Living in Wormhole Space

Wormhole Space (W-space) is unique and very different from Known Space (K-space) in many different ways. Lack of Local chat, randomness of exits coming out of a system, unique NPC ships (Sleepers), resources that are not available in high or low security space (High End Gas and Ore), and lack of Aggression timers are only few of the advantages. It is only natural that at some point short trips to W-space will seem less profitable then a long term operation from within a W-space System. This Guide is meant to explain how to set up and maintain that kind of operation, it will show you how to successfully live in W-space. But I have to warn you, once you start living there, you might never want to go back to K-space!

Introduction to Wormhole Space

Wormhole1024.jpg

Wormhole Space, as mentioned above, is quite different from any environment You may have encountered before. These are a few things you will need to know.

• There are no Stargates in W-space. Once inside w-space, wormholes are the only way to get from one system to another, never go into w-space without a scan probe launcher and probes.

• There is no local chat in W-space. You cannot see if there's someone new jumping into your system. 
• All W-Space solarsystems are treated as null sec (0.0) even ones you enter from empire.

• There are no Asteroid Belts in W-space. The only sources of Ore in W-space are Gravimetric sites.
• There are no 'Rats' in W-space, only Sleepers.

• Wormhole Systems can have an 'Anomaly' or Effects inside them that affects attributes of every ship in the system (Sleepers included).
• There is no Market available in W-Space. Contracts won't work either.

• Wormhole Systems can have Static exit wormholes, which means that a certain system will always spawn a wormhole leading to a specific System type. Those can either be another W-space System or a K-space System. To determine the Systems Static connection go to Static Mapper, enter the Locus Signature of a system (i.e. J123450), and check for the probable static exit (i.e. a Class 3 System can have a static wormhole that will always lead to High Sec).
• There are different Class types of W-space Systems. The class of system indicates the difficulty of the sites that spawn in the system. The Class of a system also affects the types of likely static exits. A Class 2 System will more likely have a High Sec K-space exit than a Class 3 System.
  
• There is no Ice anywhere in W-space. You will have to import some of the POS fuel from K-space (some of it can be made using Planetary Interaction).
  
• There are no Stations or outposts in W-space. You won't be able to dock anywhere. Having and maintaining a POS is very important.

Check out Wormhole Fundamentals, a video series explaining different W-space mechanics.

Rules of W-Space

• First rule of W-Space is: You do not fly without a probe launcher.
• Second rule of W-Space is: YOU DO NOT FLY WITHOUT A PROBE LAUNCHER!
• Third rule of W-Space: If there's a hostile in system, you warp off, go to safety, stop what you are doing, investigate!
• Fourth rule: Do not talk in local, ever. 
• Fifth rule: Always keep a scanning alt in your home system.
• Sixth rule: Pay attention to directional scanner at all times!
• Seventh rule: If it's your first time in W-Space, you will get ganked.

Picking the right System

Before you can even start thinking about moving into a W-space system you need to pick the right one for your needs and plans.

There are about 2500 Systems in W-space, each different and unique. Choosing the one you will like will take time and lots of effort. You will probably spend days or even weeks scouting before you find a system that suits your needs. You will have to decide if you are going to live there by yourself or with a couple of friends. You will have to know what activities are you going to perform there (manufacturing, harvesting Gas and Ore, Killing Sleepers) and if you are going to be able to do those things alone or will it require a fleet. You'll have to know if the activity you picked will require frequent Logistic runs out to K-space.

Planning

The following factors affect your choice of your home system.

• Plan ahead on what kind of static you wish the system could have, look for that.
  • Since with continued site-clearing, the sites in your home system will spawn less and less often, the class of static wormhole is what determines your profit potential in the long run. See 'Warning,' below.
• Keep in mind that the wormholes have mass restrictions. You won't be able to jump Capital Ships through most of them, and there are wormholes that won't even allow battleship sized ships.
• Look for a system with a variety of Planets that will later be used for your Planetary Interaction colonies.

