Data and relic sites are two types of Cosmic Signatures, that can be probed down with a Core Probe Launcher. I explained how to scan these down in the previous part of this guide.

Both signatures contain a bunch of containers that you can loot as soon as you finished the so called hacking mini-game successfully. Data Sites contain loot that is used for invention of T2 blueprint copies, while Relic Sites contain salvage that is used to build rigging modules.

Before you start the hacking mini-game to open a container, you should use a Cargo Scanner to check what is inside. By this you don’t waste your valuable time hacking containers that don’t contain any valuable loot. Just lock the container and activate the Cargo Scanner to get a list of the contents.

To evaluate the price of the items, you need to select all items from the cargo scan window and press ctrl+c to copy the items to your clipboard. There is a neat third-party site called Evepraisal , which can estimate the value of the items in your clipboard.

If the contents in the container have any value at all, you can activate your Relic or Data Analyser on it and start the hacking mini-game. If you complete the game successfully, you can loot the container like any other one through the selected item window.

The Hacking Mini-Game

In order to open a container in a Relic or Data Site, you need to hack the locking system of the container first. To start your hack, you simply activate your Relic or Data Analyser on the container within 5 km, which immediately opens a new window containing the hacking mini-game.

The game is basically about moving your virus program through the defence system of the container to defeat the system core program and open the containers lock.

Moving your Virus

The containers locking system is a grid of nodes that you can move your program through. The nodes contents are are hidden at start of the game. Visited nodes are display orange, unknown nodes green. You can move your program to any node that is next to a node you already visited.

When you enter a unknown node it can either be empty, contain a hostile program (defence subsystem), or contain one of several items that you can use to defeat the defence subsystems (utility subsystems). Only the game designers know why there are actually items that help you to break into the locking system hidden on grid, but whatever.

There is one special subsystem called the System Core. Once you defeat the System Core, you win the game and can access the contents of the container. Finally, you might uncover a Data Cache, which can be either a utility or a defence subsystem. It takes a second click on the Data Cache to uncover its content.

If you uncover an empty node, it will shortly display a number indicating how many nodes the next utility subsystems, Data Cache or the System Core is away.

If you uncover a defence subsystems, all adjacent nodes will be locked by the program and you cannot move to them or past them as long as the program is active. If you want to attack a defence subsystems, just click on it.

The above picture shops a partially explored grid. There are several defence and utility subsystems and also the System Core uncovered. Notice that the nodes around the defence subsystems are black and cannot be accessed until it is defeated.

I usually try to uncover as many nodes as possible and collect the utility subsystems before fighting any defence ones. Sometimes, like in the example above, you will just uncover the System Core and only need to fight it in order to finish the game.  There is one exception to that rule which I will cover in the next section.

Fighting a Defence Subsystem

A defence subsystem has two stats displayed next to it: its attack strength in the bottom and its hitpoints (coherence) at the top. There are several different types of subsystems, which basically all have different combination of strength and hitpoints. There are only two special ones, which have a special ability.

I will explain the subsystems as shown above  from left to right.

Firewalls are the most common and basic subsystem with no special abilities.

Anti-Viruses have more strength than Firewalls but also no special ability.

Restauration Nodes will give extra coherence each turn to all other uncovered defence subsystems. So if you find one of these, immediately fight it to stop its special ability.

Virus Suppressors  will reduce your own virus strength while on grid. Only fight it, if this really becomes a problem

Finally, the System Core needs to be defeated to win the game and has little strength but high coherence.

Your own hit points (Virus Coherence) and attack strength (Virus Strength) are displayed on the lower left corner of the window..

When you attack a defence subsystem it will lose a number of hitpoint equal to your virus strength. If the program’s hit points are zero or below after your strike, it is defeated and disappears from the node. If not, it strikes back and you lose hitpoint similar to his strength. If you have zero hit points after a subsystem strikes, the hack has failed and the game is lost. If you lose a hacking attempt, there is a possibility that the container you were working on explodes. Otherwise you can just try again on the same container and start a new game.

For the matter  of fighting, the System Core behaves like an ordinary defence subsystem.

