Jump drives

This page should be updated due to game changes.
Reason: Add something about the new Jump Gate, Cyno Beacon and Cyno Jammer. Also check the sections after the Operation section

Most capital ships, the largest ships in New Eden, have more options than just stargates to move around. These ships have a built-in "jump drive" that they can use to teleport to a cynosural field in a different system. Operating a jump drive requires a lot of skill points, but it gives capital ships the potential to move to a different system very quickly (subject to Jump Fatigue).

Operation

Jump drives are not modules. They are built into the hull of the ship. All ships that contain a jump drive require the Jump Drive Operation skill to pilot. The following classes of ship contain jump drives:

• Dreadnoughts
• Carriers
• Supercarriers
• Titans
• Jump Freighters
• Black Ops Battleships
• Capital Industrial Ships

Unlike stargates, which are free to use, jump drives require fuel. The jump drive comes with a special fuel bay. The fuel required depends on the faction that constructed that drive, and can be produced by refining corresponding ice. The respective fuel type for each faction is:

Amarr, Blood Raider, Sansha, CONCORD	Helium isotopes
Caldari, Gurista	Nitrogen isotopes
Gallente, ORE, Serpetnis	Oxygen isotopes
Minmatar	Hydrogen isotopes

The fuel cost for each jump does not depend on the number of stargate jumps to the destination. It depends on the distance between the two systems in space (measured in light-years). Each jump drive has a maximum jump range, and consumes a certain amount of fuel per light-year. The skill Jump Drive Calibration increases the jump range by 20% per level which means at the maximum of level five the range is doubled. The skill Jump Fuel Conservation redudes the fuel consumption by 10% per level which means that you use half the fuel at the maximum level of five. Jump freighters also have their required fuel reduced by the skill required to fly them. These three skills make a huge difference to the base figures, as shown in the table. Jump ranges are prone to rebalance with patches. Used to be 3.5 - 6.5 ly base ranges, but were shortened during the October 2014 Phoebe release as part of an effort to reduce long range power projection in nullsec. This change is being reverted, together with a big increase in jump ranges for the capital industrial ship, in the November 2016 Ascension expansion.

Ship class	Ship type	Base Range	Max Skills Range	Fuel per ly	Fuel bay (m3)	Fuel bay (units)
Capital	Dreadnought	3.5 ly	7 ly	3000 units	8 000	266 666
	Carrier				3 000	100 000
	FAX
Super Capital	Supercarrier	3.0 ly	6 ly	3000 units	5 000	166 666
	Titan				60 000	2 000 000
Jump Freighter	Anshar	5.0 ly	10 ly	9400 units	12 000	400 000
	Nomad			8200 units
	Ark			8800 units
	Reha			10000 units
Black Ops Battleship		4.0 ly	8 ly	700 units	1 250	41 666
Capital Industrial Ship	Rorqual	5 ly	10 ly	4000 units	10 000	333 333

Finally, activating a ship's jump drive consumes 95% of the energy in its capacitor (reduced by 5% per level of Jump Drive Operation), so the above mentioned ships are relatively weak just after jumping. Capital ships making multiple jumps are often fit with cap rechargers and capacitor power relays (a travel fit) to reduce the amount of time between jumps.

Jumpdrive Isotope Usage Formula

The white part of the formula applies to all jumpdrive capable ships. The green part only applies to Jump Freighters and the red part only applies to Jump Freighters and Rorquals. The red part is stacking penalized so the order of the modules is from highest bonus to lowest bonus.

Variable Name	Meaning	Valid Values
LY	Light Years	up to ~ 10.00	Distance of the jump.
F	Fuel Consumption	up to 10 000	Base Isotope Fuel Consumption per Light Year.
JFC	Jump Fuel Conservation level	0-5
JF	Jump Freighters level	0-5	Only applies to Jump Freighters.
JDEx	Jump Drive Economizer	0.04, 0.07, 0.1	Jump Drive Economizer fuel bonus. Stacking penalized, ordered with highest bonus first and lowest bonus last. Only Jump Freighters and Rorquals.

Cynosural Fields

Cynosure (say "SIGH no sure") is a little-used word. It means a guide, or a person or thing that draws attention towards itself. It was once the name of the North Star, making it a very appropriate name to give to the cynosural fields of New Eden.

