Exploration

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 ships scanners or overview. These Deadspace zones have characteristics similar to the regular Deadspace zones reported by DED, but often reward players for the additional work required to reveal these hidden areas. Once the complex has been explored, the specific signature no longer shows up in future scan results in that system.

What Skills Do I Need for Exploration?

Scanning utilizes a Scan Probe Launcher as well as Scan Probes that focus on a particular signature type (Gravimetric, Magnetometric, RADAR, LADAR).

All of these require:

Astrometrics I
Science III

Due to the amount of time needed to scan using the Scan Probe Launcher, the Signal Acquisition skill should be trained to Level 1 to prevent the probes from expiring in space; this would inhibit a successful scan.

Additional skills to consider investing in:

Astrometric Pinpointing
Astrometric Triangulation
Hacking (enables the use of Codebreaker modules to take full advantage of RADAR signatures)
Salvaging (enables the use of Salvager modules to take advantage of Magnetometric signatures)
Archaeology (enables the use of Analyzer modules to take advantage of Magnetometric signatures)
Gas Cloud Harvesting (enables the use of Gas Cloud Harvester modules to take full advantage of LADAR signatures)

What Items Do I Need for Exploration?

The following items are needed for a pilot to scan for Deadspace signatures:

Scan Probe Launcher
Quest Probe (there are four types, each focusing on a specific sensor strength) - these are not as strong as others but are able to scan up to 4 AU.
Pursuit Probe - these are stronger than Quest Probes but are only able to scan up to 2 AU
Sift Probe - these are stronger than Pursuit Probes but are only able to scan up to 0.5 AU
Comb Probe - these are the strongest of the probe types but are only able to scan up to 1.0 AU
Multispectral Frequency Probe - these may be used to scan for signature types that exist within a system but are unable to scan for a specific signature location.

How Do I Scan for a Deadspace Signature?

First, it is recommended a Multispectral Frequency Probe be used to scan a solar system for any Deadspace signatures. While Exploration sites may exist in any system, there is no guarantee that every system will contain a Deadspace signature.

Once a probe is loaded into the Scan Probe Launcher, it may be launched by activating the launcher module. The probe is then launched into space and enables your ship to scan with that probe.

To use the Scanner, click the Scanner icon in the ship control console or press CTRL-F11. For the purposes of Exploration, click the System Scanner tab.

There are five basic groups of things that you can scan for with the system scanner:

Drone & Probe

Other probes and drones in space.

Scrap

Biomass, cargo containers and wrecks.

Ship

The rule of thumb is that smaller ships are harder to find, as the signature radius of an object is a defining factor in how difficult it is to locate.

Cosmic Signature

Gas Clouds, Hacking Sites, Archeological Sites and Hidden Asteroid Fields. There are many types of probes and they have different sensor strengths in order to locate different cosmic signatures:

LADAR to find Gas Clouds
RADAR to find Hacking Sites
Magnetometric to find Archeological Sites
Gravimetric to find Hidden Asteroid Fields
Unknown may be scanned effectively by any sensor type, and usually indicates a hidden pirate faction base within a system

Structure

Scanning out the location and defenses of an enemy Player Owned Structure can be very useful but dangerous, as your ship may be vaporized in seconds by defensive turrets if you warp at the location.

You can only scan for one group at a time, but this number may be increased by training the Astrometrics skill.

For Exploration, use the Cosmic Signature scan group, select the probe you launched and click Analyze. The window should change to alert you of how much time is left in the scan. Once completed, the scan results are revealed.

Scan Results

In many cases, the result of the scan will be No Results Found.

When using a Multispectral Frequency Probe, this means there are no Deadspace signatures to scan for currently in the system. This would be a good time to move onto another system or wait for one or more days before scanning the same system again. If a particular signature is located within a system, the pilot is now aware of which probes should be used to continue scanning for the signature.

When No Results Found is encountered using any other type of probe, this can mean one of two things:

As scanning is percentage based, there exists a chance that the probe was unable to find a signature even though it is physically located within the scan region
There is no signature within the scan radius of the probe

When a signature is discovered using a probe other than a Multispectral Frequency Probe, the result of the scan is displayed in the scanner window.

The table lists information obtained from the successful scan:

Type describes the object in space generating the signature that was obtained from the scan
Signal Strength outlines how powerful a signal has been obtained from the object. Deadspace has a very low signature, requiring the use of Exploration probes. There is no guarantee that scanning an area will always result in a successful scan, even if it contains a signature
Distance shows the distance of the signature in relation to the current location of your ship
Accuracy determines how far the actual signature is from the current result. Probes that can scan a greater distance often sacrifice accuracy. A pilot may need to use more powerful probes to scan for the exact location of the signature.

Once a signature is listed in the results, a pilot may right click the result and warp to it. If the Accuracy of the result is more than 100 km or so, it should be scanned further to obtain a better result. Being closer to the actual signature allows the use of more powerful probes to reduce the deviation to increase the accuracy of future scans.

Finding the Actual Site

After scanning the signature and obtaining an accurate reading, warping to the site should reveal the Deadspace or an Acceleration Gate leading to it. The Deadspace has now been successfully located and may now be explored! Depending on the signature type of the Deadspace, the tools needed from this point vary.

Exploration sites types

Hidden Asteroid Belts - Quite simply asteroid belts that you can only find by exploring different solar systems and using probes. There can be almost any type of asteroid in these areas, though you will find better asteroids in lower security space.

Hidden Archeology sites - Sites where you, through the use of salvaging and archeology modules can obtain items and materials not found anywhere else in the EVE universe. These sites are part of the "mini-profession" for archeology. In the COSMOS variant you will find items and skills used in Gas Cloud Harvesting.

Hidden Hacking Sites - Sites where you, through the use of hacking (codebreaker) modules can obtain items and materials not found anywhere else in the EVE universe. These sites are part of the "mini-profession" for hacking. In the COSMOS variants you will find items and blueprints used in Booster Manufacturing.

Hidden Gas Clouds – These sites are the only places you will find harvestable gas clouds in EVE. The resources gathered at these sites are used in Booster Manufacturing. These sites can range from easy, with little or no NPC presence, to very hard will full NPC fortifications.

Hidden Dungeons - Hidden dungeons are essentially hidden complexes. These dungeons range in difficulty from 1 through 10, with the more difficult ones being found in 0.0 (lawless/pirate) space. Some of these dungeons also have a chance to give the player(s) who complete them an 'escalation'.

Some exploration sites are very challenging and cannot be completed by a solo player.

Tips and Tricks

More than one probe may be scanned at a time. Highlight all of the probes before clicking Analyze to achieve this effect.
A probe may not be located within the scan range of another probe
If a portion of a probe's scan range overlaps with another probes scan range, the scan effect is enhanced and better results may be generated for signatures found within the overlap
Deadspace signatures are most commonly found around planets within a solar system
Sometimes the layout of the solar system makes it difficult to scan each planet simultaneously. Creative pilots have been known to generate effective methods for overcoming these obstacles.
The information in this section may also be effective in scanning for other signatures as well, including player ships that may be hidden within a solar system.