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{{Exploration links}}

== Important exploration skills ==
These are the skills needed for exploration sorted by complexity. Each skill has a short description of its benefits.
*Basic exploration skills:
**Racial Frigate:     7.5% bonus to Core and Combat Scanner Probe strength (for the [[Magnate]], [[Heron]], [[Imicus]], and [[Probe]], as appropriate) per level
**[[Astrometrics]]:     +5% scan strength, -5% max scan deviation and -5% scan probe scan time per level
**[[Archaeology]]:     +10 virus coherence per level for relic sites
**[[Hacking]]:     +10 virus coherence per level for data sites 
*Intermediate exploration skills:
**[[Astrometric Rangefinding]]:	+5% probe scan strength per level
**[[Astrometric Pinpointing]]		-5% maximum scan deviation per level
**[[Astrometric Acquisition]]		-5% scan time per level
*Advanced exploration skills:
**[[Covert Ops]]:     10% bonus to Core and Combat Scanner Probe strength, 20% reduction in Cloaking Devices CPU requirement, 10% reduction in Survey Probe flight time per skil level
** [[Cloaking]]: Skill at using Cloaking devices (allows the use of cloaking devices). 10% reduction in targeting delay after uncloaking per skill level.


{{expansion past | Before the Ascension update of 2016/11/15, new pilots required at least a day of training to fit and use probe launchers and analyzer modules. }}


The basic skills for exploration are now (as of [[Expansions#Ascension|Ascension]]) part of the starting skill set, and indeed cannot be trained further (except for Racial Frigate IV) without upgrading clone state to Omega. New pilots can now fit and undock in a basic exploration frigate, and begin probing and data-mining, on day one of their careers.

Nonetheless, for pilots who ''do'' have Omega status, the rewards of additional training are considerable: additional training in the probing skills will greatly reduce the time required to scan down a signature, and the increases in virus strength and coherence gained by training the data-mining skills can make it much less likely that the pilot will fail a hack once the site has been reached. Training [[Cloaking]] allows the pilot to probe signatures in dangerous space with relative safety and (at level III) to fit the Improved Cloaking Device II and thus use the [[Cloak trick]] to increase the chances of successfully making it to market with the loot.

The suggested Improved and Intermediate training plans concentrate on improving the pilot's Scan Probe strength and Virus Coherence initially, and on enabling the use of advance piloting techniques to improve survivability in hostile space. Without a fairly high Scan Probe strength, the improvements in scan time and deviation gained by training Astrometric Pinpointing and Astrometric Acquisition make little or no noticeable difference.

== Improved Exploration skills ==
''Total time: 1 day, 2 hours, 40 minutes''
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Skill !! Notes !! Training time/Cost
|-
| Cloaking I || Enaables Prototype Cloaking Device I || 50 minutes/3,500,000 ISK
|-
| Hacking II || +10 Virus Coherence for Data Analyzers || 1 hour, 56 minutes, 26 seconds
|-
| Hacking III || +10 Virus Coherence for Data Analyzers || 10 hours, 58 minutes, 34 seconds
|-
| Archaeology II || +10 Virus Coherence for Relic Analyzers || 1 hour, 56 minutes, 26 seconds
|-
| Archaeology III || +10 Virus Coherence for Relic Analyzers || 10 hours, 58 minutes, 34 seconds
|}
This basic plan concentrates on improving the success of hacking attempts and enabling the pilot to scan while cloaked.
== Intermediate Exploration skills ==
''Total time: 11 days, 23 hours, 56 minutes, 50 seconds''
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Skill !! Notes !! Training time/Cost
|-
| Cloaking II ||  || 3 hours, 52 minutes, 52 seconds
|-
| Cloaking III || Enables Improved Cloaking Device II || 21 hours, 57 minutes, 8 seconds
|-
| Astrometric Rangefinding II || +5% Scan Probe strength.<br/>Enables Scan Rangefinding Array I || 5 hours, 10 minutes, 28 seconds
|-
| Racial Frigate IV || +7.5% Scan Probe strength || 1 day, 17 hours, 23 minutes, 39 seconds
|-
| Astrometric Rangefinding III || +5% Scan Probe strength || 1 day, 5 hours, 16 minutes, 12 seconds
|-
| Astrometrics IV || +5% Scan Probe strength || 2 days, 14 hours, 5 minutes, 30 seconds
|-
| Archaeology IV || +10 Virus Coherence for Relic Analyzers || 2 days, 14 hours, 5 minutes, 30 seconds
|-
| Hacking IV || +10 Virus Coherence for Data Analyzers || 2 days, 14 hours, 5 minutes, 30 seconds
|}
This less-basic plan concentrates on improving the pilot's Scan Probe strength and Virus Coherence, and unlocks the T2 cloak, enabling the Cloak trick. Astometrics IV also reduces the scan probe deviation and makes scanning faster, but at this point in the pilot's training, higher Scan Probe strength is key. At this level of skill, the pilot has a good chance of locating and successfully looting Data and Relic sites in nullsec space, and making it home with the loot unmolested.

