EVE Wormhole Guide - Full guide for beginners. Start exploring w-space!

Wormholes or W-Space, the final frontier of EvE Online where pilots of all sorts seek riches and glory. Far away from imperial space, with local chat disabled you will never know what danger lurks around the corner. Exploring those hidden pockets of New Eden can prove to be a great source of income for those bold enough to face the dangers inside. We'll take a closer look at the Wormholes to give beginning capsuleers a basic idea of what they are and what to expect on the other side. 

how to find wormhole space entrance

Wormhole space entrances can be scanned down all around the New Eden. You will find them as cosmic signatures that need to be scanned down using probes. After pinpointing its location you will face a portal-like mass floating in front of you, this is the wormhole entrance. Those "portals" can lead you to another system in the imperial space also known as "known space" or K-Space or to W-Space ("wormhole space"). 

Even if you use the table method it is still a good idea to know how to read the wormhole as it can give a few hints about its stability and ship capacity. There are certain keywords that can tell you a lot about that specific wormhole.

When you will first encounter a wormhole it won't just tell you what to expect on the other side. There are a few ways to identify the wormhole though. Simpliest is reading the description. That will give you a basic idea of where does it lead. An experienced "Wormhole" can even identify them visually (different wormhole types have slightly different colours) or you could, like most capsuleers, just look their code up in the list we have placed at the end of this piece. 

Reading the description:

Even if you use the table method it is still a good idea to know how to read the wormhole description as it can give a few hints about its stability and ship capacity. There are certain keywords that can tell you a lot about that specific wormhole.

The first line will tell you about the type of the wormhole and it will always be written in a specific:

This wormhole seems to lead into [keyword] parts of space

Depending on the keyword is used you can tell what awaits on the other side: 

• Unknown - C1/C2/C3

• Dangerous Unknown - C4/C5

• Deadly Unknown - C6

• High Security - Hiscec

• Low Security - Lowsce

• Null Security - Nullsec.

The next verse will tell you how much time you have before the wormhole collapses: 

• This wormhole has not yet begun its natural cycle of decay and should last at least another day - wormhole has more than 24 hours before it collapses

• This wormhole is beginning to decay, and probably won't last another day - wormhole has something between 4 and 24 hours left

• This wormhole is reaching the end of its natural lifetime - less than 4 hours

• This wormhole is on the verge of dissipating into the ether - less than 15 minutes.

The third line will tell you how much mass has passed through the wormhole already. This is very important knowledge for fleet operations as each wormhole has a certain mass capacity and collapses after it is reached, reading the information properly can give you a hint about enemy movements in the area, how big of a fleet can you squeeze through or what will it take to force-collapse the wormhole.

• This wormhole has not yet had its stability significantly disrupted by ships passing through it -  still over 50% of mass capacity

• This wormhole has had its stability reduced by ships passing through it but not to a critical degree yet - between 10% and 50%

• This wormhole has had its stability critically disrupted by the mass of numerous ships passing through and is on the verge of collapse - less than 10%.

The last sentence in the information box will tell us about  the size of the ship allowed to pass through

• Very large ships can pass through this wormhole - All ships except for Titans and Supercarriers can pass through this hole

• Larger ships can pass through this wormhole - Battleships, Battlecruisers, and smaller ships can pass through this hole

• Up to medium sized ships can pass through this wormhole - Battlecruisers and smaller ships can pass through this hole

• Only the smallest ships can pass through this wormhole - Only frigates, destroyers, or specially fit Heavy Interdictor Cruisers can go through.

what are Wormhole Classes

Wormholes are divided into six different classes, each one defines the difficulty level and ship class allowed with C1 being the easiest and C6 being the hardest. Let's do a brief summary of each class 

Class 1

Combat sites in this wormhole class are quite easy and can be done even in Tech3 destroyers, battlecruisers such as myrmidon are pretty much an overkill for those. Combat sites are worth 60 million ISK on average, that number can increase with proper salvage. There are two kinds of data and relic sites - standard nullsec once which are basically hack-and-run such as Sparkling Transmitter or Ruined Monument and there are also guarded Sleeper Cache Sites with "rats" slightly stronger than other pirates in the area.Statics (wormholes that are constantly spawned in W-Space) will always lead to K-Space. Only battlecruisers and smaller ships can enter with one exception of Nestor - exploration battleship from Sisters of Eve. You can, however, build bigger ships inside the W-Space, they won't be able to leave it tho.

Class 2 

Combat sites are not really worth it, eHP required to do them is quite a jump from C1 ones, so much so that if you can tank them, you can probably go straight for C3 sites since the difference in damage isn't big but the value of loot is. You can solo those sites in an overtanked battlecruiser. Data and relic sites are pretty much the same as in C1. When looking for gas there is a very small chance of getting a good gas cloud. There are always two statics - one going into K-Space and one going into W-Space and they always come in pairs - if there is one static into Hisec the other one will be C1/C2/C3 if there is a Lowsec static the other one will lead to C2 and Nullsec static will lead to C5 or C6. 

Class 3 

Most crowded wormholes. Combat sites are fairly easy for and can yield you around 200-300 million ISK per hour. Avera Rattlesnake, cap-injected Stratios or Tengu can easily do those sites solo. When it comes to data and relic sites you can be pointed (warp disrupted) by the guards so you better be ready to do some killing. Gas sites are pretty decent. There is only one static leading to K-Space. Battleships are the largest ship class allowed to enter.

Class 4 

Similar case as with C2. You really need to have a very expensive ship to successfully do combat sites solo. By expensive I mean: officer and faction modules which are worth lots of money and return on those sites is not really worth the trouble. It is common to do them in active-armour linked duos, but when it comes to solo play it's not really worth the effort. Each combat sites is about 80 million on average but you could just run relic and data sites and get about 90 on average. Just as in C3 those sites can point you so once you're in you have to be ready for a fight (unless you have a micro-jump drive). There are two statics in C4 and both lead to W-Space. Ship size is still battleship or smaller. 

Class 5

Combat sites in this wormhole are probably the best sites to run in pairs when it comes to ISK per hour. Each site is worth 500 to 600 million isk on average. A team of two dreadnoughts is able to shred through such site in about 15 minutes which gives huge income per hour. However, if you want to master those sites alone, an officer fit marauder (especially Paladin) is most likely the only ship that can handle them easily. The only problem when doing them on your own are the escalations that can spawn up to three elite battleships with insane eHP and DPS. The next important thing to have in mind is that at the end of the site a Decloaked Transmission Relay a structure will appear and when attacked it will summon Arithmos Tyrannos which is a drifter response battleship with eHP similar to the entire site altogether. If you manage to escape Arithmos, that beast will jump around the system for three days before it despawns. When it comes to exploration, just like in C4, there are no NPC pirate faction relic and data sites, just sleeper caches but unlike lower tier WH, caches here can escalate if you bring in a capital ship to the site. Statics in this system will always lead to another C5 or C6 space. 

Class 6

Combat sites are most likely not soloable and are highly contested. Scannable signatures are at this point hardly worth it since they are even harder than combat sites and escalations can bring some heavy neutralizers that can make even a team of two dreadnaughts beg for mercy. There is only one static that goes to a random class W-Space.

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