What it shows:
- NPC Damage Types
- Weaknesses
- Drones to use (light/medium/heavy/sentry)
- Countermeasures for dampening & disruption

To download it: Right-click > Save as. Enjoy!

Changelog:
v1.0: Initial revision
v1.1: Added countermeasures
v1.2: Corrected wording of ECM

The idea was that I needed not only to find out which raw materials were needed, but to determine precisely how much of each I would consume, taking into account that some are used in more than just one commodity. For example, Noble Metals are used for Enriched Uranium, Mechanical Parts, and indirectly in Robotics.

Warning: I take no responsibility for any neuronal damage that may result from reading the rest of this post.

It took me a while to figure out the best way to do this, but I managed to put it together in the end. So, to build exactly one run of each commodity:

5 Coolant
5 Enriched Uranium
5 Mechanical Parts
20 Oxygen
3 Robotics

you need exactly this amount of each raw resource (with the number of cycles a basic industry facility has to run to process the raw materials):

6000 Aqueus Liquids (=2 cycles)
6000 Ionic Solutions (=2 cycles)
24000 Noble Metals (=8 cycles)
18000 Heavy Metals (=6 cycles)
18000 Base Metals (=6 cycles)
12000 Non-CS Crystals (=4 cycles)
3000 Noble Gas (=1 cycle)

This takes into account that you need to make enough Mechanical Parts to keep some as commodity and use the rest to make Robotics. So you effectively produce this:

5 Coolant
5 Enriched Unranium
15 Mechanical Parts
10 Consumer Electronics
20 Oxygen
3 Robotics (Using 10 Mechanical Parts and 10 Consumer Electronics)

Processing Infrastructure

Now to the tricky part: the amount of cycles I listed above represent how often a basic industry facility has to complete a full cycle to process the materials required by the rest of the production chain. If you want to have seamless production of all commodities, those cycles would ideally be concurrent.

What this means is that you should have one industry facility for each cycle so they can run at the same time. To produce one run of the commodities I listed above, you would need the following amount of Basic Industry Facilities with the according Schematics to process the materials:

2 x Water Schematic (Aqueus Liquids)
2 x Electrolytes Schematic (Ionic Solutions)
8 x Precious Metals Schematic (Noble Metals)
6 x Toxic Metals Schematic (Heavy Metals)
6 x Reactive Metals Schematic (Base Metals)
4 x Chiral Structures Schematic (Non-CS Crystals)
1 x Oxygen Schematic (Noble Gas)

Of course this would be distributed accross your network of planets, and it assumes that your extractors can keep up with the demand from the industry facilities. However, if you can manage to whip this together you will be able to almost seamlessly produce POS fuels. Almost, because I glossed over the whole logistics issue transporting stuff around

Base raw material requirements

For all intents and purposes here is the base list of raw materials needed for one production run of each commodity.

5 Coolant
> 6000 Aqueus Liquids
> 6000 Ionic Solutions

5 Enriched Unranium
> 6000 Noble Metals
> 6000 Heavy Metals

5 Mechanical Parts
> 6000 Noble Metals
> 6000 Base Metals

5 Consumer Electronics
> 6000 Heavy Metals
> 6000 Non-CS Crystals

20 Oxygen
> 3000 Noble Gas

3 Robotics
> 12000 Heavy Metals
> 12000 Non-CS Crystals
> 12000 Noble Metals
> 12000 Base Metals

Choosing the right planets

As for which types of planets you will need for all this, it depends on what you have available and where you do it – nullsec is definitely the place to be for PI (be it in regular nullsec or wormhole nullsec), as the extractor yields are extremely better than highsec. But highsec can work as well, you will just end up with a lot more colonies to do the same thing.

The planets distribution for the materials we need is this:

If you look at this chart, you will see that it is possible to have all you need even if you do not have access to Oceanic, Ice, Storm and Plasma planets (but you need Lava planets, which are fortunately more widespread). Beyond this chart, even if some materials can be found on several planet types does not mean they area all equal in terms of yield. For example, Aqueus Liquids are logically not as abundant on a Barren planet than on an Oceanic one. You will have to find the right balance for your selection of planets.

