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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.
Probe Launchers (High Slot)
When it comes to probe launchers, you have 3 options: T1, T2, or Sisters (faction). T1 launchers are dirt cheap and a good starting point. Sisters launchers are far more expensive (running around 30mil as of writing), but offer a 10% probe strength bonus with no additional skill requirement. T2 launchers are smack in the middle with a 5% probe strength bonus and are cheap at around 1 million ISK, but require Astrometrics V to use. A T1 probe launcher’s fine when you’re just getting started, but you’ll want to upgrade to Sisters as your confidence and budget grow. T2 launchers might seem like a downgrade compared to Sisters, but they’re a solid pick for experienced explorers who don’t really need the extra probe strength and want a cheaper alternative.
There are two types of probe launchers: Core and Expanded. Core probe launchers, as the name suggests, can only use Core Scanner Probes, which can only scan down natural cosmic signatures in space. They can’t scan down player items. Combat probes can, however, which makes them really useful for getting ahold of stuff like abandoned deployables, drones, and even ships (note that combat probes can’t scan wrecks or containers aside from deployable structures like Mobile Depots).
Core launchers can load 8 probes at once, so one full flight. Expanded probe launchers can use both Core and Combat Scanner Probes, and can load 80 of the former and 8 of the latter (this is mostly just a fun bit of trivia). This means that if you want to use combat probes, you need an expanded launcher. While core launchers are easy to fit on almost any ship, expanded launchers gobble up a huge amount of CPU. You’ll have a hard time squeezing one onto any ship not specifically bonused for it. This means that you’ll most commonly see expanded launchers (and combat probes) on navy explo frigates, covops frigs, T3Cs, and the Metamorphosis. Asteros in particular are common explorer hunting ships, but can’t fit expanded launchers without building the entire fit around supporting one.
Like launchers, Core and Combat probes also come in T1 and Sisters varieties. There’s no T2 probe variant. Sisters probes boast a higher probe strength and aren’t that expensive- a set of 8 will run you around 6mil. There is another kind of core probe called an RSS Core Scanner Probe, but they’re ludicrously expensive at around 30 million ISK per probe, all for a paltry 1 extra probe strength over Sisters. They’re also a giant “kick me” sign to everyone around.
Generally, you want to start with both a T1 launcher and T1 probes, then upgrade the probes to Sisters, then the launcher to Sisters when you feel comfortable doing so. There’s virtually no price difference between core and expanded launchers, so fit an expanded if your ship has a fitting bonus for it. Otherwise, just stick with core.
Cloaking Devices (High Slot)
If probe launchers are what let you find juicy sites, your cloak’s what’ll let you get your loot home intact. A Covert Ops Cloaking Device is by far the best option (just regular T2, don’t bother with the fancy-sounding Storyline and Faction ones). However, only specific ships like covops frigates and covert-sub T3Cs can actually fit one. The big thing about a covops cloak is that it lets you warp cloaked, which makes you a lot safer. It also doesn’t give you any penalties to velocity while cloaked or lock speed, which is nice. Covops cloaks require Cloaking IV to use, which is only a few-days train. So you should definitely use one if your ship allows it.
If your ship doesn’t support a covops cloak, you can still use a “regular” cloaking device. These come in Prototype (T1) and Improved (T2) varieties, along with a bunch of faction and storyline variants that we don’t care about. Both versions don’t let you warp while cloaked, reduce your subwarp velocity while cloaked, and make you take longer to lock things. That last drawback isn’t important, but the first two are: it means that everyone can see you warping around and exiting warp, and you need to drop cloak to go into warp. Because of the penalty to cloaked velocity, you also need to accelerate before entering warp even after dropping cloak. This gives people the ability to track and catch you more easily than if you were using a covops cloak.
