Can my Implants be Scanned?

New Citizens Q&A
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Hi,
Some implants are very expensive. If opposing players can know that I have expensive implants, then my pod is an obvious target to add value to their kill mail.
So, can opposing players know what implants I have?
Thx

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Unless CCP has secretly changed it, the answer is; No, you can’t scan a player to see which implants they’re flying with.

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Thanks, good to know.

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@ISD_Sakimura is correct, but just two more comments:

  1. It is possible in some situations for a savvy opponent to deduce some of your implants. The most obvious example of this are implants like Snakes that increase your velocity, even in a pod. Someone therefore can, at least in some edge cases, guess what is in your head.

  2. Because players can’t know what is in your head, they usually go for the podkill. It is very rare that someone would not shoot a pod that could because you might not have implants - either they plan to shoot all pods they can catch, or none at all because they don’t want the security hit. Ironically, pods might even be safer if you could scan them somehow, at least the empty and cheap ones, as players may decide it not worth it to shoot a pod that had so little in it. But the possibility there are billions of implants in it encourages most people to shoot all pods on sight.

Not in your question, but related, is that at least in lowsec and highsec it is almost always possible to save your pod. They insta-warp so in almost all cases you can warp your pod to safety after your ship explodes, the one exception being if your opponent perfectly times a smartbomb. You can still be caught and killed warping around by smartbombers, but if you are careful by always moving and never, ever using autopilot, a pod in highsec and lowsec is very hard thing to catch.

You can read more about saving your pod here:

https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Pod_saving

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Hi, Black Pedro,
As always, I get the best information from you. It’s very much appreciated.

I don’t have implants at the moment so I tend to travel in a pod to Jita when acquiring and building a new ship as the worst that can happen if I’m popped is waking up in home base. I’ve not been popped yet doing this. Also, as you have advised I never fly autopilot.
Thanks again, Kevin

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I usually at least use a shuttle, it’s faster and gives you an option to warp out if someone does go after you.

A t1 frigate with sub 2sec warp time and hyperspatial rigs can be even faster, plus that way you can fit a decent buffer that should tank some of the lazier gankers.

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I agree, bored gate campers just might do a disco dance on a pod just to pad their killmail stats.

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Flying around in a pod is pretty safe as I said if you keep moving, although I would make the same recommendation as @Chainsaw_Plankton: use a shuttle. They enter warp almost as fast as a pod, faster than anyone can lock you anyway, and they actually warp almost twice as fast which means you will save time on your trip to Jita. They are also very cheap, and usually available all over highsec so if you sell them in Jita once you arrive, it won’t cost much of anything.

Then, if someone does try to explode you while docking (the only real window you are vulnerable), you will lose the shuttle, but have a second or two to save your pod by insta-warping it away. Shuttles are very squishy, so everything I said above about flying one applies - always keep moving and avoid smartbombers - but it gives you a second chance against Thrashers and anyone else who has to lock you to get your pod away.

You might be tempted to use a rookie ship (corvette) as they are even cheaper as they are free, but I wouldn’t recommend that. They travel in warp at the same speed as a pod so there is no advantage there, and they take longer to align meaning a gate camper can shoot you if they are quick. Flying naked, or with a shuttle is better as there is no chance anyone can lock you if you keep moving.

Finally, one last bit of advice is to look into docking and undocking bookmarks. Docking/undocking, and on gates, are really the only windows of vulnerability when travelling to criminals.

https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Bookmarks#Instadock
https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Bookmarks#Station_Undock

To be honest, it probably isn’t worth setting them up everywhere, but for Jita and the other trade hubs where gankers are likely to be, it is worth the few minutes to do once.

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