Now looking back at the list of raw materials we need, the topmost materials are Noble Metals, Heavy Metals, Base Metals and Non-CS Crystals. For these, you will have to build colonies primarily on Lava / Plasma / Barren planets. In highsec, this list will be reduced to Lava and Barren planets.

When choosing your planets, scan every one of them for the material you need (like Base Metals), and compare the yield bars between planets to find the one with the better deposits. If you want to be really precise about it, you can take screenshots of each planet and compare them by measuring the width of the bars in a graphics editor or overlaying them. To illustrate:

Planet B clearly has a better supply of Base Metals. However, this does NOT mean that a detailed scan will not reveal that planet A has spots with higher concentrations than Planet B: the bars just mean there is more or less of a material planetwide. Single deposits can vary a lot. So what’s the optimal way of finding the best planet for a material? My favorite technique is running a detailed scan of each planet without changing the resource limit slider.

Here’s how you do it: find the planet that has the biggest deposits of the material you seek. I’ll stick to the Base Metals in my case. When you have found the best planet, run a detailed scan for Base Metals and adjust the slider so that the biggest deposit you can find on the planet surface is shown with a white area, like this:

The single white area there is the biggest deposit on that planet. Logically if we run a detailed scan of the other planets, we should not get a single white area anywhere. However in practice, that is not always so. To illustrate, run a detailed scan of all the other planets. Chances are that one of them even has a bigger deposit somewhere on its surface. That’s where you should set up – even if the planet on the whole has less of that material, your extractors will have more to work with. In my case, I found this:

Now that’s a lot better than my initial scan.

Conclusion: do not judge a planet by its deposit bars! The best is to always use the detailed scans to compare them.

A while ago, I chanced upon a really good scanning guide on exdenexplorer.info, but a short while afterwards the website was taken offline. I contacted the owner, tramov, and asked him if he would give me the sources to the guide so that I could continue hosting it on my website for the community.

He was kind enough to agree and I saved the whole guide and finally managed to put it back up.

As I will be maintaining the guide now, feel free to add your comments here and I will update it.

Printfriendly PDF version: Edenexplorer’s Scanning Guide v1.5.pdf

Table of Contents

• Skills to train
• Scanning ships
• Probe launchers
• Probes
• Getting started
• Zooming in
• Saving time
• What you can find
• For the professional prober
• The Explorer’s Checklist
• Tutorial video
• Further reading

A Beginner’s Guide To Probing/Scanning in EVE Online

“These probes were a nightmare – they kept flying in the wrong directions, too high or too low. Sitting in her Magnate this pilot was not having a good day. Still, she nearly had that worm hole narrowed down. One more attempt. Suddenly all shields were gone in a flash of red, a pirate! She should have been paying attention, not just reading the map while sitting in low-sec. Turning for warp took too long and seconds later everything ended. Gulp! Time to find out if being cloned is as good as advertised. Her last thought before fading away being that mother would certainly make comments next All-Saints, with her showing up in a clone instead of her first flesh.”

Hidden pirate outposts, wormholes, complexes and of course battleship captains in their Navy Issue Ravens are just some of the things that you can find in any ordinary EVE system. If you know where to look.

Intrigued by stories of people venturing into wormholes and discovering untold riches my hauling alt decided that watching tons of Veldspar was not exactly what she had signed up for. So on her day off she browsed the markets for a cheap Astrometric ship and found it in a second hand Amarrian Magnate.

Training up for a covert ops frigate would take forever and she wanted to have fun right now.

With the introduction of
EVE Online Apocrypha the whole scan probing system was overhauled. This means that any pre-Apocrypha articles you find on the Internet will just confuse you hopelessly. The probe launchers, probes and systems used then don’t apply/exist anymore.

1. Astrometrics
   This is the most important skill. Level 1 allows you to launch 3 probes, each level adds 1 more. Typically you would need at least 4-5 probes to find things in space efficiently. So Level II is really the lowest entry point into scan/probing.
   
   
2. Astrometric RangeFinding
   Each level adds 10% to your scan probe strength. Ideally at Level V of course, if you have nearly two months of training time. This is an (8) skill. I trained it to Level III for now.
   