• Decide what Class of the system you're looking for, take into consideration the kinds of exploration sites the system is likely to spawn.
  
• Ask yourself if you want the system to have any Effects that would help you with your activities. (i.e. a Pulsar effect will help shield tanking ships and cripple armor tanking ones.)

Example

Let's say you would like to harvest gas and ore, you won't do any Manufacturing, and you want to kill sleepers, but you don't have any corporation members to help you with that.

• If Ore and Gas are your main priorities, you might want to consider a higher Class System, because they are more likely to spawn better Grav sites. You can now go look for a Class 4 wormhole with a static Class 2 connection. The reason for this is that the home system (Class 4) will provide you with the Ore you want, and the Class 2 connection will most likely have a High Security K-space exit as well as anomalies with sleepers that you can manage to kill by Yourself.

• If, on the other hand, sleepers are your main goal, and mining ore is what you want to do in your spare time, then the System you would be looking for would be a lower class. A Class 2 System with a static high sec exit would spawn anomalies with sleepers you can kill solo, and an occasional Grav and Ladar sites you can mine by yourself.
  

It's up to you what kind of system would be the best for your needs and activities you want to perform. All you need to do is find that system.

Moving into a Wormhole System

So think you've found a system You like, and You would like to move in now, that's great! Let's see now..

Checklist

• Does it meet your requirements?

• Have you checked if there is someone already occupying it?

• Have you checked Dotlan for activity in that system?

• Does the system seem to have a high/low/no number of incoming wormholes?

• Were there any player kills in that system in the last week/month/year? (you can check that on dotlan and killboards)

• Does it have a static exit to another w-space system?
• Are logistic runs to K-space going to be easy/hard?
• Have you placed a scan-alt in the system? (very important, in case you get podded)

If you are satisfied with the system, it's not occupied, have the exits you want and it's fairly safe it's time to move in and get things started. Let's go shopping then. The single most important thing you need is a place to call home. A place where you can keep all your ships, loot, ore, modules and your exotic dancers safe at. You need a POS.

(WARNING: It's been reported occupying a W-Space System for an extended periods of time decrease the number and frequency of signatures spawns.)

POS Defence

This is the part many wormhole residents fail at. Every single day I come across POS's with poor or no defences, with billions of ISK floating around the POS shields, just asking to be blown up, ripped apart, leaving the owners broke and depressed.

First thing you need to take care of when planning a POS are the defences. Nothing attracts people like Torpedo or Cruise missile launchers, no Warp Disruptors and lack of any kind of E-War or hardeners online at the POS.

Please check out this Eve-O Forum Topic before you even consider setting up your POS in the system.

Large POS's are strongly recommended in W-space. Small ones or even Medium ones are very easy to attack and take down. Most of people don't bother with Large ones. It takes too much effort to bring a large POS down, it's a logistical nightmare, but that doesn't mean people don't do it. It is quite common for corporations to attack other people in W-Space for isk and loot. Even the best defence won't keep people from destroying your POS, if they are ready to do what it takes. Having a good setup however will decrease the chance of getting invaded and will probably save your assets. This is EvE and you always need to be prepared for the worst. Keep that in mind.

That's no moon!

If you are planning to leave your system for an extended period of time, consider using additional POS defence modules, put your laboratories and corp hangars offline to free up some powergrid and anchor more guns, ECM, and anything that you have handy. This setup is called a 'Death Star Mode', and will keep your assets safe when you are away. No one will even think of attacking a POS like that.

Another possible method of setting up a wormhole POS for daily use involves the copious use of ECM, Warp Disruptors, and Sensor Dampeners, along with the requisite guns. This setup is in a play of words called a 'Dick Star', since the purpose is not necessarily to destroy invaders, but to sufficiently annoy and irritate them such that they decide blowing up your POS is not worth the effort. 

Other then POS defences, you will need:

• Ship Maintenance Array to hold all your ships, as well as providing a fitting service for them.

