Jump clones
You're probably familiar with clones used in the event of player death. Those clone are called "skill clones" or medical clones. They preserve your skill points up to the maximum level of skill points allowed for a given clone grade.
A jump clone is different: you can actively 'jump' into a jump clone instead of having to die to activate it.
When you activate a jump clone, your current body, with all its implants, is left behind at the station where you are. Your old body effectively turns into a new jump clone and you can jump back into it later. After jumping, you have to wait for at least 24 hours before jumping into another clone. Think of it as jumping with your 'mind' or 'soul' between the bodies. You bring all your skills and standings, but leave the body (and its implants) behind.
Both skill clones and jump clones are purchased at medical facilities in stations. (A list of NPC corporations with medical facilities is available here.) You can also get a jump clone installed aboard a capital vessel that has Clone Vat Bays fitted. At this time the only types of ships that may use Clone Vat Bays are Titans and the Rorqual.
If you die (get podded), your jump clone is not affected at all. You will end up wherever your skill clone is and all your jump clones will still be available. Your skill clones are independent of your jumpclones, so even if you have a jump clone somewhere, you still need a skill clone to make sure you don't lose skillpoints when you die. As such, you will still need to update your skill clone again when you die.
Jump Clones
What do I need to get one?
You need at least one level in the skill Infomorph Psychology. Every level in that skill will allow an additional jump clone.
Since the Revelations patch, you or the corporation you belong to need to have 8.00 standing with the corporation that owns the station where you want to buy the jump clone.
How do I activate my Jump Clone?
Once you have a jump clone installed, you can activate it from your character sheet after momentarily pausing your current skill training and exiting your ship -- keep in mind that there is a delay of roughly 30 seconds between exiting your ship, and being able to jump between clones. Note that you can only jump into a new jump clone once every 24 hours. The station you jumped from does not require a Medical Facility for your old body to be available as a new jump clone. You can jump back to this new clone, or jump to any other inactive jump clone, after waiting 24 hours.
You are free to equip your new body with implants, e.g. special hardwire implants to help you fulfill a certain role in fleet combat as a specialized clone pilot. If your new body is destroyed, your skill clone will automatically activate and you will only lose the implants you had plugged in at the time of death. Your original body will still be intact and available to you as a new jump clone.
Example of how to use Jump Clones
Original Clone: +4 implants in all attributes, plus perhaps some ship component (CPU, PG, Capacitor) boosting hard-wiring implants. Used in PvE, mining, exploration (NOT Wormholes), etc..., where there is no risk of being podded.
Jump Clone: NO implants or if willing and able to risk losing some ISK, could have +4 implants in TWO attributes and some role-enhancing (Tackle, EWAR, DD) hard-wiring implants. Used mainly in PvP, Wormholes, wartime or when travelling through low/null-sec for PvE or other careers.
During peacetime, many use their Original Clone and when EVE University is at war (usually in the 24-hour warm-up period), they jump into their Jump Clone which is usually located in Aldrat. Once war is over, they jump back into their Original Clone back at the station where they were running missions, mining, exploring, etc...
Can Jump Clones be lost?
In most cases, your inactive jump clones will swim in the clone vat of NPC stations, and they are completely safe there.
There are two ways to lose a jump clone and the implants installed in it:
- A destroyable location which carries one of your inactive jump clones is destroyed. Example: When the capital ship that is carrying your inactive jump clone is destroyed, the installed jump clone, and the implants installed in it, are lost.
- You ignore the game's warning when clone jumping from a location where you already had a jump clone installed. This is explained in more detail in the next section.
Careful, careful
You can never have two inactive jump clones at the same station. Due to the way game mechanics work, it is possible to lose implants if you are not careful, and you ignore the game's warning.
Suppose you have the following clones:
- In Jita, you have a clone contract (Medical Clone).
- In Jita, you have an inactive jump clone with a memory implant.
- In Rens, you have an inactive jump clone with a willpower implant.
- In Agil, you have an active clone, with a perception implant.
At any time, if you are podkilled, you will wake up in Jita, at which point you will have an active clone and an inactive jump clone, both in Jita. Your skill clone will preserve whatever number of skillpoints you have saved in the clone contract, regardless of which jump clone died. The skillpoints saved is a property of the skill clone that is created when you die, not of the clone that was killed.
Note that it is safe to create a jump clone at a station where you already have a skill clone. You will have two clones at that station, one inactive jump clone and one skill clone which will only be activated if you get podded.
