Ship/Scanning Safety
The single most important thing to remember with exploration is safety for both your ship and your scanning (presence).

Before you begin to scan a system, your first thought needs to be finding a location to scan from safely (at least until you can cloak). There are several ways to do this:
Warp to the Sun at 100km, then start moving in the opposite direction with MWD (Micro Warp Drive) on (if cap stable). Then launch probes.
Warp to another celestial object (CO) (planet/moon) at 100km, MWD away and launch probes.
Create a safe spot. This method is useful for any type of space but takes a bit of practice. It is done by utilising the 2nd method but extending it to warping from one CO to another, creating a bookmark mid-warp, then returning to the bookmark to launch probes from. You can create a bookmark by pressing Ctrl+B while in space. Be aware, the bookmark saves once you press ok, not the point at which you press Ctrl+B. Personal saved bookmarks can be found in your ‘People & Places’.
Triangular Safe Spot. This is by far the safest method for scanning without a cloak. Even with a cloak, I still do this. It is complicated but makes you impossible to catch while you scan and therefore perfect for WH’s and NS. The idea is an extended version of the safe spot above by creating a ‘triangle’ of safe spots between multiple CO’s. You then launch probes at one safe spot and immediately start warping between each of your 3 safe spot bookmarks. You scan during each warp. The only way to catch you will be while you are running a site or entering/leaving a system/wormhole.

Finally, scanning safety relies heavily on D-scan. In HS you don’t really have to worry about this, but anywhere else, D-scan must become your new best friend. In known space you have local chat to assist, and in LS/NS this is enough to alert you to get your ass out of there. However, D-scan tells you what ships are within 14au of your position. In LS/NS, this can be great as if that +1 in local is just an indy ship or shuttle, you can carry on as you were. But if it’s a Tier 3 Cruiser (T3C), such as a Tengu or Loki, you know to get out or hide. In WH space, D-scan is even more important and is your only intel resource. If anything appears on d-scan in WH space, you get out immediately, no matter what ship it is. Even a shuttle can be a sign of impending death in wormhole space.
D-scan can also show probes, including your own, so even if you do not see a ship but you do see probes that are not yours, you know someone else is in system with you. Scanning probes mean someone else is scanning signatures. Combat probes mean someone is scanning your location.

Scanning Locations
Most explorers, who are new to the game, begin in HS. This is great as it allows them to get to grips with the mechanics in relative safety. But there is very little reward to be gained in HS exploration sites. Therefore, most explorers soon turn to other areas of new Eden for their content in hope of finding the next big pay-out.

High Sec: most you will get from a data/relic site is 2-4m, sometimes less, very rarely more. Easy and safe to do, but finding sites is hard in HS due to the competitive nature of HS over content.
Low Sec: Expect bigger pay-outs in LS but with significantly more risk. Players can and will engage you with very little penalty.
Null Sec: Very good pay-outs, often ranging 10-50m isk. Usually pretty safe in NS depending on where you are and what Corp you are a part of. Regular checking of local is usually enough to make good ISK in NS. The hardest part is getting back with your loot.
Wormholes: The Mecca of explorers in EVE Online. All of the sites that spawn in NS, also spawn in WH space, as well as some dangerous extras. It is reasonably common to find a WH with 1-10+ Data or Relic sites contained within. All paying out 10-50m each. The previously explained danger that comes with it is what puts most people off WH space. Experienced explorers only should travel into WH space. Expect to lose several ships, but the loot from the sites should cover your losses many times over.

Types of Signatures
For the purpose of this guide, using only scanner probes, Signatures can be categorised into 5 types.
Data – A data centre containing several hackable containers with varying amounts of loot.
Relic – An ancient site containing several hackable containers with varying amounts of loot.
Gas – A harvestable has cloud (similar to mining) using specialist equipment.
Combat – PvE sites that require NPC ship destruction, usually in the form of multiple waves of enemies.
Wormhole – Entrance/Exit to/from Wormhole space.

These are the same for HS, LS and NS. However, there are one or two exceptions as well as the case of WH space.
Ghost sites: These are Data sites, usually with extremely high value loot. The catch is they are rare to find as well as very dangerous, even in HS. Failing a hack just once, will cause the container to explode dealing huge damage to your ship. If you are in anything smaller than a cruiser, it is instant death. They also spawn high damage NPC’s after a couple of minutes so even if you successfully hack one or two containers, chances are you won’t have time to hack more without a combat ready ship. Rewards range from a couple of million isk to 5b+ isk.

WH sites: Wormhole sites can be confusing, as they contain regular faction data/relic sites, as well combat data/relic sites. These should not be treated as regular data/relic sites, but as very high level combat sites. The loot from the containers in these sites is poor compared to the standard faction data/relic. But each NPC drops ‘blue loot’ which can be very valuable when exchanged for isk in HS. Therefore, explorers should only look for Data/Relic sites in WH space that possess the name of the faction to which the site belongs. For example; ‘Ruined Guristas Temple’ etc. Avoid any sites called, ‘Unsecured’ or ‘Forgotten’.