   
3. Astrometric Acquisition
   10% reduction in scan time per level. (Requires Astrometrics III)
   
   
4. Astrometric Pinpointing
   Reduces maximum scan deviation by 10% to level. It allows you to more accurately pin down your targets.
   
   

1. Amarr – Magnate
2. Caldari – Heron
3. Gallente – Imicus
4. Minmatar – Probe

While the above frigates work well to discover scanning, you might want to step up your game in the future. That’s where the specialized covert ops frigates come in: they give a whopping 10% bonus to scan strength per level with the added benefit of being able to fit both a probe launcher and cloaking device for stealth scanning.

1. Amarr – Anathema
2. Caldari – Buzzard
3. Gallente – Helios
4. Minmatar – Cheetah

Since the introduction of different sized rigs, fitting rigs on a frigate has become affordable, so you might want to add one or two Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I rigs to your frigate. Each will add 10% to your scan probe strength. Currently these rigs go for about 150.000 ISK each.

Note: There is no difference between the four probe star or square: they will find signatures the same way, with the same effectiveness. It is just a matter of how you wrap your mind around the subject.

Typically you will first set the probes at 16 or even 32 AU to cover as much of the current solar system as possible. Hit the “Analyze” button and wait for the results to come in. As you click the items found you have to decide to either move the probes around and cover another part of the system or to narrow down onto one of the signals discovered.

Life saving tip: hold down the SHIFT key to move all probes in space at the same time.

If you have decided on a signal move the probe formation so that its center covers your intended target. In the center all your probes overlap and this where they will give you the most accurate results.

1. To rotate the map left clickand hold then move the mouse
2. To movethe map right click and hold then move the mouse
3. To zoom in out use the middle mouse roller

• Slot 1
  • Low-grade Virtue Alpha
    +1% scan strength
    
    
• Slot 2
  • Low-grade Virtue Beta
    +2% scan strength
    
    
• Slot 3
  • Low-grade Virtue Gamma
    +3% scan strength
    
    
• Slot 4
  • Low-grade Virtue Delta
    +4% scan strength
    
    
• Slot 5
  • Low-grade Virtue Epsilon
    +5% scan strength
    
    
• Slot 6
  • Low-grade Virtue Omega
    +25% to all Virtue implant secondary effects
    
    
  • Hardwiring – Poteque Pharmaceuticals ‘Prospector’ PPF-0
    -2% scan deviation
    
    
  • Hardwiring – Poteque Pharmaceuticals ‘Prospector’ PPF-1
    -6% scan deviation
    
    
  • Hardwiring – Poteque Pharmaceuticals ‘Prospector’ PPF-2
    -10% scan deviation
    
    
• Slot 7
  • Hardwiring – Poteque Pharmaceuticals ‘Prospector’ PPG-0
    -2% scan duration
    
    
  • Hardwiring – Poteque Pharmaceuticals ‘Prospector’ PPG-1
    -6% scan duration
    
    
  • Hardwiring – Poteque Pharmaceuticals ‘Prospector’ PPG-2
    -10% scan duration
    
    
• Slot 8
  • Hardwiring – Poteque Pharmaceuticals ‘Prospector’ PPH-0
    -2% scan strength
    
    
  • Hardwiring – Poteque Pharmaceuticals ‘Prospector’ PPH-1
    -6% scan strength
    
    
  • Hardwiring – Poteque Pharmaceuticals ‘Prospector’ PPH-2
    -10% scan strength
    
    

• Apocrypha probing
  (EVElopedia)
• Cosmic Signatures
  (EVElopedia)
• Exploration Guide
  (EVElopedia)
• Exploration complexes reference
  (EVElopedia)

Credits: Guide originally created by tramov from edenexplorer.info, used with permission.

[EDIT 22/07/10] v1.5 Added the missing implants in slot 6
[EDIT 25/06/10] v1.4 Restored the guide from backups
[EDIT 09/12/09] v1.3 Extended the explorer’s checklist
[EDIT 18/11/09] v1.2 Added links to the relevant subsections, added some additional info, updated the probe layout diagram, added the explorer’s checklist
[EDIT 03/11/09] v1.1 Updated rigs information and notes on getting 100% hits with three probes, added list of signature types, added some more links.

