Jump clones

This page covers the jump clones used by players to use different sets of implants, and to move quickly around New Eden. If you are looking for the mechanic that used to be called the "medical clone", see Home Station.

Jump clones are a technology used by players to transfer ("jump") their consciousnesses from one body to another. They are effectively a "fast travel" mechanic in EVE, and they can also be used to maintain different sets of implants used for different purposes.

Summary

An animated guide to how jump clones work.‎

You can only have one active "body", but by using clones, you can move between two bodies in two different places, regardless of the distance between them, or you can swap between bodies within one station or player-owned structure.

When a character "clone jumps" from one body to another, they take their skill points, standings, corporation membership, and cerebral accelerator effects with them. However, they cannot take any items with them, and both implants and the effects of drugs other than cerebral accelerators remain with the old body. (This makes logical sense if you think about implants and drug effects as things applied to a particular physical brain.) The old body turns into a new jump clone, and they can jump back into it later.

Creating jump clones

Required training

In order to create or use jump clones, you need at least one level in the skill Infomorph Psychology. This skill has no prerequisites and its first level is very quickly trained, but it does cost 1 million ISK when seeded on NPC skilbook markets, and is therefore not normally an immediate purchase for very new players.

EVE University members can get full reimbursement for this skill, among many others, through the University Skillbook Program.

Clone bays

Normally, you must also be in an NPC station or player-owned structure with "clone bay" facilities. Clone bays in NPC stations charge a moderate installation fee of 900,000 ISK. Player-owned structures have fees set by their owners and based on your standings to the owners. Friendly structures might charge much less than 900,000 ISK, down to an essentially meaningless minimum of 1 ISK.

A long, long time ago...
Before the Aegis update on July 14th of 2015, there was a requirement that you, or your corporation, have a standing of 8.0 or better with the corp that owned the station where you wanted to buy a jump clone.

To find a clone bay:

1. Access your map (default: F10)
2. Click on the second icon from the left in the title bar, the multicolored circle called Color By
3. In the Services section, select Clone Bay

Your map will highlight all the systems with clone bays, hovering over the system will tell you exactly which station.

You can also look for clone bays in player-owned structures, which are often cheaper than stations, but might one day be lost:

1. Access your game menu (the first icon in the top left)
2. In the Utilities sub-menu, click on Structure Browser
3. Click on Service Filter and select Clone Bay

The list will update with all the nearby structures with clone bays. The "Jump Clone Installation" column will show the installation fee for NPC structures.

Clone installation

This pilot is docked in a station with a clone bay, and the "Install Clone" button has lit up as an available option.‎

Once docked in a station or structure with a clone bay, either:

• click on the "Clone Bay" icon in the station menu (which is, by default, on the right-hand side of the screen); or
• open your Character Sheet either from the Neocom or by pressing alt+A, select the "Character" tab, and the "Jump Clones" subtab

Then select the "Install Clone" button available on the right-hand side of the window. When the game asks whether you accept the payment for installing a jump clone, click "Yes".

You now have an inactive clone in the station where you are currently docked.

Clone activation

To jump between clones, you must be docked up, ready for a session change, and only in your pod, i.e. not inside any kind of ship.

Open your Character Sheet window, and navigate through the "Character" tab to the "Jump Clones" subtab. From this menu you can rename any of your existing clones (e.g. "Costly Implants" to remind you what's in the clone's head), destroy a clone, or, most importantly, jump to a clone, by clicking the "Jump" button next to it. You will immediately jump to the selected clone's location. The clone you were just in is now itself a jump clone.

Leaving a jump clone behind at the station or structure you are jumping from requires you to pay a fee (because someone then has to look after one of your inactive bodies). This fee is 900,000 ISK at NPC stations. Owners of Upwell structures can set whatever fees they like.

Cooldowns

Jumping is instantaneous, but incurs a 24-hour cooldown timer before your next clone jump. Training Infomorph Synchronizing cuts this cooldown by 1 hour per skill level.

If you are in a player-owned Upwell structure and you jump from an active clone to an inactive clone stored in the same structure, you do not get a cooldown. You can jump "within" an Upwell structure in this manner even within a clone jump cooldown.

Jump clones in wormholes

Note that you cannot clone jump into, out of, or between wormhole systems. Wormhole systems can only be entered through wormholes. The sole exception is the special wormhole system Thera, which has NPC stations and acts like known space for clone jumping purposes.

Players can, however, install a clone in an Upwell structure with a clone bay in, and switch clones within the same structure. This means that characters living inside wormhole space can keep a training clone with learning implants safe in a player-owned Upwell structure, and only put a clean clone at risk in the dangers of wormhole space.

Uses

There are three main advantages to using jump clones:

1. Quick travel to other parts of the EVE universe: You can have jump clones (with a few ships and modules) positioned in various parts of New Eden, allowing you to easily jump between these stations to participate in activities suitable for that location.
2. Safeguarding valuable implants: the destruction of your pod destroys any implants you had in that clone's head. You can switch to a "clean clone", that is, a jump clone with no implants, when there is a significant risk that you will be podded. Players typically use clean clones for PvP in nullsec and wormhole space, and sometimes for trips into Abyssal Deadspace.
3. Specialization for particular tasks: as skill hardwiring implants give very specific bonuses (e.g. the Zainou 'Deadeye' Large Hybrid Turret implant gives a bonus to damage for large hybrid turret weapons only) and cannot be removed without destroying them, it may be worth having jump clones with implant sets geared towards different activities.

