Moving into Wormhole Space

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 2604 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. Your statics will determine what activities are easily available, as well as the feasibility of regular logistics runs. Shattered wormholes, drifter wormholes, and Thera all disallow anchoring of player-owned structures, but nonetheless some capsuleers call these systems home.

Planning

Staticmapper

The following factors affect your choice of your home system.

Plan ahead on what kind of static you wish the system could have, and look for that.
- HS statics are often high traffic, but trivialize logistics runs
- C3 and C5 statics are perfect for running combat anomalies at all levels of play
- C2 and C4 systems have two statics rather than one
Keep in mind that wormholes have mass restrictions. You won't be able to jump a capital ship 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 Industry colonies.

Decide what class of the system you're looking for, take into consideration the unique factors for each
- Low-class WHs (C4 and below) do not have to deal with hostile caps, as they must be built in those systems due to wormhole size restrictions
- High-class WHs (C5 and above) are less connected to kspace, and much more hotly contested
Ask yourself if you want the system to have any system 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 want to live in wormhole space and aren’t sure which class fits your situation. Different setups favor different group sizes and goals:

Solo players generally thrive in Class 3 systems. C3s have a single static (making them less desirable for evicting groups), their combat sites are easy to run with low or moderate SP, and logistics are simple because many C3 statics lead to high-sec or low-sec. Gas and ore sites also appear regularly, making them good all-around solo homes.

Small groups often prefer Class 2 or Class 4 systems because both offer dual statics. This provides steady content, exploration routes, and reliable escape paths. Hostile capital ships cannot enter low-class wormholes and must be built inside the system, so the risk of surprise-capital escalations is low. C2s are flexible and easy to live in. C4s provide harder sites and better payouts without the capital escalation gameplay found in C5/C6.

PvP-focused groups typically aim for Class 5 space, which is the center of wormhole combat. C5 systems support capital escalations, large-scale brawls, and aggressive eviction gameplay. Most organized wormhole PvP happens here, and groups living in C5s usually look for content every day.

It's up to you which type of system matches your goals and playstyle. Take the time to scout and find the one that fits.

Moving In

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? Class? Effect? Static wormholes?
Have you checked if there is someone already occupying it? Who owns structures, and are they active?
Have you checked ZKillboard for activity in that system? Were there any player kills in that system in the last week/month/year? Are there pilots on killmails on several days?
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 need a structure to live in (a citadels or engineering complex). POS are still present but used less often. Very few pilots live out of another ship like the Orca.

Citadels in Wormhole Space

Citadels have fully replaced POSes as the standard way to live in wormhole space. While POS guidance remains useful for niche cases, the vast majority of groups rely on Upwell structures as their primary home. Choosing the correct size and understanding reinforcement behavior is essential for survival.

Choosing the Right Citadel Size

Citadels behave differently in wormhole space than in K-space. Their reinforcement cycles are shorter, and the number of timers varies by structure size:

Astrahus — The most common first structure, inexpensive, easy to anchor. Has only one reinforcement timer. This makes Astrahuses relatively easy targets for roaming fleets or multiboxers during off-hours. Attackers can reinforce it quickly and decide later whether to commit to the final fight.
Fortizar — Much more expensive, but significantly more defensible. Has two reinforcement timers, making evictions far more difficult. Groups aiming to stay long-term or invite friends into the system usually upgrade to a Fortizar as soon as practical.
Athanor / Tatara — Common for indy-focused groups. Given that the moons in WH space are on par with HS, it's probably not worth the fuel cost to anchor these for moon pulls. They are still profitable for reactions.
Raitaru / Azbel — Industry platforms that can serve as secondary bases. Typically not worth it unless you are building caps in-system.

Recommended Strategy for New Residents

Most new or small groups should anchor an Astrahus first and treat it as a beachhead.
Once stable or profitable, upgrade to a Fortizar, which drastically reduces eviction risk.
Always configure a sensible vulnerability window—one aligned with your actual active hours.
Keep your fuel blocks stocked. An unfueled structure loses essential defensive capabilities.
Set ACLs carefully so only trusted pilots have tethering, docking, and fitting permissions.

Threats and Eviction Risk

Because medium structures have only one reinforcement timer in wormholes, they attract opportunistic attackers:

Off-timezone multiboxers can ref an Astrahus at quiet hours.
Hostile groups may ignore the timer if defenders form.
Third-party fleets may wander in and finish the job even if the original aggressors never return.

Larger citadels (especially Fortizars) discourage this behavior due to multiple timers, longer operations, and greater commitment required from attackers.

Why POS Mechanics Still Matter

Although seldom used as homes, POSes occasionally see niche use:

Temporarily storing capitals built inside the system
Mass and rolling tricks
Off-grid hangar or safety storage
Bait and trap setups

However, POSes should no longer be considered primary bases of operation.

POS defense

POSes are no longer used as primary homes or industrial centers in wormhole space. Their manufacturing bonuses are gone, and while they can technically build ships, the build times are so long that nobody uses them for industry anymore. However, POSes still matter strategically, and many groups continue to anchor them for one core reason:

A POS can be anchored and online in about 30 minutes, while a citadel requires a 24-hour anchoring period. Because of this, wormhole residents often anchor a tower on every moon in their system. This denies attackers the ability to quickly place their own POS for staging. Instead, hostile groups must anchor a citadel—which leaves them vulnerable and without a place to dock while the structure onlines.

If you are trying to defend your home, forcing your would-be evictors to operate without a staging point can make the difference between holding the system or having to evacuate.

POS

Your main decision with POSes will be whether or not to fuel them. This is a large cost if your system has a lot of moons, but will give you an even longer window of advantage against attackers.

That's no moon!

Deathstar

If you anticipate conflict, you can still configure a POS in the old “Death Star” style—offline unnecessary modules and anchor extra guns and ECM using the freed powergrid. A well-defended tower is still annoying enough that many groups won’t bother attacking it unless they are fully committed.

A heavy-EWAR setup (“Dick Star”) can also be used to irritate and delay attackers, buying you precious time to regain hole control or call allies.

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-haves:

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 are the most common ships people use to run anomalies in lower class w-space. A passive-tanked Drake can easily run any and every anomaly in a Class 1 and Class 2 systems solo.
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 Dreadnoughts and Carriers are used in Class 5 and 6 Systems mostly to spawn additional sleepers in anomalies. Normally combined with webbing ships (e.g. Loki)

Ore Sites

Mining Barges, Retriever, Covetor, Procurer - they are cheap and effective at what they do.
Exhumers - in most cases too expensive for being worth the risk. Use Mining Barges unless you exactly know what you are doing.

Gas Sites (need to be scanned)

Venture cheap and the ship to choose in most cases
Prospect can warp cloaked

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.
- Use a Mobile Tractor Unit to pull the wrecks.
The Noctis is sometimes used for high-class WH sites that have many more wrecks to deal with. These ships are more expensive, and easier targets.
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, but you have to risk the ship in the mining site. 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 m³ 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 defense 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.

External links

Dotlan wormhole stats
Old EVE forums post about Halada's Mining Guide, 2012