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| Homefront Operations |
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| Universal Sites |
Homefront operations are Cosmic Anomalies in highsec that require a group of pilots covering specific roles from standard roles like DPS and logi to less common roles in fleets such as hacking and hauling. There were 6 types of them balanced for 5 players introduced in Viridian and 3 new types balanced for 3 players introduced in Equinox, each having its own scenario and requiring its own group composition and strategy. The acceleration gate on the entrance allows only certain types of ships depending on particular type.
Goal
The goal of these sites is to bring new and experienced capsuleers together to do new activities, help to establish social connections and introduce fleet gameplay.
Sites are located in empire owned High Security systems, mostly focused around trade hubs or career agent systems.
The enemies, narrative, and specific goals of a site are dependent on which empire's space it is found within.
Some sites introduce hostiles hailing from new traitorous corporations, splintering away from their empire.
Homefront types in different Empires
There is a total of 9 different types of Homefront Operations. Some of them have 4 different versions, depending on which empire space you are in; some of them have only one version. The differences between the versions are the type of pirates you face in each site and the type of electronic warfare (EWAR) that you face.
The following table provides an overview of the encountered EWAR and the primary and secondary damage types capsuleers should resist.
Type of ships allowed
The operations take place in a deadspace pocket with an acceleration gate that has ship restrictions.
For the 5-ships sites only the following type of ships are allowed:
- Tech 1 frigates, navy and pirate frigates
- Tech 1 destroyers, navy and pirate destroyers
- Tech 1 cruisers
- Tech 1 haulers, including Squall
- Ventures
For 3-ships sites the list is:
- Tech 1 frigates, navy and pirate frigates
- Tech 1 destroyers
- Ventures
Site summary
Dread Assault
- Main article: Dread Assault
This 5 man fleet homefront is found throughout high-security Empire space. There are regional differences in the site’s enemies, damage types and EWAR.
The Dread Assault aims to fill the capacitor of a friendly Dreadnought to full 3 times (30,000 cap each time). After each time there is a 90 second period while the Dreadnought attacks a structure and is not ready to receive cap (Siege mode).
Enemy ships will neut the Dreadnought, so it is advised to bring T1 logistics cruisers fitted with 3–4 medium remote capacitor transmitters and maintain a cap chain between them (Osprey and Augoror are recommended). Additional DPS ships can help reduce neut pressure and improve overall chances of success.
Upon arrival, the site will contain a fleet of approximately 18 ships consisting of frigates, destroyers, cruisers, and battlecruisers. These ships concentrate their fire on a single capsuleer at a time, beginning with the first to enter the site, and will occasionally switch targets as a group. An exception is the Corruptor-prefix ships, which prioritize attacking any deployed drones but will revert to the current primary capsuleer if no drones are present.
Completing Dread Assault sites provides a raw ISK payout based on the standard 5-man fleet distribution, awarding each pilot 15,486,410 ISK, excluding additional bounties from destroyed NPCs.
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Response Valvarn Dreadnought -
Dread Assault: Mission Parameters
Emergency Aid
- Main article: Emergency Aid
Your aim is to keep a friendly target alive for 10 minutes. You can provide either shield boosts or armor repairs as you wish. You will have several rats on grid with you. Killing those rats simply results in new replacement rats spawning.
This means the Emergency Aid site can be run solely with Logistics ships. T1 Logistic cruisers like Ospreys or Augurors work well.
Metaliminal Meteoroid
- Main article: Metaliminal Meteoroid
The mission revolves around mining a single large asteroid until it is fully depleted. Hostile ships will continuously respawn, so engaging them directly is not useful—survival and efficiency are the priorities.
Teams can approach the task in different ways, such as using small mining ships with support, or tougher ships capable of withstanding damage while extracting ore.
Rewards come both from completing the site itself and from selling the mined ore, which has significant value. Some groups choose to have an additional hauler remain outside the site to collect the ore separately, maximizing profit without sharing the standard payout.
Overall, the focus is on coordination, endurance, and making the most of the ore’s market value.
Raid
- Main article: Raid
The mission centers on intercepting enemy haulers as they arrive. A new one appears quickly after you land on the site, but each will attempt to escape. If one gets away, you’ll need to wait for another to show up.
The key task is to stop them, recover the cargo, and deliver it safely to the friendly freighter. The cargo itself is bulky, so at least one fast hauler is needed to carry multiple loads back to the drop-off.
A balanced team works best: ships to apply damage and hold targets in place, support to keep the group alive, and a hauler to secure and deliver the loot. The challenge is maintaining steady coordination so that nothing slips through.
Suspicious Signal
- Main article: Suspicious Signal
This mission focuses on bringing down a single structure. At first it cannot be harmed, and only becomes vulnerable once three data containers on the site are successfully hacked. Each successful hack opens a timed window, and if all are done together, the group has a short opportunity to inflict as much damage as possible.
The structure itself is tough, demanding steady firepower and good coordination. Typical groups bring strong damage-dealing ships, with some pilots handling the hacking, while others keep the team stable and supported.
The challenge lies in timing the hacks and concentrating fire so the structure can be destroyed before the opportunity closes.
