New Member Orientation Guide

by Mathis Chanlin & Mynxee

Revision 1.4.7

eve-scout.com
Foreword and Introduction

Welcome to Signal Cartel! This guide will help you to get familiar with life in our little corner of
New Eden and make your start a little easier. This guide assumes that you are a not only new
to Signal Cartel but new to EVE in general. More experienced players can skim over quite a bit
of the information presented below.

There is a ton of information on ​our forums​ and you are highly encouraged to pay it a visit every
now and then to stay on top of what is happening in your corporation.

This guide does not intend to replace the information on the forum or anywhere else. Instead, it
aims to be the central referendum and quickstart guide to corp life.

Aside from this guide, you probably want to bookmark t​ he Directory of Important Information​ on
our forum as a common source for further reading.
Foreword and Introduction

Players New to EVE

Opportunities
Career Agents
The Sisters of EVE Epic Arc

General Topics for New Members

Important topics before you undock
Reputation: Our most valued asset
Beware the wardecs!
Leadership's stance about wars

Get started in Signal Cartel corporation life

Making a new home
Our Headquarters: Thera
Welcome packages
Voice Comms: Mumble
Social chatter: Discord

Corporation Services
Free T1 exploration frigates
Corporation Hangars
Loot buyback program
Why use the loot buyback
How to use the loot buyback program
A few considerations
Special Buyback in Stain

Things to Do With Corp Members

Thera wormhole mapping
EvE-Scout Rescue Caches
Anoikis Search and Rescue
The Anoikis Division: Life in a Wormhole!
Space Photography: Our Observatory
Fleets!
Various training fleets
Hugfleets
YOLOfleets
Twitch Stream sniping
Surprise Party Hugs Fleets
 Out-of-corp fleets of interest
Vulfpeck Fleets
Arataka Research Consortium Ops

Exploration Skill Training Plan

Phase I: Tier 1 exploration in nullsec
Phase II: Good ships that are still cheap
Phase IIIa: (Almost) stop dying in nullsec
Phase IIIb: Wormholes & Party Hugs
Phase IV: Self-study
Drones
Engineering
Navigation
Rigging
Targeting
Trade
Final words about skill training

A suggestion how to get started with exploration

Learning the ropes
Going to nullsec
Wormholes

Conclusion
Players New to EVE
If this is your first time in EVE, you have a lot to learn. You will have a million questions about
the simplest things. Don’t be shy, we all had them. Ask us anything in the Alliance chat! There is
always someone who is more than happy to help you out.

Below are some options that will help you with your initial steps. It is not so much focused on
what you can do in EVE and what Signal Cartel can help you with, but the very basics of
navigating the interface of the game. None of the options below are something you h ​ ave to do.
If you want to do something else and you know how, by all means, do it! It is totally feasible to
skip everything below and instead go straight to one of our offices, make it your home and get
exploring on day one.

Opportunities
I recommend using the Opportunities system to be introduced to how the game interface works.
There is no need to aim to complete all of the opportunities. Just do the ones that interest you.

Career Agents
After you have some practice with the Opportunities, you could find nearby Career Agents, and
do the missions they offer you.

While few regard the Career Agents as the single best learning tool in existence, the missions
they offer will teach you how the interface works and how to “do things” such as how to put
modules onto a ship and use them, how to buy items on the market and so on. Besides that, the
Career Agents yield a decent amount of money for a new player and free ships & skill books to
boot. While not essential, those can be convenient.

The Sisters of EVE Epic Arc

The Sisters of EVE (SOE) epic arc is a set of missions all over highsec. The intent is to
familiarize you with the lore of the four major races and their conflicts. If backstory interests you,
this might be worth your while. As with all missions, you will get paid for doing them.

The SOE epic arc starts in the solar system of Arnon. Dock up at the station at Arnon IX - Moon
3 and talk to the agent named Sister Alitura to get started.

Signal Cartel is often on the receiving end of war declarations in highsec. For more
information on the ramifications for you, see t​ he relevant chapter​ below. ​We cannot
recommend that new players attempt the Sisters of EVE Epic Arc during wartime due to the
dangers presented by war deccers to you.
General Topics for New Members
Whether you’ve just completed your first few Career Agent missions or you’re an experienced
player who has just joined us, here are a few options how to get started and a few important
topics for your time in Signal Cartel.