The improved cloaking device has a reduced penalty to velocity while cloaked, so you’ll want to use this instead of the prototype as soon as you can (it only requires Cloaking III, so it’s a really fast train). This is so you can better take advantage of the MWD-cloak trick. Basically, you can still activate your microwarpdrive shortly after cloaking. This means that if you end up in a bubble after jumping through a gate, you can activate your cloak, start moving your ship out of the bubble, and activate the MWD. This’ll give you a huge speed boost while cloaked. If you drop cloak ~75% of the way through the MWD cycle and start spamming warp, you won’t have to accelerate back up before warping. This is a great tool for escaping from bubbles and gatecamps. It still helps with a covops cloak especially if you don’t have a nullifier; you just won’t need to drop cloak before warping.
Alphas can’t use cloaking devices, which makes them a lot more vulnerable in nullsec, wormholes, and corrupted lowsec.
Even if you’re an omega, there are reasons you might not use a cloaking device at all. With a fast align time (especially sub-2s instawarp), you’re very safe in uncorrupted lowsec where there aren’t any bubbles even without a cloak. If you’re exploring lowsec in say a Sunesis, Hecate, or even a cloakless Astero, it’s very unlikely you’ll get caught anyway. And in the Astero’s case, dropping a cloak for a nos or neut in lowsec can give a big boost to a combat fit if you’re running one. However, you should really stick to using a cloak while you’re still learning unless you have a very good reason not to use one.
Interdiction Nullifiers (High Slot)
Using up a high slot, an interdiction nullifier grants you immunity to warp disruption bubbles (not targeted warp disruption modules) while the nullifier’s active. This includes bubbles you’re currently in as well as bubbles along your warp vector as you exit warp (“drag bubbles”). If your nullifier’s cycle runs out before you’re out of the bubble, you’ll fail to warp. You can activate nullifiers while cloaked. After cycling, nullifiers go on cooldown like any module. You can only fit 1, and it’s mutually exclusive with burst jammers (which you probably won’t use) and the Higgs Anchor rig (which you most certainly won’t use). Nullifiers passively cut your drone bandwidth, targeting range, and scan resolution (which affects lock speed) in half.
Nullifiers come in different varieties, but the best one to use will always be the basic T1 nullifier. This is because it has the shortest cooldown. If you don’t have the fitting for it, just use compact.
Something to note if you’re using a Strategic Cruiser is that you don’t actually need a nullification subsystem to use a nullifier. The covops subsystem lets you use a nullifier; the nullification sub gives you some bonuses for it.
Alphas can’t use nullifiers, which makes them more vulnerable in nullsec, wormholes, and corrupted lowsec.
Analyzers (Mid Slot)
Analyzers are the modules you use to hack cans (you know, the things that have the loot in them). They come in 3 varieties: Data, Relic, and Integrated. As you can probably guess, data analyzers are for hacking data cans, relic ones are for hacking relic cans, and integrated analyzers can do both (at the cost of being worse on paper and more expensive than a specialized data or relic one). Data and relic analyzers have T1 and T2 versions, while there are 3 integrated analyzers with varying stats.
New players should start with T1 data and relic analyzers (not like you’ll have the skills for anything else). Unfortunately, T1 analyzers are quite weak and this will lead to you failing cans. If you’re getting frustrated with failing a lot of null and wormhole cans, it might be worthwhile to explore in lowsec for a bit. T2 analyzers are a significant improvement over T1, but require level 5 in their respective skill, which means weeks of training. Prioritize relic (archaeology) over data (hacking), since relic sites tend to be a lot more lucrative. Some people even go so far as to drop the data analyzer entirely, but data sites are still good money when you’re just getting started (and ghost sites and sleeper caches, which require data analyzers, can be very profitable for experienced folks).
Integrated analyzers might seem worse than dedicated data or relic ones, but they benefit from both the Hacking and Archaeology skills. This means that when you have both skills to 5 (which is necessary to use it anyway), the Zeugma integrated analyzer will actually be more effective than a specialized one. However, this comes with a high cost: a Zeugma will run you nearly 450 million ISK as of writing. So stick with T2 data and relic analyzers unless you’re ready to commit that kind of money. There’s not much point in using the other 2 integrated analyzers due to their high cost and mediocre performance.
