Relic and data sites

Relic and data sites are types of cosmic signatures that can be found with probing. Relic and data sites can be divided into 5 categories:

• Pirate relic and data sites
• Drone data sites
• Ghost sites
• Sleeper caches
• Sleeper sites

It should be noted that relic and data sites are also categorized into 5 different levels of difficulty, ranging from I to V. While a ship that is not bonus-ed to scanning can scan down a level I cosmic signature, even exploration-focused ships and fittings may struggle with level V sites.

Pirate sites

See also: List of data and relic sites

Pirate relic and data sites can be found in all normal space regions, in C1, C2 and C3 class wormhole systems, as well as in shattered wormhole systems. There are pockets of space populated with a variety of cosmic structures (i.e., wrecked stations, abandoned machines) and several containers that need to be hacked before the contents can be accessed. The sites do not have any triggers or NPC defenders. Pirate relic sites contain T1 and T2 salvage materials, skill books and blueprint copies. Pirate data sites contain decryptors, data cores, skill books, blueprint copies and manufacturing materials. The contents may vary by faction.

A Data Site container

A Relic Site container

Relic and data sites use the following naming convention according to their location.

Data site names	Relic site names	Location
Local (Faction) (site)	Crumbling (Faction) (site)	High-security systems
Regional (Faction) (site)	Decayed (Faction) (site)	Low-security systems
Central (Faction) (site)	Ruined (Faction) (site)	Null-security and wormhole systems

Data site containers have a physical appearance that resembles a gyroscope while relic site containers resemble ancient shipwrecks. The containers are named as follows.

Data site containers	Relic site containers	Difficulty
(Faction) Info Shard	(Faction) Debris	Very easy
(Faction) Com Tower	(Faction) Rubble	Easy
(Faction) Mainframe	(Faction) Remains	Medium
(Faction) Databank	(Faction) Ruins	Hard

The (Faction) in the above site and container names will be the local pirate group for each region. For a list of (site) names, see List of data and relic sites.

You'll have to hack into the containers first by playing the hacking minigame. In order to attempt a hack, you’ll need to lock on to the container and activate the corresponding hacking module. The module (Relic Analyzer in a relic site, Data Analyzer in a data site, or Integrated Analyzer for both) only works if the distance between the container and your ship is less or equal to the module's maximum activation range. Activating the module will open a new window containing the hacking minigame. Failing to hack a container twice will destroy it and its contents.

Drone data sites

• Abandoned Research Complex DA005
• Abandoned Research Complex DA015
• Abandoned Research Complex DA025
• Abandoned Research Complex DC007
• Abandoned Research Complex DC035
• Abandoned Research Complex DG003
• Abandoned Research Complex DG018
• Abandoned Research Complex DM083

Drone data sites spawn only in drone regions: Cobalt Edge, Perrigen Falls, Malpais, Oasa, Kalevala Expanse, Outer Passage, Etherium Reach, and The Spire. Drone data sites have two main differences from pirate data sites:

• Failing the hack twice in drone data site will not destroy the container. Instead, there is a chance that failure spawns hostile frigates. These rogue drones can be easily handled by the drones of T1 explorer and do not pose a serious threat. These frigates need to be destroyed before you can hack again.
• Drone data sites can escalate into another drone data site.

Drone data sites contain three hackable containers: Two "High-Security Containment Facility" and one "Research and Development Laboratories". Most of the time the lone research container is empty but leaving it unhacked misses possibility for data site escalation.

Drone data sites contain drone components and blueprint copies for ' Integrated' and 'Augmented' drones. Each drone region drop blueprint copies for different racial drones: Kalevala Expanse and The Spire for Minmatar, Malpais and Oasa for Caldari, Etherium Reach and Perrigen Falls for Gallente and finally Outer Passage and Cobalt Edge for Amarr.