In order to jump, a jump drive must first lock onto a cynosural field, or "cyno", at its destination. These fields can be produced either by the Cynosural Field Generator modules, or the Cynosural Generator Array, which can be anchored at a POS. The module can only generate a cynosural field in systems with a security of 0.4 or below (low-sec or null-sec), and the array can only be anchored in sovereign nullsec. It is also impossible to produce a cynosural field in wormhole space.

The Field Generator module requires the  Cynosural Field Theory skill to operate. For a ship to activate the module, it must have 500 units (200 m³) of liquid ozone in its cargohold, which is consumed when the module is activated. The amount of fuel required to "light a cyno" is reduced by 10% for every level of  Cynosural Field Theory the user has. The cynosural field stays active for 10 minutes, during which time the ship generating the field is unable to move, dock, or eject its pilot. (Other systems still work as normal.) It's dangerous enough to be immobile in lowsec, but it gets worse: when the cyno is active, it appears on the system overview, so that anybody in the system can warp to its location. It also appears on the universe map. As a result, most ships that light a cyno are expendable frigates. The Tech 2 Force Recon cruisers get an 80% reduction to the cost of lighting a cyno, and are only rendered immobile for 5 minutes, but they're expensive ships for lighting a cyno.

The cynosural field generated by the Cynosural Generator Array is always active. The array must be anchored at a starbase by a member of the alliance that has claimed sovereignty over the system, and has also installed the Cynosural Navigation upgrade.

Once the cyno is lit, a capital ship in the same fleet as the ship lighting it (or in the same alliance, in the case of the array) can right-click on the pilot lighting the cyno and select "Jump" to jump to the field.

Jump Bridges

Titans and Black Ops ships are able to fit a special module called a Jump Portal Generator. This is a high-slot passive module which enables the Bridge function of the ship. This allows them to transport other ships to a cynosural field, even if the other ships do not have jump drives of their own. Using the module requires  Jump Portal Generation. The ship with the Generator must first be within jump range of a cyno lit by a member of the fleet. Once the cyno is lit, the Generator pilot can create a jump bridge (the "Bridge" option is right next to the "Jump" option), which behaves something like a temporary stargate for the other ships in their fleet. The jump bridge stays open for one minute, and immobilizes the ship holding it open. The act of opening a Titan bridge costs 500 units of Strontium Clathrates (there is no cost for opening a Black Ops bridge), modified by  Jump Portal Generation, and when ships jump across the bridge, they consume fuel from the bridging ship's fuel bay. If there is no fuel in the fuel bay, the ship will consume fuel stored in the cargohold. Titan bridges last for 60 seconds and have huge fuel bays (60000m3).

For other ships to be able to jump through, they must be in the same fleet and within 2500 meters of the ship creating the jump bridge. When the jump bridge is up, the Generator pilot should announce it. The pilot that wants to jump then clicks on the jump bridge ship in space or in the overview. Either method opens a box with the the option "Jump through to [SYSTEM NAME]". If clicked too soon, these two options do not automatically update and require you to click again. Another way is to bring up the radial menu on the jump bridge ship or the pilot in the watch list, which does update if you hold it open. The symbol you click on is at 12:00 o’clock and is a stick-figure person. This symbol highlights and becomes active when the jump bridge is up.

Ships that jump through a jump portal use up isotopes from the bridger's fuel hold. The formula to calculate how much fuel is used is:

Mass × Portal Consumption Mass Factor × Base Cost × Skill Mod × Distance in LY

	Titan	Black Ops
Base Cost	3000 Isotopes	700 Isotopes
Portal Consumption Mass Factor	0.000000001	0.000000135
Skill Modifier	1 - (0.1 x Generator's  Jump Fuel Conservation level)

For example, a Manticore jumping through a Black Ops bridge will consume 69 isotopes per LY with  Jump Fuel Conservation V:

1,470,000kg mass x 0.000000135 x 700 isotope base cost x 0.5 JFC V modifier x 1LY = 69.4575

Both Titans and Black Ops can bridge and jump to Cynosural Fields, but only Black Ops can bridge and jump to Covert Cynosural Fields.

A bridge can be activated if the host ship is in a warp disruption bubble, but ships inside the warp disruption bubble cannot take the bridge, only those outside a warp disruption bubble and who are not warp disrupted below a warp core strength of 0.

