The next activity on the Alpha account that earns ISK is, of course, black hole scanning (Worm Holes). If you enjoy games and stories about stalkers who enter the Zone and steal loot, then you'll enjoy this activity.
Worm Hole Scanning
Cost: 1,000,000 per ship
Benefit: 15-20 untouched systems up to Omega status (7-60 days)
To scan, you need to assemble a frigate of your race (Amarr, Matar, Caldar, Gallent) designed exclusively for signature searches and subsequent hacking. These ships include: Magnate, Probe, Heron, Imicus. Starship equipment using the Probe as an example:
- Small Memetic Algorithm Bank I
- Small Emission Scope Sharpener I
- 5MN Microwarpdrive I
- Data Analyzer I
- Relic Analyzer I
- Small Shield Extender I
- Core Probe Launcher I
- Core Scanner Probe I x24
- Warp Core Stabilizer I x3
Why scan on these frigates? It's all about the bonus they provide, namely:
- probe sensitivity +7.5%
- virus strength for data and relic sites +5
Once assembled, you will receive a tool for searching and hacking data centers and archaeological sites with virus life (integrity) of 70 and virus strength of 25.
How to scan red signals?
In order to scan anything on your new frigate, you need to go into open space and see if there is anything scannable in the system at all. Press the key combination Alt + P. And the following picture opens before us:
To launch the reconnaissance probes, click the "Launch" button at the bottom of the window that opens, and eight of our probes will appear in space. Next, we configure the probes so they are densely packed for precise scanning of areas of the solar system. Click the "Launch probes in dense distribution" button to the left of the launcher. Now, we need to expand the probe cloud to 8 AU to cover a larger scanning area. This is done using the slider between the "Launch probes in dense distribution" and "Launch/Analyze" buttons.
Now we need to aim the reconnaissance probe cloud at the red anomaly/signature. You can rotate the solar system camera, looking at it edge-on or overhead; this will help you accurately aim the blue square at the center of the red signature. Once you've successfully aimed it, click "Analyze." The red signal will be scanned to some extent, but it will shift as it does so. We repeat the procedure again: aim the square at the center of the red circle and reduce the probe size to 4 AU. We do this until the signal is 100% scanned/green. Afterwards, you can fly to it, having first retrieved your probes from space, using the arrow button in the upper left of the window.
After 25% scanning, the signal will turn orange, allowing you to identify its signature: Data Center, Archaeological District, Combat District, Gas District, or Black Hole. After 75% scanning, the signal will turn yellow, and you'll see the exact name of the anomaly you're scanning. This is vital for our method of earning money, scan input. Since we're looking for signatures of data centers and archaeological districts, we only search for those with Russian names. Anything with English names (data or relic) doesn't concern us, as they are guarded by NPC loot ships.
How do we hack data centers and archaeological districts?
To hack the detected signature, fly closer to the crate, within 5,000 meters, hit "Lock on Target," and then click "Data Analyzer" or "Relic Analyzer," depending on the anomaly. A window will appear with the "Minesweeper" minigame, advanced version 2.0:
The goal of the game is to destroy the Network Node. It comes in Green (50 lives), Orange (70 lives), and Red (90 lives), depending on the difficulty. So, with a virus strength of 25 on our ship, we'd have to hit the Green node twice to kill it and the Red node four times. Note that the viruses fight back, dealing 10 damage per hit. So, for a Green node, you'd need at least 11 lives to hit it twice, while for a Red node, you'd need 31 virus lives (virus integrity) to destroy it. There will be two attempts to hack a given crate. If you fail, the loot self-destructs.
Typically, the node is located in the opposite corner from the start (but not always), surrounded by 1s. Where it says 2, 3, or 4, there can't be a node; that's a false trail with malware. After destroying the Network Node, we gain access to a loot box, which is highly prized by traders if found in a black hole.
CCP makes money when your ship gets blown up, or when you blow up your opponent's ship. Afterward, you'll be in the game every day to recoup your losses or pay CCP money. That's why wars, conflicts, and creepers on warpgates are necessary. You can beat the game if you don't lose your ISK.
You can practice scanning by flying to a factory or player station (not an NPC station), targeting it, and clicking the data analyzer. A hacking window will appear. Alternatively, search for data relics in high sectors, but expensive loot isn't common there, and hacking isn't very difficult. Data relics come in various levels: 1, 2, 3, 4, and, I think, 5. To scan a level 4 anomaly, you need a probe sensitivity of 92+.
How to avoid dying in the first 5 minutes of WH
After scanning a black hole and deciding to try your luck at finding data centers and archaeological sites, you need to know a few vital things.
The most important thing is to be able to save the location from which you entered the black hole so you can return to the high sector and create a safe point between planets, from where you can safely scan the signature and fly to it if something happens. To save your exit from the WH, enter the WH and right-click the black hole "Save Coordinates." All saved coordinates will be displayed by pressing Alt + E or "Main Menu - Personal - Addresses and Coordinates."