• Corporation Hangar Array to hold all your modules, loot, spare POS fuel, bookmarks, etc.
• Ship Building Array, in case you will want to build ships yourself
• Ore Reprocessing Modules
• Laboratories
• Mobile Warp Disruption Field Generators
  • One possible tactic is to anchor a large Mobile Warp Disruptor, or "bubble", on the warp-in point to the moon that your POS is anchored at. This way, anyone warping to that moon will be caught in the bubble, leaving them unable to warp away and thus easy prey for your POS guns if decloaked.
    

Setting up the POS

Once you've got all of this, scan your way out to K-space, get your hauler ready, scan your system multiple times to make sure there are no new incoming wormholes, and make sure that you are actually alone in the system. Move your hauler to the K-Space - W-Space connecting system, and double check if you have everything you need. Fuel, Modules, POS equipment, ammo, probes, etc.

Once you are ready, jump in the hauler, anchor the POS, online it as soon as possible, make sure you have enough fuel to run it for at least a day and a significant amount of Strontium. Once the shields are up and running, you're fairly safe. Next thing you need to do is set up the guns, ECM, warp disruptors and everything else you've planned. Start moving in the rest of POS modules you wish to have there, and start moving in ships. Always have a spare scanning ship in the hangars — you never know when you'll need it. Take the time it takes to online the POS modules to set up off and on grid Safe spots.

Don't, and I really cannot stress this enough, leave any ships floating out in space. It will only cause you trouble, provide intel to hostiles, and provide opportunities for a corp thief. There is no reason to leave ships floating in space. If you run out of space in your ship array, anchor a new one, or reconsider the usefulness of the ships you own, and take some of them out.

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Ships You will need

There are numbers of various activities you can do inside a Wormhole system. Most of them require specialized ships. There is no Jack of all Trades here, you will need at least a couple of hulls so you can be effective at what you do. You will lose ships in W-space, you will need to be able to replace them. Keep them cheap, affordable. Don't fly faction ships in W-space, they are simply not worth the risk. Here's a small list of recommended ship types

Must-Have's

• Scanning ships, T1 frigates, CovOps Frigates, Recons. You can't do anything without them in W-space. Keep spare ones. You will lose them.
  

Anomalies (Sleeper Sites)

• Battlecruisers, especially Drakes, are the most common ships people use to run anomalies in w-space. Drake can easily run any and every anomaly in a Class 1, Class 2 and Class 3 systems in a gang.

• Strategic Cruisers, especially the Tengu and Legion. They significantly speed up running anomalies, but are very expensive, so use them only if you really can afford to lose them.

• Battleships, with Remote Repair modules fitted are required for higher class wormholes anomalies, such as Class 4.

• Capital Ships, such as Dreadnought and Carriers are used in Class 5 and 6 Systems mostly to spawn additional sleepers in anomalies.

Gravimetric Sites (Ore Mining)

• Mining Cruisers, such as the Osprey

• Mining Barges, such as Retriever, Covetor - they are cheap and effective at what they do. 

• Exhumers - If you can risk and afford losing one, they are the best, but you already know that.

see: Halada's Mining Guide

Ladar Sites (Gas mining)

• Battlecruisers, especially the Ferox. They can field a decent tank and fit number of cargo expanders. For more info see Gas in W-space
  

Salvaging, Hacking and Analyzing

• Destroyers. You wont need anything bigger than Dessies in W-space. Sleeper loot is small in size. It will fit in the small cargo hold of a destroyer.
  • You did fit that destroyer with a probe launcher, right?
  • If you can fit a cloaking device, fit a proto cloak on the salvager. Cloak up whenever you're not actively salvaging.

• The Noctis has replaced salvage-fit destroyers and battlecruisers for the majority of K-space salvaging duties. It does very well in wormhole space as well. However, with only 2 mid slots, it cannot fit a full complement of MWD, analyzer, and codebreaker. (This is not a problem if you run mostly anomalies, and you can refit your Noctis to deal with radar and mag sites as required.) The other concern is cost - a Noctis costs far more than an equivalently fit salvager or destroyer (approx. 90 million ISK at time of writing).