To be able to do that precisely, you have to know how much a single cycle will yield of the ore you are mining. Let’s say you are mining Veldspar: with my current setup, I get about 17.000 units per cycle. So if you divide the dial of your mining laser into sections, you can determine how much that turret has mined so far. That way you will know when to manually stop the turret so it only mines the 7500 units that asteroid has left in it. Of course that’s the hardcore micromanagement for those who want to pick a belt completely clean. The lazy micromanagers (not sure that makes sense) use the survey scanner to pick the big asteroids and move on to the next when they do not have a full cycle of ore left.

We are the hardcore micromanagers though! However, because calculating on the fly gets tedious real quick and as paper is not an option (think green ), here is a little tool I built that will do it for you.

Just enter the total yield per cycle of your turret in the field under the dials and it will display the according values. You can also change the name of the ore in the dials, I included some of the most common ones.

Here is a direct link to the flash file, that way you can use it fullsize. Here in the blog I had to downsize it a little. Suggestions and requests welcome!

P.S. Yes, that is a logistics ship tailing the Hulk in the screenshot. Better safe than sorry in some parts of the EVE universe…

We’re going to add the Guristas as a custom profile, they do Kinetic and Thermal damage. To get started, right-click the defence rating area in EFT:

Select “Edit custom profiles”, that will display a popup window. Add a new profile as shown, and enter a name for it (“Guristas” for example):

Now we can fill in the values for the damage. As far as I know the Kinetic and Thermal damage the guristas deal is spread fairly evenly, so we can split it up 50/50. It will vary from one NPC ship to another, but those values are okay for what we want to do. Here’s how my profile looks:

You can close the popup, the profile has already been added and saved. Now when you want to see the defence rating against the Guristas, just right-click the defence rating area again, and select your profile from the list:

That’s it. Once you have added all common NPC profiles you can switch between them very easily.

To avoid having to add everything manually though, I have a list here with the most common damage profiles – simply copy this list and append it to your EFT config.ini file.

DamageProfile=Gurista,0,570,3504,0
DamageProfile=Angel,480,0,719,3058
DamageProfile=Sansha,1945,1598,0,0
DamageProfile=Serpentis,0,1627,1320,0
DamageProfile=Blood raider,613,570,60,0
DamageProfile=Gallente federation,25,781,1127,0
DamageProfile=Minmatar republic,615,310,815,1633
DamageProfile=Amarr empire,1204,1349,0,0
DamageProfile=Caldari state,0,795,944,0
DamageProfile=EoM,0,618,1718,0
DamageProfile=Mercenaries,90,634,424,108
DamageProfile=Rogue Drones,86,91,281,964
DamageProfile=Sleepers,25,25,25,25

The basics

First off, before jumping into the target lowsec system, check for a gate camp by opening your map (F10) then, in the world map control panel, go to “Star Map > Color Stars by > Statistics > Ships destroyed in the last hour”. Systems with ship kills will light up, and hovering over them with your cursor tells you how many ships were destroyed. One or two kills do not necessarily have to mean anything bad, so check for pod kills as well. Those invariably mean something is afoot. It may just be consensual PvP, but you are paranoid, remember?

No ship kills nor pod killings means it is pretty safe. You just need to be able to warp into the system and off into your deadspace area. If you do not want to leave anything to chance or want to confirm the target gate is clear, the next step is to scout out the system. Just use a shuttle, it is fast enough to avoid most trouble and does not make too big a dent in your wallet if you do get caught.

Spotting scanners

To detect someone scanning you, you need to know what tools they are using. With the new scanning system, you have to fit an Expanded Probe Launcher I, and use some Combat Scanner Probe I or Sisters Combat Scanner Probe I probes. Scanning down a ship is pretty much the same procedure as with scanning down a complex: you launch some probes, scan at the maximum range, and when you get a hit you incrementally reduce the scanning range of your probes until you get a 100% hit. To get a 100% hit on a ship, you usually need to go down to at least 2 AU scanning range depending on ship size. Ships like Exhumers or Freighters are very easy to scan down.

