I’d live off PvE (inc. missions) and Explo mostly. Debating between this and NPC Null in terms of places to live quietly solo (barring wormholes: don’t have the time to commit to all the scanning).
Is this a good idea?
Non-FW space is pretty empty, would be easy to do. Unlike NPC null the rewards would be lower but the logistics would be alot easier.
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LS is a very narrow sector, and local corps are fiercely protective of what little PvE content there is there.
I recommend you select an LS system/constellation you are interested in, and join the most prominent Local corp. Actually living there will be very difficult without that. Locals and roaming fleets will be breathing down your neck at every moment. Forget about building a POS which only you alone defend. You will lose it. If you operate out of a NPc station, you will be tracked and camped.
NPC Null is far less active/cramped, but actually living there solo will cause you serious logistics problems. As above, Id recommend you join a prominent corp in that NPC Null area, as they will be able to help you with logistics. Your potential profits are far higher in NPC Null, than LS. The PvE content there is far more lucrative.
If you like exploration (non-combat) you can venture through NPC Null and earn a great deal provided you stay aware, on week-long trips, before returning to HS markets to sell your loot. The most dangerous part will be returning to HS. However, if you have some patience, you can do that through WHs. Alternatively, if you have covops explorer with mwd trick, or an interceptor explorer, you can risk running the pipes back out with a fair chance of success. Even better in a T3C explorer.
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I had a random wormhole appear in my old home system of Laangsi when I was brand new to the game that led to a highsec island in Aridia. I roamed all over out there running sites basically uncontested and I think it was worth it. Aridia is mostly lowsec
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Solo PvE in lowsec? I don’t recommend it, you’ll be hunted a lot.
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Mix it with solo PvP, so you get the DED loot and the PvP loot.
This.
Express interest to a local LS corp where you want to operate, and Im sure they will be glad to have you, even if you cant much contribute to their PvP.
But for data/relic exploration, LS is crap, head to NS.
HS is far better for L4s.
You can do it solo just dont go to Caldari space. Also remember that no one is interested in PvP they are looking for easy ganks which a pve ship will be.
Actually not counting Lowsechnaya Sholupen and their gatecamping carriers it is pretty empty. 
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Go for it.
You can live out of a cloaky T3 cruiser (legion with standard crystals never runs out of ammo) and cargo hold with a mobile depot to switch to the nullified or combat site fits you carry with you.
Go full nomad. Go on extended relic-gathering jaunts into deep null and wormholes. Never dock at stations. Use wormholes to go to hisec markets / back to low / null.
Live like a paranoid squirrel. Always expect the spanish inqusition. Yes, you will be hunted a lot…but getting away with a billion in the cargohold is fun.
Forget lowsec missioning. Ignore low-value high-volume stuff from data sites.
Try it. gl o/
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I tried it for a while. Found I spent more time hiding / running from hunters than doing anything fun. Having said that, getting away with it was pretty satisfying.
Heh… I remember those days when I was running solo PvE in lows in a Vagabond. Wasn’t harassed that much for some reason (one time another Vaga came to my site, and I run as fast as I could lol), though I was even more lousy careebear back then than I’m today and was totally not up to a fight, neither experienced in PvP, nor is fitted for battle. A couple of times some random folks in local went “hey, I saw you!!1” and “I know what you’re up to ;)” seeing me on dscan, so that’s probably was the reason. Also don’t recommend this, unless for a challenge and thrill (that was my cause), isk/hr is pretty bad.
Yes. Have you considered Solitude or Aridia?
Don’t listen to the naysayers. You can live solo in lowsec and it can be lots of fun. Lowsec is like anywhere else, if you don’t pay attention and maintain situational awareness you may die. But if you remain at your keyboard there is no reason not to be able to do pve, exploration and anything. Ofc it’s easier if you join a Corp but when folk say it’s too hard or dangerous to live in lowsec solo they have no idea what they are talking about. In fact as far as I’m concerned lowsec is much safer then highsec since it is much less crowded.
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I think the main idea others try to convey is that it simply may not worse it, not that it’s not possible. Yea, be aware of surroundings they say, click dsan evey 3 seconds until you’ll want to kill yourself they say, make tons of bookmarks in every system, put alts at gates to watch what happens. It’s just giant PITA which wears your nerves and this fatigue builds up over time. You just won’t be able to keep up like this, you are not a robot.
