Cosmic Anomalies
Cosmic Anomalies (not to be confused with Cosmic Signatures) are exploration PvE sites that can be found throughout known space in EVE. They are found using the system scanner, and require no skills to locate (unlike Cosmic Signatures, which require probes and probing skills). There are several types of Cosmic Anomalies:
- Combat Sites contain multiple NPC rats to be killed with a combat ship. They come in a variety of difficulties depending on the security level of the space where they are found.
- Ore sites contain asteroids to be mined for minerals or ice products.
- Ghost Sites (also known as "Covert Research Facilities") contain several data/relic cans to hack, that explode if the explorer fails the hack. Also, an invisible timer starts on warp-in, and once it is up, indestructible NPC rats will warp in, cause all cans to explode and shoot at the explorer for a while. Tanked ships or "egg-thief" (hacking only one can quickly, then leaving) tactics are recommended. Either analyzer (and its relevant skill) may be used for the hack.
- Contested Covert Research Facilities may be found in high- or low-sec[1] and are very similar to the regular Covert Research Facilities (Ghost Sites). They contain 1 data/relic can, called a Guristas Transponder tower, that explodes if the hacking/archaeology attempt fails. Just like Ghost Sites, there is also a hidden timer (45-60s) after which the tower explodes.
- Besieged Covert Research Facilities, which are found only in low-sec[1], are closer to combat sites, containing multiple cruiser- and battleship-class NPC rats to be killed with a combat ship. In addition, they may also contain destructible structures with loot: Guristas Research and trade Hubs and/or Thukker Labs.
Note that this article only deals with the cosmic anomalies found in known space; wormhole space has its own sites which follow their own naming conventions etc.
How to Find Cosmic Anomalies
Cosmic Anomalies can be found by using your onboard scanner.
To find these sites, you simply jump into a system, check the onboard scanner and warp to any results. Cosmic Anomalies appear within a 4 AU range around planets. Open your onboard Probe Scanner by pressing ALT+P, and results will update automatically. When you have found an anomaly, warp there or create a bookmark of its position. Once an Anomaly has been completed, it will disappear after some time.
On occasion you may need to 'jiggle the wires' of your onboard scanner by de-selecting and re-selecting the show all check box to encourage them to appear.
Difficulty and Classification
Combat sites
Combat site anomalies are ranked in difficulty by 10 levels/classes, and follow a naming scheme of (faction) (anomaly).
The rank of the anomaly depends on the security status of the system you are searching in. Within high-sec (security status 1.0 to 0.5) the lowest third (in terms of difficulty/value) will be found. Low-sec (security status of 0.4 to 0.1) contains the mid third of them and the highest third will be found within nullsec. The anomaly names are identical for all factions with the exception of Rogue Drone sites, which also differ slightly in which classes of space they are found in.
Some anomaly types may have more difficult variants in addition to the basic version, sub-divided into 3 more categories:
- (Faction) Hidden (anomaly) - easiest, but still harder than the basic version
- (Faction) Forsaken (anomaly) - middle
- (Faction) Forlorn (anomaly) - hardest