And that is the key: you know that to find your exact location, the pilot has to place some probes within at least 2 AU of your ship. From then on, it gets pretty easy: open the system scanner, set it to 360 degrees and 4 AU (598392000 km), untick the “Use Overview Settings” box and scan. If you see one or more combat scanner probes listed, it is time to think about leaving for a while or at least warp to the other side of the system to get the pilot off your trail. It takes a while to adjust the position of the probes from 4 AU until you get a 100% hit, so that should leave you enough time.

Note: If you see Core Scanner Probe I or Sisters Core Scanner Probe I in the list, do not panic. You cannot scan down ships with those, only complexes and the like. You are safe.

To sum up, the idea is to have the system scanner open, and periodically check for probes. Most of the time I have the system scanner set to the maximum scan range, and check if there are any probes in the system at all (no need to worry if no one is using combat probes). If there are, I reduce the range to 4 AU and wait to see if the probes appear at that range. It can but must not mean that someone is trying to find you, so just keep and eye on the scanner until they get closer and no doubt is possible anymore.

The good news is that there is NO OTHER way to find a ship in deadspace. Someone who scans you down can be in a cloaked ship, but a cloaked ship cannot find you without probing you down – just to eliminate some sticky rumours. Keep an eye open for probes and you’re almost as safe in lowsec than in highsec. Almost

[EDIT 20.08.09]: Make sure you also read Bel Amar’s comment below, he wrote about a technique some scanners use to try and hide their probing from their targets. It is good to know this technique exists, the big unknown is how many pilots have mastered it.

Understanding the mechanics

Scanning is a whole profession, so I can only encourage you to try it out for yourselves. It is not as profitable as mission running, but can be a lot of fun. There are a lot of tutorials and guides out there to learn how to use probes, and to do it yourself will give you an even better understanding of them. Even if the basics I told you here are quite enough to get by.

There is one additional tidbit that can be useful: To get a 100% hit on any object, you need at least 4 probes. So if you have your system scanner set to 4 AU and only have a single probe listed, you do not need to worry yet. The other pilot may be trying to scan something else down and one of his probes is in your area.

Fast range calculations

Google is your friend: you can convert almost any unit with the search engine. For example, to convert AU to kilometres to paste into the system scanner, search for “2 au in km“. Just change the “2″ to whatever you need.

Additional reading on probing

• My beginner’s guide
• Official Evelopedia Probing Guide, explains the mechanics quite well
• Probing Video Tutorial, good introduction material
• Combat Probing Video Tuturial, see how fast it can work

Sidenote

Yay, even with a separate header this time o/ I found a pretty cool video when I was searching for info on smartbombs – someone tried to replicate the effect of a Doomsday with smartbombs, the result was quite disco

In those cases, if your cargo does not require a cargohold bigger than about 130 m3 you should think about building yourself a ship specifically for those trips. You will be amazed at how much easier your life can get!

But first off, let’s look at what makes the difference when jumping around (ordered by importance, assuming you’re on autopilot):

1) Warp speed
2) Turn rate
3) Base speed

The warp speed is the most important part, as you spend most of your time flying through systems on your way to the next stargate. Many systems are pretty big, meaning you will have to warp 100+ AU. If you want to speed things up, warp speed is key. Turn rate makes you initiate warp faster after jumping through a gate, and the base speed will reduce the time your ship spends on the 15 kms the autopilot uses as a safe warp zone.

There are a few ship classes in EVE that have increased warp speed, I have compiled a short overview:

As you can see, the fastest warping ships are frigate-sized specialty ships with 13.5 AU per second. Every race has them, so you will not have to cross-train to get the fastest one out there. But let’s take a better look at the selection of ships that gives us:

Covert Ops:

Anathema: 282 m/s
Buzzard: 306 m/s
Helios: 320 m/s
Cheetah: 381 m/s

Interceptors:

Malediction: 435 m/s
Raptor: 415 m/s
Ares: 450 m/s
Stiletto: 435 m/s

Covert ops have the big advantage of being able to fit cloaking devices so you can move around undetected with your valuable cargo, but personally I prefer the comfort of the interceptors – but the choice is yours, both work pretty well even if interceptors are quite a bit faster base speed wise. Let’s have a look at how to fit one of these beauties to make the most of it. I will take the Malediction as example, as that’s the one I use.

