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REQUIREMENTS

For a low SP character
Many new characters may think themselves useless as PvPers; but this is most definitely not the case. In a frigate you can take down or immobilize an opponent much larger than yourself. They key to not dieing while you do it is speed.

Therefore it is almost essential for all new characters to train for a microwarp drive.

Now that the missile changes have come to pass, an afterburner is probably more viable; though having the skills for a microwarp drive is a very good idea

This will help you to take reduced damage from missiles and evade turret fire.

Thus a new pilot should invest in the following skills:

High speed maneuvering I
Navigation IV
Afterburner IV

This is probably the most time consuming of the skills that you will need.

Next, you will need to be able to use a warp disruptor or warp scrambler, to stop your prey from warping away.

Both of these have their benefits, however I recommend using a warp scrambler as a lot of your targets may carry a warp core stabilizer, and the -2 scramble on this item is more likely to stop them from warping. Secondly, a warp disruptor uses too much capacitor to be run easily on a frigate.

To use this module you will need to train:
Propulsion jamming I
Navigation II (you should already have this at IV)
Electronics III

Since you now have the two main essentials: you may also want to fit a stasis webifier (which has the same requirements for skills as the warp scrambler) to slow down your prey. However this may not be necessary if you are in an asteroid belt or at a planet etc as your target has nowhere to run.

Of course you need a ship to fit these too, and I recommend either the KESTREL or the RIFTER as both have the ability to lock down a target, while staying reasonably fast and dealing some good damage. For the kestrel, the choice between rockets or standard missiles is one best left to you. Rockets are better for close range combat as they have a better damage/time. For the rifter, experiment with the guns/missiles, and find out which suits your style best. An INCURSUS fitted with blasters is also a good option or gallente users. The punisher is a solid frigate but lacks mid slots. With pulses it can still be damaging and can absorb a lot of damage, so it is a useful ship in a gang.

At this point I would not recommend training gunnery skills too much.

Now, running a microwarp drive and a warp disruptor, along with whatever else you wish to fit, is a drain on your capacitor. Capacitor power relays in the low slots can help you to sustain the modules.

These require:
Energy grid upgrades II
Science I
Engineering II

(Don’t worry about all this training: it doesn’t take very long, and many of the skills are essential later on anyway)

The rest of the slots on your ship if you have any free) is really up to you.

Where can I hunt?
Unfortunately it isn’t that easy to find a right place for hunting. To find targets, you need to go in 0.4 and below systems. These are often sparsely populated, but now and again you can find something to kill.

Try to look in the less busy low security systems, as this is where miners are more likely to be hiding. Fly around these until you see a possible target in local.

Then you use your scanner to see what ships are in space. (See “using the scanner” near the end of the tutorial) If the scanner shows a prime target, such as a hauler or a mining cruiser; off you go. To find him you can browse the belts.
Use the scanner and narrow him down.

Using the scanner like this is difficult at first, but often quicker than going through the belts, and well worth getting used to.

USING THE SCANNER
First of all, position your camera so that it is facing in the same direction of your ship. From what I have seen, the “nose” of your ship when at rest points to the 5degree scan (although this is very difficult to find people with as it is so precise)

Firstly, set your overview settings to show asteroid belts, then do a 360 degree scan at full range (about 14 au)

Proceed to narrow it down until you have only the ship and the belt on the scan: the ship is most likely at the belt. Warp in. Don’t worry about messing up a few times, this requires a LOT of practice.

THE ATTACK
Orbit your prey at your optimal range and engage your warp scrambler and weapons. If all goes well and you get him to structure, go after him (if you wish to ransom and not just destroy the ship) and ask for a toll. Choose this yourself, judging the value of his ship and modules and thinking how much he would lose if he went boom.

The actual technique you should sue depends on your ship, your fitting, and your opponent. For most purposes I would suggest having a closer amatt fitting
(ie: AUTOCANNONS/ROCKETS/BLASTERS/PULSES for minmatar/caldari/gallente and amarr respectively. If you are using a MWD, then I suggest you engage it to close the distance between you and your foe. Once you are within range and hopefully under his guns) turn it off and orbit: this will save your capacitor for other essentials like guns and repairers.