While it’s an implant and not a module, the Neural Lace ‘Blackglass’ Net Intrusion 920-40 bears mentioning here due to its unique effects. It cuts down your virus coherence (health) by 40, but boosts your virus strength (damage) by a whopping 20 points, which lets you 1- or 2-shot most defense nodes. Pairing this implant with a Zeugma analyzer, which gives you coherence bonuses from both the Hacking and Archaeology skills, lets you simply brute-force most hacks. It’s an amazing combo for experienced explorers even if it is hideously expensive.
Alphas can’t train either analyzer skill to 5, so they’re locked out of using T2 analyzers or the Zeugma.
Propulsion Modules (Mid Slot)
The standard pick for explorers is a microwarpdrive, since MWDs provide a massive speed boost that helps with escaping camps, burning out of bubbles, and getting between site cans. Speaking of that, try not to burn between faraway cans in a site if you can help it. Instead, make an on-grid “perch” bookmark as you’re warping in. If you make a BM at least 150 kilometers from all the cans, you can warp between the bookmark and each can, making you a lot safer and letting you finish the site faster. MWDs do have downsides, though. They passively reduce your ship’s capacitor capacity even when not active, gobble up a lot of capacitor when they are active, and don’t work if someone uses a warp scrambler on you (warp disruptors and bubbles are fine). They also massively increase your ship’s signature radius, making you a lot easier to apply damage to.
The best MWD to use will almost always be the restrained version for your particular hull size. That’s because restrained MWDs have the lowest total cap and sig radius penalties and only boost your speed slightly less than the T2 version. If you can’t fit restrained, there’s no harm using a compact.
Afterburners are generally less useful than MWDs for explorers, but they still have their uses. ABs give a significantly lower speed bonus than MWDs but eat up a lot less cap, don’t increase your sig radius, and still work even when scrammed. This makes them ideal for mitigating incoming damage against enemies like Sleeper Cache turrets. They’re also great in lowsec, where you don’t have to worry about burning out of bubbles. I used an AB Astero to great success escaping from hunters in events with lowsec exploration sites.
Dualpropping (fitting a MWD and AB at the same time and alternating between them) might sound appealing, but it eats up a valuable extra mid slot and isn’t that useful in most scenarios. Overpropping (fitting an AB or sometimes MWD intended for a bigger ship class) is also a tactic, but is mainly used on specific ratting and PVP fits due to the extreme fitting requirements and the extra mass giving your ship the turning radius of a small moon.
Align Time (Low Slot)
Due to the way EVE Online handles server ticks, align time gets rounded up to the next second. Functionally, this means that an align time of 2.01s is equivalent to an align time of 2.99s. This means that you shouldn’t add or upgrade modules that lower align time if it doesn’t push you past the next-second threshold. An align time under 2s is known as “instawarp” due to it making you unlockable before warping outside of very specialized fits. An align time of less than 1 second is known as “ultrawarp” and is relegated to a few ships with specialized fits and isn’t generally something to concern yourself with. A few exploration ships can achieve instawarp on their own without needing expensive Nomad implants (that lower align time even more), namely the Astero and Metamorphosis. This is part of what makes them really good at exploring in lowsec. The other exploration frigates, including T1 and covops, should aim for under 3s align time, which still makes them uncatchable by a lot of fits. Some bigger ships like the Proteus with the Hyperspatial Optimization subsystem can also achieve <3s warp.
It’s possible to make T2 covops frigates instawarp too, but that requires very expensive implants and compromises elsewhere. It generally isn’t worthwhile or needed. When calculating align time ingame or with a fitting tool like Pyfa, make sure that your prop mod’s off. ABs and MWDs both increase align time when running.
