Ghost Sites: Difference between revisions

Note: The "Besieged Covert Research Facility" and "Contested Covert Research Facility" are not Ghost Sites. They are Combat sites with NPC battleships. Do not warp your hacking ship into a "Besieged" or "Contested" site.

When you enter the site a 30 seconds to three minute timer is started '''<span style="color:red">(unless you warp in cloaked, in this case the timer will start when decloaking)</span>'''. The time is random and not shown, but it seems that the more ships are in the site at once, the longer the timer (in practice, if running a site solo, you will generally have enough time to hack and loot 2 cans before the timer expires).

Since time is of the essence, it is not generally recommended to scan the containers with a cargo scanner due to the limited time that is available before the rats warp in and make the cans (i.e. containers) explode, however if you're fast and have not fitted warp core stabilizers to your ship, you can.

The stashes are opened by the hacking mini game known from [[data site]]s; once the hack is complete, you can loot the cans directly. The cans are normally in a square, equal distance from each other, with one having better loot than the rest. It has not been determined if the uniquely named can has the best loot.

The hacking difficulty is comparable to the difficulty of hacking a data or relic site in a system with the same security status. If you fail your hacking attempt, either all the containers in the site will explode immediately or just the container you were working on will explode (see also [[#Explosions|below]]), unlike with normal data sites. If just the single can explodes rather than all of them, you can continue hacking but the hidden timer is still running. Unlike regular data sites, when these cans explode, they do damage to your ship.

The site timer varies considerably; from around 30 seconds to a few minutes. It is random.

'''Other possible Hi-Sec Loot:'''

'''Other possible Low-Sec Loot:'''

'''Other possible Null-Sec Loot:'''

'''Other possible Wormhole Loot:'''

|In each high/low security site there is now a 5th container placed above and to the center of the 4 original ones, directly above the warp-in point. In lowsec it consistently drops 1x Electro-Neural Signaller and nothing else. In high-sec it is always empty. Furthermore, it does not get destroyed by rats and will remain after they leave. This makes it a viable and lucrative strategy, if exploring in a frigate, hack 1 or 2 of the other cans and then move at least 40km away. Wait until the the rats leave, and then come back and hack the top can. Keep in mind the can despawns when you leave the grid.  

After the timer expires (irrespective of how many containers you have hacked), rats (based on the local pirate population) will show up to destroy the cans and defend the site. Thirty seconds after the they warp in, the rats will instantly detonate every canister in the site, even those which have already been successfully hacked.

These rats have no bounties, nor any known drops, but they do a considerable amount of damage (based on the system's security status) that can reach 2000+ raw damage. Most of them do not use warp disruptors, although there is one type of each rat that will warp-disrupt you (confirmed in high sec, null sec & wormhole). As there is usually one of those warp-disrupting rats in any site, you're generally stuck there for the duration.

{| style="background-color: var(--background-color-error); border: 1px solid #333333;"

| style="padding: 8px;" | '''WARNING:''' DO NOT underestimate the damage from the NPCs. In high-tier sites they can shred even a well-tanked ship.  

These rats do warp out after some time, so they're generally not worth killing. If you don't warp off before you're warp-disrupted, your best hope is to be able to tank their damage (and the explosive damage from the cans).

If you can tank the explosive damage, you can use those extra seconds to continue hacking/looting a can. After the explosion the rats might hang around for another 30 seconds and shoot at you before warping out. But they will warp out when it's their time to do so, even if you're still at the site, and alive.

A recording of the CCP Dev Chat discussing these changes is available [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2IrNbH93Oc here].

Blitzing goal is to hack and run before the rats appears, while having enough tank to survive a can explosion.

It is recommended to prepare for the blitzing method as the face tank option suffers from horrible hacking performance and renders it useless in higher difficulty hacks. Face tanking in theory will have a lower player skill threshold while allowing one to learn about the site first hand.  

'''A regular cloaky frigate equipped with Mobile Depot!'''

