Exploration guide

Much of space remains to be charted, and although years have been spent exploring the universe as a whole, finer details are often missed. Deadspaces, which once caused problems but have since been capitalized on for their unique characteristics, are still in the process of being documented. DED attempts to document and report these space anomalies but there are many cases where reports have yet to be made public due to lack of resources, logistics, or even due to political reasons.

Some pilots have decided to take the matter into their own hands and have begun to discover sites that have yet to be considered public knowledge. Although risky by nature, pilots are often rewarded greatly for their hard work and effort in locating these areas and further exploring them. Thus, Exploration has been born.

What is Exploration?

Exploration is the art of scanning a solar system for a Deadspace signature that does not traditionally appear on a ship's scanners or overview. These Deadspace zones are designed to reward players for the additional work required to reveal them. Once the complex has been explored, the specific signature no longer shows up in future scan results in that system.

You may wish to refer to the Scanning Guide for introductory information about scanning in general, and finding player ships and objects in particular. This article focuses on scanning for Exploration-related content.

Cosmic Anomalies are also related to Exploration, but do not require any special skills, tools, or complex techniques.

Exploration Site Types

• Unknown:
  • Wormholes. These lead to other systems, either in "Known Space", (aka K-space, aka New Eden) or "Wormhole Space", (aka W-space).
  • Exploration Complexes. These often have a Commander spawn, and can escalate, eventually culminating in an NPC which drops deadspace items.
  • DED Complexes. Rated on a scale of 1-10 (you'll receive a message when you warp to the gate with their rating), these complexes do not escalate, but the final overseer has an excellent chance of dropping deadspace items, along with a small chance of dropping a faction ship BPC.
• Cosmic Anomaly: Combat sites with NPC spawns, with the possibility of escalating to more difficult sites.
• Gravimetric: Hidden asteroid belts. Mining sites containing ores of rarer types and/or larger asteroids than the belts native to that system.
• Magnetometric: Archaeology/Salvage profession sites.
• Radar: Hacking profession sites.
• Ladar: Gas Cloud sites for mining gas.

Exploration Skills

Several skills are required and useful for exploration:

• Astrometrics—Level 1 is required for operating the Core Probe Launcher and Core Scanner Probes (level 5 is required for Deep Space Probes)
• Jury Rigging—Level 1 is required for fitting Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I rigs, which increase scan strength. Since the tech 2 version of this rig has a very high calibration cost, and the rig has no drawback, training beyond the first level is not necessary.
• Hacking—Level 1 allows use of Codebreaker I for opening otherwise-unopenable cans in radar sites. Level 5 allows use of a Codebreaker II.
• Salvaging—Level 1 allows use of a Salvager I for opening otherwise-unopenable cans in magnetometric sites. Level 5 allows use of a Salvager II.
• Astrometric Acquisition—Skill at the advanced operation of long range scanners. 10% reduction to scan probe scan time per level.
• Astrometric Pinpointing—Greater accuracy in hunting down targets found through scanning. Reduces maximum scan deviation by 10% per level.
• Astrometric Triangulation—Skill for the advanced operation of long range scanners. 10% increase to scan probe strength per level.
• Covert Ops—required for flying any of the four covert ops frigates, which give bonuses to scan strength.

Exploration Ships, Mods, and Rigs

Many items are available to make your exploration succesful:

Ships

• T1 Scanning Frigates—these give a small, per-skill level bonus to scan strength
  • Heron
  • Imicus
  • Magnate
  • Probe

• T2 Covert Ops Frigates—these give a larger, per-skill level bonus to scan strength
  • Anathema
  • Buzzard
  • Cheetah
  • Helios

Modules

• Sisters Scan Probe Launchers—5% increase to scan strength
  • Sisters Core Scan Probe Launcher
  • Sisters Expanded Scan Probe Launcher

Scan Probes

• Sisters Scan Probes
  • Sisters Core Scanner Probe—10% increase to scan strength
  • Sisters Combat Scanner Probe—10% increase to scan strength
  • Sisters Deep Space Scanner Probe—10% increase to warp speed
• RSS Scan Probes
  • RSS Core Scanner Probe—12.5% increase to scan strength

Rigs

• Gravity Capacitor Upgrade Rigs
  • Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I—Provides a 10% increase to scan strength for 200 calibration.
  • Gravity Capacitor Upgrade II—Provides a 15% increase to scan strength for 300 calibration.

It is usually recommended to fit two T1 rigs, because together they offer a greater bonus than a single T2 rig, and you cannot fit a T2 rig and a T1 rig, or two T2 rigs on a single ship due to calibration costs.

Implants

• Virtue Set—Provides a bonus to scan strength
  • Low-grade Virtue Alpha—1% bonus and 1.1 set bonus
  • Low-grade Virtue Beta—2% bonus and 1.1 set bonus
  • Low-grade Virtue Gamma—3% bonus and 1.1 set bonus
  • Low-grade Virtue Delta—4% bonus and 1.1 set bonus
  • Low-grade Virtue Epsilon—5% bonus and 1.1 set bonus
  • Low-grade Virtue Omega—1.25 set bonus
  • Full set bonus: 33.83%

• Attribute Hardwirings
  • Slot 6
    • Hardwiring - Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPF-0—2% reduction to scan deviation
    • Hardwiring - Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPF-1—6% reduction to scan deviation
    • Hardwiring - Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPF-2—10% reduction to scan deviation
  • Slot 7
    • Hardwiring - Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPG-0—2% reduction to scan duration
    • Hardwiring - Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPG-1—6% reduction to scan duration
    • Hardwiring - Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPG-2—10% reduction to scan duration
  • Slot 8
    • Hardwiring - Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPH-0—2% bonus to scan strength
    • Hardwiring - Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPH-1—6% bonus to scan strength
    • Hardwiring - Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPH-2—10% bonus to scan strength

How do I do it?

Exploration: Apocrypha

Pending rewrite for Apocrypha expansion, please read this Dev Blog.

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=642