Missions & Complexes

Thank everyone for your inputs, i really appreciate it.

After some thought and research, i will roam the HS sites until i complete this fitting:

Salvager I
Core Probe Launcher I
Prototype Cloaking Device I
Prototype Gauss Gun 250mm
Prototype Gauss Gun 250mm

Cap Recharger II
10MN Afterburner II
Codebreaker I

Medium Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II
N-Type Kinetic Hardener I
N-Type Thermic Hardener I

Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I

Hammerhead II x5
Hobgoblin II x5
Warrior II x5


As far as i understand:
1)Move to LS (auto-cloak)
2)Dscan, look if noone's around
3)Uncloak, launch probes
4)Cloak up
5)Align to planet while scanning
6)Skip anomalies, WH, mag, ladar, grav
7)Warp to Radar + DED sites = $$$
Combat (for both HS and LS)
a)Lock biggest ship at max falloff range and shoot while orbitting with AB at optimal range.
b)Launch Drones at max operating range
Use Warrior II vs Angel Cartel,
Use Hobgoblin II vs non-AC Frigates
Use Hammerhead II vs non-AC Cruiser, BC, BS
c)Activate Hardeners after my shield goes down.
Kinetic Hardener vs Angel Cartel, Guristas, Serpentis
Thermic Hardener vs Blood Raider, Sansha, Serpentis

Also one last thing i need to confirm, can i take on Watch/Vigil expeditions with this ship?

You'll be able to do the encounters by kiting and some of the escalations. I don't think you'd be able to finish jetset through lack of dps, though following as far as you gives you a moderate possibility of faction drops as there is a chance for an overseer in steps. I've had a watch drop me daredevil bpc, lg snake and then escalate as well. Escalations are my preferred lowsec content because your BM is private and has to be found with combat probes whilst you are in it.

They are pretty hard in a Vexor. I've tried this few days ago (Serpentis version) with almost the same fitting as above - except I didn't have a cap recharger (Analyzer instead). The bottleneck was capacitor as I couldn't run the repairer long enough and I had to warp out twice (actually probably more but I hadn't finished the site since an Ishtar stole me the last half of the second pocket).

With combat optimized fitting and tank it's probably doable without warping out but it's a border case and an explorer isn't usually combat optimized. I doubt that one cap recharger is enough, there must be more for cap recharge rate - a second cap recharger or cap power relay in low or a cap rig (or maybe double hardeners), all things which are not really available on an exploring Vexor.

I used rigs for energy and cap mostly.
But it was a period of time when I used to tank 6/10 with pilgrim and I used navigation rig for speed to get to hi orbit fast.


First of all, I used Pilgrim only vs Guristas, so neuts were not much of my concerns. The concept of rirgs on such ships as exploration Pilgrim is to cover wholes in your skills to get as better tank as you possibly can. You can tank with speed, distance, armor buffer (good enough to be able eliminate most incoming DPS before your tank drops) and active repair.

Depending on what kind of tactic you use you tailor your fit to get best tank (preferably cap stable).
If your tactic is to run away from NPC and orbit at 150 km or so, turning your MWD or AB from time to time, you may find Navigation rigs very useful (speed) or drones operation range rig(s).

If you need good armor buffer, you typically expand power grid for 2nd 1600mm plate or use trimark pump rigs.

Dual armor repair with 2 reps ( 1 med + 1 small / 2 med / 2 small ) really depends on cap, and you may find that extending power grid to be able fit Capacitor battery instead of cap recharger may be very well worth it. Or use 2 rigs for repair efficiency to keep your cap more or less stable or increase rep rate.

It may not be obvious but armor plated recon ships have one very nasty side effect. They lost agility. Yes, they still can warp (go to warp) cloaked, but they can be very, very easy decloaked by competent gate camp. If you use dual armor rep approach, or max resists with 800mm plate (or better without any) your ship still have decent agility to escape from decloaking dramiel or ceptor in most cases.

Why I love exploration (in low sec in particular) so much? Because it is open field for experiments, creativity and good fun. You don't have to worry about ISK too much, because you make a fortune, and along this venture you not get bored to death as you can get with missions. And once you go to low sec, you get yourself into pvp one way or another, since I honestly believe avoiding unwanted pvp is just yet another part of pvp.

No scaning strength rigs? Or your scanning skills are just that good? I still need to train on mine a bit I guess, but can not get them much higher.



Speed tanking sounds interesting, will have to think about it. My drone control range is crap though so would have to increase that alot.


I do mainly Blood and Sansha, will have to do some research to find out about neuts or no neuts. Have not seen anyone so far, but only did as high as 4/10.



Good stuff to think about. I was worried about the agility part, but have not been in enough gatecamps to have any idea about it yet. I might have to skip the plates then, cause I am sure that I will end up loosing most of my ships to gatecamps in the end.



I absolutely agree. Avoiding pvp can be really exciting at times! Making a fortune would be a bonus.

Thank you for all the tips!!