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Explorer’s Annex: Silent Battleground

Ever come across a weird signature in a wormhole that you couldn’t quite manage to scan down? It’s probably a Silent Battleground.

Overview

Silent Battlegrounds are very rare cosmic signatures that only appear in shattered wormholes, including Thera. However, they still spawn often enough that you can usually find one in a long roam. If you get really lucky, you can even find multiple Silent Battlegrounds in the same system.

Silent Battlegrounds are one of the very few sites in the game that show as level 5 signatures in the probe scanner, specifically level 5 data sites. The only other level 5 sigs are Superior Sleeper Caches (also level 5 data) and the Space Oddity (level 5 combat). This makes them one of the hardest sites to scan down: aim for at least 104 probe strength. All the usual strategies for increasing your probe strength apply here.

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What’s the Best Covops?

The best covops is whichever one you think looks prettiest. See you next time.

Wait, you’re still here? Fine, fine. But “What’s the best covops for me?” is really a better question. When deciding between the 4 covops frigates (Anathema, Buzzard, Cheetah, Helios), there are a few things to consider. This’ll be from the perspective of exploration, not scouting for a fleet or what have you. I’ll also include starter fits for each one.

I won’t cover the Pacifier here, since it’s a different kind of ship that fills different roles.

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Explorer’s Annex: Ghost Sites

Come on, Ghost Sites aren’t that scary. Why yes, that’s a screenshot of a Ghost Site explosion. Why do you ask?

The Basics

Ghost Sites are unique exploration sites found in every part of New Eden: hisec, lowsec, nullsec, and wormholes. They always appear in the probe scanner as level 3 data signatures, except in the null drone regions (Cobalt Edge, Etherium Reach, Malpais, Outer Passage, Perrigen Falls, The Kalevala Expanse, and The Spire), where they show as level 1 combat signatures. For some reason.

Improved Angel Ghost Sites in the probe scanner

All Ghost Sites are named [Prefix] [Faction] Covert Research Facility. For example, “Improved Sansha Covert Research Facility.” That’s not to be confused with Beseiged Covert Research Facilities, which are proper lowsec combat sites.

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T6 Abyss: The Gila

For more T6 abyss guides, check out the main T6 abyss page!

Ah, the Gila. It’s great at all kinds of PVE and the abyss is no exception. While a lot of people (including me) think the Gila’s boring, it’s a very popular choice for T6 abyss due to its combination of strong shield tank, drone and missile bonuses, and relatively low SP requirements. Let’s dive into T6 Gila fits and how you can get the most out of this ship.

The Basics

Like the Ishtar, the Gila’s a drone ship. It’s shield-tanked like the typical T6 Ishtar fit on that page and uses missiles for supplemental damage. The Gila’s unique in that it follows the Guristas flavor of only having 2 drones in a flight, but getting massive HP and damage bonuses for those drones. This means that the bulk of your damage will be coming from 2 medium drones. Fortunately, the Gila has a massive drone bay, with room for 10 flights of 2 medium drones each. Those drone bonuses are also role bonuses, and the Gila’s a T1 pirate hull. This makes it far more friendly towards low-SP pilots than other T6 abyss cruisers. For detailed stats, Uniwiki is of course a great resource.

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Explorer’s Annex: Drone Data Sites

There are 8 nullsec regions known as the drone regions or “dronelands”: Cobalt Edge, Etherium Reach, Malpais, Outer Passage, Perrigen Falls, The Kalevala Expanse, and The Spire. These regions are unique in that they don’t have any regular pirate data or relic sites outside of temporary content like metaliminal storms. They also don’t have Sleeper Caches. Instead, they have special drone data sites.

The Basics

Instead of armor plates or decryptors like regular exploration sites, drone data sites drop 2 kinds of loot: drone blueprint copies (BPCs) and assorted junk. Most of the junk is “drone poop” such as Drone Capillary Fluid. They can also drop filaments. 2 types of drone BPCs drop depending on the site: ‘Integrated’ drone BPCs and ‘Augmented’ drone BPCs. These BPCs drop in 10-run, 60-run, and 120-run variants. The drone poop’s used for manufacturing the drones, and isn’t very valuable. The blueprints, however, can be extremely valuable. We’re talking potentially billions of ISK.

