Territorial Claim Unit

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What is a TCU?

Territorial Claim Units or TCUs are essentially flags put up by an alliance. Whoever owns the TCU in a system will be listed on the starmap as the owner of the system.

TCUs do have one tangible benefit, though, by way of a 25% reduction in fuel consumption to any Player-Owned Starbase owned by the same alliance in that system.

TCUs are deployed near planets and can be destroyed or secured by using an Entosis Link.

Deploying a TCU

To set up a TCU for your alliance, you must meet the following criteria:

• You must be in a player corporation which is in an alliance.
• You must have the skill Anchoring trained to at least Level I (needs re-verification, possibly removed with corp roles)
• You must have a target system that is in sovereign nullsec (not NPC-controlled) that does not currently have a TCU deployed.
• You must be near a planet. You can be as close as 350km from the planet or as far as the warp-in distance plus another 1,000km.
• To claim the TCU for your alliance, you must have an Entosis Link fitted.

You can right click the TCU in your cargo hold, use the radial menu, or simply drag-and-drop it into space to deploy it. The TCU may appear far away, as it's programmed to center itself on the nearest available grid, avoiding any overlap with other structures or ships. When first deployed a TCU is owned by the NPC Secure Commerce Commission. You'll have to capture it through an Entosis Link to actually claim ownership.

Capturing a TCU

Once a TCU is in space, it is visible on the overview of every pilot in the system. Anyone with an Entosis Link who is a member of a player alliance can attempt to capture the TCU during its Vulnerability Window.

If a TCU is successfully captured, it enters a reinforcement period until a random time during its vulnerability window two days later. When the reinforcement period ends, a Capture Event will begin in the constellation where the TCU is located. 5 Command Nodes will spawn in random systems in the constellation. The Capture Event will continue until one side wins total control of the "tug-of-war." Each Command Node is worth 5% control, and the contest begins 60-40 in favor of the defender. This means that the owner can successfully defend the TCU if they capture 8 Nodes without giving up any to the attackers. Conversely, this means the attackers have to capture a minimum of 12 Nodes.

Each Command Node's capture time has a base value of 4 minutes, multiplied for the attackers by the Activity Defense Multiplier of the system in which the TCU is located. The Activity Defense Multiplier of the system in which the Command Node is located in has no effect.

If the Capture Event goes on for very long, the number of active Command Nodes at any one time will increase from the initial 5 up to a max of 10. As soon as one Node is captured, it will despawn and be replaced by another randomly spawned somewhere in the constellation.

If the defenders win the Capture Event, they will secure the TCU and it will become invulnerable until its next window. If the attackers win the Capture Event, the TCU will be destroyed and anyone can deploy a new one and capture it to claim the system for themselves.