Editing The Explorer's Handbook (section)

== Overview of Exploration ==

Exploration in EVE is a multi-faceted endeavor. Whether your interests lie with the sheer thrill of discovery; seeking out forgotten sites and retrieving long lost relics and secret data caches; finding and mining rare and valuable resources; or battling with strange and deadly foes in the night between the stars - you can find it in exploration.

=== The Basic Loop === 

That's all well and good you say, but what is the minute to minute experience of exploration?  The basic gameplay loop when you're exploring looks like the following:

#Ensure your safety through smart habits.  
#Navigate to a system to explore in.  
#Locate Signatures and/or Landmarks. This is primarily done via scanning probes, but also can be done via Bookmarks.  
#Interact with your chosen Signature/Landmark. This may include hacking, gas huffing, combat or simply enjoying the view.  
#Collect the reward (and eventually sell it). 

A player can start their exploration career on their very first day. Exploration is an activity that grows with you.  As you get more skilled, as you get more resources and experience, you will find your horizons expanding in new, more dangerous, and potentially more profitable ways.

EVE provides a wealth of diverse geography, locations, landmarks, and loot for you to find.  Combined with the unique navigation and Player vs. Player elements inherent in both normal space (K-Space) and wormhole space (J-Space) this basic loop provides an incredible amount of depth.

Additionally, exploration is a uniquely personal activity in New Eden. You do not have to be in a small gang or a large fleet to get things done and be effective. While there are times where you may be venturing out into the unknown with friends, much of the time you simply do your own thing with all the freedom and peril that entails.  

=== Sites ===

There are five kinds of exploration sites one might encounter while participating in exploration activities, these being mining sites, gas sites, combat sites, relic sites, and data sites. Mining and combat sites will often appear as anomalies without having to scan them down with a core probe launcher, and work very much like mining and combat anomalies in other aspects of the game. Gas sites operate like mining anomalies, save for that instead of ore or ice to mine, they have gas deposits that one can collect with gas scoops or gas harvesters. 

Relic and data sites are unique in that they require specialized analyzers fitted to your ship in order to interact with them. Both of them contain different cannisters one must access with the relevant analyzer module, which opens the hacking minigame. Once the minigame is complete, one can open the cannister to take the contents, which may be anything from an empty cache to tens of millions of ISK worth of scavenged materials.

The sixth 'site' you may encounter, wormholes, are not really a site at all, but more akin to a doorway. They can lead anywhere, from high sec space, to null sec, to the unknown depths of wormhole space. Be careful with these, they won't automatically be marked on your scanner on the other side, so we recommend bookmarking your exits so you can get back if need be.