• You'll want to rig your salvager with at least 2 salvage rigs if you're in a Class 3 or higher WH -- many of the sleeper wrecks require either rigs or L4/L5 salvaging skill to salvage at all.

Logistics

• Haulers, T1 or T2, Badgers, Bestowers, anything that you would use in K-space is used in W-space, and often. You will need them to run to K-space for supplies, to pick up PI products, can't live without them.

• Capital Industrial Ships, the Orca and the Rorqual. First one is very useful for moving large amounts of cargo in and out of a W-space system, as well as providing mining bonuses for mining Fleets (even from inside of the POS Force Field). The Rorqual, if you can afford it, will compress Ore, making it smaller and easier to transport to K-space. This sounds stupid until the first time you have six or seven million m^3 of ore in the hangars.

PVP Ships

• T2 Cruisers, Heavy Interdictors, Heavy Assault Cruisers, Recon Ships, Logistics, any kind is very useful, as they are small in size, and huge in potential. Sooner or later You will have to face other players in W-space, and these are the bread and butter of W-space PVP.

• Stealth Bombers, W-space mechanics are the same as nullsec space. You can use Bombs, and they are very effective. A small gang of Bombers can really ruin a day for your enemies. See: Stealth Bomber Guide.

• Battleships, they are rarely used in PVP in W-space, but they are very useful in taking down POS's where you cannot use capital ships, and for defence fleets. They are also useful for crashing wormholes due to their mass.

• Interceptors, useful for catching CovOps frigates jumping through wormholes. 

• Battlecruisers, any kind, they are very popular in PVP in W-space, because of their mass/dps ratio. They are easy on the wormholes, and can deal a significant amount of DPS.

Daily Activities: how to keep them safe.

So, you've found your system, set up a POS, moved the ships in, you've done all required logistics, and you have supplies that will last for a while. You're ready for action. What now? Well, as I said already, there are number of activities you can do in your System, such as Mining, Harvesting Gas, Killing Sleepers, Running PI. But first you need to learn how to keep yourself safe while doing those. You need to keep track of things, and you need to know your surroundings. First thing you'll always do from this day on, is:

Scanning

Each day new signatures and anomalies spawn in your System. Each day they die. There's always something going on and you need to know what that is. You will have to keep track of every single signature ID and anomaly. Each day after Downtime signature ID's change. You will have to keep track of them to know what kind of sites are there and what your system has to offer that day. Here's how:

• Scan your system as soon as you login into the game. Check the number of signatures, the number of anomalies.

• Scan each and every signature. Write down their ID's and types (is it a grav? radar site? wormhole?). Keep that list handy.

• Bookmark the Sites and keep the bookmarks at a container at the POS, or in the Corp Hangar.

• See if there are any wormholes in the system, scan them down, warp to them and bookmark them. See where they lead to.

• Check for incoming wormholes, check where they lead, get to know your neighbours. 
• Write down the time the signatures were found. This way you will be able to tell when they die.
• Scan your system every now and then, preferably each hour, check for new signatures.
• Check for new incoming wormholes, they can open at any given time.
• Check what your K-space exit is, if you have one.
• Close unfriendly wormholes as soon as possible. See "Unwanted Wormholes," below.

Once you're done Scanning, you know the number and ID's of signatures in your system, you know where each wormhole leads to and you made sure it's safe you can start doing sites. Remember that a wormhole incoming to your system can open up at any time, keep checking directional at all times. If you fail to do so, you will get killed faster then you can say OMGPROTEUS.

Running Anomalies

Sleeper sites, also known as anomalies, are the most profitable sites in W-space. It's always worth running them and selling the salvage. If you decide to run them, make sure you know what the triggers are, what will spawn next, be ready. Use Eve-Survival to determine that information. Class 1 and 2 anomalies are soloable in a Drake, for Class 3's you will want

to have a small gang of drakes to kill the sleepers faster. For Class 4 anomalies and up You will want to use a fleet made of Remote Repair Battleships with ECM support.

