Living on the edge

I have been now exploring on low-sec space few weeks and want to share some information what I have gathered so far. Several sources states that you should think twice and plan your strategy before you even try that. I agree on that 100%.

First you have to ask yourself why you want to go there? For me it was that I was curious are the profits for exploring (radar or magnetometric sites) better as those should be because risk is greater. Second I'll suggest you to think your equipment's, skills and risk factor you are ready to take. Even during these few weeks I can confirm that without cloak you don't have much chance. Even with cloak you are pretty vulnerable for player pirates when you doing PVE. NPC rats on low-sec are not bad with decent equipment's and fittings but the problem is that you have to be ready to play both PVE and PVP with same fitting and mind set. So basically you have to be ready for multiple threats. Of course those same threats exists on hi-sec, but risk factor is not that high.

On my opinion if you try to do exploring on low-sec, it is quite hard to find good fitting for exploring role and same time to be ready to block player pirates. This is because player pirates have only one task to do (blow up your ship) and they can find perfect fit for that purpose and they have edge to choose their opponents. That leads to conclusion that there are only few ways to reduce your risk, because if player pirate pinpoints you, you most likely don't have even a chance to fight back or get away.

First one is that you should try to minimize your fitting cost to minimum so you have afford to loose that ship and fitting sometimes. Second rule is that you have to try avoid to get caught. That means:

1. Monitor your local. Check person's profiles. Learn who is moving those areas. Mark potential dangerous pilots with standing. And when you noticed something potentially dangerous on local, cloak or jump to "safe spots" you have chosen on that system. So always prepare few locations where to jump when you want to hide. Also take that account that some pirates can use several accounts, one for scouting and pinpointing targets and second to do actually killing. So be very paranoid! :)

2. Prepare jump locations near docking stations with straight lines from stations so you can fast jump further from station when you leave station.

3. When you scanning sites, always keep cloak up and when you are not cloaked, use directional scanning to monitor near space for combat probes. So when you hack containers, salvage wrecks and fight against NPC rats, you need to also split your focus to check your back. This leads the fact that first I'll suggest you to proceed with PVE sites slower than you have done on hi-sec. Monitor and analyze your situation based on the information you have gathered and take your time. If you are alone on that system then it is safe to proceed, but if there is someone your risk factor is always a greater and then you have to decide do you "trust" those other people on that system or not

I personally have lost one Vexor ship because I wasn't smart enough and ignored directional scanning while checked Radar site. When that Tengu jumped near and targeted me, game was over for me.

I have also another story to share where you can also learn something. Few nights ago I pinpointed a large gravimetric site. First I thought that I shouldn't touch it, but site was big and decided to launch my mining Rokh for a small test. I tried to be carefully and did directional scanning and checked my local very carefully. I stopped my mining when something potential was on local and got cloaked. I even noticed once a combat probes on my scanner but that player left so I thought I got away and so I continued my work. So I thought...I was SO wrong.

Just after that I noticed dangerous player on local and tried to hide as fast as possible. Curse ship jumped near me. Then things start to happened quite fast. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I had time to get cloaked but just after that I'm not sure what happened. There are two possibilities. Either I was a too stupid and de-clocked and tried to get away and jump or that pirate manage to reveal me. Anyway I didn't knew what I was against. That was sure.

I knew my defense was pretty good and I thought I can give even a decent fight but I was wrong again. We both launched our drones and Curse ship started to drain my capacitor energy. Soon my capacitor was empty and was a sitting duck. I couldn't do anything...not use shields, fire my guns etc. and my drones started to get killed. I of course tried to jump away but without power (or Curse used Warp scrambler on me) I couldn't do that.

I had time to chat with that pirate because my shields took some time to get down. I admit that I begged for mercy. :) Of course I didn't get away with that like that but had to try it. I was quite desperate and already prepared to see insurance mail coming to my mailbox...although with 250-300M total lost with ship and fitting that insurance money didn't warmed my mind. Whole time I targeted a jump point and pressed "ddddddddd" for warp. My ship structure was under 10% when something really weird happened. My Rokh warped!!! I was like "WHAT?" and I saw "WTF" message on local chat from pirate. Rokh jumped awhile but not to the gate...somewhere between that. I jumped again and get trough the gate and got my cloak up.

As you can assume that pirate was a little angry and demanded me to come back and die. :) We chatted awhile, but after awhile I manage jump through few gates and docked to the station with at smoked Rokh. Something really weird happened there. I'm not sure was it a bug or did my few skills helped me here to initiate a warp drive (Warp Drive Operation 3) even my capacitor was empty or very near it. End result for me was positive though against odds.

What I learned during that incident:

1. Don't trust anyone on local. On that Rokh case that person with combat probes who left was that same Curse pilot with another account. So if you see combat probes near you, warp out to safe spot and get cloaked and wait awhile or give up with that site.

2. Don't just go test something with your most expensive ship you have. Personally I broke my previous rules here. Hit to my wallet and my ego to loose that Rokh is too high for now. I noticed afterwards that I'm not ready to loose that ship...so it stays docked now for awhile.

3. Always consider possible profit vs loose factor. On that Rokh case that was absurd. If you mine for example 30 minutes you can get killed on that time several times...or there is a definitely high risk for that. And profit what I could can get in that 30 minutes is something like 1-3% of my ship worth. So not worth of risk.

And then profit side. Actually so far I haven't found much. Most of the stuff is similar than hi-sec side, but I have found one blueprint which should be worth of 60M+ ISK when selling through contracts. So it is still too early to say if this worth of risk.

Exploring is harder on low-sec in many ways. If you ready to play hide and seek with other players and same time try to do exploring, then low-sec environment provides new challenges for you.