High Slots:
Whatever you like / can fit

Med Slots:
Any Microwarpdrive you can fit
Anything else you like / can fit

Low Slots:
Inertia Stabilizers II
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II

Rigs
Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer I
Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer I

This fit gives you 19.4 warp speed, about 680 m/s base speed and around 4.500 m/s with the Microwarpdrive (depending on skills). There are a lot of variations to this fitting, the key being the two rigs. If you need more cargo space, replace or remove the overdrives as they greatly reduce your cargo space.

You might ask what the Microwarpdrive is for, well there’s a little trick I use Put the module on one of the F1-F12 keys, and then once the autopilot is engaged, press the microwarpdrive key and block it with something so it stays pressed. That way, when the module can be activated (when approaching a stargate), it will automatically be activated and one burst usually gets you to the stargate in a jiffy. Another use is if you autopilot semi-afk and occasionally engage the microwarpdrive to speed things up.

With a ship like that, hopping between regions becomes almost bearable

For those of you that are following Aeon’s adventures through the captain’s log, it should be clear by now that I am a highsec-hugging carebear. Even after over two years of more or less successful ventures into the harsh reaches of New Eden I still feel the anguish myself. Since Loreena bought her Orca “Tatonka”, I have been obsessing over how feasible it is to gank a ship like that in highsec, as well as any other ship for that matter. A very interesting talk with a pirate friend familiar with highsec ganking managed to answer most of my questions, which I thought I’d share.

I have rewritten the topics we discussed in FAQ style:

Q: First off, what is a highsec gank?
A: It is a lightning suicide attack usually involving several attackers to take down a ship before Concord succeeds in destroying their own ships. The aim invariably is to steal the victim’s cargo or fitted modules, exert revenge, or for the sheer heck of it.

Q: And that behavior is allowed?
A: Last time I checked, there was not much that is NOT allowed in EVE Jokes aside, it is indeed part of the game mechanics. High security systems do make this a pricey sport however, so chances are you are safe in your T2 fitted frigate or cruiser (unless you chance upon a bored or mad pilot, which cannot be entirely excluded).

Q: How much does my cargo have to be worth to make me “gankworthy”?
A: As a rule of thumb, anything worth about 250 million and upwards is interesting (200 million is a bare minimum if the gankers have to split the rewards). Multiply that figure by the amount of pilots required to take down your type of ship in time, and you get the maximum value you should be hauling in that ship to avoid being ganked.

As a quick reference:
Orca: ~ 6 BS ~ 1.2+ billion
Freighter: ~ 20 BS ~ 4+ billion

Q: How do gankers determine the worth of a target?
A: Usually they will scan your ship with a ship scanner and a cargo scanner for a list of fitted modules and rigs as well as all the items you transport. From there, a quick glance appraises the total worth of the lot with a few items being key triggers, like implants or faction POS towers to name a few.

Q: How long does a gank take?
A: Not more than half a minute, usually more about 20 seconds. First they determine what you’re worth (see above), then they coordinate the attack. Depending on your type of ship and the amount of gankers the time to take you down will vary a little, but as soon as Concord is on site even a battleship will not survive longer than approx. 14 seconds – or 12 seconds for, say, a Brutix with an 800mm armor plate.

Q: What do you need to gank an Orca?
A: About 6 battleships.

Q: What do you need to gank a freighter?
A: About 20 battleships, a bare minimum of 14 if they are built for alpha strikes. Needless to say such a gathering is not easy to organize logistically.

Q: What is the single most effective way not to get ganked?
A: Do not haul things AFK if you are not prepared to lose them! Warp to 0 is your best friend.

Q: Is warp to 0 a safe way to avoid being ganked?
A: It is near impossible to catch anything that is not AFK.

