With events like the Crimson Harvest tricks and ways to be more efficient for getting the most out of the event. Some of these have worked out so great for me during this event, I thought I'd share them.

Be Smart Efficient, Not Just Efficient

There is a huge difference between being efficient, smart, and trying to min/max everything. Those during events like these end up missing out on some amazing opportunities by only trying to min/max everything.

A classic example of that is wanting to hit as many systems as possible. Sounds great, right? To do that, you end up going for a pure loop and avoiding all dead ends where you have to backtrack.

The route I end up taking ends up taking me to check in on dead-end systems. As I know, a lot of others are just skipping over them. This ends up resulting in a lot of sites stacking up. Even more so during the early days of an event, when lots of people are out and about. Where any system that is getting skipped over by everyone else can end up being a treasure trove of sites to run.

As we can see above, in that one system alone. There ended up being five cosmic signatures to scan down. Four of them are one of the two exploration sites for the event. Even better, by the time another explorer entered that system, I was finishing off the last site as they were warping in.

All other systems around the area get a lot more traffic as people use them for their route. Had nothing up for a couple of systems. Even then, after that, those systems had a lot more people scanning down sites.

A couple of dead-end systems like these in my area end up being a huge amount of my total loot from the event. As everyone is too busy trying to go as fast as possible. Leaving systems untouched.

You can even find systems like these by looking at total jumps per day. One of my favorite places to check ended up having about 90% lower traffic than the surrounding systems. It’s places like that you want to check out.

Have A Route And Build Intel

Screenshot from Dotlan Evemaps

The last thing you want to be doing is being lost and rechecking systems you were just in. Along with being in systems you know very little about. Sure, if it’s been 10 minutes, there's a chance you might find new signatures to scan down in a system you were just in.

You can use sites like Dotlan Evemaps to get a nice layout of different regions. From there, you can start plotting the kind of route you want to take. You can even create an account on that site and authorize your Eve Online account with it to share certain data, like location and the ability to set in-game locations.

Personally, I'm from the Stone Age of Eve Online. I prefer to do things a little less efficiently and more old-fashioned by just scribbling down in an image application my route with red lines. Then going from there.

Naturally, I would not use the route I made above as an example. Mostly because it’s in a high-traffic area right next to Jita. Where competition is going to be crazy. It’s also not the most ideal loop, as there is a bit of backtracking.

After looking at and redoing that route a few times. I’d notice there were systems I kept skipping over. If they did not lead to a lot of backtracking. I’d often add them to my route. Because if I'm skipping them over, trying to be efficient, then lots of other players are as well. Further looking into jump data tends to confirm this as well.

There are really two ways to go about this. You can either try and have some kind of loop. That is great if you are going to be on for quite some time. You just want to make sure your loop route is long enough to give a chance for sites to respawn.

If you are someone with a bit more limited amount of time. I’d recommend more of a line route. You go from one point to another point. You then dock up and log off for however many hours it is. You then log back in and head back home, retracing systems you checked hours ago.

Screenshot from Wanderer. Just an example, not my real route.

Regardless of the type of route you went. The most important thing is building intel about those systems. Once you have already scanned through those systems, you already know the wormholes, lesser-run sites that might still be up. Along with anything special to make note of.

For instance, some systems have signatures you need to scan that are fast-spawning and are for things like COSMOS or other types of content. I could be in a system that has 5 signatures that are always up that are combat. If I jump into that system and see there are only 5 signatures up, I don’t need to waste my time scanning them down. Even more so since those who don’t know what they are for end up running them, causing a new signature to spawn moments later.

While you could bookmark or right down the signature IDs of things like wormholes and combat sites. I prefer to just copy and paste them into a mapping tool that many use for wormholes called Wanderer. It’s great for outside of wormhole space as well. Even more so far what is needed in this instance.

Not only will it populate systems as I jump into them. There is a signature section for each system that I can copy and paste the data from the game into the site. Next time I'm in the same system I've already been in. I just pasted in the current signatures that are up. I then look at when that data was added. Everything new will show up as only being seconds old.

This allows me to quickly determine if there are any new signatures in a system. I also don’t have to waste time fully scanning down everything just to bookmark it. I just need to copy and paste my updated signature data before I leave the system, so now it shows instead of unknown that something was a combat site or a wormhole.

