Missions & Complexes

It's hit or miss. Certain overpriced medium shield boosters fell into lowsec space.

True.

This anti-balancing mentality is why certain empire's lowsec exploration can be insanely profitable, while the rest are not.

I assume you are talking about shield modules being 'the ****' when it comes to isk-value. Yes that's what it is currently - but it's not a lowsec only thing. T3 ships and in particular tengus make for a good demand in medium sized shield boosters (or even small ones, which is why the small a-types fetch such a good price).

Now if you look at armor modules the demand is simply not that high, and as such they don't go for such prices. Except a-type eanms, which end up on supers and the like, thus fetching a decent price. Prop mods fall somewhere inbetween - while sometimes used they are not a high priority and the popular 100mn fits use stuff found in nullsec.

Personally i would very much like it if armor stuff became a bit more popular, but it seems that's not about to happen. It is, i think, quite simple why shield (from a purely pve perspective) is so much used: tank in midslots lets you use damage mods in lowslots, whereas you need to compromize on that when armor tanking.

No. There are other options. An Ishtar will do the job, as will a Gila. T3s are great to have but they aren't the only viable ship for low sec exploration.

Honestly, the dangers of low sec are greatly exaggerated. A covops cloak will make you effectively invulnerable when not in a site, but any cloak will make you hard to catch. If you're at all smart about it any exploration ship should pay for itself long before it goes pop.

Edit: get out there. Nothing pays like experience. A cloaky T3 will help make the job easier, but you still have to learn the ropes of dscan, safe travel, and just generally knowing who is out to shoot you and who isn't. A T3 won't help you in those areas and will be an expensive loss if you don't have the minimal player skills required to make it work.

Not at all. Many ships out there can do the job quite well.

When I do Lowsec exploration, I do it with the expectation I'll eventually lose my ship. I'll do something stupid. I won't watch my d-scan often enough. I'll run into a gate camp. Something like that. So I prefer to use cheaper ships, like an Arbitrator. I've had excellent success with that ship, and it only costs something like 25-30 million total to buy it and outfit it to my liking. One lucky drop, and that ship has already paid for it's self.

Only catch is that BS ships will take a while to go down, but they will eventually.

I'd really suggest, that at least in the beginning when you're learning the ropes of Lowsec, that you use cheaper ships as well. If you use a more expensive ship, you might go through the sites faster and be safer in certain ways, but when you screw up and lose the ship, it hurts a whole lot more. It also takes a while longer for the ship to turn a profit, since it has to pay for it's self first.

But whatever route you decide to take, for your own sake, fit a cloak. You'll be grateful you did.

Caldari lowsec is very good risk-reward ratio due to shield modules that are in very high demand (namely Pithi MSBs and Pithi Invuls), minmatar lowsec is a close second due to gisti shield boosters. Rat specific hardeners are a "battleship" type module and come out of nullsec sites.

Serpentis, Blood and Sansha dont drop a whole lot other than ENAMS in lowsec (ENAMS are considered a cruiser module while active hardeners are considered a battleship module). However A-type ENAMS are worth a small fortune and core/corpus/centii are identical.

Over the years I have used different ships for working low sec exploration sites. Currenlty, I work Mag/Radar with a cloaking Recon. I work plexes with BC, and for the big plexes I use BS. Course, I don't scan in a BC or BS. If I find a plex I want to work then I change ships.

I can fly T3 for Caldari and Amarr, but rarely do. Don't know why. Guess I like variety. And I would care less if I lose other ships, even a BS. The T3 craze has not caught on with me.

Fro

Drake is pretty much overkill for any of the lowsec Radars and Mags.

Lowsec Tips:

• When you change ships (include having your current one blown up and moving to your pod), you have a session change timer where you can't dock up or use gates. So, if your ship gets blown up, don't try to jump/dock, instead: warp away A.S.A.P.
• Shooting another player (including using ECM drones on them) gives you a 60 second aggression timer where you can't dock or use gates. If pirates attack you and you want to burn back to gate and jump, don't shoot back or ECM.
• If you have fancy +5s or other expensive implants, use a jump clone (at least until you've learnt the ropes)
• Don't forget to make sure your clone is up to date
• If you see Mnemosyne Gloob in local, warp to a safe spot and cloak up

Yes, MY riches! :(