So i’ve tried to find the answer to these questions everywhere, asking in-game and reading online, but still haven’t.
Harder/riskier anomalies give better loot, right?
How do I know if an anomaly is actually more difficult/rewarding? There’s CLASS and LEVEL within a class, which doesn’t seem to be consistent with actual difficulty/rewards at all (what’s even the point of this divide btw?). A Class 2 is higher tier than class 1, except when I actually run these sites, a class 1 level 4 is harder and more rewarding than a class 2 level 1. Basically what exactly are the functional differences between difficulty CLASS and difficulty LEVEL, mainly regarding actual difficulty and rewards.
How do I determine if an anomaly is actually harder/more rewarding? Since some classes have different levels which seem to outrank classes above it, I have no idea how to determine where exactly they fit in actual difficulty/reward tier compared to higher classes.
Literally the only solution i have right now is to run them all a few times each and record my findings to create an actual list of difficulty and rewards for each anomoly tier (class+level combinations).
Bonus question:
4) Someone told me the different tiers have the same chance at commanders and escalations. Is this true? If so, do the higher tiers at least have more rewarding commanders/escalations when they DO spawn?
Also, is difficulty class and DED rating the same thing?
Not necessarily. The main difference is the type and number of ships.
Higher tier Anomalies have more NPC rats of larger ship classes, which give more ISK bounties when killed.
Loot remains relatively the same per wreck.
Generally, the progress the following way:
Hideaway*
Burrow
Refuge
Den*
Yard
Rally Point*
Port
Hub*
Haven
Sanctum
The ones with an * have 4 varying difficulties within them, ranging from (a) vanilla, (b) Hidden, (c) Forsaken, (d) Forlorn.
Whether or not something is “rewarding” is a subjective decision you need to make. Most people decide “rewarding” anomalies are those they can clear with little to no effort using something like a Dominix with Heavy Drones.
Same as number 2, tbh.
That’s kind of how most of EVE goes. If you’re part of a corporation or alliance, you can try asking them what successes they’ve had.
Kind of.
Some of the escalations, such as the 10/10 DED escalations (that are granted to you randomly after you complete a Haven or Sanctum of any NPC pirate faction) have been nerfed so that they do not appear as frequently compared to others.
The 1-10 DED rating is generally used to denote Escalation sites.
An Anomaly’s “Difficulty class” isn’t something that most people use in common parlance with EVE. You usually refer to the Anomalies by name like “use this Dominix fit in a Forsaken Rally Point” rather than “use this Dominix in a difficulty class 6 anomaly”.
But don’t larger ships use larger modules? Which are worth more? Meaning more valuable loot? Or do they drop less often so it cancels out or something?
Most of it’s junk. There’s a few meta modules that are valuable, like Grapplers or 500mn MWDs that drop from Battleship rats that are like 300,000 (ish) ISK worth now and then.
But don’t larger ships use larger modules? Which are worth more? Meaning more valuable loot? Or do they drop less often so it cancels out or something?
I know if I do a less reward site faster than a higher rewarding site it could be better isk/hour. But ignoring that, the * sites with varying difficulty seem to be harder/more rewarding than the higher class sites. So how do I know exactly where they fall relative to the higher class sites? Like a forlorn hideaway seems to be higher than a refuge.
I’m not sure what you’re asking here.
If you’re asking about EXACTLY where they fall, you can use a site like: Combat sites - EVE University Wiki to see exactly which NPC rats appear (and in which wave) for the Anomalies.
If you’re asking about RELATIVELY where they fall, you already have the list provided to measure their relative differences.
That list doesn’t seem to order by actual difficulty and reward tiers. For example, it puts Refuge after Forlorn Hideaway, but in-game this is definitely not the case. Forlorn hideaway is significantly more difficult and rewarding than a Refuge.
A list like this would be perfect, but this one doesn’t seem to be the right order for difficulty/rewards.
Honestly, the standard loot and bounties of highsec sites are garbage (once you get out to nullsec, then the bounties start getting large enough to make up a significant portion of your income). What you’re really looking for are faction spawns and escalations. For example, Serpentis Hideaways can escalate to Serpentis Narcotics Warehouses, which give you several cracks at good loot drops (check the wikipage Scoots linked to see what ships and/or structures have a chance of dropping faction/ded loot). IIRC, the total loot value of a narcotics warehouse is typically 50mil or so, but sometimes you might get up to 150mil.
Of course, if you have decent scanning skills, you can skip the hideaways altogether, and go around scanning for just the Serpentis Narcotics Warehouses.
Anyway, check out Dad Dex’s youtube channel. He has a bunch of videos covering different ships in different sites. I’ve only watched a few of his videos so far, but I’ve been impressed by what I have seen. He’ll talk about skills, fits, site execution, what to loot, and so on -basically, everything you need to know. Moreover, he has some newbro friendly fits. So, hopefully that will help you determine what sites you want to try to target.
Don’t the harder anomolies give a better chance or better tier of faction spawns and escalations? How do the different anomoly levels effect rare spawn chance/tier? Ex, idk what’s better for that, a class 1 level 4 (forlorn hideaway) or a class 2 (burrow) (again, ignoring the time it takes to complete these sites).
No to both. They all have a small, but same, chance to escalate to a DED site of their same level.
The only DED site escalation that has a different chance of occurring is the 10/10 which has a LOWER chance after CCP nerfed it a couple of years back.
Anomalies are “devided” by class (1-10) as quoted and by “level” (1-4); 1 = normal, 2 = Hidden, 3 = Forsaken and 4 = Forlorn. Some anomalies (like Hideaway, Den, Rally Point and Hub) can have a level modifier as well, these can be limited to specific regions of space (High-, Low- or Null-sec). Now a level modifier of anomalies usually means one of 3 things; 1) Elite NPC spawns. 2) More or Higher class ship spawns. 3) both of the aforementioned.
See this wiki page for more information on Combat Sites
It’s impossible to get them in a valid order of difficulty. The spawns in the same site vary, sometimes it’s four cruisers, sometimes there are six. And some sites have aggressive frigs which kill your drones and go under your guns soon, others have mighty Battleships which volley your Battlecruiser, but hardly hit your assault frigate. There are just too many dimensions to order the sites the way you hope to find.
Some months ago I looted a 350m ISK module in a hideaway. It’s just luck - loot fairy said “yes!”.
Edit: It was an Implant, not a module. But it was definitely in Highsec with standard rats.