Speaking of which. You only need to scan something down 25% before you start learning information about it. Since I'm running exploration sites in high sec. I am only looking for data sites.

Once you scan things down a bit further. You learn even more data. Such as what level the data site is. As it turns out, the data sites for this event in high sec are only level 2. That means if I find anything other than a level 2 data site. I just moved onto the next signature or system.

Another data point you are building is who you will run into on your normal route. I have an idea of the locals who will run exploration sites along my route. While that won’t be everyone. If I see three of them in a single system, and there is only one new signature. I move on to the next system.

What I try and avoid is the situation the other player ran into in the screenshot above. Where you enter a site with one or more of the hacking cans already finished. I was seconds away from finishing off the second. I then went for the third.

Since I was running these sites in high sec, that player was not so worried about getting ganked. So, they thought they would attempt to run that third can. They wasted time trying to get to it. I beat them anyway, and I took it.

Even worse for them. They did not have the two other signatures scanned down that I already knew were wormholes. Meanwhile, I was a system over and I did not see them till I was in my second site finishing the last hacking can. Where they yet again went for it and could not run it since I already was.

Occasionally, I'll see two or three scanning ships on a gate. I’ll see another person de-clock and drop probes. In systems that only have one signature. The funny part was that by looking at local, I knew there was at least one other person running exploration sites in that system, and since I did not see them on D-Scan, I suspected they were already clearing that site.

Once you build enough intel. You know when it’s worth scanning down new signatures. You also know when it’s time to just move on to another system. The quicker you can do things and the further ahead you can get than other people. The more sites per hour, you are going to get in general.

Have The Right Skills

This year alone, there have been lots of events in Eve Online, and many of them have had exploration sites to run. If you find yourself lacking in some skills for one event. Take that as an opportunity to be ready the next time that event rolls around in a year or similar events throughout the year.

Many of the smarter players out there already have a general idea of what and when certain events are expected to happen. While these events tend to have some differences year over year. There is also enough similarity that getting things in the general sense helps you be ready on day one of an event. Not scrambling to get set up like everyone else.

Thankfully for exploration sites, there are only a few skills that matter most. That is simply the scanning and hacking skills. While sure, having other skills is helpful as well. These are really the core skills you need, along with being able to fly a decent scanning ship to take advantage of an event.

Having things like Survey 5, Hacking 5, Astrometric 5, and Archaeology 5 will help a lot. As for the remaining Astrometric skills, the Acquisition one is the only one you can slack on a bit and keep it at a 3. Everything else you want to be at least level 4 or higher.

A Ship Fit For Your Playstyle

Once you start learning what you need before events. You can have the ships and fittings you need before everyone starts buying, causing prices to go up. Sure, there are people like me who want to be selling ships and modules during those higher prices. Don’t expect prices to start falling for what you need now till later into the event or after it’s over.

Now, during an event like Crimson Harvest. If I'm only running sites in high sec, I only need a data analyzer, probe launcher, and probes. If you are in an area where people are not respectful, you might also want a scanner so you can hack cans with the best loot first. I’m in a rather chill area, so I don’t do that.

This ship that I'm running is my standard event loadout and just general exploration overall. I can do both relic and data sites. It’s set up to deal with dangers you might run into in wormhole, low sec, or null sec as well.

For whatever type of exploration part of an event you are doing. You at least want the tier 2 of the analyzer type that is needed. Along with sister probes for scanning sites down. Along with gravity capacitor upgrade rigs.

You could also add in things like Scan Pinpointing Array, Scan Rangfinder Array, or Scan Acquiring Array modules into your mid slots. With my skills, experience scanning signatures, and where I run sites. I prefer other modules.

There are a lot of people who will tell you to only use a certain ship with a certain loadout. I find it better when people play with a ship they like and a loadout that fits their playstyle. This is again one of those min/max compared to just playing smarter. If you hate ship and modulus, you are flying that cuts down on your enjoyment. There are more then enough scanning ships to pick with them each having their own pros and cons from an Anathema to a Stratios.

Implants

For those who might be lacking some skills or just want to spend some extra ISK to get ahead. You can drop a decent number of implants. The thing is, some of them are not as helpful once you've already done things like built up intel on a route, then others.