Q: I am transporting some valuable researched BPOs, won’t that make me a prime target?
A: No. The cargo scanner module can only show a list of items with their names, there is no way to distinguish a blueprint copy from an original. As a lot of blueprints are copies anyway, blueprints are mostly dismissed. Remember, you have to evaluate the worth of the cargo in a few seconds!

Q: So what are the safest highsec haulers?
A: Almost any transport ship or an Orca. Also see below.

Q: Which ship would you ideally recommend for transporting highly valuable goods?
A: A Bustard can get up to 10.000 shield hitpoints, which goes a long way for survivability in case you should not be able to avoid a gank. Plus it’s built as a blockade runner just like the other transport ships, and from experience those ships have escaped more often than not.

Q: Can a cargo scanner scan all cargo spaces of an Orca?
A: Yes, everything. The usual cargohold, corporate hangars and the ship maintenance array. However, it is impossible to tell rigged and packaged ships apart, or to find out what modules the ships have fitted.

Q: I want to transport some officer modules worth billions. How do I best do that?
A: In the case of modules, I can only recommend an Orca. Fit the modules to a ship, and store that in the Orca’s ship maintenance hangar. There will be no way to see that you are in fact transporting those modules, as the cargo scanner makes no distinction between packaged or rigged ships.

Q: I want to maximize my chances. Do you have a tip for fitting my Orca?
A: Yes. You have a lot of hitpoints on that ship, and the consensus seems to be that fitting a Damage Control Unit II in lows will do the trick. If you want to overdo things, add an Adaptive Energized Nano membrane as the second low slot to improve your armor buffer, and put a Large Shield Booster in mids. You will not be able to run it for long, but in a timeframe of 20-30 seconds, it can make all the difference. Besides, if the gankers see you have those modules fitted they might just rethink the whole affair.

That’s about it! Feel free to add any questions you may have, I will try to answer them. Also, if you have more insights please just post them here and I will update the FAQ.

Of course there is no such thing. Or is there? I am starting to think that logistics ships are indeed EVE’s god mode. I recently ran the level 4 mission “The Assault” against the Serpentis, and even though the first room does not have to be cleared I was more than happy to clear it anyway because of all the nice bounties. I have to admit that I am pretty lazy though, so I logged Loreena on and she joined Aeon’s Abaddon in her Oneiros. Her logistics skills are all maxed out now, for remote armor, shield and capacitor support. Boldly Aeon got full agro of the room, and the combined on-board armor repairer plus Loreena’s three tech 2 remote armor repairers took on the whole room’s damage.

It was not the first time I ran this mission with Loreena along, but this time I actually marveled at the list of ships in the overview. Aeon was merrily tanking 12 battleships at one point, as well as a heap of battlecruisers, cruisers and frigates (“small fry” as some pilots call them). On his own he would have lost the ship a few times over already, and this was just with the three remote armor repairers – for emergencies she also has five armor repair drones on board.

You might argue that taking a logistics ship as support to one of the best tanking battleships out there is way overkill, and I would tend to agree with you. For some mysterious reason it feels incredibly good though… For my defense I have to say that using lasers is not exactly the best weaponry against serpentis, so clearing the room takes a long time – during which Aeon has to sustain a lot of damage. Taking Loreena along makes the whole thing a whole lot safer and enjoyable. It’s not that I don’t like the occasional adrenaline rush – but I am a carebear that likes a cosy cave after all

Here is a quick comparison of the logistics ships in the game (bonuses take into account the race Cruiser V requirement):

Guardian (Amarr)
750% bonus to Energy Transfer Array range
750% bonus to Remote Armor Repair System range
100% bonus to Armor Maintenance Bot transfer amount
-65% power need for Remote Armor Repair Systems
-50% power need for Energy Transfer Arrays
15% reduction in Energy Transfer Array capacitor use per level
15% reduction in Remote Armor Repair system capacitor use per level
Fitting: 6 / 2 / 5
Dronebay: 25 m3
Speed: 209 m/s

