As an addition to the Jove Observatory page:
The EVE Operation: Epiphany event introduced a new type of drop from the Jove Observatories: Jovian Symbolic Navigators. Like Gleaned Information, Jovian Symbolic Navigators are also obtained by using an entosis link on an observatory. When entosising, Navigators are produced less often than Gleaned Information, but they are not rare.
When you activate a navigator, your ship will warp along a predefined distance along a specific trajectory. All navigators are only able to be activated within slightly more than 10au away from the system's star. During Operation: Epiphany, these were used to locate the four Jove Gates that lead to Zarzakh. More recently, navigators are useful in creating unusual safe spots.
There are 30 navigators in total. A complete list is below, along with their associated warp data:
(chart goes here)
Original writeup
Jovian Symbolic Navigators are commodity items that allow you to warp a set distance along a specific trajectory. They were introduced during Operation: Epiphany to find the four Jovian stargates leading to Zarzakh. There are 30 in total, each one has a different trajectory and distance it will warp the user.
A list of all the Jovian Symbolic Navigators can be found here.
The Jovian Symbolic Navigators can be obtained at random by using an Entosis Link on a Jove Observatory.
Outside of Operation: Epiphany, Jovian Symbolic Navigators can be used to create safe spots that are mostly not based on the locations of celestials or signatures in the system. If set up correctly, they can be impossible to access without an attacker using combat probes or navigators of their own.
Terms/Concepts:
- A sequence of one or more navigators is called a "combination"
- The grid where you are prior to activating a combination is called the "origin point"
- The grid where you land after activating a combination is called the "end point"
- When activating a number of navigators in a combination, changing the sequence of activation does not result in a different end point as long as each navigator is activated the same number of times.
- Very rarely, certain combinations will result in the end point being the same as the origin point. These combinations are "circular combinations"
- Four specific navigators do not warp an even number of meters in all 3 axes. These are called "tuning navigators"
- A "tumbler" is a hypothetical combination that uses tuning navigators to create a end point very close to the origin point (ideally less than 0.1AU) but on a different grid. Note, no tumbler combinations have been discovered yet. If discovered, they could be used to salt a combination, adding additional randomness to help prevent an attacker from following the user to an end point.
How To Create Safe Spot With Navigators
- Put directions here with colorful pictures!
Regarding security, navigators are effectively one-way functions, meaning movements are easy to replicate in one direction and hard/impossible to replicate in the reverse direction (except in the case of circular combinations). This means that the origin point should never be on grid with a celestial, signature, and any bookmark used to as an origin point should be deleted as soon as possible. This helps avoid an attacker with access to the correct navigators from reaching the end point by retracing your steps. However, if you make 2 different end points based on the same origin point (using different combinations to create each), an attacker with access to one of those end points will not be able to derive the origin point from it and, therefore, the second end point remains secure.