Scanning Process
The process of scanning a signature is fairly simple, but can be time consuming when you have multiple signatures to scan.
Assuming you are in a safe location to launch probes, open your probe scan window. Click on a red X, set your probe formation to ‘Pinpoint’ and distance to 8au. Move your white cube to align over the signature from both a horizontal and vertical viewpoint, until no matter what angle you look at it, the cube is on the select X. Then press scan.

After the first scan, you will notice that the signature is no longer an X, but is now a dot. In your signature list, you will see this too. If it is still red, it requires further scanning to identify what type of signature it is. If it is yellow, it will tell you the type of signature, but not the details of what it is and therefore requires further scanning. If it is green, it is fully scanned and can be warped to.

Now click on the signature again, drop your probe scan range down to 4au, realign the cube to the signature as above, and click scan again. Repeat this process, reducing the probe scan range until you have a 100% scanned signature.

With practice, this becomes very easy but can seem unintuitive to an inexperienced player.
P.s, don’t forget to recall your probes when you have finished scanning all of the signatures.

Ship Fitting
There are only really three types of ships, all frigates, that are worth using for data/relic explorers.
T1 exploration frigate; Heron, Magnate, Probe, Imicus. Cheap to buy, cheap to fit. Perfect for beginners to experienced explorers. Only downside is the inability to fit covert ops cloak.
T2 covert ops frigate; Buzzard, Anathema, Helios, Cheetah. These ships can use covert ops cloak (omega only). Combined with agility modules the only way you can be killed is from not paying attention or inexperience. Covert ops cloak is king for exploration.
Astero; faction frigate. The mac daddy of exploration. Fast, agile and has ship bonuses for exploration. Can fit a covert ops cloak too. The ship of choice for many explorers.
*note – an argument can be made for Strategic Cruisers to be added to this list, but T3C’s are no better than any of the options above until you want to run data/relic sites that potentially have hostile NPC’s within them

Key modules for exploration are:

• Probe launcher/probes
• Covert Ops Cloak (omega only)
• MWD (2km p/s minimum)
• Inertia Stabilisers or Nanofiber Internal Structures (agility modules) to help you get into warp quickly should someone uncloak next to you.
• Data/Relic Analysers

The Hacking Mini-game
There are some tricks that can help you overcome the mini-game that you use to open data/relic containers. These are;
· ‘Rule of 6’s’ – This rule dictates that if you see 6 clickable nodes together, the centre node should always be safe. You can use this to your advantage to plot a safe route to where you think the final node will be. If the centre node is a defensive module, the final node is always one of the 5 surrounding nodes.
· Skills – Increasing your hacking and archaeology skills will improve your chances of overcoming any defensive systems, such as viruses and firewalls etc.
· Repair module – Use repair modules as soon as you find them. They stack up above your starting health and this way, they do not take up one of your utility slots.
· Only kill firewalls if they are in the way of your objective. This can be risky as if you get two, chances are you can’t kill either of them as they will repair each other, but avoiding one can mean you will have a chance of having sufficient health left for the final node. If you have plenty of health, kill firewalls early.

Speed will come with practice. Hacking the containers quickly is important, outside of High Sec, so practising on sites in HS, until your proficiency is higher, is a wise idea. Once you are good at this, taking on sites in riskier locations is less of a danger as your reduced clearing time means less time for people to pinpoint your location and kill you.

Third-Party Interruption
This refers to someone else arriving in the site you are running. Your response should vary depending on what security level the system you are running the site in is located as follows:
· HS – High security space is very competitive. There are a lot of people in HS all fighting for access to the same content due to the reduced risk. If you find a site in HS and someone else warps in and begins hacking a container, there is not much you can do about it. Hacking as quickly as you can is about the only thing you can do to try and finish the site before anyone else has a chance to steal a container or two from you.
· LS/NS – If someone lands on a site you are running in Low Security or Null Security space, chances are they are not there to steal loot from the containers, they are most likely there to kill you. If someone lands on a site you are running, you have already made a few mistakes to get to this point, including not checking local and not using d-scan. You should be looking to warp out to a safe location immediately.
· WH – Running sites in WH space is the most dangerous place to do so. You must rely solely on your d-scan which means if someone is already in the WH, or jumps into the WH but from out of d-scan range (14.6au), you will not see them coming. If someone does enter the site you are running, or uncloaks their ship in your site, you should be looking to leave the WH immediately. Warping to a safe is ok too, but be aware that they will likely look to block your exit if they know you did not leave immediately. Wormhole PvP’ers have to work hard for content, so they will not let an ‘innocent’ explorer go easily. Agility modules and quick reactions are crucial.