The main 2 modules you’ll use to reduce align time are Inertial Stabilizers and Nanofiber Internal Structures. Istabs give a bigger bonus than nanos, but also increase sig radius (making you easier to lock and apply damage to). Nanos reduce your hull HP (like you needed that anyway). There are also 2 rigs that lower align time: Low Friction Nozzle Joints (which just affect align) and Polycarbon Engine Housings (that have less of an effect on align but also boost velocity a little). Both kinds of rigs are less effective than the lowslot modules. Since rigs can be used to increase your probe strength and other nice things while lowslots can’t, you generally want to prioritize using lowslots for align time over rigs.
Align time is affected by skills, so if you’re using someone else’s fit, check to see what your personal align time will be. A lower-SP character will usually need more align modules than a higher-trained one.
Other High Slots
With 2-3 highslots already used up by your probe launcher, cloak, and possibly nullifier, there isn’t a lot of space left on most ships. Fortunately, there aren’t many choices here either. You can fit Salvagers just in case you stumble upon some juicy wrecks or turrets/missile launchers if your ship supports them and you want to run combat sites. Missiles are nice for perfect damage selection and lasers are great with ammo efficiency, but this isn’t a ratting guide. You can also fill spare highslots with energy neutralizers and/or nosferatus to pressure enemy capacitor. The Stratios and Legion are great at this due to having ample high slots, great cap themselves, and in the Legion’s case, potentially neut bonuses as well. They can’t hold you down if they have no cap, after all.
Other Mid Slots
Oh boy, there’s a lot more here to choose from. First off, we have scan arrays. These are modules that improve your probe strength (Rangefinding), deviation (Pinpointing), or scan time (Acquisition). Note that alphas can’t use pinpointing arrays at all due to not being able to train the Astrometric Pinpointing skill. Each array comes in a T1 and T2 version. The T1 rangefinding increases probe strength by 5% while the T1 pinpointing and acquisition improve their respective stats by 10%. The T2 versions have double the bonus but require their relevant skills to 5 (training Astrometric Rangefinding V can take over a month just for the last level, at which point you probably don’t need the array bonus anymore).
Arrays are great because they directly improve your ability to scan signatures. This is especially helpful for alphas and characters with low scanning skills. I recommend prioritizing the rangefinding array until you start running into severe diminishing returns due to your skills and other equipment, then switching over to pinpointing. If you have the slots, you can of course run 1 or more of each at the same time. Acquisition’s nice as a QoL thing but won’t make you any better at scanning. Try to aim for at least 105 probe strength if you can, since that’s what you need to scan every signature in the game. With high skills, good equipment, and implants, it’s very possible to push and even break 200 if you want to.
Next, we have cargo scanners. There are different opinions here: some people like them, some think they’re a waste of time. I personally like having a cargo scanner for Sleeper Caches and Ghost Sites, but it’s really up to you and whether you feel that the ability to prioritize good cans is worth the slot.
You could of course use a few mid slots for combat. A warp scrambler will prevent enemies from warping and shut off their MWD if they have one, with obvious implications. A burst jammer can make a hunter lose their lock and let you escape, but it’s RNG-based and mutually exclusive with a nullifier (also, using one in hisec could get you concorded). A stasis webifier can let you get out of a hunter’s scram range. You can also try fitting a shield tank. Most exploration frigates can handle a medium shield extender, which can help you survive a smartbombing attempt or burst of damage from rats. Note that shield extenders will increase your sig radius, making you easier to lock and damage.
It’s important to keep in mind that if you do fit your exploration ship with combat and/or tank modules, you should still prioritize using them to escape. A ship that’s partially fit for exploration and partially fit for fighting will lose to a dedicated hunting fit. T2 covert ops frigates are an especially poor choice for combat or tank modules, since they’ll still be made of wet paper and probably won’t have the powergrid to fit something like a medium shield extender anyway.