== More Advanced Exploration skills ==
''Total time: 32 days, 10 hours, 54 minutes, 40 seconds; Cost: 4,900,000 ISK''
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Skill !! Notes !! Training time/Cost
|-
| Astrometric Pinpointing I || Reduces maximum scan deviation by 5% || 41 minutes, 40 seconds/450,000 ISK
|-
| Astrometric Acquisition I || Reduces scan probe time by 5% || 41 minutes, 40 seconds/450,000 ISK
|-
| Astrometric Pinpointing II || Reduces maximum scan deviation by 5%.<br/>Enables Scan Pinpointing Array I || 3 hours, 14 minutes, 4 seconds
|-
| Astrometric Acquisition II || Reduces scan probe time by 5%%.<br/>Enables Scan Acquisition Array I || 3 hours, 14 minutes, 4 seconds
|-
| Astrometric Pinpointing III || Reduces maximum scan deviation by 5% || 18 hours, 17 minutes, 35 seconds
|-
| Astrometric Acquisition III || Reduces scan probe time by 5% || 18 hours, 17 minutes, 35 seconds
|-
| Racial Frigate V || +7.5% Scan Probe strength.<br/>Required for Racial CovOps frigate || 9 days, 18 hours, 9 minutes, 40 seconds
|-
| Cloaking IV || Enables Covert Ops Cloaking Device II || 5 days, 4 hours, 11 minutes
|-
| Electronics Upgrades IV || || 1 day, 17 hours, 23 minutes, 39 seconds
|-
| Electronics Upgrades V || Prerequsite for Covert Ops skill || 9 days, 18 hours, 9 minutes, 40 seconds
|-
| Covert Ops I || Enables Covert Ops, with Racial Frigate V.<br/>10% bonus to Scan Probe strength.<br/>+10 Virus Strength in CovOps ship ||33 minutes, 20 seconds/4,000,000 ISK
|-
| Covert Ops II || 10% bonus to Scan Probe strength || 2 hours, 35 minutes, 14 seconds
|-
| Covert Ops III || 10% bonus to Scan Probe strength || 14 hours, 38 minutes, 6 seconds
|-
| Covert Ops IV || 10% bonus to Scan Probe strength || 3 days, 10 hours, 47 minutes, 19 seconds
|}

This advanced plan represents a reasonable stopping point for pilots who do not wish to be highly specialized probing & hacking experts. With the Scan Probe strength reached by the end of the intermediate plan above, it becomes reasonable to begin training the scanning support skills to moderate levels. While the scanning upgrade modules enabled by these skills are not widely used, there might be situations where the Pinpointing Array is worth fitting.

The intermediate plan uses all of the available possibilities to cheaply (''i.e.'' < 5 days training time) increase Scan Probe Strength. The next two skills to do this are Racial Frigate V at 9+ days for a 7.5% increase, and Astrometric Rangefinding IV at not quite 7 days for a 5% increase. The latter is neglected here in favor of finishing the prerequisites for Covert Ops, which unlocks a frigate with a 10%/level bonus to Scan Probe strength and, perhaps more importantly, an additional +5 to Virus Strength for analyzer modules: the pilot will be able to reliably find Data and Relic sites in nullsec and C3 wormhole space with the probing skills of the intermediate plan, and will be limited by the number of failed hacks on the more difficult cans found there. Increasing Virus Strength thus removes a pain point. The Covert Ops frigate is also a more survivable platform for exploring in nullsec and wormhole space.

== Elite Exploration skills ==
''Perfect Scanner skills, Perfect Hacking skills, discussion of T2 modules''

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