Combat sites
- This article discusses combat sites found in known space. For combat sites found in wormholes, see Wormhole sites.
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A Combat site is one of two major type of player versus environment (PvE) combat activity that can be found in known space, the other being the security missions. Combat sites can be found throughout New Eden, and like missions, the type and amount of enemy ships found in a particular combat site is consistent across all instances of the site, with only a small, pre-determined amount of variance. The rewards for completing a given site can also vary due to the nature of rare loot probability mechanics: most sites have a [largely unknown] percentage based probability to spawn a uniquely named enemy ship, which in turn will drop random Deadspace or Faction modules, or even unique Blueprint copies.
The hostiles present in a given combat site will belong to one of the six Pirate Factions of New Eden: namely the Serpentis, the Angel Cartel, the Blood Raider Covenant, the Guristas Pirates, the Sansha's Nation, or the Rogue Drones, and most combat sites are named with the Faction found within. Unlike missions, combat sites do not feature any Hostiles from one of the four Empire Factions, nor are there combat sites guarded by ORE or the Sisters of EVE, while hostile NPCs from the Mordu's Legion Pirate Faction only appear in the Besieged Covert Research Facility. All hostile ships within a combat site have a bounty that is paid to the player who kills these, and if that player is part of a fleet, the bounty is divided evenly among all fleet members on grid. As a general rule, bigger ships (such as Battlecruisers and Battleships) or uniquely named ships (such as those belonging to Pirate Leaders or Complex Overseers) will award a higher bounty, and will also be harder to destroy.
Combat sites are usually found via exploration, and most fall into one of two broad categories: combat anomalies and cosmic signatures. Combat sites found as cosmic signatures using Core Scanner Probes, may be further divided into DED rated complexes, unrated complexes, and chemical labs. In general, cosmic signature combat sites are considered to be both more dangerous and more rewarding than combat anomalies found in similar areas of space. Expeditions and COSMOS sites are unique combat sites that do not fall into any of the above categories. Expeditions are unique chains of combat sites that may be triggered when a player fulfills certain conditions in an Unrated Complex, with coordinates displayed by an associated journal entry. COSMOS sites are static combat sites that can be found in several constellations across New Eden, and are marked by beacons that are automatically visible on the overview. These sites reward items required for COSMOS missions, materials for Storyline modules, Faction modules, and other rare items, but can be entered at any time.
The lingo term "ratting" is usually used to define the process of finding and completing combat sites. As a profession, ratting can be a very profitable activity, as it provides remuneration in the form of bounty, loot and salvaged goods. Although there are several ship classes designed for this purpose (such as Marauders), almost any combat ship using the proper equipment can be used to complete combat sites. For example, Carriers and Supercarriers are very popular ratting ships, despite not being originally designed for this particular purpose.
Combat Anomaly
A Combat Anomaly is a subset of the Cosmic Anomaly category, which appear in the scanning window without the need of Core Scanner Probes. As such, particularly those found in high-security space, represents an entry-level set of combat sites that many new players will encounter. All anomalies consist of a single grid pocket without acceleration gates, which may be accessed by any ship class. Combat anomalies feature multiple spawns of hostile NPCs, and have a low possibility to spawn a Commander ship that may drop Faction items; these also have a small chance of escalating into a DED rated complex.
With the exception of Rogue Drone sites, all combat anomalies follow a naming scheme of (Faction) (anomaly). The (anomaly) denotes the difficulty of the site, and follows an identical pattern for all Factions except Rogue Drones. Generally, the higher the difficulty of the site, the higher the rewards for completing it. Each Faction's sites will only appear in their designated regions (with the exception of Rogue Drone sites, which will appear anywhere). For example, the Heimatar region has Angel Cartel rats, and therefore only Angel Cartel and Rogue Drone combat sites will be found there. For a list of which pirate Factions can be found in which regions, see Dotlan.
The difficulty of possible combat anomalies depends on the security status of the system, with higher security status equating to easier sites. Within high-sec (security status 1.0 to 0.5), sites in the lowest difficulty tier (in terms of difficulty/ value) will be found. Low-sec (security status of 0.4 to 0.1) contains the middle tier, and the highest tier will be found within nullsec. The security level of the space where Rogue Drone sites are found also affects the difficulty of the site.
Hideaway, Den, Rally Point and Hub sites also feature three progressing difficulty variants (featuring elite rats) [in addition to the basic version], as follow:
- (Faction) Hidden (anomaly) - Level 2 higher amount of triggered spawns
- (Faction) Forsaken (anomaly) - Level 3; moderate difficulty, featuring Elite Hostile Ships
- (Faction) Forlorn (anomaly) - Level 4; featuring tougher Hostiles and Elite Ships
Besieged Covert Research Facility
Besieged Guristas Covert Research Facility is an unique cosmic anomaly that is found in all low sec regions. The site has two waves of Mordu's Legion Cruiser and Battleship rats that uses missiles and will use switch damage types to test a player's ship resists to find the weakest one, in addition to webifiers and points. Notable loot, some of it coming from the destructible structures (Guristas Research and Trade Hubs and/ or Thukker Labs) which may be found in these sites, includes higher-end implants and ship skin BPCs, as well as some special module BPCs.