I advise you not to pod kill your target, as the security status hit for this is very heavy, meaning you won’t be able to go into high security space.

Once your prey has paid you (hopefully) let him go by deactivating your guns/scramblers. If he did not pay, send him on his merry way in his pod.

Do not go near the sentries for 15-20 minutes after you have committed a hostile act, as it will leave you in your pod. (Sentries are cruel masters)

The new introduction of the criminal flagging counter is a very good indication of when you are flagged or not but I wouldn’t trust it fully.

SECURITY STATUS
when you kill a player’s ship, (and more seriously his pod) you receive a security rating drop. This can only be raised by killing battleship NPCs, which is probably way above you at this point. Don’t worry, if you want to be a true pirate, you can worry about this later: just make sure you don’t get trapped in a low security system surrounded by a lot of high security ones, as you may find it hard to get out. Once you reach -5.0 you can be shot ANYWHERE without penalty, so be aware.

Security ratings:
-1.9 and above: you can enter all space freely
-2.4 and above: you can enter all but 1.0
-2.9 and above: you can enter all but 0.9 and above
-3.4 and above: you can enter all but 0.8 and above
-3.9 and above: you can enter all but 0.7 and above
-4.4 and above: you can enter all but 0.6 and above
-4.5 and below: you cannot enter secure space without being fired upon by the navy/concord

Expect to lose ships often until you get the hang of it. Don’t worry: basic frigate setups are cheap.

Lastly: EVE is NOT a single player game, making friends is an excellent idea: and joining a pirate corp can help you to learn quicker and kill more (killing with friends beside you is much easier and more fun)

Part II - Advanced Pirating Techniques
By now you should be reasonably experienced: and for most of these options you should be able to use a battleship.

The first is probably the best way to earn ISK, but you will need friends or a very good setup. (This bit is mainly up to you, you should know how to fit things by now)

SENTRY TANKING
My personal favorite: for this you will probably need about 3 well tanked battleships for sustained tanking, or perhaps one or two if you are not staying under sentry fire. I would not recommend capacitor boosters for this unless you have a secure can anchored somewhere in the system for easy access as they tend to run out very quickly. I would advise a close ranged setup with a web and disruptor, and a sustainable tank. Having an alt in an industrial ship to pick up the loot is also a good idea. To be successful your best bet is to have a couple of people in cloaked ships watching for a “blob” which would overpower you. Begin to align for warp every time something comes in the system, just to be on the safe side. Pick a busy-ish low security system where you may be able to make some nice ISK. Incorporating a nos or two into your setup could be the difference between life and death if you get attacked by anything cruiser size and down.

SNIPING
Sniping is a very good (and generally safe) way to make ISK and accumulate a lot of kills. This can be done solo, but you may not be able to kill larger ships quickly enough. Having an alt boosting your lock time, tracking may help, as will having an alt in an industrial to pick up the loot. To actually get in position for sniping you must be 150km+ from the gate. I would advise changing spots every now and then and keeping a close eye on local. If a covert ops ship enters system it is time to run away .

COMPLEX HUNTING
Since RMR, complexes have been very good places to find targets in low security. A heavy assault cruiser, recorn cruiser, or well setup battlecruiser is your friend here. An afterburner is nearly essential, as a microwarp drive will not work in dead space complexes. This is fairly simple: if you scan a ship in local and there is a complex simply check it out. If you “patrol” certain systems make a point of checking the complex every now and again. If it is easy you could do it for the security status and cash, if you are bored.

SCAN PROBING
By this point you will probably have had many people run to safespots on you, or even leave ships and supplies at them. Proping is a great way to kill them or blow up their supplies in true pirate fashion. A covert ops ship with all the relevat skills is a great way to steal ships, or find your enemy. Simply scan the target down with the scanner, and drop a 3 AU probe in a “triangle” around his position (use moons and safespots etc) Then hit scan. I advise turning on your cloak while it is scanning, and warping once the signal has been found while cloaked.

Author:Parmizan

This post will try to serve as a guide to the scan probe system EVE currently uses。
Scan probing in Revelations

This guide will focus on ship probing。 This guide assumes you posses at least basic control over how the Directional Scanner work.

