So my friend just brought it to my attention that I'm starting to carry around WAY too much scanning. As an explorer I have 325 scan carried 24/7 and will soon be increasing that by another 120 from my quad frames.

445 scan is ALOT at rank 121, when coupled with 335 cloak, it should keep me safe from hackers (unless they spam me with artifacts, which isn't nice) and make me a decent hacker in myself.

So, how much scan should I be carrying around for NPC and PvP?

to see all random-spawning npcs (specifically certain elites and bosses) you want at least 600 scan

I don't think thats a lot. I had about 900 scan at that rank and run 5K since rank 300.

Not at rank 121. I don't think there's any boss/rare NPC with cloak at that rank. Get as much or little scan as you're comfortable with. Outside not getting hacked I don't see any reason to get scan on. I mean, at your rank, where your ship space is quite limited. At your rank I think I had whatever scan the missions modules had on.

If you just want to limit yourself to what you can see at a specific rank....

i'm using the sharable rank only as a guide here...
scan isn't necessary to see alerts, but necessary for one to appear on your own BT
i think some people have claimed they've seen some npcs while outside of the sharable range
i'm not going to list every npc... just a few lowbies w/ cloak, and dark command nexus

Yahnosh, Sha'din Hacker, cloak 150, ranks 55-175 (personally never seen this one myself)
Sha'din AI Matrix, cloak 200, ranks 125-600
Dark MegaComplex, cloak 300, ranks 150-750
XRP Prototype, cloak 300, ranks 200-900
Dark Command Nexus, cloak 600, ranks 260-1200

If you kill NPCs to level up faster then keep your scan as low as possible to avoid those CTP collectors. Scan does help a little with critical hits but it's not worth it in my experience.

I don't worry much about getting hacked. A lot of players avoid hitting ships with good battle rankings. I''m a Savage Grand Legend. I have really weak cloaking for my level so I'm an easy hack for players below my rank but it's usually higher rank players who hack me. My cloaks a little under 1000.

I also have a high research production so if I lose 500RP from a hack it doesn't make much difference. I pull in 9000+RP/hr and fill my research capacity in about 6hrs. (currently rank 365)

Scanners take up a lot of space which is better filled with good attack and defence ship parts. Those are what you need to get a good battle reputation.

at rank 141 i have 426 with just npc/mission modules.

At 471 I have approx 1000 scan and cloak. All from special modules, no researched tech for either one. I'd say I'm generally an easy hack, but like Remainder 500RP isn't that big a deal. I get that back and then some because I'm still able to hack about 60% of my BT. Unless you're going for a dedicated hacker strategy (which I don't recommend) get rid of any researched modules. Better off with attack and defense. You do too much hacking and you'll have a lot of people visiting you for red badges, lowering your combat rep and making you a more inviting target for other people.

Hacking , I'd say you can never have too much scan/cloak. For NPCs, you don't need to detect the cloaked bosses -- you will get the module drops from those from your legionmates eventually. If you want more XP drop under 50 scan to avoid tech collectors.

thanks for this info.... i really hate tech collectors and they spawn a lot