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Just because you want to do it, doesn't mean that it will benefit you.

Just because you want to do it, doesn’t mean that it will benefit you.

So, since these have been released, I have found.. exactly.. Three. In Total. Two had been mostly ran, and whoever had done them had given up part way through.  Why?  Well, if you ever have run the third part of “The Recon” mission, you’d understand why.  The site is full of gas clouds, pressure waves, explosive plasma bursts and even forcefields that can get tripped.  Not a site for the faint of heart, or weak of ship. And to be honest, not exactly profitable either.

First off, if you don’t have top hacking and archeology skills.. don’t even bother.  It literally is a waste of your time and a waste of the site.  Most of the stuff you can hack in there is drops pretty worthless garbage.  Maybe a few sleeper trinkets, but expect cheap trash modules (meta 3 and 4 hybrid weapons so far).  The only real prize will be kept in the containers that are hard to hack and are booby-trapped.

Second, if you don’t have a good frigate class exploration ship, then you aren’t likely to walk away with your ship.  Anything bigger won’t even get let in.  Personally I use an actively tanked Astero, and with my relevant skills (all level V) the entire site was pretty hairy.

Third, you will need some flying skills.  Not skills as in skillbook skills, but real, life flying and maneuvering skills. Fourth, you may need to change your video card settings because, if your videocard is like mine, the gas effects can make your video choppy and laggy, which you really, really don’t want.

The Challenges and The Solutions

The first thing you need to understand is that ALL of the containers are booby-trapped, just in different ways.  However, the hardest one, which is in the middle of a gas pressure cloud, is the one with the prized loot.  The second hardest, will appear to have a non-functioning shield unit nearby (I forget what the name is).  This will activate a shield when you get within 15 to 20km of the container.  The rest of the containers are either on the edge of a gas cloud, or are near a plasma container that will erupt and spray plasma your way until you get out of range.

When you first enter the site, you will see a Remote Defense Unit right away.  I knew it belonged to the container with the best prize.  I ignored it because a.) I was in hostile space and b.) I wanted to be done with the more familiar containers, just in case I needed to bail.  P.S. if you fail to correctly hack a Remote Defense Unit, they explode, severely damaging your ship.

The first of the two easiest containers to get to are those that are on the edge of an existing gas cloud.  The problem with those on the edge of the gas cloud is that is isn’t always easy to see where that cloud is.  CCP made it so that there is just a small opening where you can pilot your ship up to the container to hack it.  Against a small ship, however, the damage that gas cloud can give isn’t something to be ignored.  If you try and run through it.. you can expect to lose your ship.  The hack itself might be rated as a medium (or yellow), depending on your viewpoint.

The second of the two easiest containers are those near plasma containers, the big bulbous looking things.  It appears that in order for you not to trip the containers into spewing out plasma in your direction (and it covers the entire area around the container), is to not get closer than 2000km to the container itself.  The moment you do, it sets off the plasma, and you will be trying to out-rep the damage as you hack.  These ones are also medium (or yellow) hacks.

The next hardest container is the container that has a turned off shield unit nearby.  It seems that if you get within 20km of the container, the shield suddenly powers up and and an impenetrable bubble shield surrounds the container.  The good news is that whether you trip the shield or not, you can go to the nearby Remote Defense Unit and try to disarm it.  It is a hard red hack and failure to do it means that you aren’t getting into that container.  If you do succeed, then you can get to the container and hack it.  I believe it is a medium hack at this point (but my memory is a bit fuzzy).

The hardest container is the one in the center of a pressure cloud.  It is very prominent and so you can easily tell that it likely has the best loot.  The first Remote Defense Unit controls the pressure cloud.. for a time.  It is a hard hack and if successful, you have only 60 seconds to get to that container before the pressure wave starts up again.  The pressure wave is pretty intense as it damages you twice with each wave.. and each wave feels like it hits every five seconds.  If you don’t hack the remote defense unit, you might try to just power through the pressure wave.. but you are very likely to lose your ship in the attempt.  It is much more powerful than the other gas clouds that are in the site.  The container hack itself is also a hard hack, so you’ll want to focus as much as you can on a success.  Like normal data/relic sites, you do get two chances to hack the container.

My prize?  Polarized Rocket Launcher 10-run BPC and a few odds and ends.  To be honest, rather disappointing.  The other two sites I stumbled upon yielded even less, but then again, the people who opened them didn’t run them well.

Conclusion

The Limited Sleeper Sites and the more advanced Sleeper sites, coming in Rhea are definitely geared toward the higher experienced explorers and they fit their purpose well.  I cannot re-iterate this enough.. it is a WASTE of your time and a WASTE of the site if you do not have your hacking and archeology skills up to five.  Even if you do have level 5 skills in both of those… it still may not be profitable.

Here are some more comments on them on the Eve Forums, as well as some of the feedback from the Test Server.

And if you have lore minded thoughts on them, read this.