Covert Cynosural Fields

The Covert Cynosural Field Generator is a module similar to the regular Cynosural Field Generator, but it can only be fit to Black Ops Battleships, as well as all ships that can fit a Covert Ops Cloaking Device, with exception of the Astero and Stratios:

• Blockade Runners
• Covert Ops Frigates
• Stealth Bombers
• Force Recon Cruisers
• Strategic Cruisers (with the appropriate subsystem)

The module generates a covert cynosural field, which is different to the normal cynosural field in a few important ways.

• Activating the module requires the Cynosural Field Theory skill to be trained to V.
• The field does not appear on the overview of everyone in the system (although it still shows up when probed or scanned for).
• The fuel cost and duration are a tenth of that of a normal cynosural field.
• The module can be used even in sovereign nullsec systems which contain cyno-jamming arrays.

The module still immobilizes the ship generating the field. When the module is used by a Force Recon Cruiser, the covert cyno (and immobilization) lasts only 30 seconds.

Only one class of ship has a jump drive capable of locking onto covert cynosural fields: the Black Ops Battleship. Luckily, this class of ship can also fit a Covert Jump Portal Generator (requiring Jump Portal Generation), which creates a covert jump bridge to the battleship's destination. Any ship that can fit a Covert Ops Cloaking Device, does not have to be fit just has to be able to fit it, (Covert Ops, Stealth Bombers, Force Recons, Blockade Runners) and T3 cruisers with the Covert Reconfiguration subsystem installed can jump across the bridge, as long as it is in the same fleet as the ship opening the bridge. The bridge lasts for 20 seconds, and ships jumping through consume fuel from the fuel bay of the Black Ops ship. The bridge allows groups of stealthy ships to sneak behind enemy lines.

Jump Fatigue and Jump Activation Cooldown

As of the October 2014 Phoebe release, traveling using a Jump Drive, Jump Portal, Jump Bridge, Covert Jump Drive or Covert Jump Portal causes fatigue to capsuleers and a delay is required between successive jumps. This delay is determined by the jump fatigue mechanic. Jump fatigue is presented as a time value, indicating the time it will take to decay to zero, and can accumulate to a maximum of 5 days. It decays in real time, whether logged in or not. Jump fatigue is recalculated after every jump.

• Jump fatigue has a minimum value of 10 x (1 + (LY just travelled)) minutes
• Otherwise, the existing jump fatigue is multiplied by (1+*LY just travelled)

During each jump (and before jump fatigue is recalculated) a Jump Activation cooldown also appears. While this is active, the ship cannot travel by jump drive, jump bridge or jump portal.

• The Jump Activation cooldown has a minimum value of (1+(LY just jumped) in minutes
• Otherwise, the Jump Activation cooldown is one tenth of the pilot's Jump Fatigue value (before the jump fatigue is recalculated for this jump)

In practice this means that ships can typically jump around once per hour (more if jumps are shorter) without accumulating Jump Fatigue, but more frequent jumping will rapidly build fatigue. Jump freighters and other industrial ships will be able to maintain more frequent jumps.

• the Jump Activation cooldown is capped at 30 minutes
• Jump Fatigue is capped at 5 hours

For example, if a carrier wants to travel a long distance by making 5 ly jumps:

• Before the first jump, the pilot has Jump Activation (JA) cooldown of 0 minutes and Jump Fatigue (JF) of 0 minutes.
• After the first jump, the pilot has JA cooldown of 6 minutes and JF of 60 minutes.
• After waiting 6 minutes for the JA to decay, the pilot has JA cooldown of 0 minutes and JF of 54 minutes.
• After the second jump, the pilot has JA cooldown of 6 minutes and JF of 5 hours (the maximum).
• After waiting 6 minutes for the JA to decay, the pilot has JA cooldown of 0 minutes and JF of 4h 54m.
• After the third jump, the pilot has JA cooldown of 30 minutes (the maximum) and JF of 5 hours (the maximum).
• After waiting for 30 minutes for the JA to decay, the pilot has JA cooldown of 0 minutes and JF of 4h 54m.

Two groups of ships have special considerations:

• Black Ops Battleships and the covert cloaking ships they bridge gain a 75% reduction to effective distance jumped when calculating fatigue.

The following ships gain a 90% reduction to effective distance traveled when calculating fatigue:

• Jump Freighters
• Capital Industrial Ships
• Deep Space Transports
• Blockade Runners
• Industrials
• Shuttles
• Capsules

Links

• Jump Activation and Jump Fatigue (EVE Help Center)
• Dev Blog Jump Fatigue Changes March 2018
• Jump Fatigue and Jump Activation Cooldown calculator