Utility Subsystems

There are a couple of items called utility subsystems that give you certain advantages fighting the defence subsystems.

I will go through the different types shown above from left to right.

The Self Repair Subsystem increases your hitpoints (coherence) by a small amount for three turns. Just activate this one right away when you find it.  

The Kernel Root Subsystem reduces the hitpoint of a defence subsystem by 50%. To use it, click on the item in your inventory and next on the defence subsystem you want to use it on.

The Polymorphic Shield Subsystem will prevent any damage to you from a defence subsystem for the next two rounds. Click on the item in your inventory to activate it, before clicking on a defence subsystem to fight it.

The Secondary Vector Subsystem will hit a defence subsystem for an additional 20 points during combat for the next three turns when activated from your inventory.

Hacking Skills and Equipment

Your virus strength and coherence are influenced by the hacking equipment you use and the two basic hacking skills:

The Hacking skill allows you to use a Data Analyser and gives a +10 bonus to virus coherence per level for hacking data sites.

The Archeology skill  allows you to use a Relic Analyser and gives a +10 bonus to virus coherence per level for hacking relic sites.

There is a T1 and T2 version for both Analysers available, which set the base virus strength and coherence. There are also two Integrated Analysers available that work on both data and relic sites but have lower base values for both stats. Furthermore, the number of utility subsystems you can collect is also specified by the analyser you use. Normal Analysers provide three while the integrated ones only one.

There are also a couple of rigs that increase your virus coherence specific to relic and data sites:

And of course there are implants available. The skill hardwiring increase coherence by +5 for data or relic sites. There is also a very special implant that reduces coherence but increases strength. All hacking implants fit into the same implant slot 9, so you can only use one in a clone.

The last piece of equipment that influences your virus strength is the ship hull you use. Basically all scanning ships mentioned in the previous part of this guide give a hull bonus to virus strength. T1 exploration frigates a +5 bonus, T2 exploration frigates +10 and the Astero, Stratios and Nestor a +10 bonus.

This covers the basics mechanics of the hacking mini-game and some best practices to get the best loot out of data and relic sites. In the next part of this guide I will finally give you some ship fittings and my personal experience hacking in high and low security space. And of course the most important question will be answered: How much ISK can I make by this?

Exploration is one of Eve’s more diverse PVE activities. It involves a wider area of different game mechanics that are not strictly related only to Exploration, but can be found in other parts of the game too.

The main focus of exploration is, to scan down Cosmic Signatures that can be found in every system by opening the Probe Scanner window and make ISK out of the sites that can be found through them. There are different kinds of sites that require different modules on your ship or sometimes even a mining or combat fitted ship.

The next section of this guide will cover the basics of using your Probe Scanner to scan down cosmic signatures. This will cover the skills, ships and modules that are commonly used for exploration. In the next sections, I will give a brief overview of the different kind of sites that can be found and cover the skills, ships and modules that are needed to finish these.

Scanning

To scan down a Cosmic Signature you will need a Probe Launcher loaded with Scanner Probes fitted to a high slot of your ship. You can launch the probes by clicking on the launcher. When you have probes launched, you can see and move them in the Probe Scanner window (Alt-P).  The probes scan within the blue sphere and try to triangulate the signature that must be within the indicated area of effect of the probes. You can change the probe size with the slider in the lower part of the window. The smaller the size of the scanning area, the better the results will be by a scanning attempt. However, if the signature is outside of the area of effect, you will get no result at all.

Scanning down a site is actually quite easy once you get a the hang of it. However, since this is actually very hard to explain without seeing it in action, I will just link this video that nicely shows how to use your probes to scan down a site.

If you want to get some practice scanning, there is also an career agent that will walk you through the mechanics of scanning and provide you with some basic equipment to get started.

Now to the game mechanics around scanning. There are three attributes of the scanner probes and launcher that influence the outcome of a scanning attempt.