Important topics before you undock

Reputation: Our most valued asset

Whatever you do in New Eden, be aware that we regard our reputation as a friendly and neutral
service corporation to be our most valued asset.

Make sure you understand what ​the Credo​ means between the lines and how o ​ ur goal is to look
for a graceful resolution [in challenging situations] and set an example of dignity and friendship
through our actions.

While the Credo forbids you to initiate aggression, you are absolutely allowed to defend yourself
and destroy an aggressors ship. But be aware that if you destroy someone’s ship, you are
required to report that kill​ to our CEO and SpaceMom, Mynxee, within 48 hours. If you shoot at
someone in self-defense but don’t destroy their ship, it’s highly recommended that you check
the killboard over the next few minutes to see if someone else killed that pilot. This is because
EVE lists everyone who aggresses a pilot within a few minutes’ window in the same system on a
killmail. People are sometimes surprised to find themselves on killmails in these cases but it
happens more often that you’d think.

Beware the wardecs!

​ n active war
Mercenary corporations issue war decs against Signal Cartel almost perpetually. A
means that you are a legal target in high security space (“highsec”) for any
corps/alliances who have decced us. The “space police”, CONCORD, will not punish
them for aggressing us or destroying our ships or pods.

The MOTD in Alliance chat always has up to date information about ongoing wars. Also, here is
an animated gif​ how to get some more details on current wars. Your recruiter should have
informed you about the current war status. When in doubt, ask in Alliance chat.

Leadership's stance about wars

Leadership is mainly indifferent to wars. While we do what we can to make new players aware
of the situation and give them the help they need to avoid losing ships and pods during wars, in
the end we don’t care much what members do with that awareness.
Truth is, Signal Cartel is an exploration corp. T​ here is very little reason for explorers to be in
high security space. Virtually all the exciting content for an explorer is in lowsec, nullsec or in
wormholes. Wars don’t matter there; the locals will shoot you, war or not. We have no issues
with our members doing anything in highsec, but we have limited sympathy when those
members die to wardeccers.

You may wonder why we don’t organize a response to war deccers. We do...they are called
Hugs Fleets, which involve engaging war deccers in harmless fun and silliness with snowballs
and fireworks. We do things differently around here :)
Get started in Signal Cartel corporation life

Making a new home

Signal Cartel has two offices in highsec. You might want to consider moving to one of them and
making it your home.

- Solar System: ​Zoohen

Station: Zoohen III - Theology Council Tribunal

- Solar System: ​Gelhan

Station: Gelhan V - Moon 10 - DED Logistics Support

Both stations offer roughly the same services. You can simply pick the one that is closer to
where you are right now. Once in station, find the icon for the Clone Bay in the station interface
on the right of your screen. It looks like this:

After you click on it, a new window will pop up. On top of that window you can change your
home station. Just click on the “Change Station” button on the top right and you’re done. Now,
whenever you die, you will respawn in that station.

You can find an up to date list of our quartermasters in t​ he who-does-what list​ online.

Our Headquarters: Thera

Signal Cartel’s main office is not in highsec. Our headquarters is in Thera, which is a unique
wormhole system in EVE. It is the only wormhole with NPC stations. It is also the largest system
in EVE, being over 360 AU across!

Thera XII - The Sanctuary Institute of Paleocybernetics is where our headquarters is.
Our member Trnt is the Quartermaster there.

It must be noted that wormhole space is among the most dangerous space in EVE. Thera is
even more dangerous because of the stations and certain entrance wormholes are often
actively “camped” by a few resident PVP corps (collectively called the Therabois). They are
typically very skilled players, so you have to be extra clever to escape getting caught by them
(there are a few tricks your corpmates can teach you).
Is Thera for you? Well, if you’re brand new to the game, maybe. But! It is totally possible to be
very safe in Thera, even after just a few days’ experience in the game. I always recommend
paying Thera a visit at least once and leave a jump clone in our HQ, since some of our fleets
base from there. (Don’t know what a jump clone is? Ask in Alliance or r​ ead this​!)

With people actively hunting us, and stations being camped you might ask yourself: “What’s the
point? Why go to Thera at all?”. I’m glad you asked!