Like, one day after initial excitement is gone, you’ll sit down and calculate your real isk/hr. Accounting for things like this one moment when you were too tired of mind-numbing Eve-clicking and said “bugger it!” to dscan, and got reckted. Or when you got scramed by npc and got reckted. Or when you just were too tired after a long day at work and lost concentration, being engulfed in killing of a difficult spawn of npcs, forgot about checking local and got reckted. Or when your ISP screw you and you get DCed at wrong time and got reckted. Or when there was a camp, and you just decided it isn’t even worth to undock. Or when at some point you started to note that almost every time you undock and start running some sites or missions, in 15 minutes a clearly-pvp geared gang appears on dscan - and you have to flee, often leaving them almost completed site to feast upon. Etc etc etc.
Then you see that, minus all expenses, you get not that much more than you could get in highs running incursions or lv4. May be you have a more exciting gameplay sometimes, but you also get much more burnout and stress, and PITA. And all this for, say, +50-100% of income. Does it worth it? Over time you’ll understand it isn’t. Surely fun sometimes, but not on a daily basis.
And then you join some corp - and previously scary neutral local lightens up with friendly colors. Sometimes with hostile as well, but not as much and often as when you were alone. And now most of the time you can just forget about dscan totally as local stays all green, sometimes for hours. And often even when something went bad you may expect be helped by corpmates.
It just suddenly makes your life bearable, at last.
First off - eve is a game - its not isk/hr that matters but fun/hr.
Second high sec is much more dangerous then low - your in systems with countless people - you never know who is going to try and gank you etc . . . In low however, it is very underpopulated. Unless you are in a border system or a pipe or one of the named systems - you are not likely to see folk. Now if you are out pveing - what do you do when that nasty neut comes into local? You do the very same thing that you would do in null sec - cloak or dock. When the neut goes away you go back to your business. Sure you are going to miss out on some pve - but it is the same thing in null and you are much less likely to be ganked, then in highsec. The trade off is simple - would you rather deal with code popping up regularly or occasionally a roaming gang of pirates? Personally, if I was a pve’er I would rather deal with the pirates - if you are half awake you can see them coming from a mile. In fact, everyone I know who has actually made the transition to lowsec living all say the samething, that lowsec is safer then highsec and no more dangerous then nullsec.
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And pve in it is notably worth thing that can happen to you, so rising your “isk\hr efficiency” is a matter of surviving burn out, basically. You just need to endure to have money for more interesting things.
That seems to be some sort of trendy saying out there atm, about hs is not secure blahblah )) But I’ve hardly ever was killed in hs (except this one case when I still didn’t know about suicide ganking and autopiloted frigate with officer stuff to jita… long ago) for years - but I’ve been killed multiple time in low/nulls. That’s all about it. If you don’t do anything stupid, like pimping your ship with flashy things, or autopiloting precious items in badger, and stay away from trade hubs, you have very slim chances to witness this “unsecure hs” for yourself. All those people around don’t care about you 99% of the time. While in lows/nulls most of them do, and want you on their killboard.
Then again you restate the well-known trivia, and yes, I said it myself, you can live like that (I lived like that), but the point is, with all the PITA and troubles accounted for, in most cases, it doesn’t worth it. If you want more trouble for really worth money - go exploring wh. At least it pays out really well. Or you could have much less trouble yet still isk/hr better than in hs if you just join some low/null corp and stop worrying for at least of 50% local population in the system.
While this isn’t exactly true, the major pain point of living in lowsec as a solo pilot is the logistic, bringing stuff in and out on a regular basis. Basing near a highsec hub and daytrip low, null, WH is much easier IMO. I’m earning my ISK with production/market nowadays but before I figured that I used daytripping to nullsec for relics and lowsec for solo PvP (loot), DED sites (3-4/10), and clone soldiers for a living.
If OP is going to run primarily non-combat exploration, LS is crap for that.
Much better off week-tripping through NS.
For combat exploration its manageable, but 5-6/10 DEDs are quite time consuming, and hence risky solo. LS locals will run him off and complete the site after him doing most of the work (albeit he can have revenge by activating triggers before he runs).
For L4s, he is better off in HS.
I dont think OP has capacity or interest in running L5s, especially not solo.
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this will happen all the time. After recon d-scan changes it’s very easy to gank people in lowsec. Waste of time imo. I have very bad experience with combat sites or escalations in lowsec (most of them ended with killmails - stupid recons).
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