Scan Strength: This attribute of the scanner probes measures how many percent of the signature’s signal you can discover by a scanning attempt. The higher the value, the easier it will be to scan the signature down to 100%. If you scanned it down to 100%, you will be able to warp to the signature. If you scan down 25% or more, you will see what type of signature you are scanning

Scan Deviation: This attribute of the probes measures how far away the exact location of the signature is off the displayed location, if you have less than 100% accuracy on your scan. The lower this value is, the easier it is to place the scanner probes on top of the signature location. Remember that you will not get any results for a scan if the exact location is outside the probing area of your scanner probes.

Scan Duration: This is an attribute of the probe launcher and specifies how long a scanning attempt takes.

You can see the current values of the attributes in the upper left corner of the probe scanner window.

Scanning Skills

There are four skills that directly influence your scanning attributes.  The main scanning skill is Astrometrics, which allows you to use probe scanners and gives a 5% bonus per skill level to all three of the above scanning attributes.

Additionally there are three skills that each improve one of the scanning stats, which are Astrometric Acquisition to decrease activation time, Astrometric Rangefinding to decrease deviation and Astrometric Pinpointing to increase scan strength.

Scanning Ships

Basically any ship with a probe launcher fitted can do exploration. However, there are a couple of ships that have hull bonuses to the scan strength of your probes.

Every race has a T1 exploration frigate, which gives a 7.5% scan strength bonus per level of the racial frigate skill.

There is also a T2 version of each exploration frigate, which give a 10% bonus to scan strength and duration per level of the Covert Ops skill. Furthermore, the T2 version can warp cloaked with a Covert Ops Cloaking Device II fitted.

The Sisters of Eve faction has three ships that give a fixed hull bonus to probe strength. This is the frigate sized Astero (37.5% bonus), the cruiser sized Stratios (37.5% bonus) and the battleship sized Nestor (50% bonus). The Astero and Stratios can also fit a Covert Ops Cloaking Device II and warp cloaked. All three hulls have bonuses to drone hitpoints, damage and armor resists, which makes them quite combat capable.

Finally, there are the three special edition ships, which all have a fixed 37.5% hull bonus to scan strength. These are the Sunesis (destroyer), the Gnosis (battlecruiser) and the Praxis (battleship).

Scanning Equipment

The most crucial items for scanning are the Core Probe Launcher and Core Scanner Probes. There is a T1, T2 and also a faction version of the Core Probe Launcher available. The T1 version gives no bonus to scanning, while the more advanced launchers do increase scan strength by 5% or 10%.

Additionally, you will need to load probes into your scanner, which come in a T1 and a faction version, which have a higher base scan strength.

To further increase the three scanning attributes, there are three mid slot modules available that increase the corresponding attribute . All three have a T1 and T2 version and need the corresponding skill to use.

For your rig slots, there are two kinds of modules available, which increase scan strength and decrease scan duration.

Finally, if you still want to increase your stats, you can use skill hardwiring to increase the  three skills and there is even the Virtue attribute enhancer set, which increases scan strength.

Types of Signatures

Once you reach an accuracy of 25% on a signature, it will show you the type of site that you are scanning. There are a couple of different types that can be found:

Relic Sites: These sites are non-combat sites that contain a couple of loot boxes that might contain salvage. To open the boxes, you will need to activate a Relic Analyzer on it. A Relic Analyzer is a mid slot module that starts the hacking mini game on the targeted box. If you complete the mini game successfully, you can open and loot it.

Data Sites: These sites are also non-combat sites that contain loot boxes. This time you will need a Data Analyzer mid slot module to start the mini game and loot it. The loot from data sites contains mostly items needed for invention of T2 blueprint copies.

Gas Sites: Gas sites contain gas clouds that can be mined by a mining ship fitted with a Gas Cloud Harvester module. The mined gas is used to produce combat boosters.

Combat Sites: These sites are very similar to missions and contain hostile NPCs, that might drop expensive faction loot. In order to run these sites, you will need a more or less properly fitted combat ship. These sites have different difficulty levels from very easy to hard.

Wormholes: These are temporary stargates that often lead into wormhole space.

With this quick overview of the different signature types, I will end this first part of the exploration guide. In the next part, I will explain how to run data and relic sites, how to successfully finish the hacking mini-game and the required equipment to do it. So stay tuned!