Exploration sites
I will gather here information on the various exploration sites I’ve found during my career as a pod pilot. It is definitely not extensive and will be mostly based on my own (sometimes vague) recollections of the various runs.
Please note that most of these sites I’ve run in the past (some way back in the past) and I am only now writing the info down, mainly relying on my blog posts for memory. There may be some gaps and errors in them, so don’t come barking at me if you end up in a pod as a result. If you have corrections or additions that you want to contribute, just drop them in the comments and I’ll sort things out.
WARNING! Spoilers ahead! This page contains a lot of information that some people might find too informative. I know a lot of people like exploring for the discovery aspect of it. If you are one of those people you shouldn’t be reading this page.
Jump straight to: high sec sites – low sec sites
General notes
Most sites are tied to the rat faction dominant in your region. So in Minnmatar space you will have Angel sites, while Gallente might get Serpentis ones. Mostly this doesn’t matter on what you find within the site. The defenses will be of the same quality and the loot will be of same type. You might get Minnmatar decryptors from Angels and Gallente ones from Serpentis etc. but the rewards are still of the same type as are the rat classes and other aspects.
The security status of the system will affect the number and class of the defenses (and most likely rewards too). For example, in a 0.7 system you might get 3 frigates and a destroyer guarding a site while in a 0.5 system the same site might have frigates and a cruiser. Just keep in mind that the site difficulty scales with the system sec status, which might alter the perceived difficulty of the site.
Also, the ship class you bring in will also affect the sites that don’t have ship size locked warpgates. So if you bring a BC to a tier 1 radar site you will get more rats than if you had come in with a frigate. And using a small ship to “seed” a site will not help; more rats will spawn if you come back in a bigger ship.
One last thing. As I haven’t kept a accurate count of the rats that I’ve encountered on the sites I will not be recording any accurate lists of defenses. The descriptions will be more in the lines of “a handful of small rats” or ” 3 medium rats” and will give the general feel of how easy or difficult it was for me to run the site.
HIGH SEC SITES
Unknown (combat sites and wormholes)
Combat sites are either rated (e.g. DED threat assesment (3 out of 10), the rating is stated in the site description popup) or unrated (e.g. The Haunted Yard, which is an unrated 2/10 site). Both rated and unrated sites will have warpgates that limit the usable ship hulls (e.g. a 3/10 will allow up to cruiser sized ships).
However, only unrated sites will have a chance of escalation! Rated sites were previously static complexes and will thus never escalate. Some of the easier rated complexes (1/10 and 2/10) are still static and you can see their beacons in your overview in applicable systems.
Unstable Wormhole
Haunted Yard (drone, 3/10 unrated)
Desolate Site (drone)
Angel Hideout
Angel Lookout
Angel Haven
Angel Watch (4/10 unrated)
Rogue Drone Asteroid Infestation (3/10 rated)
Serpentis Narcotics Warehouses (3/10 rated)
Sansha’s Vigil (4/10 unrated, difficult)
Radar (hacking sites)
Radar sites require a codebreaker to access the cans. All high sec radar sites seem to be Local XXXX while low sec sites are Regional XXXX.
Local Angel Shattered Life-Support Unit
Magnetometric (arc/sal, i.e. archaeology and salvaging sites)
Mag sites require either an analyzer module (arc) or a salvager module (sal) to access the cans. The easiest way to determine the site type (aside from recognizing the name) is to start warping to the site and then immediately cancel the warp. Upon warp in you will get a popup describing the site and stating the required modules.
Note: IMO high sec mag sites are not worth the effort. While relatively easy to run, the rewards are so negligible that high sec mag sites are currently on my ignore list.
Crumbling Sansha Crystal Quarry (arc)
Crumbling Serpentis Solar Harvester
Looted Serpentis Abandoned Station
Looted Angel Battle Remnants
Looted Angel Collision Site
Ladar (gas clouds & booster complexes)
Gas clouds are very much dependent on the region and constellation. Some regions do not get any gas clouds while others seem to have them in abundance. The site types also seem to depend on the region. I’m not sure whether the gas types vary from region to region.
Gravimetric (asteroid belts)
Small/Medium/Large – Jaspet, Kernite & Omber belts
LOW SEC SITES
Unknown (combat sites and wormholes)
Combat sites are either rated (e.g. DED threat assesment (3 out of 10), the rating is stated in the site description popup) or unrated (e.g. The Haunted Yard, which is an unrated 2/10 site). Both rated and unrated sites will have warpgates that limit the usable ship hulls (e.g. a 3/10 will allow up to cruiser sized ships).
However, only unrated sites will have a chance of escalation! Rated sites were previously static complexes and will thus never escalate. The easier rated complexes (1/10 and 2/10) are still static and you can see their beacons in your overview in applicable systems.
Unstable Wormhole
Angel Minor Annex (5/10 unrated)
Radar (hacking sites)
Radar sites require a codebreaker to access the cans. All high sec radar sites seem to be Local XXXX while low sec sites are Regional XXXX.
Regional Angel Mainframe (radar)
Regional Angel Data Backup Server (radar)
Regional Angel Command Center (radar)
Regional Angel Data Fortress (radar)
Regional Sansha Data Processing Center (radar)
Magnetometric (archaeology and salvaging sites)
Mag sites require either an analyzer module (arc) or a salvager module (sal) to access the cans. The easiest way to determine the site type (aside from recognizing the name) is to start warping to the site and then immediately cancel the warp. Upon warp in you will get a popup describing the site and stating the required modules.
Ransacked Angel Dumped Cargo (mag/sal)
Decayed Sansha Particle Accelerator (mag/arc/sal)
Decayed Sansha Lone Vessel (mag/arc)
Ladar (gas clouds & booster complexes)
Gas cloud ladar sites are very much dependent on the region and constellation. Some regions do not get any gas clouds while others seem to have them in abundance. The site types also seem to depend on the region. I’m not sure whether the gas types vary from region to region.
Some ladar sites are actually combat/hacking complexes where you can find the booster blueprints, so you shouldn’t ignore all low sec ladar signatures immediately even if gas harvesting is not your thing.
Sansha Gas Processing Site (ladar/hacking plex)
Pipe Nebula (ladar)
Gravimetric (asteroid belts)
Grav sites are hidden asteroid belts which usually contain higher value ores than you would otherwise find in a similar sec status systems normal belts. All the normal mining operation things apply here, including the possibility of rats.
Large Dark Ochre & Gneiss belt (grav)