Thera has outgoing wormhole connections to virtually every part of New Eden at all times. You
can probably expect ten to twenty connections. So for an explorer, it is the ideal travel hub.
Thera is not recommended as a place to “live and work” in per se but many of our members
consider it the ideal starting point for their exploration roams.

Welcome packages
Our member Triffton Ambraelle generously organizes a Welcome Package program for Alphas
and new players. Welcome Packages contain useful skillbooks and 2 T1 fitted exploration
frigates to get you started. These are available subject to Triffton’s availability to keep them
stocked on corp contracts.

Free T1 fitted exploration frigates, commonly used modules, probes, and much else is also
available...see the Corporate Services section below.

Voice Comms: Mumble

We use the open source Mumble voice communication software to talk to each other. While on
an average day the mumble server won’t see many people logged in, most if not all fleets make
use of Mumble. You are not required to have a microphone for most situations; being able to
listen is enough.

You can download Mumble for free ​on the official website​. After you’ve configured it and set
your microphone to push-to-talk, add a new Mumble server to your favorites.

The settings are:

Label: Signal Cartel

Address: mumble.eve-scout.com
Port: 64738
Username: Use your Signal Cartel character name
Social chatter: Discord
We also have a Discord service running. While it is not used for fleets, it is a comfortable place
for chat with corp mates and friends of Signal Cartel -- especially when you’re out of game. You
can join the Discord chat by clicking on this link: J​ OIN ME

Also, you can download standalone Discord clients for your computer and your mobile phone on
their official website​.
Corporation Services
EVE is hard. Playing EVE alone is even harder. In Signal Cartel we have a range of services on
offer for all our members.

Free T1 exploration frigates

Our offices will have Tier 1 exploration frigates (fitted with probe launchers and data/relic
analyzers) on contract for free. If you don’t see what you need listed in corp contracts, contact
your ​Quartermaster​ and he’ll see to it. These frigates are aimed at new players without the
means to buy their own or more seasoned players who find themselves in a pinch.

Feel free to take one when you need it. Don’t hoard them, take one at a time.

New players: You will almost surely die a lot of times before you get the hang of things. Don’t
feel bad if you end up taking a few more ships over the first days and weeks. The ships are
there to be used and to help you get over the worry of losing a ship. We all lose ships; by using
the corp’s free frigates, we hope you’ll find your ship losses a little less painful.

Corporation Hangars
The corporation hangars in our offices contain some items accessible to all but our newest
members. After 30 days, you can request membership level C1 which entitles you to view
what’s in some of the corp hangars. After 60 days in corp, you can request member level C2
which entitles you to take view and take items from the Corp’s Shared Hangar in our office
stations.

Skillbooks, modules, fireworks … take a peek and see if that thing you need for your ship is
available there before heading off to buy it. Prior to earning C1 membership level, you will have
to ask a corpmate who can to look in the Shared Hangar for you and fetch the item you need.

Loot buyback program

Our offices are drop-off points for our loot buyback program, which buys your exploration loot en
masse so you don’t have to sell it yourself. We accept pretty much every kind of loot, even
blueprints. Submitted buyback contracts are usually processed once a day. After the contracts
are processed you will get paid.
Check which offices exactly offer loot buybacks in the r​ elevant article​.

Why use the loot buyback

Well, for one, if you use it you don’t have to go to the trade hubs yourself to sell the loot. This
gives you more time to explore and find more loot. The convenience factor undoubtedly goes up
during wars.

In addition, you are helping to finance the corporation's expenses. You will get paid 90% of the
buy value of your loot in the largest trade hub in the game, Jita. The “missing” 10% of the profit
go to Signal Cartel and keeps the lights on in our offices and support various corp initiatives and
some fleet costs.

How to use the loot buyback program

You need to be able to make contracts to use the loot buyback program. Sadly trial accounts
can’t do that.

You can still use the loot buyback program while you’re on a trial account, but it will require
organizing having a member of leadership act as your intermediary. You can trade a can full of
your loot to that person, then they will contract it to the buyback program.