Other data sites

• AEGIS Capital Ship Security Facility
• AEGIS Secure Capital Construction Forge
• AEGIS Secure Transfer Facility
• Overmind Nursery Groves - Does not feature any actual hacking and can treated more like a combat site
• Faction Warfare Operation Center e.g. "Caldari Operation Center"
• SCC Secure Key Storage

Sleeper caches

Main article: Sleeper Cache

Sleeper caches are data sites with various triggers and dangers. They are significantly more difficult than pirate data sites. Sleeper caches spawn in normal space and do not spawn in wormholes even though the sleeper connection would imply the opposite; they are not to be confused with the Forgotten Sleeper sites, which function more like combat sites.

The Sleeper Caches from easiest to hardest are:

• Limited Sleeper Cache Level IV scanning difficulty
• Standard Sleeper Cache Level IV scanning difficulty
• Superior Sleeper Cache Level V scanning difficulty

Sleeper caches are gated deadspace pockets with size limits for entry. Each sleeper cache has its own set of dangers. They contain a mixture of containers with damaging explosions on a failed hack, timed triggers, hazardous clouds, proximity explosions and sentry guns. For details see the page for individual sleeper cache.

Sleeper caches contain sleeper components, manufacturing materials, skill books and blueprint copies for polarized weapons.

Ghost sites

Main article: Ghost Site

Ghost sites are data sites with limited time and riskier failures. They can be identified from "Covert Research Facility" on their name.

The sites have an invisible time limit after which a strong NPC force will arrive, blow up the remaining containers and attack the pilot on-site. The hacks are also riskier as a single failure will cause the container to explode dealing 4000–6000 raw explosive damage to a 10 km radius.

Ghost sites contain Covert Research Tools, Villard Wheels, blueprint copies for 'Packrat' and 'Magpie' Mobile Tractor Units, ‘Wetu’ and ‘Yurt’ Mobile Depots and Ascendancy implants.

Sleeper sites

Main article: Wormhole sites

Sleeper relic and data sites are found in wormholes. They are not empty, instead, they have strong sleepers defending the site that need to be defeated before hacking.

Sleeper relic and data sites can be identified from "Forgotten" and "Unsecured" at the beginning of their names. The combat in them is harder than in combat anomalies of same wormhole class and the rats drop sleeper components as they do in combat sites. They can be run as combat sites only looting the wrecks and ignoring the hacking part.

Silent Battleground

The Silent Battleground

Silent Battleground is a very rare data site found in shattered wormholes.

The silent battleground contains 20 relic and data cans scattered in 60 km radius, with no Sleeper rats present. It must be scanned down and requires decent skills to do so. Failing the hack twice does not blow up the can. The data cans contain data cores, and the relic cans contain T3 manufacturing components such as Intact Power Cores. Early reports suggest that this site operates on a timer and will explosively despawn after some time, though dealing no damage. This timer should be longer than 30 minutes. 3 hacking ships should be able to clear the entire site before this happens, however.

At the centre of the silent battleground is a wrecked Revenant, suggesting an unexpected historical Sansha's Nation presence in these shattered wormholes. The wreck cannot be salvaged.

Contested Covert Research Facilities

Note that it is unclear to this author whether Contested Covert Research Facilities are still in the game; some sources seem to indicate that they were removed when the Besieged Covert Research Facilities were added. Another thing to consider is that the reward received may not be worth the effort and risk of doing them: you will almost certainly lose your ship if you attempt them in an untanked frigate, but carrying around tanking modules just for these sites may be inconvenient. -- 5 April 2017 Hirmuolio Pine

Contested Covert Research Facilities are hacking sites that may or may not be in the game anymore. They contain one hackable container. The site will self destruct and deal 2000 damage 45-60 seconds after warp-in.

Combat relic sites

Combat relic sites are very rare relic sites that spawn only in certain areas of Nullsec. They feature rats from many different pirate factions in large numbers. These sites are hard to run and should only be attempted by high-skill players.