Faction Warfare
- Main article: Faction Warfare: Complexes
In Faction warfare space the Faction Warfare Complexes show up as combat anomalies. Once someone warps to the site it will also show up as a beacon in the overview.
Cosmic Signature
A Cosmic Signature is a faint cosmic disturbance that must be scanned down using Core Scanner Probes to 100% to permit access. The combat site category can be further divided into two groups: Unrated Complex and DED Rated Complex. The difference between the two is minor.
Unrated Complex
Unrated Complex have a good chance to contain a Commander spawn that can drop Faction items. These may also escalate into an expedition.
The sites contain multiple deadspace rooms separated by acceleration gates. The acceleration gates separating the rooms are usually locked and a trigger must be met or a key found to proceed. The sites also have triggers for additional defender spawns and/ or an escalation. The size of the ship allowed in Unrated Complexes does not follow a predictable pattern, each site, even of the same size but from a different Faction, may have a different ship size limit. For details and ship size limits see the page about each individual site.
DED Rated Complex
A DED Rated Complex is a type of cosmic signature that has been rated on a scale of 1 to 10 by CONCORD's Directive Enforcement Department. Lower rated sites contain weaker enemies, and limited ship class access. DED rated complexes are found using Core Scanner Probes or received as an escalation from a combat anomaly. There isn't any 9/10 rated DED Complex, however some consider the (Faction) Fleet Staging Point to be the equivalent.
The structure of a DED rated complex is very similar to the Unrated Complex. Gated deadspace pockets featuring hostiles to clear.
The difference is that a DED rated complex does not trigger additional spawns; all defending rats are on grid in each pocket. Many DED rated complexes also contain locked gates that may be unlocked by a certain trigger. This makes blitzing possible as not all rats need to be cleared to proceed. The sites also always contains one or more structure or Overseer ship that can drop Faction items or Deadspace modules. Some DED complexes contain additional targets that have a low probability to drop a Faction module.
Unlike unrated complexes, DED rated complexes do not normally escalate. Although DED rated complexes that are received as an escalation from an anomaly may receive another escalation to the same site or a second part.
DED Rated Complexes each have a difficulty rating associated with them on a ranking scale from 1 to 10. The rating can help to give a relative indication of the difficulty of the site, as well as the maximum size of ship class that may be used to engage. In general the ship hull class that can enter the site goes up by one level (starting with Frigate up to Battleship), as the rating level, up to 5/10.
| Rating | Maximum Ship Size Allowed |
|---|---|
| 1/10 | Frigate |
| 2/10 | Destroyer |
| 3/10 | Cruiser (Not including T3) |
| 4/10 | Battlecruiser (Not T3 Cruiser) |
| 5+/10 | Battleship |
Expedition
An Expedition (also known as Escalation) cannot be found by scanning, instead it is received from an Unrated Complex. When a certain trigger is destroyed, there is a relatively small probability that a pop up window will open explaining that the details of the location of another enemy site has been found. This site's information is then added to the journal under the Expeditions tab.
When the site listed in the journal is finished, there is a chance that it will escalate further, leading to yet another site. Most expeditions have up to 4 parts.
The expedition's location is random (sometimes several jumps from the original site) and may often lead to lower security space.
Chemical Lab
A Chemical Lab may be found by scanning with Core Scanner Probes. Even though the probe scan window categorizes these as gas sites these are actually combat sites. In order to get access to the rewards the site needs to be cleared of all hostiles and the containers hacked using a Data Analyzer module.
The Production Facility spawns in null security space only and all other sites spawn in low security space.
Details of these sites are not well documented. Most will likely contain two waves of enemies and containers that need to be hacked. The sites are restricted to specific regions. The region in which each site spawns is not entirely known. The regions listed here may not be the only region containing the particular site.
COSMOS Site
- Main article: COSMOS
Certain constellations contain COSMOS combat sites, which are connected to COSMOS missions but may be accessed at any time. These sites appear as a static complex beacon that is visible in the Overview and may be accessed readily. These may be located by using the Star Map with a "DED deadspace reports" or combat signatures tag setting. Not all static DED sites are combat sites, some of them are landmarks or Epic Mission Agent locations.
These complexes are all static and never move. Even the ones that can be scanned are always in the same location.
The static COSMOS sites re-spawn periodically (some only at down-time). These offer reward items, which may be required for COSMOS missions and/ or be materials used in building Storyline modules, Faction modules and/ or rare items.[1]
Gated COSMOS sites follows the same ship size restrictions as DED rated complex sites. Un-gated COSMOS sites have no restrictions.
COSMOS sites can be found in COSMOS constellations Ani (Minmatar COSMOS), Araz (Amarr COSMOS), Okkelen (Caldari COSMOS), Algintal (Gallente COSMOS), Pegasus (Fountain), Assilot (Cloud Ring), I-3ODK (Feythabolis), 760-9C (Wicked Creek), OK-FEM (Delve), 9HXQ-G (Catch), 09-4XW (Tenal) and E-8CSQ (Vale of the Silent). See the main page for a full list of known COSMOS sites.
See Also
Reference
- ^ Rakogh Citadel in 3GD6-8 drops Pashan’s Turret Handling Mindlink http://gamingwithdaopa.ellatha.com/eveonline/pashans-turret-mindlink-drops/