This limitation aside, it is really easy:

- Open your Neocom and go to Business > Contracts

- Click “new Contract”
- Set the contract type to “Item Exchange”, Availability to “private” and enter “Eve-Scout
Logistics” in the Name field. Click “next”.
- Select all items from your item hangar that you want to sell and click “next”
- Leave the “I will pay” and “I will receive” fields at 0.0. Set the expiration to 2 weeks. Enter
“BB Program” in the description. Click next.
- Confirm everything and click finish.

We also have ​a tutorial video​ about how to set up the contract.

A few considerations

The buyback program is very popular, averaging in around 16 contracts every single day. Each
contract & payout is being handled manually, this is time consuming. You can help us by
considering the following:

- Make sure everything is repaired and repackaged.

- Make sure the items are stacked.
- If you are a T2 blueprint inventor, please don't send us your blueprints.
- If you produce an item from blueprints, please sell it yourself.
- If you are an established player or don't have an immediate need of ISK, consider
sending in a larger contract maybe once a week.

These steps help us tremendously to handle the contracts efficiently, which in the end results in
you getting paid faster.

Special Buyback in Stain

If you’ve been exploring a while you’ll learn that Sansha NPC regions have the single most
lucrative exploration loot. We’ve therefore started to accept loot into the buyback from a station
in the region of Stain, ​O5Y3-W VI - Moon 1 - True Power Logistic Support​ to be precise.

Note that this is not an official office of ours and as of now we do not have the usual services in
the station, it is purely a Buyback location.

Due to the increased logistic costs to get stuff from Stain to Jita, the Buyback from there will pay
out 85% of the value instead of the 90% explained above. The additional 5% cover the Jump
Freighter costs.
Things to Do With Corp Members

Thera wormhole mapping

Signal Cartel provides a public and free for all service to New Eden: a​ crowd-sourced list of
wormhole connections to and from Thera​. Our Thera scouts are busy around the clock to keep
the list up to date.

See those donations at the top of the website linked above? Those are used to pay the scouts
who probe and record the wormhole signatures in Thera. Monthly donations are divided among
Thera scouts based on the number of signatures they probed and recorded. Depending on
donations, scouting can be ​very profitable.

To help with the Thera mapping efforts, join the in-game chat channel “Eve-Scout.Intel” and
follow the instructions in the MOTD.

EvE-Scout Rescue Caches

Not all who wander are lost. But some people do get stuck in wormholes and have no way to
get out. This program seeds password-protected containers in wormholes that hold set of
scanner probes. The intent is to aid pilots who are stranded because their probes expired or
were inadvertently lost, leaving them no way to probe their way out of that wormhole. Learn
more about the program ​here​.

Anoikis Search and Rescue

Another attempt to help people who are lost in wormholes and have no means to get out:
Search and Rescue. Pilots who are lost can contact the coordinators with details of the
wormhole they are stuck in and offer a reward for their rescue.

Our SAR pilots then head out and attempt to find a connection to that wormhole to get the
customers back into known space.

The Anoikis Division: Life in a Wormhole!

Signal Cartel has Astrahus class Citadels plus Player Owned Structures (POS) in two
wormholes. If wormhole life interest you this might be the thing for you: Contact the coordinators
if you want to learn more.
The maintenance cost of the Division are split between the members using a subscription
model. Having the Citadel & POS provides good opportunities for Planetary Interaction (PI) and
a safer starting point for wormhole exploration.

Currently, members must have achieved membership level C2 (eligible at 60 days in corp) to
participate.

​ ehind this link​.

You can find up to date information about the Anoikis Division b

Space Photography: Our Observatory

Space is beautiful! Katia Sae is collecting the awesome sights of New Eden in the form of
screenshots. Go ​step into her observatory​ and have a look. You can find instructions how to
submit your own screenshots there as well.

Pro tip: Ctrl-F9 hides the UI, the “print” button takes the screenshot.

Fleets!
Exploration in itself is pretty much a solo activity. That said, we are not hermits! Exploration or
fun fleets are run on irregular schedules.

Usually we post an announcement on the forums with date, time and place and a few details a
few days in advance, add the event to the corporation calendar in the game, and send a corp
mail with the link to the details on the forums.

Leadership encourages everyone to ​be the content you want to see in Signal Cartel​. If you
wish there were more fleets during your play time, run one yourself! You don’t need permission
or even any experience to lead (“FC”) a fleet. Doing is a good way to learn!