Now suppose that you fly your active clone from Agil to Rens. You will now have an active clone and an inactive jumpclone in Rens.
If you try to install a second jumpclone in Rens, the game will refuse to install it. You will not lose anything.
If you try to jumpclone from Rens to Jita, the inactive clone in Rens will be destroyed and replaced with the clone containing the perception implant. You will lose the inactive clone and its willpower implant. The game will warn you and allow you to cancel the clonejump.
You can however jump from your current body in Rens with the perception implant, to your inactive jumpclone in Rens with the willpower implant without destroying any jumpclone.
Step-by-Step Setup for first Jump Clone
Most people will want to set up their first Jump Clone to save their implants from impending death that may occur from PvP during wars against E-UNI. Here is just one suggestion as to how you can set up your first jump clone. There may be others, depending on your standings with other corporations. To speed up the process (as you will be making approximately 50 jumps), it is suggested you use a shuttle of your choosing (or two as you will need transportation back to Aldrat).
- Choose which station (from those listed below) that you wish to install your clone (for purposes of this example, Isikano IX - Moon 11 - Wiyrkomi Peace Corps Logistic Support)
- Fly to Isikano IX - Moon 11 - Wiyrkomi Peace Corps Logistic Support (As stated below, DO NOT talk with any agent there.)
- Use the medical services to install your clone.
- Fly back to Aldrat (if this is where you wish your jump clone to be, you could also choose any station close to PTS)
- Pause any training
- Go to your character sheet, right-click on your installed clone ("Located in Isikano IX - Moon 11 - Wiyrkomi Peace Corps Logistic Support"), and "Clone Jump"
At this point you have just jumped into your "Clean Clone" (no implants), and your "Implant Clone" is at Aldrat. - Fly your "Clean Clone" once again back to Pator Tech School and you will be ready for any wardecs that may occur, and you can take part in Fleet Ops without having to worry about losing your implants.
"Shorter Way"-- Not as many jumps, but just a little more expensive (as you will be updating your med clone) submitted by Reed Tiburon on the forums
- Make sure your medical clone is set up in Aldrat at one of the stations and can handle all your SP
- Fly out to one of the jump clone systems (Erenta, etc) and buy your JC.
- Fly back to Aldrat and clonejump into your new clone in Erenta (or wherever).
- Undock, self-destruct pod. Wake up in Aldrat. Update medical clone
Note: Some other wiki pages (notably Grismar's) list outdated information, stating that it is possible to create a jump clone from an NPC corp (because they have high standing with other NPC corps). This is no longer a viable workaround (tested in Incarna 7.11.306979 with Perkone)
E-UNI's Jump Clone Stations
Eve University has enough standing with two corporations, Wiyrkomi Peace Corps and Khanid Innovation, to access Jump Clones for all members.
WARNING: Do not start a conversation with any agents for Wiyrkomi Peace Corps or Khanid Innovation as we will lose these facilities and you may be asked to leave E-UNI.
All of these systems are in high security space. Just make sure you set your autopilot to avoid low security systems, so that you do not pass through dangerous space while traveling.
Why so far away from Aldrat?
The ability to install a jump clone at a station is based on 'excellent' (i.e., 8.0 and above) personal or corporate standing at that station. This means that E-UNI needed to identify a corporation that is unlikely to be used by members for missions. Therefore it needs to be small and unappealing, but still have medical facilities.
Because of these restrictions the locations of the corporations with available clones facilities will tend to be somewhere out of the way, some distance from typical mission running or member activity. While a similar corporation may be a great deal closer, there is a significant chance a member may inadvertently run missions for them, preventing jump clone access for all E-UNI members.
The reason behind the "do not speak to the agents" rule is because of the way that standings are calculated from the NPC corporation to Eve University. Standings are calculated as an average of every pilot in Eve University who has a relationship with that NPC corporation. As long as you do not have any standings at all with the NPC corporation, you do not get included in that calculation. If the average stays above 8.0+, all Eve University members can make use of the facilities to create jump clones.
An Alternative: Estel Arador Corp Services
If you are not a member of Eve University, there is another jump clone service available to you: the player corporation "Estel Arador Corp Services" [EACS]. It accepts all recruits for just a few days so that they can install jump clones at any of a wide variety of stations, and then leave. Anyone joining EACS is responsible for acquiring their own copy of Infomorph Psychology and paying the 100,000 ISK jump clone installation fee to the NPC corporation of their choice, but the service is otherwise free.
Click here to find out more information about EACS