To do scan probing we need a few things, namely a probe launcher, probes, a ship to mount it on and the skills to use them all.

Skills

• Astrometrics - Adds one scan group per level. Is the primary skill that determines what probes you can use.
  For combat ship probing level 3 will do fine unless the target is in a deep safe for which level 5 is needed.
• Astrometric Pinpointing – Reduces maximum scan deviation by 10% per level.
  Means that you can use a weaker probe and still get a result that lands you in the same grid as the target.
• Astrometric Triangulation – 5% scan strength bonus per level of skill.
  Higher scan strength means easier to find the target and more accurate results.
• Signal Acquisition - 10% faster scanning with scan probes per level.
  Must have skill, will cut scan time in half at level 5. Sadly it’s rank 8.
• Other skills like Survey do NOT effect probing.

Probe Launchers

There are 4 different probe launchers. 2 classes with 2 variations in each.
The Scan Probe Launcher I and faction version Sisters Scan Probe Launcher.
The Recon Probe Launcher I and faction version Sisters Recon Probe Launcher.
The Scan and Recon Probe Launcher I has similar fittings (220cpu, 1pg / 220cpu, 2pg). For the faction versions the Sisters Scan Probe Launcher has 25% shorter activation time while the Sisters Recon Probe Launcher only sports 10 cpu less fitting requirement.

Despite its name the Recon Probe Launcher can be used on any ship, it’s not exclusive to recon ships.

For Exploration and Moon Survey

• Scan Probe Launcher I – 600 sec base cycle time (can be cut down to 109.35 sec). 10m3 capacity. 15 sec rate of fire.
• Sisters Probe Launcher I - 450 sec base cycle time (can be cut down to 82.01 sec). 10m3 capacity. 15 sec rate of fire.

For ship Probing

• Recon Probe Launcher I – 120 sec base cycle time (can be cut down to 21.87 sec). 1m3 capacity. 2.5 sec rate of fire.
• Sisters Recon Probe Launcher - Same stats as Recon Probe Launcher I except fitting.

It’s not possible to fit multiple probe launchers on a ship, not even offline.

Probes

There are 3 different groups of probes. ship probes, exploration probes and survey probes.
ship probes are the probes that fit into the Recon Probe Launcher. They include:

• Observator Deep Space Probe I - 1000 au range, 1.25 point sensor strength, 20.000 km max scan deviation, 4800 sec flight time.
• Sisters Observator Deep Space Probe I - 1000 au range, 1.4 points sensor strength, 20.000km max scan deviation, 4800 sec flight time.
• Ferret Scanner Probe I - 40 au range, 2.5 points sensor strength, 10.000 km max scan deviation. 2400 sec flight time.
• Spook Scanner Probe I - 20 au range, 5 points sensor strength, 5.000 km max scan deviation, 1200 sec flight time.
• Fathom Scanner Probe I - 10 au range, 10 points sensor strength, 2.500 km max scan deviation, 600 sec flight time.
• Snoop Scanner Probe I - 5 au range, 20 points sensor strength, 200 km max scan deviation, 300 sec flight time.

Range - The max range of the probe, this is a 3d sphere and the probe will not be able to find anything outside this range. Reports say that Observator probe have unlimited range and not the 1000au listed.
Sensor Strength - Higher sensor strength means larger chance to find the target and more accurate results.
Max Scan Deviation - The maximum distance from the target any scans with this probe will give.
Flight Time – The amount of time the probe stays in space. You need to finish any scan before the flight time runs out or it will fail.

All the other probes are uninteresting for ship scanning. While the exploration probes have very high sensor strength they also have very low range making them unsuited for normal ship probing.

ships

The ship of choice for probing is the Covert Ops frigates. There are 2 reasons for this, one is the built in bonus of 10% reduction to scan time per level (level 5 cuts the scan time in half) and the other is the ability to warp cloaked. If you can’t get a 0 m accuracy result you will need to warp in cloaked and approach manually.

Other ships that are useful for probing is the cloaking force recon ships for the warp cloaked ability and possibly the t1 astrometrics frigates as they have a 5% reduction to scan time per level. But in worst case any ship can be used.

Basic probing

So your target is sitting in afk in a safe spot and you want to find him? This is how it’s done.