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T6 Abyss: The Ishtar

For more T6 abyss guides, check out the main T6 abyss page!

You might be wondering why I didn’t start with the Gila, since that’s by far the most popular cruiser for T6 abyss (and abyss in general). The answer is that I think it’s boring. Also, the Ishtar’s my “main” T6 abyss ship. Write what you know, right? Anyway, here’s a T6 Ishtar guide!

The Basics

Like the Gila, the Ishtar’s a drone ship. However, while the Gila’s limited to having just 2 medium drones active at a time, the Ishtar can field a full flight of 5 drones. With 125 bandwidth, the Ishtar can use a full flight of heavy drones or the more popular 2 Geckos, 2 mediums, and 1 light. This setup works well because the Geckos do a lot of damage and have a lot of tank while the light flies around and pops caches for you. Thanks to the Ishtar’s tracking bonus, its heavy drones (including Geckos) have no issues applying damage to most targets.

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Explorer’s Annex: Metaliminal Storms

In 2020, CCP introduced Metaliminal Storms: multi-system weather effects that roam nullsec and affect the stats of all player ships within them. These storms are considered annoying by many null residents, but they can also be immensely valuable with some understanding of how they work. How valuable? Over the course of 2 evenings, I yanked over 3 billion ISK out of an electrical storm in Insmother. I haven’t seen this kind of ISK/hr with non-combat exploration outside of getting lucky with quiet Sansha systems, drone data escalations, or wormhole Ghost Sites. And none of those are nearly as consistent or predictable.

To find a storm, just go to your ingame map and toggle the Metaliminal Storms filter. The map won’t tell you which storm is which, but Signal Cartel runs a public storm tracking service.

Basics

There are currently 4 types of metaliminal storms: Electrical, Exotic, Gamma, and Plasma. With 2 of each type existing simultaneously, that makes for 8 storms at a given time. Each storm’s effects are divided among “strong” and “weak” systems, with some additional hidden effects. Eve Uni has a wiki page covering the weather effects of each storm. There’s also a good visual guide in this Reddit post.

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EVE Exploration Guide Part 2: Fitting and Implants

Interested in learning more? Check out the rest of the EVE Online Exploration Guide!

Even if you’re just fitting your ship to explore and do nothing else, EVE still has so many modules and rigs that it can be overwhelming. Fortunately, there are a few modules that you absolutely need on an exploration ship, or at least should really put on there. The rest are up to personal preference.

I highly recommend downloading an out-of-game fitting tool like Pyfa. It’s very intuitive and gives you so much more information than the ingame fitting screen.

Mandatory Modules

This might sound obvious, but you can’t explore without a probe launcher and at least one analyzer. At least, unless you want your only loot to be pretty screenshots and a rescue request. You also need a cloaking device (covops if you can), interdiction nullifier (if your ship allows it), propulsion module (usually a microwarpdrive), and something to help with align time on most ships.

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EVE Exploration Guide Part 1: Picking a Ship

Interested in learning more? Check out the rest of the EVE Online Exploration Guide!

While you can technically explore in any ship, there are hulls that are either specifically designed for exploration or lend themselves well to it despite not having direct exploration bonuses. With over two dozen such options to choose from, every option has its place depending on what you want to do. Depending on your needs and budget, you might get more value out of a relatively cheap Anathema than a blingy Pacifier, or you might get more out of shelling out for a Strategic Cruiser. Repeatedly losing a cheap ship stings a lot less than losing a really expensive one even once, but if you know what you’re doing, you’re less likely to lose the expensive ship in the first place.

Here’s an overview of the most common options:

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Why Explore?

Because it’s fun!

Wait, you’re still here? Fine, fine.

Exploration has a lot of things going for it that make it a very attractive “starter career” in EVE Online and an easy recommendation for new players who don’t want to run missions or stare at rocks all day (staring at antivirus nodes all day is much more engaging).

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