Combat sites
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 This article discusses combat sites found in known space. For combat sites found in wormholes, see Wormhole sites.
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Combat sites are one of two major types of player versus environment (PvE) combat activities that can be found in known space, the other being 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 mechanics: most sites have a (largely unknown) percentage-based chance to spawn a uniquely named enemy ship, which in turn has its own chance to drop random Deadspace or Faction modules, or even unique blueprint copies.
The enemies present in a given combat site can belong to one of six factions in New Eden: Serpentis, the Angel Cartel, the Blood Raider Covenant, the Guristas Pirates, Sansha's Nation, or the Rogue Drones, and most combat sites are named for the faction found within. Unlike missions, combat sites do not feature any enemy ships from any of the four empires, nor are there combat sites guarded by ORE or the Sisters of EVE. Hostile NPCs from the Mordu's Legion pirate faction only appear in the Besieged Covert Research Facility. All enemy ships within a combat site have bounties that are paid to the player who kills them, 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 higher bounties, and will also be harder to destroy.
Combat sites are usually found via exploration using Core Scanner Probes, and most fall into one of two broad categories: combat anomalies and cosmic signatures. Combat sites found as cosmic signatures 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 fulfils certain conditions in an Unrated Complex, and the associated sites can only be reached via the expedition's 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.
How to do combat sites
- Main article: Guide to combat sites
Running combat sites, is the act of entering and clearing the sites of hostile NPC ships (a.k.a. "rats").
Clearing these sites greatly benefit from having a PvE ship that can deal with the type of pirate ships you will face. Below you will find the combat sites divided up according to the pirate faction that you will find in these sites, so make sure your ship is equipped to handle them.
Combat anomalies
Combat anomalies are a subset of Cosmic Anomalies; they do not need any scanning equipment to locate, and instead will automatically appear in the scanning window after a short delay upon entering a system. Because of this, combat anomalies, particularly those found in high-security space, represent an entry-level set of combat sites that many new players will encounter. All anomalies consist of a single grid without acceleration gates that be entered by any type of ship. Combat anomalies will spawn multiple waves of hostile NPCs, and have a low chance to spawn a commander ship that can drop faction items; they 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 can appear anywhere). For example, the Heimatar region has Angel Cartel rats, and therefore only Angel Cartel and Rogue Drone combat sites can 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.
In addition to their basic version, Hideaway, Den, Rally Point and Hub sites also feature three variants of progressive difficulty featuring elite enemies. These variants follow an extended naming convention as follows:
- <Faction> Hidden <anomaly> - Level 2; higher amount of triggered spawns.
- <Faction> Forsaken <anomaly> - Level 3; moderate difficulty, featuring elite enemy ships.
- <Faction> Forlorn <anomaly> - Level 4; featuring tougher enemies and elite ships.
Besieged Covert Research Facility
- Main article: Besieged Covert Research Facility
Besieged Guristas Covert Research Facility is an unique cosmic anomaly found in all low sec regions that spawns two waves of Mordu's Legion cruisers and battleships equipped with webifiers and warp disruptors. Unlike other enemies, these ships are able to switch damage types to find what is most effective against a given target (they do not deal omni damage). Notable loot includes higher-end implants and ship skin BPCs, as well as special module BPCs.
Faction Warfare
- Main article: Faction Warfare
In faction warfare space, faction warfare complexes show up as combat anomalies. Once someone warps to a site, it will also show up as a beacon in the overview.
Cosmic signatures
Combat sites that appear as Cosmic Signatures must be scanned down using Core Scanner Probes. These combat sites can be further divided into three groups: unrated complexes, DED rated complexes, and Chemical Labs. The differences between the three are relatively minor, the most notable being that Chemical Labs require the use of Data Analyzer modules to obtain all of their rewards.
Unrated complexes
Unrated complexes have a good chance to contain a commander spawn that can drop Faction items. They 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, in which case some condition must be fulfilled, or a key must be found to proceed. The sites also have triggers for additional defender spawns and/ or an escalation. The size of ship allowed in Unrated Complexes does not follow a predictable pattern; each site, even of the same difficulty but from a different faction, may have a different ship size limit.
DED rated complexes
DED complexes are a type of cosmic signature that has been rated on a difficulty scale of 1/10 to 10/10 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 are received as an escalation from a combat anomaly. There are no 9/10-rated DED complexes, however some consider the <Faction> Fleet Staging Point to be their equivalent.
The structure of a DED rated complex is very similar an Unrated Complex, and usually involve gated deadspace pockets with multiple groups of enemies.
Unlike other combat sites, DED rated complexes do not have additional enemy spawns; all enemies begin 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 enemies need to be cleared to proceed. The sites also always contain one or more structures or overseer ships that can drop Faction items or Deadspace modules. Some DED complexes contain additional targets that have a low probability to drop a Faction module.
DED rated complexes do not normally escalate, but DED rated complexes that are received as an escalation from an anomaly may receive another escalation to the same site or a second part.
The difficulty rating of a complex determines maximum size of ship class that may be used to engage. Starting from frigates at level 1/10, the ship size that can enter a site goes up by one size category with each increase in rating, maxing out at battleships at level 5/10.
| DED Rating | Maximum Ship Class Size Allowed |
|---|---|
| 1/10 | Frigate class |
| 2/10 | Destroyer class (including Tactical Destroyer) |
| 3/10 | Cruiser class (except for T3) |
| 4/10 | Battlecruiser class (except for T3 Cruiser) |
| 5-9/10 | Battleship class and T3 Cruiser |
| 10/10 | Super carrier (no dread, no titan, varies by site) |
Chemical Labs
Chemical Labs are Cosmic Signatures, and may be found by scanning with Core Scanner Probes. Even though the probe scan window categorizes these as "gas sites", they are actually combat sites. To access all possible rewards the containers hacked using a Data Analyzer module. You will also need to take care of the hostiles unless you can tank them all while hacking.
The Production Facility and digital sites spawns in null security space only, while all other sites spawn in low security space.
Details of these sites are not well documented. Most contain two waves of enemies and containers that need to be hacked, and the sites are restricted to specific regions, though 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.
Expeditions
Expeditions (also known as escalations) cannot be found by scanning, instead they "escalate" from Unrated Complexes. When a certain trigger condition is met, there is a small chance (about 5%) 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 can then be found in The Agency, available from the NeoCom panel.
When the site listed in the Journal is completed, there is a chance that it will escalate further, leading to yet another site. Most expeditions have four such parts.
The locations of the sites provided by an expedition are random, often appearing several jumps away from where the expedition was obtained. Many expeditions may spawn their fourth site in lower-security space than where they began.
COSMOS sites
- 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. COSMOS sites can be located using the Star Map and the "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.
COSMOS sites are static and do not move. Even the ones that can be scanned are always in the same location.
The static COSMOS sites re-spawn periodically (some only at downtime). 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 follow the same ship size restrictions as DED rated complex sites. Un-gated COSMOS sites have no restrictions.
COSMOS sites can be found in COSMOS areas:
- Minmatar COSMOS
- Gallente COSMOS
- Amarr COSMOS
- Caldari COSMOS
- Serpentis COSMOS
- Blood Raider COSMOS
- Angel COSMOS
- Guristas COSMOS