* [[Heron Navy Issue]] as a low budget option

* Covert op Frigate (Primarily [[Buzzard]] and [[Helios]], while [[Cheetah]] and [[Anathema]] require rigs to work)

* [[Astero]] requires Explosive Shield Reinforcer or Core Defense Field Extender rigs to meet the requirement, and suffers from high price (Circa April 2025)

The whole idea of Blitzing is to hack as fast as you can and run when rats show up, while completely disregarding explosion threat. This is made possible using Explosive Shield Hardener and Medium Shield Extender combined. The cost of Pith-X Explosive Shield Hardener are very cheap due to shield high innate explosive resist, while Medium Shield Extender give the buffer needed to reach the required shield EHP to tank the highest explosion damage without burdening the ship slots and fitting resources.  

* Cloak (T1 for Heron, Covert Op Cloak for Cov Op ships) allows you to wait until the rats leave if you wish to. This is often done in Low Sec Ghost Sites as players often leave the middle can which will not explode for last.  

* Multispectrum Shield Hardener (for a 5 mid slot ships) Optional substitute for a second explosive hardener

* Damage Control (gives a blanket of resist buff) helps tanking explosion and rats.

[[Cheetah]], [[Anathema]], and [[Astero]] do not have enough slots or stats which makes them reliant to rigs to meet the standard (13000 explosive shield EHP). If your demand is lower you may skip adding rigs. The other ships do not suffer this issue.  

You want to have at least 13000 Explosive Shield EHP cold so you will have a little bit of buffer to escape the rats after tanking an explosion. This can be achieved by having at least two hardeners and one extender module, which will set your mid slots format as follow:

 

and low slots as follow:

 

** Others feel that because of the limited time before rats arrive, that it's not worth cargo scanning if you are using warp core stabilizers or anything that causes your targeting to take longer, as you do not want to waste precious time cherry-picking.

** One option is to cargo scan other cans while hacking the first one, to choose the best can do to next.

Armor-tanked ships are recommended over shield-tanked ships, as when the three mid-slot items listed above are installed, there is generally little room left to fit a good shield tank in the midslots. Only ships with many mid slots can mount the necessary shield tank. The [[Stratios]] or a Strategic Cruiser can be excellent for running Ghost Sites, but these ships are very expensive and make for juicy targets. The [[Gnosis]] is a good choice, as it is not that expensive, and has lots of slots for required modules and tank.

It might seem counter-intuitive to fit both a plate and a repairer, but remember that without decent buffer, the explosion might hurt you, while the repairer will keep you alive when the rats start shooting you. You might be fine with just the plate or the repairer in highsec, but when you move on to other parts of space, both will be needed (unless you have logistics). Having the repairer is also a cheap way to fix armor damage.

Note; You can comfortably tank the rats in a hi-sec Angel Cartel Ghost site with just a damage control and two explosive shield hardeners on a [[Gnosis]]. This leaves room for overdrive injectors/I-stabs in the lows and a cargo scanner, data analyzer, sensor booster, and MWD in the mids.

When warping into the site, spot the oddly named can and approach it as fast as possible. Target all four containers, and use the cargo scanner on them all as you approach. Usually one of the cans will have significantly more loot; approach that one to hack range.

Hack the can, quickly but not recklessly (you don't want to fail the hack).

Once you have hacked it, loot and get out as fast as possible. If you fail the first hack, consider abandoning the site as time is ticking and the NPCs are angry.

This tactic is viable with any of the other ships/fits described on this page too. Especially if you're worried about your tank; or worried about someone else warping in on you.

Depending on your skills as well as confidence, you may have time to hack more than one container before the rats spawn. As a general rule, you will not be able to hack all of the containers, but if you're very lucky with the hacks you might be able to pull two or three hacks off.

One final thing to remember is that a single hacking failure costs you your corvette/ untanked T1 explorer. If you are about to fail a hack, eject all of your cargo into space and [[bookmark]] it. That way, your cargo will not be affected by the destruction of your ship. Return later to pick up the loot after the site despawns.

You need 4 x Stratioses fitted with proper tank as described above, and covert ops cloaks.

With one of the gang in squad command, gang aligns to Ghost site making sure they're further than 2 km apart from each other and cloak up.

Squad warp the gang into the ghost site. Assess and assign each gang member to a can; they slowboat to their respective cans.