Drifters

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Drifters

The Drifters were added in Tiamat, with the Coming To EVE In Tiamat dev blog saying:

“

Smarter and more cunning adversaries will begin to appear after the release of Tiamat. You should make sure that you keep an eye on what they're up to, and make sure that you stay locked and loaded whenever you come into contact with them. Things are moving in New Eden, be sure to follow in-game news and uncover these features in-game.

”

A picture of Drifters released with the expansion highlights

Drifter Battleship concept art.

Unidentified Structure concept art.

Drifters

The Drifters faction is similar to that of other NPC organizations such as the empire and pirate factions. By default, no capsuleer has standings with them. As soon as you kill Drifter ships, you will quickly gain negative standings (12% per battleship kill). Negative standings don't seem to have any effect currently.

Evidence points to various connections of the Drifters to New Eden's factions:

• Jove observatories have been decloaking in k-space and Jove corpses are floating in the Drifter wormhole systems.
• Sleeper ships and installations also appear together with the Drifters in wormholes.
• Sansha Revenant Supercarrier wrecks are also found in the Drifter wormhole systems.
• Fleets of Sisters of Eve ships can be seen as well in those wormholes and the alpha clone technology pioneered by the SoE may be connected to the Drifters as well.

Drifters Emerging from the ruins of the Sleeper civilization spread throughout Anoikis – otherwise known as 'W-space' – the Drifters represent a tremendous challenge and perhaps a dire threat to the empires and capsuleers alike. Seemingly the inheritors of a legacy left behind by some of the most ancient Jove, the Drifters are unafraid to wield tremendous power in response to any who get in their way. In this regard, the Drifters are a very different conundrum than the relatively benign presence that was the Jove Empire.

Vigilant Tyrannos

The Drifters faction has one member corp, the Vigilant Tyrannos corporation. Their CEO is Tyrannos Strategos and so far three pilot names have been encountered: Apollo Tyrannos, Artemis Tyrannos and Arithmos Tyrannos, the latter only in C5 and C6 wormhole escalations. As the Drifters have been found to harvest capsuleer, Jove and sleeper corpses, one speculation is that all identically named Drifters are clones of each other. The name Tyrannos may point to the long lost 2nd Jove Empire, which was erected and by the so called 1st Tyrant Miko Bour and later reigned by so-called Tyrants, powerful but not really tyrannical leaders.

Vigilant Tyrannos CONCORD intelligence reports indicate that Drifter military formations are operating under a single command structure represented by an enclave level organization with the designation 'Vigilant Tyrannos'. Despite monitoring the movements of ships broadcasting the identifier of this organization, no further information as to the motivation or goals of this force has been gleaned.

Ships

Little is known about the Drifters' ships, but so far capsuleers have encountered the following ship:

Drifter Battleship

Drifter Battleship CONCORD's analysis of this battleship has been hampered by its advanced hull and shielding. The propulsion system is unfamiliar but tentative theories have suggested that the vessel somehow directly interacts with the fabric of space-time while moving. The standard weapon systems of this ship appear to be semi-autonomous and effective against a range of targets. DED contact briefings suggest the free floating turrets are a secondary weapon, with an extremely dangerous primary weapon held in reserve against those this ship's commander considers a significant threat. Threat level: Critical

Encounters with these ships have revealed several unique mechanics related to them alone. One such mechanic is that of an "overshield" - an additional layer of shielding coloured blue on the targeting display. When this blue shield has been depleted, target locks on the Drifter break, in the manner of ECM. Many have also reported that the Drifters' weapons deal massive amounts of damage, difficult for any sub-capital ship to tank without a specialised fit. Even capital ships are not immune, with many carriers being lost to Drifters, many by players attempting to test their capabilities. It has been stated by CCP that the Drifters will not drop loot.

There are currently 3 tactics to take down Drifter battleships:

• Capitals and a few subcapitals (e.g. Abaddon) are able to tank the doomsday at full health. This requires a very blingy tank on the primary and a support fleet with dps and logi.
• A swarm of cheap high burst dps ships (with webs) will take a Drifter down easily, but loose at least one ship in the process.
• Since the doomsday weapon has tracking and signature limits it is possible to survive the doomsday in a fast close orbit. Typically logistics ships with Halo implants are used since they are typically primaried by the Drifter. A fleet of 20-30 ships (dps cruisers and logi) can take down a drifter in seconds with careful piloting and timing.

Drifter Wormhole Systems

There are 5 known Drifter wormhole systems that are similar to C2 wormholes with certain system effects. Although they are named by the typical J-type designations, they are informally named after their predominant structure: Vidette, Redoubt, Sentinel, Barbican and Conflux. Note that the first four names suggest an advanced military fortification. All Drifter wormhole systems seem to have 3 to 5 connections to known space (k-space). Their k-space connections are quite different from all other wormholes however:

• On the K-space side the wormhole is marked by a beacon called "Unidentified Wormhole" and is thus visible on the default overview.
• The k-space side connections carry unique names that are related to their name:
  • V928 Vidette (J164710 - Magnetar)
  • R259 Redoubt (J174618 - Wolf-Rayet)
  • S877 Sentinel (J055520- Red Giant)
  • B735 Barbican (J110145 - Cataclysmic Variable)
  • C414 Conflux (J200727 - Pulsar)
• On the wormhole side the connections carry the usual K162 designation after being opened, but are deadspaced, so you will always warp in at 80km distance.
• Drifter battleships guard these connections and will attack anybody trying to approach or travel them. A cloak and/or MWD is highly recommended.

All Drifter wormholes contain a number of huge Drifter installations protected by deadspace pockets and connected via acceleration gates and warpable Rifts. There is a chain of 4 main rooms plus access rooms branching off to the side.

1. Entrance: beacon, can warp at range, beacon is 50-80km from acc gate
2. Lobby: 2 acceleration gates, rift leads back to Entrance
3. Antechamber: webbing sleeper frigates, sleeper databank
4. Hive: hive structure, Hikanta Tyrannos (at 250-400km and aggros on warp in, moves at ~2km/s), vault (access with index in hold to get 10 elements)

• access room: hackable access units named according to the gate (alpha and beta)

Drifter wormhole sites are typically run with medium sized fleets (20-30 ships, dps and logi).

Drifter Incursions

For a while there were also Drifter Incursions into high sec systems. Multiple Drifter battleships decimated Amarr navy task forces and some capsuleers engaged the Drifters as well.

Drifters in C5 and C6 wormholes

Arithmos Tyrannos spawns at end of capital escalations in C5 and C6 wormholes in a Drifter battleship. He needs to be pointed (3 points WC strength) to keep him from warping away and his ship contains most of the value of the escalation. EVE forum post

Related links

Below are a few links to related pages about these Drifters.

• CONCORD Assembly Lowers Alert Status as Capsuleer Encounters with "Drifters" Raise Questions
• Unidentified Structures Uncloaked, Sightings of "Drifters"
• Drifters - An Overview