Commanding a fleet can be as easy as rallying the troops and taking the lead on comms. Fun
can be had even without prior experience so don’t be shy.

While no fleet is on a rigid schedule, there are a few “staple” fleets that you will see pop up on a
routine basis. Here’s a brief overview of some of them.

Various training fleets

We have run training fleets on various topics in the past. Those have been from basic
exploration and navigation, to scouting and fleet commander trainings, various test fleets, and
much more.
Our fearless leader Johnny Splunk does exploration roams on ​his Twitch stream​ on a weekly
basis now. Contact him if you’re interested.

If you have an idea for a training fleet or you simply want to get some tutoring on a topic you’re
not clear about feel free to ask Mathis Chanlin in game, or ask around in Alliance chat if I am not
around.

Hugfleets
The Credo doesn’t allow us to initiate aggression. But it does allow us to fit Festival Launchers
and hurl snowballs and fireworks at unsuspecting targets! Hop on board a # ​ HUGSFLEET Issue
Griffin​ and hug a miner near you. Or a wardeccer. Or anyone!

YOLOfleets
The concept of YOLOfleets is to have fun in a fleet with zero skill requirements.

The only requirement is that people bring a frigate and we do something stupid with it. We’ve
successfully destroyed NPC battleships both in lowsec and in wormhole space on these fleets.

Safe return may or may not happen, fun however is very much guaranteed.

Everyone can join these fleets, even in the very first frigate you get when you made your
character.

Twitch Stream sniping

Similar to Hugfleets, we watch someone on twitch.tv play EVE, try to figure out where they are
and then intercept and surprise them with fireworks and snowballs. Usually “stream sniping” is a
gank what ends in the death of the streamer. In our case, they usually die from laughing, right
after they realize that they’re not going to actually lose their ship at our hands.

To get a better idea of what this is about, here is an example of us hugging ​Sir Facealot​ while
he was running missions in lowsec.

Surprise Party Hugs Fleets

Covert Ops Hotdrop fleets with fireworks.

This is our “elite PVP” fleet. In these fleets, a few scouts actively “hunt” for battleships and other
juicy targets in nullsec. The rest of us are in stealth bombers or other covert ops ships equipped
with festival launchers and fireworks, waiting in highsec next to a Black Ops (often called
“Blops”) battleship.

Once the hunters have found a target, a covert cynosural field is lit and the Black Ops battleship
opens a jump bridge which transports the waiting fleet directly from highsec right next to the
target. What follows is more fireworks and usually funny chatter in nullsec local.

Because Black Ops battleships can bridge only ships which can fit a cov ops cloak, these fleets
require more skills that our other fleets but they are really great fun and worth the required
training.

The only requirement to take the Blops bridge is a covert ops s​ hip, you do not actually need a
covert ops ​cloak on it. That means it is entirely possible to come with an Astero (which is easy to
train into) and no cloak and take part in these fleets. Whether that is a sensible lifestyle choice
depends on the ISK in your wallet - general consensus is to not undock an Astero without covert
ops cloak if you want to keep it for a while.

Out-of-corp fleets of interest

The following fleets are not strictly Signal Cartel ventures but have relations with us in one
shape or another.

Vulfpeck Fleets
​ yranha
ISK-making fleets in C5 and C6 Wolf-Rayet wormholes. The idea originates from the P
Fleets​ of Supreme Mathematics. Our very own Johnny Splunk revived the idea in Signal Cartel
and coined the name Vulfpeck after a favorite band of his.

​ wn website​ and mumble server. Vulfpeck

It has since then grown into a public fleet with its o
even has its ​own propaganda​. Most of the doctrine ships (Confessors, Augorors) do not require
very high skill training (although some do) and the fleets are a great opportunity to meet people
from other areas in EVE.

Arataka Research Consortium Ops

The Arataka Research Consortium (ARC) is a collaborative association of pilots who work
together to conduct Drifter Hive raids and other lore-centric fleet ops. Makoto Priano, CEO of
[IKAME], founded and heads up ARC. Signal Cartel is an ARC member and we often participate
in ARC ops.
ARC activities generally have a strong focus on lore-related research, with some roleplay events
organized from time to time. Their Drifter Hive raids go into one of the five Unidentified Drifter
Wormholes, which are very unique sites in New Eden.