First warp around a bit and see if you can find him on the directional scanner. If you can see him; get to the closest object and drop the needed probe. Use the range option on your scanner to determine which probe is needed. 5 au = 750.000.000 km, 10 au = 1500.000.000 km. So if you can get within 750.000.000 km use the 5au probe etc. Max range of the directional scanner is 14.35 au.

If you can’t find him on the scanner you need to use longer range probes, probably Observator Deep Space Probes or possibly 40 au Ferret probes.

After you launch the probe open your scanner, select the System Scanner tab, select the probe and select the “ships” group (you might as well include as many groups as your astrometrics skill allow, there is no penalty in using several groups).

Click “Analyze” at the bottom of the window. A timer will appear counting down. If you want you can cloak now. You can switch to the Directional Scan tab and use that without breaking the probe and you can even close the scan window and it will still work. You can also warp around but doing so can bug the interface a bit. Just wait for the timer to finish and you will get the correct result.

When the timer reaches 0 you will get a list with results. If your target is not in this list don’t fret it. The probing system is now chance base and you might need to scan several times (20+ if you are looking for a very small ship with an observator probe). But first recheck your scanner to see that he is in range of the probe you choose. If he is in range just click “New Scan” and hit analyze again. Repeat until the target is found.

You can also see the results on the system map as colored dots. The color indicates the Signal strength.
0-0.4 = red
0.4-0.8 = yellow
0.8+ = green
You can warp to the results by right click on them and choose warp to.

In the result list there are 4 columns. The first is ship type, second is signal strength (more about that in the advanced guide), third is the range from your current position and forth is Accuracy. Accuracy is the range from the spot the probe provides to the target.
Accuracy is determined by several factors where the most important is the probe type and signal strength (see advanced section for formulas). Longer range probes give larger max deviation from the target. There is also some randomness involved here so a new scan might give a more accurate result (or worse). If you can get the Signal Strength above 1.0 with 1 probe you will always get 0 m accuracy and can warp in right on top of the target.
As long as you are using ship probes you should never get an accuracy result above 20.000 km.

If the accuracy is not good enough to get inside the same grid as the target you might need to launch and scan with a shorter range probe. Warp to the result by right clicking on it and choose warp to. Click new scan and right click on the probe you used and choose “destroy probe”. The reason for this is the fact that you can not launch a probe within the scan radius of another probe. Now launch a 5au (snoop) probe and scan with that. Worst case scenario with that probe will land you just 200km away, most likely a lot closer.

Advanced Probing

Signal Strength

Signal Strength decides how large the chance is that the target will show up on a given scan and also effect accuracy. A Signal strength of 0.5 means 50% chance, 1.0 or more give 100% chance etc.

Signal strength is a factor of the sensor strength of the probe, the signal size of the target, the range from the probe to the target and any skills you might have.
Sensor strength is listed in the probe attributes.
Target Signal Size = Target Signature Radius / Target Sensor Strength

Large target = easier to find, target with high sensor strength = harder to find. These values can be modified, a target with several shield extenders will have larger signature radius and be easier to find while a target with ECCM will have higher sensor strength and will be harder find.

The following formula gives the range multiplier.

Range Multiplier = e^-((Target Range / Max Range)^2)
Target Range is the range from the probe to the target, Max Range is the Scan Range listed for that probe type.

This formula will return a result between 1 (at 0km) and 0.3679 (at very close to max range).

The full formula to calculate Signal Strength is:
Signal Strength = (Probe Sensor Strength * (1 + Level of Astrometric Triangulation * 0.05) / 100) * (e^-((Target Range / Max Range)^2)) * (Target Signature Radius / Target Sensor Strength)

A math example: We are using a Ferret 40 au probe to try to locate a Scorpion 35 au away. We have Astrometric Triangulation level 3.
Signal Strength = (2.5 * (1 + 3*0.05) / 100) * (e^-((35/40)^2)) * (480 / 24) = 0.267 or 26.7% chance it will show up on our scan.

Accuracy

Accuracy is a factor of the max scan deviation, the signal strength of the scan, any skills you might have and a random number.

