encryption skillbook - toss it on the stack. A datacore.

This not even in highsec mind you ~ it is possible once upon a time somebody found something good in there but I'm done wasting my time. Even though I like the minigame (it's especially relevant for viruses; doesn't feel like archaeology but I'd rather they fix the loottable before coming up with a separate minigame for relics).

I started out this game as an explorer and I'll say that I had much more success exploring in wormholes than in kspace. Go pop your head into some of the wormhole connections you find. The data/relic sites generally have a higher reward and if you find an empty wormhole, odds are good there will be a few in there. Plus it adds a level of excitement to exploring. For me jumping through gates and scanning known systems got kind of stale but with wormholes it is a real exploration. You never know what will be on the other side of the hole and it gave me a lot more value to my excursions.