Does anyone know what sort of loot you get from exploration (data/relic sites)? Specifically, where it falls into the supply chain?
What I mean is: I understand mining, gives you minerals which is used to construct ships/structures. Moon goo = tech 2 production. Missions/FW give you faction gear. Etc…
But I’m at a loss of what I can do with exploration loot (other than sell it to someone who knows what to do with it).
Much of it is used to make either fits or T2 and other higher class ships and modules.
Thanks, thats helpful. Is there stuff that you can only obtain from exploration- or does exploration give you stuff that could be produced through some other means? (Like PI, manufacturing, moon goo)
I’ve never seen a BP for the stuff you find from hacking so I’m going to say they can only be obtained that way.
If you do a right click Show Info on the hack item there is an Industry tab that lists all the things it’s used for.
So, I know I’ve tried that on a few items, only to see it produces something else I don’t recognize.
But to your point, I probably could have kept clicking down the chain until it eventually hits something I know.
You can find a lot of different things from blueprints to components and data cores. It’s been a while but I think you can also find modules. Ccp was taking about moving modules more into bpc so that may be the case for all of them now.
If you Right Click > Show Info on the stuff from the sites, there will be an Industry tab that shows what Blueprints it is used with. Then you can look at those BPOs to see how much, and what else you’d need.
Relic sites give you t1 and t2 salvage, the same stuff you get when salvaging wrecks. This loot is needed to make t1 and t2 rigs.
I usually only do relic sites, not data sites, but from the few data sites I did I got data cores, which I think are used in invention, blueprints and some components.
Yup, data sites give you data cores that are mandatory for invention (ie turning T1 bpc into T2 bpc), even though data cores are usually rather obtained from R&D agents (requires omega-restricted science skills) or, says my first link, from factional warfare LP stores.
More often, I’ve found that data sites provide decryptors, that help manipulate invention in different ways (see invention link).
The 3 social skillbooks not seeded on the market (ie sold by NPCs) — distribution, mining and security connections — are found there too. I can’t remember for the life of me whether they come from relic or data sites, though; they’re pretty rare.
I believe there are some science skillbooks in data sites too (Takmahl / Talocan / Yan Jung technologies at least) and, iirc (that’s a big “if”), those are needed only for tech 3 research and/or production… or is it sleeper tech/encryption methods? Bottom line is: don’t bother to buy & train those 5 unless you’re sure you need them. That’s a lesson I learned the hard way 
If we’re talking about exploration in the general sense, then we also have to consider ore anoms, gas sites (another branch of mining), wormholes (I can’t tell you much about those, haven’t tried yet), and combat sites & escalation (anoms and signatures, the later has to be scanned down).
In combat sites and escalations, you will loot (pirate) faction equipment and (sometimes) BPCs (eg that), that give better bonuses / at lower trade off, or can be turned into good isk. I usually see these expensive modules as “the edge” that PVP players look for.
So, to sum it all up, exploration is a low-cost-of-entry activity to find different kinds of stuff that are needed for (usually) high-cost-of-entry activities (eg T2 industry). It was designed to provide something profitable enough to do for “younger” pilots. “Selling to some one who knows what to do with it” is exactly the point! 
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