Skill requirements to fly ARC fleet ship doctrines are fairly low. To learn more about their fleets,
join the in-game chat channel “Consortium Operations”.
Exploration Skill Training Plan
The intent of this plan is to get you into nullsec with cheap ships quickly and then give you
options to branch out into more survivability in nullsec and wormhole space.

As new player or even experienced player but new to exploration, you w ​ ill die a few times. Or a
lot of times. This guide takes this into account. We believe losing ships is part of the learning
curve in EVE, hence why this guide focuses on very cheap ships at first. You will lose some of
them, but the one time you make it back home with loot in your cargo hold will pay for many
other ships in the future.

The guide is tailored towards Gallente characters “born” after September 2015, when the starter
skill points were greatly buffed. Why Gallente? Well, the Gallente exploration ship line-up is very
good. Your character is a different race? Don’t worry! Just replace “Gallente Frigate” in the plan
below with the frigate of your characters race. Or train Gallente Frigate to III and go from there.

Whatever you do, remember this is a guide, not a strict set of laws. We are confident that this
guide is a solid foundation but there are many roads to Rome.

It will take roughly 162 days to train everything from this plan on a non-optimized character. Do
not let that discourage you! You can go out and have fun from day one. The EVE skill queue is
limited to 50 entries, this skill training plan is longer than that. Put skills into your training queue
chapter by chapter.

As a new character you do have attribute remappings available. Click on your character portrait,
then on Attributes on the left, then “remap now” on the right. Remapping attributes can greatly
affect your skill training speed. For the plan below, remap like this:

- Intelligence: 27
- Perception: 17
- Charisma: 17
- Willpower: 17
- Memory: 21

By doing this, the full skill training will complete roughly 20 days faster.

Once you have some ISK to spare, consider +3 attribute implants for Intelligence & Memory and
maybe Perception & Willpower as well. These four implants will cost you around 40 million ISK
total and combined with the remapping above w ​ ill save you around 40 days of training. Be
aware that if you get podded, you will lose the implants.
Phase I: Tier 1 exploration in nullsec
Gallente Frigate III New Gallente pilots will have this
Infomorph Psychology II Allows use of jump clones, cannot be trained on Trial Accounts
Caldari Frigate I exclusively for our #HUGSFLEET Issue Griffins
Astrometric Rangefinding III
Astrometric Acquisition III
Archeology III
Hacking III
Cloaking III Cannot be trained on Trial Accounts
Mechanics III
Astrometrics IV
Astrometric Pinpointing III

At this point you will very much be able to fly our corp T1 fittings (​Heron​, ​Probe​, ​Magnate​,
Imicus​) and make good money with them. In nullsec you will definitely fail some hacks but that is
okay. It’s all part of the learning curve. The hacks that you will succeed in will reward you richly.

To further improve your success rate continue as follows

Energy Grid Upgrades III

Archeology IV
Hacking IV
Target Management III
Signature Analysis III
Long Range Targeting III
Acceleration Control II
Evasive Maneuvering III
High Speed Maneuvering II
Warp Drive Operation III
Drones III
Light Drone Operation I
Electronic Warfare IV
Drones V
Advanced Drone Avionics I

We’ve now significantly improved your hacking and scanning skills as well as core skills.
Phase II: Good ships that are still cheap
This section takes quite some time to train. Use that time to learn the ropes, lose cheap T1
frigates, and buff the ISK in your wallet.

If your wallet allows it at some point, consider investing in +3 attribute implants, especially for
Intelligence and Memory. They don’t cost too much and speed up your skill training by around
10%.

Astrometrics V
Archeology V
Hacking V
Astrometric Rangefinding IV
Astrometric Pinpointing IV
Astrometric Acquisition IV

You now have very good hacking and scanning skills. You can use the Tier 2 probe launchers
and data or relic analyzers. Those more powerful analyzers will do a lot to help you avoid failing
hacks. The next set of skills further rounds out your core skills which will make fitting modules
and moving in space easier and more comfortable.

