Succinctly explain hacking, cosmic signatures, sites, and more!

Covert sites are where exploration and hacking becomes really fun!

Also known as 'Ghost Sites', these cosmic signatures combine the puzzle of hacking with the very real prospect of death and destruction and can offer huge rewards in return. They are Data sites that come in 4 primary flavours, unique to each security of space:

• Lesser = High Security

• Standard = Low Security

• Improved = Null Security

• Superior = Wormhole space

The expected loot improves with each level of site, capping out at a huge potential return in the Superior sites with a rare but very possible drop of a High-Grade Ascendancy Omega implant blueprint copy, worth in excess of 4 billion ISK. As you would expect though, the difficulty of the hack also increases with each level.

But with the high returns comes a catch.... in fact two catches.

1. 1. An invisible timer starts when an uncloaked ship initiates warp to the site, or a ship decloaks in the site.

   2. The timer is random and operates from around 30 seconds to a few minutes.

   3. Upon completion of the timer, a large NPC response fleet warps in and shoots all the cans, which in turn despawn explosively, dealing a huge amount of explosive damage, enough to one-shot a frigate.

2. 1. If a hack on any can is failed, even once, that can despawns explosively, dealing a huge amount of explosive damage, enough to one-shot a frigate.

   Enjoy!

   Verified

This video shows a trick for a very specific situation in scanning. Sometimes you have enough probe-strength to scan a signature, but even on 0.25 AU you still don't have the result. This technique allows to scan more difficult sites and warp to targets otherwise impossible to reach.

4. Relic Sites:

   Relic sites in EVE Online are Cosmic Signatures that require scanning down. They contain cans that require hacking to access the contents, which are Tech 1 or Tech 2 salvage materials. Highsec relic sites are very easy to scan down (1-3 difficulty) and easy to hack, Lowsec relic sites are a bit harder to scan down(2-3 difficulty) and hack, and null-sec or wormhole relic sites are the hardest (3-5 difficulty). Generally, only null-sec or wormhole relic sites are profitable enough to be a stable income, although low-sec relic sites may pay well. Loot drops from relic sites are random, but generally, cans with a harder difficulty pay more. "Ruins" are red-difficulty hacks that have the highest payout ceiling. "Remains" cans are yellow-difficulty hacks that have a moderate payout. "Debris" and "Rubble" cans are green-difficulty cans with low payout. "Debris and "Rubble" are found in Hisec, "Debris", "Rubble" and "Remains" are found in Lowsec, and "Rubble," "Remains," and "Ruins" are found in null-sec and wormholes. Pirate relic sites (Relic sites that begin with a pirate faction's name) can be found in all known space and in Class 1-3 wormholes. Players usually refer to these sites when mentioning relic sites, as they can be a very stable form of income for new players and veterans alike. The salvage materials contained in the relic site cans vary based on which pirate faction the relic site belongs to. Drop tables can be found at https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Relic_and_data_sites under the heading "Pirate Relic Site Loot." The most lucrative relic sites are the ones that can drop Intact Armor Plates, which are the Sansha faction relic sites. Sleeper Relic sites (Relic sites that begin with the word "Forgotten") should be avoided by new players, as these sites are equivalent to COMBAT sites one class higher. For example, a Sleeper relic site in a Class 3 wormhole will roughly equal the difficulty of a Class 4 combat anomaly.

Cosmic Signatures are points of interest that are hidden in space and can be discovered with scanning probes. Among other things, in the Cosmic Signatures are the Data Sites, which are exploration sites focused on hacking and which offer valuable rewards to those who manage to access them successfully. Covert Sites are high-risk, high-reward Data Sites; the difficulty is high but the reward is valuable items such as blueprints of Ascendancy implants.

Hacking is the resolution of a minigame to access containers and loot in Data Sites or Relic Sites. You will need to have a specific module and the hacking skills to operate.

Cosmic Signatures are the signals you'll need to scan to find hidden areas in space using probes.

Data Sites, you'll need to hack containers using a data analyzer, providing you with various loots, such as production schemes and materials.

Relic Sites is an archaeological loot focus, where you'll have to hack with a relic analyzer, providing you with artifacts and materials.