PVE

Perpetuum offers a lot of different options to shoot some NPCs, which in turn, shoot at you. But if you win, the rewards are usually worth the challenge. The internal reactor of most Niani bots is full of Reactor Plasma, which fetches a hetfy price on the market to to it's immense energy content, and the bigger the bot - the more plasma it has. This energy is why Perpetuum Project exists in the first place

Aside from plasma, NPCs drop pieces of their central memory units called kernels. Those are used in Research to find out more about Nian tech and create versions of our own.

Wreckage of the bots referred to as fragments can be used to create prototypes of equipment needed to mass-produce it

And lastly, pieces of equipment robots use to shoot you and defend themselves can be salvaged as well, in various states of distress after the explosive deconstruction of it's carrier.

Nian bots usually partol their own territory, protecting it from any agressors and call in reinforcements if their numbers drop. Each one of those partrols, we call a spawn.

Spawn Farming
Farming static spawns is usually the easiest PVE activity to do, due to their (normally) passive nature. They will lose interest in you if you go too far away and won't attack first.

It's not without risk fo course, some NPC are much more powerful than others. You can learn more about their relative power level in NPC Ranks article

Roaming spawns
Also known as "convoys", those spawns are mobile, not tied to one place on the island. They are also usually agressive, attacking anyone who dares go too close, though their agression range varies and usualyl is a fair bit shorter than normal spawns. You can see them only on Beta islands and they consist of stronger NPCs but they don't respawn until the whole pack is elliminated.

Syndicate spawns
Those are static spawns as well, but they are different in the loot they provide. Not as bountiful as normal spawns in terms of items dropped, they provide much more common kernels and plasma. Commonly referred as "money spawn", for obvious reasons.

Can be found on Alpha and Beta 1 islands

Observers
Those are the elite Nian forces. Aggressive, powerful and dangerous. Teams of Observers can be seen roaming on Hershfield and All Beta islands.

Use caution, those are much tougher than similar types of regular robots. But they do drop much better loot as well so it's not all bad!

TAPs
TAPs (or Teleport Attractor Ports) are the field devices, planted nearby of the Teleport Anomalies. These will disable the anomaly, forcing the incoming waves of enemy spawns to jump to it's deployed location.

Just be ready to properly intercept them, especially when choosing a proper TAP, since the spawn waves are very unpredictable.

Difference between Orange and Red markers on NPC's
Orange = Passive NPC = Will NOT attack you upon getting close to it. Will only attack when aggro'ed. Almost all static spawns and some convoys are made from such NPC's. Also some Observers seen near Artifacts are marked, yet they need to be force-spawned. Remember: Forced spawns will be counted as aggro, so keep it in mind, especially against Observers during exploration runs.

Red = Active NPC = Will attack you, and chase actively when getting close to it. All Observers, some roaming spawns and (rarely on Beta 2 islands) static spawn or two are marked as Active NPC's. Beware, and watch yourself for them.