• Ancient Ruins Only found in Catch (especially in 9HXQ-G constellation)
• Bloated Ruins Only found in Wicked Creek (especially in 760-9C constellation)
• Crumbling Ruins Only found in Vale of the Silent
• Festering Ruins Only found in Fountain
• Forgotten Ruins Only found in Delve
• Hidden Ruins Only found in Cloud Ring
• Wispy Ruins Only found in Feythabolis (especially in I-3ODK constellation)

Tips and tricks

• The contents of containers can be scanned with cargo scanners before hacking. This allows skipping containers that do not have valuable contents.
• Emptied sites will despawn in few minutes. Sites that have been partially completed will despawn in a few hours.
• Once a site has despawned, the same site (sorted based on data or relic) will respawn within 2 minutes within the same region, but never within the same system.
• Sites with difficulty levels I and II should be scannable for any ship fitted with a core probe launcher, and a set of Sister's core probe scanners. However, as the difficulty level of the site increases, the minimum scanning strength required also increases.
• Sites with difficulty levels III and higher normally need to be scanned by a scanning-bonused ship. However, some level III sites may still be scanned by any ship if it is fitted with a Sisters core probe launcher.
• The recommended scan strength for level IV sites is around 90, while the recommended scan strength for level V sites is 100 and above.
• After the daily downtime (DT) all Relic and Data sites update their containers. For example, you hack 5/6 containers and leave 1. After DT all these containers will be updated and you can hack them again.

Is this site "safe" to warp to?

The following are quick reference tables for evaluating PvE exploration site dangers (such as hostile NPCs and/or exploding cans) based on the cosmic signature name. Thank you to David Louis for the original, but now out of date forum post

Note: "SAFE" does not mean you are safe from PvP. Always assume you are being hunted by other players. Be forever vigilant dear explorers!

Relic Sites	Site Safety	Security			Wormholes
		High	Low	Null	C1	C2	C3	C4	C5	C6
Crumbling <>	Safe	x
Decayed <>	Safe		x
Ruined <>	Safe			x	x	x	x	*
Forgotten <>	NOT Safe				x	x	x	x	x	x

Data Sites	Site Safety	Security			Wormholes
		High	Low	Null	C1	C2	C3	C4	C5	C6
Local <>	Safe	x
Regional <>	Safe		x
Central <>	Safe			x	x	x	x	*
Unsecured <>	NOT Safe				x	x	x	x	x	x
AEGIS <>	NOT Safe		x	x					x	x
SCC <>	NOT Safe		x	x					x	x

Exceptions and details for Shattered wormhole systems:

• Shattered systems can spawn sites of their own class and also one class higher or lower. This technically allows Ruined and Central sites to exist in a C4 system, since it can spawn sites usually only found in C3 space. However, shattered systems are rare, and all other C4 systems do not spawn these sites.
• C13 or "small ship" shattered systems contain sites only found in C1, C2, or C3 systems. This includes Ruined and Central sites.
• Silent Battleground (a very rare Data Site) in Shattered systems is SAFE.

Drone Data Sites	Site Safety	Security			Wormholes
		High	Low	Null	C1	C2	C3	C4	C5	C6
Abandoned Research Complex <>	NOT safe			x

Ghost Data Sites	Site Safety	Security			Wormholes
		High	Low	Null	C1	C2	C3	C4	C5	C6
Lesser <> Covert Research Facility	NOT Safe	x
Standard <> Covert Research Facility	NOT Safe		x
Improved <> Covert Research Facility	NOT Safe			x
Superior <> Covert Research Facility	NOT safe				x	x	x	x	x	x

Sleeper Cache Data Sites	Site Safety	Security			Wormholes
		High	Low	Null	C1	C2	C3	C4	C5	C6
Limited Sleeper Cache	NOT Safe	x	x	x
Standard Sleeper Cache	NOT Safe	x	x	x
Superior Sleeper Cache	NOT Safe	x	x	x

Gas Sites	Site Safety	Security			Wormholes
		High	Low	Null	C1	C2	C3	C4	C5	C6
<> Nebula	Safe	x	x
	NOT Safe			x
<> Reservoir	NOT Safe				x	x	x	x	x	x

With one exception, the sleeper NPCs in wormhole gas sites appear according to a timer after the first capsuleer initiates warp to the site. This allows for what is commonly called 'ninja-huffing', i.e. gas harvesting during the "safe" period before they spawn. Some gas sites in null-sec do not have NPCs spawn; for detailed info, refer to the full list of sites.