Other Low Slots
Other than meeting an align breakpoint (usually sub-3s), there isn’t that much competition for lowslots compared to mids. That said, you still have some good options.
First off, we have 2 utility picks: Overdrive Injectors and Expanded Cargoholds. The former increases velocity (without affecting align) at the expense of cargo size, while the latter does the opposite and also reduces hull HP. Overdrives are nice for ships that have lows to spare and can’t fit nullifiers (so you have to manually burn out of bubbles), like Asteros. Expanded cargoholds are very straightforward- they give you more cargo space. However, most exploration loot isn’t particularly bulky, and the bulkier stuff tends to be lower-value. Both modules are percentage-based, so faster ships will get more out of overdrives and ships with more space will get more out of expanders.
A Warp Core Stabilizer is a module that adds 2 points to your ship’s warp core strength when active, at the cost of reducing targeting range, scan resolution, and targeting range similarly to a nullifier. This means that a standard disruptor (which has 1 point) or scrambler (2 points) won’t be enough to keep you from warping. However, a lot of hunters use faction scrams, which have 3 points of strength and therefore overpower the stabilizer. You’re also limited to fitting one, so you can’t stack stabilizers like you could in the old days. It’s really up to personal preference: some people like using stabs; I personally don’t bother. I think it makes sense to put one on a Metamorphosis, since it has bonus warp core strength built in, and it’s an alright choice for lowsec since you don’t have bubbles to worry about. Keep in mind that stab penalties stack with those from a nullifier, so using both can make locking cans very tedious.
You could also fit a Damage Control Unit, which passively increases hull, armor, and shield resists. It’s an alright option to increase survivability if you have a slot to spare. Armor tank modules like plates, membranes, and reppers run into a lot of the same issues as shield tank ones: you’re still in a thin and easily killable ship and you have to consider the opportunity cost of not using a utility option. Chances are that you’d get more out of being able to align faster, scan better, or carry more loot than lasting a tiny bit longer when you do get caught. Unlike shield extenders, armor plates increase your mass instead of sig radius. This makes your ship align and move slower. The Astero’s unique on this front because it can achieve instawarp by just using 2 rigs, letting you devote every single lowslot to armor tanking and/or increasing drone damage.
Speaking of which, damage-boosting modules like Drone Damage Amplifiers and Heat Sinks aren’t usually useful unless you’re planning to run combat sites or Sleeper Caches.
Rigs
Unlike modules, rigs don’t use CPU or PG, but instead use their own Calibration resource. T1 and navy ships (like the Heron and Heron Navy Issue) have 3 rig slots and 400 calibration, while pirate ships (like the Astero) have 3 slots and 350 calibration and T2 ships (like the Anathema) have 2 slots and 400 calibration. Most rigs have some form of penalty, which can be reduced by training that rig’s relevant skill.
Explorers have relatively few if solid options here. The Gravity Capacitor Upgrade is an outstanding choice because it boosts probe strength by 10% or 15% for T1 or T2, respectively. It also has no penalties. A Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer is also great because it makes you warp around faster, which explorers spend a lot of time doing. Alternatives include align rigs like the polycarbons and low friction nozzle joints mentioned earlier, along with Cargohold Optimization rigs that increase cargo space. There are 2 rigs that improve virus coherence (not strength) for hacking: Emission Scope Sharpeners (for relic cans) and Memetic Algorithm Banks (for datas). Both eat up a lot of calibration and only give small bonuses, but can be useful for new pilots who haven’t trained their hacking skills up yet. Fitting rigs are rigs that increase your CPU or PG- a PG rig might be needed on a T2 covops frig depending on the rest of your fit.
Armor, shield, and damage rigs are of course good picks if you’re running combat sites.
Just keep in mind that while T2 rigs are more powerful than their T1 counterparts, they also tend to be far more expensive and eat up more coherence. Rigs are also destroyed when you remove them from a ship, so make sure you’re installing the right rigs and that you have enough coherence for all of them. Some rigs (such as weapon rigs) also penalize your CPU, so make sure you simulate your fit first.