Gallente Frigate IV
Signature Analysis IV
Long Range Targeting IV
Target Management IV
Acceleration Control III
Evasive Maneuvering IV
High Speed Maneuvering III
Warp Drive Operation IV
Spaceship Command IV
Capacitor Management IV
Capacitor Systems Operation IV
Electronics Upgrades IV
Light Drone Operation V
Gallente Drone Specialization II
Caldari Drone Specialization II
Amarr Drone Specialization II
Minmatar Drone Specialization II
Advanced Drone Avionics II
Phase IIIa: (Almost) stop dying in nullsec
At this part, the guide does split. Part IIIa focuses on safer nullsec exploration. It contains
everything you need to get into an Interceptor class frigate which greatly improves your
survivability in nullsec. If nullsec is not your thing, feel free to skip this part and directly continue
with IIIb, which focuses on wormholes.

Evasive Maneuvering V
Interceptors III
Navigation IV
Spaceship Command V
Acceleration Control IV
High Speed Maneuvering IV

Phase IIIb: Wormholes & Party Hugs

By now you should have a solid understanding of the mechanics of scanning and hacking. Why
not take it to another level and venture out into the ever-shifting realms of wormhole space?
This guide gives you the skills required to fly a good Covert Ops class frigate.

This part of the training will also enable you to jump into Stealth Bomber class frigates and
participate in our Surprise Party Hugs without the need to fly the somewhat expensive Astero.

Electronics Upgrades V
Cloaking IV
Covert Ops III
Sensor Linking II
Signature Analysis V
Navigation IV
Spaceship Command V
Acceleration Control IV
High Speed Maneuvering IV
Covert Ops IV

Phase IV: Self-study

At this point you are pretty much “done” with exploration-centric training. However there are
some quality-of-life areas worth pointing out. Have a look at the individual skills in each of the
sections mentioned below and decide for yourself if you want to invest time in training them.
Your choice really depends on our individual style and aspirations as an explorer.
Drones
While generally very useful, their value is debatable when doing exploration in frigates.
Exploration frigates - with the exception of the Astero - are very flimsy and drones will only help
you as long as your ship is intact. Still, drones are great for most other aspects of the game or
when you progress further into exploration Cruisers.

Engineering
These are your core skills. Virtually everything get better and easier if you train these.

Navigation
Greatly influences your capability to move around. Normal speed, Warp-speed, capacitor
usage, agility, … you name it. If you want to be harder to catch, this section is for you.

Rigging
While it is possible to fit any rig onto your ships without these skills (the game still lists the
requirements), rigging skills help fight the drawbacks that most rigs bring with them. It is worth
spending some training here.

Targeting
Training Targeting will enable you to lock more targets faster and from further away, as well as
making you more difficult to lock. This is a great quality of life skill section.

Trade
Training the Trade and Contracting skills a couple of levels each will improve your quality of life.
Even as an explorer, you will be using the market and will have reasons to want to make
contracts.

Final words about skill training

EVE of course is more than scanning and hacking. Depending on what else you find interest in,
and depending on what ships you prefer - even for exploration! - further training into Armor,
Shields, Drones, Gunnery, Missiles etc will become beneficial to you.
The skill training plan above focuses on exploration and exploration only. You as a player don’t
have to.
A suggestion how to get started with exploration
This section assumes that you are new to exploration and everything it includes, such as
scanning down signatures, hacking and safe travel in dangerous regions of New Eden.

This suggestion provides you with a good learning curve and ties in with the skill training plan
above. Naturally, you are more than welcome to do whatever you want in any order you see fit.

There are many reasons to go exploring beside the hoarding of vast amounts of ISK. A few
examples that come to mind:

- Sightseeing - New Eden is full of unique places to visit and according to CCP there are
some that no one has found yet!
- Photography - EVE makes great desktop wallpapers
- Combat Exploration - PVE combat sites hidden behind signatures can be lucrative
- Participation in our ​Search and Rescue​ program
- Science - we don’t really understand how and why new signatures spawn or how
wormhole interconnectivity is governed. Also the lore provides lots of research topics.
- ...and maybe most importantly: Because you can

More than any of those however, Signal Cartel has a strong focus on the finding and hacking of
relic and data sites and this is probably why you joined us in the first place. So here is my
personal recommendation to progress into it without getting frustrated. As with everything: This
is ​one way to do it. If you want to jump into wormholes on your first day, do it!

