As someone who has lived in wormholes back quite many years ago. It’s only natural that I get that itch from time to time. It was time to head back into a few of them and see what kind of trouble I could get myself into.
I’d be flying my trusty Anathema again. It’s my go-to for exploration sites. While it lacks much of any offensive capabilities. This thing can get me through some tight situations. It’s also cheap enough to replace if I get killed, I more than likely already looted enough stuff before making up for it.
Like always, before heading into more dangerous spaces, even more so wormholes. I went and clone jumped my implants out to keep them safe. As wormholes don’t show you who is in local unless someone talks in chat. You never know who or what might be trying to kill you that you did not notice on Dscan.
While I'm still a bit rusty when it comes to Wormholes and exploration sites. There is no better way than just jumping right back in. This time, I'd go around high sec scanning around 10 different systems in a loop. Looking for any wormholes to jump into. While most would lead to wormhole space, that is not always the case.
Screenshot from Wanderer
Just like before, I'd be using Wanderer to track wormhole connections, branches, and signatures in them. The nice thing is that I give access to see it in real time. Making it easy to coordinate if needed.
This time around, I wanted to get myself into the habit of using the signatures section to make notes, log connections, and save myself time finding any new site that might have spawned from the last time I checked in on a wormhole.
I ended up finding some rather odd things this time around. Such as some wormholes having more than one high sec point into them. Along with a connection that would take me a couple of systems out from where I started.
Since I'm in an Anathema, I'm mostly looking for class 1 to 4 wormholes. With a preference for class 2 and 3. Class 1 tends to be an endless pit of wormholes without much else going on in them since everyone has already been there. Class 4’s while they can have one of the sites I'm looking for, such as Ruined relic sites. Chances are, it’s mostly just going to be Forgotten or Unsecured hacking sites.
The first wormhole I found was J144426, and it happened to be a Class 2 with a Class 4 and high sec static. This place was also loaded with signatures. This can either be a good sign or a bad sign. Usually, when you see this many sites up in a class 2, you could end up making a lot of ISK.
After making a bookmark for the exit. I launched some probes and warped around the system a little bit to create myself another bookmark to park in while cloaked. I then started to probe down all the signatures to see what I got.
All the data and relic sites that I found were the sleeper sites that I'd not be running in an Anathema. I was a little disappointed by that. There were also some gas sites. While I don’t plan on running any of those types of sites, I fully scanned them down anyway.
I was left with a couple of unknown wormholes. One would lead me into the static Class 4, another into null sec, and a final one into another Class 2. After popping into the first two quickly. I then went after what I really wanted in the other class 2.
My eyes lit up like Christmas came early. J111141 had 31 signatures in it. Now, this I thought was going to be amazing. After scanning down most of the system. I started to jump into some of the exploration sites I found.
To many great disappointments. Every single relic or data site that I could run that was up had been cherry-picked. Someone had already been there before me. They scanned the cargo of each of the cans and just took the best of the best. Leaving the rest so the site would remain up, slowing down anyone else.
Personally, I hate cherry picking. I don’t even have a scanner on me to check what's in each can. I just have fun hacking my way through the mini game. I did check a couple of the cans, and since they each had under 1 million ISK in loot. It became clear that that was all the person was after.
While there were four other wormholes in there. I had a feeling that this one was already picked clean of anything worth looting. The others around had been as well. On top of that, there were quite a few stations set up in the system anyway. So, I felt it was time to move on.
For the fun of it, I did poke into the class 4 wormhole. As suspected, it was mostly gas and sites I could not run. I, however, just find it fun exploring around. Even when I'm not getting a lot of loot.
The nice thing about not living in any of the wormholes. I can just pop right back out to high sec and go to another system looking for further wormholes. I don’t need to worry about trying to find my way back to a certain wormhole. At this point, I was just hoping the cherry-picking culprit was living in one of the wormholes I had just in and not a bit more local. This is not usually an issue I run into where I am in high sec.
Next up, I found J223026. It ended up having two high sec connections open at the time. It ended up leading into another Class 1 that then went into a Class 2. The second class 1 had ten wormholes in it. Thus, the reason I'm not a big fan of class 1 wormholes. While they only allow certain-sized ships, they tend to just be a mess.
I then found in the class two some sites to run. It ended up being Angel loot, so I was not expecting anything that great. I cleared out the sites I found. They were all quite low cans. I only collect around 7 million ISK in loot. Rather disappointing.
While it was tempting to want to keep going deeper down the wormhole chain. I was already 3 jumps out from getting back to the high sec I entered from. I decided to pop back out to high sec and see if I could find anything else better. If not, I'd return to the mess of wormholes in class 1. I, however, had a feeling many would just lead to other class 1 wormholes. I also knew some of them had a high sec static, which I was not looking to have either.
In one of the high-sec systems I passed by, I noticed a fresh wormhole it. I jumped into it. Then I got a little confused. There was already a bookmark for an exit. I thought perhaps this was a wormhole I had not been in for quite some time. Turns out that was not the case. I was back in J150818. I had already been in hours beforehand. There were no new signatures, so I moved on.
To my shock, one high sec system ended up having three wormhole connects in it. One of them led to low-sec space. Since the system was empty, I decided to go for it.
Low is known for having quite a few strange relics and data sites. All the ones that were up were types I have no idea how to run. While they all don’t involve combat. The wrong move in them gets you killed. So, I decided today was not the day to learn anything the hard way.
I then found myself doing a fair bit of scanning in the last wormhole chain I'd go into for a while. I ended up finding another low sec connection. This one had some active people in it, so I went right back into wormhole space. There was also a null sec connection that was empty and had no sites to run either.
I then found another class four. This one is however not like most. It had a red giant effect on the system itself. Giving quite a lot of damage bonus to bombs and other things that could kill me. I was also not shocked to find some structures were set up in here. I could see a decent-sized corporation having fun in a place like this.
Since there was not much to scan down anyway. Along with the special effect, this place had. I turned right around and jumped out after creating an exit bookmark. Just in case I decide to come back here later. I, however, would not.
I then checked out another wormhole in that chain, and it ended up being a class three. Despite there being some structures up in the wormhole. There were a few sites to run as well. It did not look like anyone was home, so I helped myself.
I was not expecting a lot of loot from the types of sites that were in here. I, however, cleared 40 million ISK worth. It was at least something, and at this point, I was getting tired of getting nothing.
After a short break, I decided to go back and check in on some wormholes I had already done most of the work of scanning everything down in them. Some new sites had spawned, and I got a little loot. On one return trip after dropping off some loot, I found my biggest can for the day, around 25 million.
It also had a Capital tech II rig blueprint copy. Not knowing much about capital stuff, other than some of the materials can fetch a lot of ISK. I was hoping I just hit something big. I went to look up the profit on it, and it was only 1 million ISK.
After going through my loop once more. Not finding anything else that great. It was time to take a little break from wormholes again. While I could have done other things to earn more ISK per hour. It was a nice break from the normal grind. I also was a bit unlucky in finding sites that were still up and ready for the taking.
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Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Eve Online.