Drones
A lot of exploration ships have at least some drone bay capacity and bandwidth. Some like the Astero and Stratios even get substantial drone bonuses. It’s a good idea to have 1 flight of ECM drones (alphas can’t use these) to give you a chance to break an attacker’s lock and escape. As for the rest of your bay, it’s up to what you plan to do. If you want to do some damage, whether to rats or other players, combat drones are a good choice. Navy drones have more HP than T2 drones, while T2s deal more damage. There’s never really a reason to use basic T1 drones unless you’re seriously struggling with ISK. Salvage drones, as the name suggests, let you salvage wrecks.
Deployables
The 3 main deployable structures of interest here are secure containers, mobile depots, and mobile tractor units. Containers can’t be combat probed and let you temporarily store extra loot to recover later. They’re also 10% bigger on the inside, so you can assemble one inside your ship if you have the cargo space and squeeze in a bit more loot.
Mobile depots can be combat probed, but they also have a 48-hour reinforcement timer after being damaged to 25% shields (so attackers need to shoot it, wait 2 days, and come back to finish it off). They also have a lot of cargo space once deployed. Their most important feature is that you can use them to refit your ship: this lets you travel around in a fast-align fit optimized for scanning and running data/relic sites, then refit to a combat fit when you find a combat site you want to do. This is extremely useful for Sleeper Caches.
Mobile tractor units don’t have a reinforcement timer, so they can be destroyed in one go. Once deployed, they start pulling in and looting every wreck within their range. They aren’t as useful as the other options for explorers, but they can be nice for things like wormhole combat sites.
All mobile structures and containers decay 30 days after being deployed.
Cargo
First off, it’s a good idea to carry at least 1 spare flight of 8 probes with you. This way, you can still scan if you lose the first flight for whatever reason, and your probe launcher will automatically reload after you launch the first flight, saving you a bit of time. Nanite Repair Paste is also a good thing to have in case you need to overheat modules for whatever reason.
Implants
There are some implants that can be very useful to explorers. As always, don’t use expensive gear unless you’re confident in your abilities and wallet. Alphas are locked out of plugging in a lot of high-end implants, but you’ll keep implants you already plugged in as an omega even if you no longer have the skills for them as an alpha.
For attribute implants, the 6-implant Virtue set comes in low-grade and mid-grade varieties and increases probe strength significantly, but is also expensive. Interestingly, you can use up to MG Virtue Delta (the 4th one) as an alpha with Cybernetics III trained.
The Nomad set also comes in low- and mid-grade varieties. It improves align time, allowing a lot of exploration ships to instawarp when they can’t without it. This isn’t as useful as the extra probe strength from Virtues in most cases. You could also just go with a set of attribute training implants if you don’t want to use Virtues or Nomads.
As for hardwirings, there are Poteque ‘Prospector’ Astrometric Pinpointing, Rangefinding, and Acquisition implants for slots 6, 7, and 8, respectively. Each kind of implant improves its own scan stat and has 3 variants with different levels of improvement (and price).
In slot 9, we have the Neural Lace ‘Blackglass’ Net Intrusion 920-40 mentioned earlier. While it’s definitely the best hacking implant, alternatives include 2 implants that give a slight coherence bonus for data or relic analyzers. Slot 10 has an Environmental Analysis implant that gives another slight bonus to every analyzer’s coherence.
There you have it, a breakdown of what you should fit on your exploration ship. If there’s any major takeaway here, it’s that what you fit on your ship will change depending on the exact nature of what you want to do. Consider the opportunity cost of using slots for certain things, and if you die, try to figure out what got you killed. If it seems like a fitting issue, maybe you can adjust things to avoid the same pitfall.
The next (hopefully shorter) part will cover some example fits for different ships and outline the reasoning behind them.
Exploration Guide Index