Abyssal Artifact Recovery
- Main article: Abyssal Artifact Recovery
The Abyssal Artifact Recovery site unfolds in stages, beginning with a short setup before waves of asteroids and hostile fleets appear. Each wave is a race against time: clear every asteroid before the timer runs out, while holding off enemies that grow stronger and more numerous with each tier.
The asteroids are more than just resources, their unique properties generate a powerful warp bubble field that locks down the area, and only by mining them out completely can the field be dispersed. Success brings steady payouts that increase with difficulty, and sometimes rare caches appear among the shattered rocks, offering additional rewards if collected quickly.
The challenge is in coordination: balancing mining, combat, and survival while the pressure escalates across nine waves. Once the final stage is complete, a short window opens to retreat. Any delay brings an overwhelming Drifter fleet, making escape impossible.
Salvage Research
- Main article: Salvage Research
Salvage Research plunges a three-pilot fleet into a tense field of wrecks scattered across Empire space. Within twenty minutes, every piece of valuable data must be recovered from thirty shattered ships, each one a silent remnant of past battles.
There are no easy shortcuts—tractor units and beams won’t work here. Pilots must move carefully, bringing their salvagers to each wreck while keeping an eye on hostile ships that patrol the site. Drones hover nearby, but enemies will target them if given the chance, forcing the fleet to adapt on the fly.
Somewhere among the wreckage sits a malfunctioning Werpost. Activate it with a Data Analyzer, and its disintegrator targets enemy ships, lending support to your fleet as you work through the wrecks.
Every wreck claimed and every piece of encrypted data recovered brings reward, but time is always slipping away. Success demands coordination, precision, and nerves of steel, with both mission payout and the extra value of recovered data waiting for those who prevail.
Stabilize Rift
- Main article: Stabilize Rift
There are several (5?) Destabilizing Arrays, that need to be drained of capacitor. They need to be below 20% capacitor simultaneously. Recommended fit: Dragoon with 1x Nosferatu and 4x Neuts using Warrior I drones. There are NPCs that may neut you (not always), and there are NPCs that may cap transfer the arrays. Having drones kill NPCs is recommended.
Traffic Stop
- Main article: Traffic Stop
This three-pilot Homefront site takes place in high-security Empire space, with the same layout and enemies across all regions. Pilots need to resist EM damage, and there is no EWAR present.
The mission requires scanning incoming ships for contraband over ten minutes. Any ship carrying illicit data must be stopped with stasis webifiers and destroyed. At the same time, pilots must avoid harming civilians. Destroying more than two or allowing five contraband ships to dock will fail the mission.
Success depends on careful scanning, precise targeting, and steady coordination throughout the full timer, meeting both objectives without mistakes.
Payout
The amount of the payout depends on the number of participants who have interacted with the site. Interacting with the site might consist of dealing at least 1000 damage to any enemy, repairing at least 1000 shield or armor (it counts even if the target has full hp) or other interactions depending on the objective. The max number of people who can receive a payout is twice the ideal fleet size: 10 people for 5-person sites and 6 people for 3-person sites.
Payout amount for Emergency Aid, Dread Assault, Raid and Metaliminal Meteoroid peaks at 5 people, giving 15,486,410 ISK. The payout amount for Salvage Research, Traffic Stop and Stabilize Rift peaks at 3 people, giving 11,025,000 ISK. The graphs below show the payout based on fleet size for 5 and 3 pilot fleets.
Abyssal Artifact Recovery payout peaks at 5 people but follows a different, wave-based payout structure that is not reflected in these graphs.
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Spawn Mechanics
The anomalies can spawn anywhere in highsec, with a heavily increased probability of spawning near trade hubs (Dodixie, Jita, Amarr, Rens and Hek[1]) and Career Agents constellations. The spawns for each type are independent[2] and the total number for each type in Gallente space seems to be 18, in Caldari space 17, in Minmatar 14 (without newly added in Hek) and in Amarr 28[3].
There are some islands of high security systems behind low security systems where sites can spawn; these sites are rarely completed. Because of this, significant numbers of sites can pile up in these systems reducing the number of sites available elsewhere in the region. To fix this, enter each of the unwanted sites with any ship. The site timers will run down, the sites will fail, and the sites will respawn elsewhere in the region.
History
Homefront operations were introduced in Viridian expansion in summer 2023 (see Viridian expansion notes). All of them were tuned for 5-ship fleets (Abyssal Artifact Recovery, Dread Assault, Emergency Aid, Metaliminal Meteoroid, Raid, Suspicious Signal).
In autumn 2023 they were rebalanced, nerfing the overall payouts and bringing the outliers closer to others.
Expansion#Equinox in summer 2024 new 3-ship types (Salvage Research, Traffic Stop and Stabilize Rift) were introduced. The old types had another tuning pass.
In september 2024 Abyssal Artifact Recovery was reworked as it was one of two most complicated but the least rewarding.
See also
- Talk:Overview#June 2023 additions — new overview entities
- User:Amfion_Bravais/Homefronts — collection of fits and strategies
Notes and references
- ^ Added in patch 2024-06-26.1
- ^ They do not share a pool (CCP Rampant)
- ^ Research by Mednik Breau using Agency per region. Spreadsheet with results and methodology.