If you want to spend over a billion ISK, you can get yourself a set of Mid-grade Virtue implants. These things will give you a lot of scan strength for your probes I with a full set.

In high sec, where things are easier to scan down. You can drop at a high AU and scan once to get just about every signature to at least 25% (if you also have a decent ship and skills). That's great for knowing what a wormhole, a combat site. You might even get a few signatures fully scanned.

With what signatures are left with this implant. You can quickly scan down everything else easily that you are looking for. After all, you just want level 2 sites.

After you have already built up a route, though. These are still useful, but not as much. You also can’t forget that during an event like Crimson Harvest, implants have a 50% chance to drop instead of 0%. So certain kind of people are always on the lookout to gank people and their pods if given the opportunity.

There is also an implant that can help with hacking sites. It’s called a blackglass. These things used to cost a fortune back in the day. Nowadays, even during the middle of an event like Crimson Harvest, you can get one for 100 million or less. Quite a deal at this point.

While they do make you weaker with less health by 40 points. Which is a decent chunk. You are also dealing 20 more damage to the nodes you encounter. Since these exploration sites are a lot harder, many end up using one of these. If the unthinkable happens and you get killed, they are cheap enough to replace.

For those who don't want to spend all kinds of crazy money on implants or lack the skills to use the more costly ones. There is also the Prospectors line. They are a lot cheaper. There is even one called HC-905 that gives you +5 Coherence bonus instead of the 40 you get from Blackglass. They, however, take the same implant slot.

Loot Strategy

Those who understand loot end up getting the most out of it. Those who can't miss a lot. Even more so during an event when there are wild swings in the market. There is even a deadline before some of your loot becomes worthless. These are things you need to watch out for.

The biggest mistake I see many make is selling loot NPCS are buying in high sec. Even woes they are selling them sometimes for 10% less or more. Just to go take them a couple of jumps from a trade hub and sell them.

Now there are sometimes loot that NPCs in low sec or lower are buying. For those not living in the area. I, for one, am more than willing to sell for 10% less today than make a big or trip to some place getting camped by people waiting for people to offload those drops in null sec.

Always try and do some research into what something is used for, if anything at all. Is the item you just got only dropped during events? Only during the current event going on?

Next up, you need to understand that after the first couple of days during an event, a lot of stuff will crash in price. I know that moment, the second day, I looted an item that had an estimated 1 billion ISK value. At the time, there were lots of people already trying to sell it for 160 million. Now it’s under 100 million.

That is also why I don’t sit on loot the first couple of days of an event. Unless I'm really unsure about a drop. If it’s selling high, I'm offloading it. If I really wanted it, chances are, right before the event ends, I can get it for a fraction of the price.

You also have a ticking time bomb in your loot. All the boosters that only drop during the current event will have an expiration date on that. Once that hits, they are worthless. That is why prices for boosters tend to crash till later phases, which might cause a spike. It’s then a race to offload every one of these kinds of boosters you have before they expire.

You also need to keep in mind that it is not every single booster, however. Some kinds of boosters drop a lot during events, but are not event-specific. They have no expiration date.

When it comes to loot that can be acquired outside of an event. Unless you really need the ISK now. You might as well wait. I don’t know how many items I'll see that have an estimated value of 1.1 million but are only selling for 200k right now. Many with lots of ISK are buying up at those prices and will offload months down the road, hoping for a lot of profit.

If you do end up taking a bit of a gamble. Just keep in mind that things like skins could or could not be worth a lot down the road. It all depends on how rare the drop was and if it ends up being in the loot table again at some point. Sure, once in a while, a skin might be worth 5 billion ISK years after it dropped. Most, however, don’t, and waiting that long is not something people end up wanting to do.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, these tips, tricks, and general information help many make a lot more ISK and have even greater fun. I know during an event like the Crimson Harvest, I want to clear about 15 billion or more in loot. Some of it I'll even be keeping for myself, like this curse skin.

Information

New to Eve Online or a returning player? Use my recruit a friend referral link and get 1 million skill points on signing up or logging into your Eve Online account (can only be claimed once per account). Disclosure: I might receive in-game rewards.

Screenshots were taken, and content was written by @Enjar about Eve Online.