Basilisk (Caldari)
750% bonus to Shield Transport range
750% bonus to Energy Transfer Array range
100% bonus to Shield Maintenance Bot transfer amount
-50% CPU need for Shield Transporters
-50% power need for Energy Transfer Arrays
15% reduction in Shield Transport Array capacitor use per level
15% reduction in Energy Transport Array capacitor use per level
Fitting: 6 / 5 / 2
Dronebay: 25 m3
Speed: 192 m/s

Oneiros (Gallente)
750% bonus to Remote Armor Repair System range
750% bonus to Tracking Link range
100% bonus to Armor Maintenance Bot transfer amount
-65% power need for Remote Armor Repair Systems
15% reduction in Remote Armor Repair System capacitor use per level
10% bonus to Tracking Link efficiency per level
Fitting: 4 / 5 / 4
Dronebay: 50 m3
Speed: 214 m/s

Scimitar (Minmatar)
750% bonus to Shield Transport range
750% bonus to Tracking Link range
100% bonus to Shield Maintenance Bot transport amount
-50% CPU need for Shield Transporters
15% reduction in Shield Transport capacitor use per level
10% bonus to Tracking Link efficiency per level
Fitting: 4 / 5 / 4
Dronebay: 45 m3
Speed: 253 m/s

If you look at these ships, you will see that there are two ships in each support category – The Oneiros and Guardian for armor support, the Basilisk and Scimitar for shield support. The Guardian and Basilisk focus on armor/shield and energy support whereas the Oneiros and Scimitar focus on armor/shield and tracking support. Tracking support is less commonly used, so the most popular ships in this list are the Guardian and Basilisk. Bonuswise these ships are all the same though, there is not one that is “the best” for armor or shield support, it depends solely on the role you need the ship to play. Loreena for example flies an Oneiros because it has a goodly dronebay, is fast and can be armor tanked.

Now let’s have a look at what skills you need to fly a logistics cruiser (I’m assuming you want to go for T2 modules).

Ship skills
- Electronics II
- Spaceship Command III
- (Race) Cruiser V
- Long Range Targeting V
- Signature Analysis V
- Logistics I

Armor support
- Mechanic III
- Repair Systems II
- Remote Armor Repair Systems IV

Shield support
- Science II
- Engineering III
- Shield Emission Systems IV

Tracking support
- Electronics III
- Sensor Linking IV

Granted, especially the ship skills are not exactly cheap timewise, but then again they can’t hurt to have. I never regretted training Loreena for logistics, and that Elite certificate she has now sure looks good

So what can you expect to get from all this? Taking the Oneiros as an example, I can easily permarun 4 x T2 Medium Remote Armor Repairers, which represent 4 x 192 HP every 4.5 seconds (768 HP total). I have not come accross a single level 4 mission where I had to use all four repairers, which is why I put a salvager in the fourth high slot. With a range of 51 km on the repairers, Loreena can go salvaging even in the heat of the mission. Even if she gets targeted, with an AB speed of 660 m/s and a small armor tank she can even sustain quite a bit of damage herself. Even tanked Hoborak Moon once while she was webbing him…

As a conclusion, logistics are a good investement whether you mission solo and have the luxury of a second account or want to take on a prized role within your corp. Comments welcome as always, also check out the loadout on battleclinic for Loreena’s Oneiros.

[EDIT] Updated the links to the item database, updated the Oneiros loadout.
[EDIT] Updated with new tags and inline ship info

So what is a market escrow? In fact it’s very simple. When you place a buy order, the money required to buy the item(s) is removed from your wallet and placed in a market “escrow” account to ensure the required cash will still be there when someone takes your buy order. Quick example: I recently placed a buy order for an implant for 15 Mil. I had 20 Mil in my wallet, so the 15 Mil went to the market escrow and I had 5 Mil left in my wallet. This way I cannot accidentally spend too much ISK and not be able to afford the buy order anymore.

You can see how much ISK you have in market escrow by opening the market and switching to the “My Orders” tab. At the bottom, there is a summary containing your total ISK in escrow. If you cancel your buy order, the ISK from the escrow is transferred back to your wallet (minus the broker fees of course). If you do not have enough ISK in your wallet to complete a buy order, you will be able to see the additional ISK required to complete it in your orders summary.