Table Legend

• <> = wildcard
• SAFE = no NPCs; no Timers; nothing bad you can activate
• X = possible site location
• HS = high sec; LS = low sec; NS = null sec
• C1 - C6 = wormhole system class

Pirate relic site loot

Pirate faction relic sites contain the following items:

• Salvage. Type of salvage is based on the faction.
• Carbon
• Spatial attunement units
• T2 rig blueprint copies
• POS blueprint copies

Based on research done by MacrophageNT the relic site contents follow certain simple rules. The following information is for sites in null security space, the distribution of materials in other areas is likely identical but with lower drop rates.

Salvage	Angel Cartel	Blood Raiders	Guristas	Sansha's nation	Serpentis
Artificial Neural Network	x	x	x	x	x
Damaged Artificial Neural Network	x	x	x	x	x
Interface Circuit	x	x	x	x	x
Fried Interface Circuit	x	x	x	x	x
Logic Circuit	x	x	x	x	x
Burned Logic Circuit	x	x	x	x	x
Micro Circuit	x	x	x	x	x
Charred Micro Circuit	x	x	x	x	x
Power Circuit	x	x	x	x	x
Tripped Power Circuit	x	x	x	x	x
Impetus Console	x
Thruster Console	x
Single-crystal Superalloy I-beam	x
Alloyed Tritanium Bar	x
Trigger Unit	x
Smashed Trigger Unit	x
Capacitor Console		x
Melted Capacitor Console		x
Power Conduit		x
Tangled Power Conduit		x
Enhanced Ward Console			x
Ward Console			x
Intact Shield Emitter			x
Malfunctioning Shield Emitter			x		x
Telemetry Processor			x
Scorched Telemetry Processor			x
Current Pump				x
Defective Current Pump				x
Intact Armor Plates				x
Armor Plates				x
Nanite Compound				x
Contaminated Nanite Compound				x
Conductive Thermoplastic					x
Conductive Polymer					x
Drone Transceiver					x
Broken Drone Transceiver					x
Lorentz Fluid					x
Contaminated Lorentz Fluid					x

Each relic site in null security space/wormholes contains three different kinds of containers: Rubble, remains and ruins. These containers always have the same loot distribution without influence from the site type.

Container	T1 probability (amount)	T2 probability (amount)
Rubble	25% (3-20)	5.5% (1-3)
Remain	50% (5-40)	12.5% (1-5)
Ruin	0%	25% (1-15)

For example, in a "Rubble" container each T1 salvage has independent 25% probability to appear in a stack of 3-20 units. Stack sizes are all uniformly distributed so a stack of 1 is equally likely to a stack of 14.

The amount of different container types depends on the name of the relic site. As a result, higher rank relic sites are on average more valuable.

Site (sec, level, % of sites)	Rubble	Remains	Ruins
Monument Site (null, 1, 40%)	2	3	1
Temple Site (null, 2, 30%)	1	3	2
Science outpost (null, 3, 20%)	0	4	2
Crystal Quarry (null, 4, 10%)	1	3	3

Based on the above information it is possible to calculate the expected value for each faction's null security sites.