After you are done with each site, Bookmark the wrecks as you would do with mission wrecks. Come back later to salvage them or have someone following you in a dedicated salvager. Always keep aligned when running sites, and always, for the love of god, check the damn directional. It's very important, if you see any ship that is not supposed to be there, even for a split second, warp out, get to safety. Go to the POS and investigate. Don't start asking in Corp chat who that was, just leave. Believe me, I make a living from killing people like you, don't be stupid. Just warp off. There's no fleet that can't be ganked in W-space.

Even if you are running a Class 6 anomaly in battleships with logistics support you cannot feel safe. Someone can and will come to gank you, as shown here: Youtube - Class 6 Wormhole Gank

• Perimeter sites are generally Low difficulty.
• Frontier sites are generally Medium difficulty.
• Core sites are generally High difficulty.

• For Class 1-2 expect to see Perimeter sites.
• For Class 3-4 expect to see Frontier sites.
• For Class 5-6 expect to see Core sites.

Gravimetric, Ladar and class 5 Radar sites are exception from this; also named sites (The Line & Solar Cell for example) do not fall under this convention.

Mining 

Gravimetric sites in W-space often spawn rare Ore that cannot be found in Highsec or even Lowsec. Those are Arknor, Bistot and Crokite. Always mine those first. They are the most profitable. Use cheap mining barges such as Retrievers and Covetors. They are affordable and won't ruin you if you lose them. 

Everyone in W-space will gank a mining op if they see one, so when mining, always make sure that there are no incoming wormholes in Your system, always watch directional, or even have a scout at any wormhole exit. You cannot mine aligned, but you can make it a bit harder for someone to find you. Unlike anomalies, that can be scanned down without use of probes, Grav sites have to be probed down. Keep an eye out for probes. Combat probes especially. Try not to use jetcans for mining, as they can be bookmarked to provide warpins on you. Haul in a cheap industrial ships, as often as possible. Don't use an Orca for picking up ore. Orcas draw attention of gankers. Warp out at any sign of unknown ships and probes on directional. Better to be safe then dead.

Ladar sites are no exception here, same rules apply.

Planetary Interaction in W-Space

Wormhole space, as already mentioned, is very similar to Nullsec. In that matter, Planets that are present in W-space are mostly unoccupied, and far better then any highsec or lowsec planets. You will find various types of planets, and given that you took that into account when you chose your system, you can make quite a fortune from Planetary Interaction.

The biggest advantage of PI in W-space is the ability to make some of the POS fuel on the site, it saves you hauling that fuel in, less logistics stress. See this forum post by Seamus Donohue. You can also make various items, that you can export to K-space and sell for profit. 

What's dangerous about PI, you ask? Well, managing PI itself doesn't involve any risk (yet), but hauling the goods can be tricky.

Personally I've ganked multiple industrial ships that were not paying attention to directional, and just went off to pick up their goods, getting killed in the process. You have to assume that you are never alone in W-space. Always watch for hostile ships. Be prepared to run for your life. Don't slow down your industrial ships by fitting cargo expanders, fit nanofibers instead. They will align faster. Fit Warp Core Stabs, they will get somewhat immune to Warp Disruptors, and if you can, use Transport ships, fly cloaky, cloaky is safe. Never stay at the Customs office longer then you have to.

PvP in W-Space

Wormhole Space is an unique environment to fight with other players in. The lack of local chat and mass restrictions on wormholes as well as nullsec-like mechanics allow to do things that would not work in Known Space. Players often scan down so called 'rabbit holes', chains of wormholes connecting multiple systems to find other players to kill. It's common to see multiple cloak-capable ships in one fleet, hunting down and killing pilots that are not paying attention to directional scanner. 