To create a safe location in the black hole where you won't be immediately killed, open the reconnaissance probe window (Alt + P), select the farthest planet, and fly to it, pressing Ctrl + B beforehand. While in flight, with the coordinates saving window open, click "Send," creating a unique point between the planets where we can land and scan signatures. This is called a "Bookmark." So, fly to your Bookmark and calmly scan signatures until combat reconnaissance probes start searching for you.
Scans and combat probes
1. In the Worm Hole, other players will search for you and try to kill you to take anything valuable you scan. Typical banditry in general, but that's not the point. Most often, they get caught in these situations: first, you fly into/out of the black hole; second, you're scanning an anomaly and hacking; and third, you're scanned by combat/reconnaissance probes, and they come to you.
2. Anything you scanned but didn't take out of the black hole can be considered unowned. The loot will become yours when you return to the high sector and deposit it at the station.
3. There are no friends in a black hole; a healthy and unhealthy paranoia is essential; this will help you stay alert and focused at the right moment.
Based on the above, we learn to constantly press the V key (direction finder or subscan) while in a black hole to see what's going on around you: alien ships, alien probe traffic jams, combat/reconnaissance probes, etc. You can configure the direction finder by pressing the Alt + D key combination, creating a separate window for it and placing it in place of the game chat, something like this:
We set the radius to a maximum of 14 AU and set the angle to 360 degrees in all directions around us. By changing the radius, you can even calculate the distance to an enemy ship from the subscan.
Is it time to start earning money now, instead of talking about how people kill in WH?
Yes, you can. To earn money from scanning, the main pain and joy lies in finding untouched WH systems by other players. On average, you can loot approximately 100,000,000 ISK from an untouched system if you hack all the data relics. This can be done in 2-3 hours, taking into account the loot being transported to the high sector in 20-30 million batches for security. Just one successfully hacked data relic will more than cover the cost of the ship, which amounts to 1,000,000 ISK.
The main indicator that a WH is untouched is that there should be one and a half to two times more red signatures than green ones, and there should be 8-10 green ones, much shorter. To increase your chances of finding an untouched WH, you need to combine several factors or just be lucky:
1. The time of day you scan. The best time is night or from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., when children are at school, adults are at work, and online activity is low, and many red signatures have appeared overnight across all WHs (one signature spawns per system every hour).
2. The day of the week . A weekday from Monday to Friday. You can avoid black holes on weekends, as they're usually crowded.
3. The location from which you're jumping . Typically, empty systems in the high sector are more likely to yield results than systems with a high number of jumps per day. For example:
Where the number of jumps per day tends to zero, you can more often find something (but it's not guaranteed). And where there are 16,000 or more jumps per day, as a rule, they are waiting for you at the WX exit to kill you, because it's a fun pastime for people to catch ships jumping into WX from systems with high traffic. You can check traffic using the Dotlan service: https://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Sinq_Laison/Alsottobier#jumps24 for all sectors.
4. System depth . How deep do you jump into a black hole? Usually, people jump one system deep, i.e., they arrive from a high sector, see that it's empty, and then fly away. And then, jumping even deeper, i.e., from an empty WX to another WX, you can expect a treasure trove of data and relics in untouched signatures.
5. Luck . If you've landed in the middle of nowhere, pardon the expression, 30 jumps from civilization, and there aren't any black holes there, don't despair. Try scanning neighboring high-sector systems for wormholes. If they exist but are empty, scan deeper. This usually helps.
6. Online in the system . The number of pilots in the system over the last 30 minutes. Ideally, there should be no one there at all, increasing the chance of finding something. You can see this by adjusting the in-game map settings.
None of the above guarantees you'll find an untouched wormhole system, but it only increases your chances of finding one.
Worm hole states and where they lead
WH aren't eternal, and they live from 12 to 24 hours. You can find this out by the black hole number https://evemaps.dotlan.net/wormholes (and more). The wormhole state is listed in the information window about the black hole itself. The hole can collapse due to time and mass:
1. Hole states by time:
- will not last more than a day - everything is fine, can be scanned.
- is approaching the end of its life cycle - everything is bad, the hole will soon collapse behind/in front of you.
2. Black hole states by mass:
- has not yet been significantly disturbed by ships passing through it - everything is fine
- was significantly disturbed, but has not yet reached critical mass - less than half the mass
- is on the verge of collapse - everything is bad, fly through it a few times (1-3 times) and it will collapse.
Where a black hole can lead in the WH:
- to a system with a high security level - highsec
- with a low security level - lowsec
- null security - nullsec
- into uncharted space - other WX systems
- to Terra - a trading hub for scanners and the capital of all those involved in scanning (and the abode of bandits).
I could also add that there are six difficulty classes of wormholes, from C1 to C6, and services for finding out which class they are. But you don't really need them for scanning, except if you get lost in the system. Otherwise, just to be on the safe side, bookmark http://anoik.is/ or Google your system's WH number to get information about it.
That's all for now. If you have any questions, please ask in the comments. Crab to everyone 0/ And I forgot to add, the best feeling is when you take out 400,000,000 ISK from the WH in one night, and the worst is when the next day, you take out nothing overnight /0\
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