Expected average site value

Paste this to appraisal, divide the result by 100 and you get the expected value per site for that faction. Angel Cartel: https://janice.e-351.com/a/ypaCO6 Artificial Neural Network 472 Interface Circuit 472 Logic Circuit 472 Micro Circuit 472 Power Circuit 472 Impetus Console 472 Single-crystal Superalloy I-beam 472 Trigger Unit 472 Damaged Artificial Neural Network 3945 Fried Interface Circuit 3945 Burned Logic Circuit 3945 Charred Micro Circuit 3945 Tripped Power Circuit 3945 Thruster Console 3945 Alloyed Tritanium Bar 3945 Smashed Trigger Unit 3945 Blood Raider Covenant: https://janice.e-351.com/a/bjz3kc Artificial Neural Network 472 Interface Circuit 472 Logic Circuit 472 Micro Circuit 472 Power Circuit 472 Capacitor Console 472 Power Conduit 472 Damaged Artificial Neural Network 3945 Fried Interface Circuit 3945 Burned Logic Circuit 3945 Charred Micro Circuit 3945 Tripped Power Circuit 3945 Melted Capacitor Console 3945 Tangled Power Conduit 3945 Guristas Pirates: https://janice.e-351.com/a/7YKOpP Artificial Neural Network 472 Interface Circuit 472 Logic Circuit 472 Micro Circuit 472 Power Circuit 472 Enhanced Ward Console 472 Intact Shield Emitter 472 Telemetry Processor 472 Damaged Artificial Neural Network 3945 Fried Interface Circuit 3945 Burned Logic Circuit 3945 Charred Micro Circuit 3945 Tripped Power Circuit 3945 Ward Console 3945 Malfunctioning Shield Emitter 3945 Scorched Telemetry Processor 3945 Sansha's Nation: https://janice.e-351.com/a/pXC4r5 Artificial Neural Network 472 Interface Circuit 472 Logic Circuit 472 Micro Circuit 472 Power Circuit 472 Current Pump 472 Intact Armor Plates 472 Nanite Compound 472 Damaged Artificial Neural Network 3945 Fried Interface Circuit 3945 Burned Logic Circuit 3945 Charred Micro Circuit 3945 Tripped Power Circuit 3945 Defective Current Pump 3945 Armor Plates 3945 Contaminated Nanite Compound 3945 Serpentis Corporation: https://janice.e-351.com/a/LbsFmu Artificial Neural Network 472 Interface Circuit 472 Logic Circuit 472 Micro Circuit 472 Power Circuit 472 Conductive Thermoplastic 472 Drone Transceiver 472 Lorentz Fluid 472 Damaged Artificial Neural Network 3945 Fried Interface Circuit 3945 Burned Logic Circuit 3945 Charred Micro Circuit 3945 Tripped Power Circuit 3945 Malfunctioning Shield Emitter 3945 Conductive Polymer 3945 Broken Drone Transceiver 3945 Contaminated Lorentz Fluid 3945

Pirate data site loot

Data sites of pirate factions contain the following items:

• Decryptors of all types
• High-Tech Manufacturing Tools
• High-Tech Data Chips
• Carbon
• Calm Abyssal filaments
• Invention skill books
• Blueprint copies for:
  • Target Spectrum Breakers
  • Ancillary shield and armour repairers (local and remote)
  • Faction POS modules
  • 'ligature' and 'zeugma' integrated analyzers
  • Medium and large micro jump drives
  • Reactive armour hardeners
• Storyline materials. Not fully limited to only own faction materials.
• Datacores. See the table below to see which faction has what.

Datacore	Angel Cartel	Blood Raider	Guristas	Sansha's Nation	Serpentis
Mechanical Engineering	x	x	x	x	x
Hydromagnetic Physics		x	x	x
Molecular Engineering	x	x		x
Nanite Engineering	x	x		x
Quantum Physics		x	x	x
Amarrian Starship Engineering		x		x
Electromagnetic Physics			x		x
Electronic Engineering			x		x
Graviton Physics			x		x
High Energy Physics		x		x
Laser Physics		x		x
Rocket Science	x		x
Caldari Starship Engineering			x
Gallentean Starship Engineering					x
Minmatar Starship Engineering	x
Nuclear Physics	x
Plasma Physics					x

See also

• Dev blog: Ghastly Hotbed Of Spaceship Trauma - Ghost Sites in Rubicon - Introducing Ghost Sites
• Dev blog: Sweeping Death and Chaos: New Exploration Sites in Kronos - Introducing the Contested and Besieged Covert Research Facilities
• List of data and relic sites