Learning the ropes

If scanning and hacking is new to you, stay in highsec for a while. Scan down every signature
you find and practice the real-life skill of getting that done reliably and quickly while your
character is training the in-game skills to support you. Find your personal scanning routine.

If you find wormholes, warp to them, click the “show info” and make yourself familiar ​with the
information you find​.

Warp to all relic and data sites and hack them. Learn the mini game, ​read up on potential
dangers and shortcuts​. The less you consciously need to think about the mini game, the more
brain power will you have left for situational awareness once you leave highsec. The loot in
highsec isn’t great but for a new player it isn’t exactly bad either.

Since Signal Cartel is wardecced more often than not, ​stay away from tradehubs and
chokepoints​ and your exploration in highsec is a lot safer.
Going to nullsec
Once you’re confident in your scanning and hacking skills in highsec, go to nullsec.

You may be curious why I’ve skipped lowsec. The loot in lowsec isn’t much better than the one
in highsec. At the same time, lowsec is the​ place for small gang PVP. The locals in lowsec will
have relic sites scanned down and bookmarked and are probably ready to jump on you before
you realize what is happening. In contrast to that, vast areas of nullsec are absolutely empty.

Two relatively easy ways to get to nullsec is to find a direct highsec -> nullsec wormhole
connection or to use a ​Thera connection​. Sure, you could pick a route from highsec and travel
into nullsec that way but the transitions between security levels are often camped and while
you’re learning the game this isn’t ideal.

The hacks in nullsec contain new Defensive Subsystems to deal with and are generally a lot
harder, but much more rewarding than those in highsec. Once more you have to improve your
real-life skills to get good at this.

Nullsec is also famously dangerous, anyone can -- and most likely will -- attack you without
consequences. You will want to start using intel tools such as ​Pirate’s Little Helper​ and
DOTLAN​ to decide where you will be safe and which areas to avoid. See my c​ ollection of great
browser bookmarks​ for some tool suggestions.

You will have to learn how to navigate nullsec safely and how to identify & dodge gate camps
and warp bubbles. You will die a lot, but that is fine. Each death will most likely teach you
something new. Talk to your killers by the way! They often are friendly guys who happily offer
you advice.

We always recommend flying cheap ships in this phase, to make your death less painful. The
free exploration frigates from the corporation are totally capable of navigating nullsec.

You should upgrade your fits with Core Probe Launcher II, Relic Analyzer II and Data Analyzer
II if you can and buy Sisters Core Scanner Probes if your wallet allows it to make your life
easier. If you make it back home with loot in your cargo hold only once, you have probably
financed your next ten frigates.

If you enjoy the challenges of nullsec, consider ​chapter IIIa in the skill training plan​ above and
train into Interceptors. They will make your travels in nullsec a lot safer, but because they don’t
have bonuses for scanning or hacking, you pretty much need T2 modules to make them viable.
Wormholes
Wormholes are again very different from both nullsec and highsec. The lack of local chat makes
it a lot harder to gauge your safety within a system. Good use of the Directional Scanner is
mandatory and good scouting before you uncloak can make a huge difference. Training into a
covert ops cloak capable ship is a very good investment, see c​ hapter IIIb​ of the skill training
plan.

The techniques for safe flying you learned in nullsec remain relevant. On the other hand, “gate
camps” are pretty much nonexistent in wormholes.

Not all data and relic sites are safe to warp to and not all wormholes have anything of value for
an explorer. This is another aspect that you will have to get familiar with.
Conclusion
I hope I could give you an overview on what Signal Cartel can offer you to make your
exploration life easier and which aspects of corporation life you can participate in for that social
interaction itch.

Your learning process has just begun. Throughout the document I’ve linked good sources of
information and hinted at further topics to investigate on your own. I’m afraid the learning will
continue for a while :).

Signal Cartel is different from many other corporations in EVE not only because of the Credo
but because how we are organized. Exploration is inherently a solo activity. But that doesn’t
mean we are not social animals and don’t form fleets to have fun together, quite the contrary.

Whenever you have an idea for something to do, go for it! If you want feedback before an
announcement you will always have the open ear from leadership and our Member Liaisons.

The same is true for questions that you have. No question is stupid. Simply ask everything in
Alliance chat and someone will help you out if possible. For more sensitive topics, contact
leadership.

But enough reading, undock that ship!

o7
Mathis