In this last part of my exploration guide I am going to write about my personal experiences exploring in high and low security space running Data and Relic Sites.  If you want to learn more about how to find and hack these sites, check out the previous two parts of the guide.

The Ship

First thing to do was to come up with a proper fit for my exploration boat that shouldn’t be too skill point intensive and expensive. The fit should be somehow comparable to what a new player could afford to start his exploration career.

After some fiddling around in Pyfa, I came up with the following Heron fit:

The fit is designed to run Relic and Data Sites in low and high sec, which don’t contain any hostile NPCs. I picked the Heron hull because it has the most mid slots of all T1 exploration frigates, which is great to fit scanning and hacking related modules which are all mostly mid slot modules.

In the high slots we need of course a Core Probe Launcher I to scan down the sites. If you also want to explore in low sec, an Improved Cloaking Device II comes in handy but any other cloaking device will do the job too..

The mid slots contain a Scan Rangefinding Array I and a Scan Acquisition Array I to increase scan strength and reduce deviation of the scanner probes, a 5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive to move faster inside the hacking sites and of course a Data or Relic Analyser. I only ever fit one of them and refit to the other one that is in cargo if required. Since I only explored in high and low sec, refitting in system was never a problem.  Finally, we need a Cargo Scanner II to scan and evaluate the contents of the site’s containers.

In the rig slots I fitted a Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade II to increase scan strength and Small Signal Focusing Kit II to decrease scanning time..

The low slots can contain either Warp Core Stabilizers I if you want to go to low sec or just Inertia Stabilizers II to align and get into warp faster for high sec exploration.  

With my not so great skills, this resulted in the following scanning and hacking stats:

With a cost of 18 mil for the fit, it doesn’t break the bank but still has quite good scanning stats. For low sec exploration the Heron is actually not ideal but I will get to that later.

The Heron in Action

I fitted my new Heron in Jita and off I went to do some serious scanning in high sec. I mostly scanned in the four Caldari high sec regions (Lonetrek, The Forge, Black Rise and The Citadel) with some short visits into Gallente space. Most systems contained between one and three Cosmic Signatures that I eagerly scanned down. And I scanned a lot of them. And some more. I quickly realized that there weren’t a lot of Data or Relic Sites available to discover in high sec. After scanning the cosmic signatures in about 50 systems, I only discovered 7 Relic and 3 Data Sites in total. What was even worse, was the fact that almost none of the Relic Sites contained any valuable loot. I pre-scanned all containers with my Cargo Scanner and only one of the seven Relics had around 1,6 million ISK in loot in it. The other six only contained loot worth less than half a million ISK in total. The Data Sites were a little better with an average of 1,5 million ISK per site in loot. The hacking of the containers is almost trivial in high sec and even with minimal skills you should be able to finish the hacking mini-game in no time.

After around two hours of exploration in high sec, I was able to gather 6 mill in loot out of my 10 sites, which comes to a staggering 3 mil ISK / h. This is very, very low compared to all other ISK making activities I tried so far for my posts.

Maybe there are too many people farming sites in high sec or I just had bad luck, but I decided that this is definitely not worth my time.

Exploration in Low Sec

So off to low sec I went. I mostly scanned in the northern parts of Lonetrek and The Forge and things got a lot better there. There are much more Cosmic Signatures available in almost every system and I hardly ever discover one the hadn’t either a Data or Relic Sites in it. The downside of low sec is, that other players can pretty much shoot and kill you whenever they have the chance and there were plenty of them in local in almost all low sec systems. The trick is to not give them one. I usually launch my probes on the gate and warp off immediately  at range to a planet or asteroid belt. As soon as your ship comes out of warp cloak up with your cloaking device. If nobody followed you, you are now kind of save and can scan down the signatures in system. If you find a site uncloak and warp at range to it. Once out of warp lock the containers and run your Cargo Scanner on them. As soon as this is finished immediately cloak up again. Next you can evaluate the contents and identify the ones you want to hack. If you found a good one, decloak and use your MWD to get close to the container and start the hacking mini-game. While working on the container, don’t forget to use your directional scanner to check if a new ship comes up that might be in warp to you. I usually set the dscan range to 1 AU so that no other ship is visible on scan. If a new ship shows up, chances are high that is is in warp to your site. If this happens, close the mini-game and activate your cloak again. You can also activate your MWD for one cycle to pull range from the container.

Another critical moment is when you enter a system. If there is any ship on the other side of a gate that has fast enough lock time, it might just point you or even just kill you with one volley of their guns. That’s why you should fit Warp Core Stabilizers in the low slots to at least avoid getting pointed on a gate. This is actually where the Astero, Stratios or T2 exploration ships are much better for low sec exploration, because they can warp off the gate cloaked. If you have these available cloak up as soon as you break the gate cloak and warp off to any celestial.  If you cloak immediately after breaking gate cloak, even an instalock ship cannot lock you fast enough.

In total I spent about 5 hours scanning and hacking 5 Data and 7 Relic Sites in low sec. The total amount of loot I got was 66 million ISK which comes to 13,2 mil ISK / h, which is a lot better than exploration in high sec. Again, Data sites were more profitable than Relic sites and some Relics didn’t contain any valuable loot. However, the average site contained 5,5 mil ISK worth of loot, which is not too bad.  

I only had one occasion when a hostile player warped into my site, but I managed to warp off before I got pointed.

Exploration in low sec might be a good activity to make some ISK for a new player. It also teaches you how to avoid hostile players and dodge gate camps. However, you cannot multi box if you have several accounts and it is an activity that requires your full attention. If you just want to make some easy semi afk ISK, exploration might not be the right activity for you.

Exploration in high sec is a completely risk free but also an almost ISK free activity that I wouldn’t recommend to anybody, unless to practice scanning and hacking before heading into low sec.