If the signal strength of the probe is 1.0 or more the accuracy will always be 0m (unless you are using multiple probes).

The formula to calculate Maximum effective Scan Deviation is not know at this time, the following formula will provide an estimate that works for most cases:
Maximum effective Scan Deviation = Maximum Scan Deviation * ((0.6 * (Signal Strength ^ 2)) – (1.6 * Signal Strength) + 1) * (1 - Level of Astrometric Pinpointing * 0.1)

The accuracy of the scan is then a linear random range between 0km and the Max effective Scan deviation. Linear meaning it’s just as likely to return 0 as it is to return max eff scan dev or anything between.

Math example: We will use the data from the last example, we also have astrometric pinpointing level 3.
Max effective Scan Deviation = 10000 * ((0.6 * (0.267 ^ 2)) - (1.6 * 0.267) + 1) * (1 - 3 * 0.1) = 4305km. So each successful scan will give a random accuracy between 0km and 4305km. This means there is a 11.6% chance you will get a result in the same grid as the target.
Rigs

There is one rig that effect scan probing.
Gravity Capacitor Upgrade. The T1 version give 10% less scan time and the T2 15%. The reduction is not stacking penalized.

Implants

Implants that effect probing are:

• Poteque Pharmaceuticals ‘Prospector’ PPF-0/1/2 - 2%/6%/10% reduced Maximum Scan Deviation
• Poteque Pharmaceuticals ‘Prospector’ PPG-0/1/2 - 1%/3%/5% increased Scan Strength
• Poteque Pharmaceuticals ‘Prospector’ PPH-0/1/2 - 2%/6%/10% reduced Scan Time

There is also a Sisters of Eve implant set named “Virtue”. It only exist in a low-grade version.

• Low-grade Virtue Alpha/Beta/Delta/Epsilon/Gamma - 1%/2%/4%/5%/3% increased Scan Strength + 10% set bonus.
• Low-grade Virtue Omega - 25% set bonus.

These works like pirate implant sets and a full set give a total of 33.83% Scan Strength bonus.

Directional Scanner

It’s possible to see probes on the directional scanner by setting it to not use overview settings.

To counter act this we have the ability to destroy the probes at will by right clicking on it in the system scanner tab and choose destroy probe, you can even do this while cloaked or in warp. Destroying a probe will not destroy the results so you can go back and look at them by clicking view results.

You should destroy your probes as soon as you got the results you want from them, especially short range probes. Done right it should only show up on the scanner of the target for around 30-40 sec, short enough time for him to miss it.

Deadspace Areas

Deadspace areas like most mission and most exploration sites acts as a dampener on a ships Signal Size making it much harder to find targets in such sites. The exact amount of dampening is unknown but in the area of 100 times.

Cloaked ships

At the time of writing it is NOT possible to probe for cloaked ships. Latest information on the subject says it won’t be possible until the planned full rework of the scan system is put in place.

Scan Groups

The following Scan Groups can be chosen when you start a scan, for each level of astrometrics you can scan for more group at the same time.

• Drone and Probe- As the name suggests, drones and probes (not interdictor probes, just scan probes).
• Cosmic Anomaly - NPC Combat sites
• ship - All player ships, no NPCs.
• Cosmic Signature - Exploration content.
• Structure - POS Structures.

There is no penalty for scanning for multiple groups, if you have astrometrics level 5 go ahead and select them all.

Known Bugs

Attributes window show sensor strength truncated. This is most apparent on Observator and Ferret probes as it is shown to have 1 and 2 points strength but in reality they have 1.25 and 2.5 points.

Warping while running a scan can sometimes bug the interface so it looks like the scan failed. Just wait for the scan to finish and you will still get the correct result.

FAQ

Q: Why do my scans seem to fail all the time, it stops before it is finished?

A: Make sure that the probe does not time out before the scan finishes, if it does the scan will always fail. If the probe has less flight time than your scan takes you need to either train your skills a bit more (covert ops level 4 + Signal acquisition level 3 is enough to use snoop probes in a Scan Probe launcher) or just get the Recon probe launcher.

If you want to scan probing efficiently, you may need some ISK to buy items or a powerful ship. It’s very essential for every MMORPSG game.

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Author:Hoshi