Examples

1. A pilot is running high-level missions for two NPC corporations, which are located far away from each other (to, for instance, balance out her faction standings). Instead of flying her slow battleship between the two mission hubs, she installs a jump clone (and stations a fully fit battleship) at each mission hub. She can then clone jump between the two locations easily to run missions for both corporations (on alternate days).
2. A new member of EVE University has taken advantage of the University's implants program and installed a set of +3 learning implants to speed up his skill training. He wants to poke his toes into low-sec, but is worried about being ganked and losing his implants. He therefore creates a jump clone without any implants, and switches to it before heading into low-sec, thereby safeguarding his implants. He can then switch back and forth between his clone with implants (to speed up his skill training) and his clean clone (for venturing into lowsec) depending on what he wants to do that day in EVE.
3. An experienced pilot wants to specialise in running Incursions, but still enjoys some frigate PvP to relax. She creates a jump clone and fits it out with high-level (and expensive!) implants to maximise the performance of her incursion-running battleship (e.g. implants to boost the amount of armor on her ship and the damage of her large laser turrets), but switches to a clone without any implants when she just wants to jump into her frigate and shoot at anything that moves.
4. An industrialist runs an extensive manufacturing operation in a quiet, out-of-the-way system. They hate hauling, so to sell their final product they ship their items via courier contract to a trade hub. They then create a jump clone at the trade hub, and uses it periodically to get to the trade hub to sell their products faster than they could fly there in a ship).

Capital ship clone vats

The Clone Vat Bay is a high-slot module which can only be fitted to Rorquals or Titans. The relevant Rorqual or Titan pilot must have the skill Cloning Facility Operation at at least level I. Each level of this skill increases clone bay size by 15%; depending on pilot skill, a Rorqual's clone capacity ranges from 6 to 12 clones, while a Titan's ranges from 86 to 150.

Each use of the Clone Vat Bay consumes 1 Liquid Ozone as fuel. Activating the Bay immobilizes the host ship during the Bay's 5-minute cycle time, though it does not break the tether from a friendly player structure. Pilots wishing to use the Bay must be within 5000m of the host ship. The host ship pilot can right-click any other pilot and choose "Offer Clone Installation". This sends a prompt to the other pilot to accept the offer. Acceptance transfers 900,000 ISK from the SFI pilot to the Titan pilot and installs a clean clone.

For pilots to clone jump to the host ship, the Clone Vat Bay must once again be active. Pilots then select the "Jump" button next to the relevant clone as they would with any other clone in their Character Sheet. This subtracts a further 900,000 ISK from the jumping pilot's wallet for the act of jump cloning to a facility that is not a player structure. The jumping pilot then spawns in an empty capsule about 5000m from the host ship itself.

Clones are stored in an invisible part of the ship and are not destroyed if the Clone Vat Bay is unfitted, but if the host vessel is destroyed then the clones installed are lost. Clones are visible to the host vessel with the "Configure Clone Facility" option in the capacitor doughnut, which lists the pilots with clones installed, the available clone space remaining and the option to invite or destroy a clone from another pilot. Only one clone can be installed per host vessel per pilot.

Clone Vat Bays are rarely used in the current metagame, although they can offer a specific advantage or utility in some niche circumstances. Titan Bridges and Ansiblex Jump Gate networks are more effective means of rapid long-distance transport, and allow pilots to bring their ships with them.

Losing jump clones

If your pod is destroyed, you lose any implants that were in that clone's head, and you wake up in a fresh clone at your previously-designated Home Station. This new clone replaces the one which was lost in your pod.

There are a few events which would destroy one of your jump clones remotely, without you being present:

1. If an inactive jump clone is located in a player-owned structure, that clone will be destroyed if the structure is destroyed, or if the owner of the structure offlines or unplugs the clone module.
2. You will also lose access to a clone in a player structure if the owner of the structure changes the structure's Access List to exclude you.
3. If a structure enters low power mode or enters its hull reinforcement timer, its clone bay will go offline and you will lose access to the clone stored there. Should the structure survive and be powered back up, you will regain access.
4. If an inactive jump clone is located in the Clone Vat Bay of a capital ship, and that ship is destroyed, the jump clone (and any implants installed in it) will be destroyed.

You can also destroy any jump clone via the Jump Clone tab on your character sheet. This can be handy for freeing up a jump clone slot so that you can install a new one at your current location, especially if the other jump clone had no implants in it.

Relevant skills

 Infomorph Psychology (1x, 1M ISK)
Allows 1 jump clone per level. Most pilots train at least some levels in this.

 Advanced Infomorph Psychology (5x, 36M ISK)
Allows 1 additional jump clone per level. This is useful for pilots who need lots of jump clones, but many pilots never train it.

 Infomorph Synchronizing (2x, 5M ISK)
Reduces time between clone jumps by 1 hour per level. Since the minimum possible cooldown, at level V, is still 19 hours, and since the cooldown can be avoided by swapping between two clones within an Upwell structure, this skill might not be much help to anyone who isn't constantly hopping around New Eden.

 Cloning Facility Operation (10x, 125M ISK)
Required for the installation of the Clone Vat Bay module on a Rorqual or Titan. Increases a Clone Vat Bay's maximum clone capacity by 15% per skill level. This skill is only relevant to capital ship pilots.