Wormhole Exploration – Tips and useful links!

The addition of Wormholes leading to “W-Space” or “Unknown space” has caused quite a stir in the EVE community since its introduction earlier in 2009 in the “Apocrypha” expansion. Since then players have embraced the concept and now, several months on it’s common to hear of people’s adventures in W-Space and not uncommon to hear of players or even entire corporations who base almost all of their operations around the Wormholes. For some players in EVE, W-Space has become their reason d’etre, the place they love the most. However, there are many who are ignorant of W-Space, or players who are interested in learning more but don’t quite know where to start. We’re fortunate in this gaming community of ours that information and knowledge is fastidiously collected, collated and published in a variety of suitably awesome locations and as I have been an avid consumer of wormhole related content I thought I would provide a few handy links to useful information and perhaps add a few choice slices of commentary in from myself, having experienced first hand the splendor of the unknown but also been on hand to see some of its less so spectacular moments. So this is not a “guide” but merely a reference point for those who don’t like searching far and wide for their information and want a place which collates a good chunk of it into one post with appropriate links…So…Go!

PROBING AND EXPLORATION

Probes, and the ability to use the damn things are VITAL to the success of any W-Space raid or colonization project. I mean, literally you cannot find one without them so…THAT vital. The best part is…it’s not limited to just finding Wormholes…oh hell no! Probing helps you find any number of space based anomalies, gas clouds, asteroid belts and even other people (with combat probes) so…the usefulness of this knowledge is pretty staggering in game terms. So, the first thing you need to get squared away is the probing and there are several awesome links I have used and continue to use (as it never hurts to keep on top of best practices!) to get myself into a position that I can actually find the elusive bastards!

• Hot off the press over at Casiella Truza’s Ecliptic Rift blog there’s an excellent, thorough guide to probing from R_Javorsky which is brand new, contains a plethora of handy screenshots and is literally a step by step guide on how to get the job done. Top notch stuff!
• For those needing a full on visual experience there’s a good guide to the basics of probing and scanning on YouTube HERE, done by a player known as Zeatrix Antheria. There’s no talking, just watch and learn! Oh and also..the music makes my brain go funny…
• The Official EVE Wiki has got several articles related to the topic. Ship Probing, Apocrypha Probing which have a few tidbits of info.

Link wise, that should give you more than enough to get a head start right there and be on your way to discovering your first Wormhole, or…discovering anything else for that matter! All I will add to this is a quick reminder on the importance of probing in a W-Space scenario. You CAN get stuck there and if the W-Hole collapses and you’re on the wrong side with no probe equipment, you are stuck there til either you beg someone to help you scan a new one down (which could backfire in the form of a swift ganking) or you pod yourself. So if you’re going solo, I presume you have a probe launcher to actually find the wormhole in the first place, but in a group always make sure that the probe ship is the first one in and the last one out. Preparing for the worst is a good way of doing things in these scenarios – be aware of the wormholes description and keep mass limits and life time in your mind whilst planning your op.

WORMHOLES

Yes, the actual Wormholes themselves! It’s all well and good being able to find one, but you don’t want to just charge in blindly! There’s some consideration to be done! What sort of sites are there? What size ships can you take in? What sort of wicked/evil/awesome things might you discover when you get there? Is there a buffet available with free biscotti? Luckily, this consideration has been made easier thanks to the work of some fine, fine pilots with time on their hands that they dedicated to helping people like me and you…Awwwww! Doesn’t that make you feel warm inside? You’re special, like mother always said!

• One of the best articles on Wormholes I have personally read came from the virtual pen of Brendan Drain over at Massively.com (a post of mine even got referenced in the article, of all things!) and that can be found HERE. It covers a wide range of thing and is also a great read as a bonus! It also (handily enough) links to several other articles that may be useful so it’s especially brilliant in that regard.
• Also, there is the obligatory EVE Wiki post which has some nice details for your eyes to consume.
• Battleclinic have a PDF guide that you may find useful if you’re not one to be continually tabbing and checking websites and all the larks that entails!
• Another EVE Wiki Article which is basically a massive reference point – very handy.
• Aaaaand a Wormhole Systems list, another top notch page!
• Oh and Entity made a nifty little map that helps you with the “static wormhole” lark.
• If the above PDF from Battleclinic isn’t enough - this one should suffice!
• The last link I would recommend is a link to an invaluable tool called “Wormholy Thingy” which is a little tool that displays information on the type of wormhole you have found, class/mass etc. EVE HQ also has WH features in built now, a much welcome addition! (Thanks to Iambeastx on Twitter and James from Inanity and Doom!)

Again, plenty to be going on with there. Absorb all the information about Wormhole classes and mass limits and use Wormhole Thingy to identify what you have actually found. What myself and my old corp mates discovered was that preparing a Wormhole op takes a reasonably long time, especially if you are a smaller corp. Depending on how many members you have and what their skill sets are you will need to choose your Wormhole carefully to avoid certain destruction at the hands of The Sleepers (or other players), speaking of which…

THE SLEEPERS AND TECH 3 PRODUCTION

Yes! Those autonomous little rascals! The Sleepers are a jolly bunch, they even have “AI” don’t you know?! Yes, they can switch targets, approach at a good transversal velocity, remote rep each other and they simply ADORE targeting your drones. They can even deal with multi tasking – such as webbing one target, scrambling another and shooting at a third – fancy that! This makes them quite dangerous in the higher class wormholes and so I thought you, the reader, would appreciate some good links to fill your brain with info-bites on the little blighters! As well as this, there’s the salivating prospect of Tech 3 Production, or at least the materials needed to pursue it. This goes hand in hand with The Sleepers themselves so I joined the two topics together in a virtual matrimony and it was quite beautiful….but enough about lovely spring weddings that never even happened! To the links!

• The EVE Wiki has an article about the different kinds of Sleeper sites, of which there are many!
• Another EVE Wiki article pertaining to Hacking Sites specifically.
• And another that covers Archaeological sites. Handy!
• Casiella Truza has an awesome process overview that covers the whole production cycle on his blog
• And here’s a flow chart rundown

Now, one other point I’d like to make is that Sleepers don’t use any particular damage type, apparently they target your lowest resist, so focusing on resistances is a good way to go when you’re fitting up a ship for a W-Space op. Concerning Tech 3 production, it’s not an easy ride. I have only limited experience with the Magnetometric and Radar sites, but the ones that I did  in the Class 3’s and above were quite difficult and definitely require some good team work and ship fittings.

Lastly, I’d like to point out that this is not the definitive list, this is just a collection of links that I use or have found recently and plan to use. If anyone has any extra links that reek of awesomeness then by all means post a comment or send me a tweet or email with the link so I can add it to the list. I hope these links provide some form of assistance to you or to people you know who are trying to learn more about this most interesting area of EVE and hopefully helps a few people accomplish a goal or gives them a nudge in the right direction!