W-space is also full of dead POS's that ran out of fuel because their owners either didn't log into the game for a while, or just lost access to their home system. People often destroy those POS's for loot. There are many PvP opportunities in W-space. Wormhole corporations often compete with each other over the best systems, or just for the sake of killing each other. It's getting more common to see one corporation invading a home system of another. Some people even hire mercenary corporations to attack or defend wormhole systems. 

Directional scanning plays a huge role in W-space PvP, giving Intel and warning of hostiles. Directional Scanner and CovOps ships are the most useful tools in W-space. PvP in W-space is also a source of ISK, simply because it's sometimes more profitable to kill that faction battleship running sleeper sites in the wormhole next door then to run your own sites.

I won't give out any of our secrets about how to be successful in PvP in W-space, but be aware that it plays a major role in W-space, and no one can feel safe out there. If you want to see how PvP in Wormholes looks like, be sure to check out the link below and watch the PvP videos. Perhaps one day we will meet out in the unknown :)

Unwanted Wormholes

Most of the time, your static exit to either K-space or another W-space system will be the only exit, and that is what you count on. It keeps you safe, It keeps things predictable. But W-space is far from being predictable. Very often a wormhole will open up in the system, an incoming wormhole, that you wish wasn't there. It might give you some opportunities, but It might as well bring trouble. How to handle these wormholes, how to take control over the traffic in a system and how to close unwanted wormholes? Well, let me explain:

Unwanted K162's

Remember how I told you to keep track of the signature ID's in the system? Well, this is how you find out if there's a new incoming wormhole. You scan your system and find a signature ID that wasn't there before, it shows up as an unknown, and later it turns out to be a K162 incoming wormhole. We don't want that. We want it gone, and now. This is what you need to do to close it:

• Jump to the other side, check for hostiles, and check the ID of the wormhole on the other side. For example it might be C427.

• Check the mass remaining on the wormhole (is it critical? what does the description say?). Jump back.

• Check the Wormhole ID on Eve Metrics, it will tell you it's maximum mass restrictions. 
• Do the math.

Now you know what kind of wormhole you are dealing with, and you know the max mass that can go through it before it crashes. Well, if the wormhole is not in critical mass stage yet, there's a good chance that you are able to close it. What you need to do is take some heavy ships, preferably Battleships and/or Battlecruisers, and start jumping them back and forward, keeping an eye on the status of mass of the wormhole. Keep one battleship on the far side while doing this. In this example it's a C427 Wormhole which, at it's critical state, (about 5% of total mass limit) allows to jump another 100.000 tons of mass. That's one battleship worth of mass. Keep track of the number of ships you've jumped trough so far (jump one at a time), and as soon as it gets into Critical stage, jump back the battleship from the far side. If you've done everything right, the unwanted wormhole should close.

Taking control over the exits, maintaining the system clear of incoming wormholes by successfully closing each unwanted wormhole is the key to safety in W-Space. You need to be aware that each wormhole that you leave opened, and not use yourself, is a potential threat, and might eventually get you (and your corp members) killed.

Long Term Wormhole Operations and Eve University

This Guide, written by a University Graduate and ex-member, is primarily for people wanting to set up an operation like this outside of Eve University. As of now, Eve University's rules do NOT allow its members to maintain a personal POS, whether it's in Known Space or Wormhole Space. You are however, as a member of the Uni, allowed to take part in Wormhole operations based out of Known Space. You are allowed to take a Fleet into W-space, run the sites there, and take all the loot and/or anything else back out, provided that you follow the ROE and University's Rules.

In addition, in some years the Uni conducts its own wormhole operations. From late 2012 onward into 2013, the Uni has been operating an active Wormhole Campus in a C2 wormhole, allowing Unistas to experience most of the range of wormhole life while remaining in the Uni.

Related Links

http://www.tetrr.com/wormhole/

http://www.staticmapper.com

http://evemaps.dotlan.net

http://www.ellatha.com/eve/wormholelist.asp

http://eve.allakhazam.com/wiki/Wormholes

Asayanami Dei's Wormhole PvP Videos