Drifter System Overview
Five of EVE's J-Space (JS)Systems whose names all start with the letter J, accessible only via wormholes (2,603 total).
systems are commonly known as Uni or Drifter systems. Each has a C2-strength system effect.
Each system has its own class. They're the only systems in the region K-R00033 and were conquered and renamed in a 2025 event.
All the Cosmic Signatures inside them are wormholes; their only PvE sites are Anomalies or warpable beacons.
Each system is named for an internal beacon site indicated by the K-Space (KS)Known Space systems, aka High-Sec (HS), Low-Sec (LS), and Null-Sec (NS). 5,432 in total.
entrance wormhole's first letter:
These 5 holes appear only in KS systems with Jove Observatories as warpable Unidentified Wormhole beacons. They:
- have no corresponding scannable signature
- have deadspaced warpins 89 km away & 14° below their holes (but you can land in jump range of the holes with luck or prep time)
- are randomly patrolled by these classes of NPCs:
- Drifters, e.g. [Name] Tyrannos, which have superweapons that can zap unlucky and/or dumb caps and smaller
- Diamond rats, which summon reinforcements and shred unwitting fleets. aggressive Diamond rats only appear in:
- certain NS systems in or near pirate-controlled NPC space (e.g. Delve, Fountain, Venal)
- a HS system which has a Blood Raiders or Guristas FOB, or a LS/NS system which has a Blood Raiders or Guristas Sotiyo
- Triglavians, if the system currently hosts a C729 wormhole (list of the 297 which can)
- these are hostile by default & summon reinforcements
- standings can be easily raised so they become nonaggressive; see "WARNINGS" drop-down here
- Angel or Guristas Insurgency NPCs if it's in or near Faction Warfare space in Empire (HS/LS)
- Autothysian Lancers, which can be tanked but which can pop small or unsupported subs and can trigger the arrival of Drifters
- random patrols of Sleeper NPCs related to the Drifter crisis event which hit hard but don't tackle
- pass 750,000 tonnes ±10% or live 16 hours before collapsing
- fit BS/Orcas and smaller (375,000 tonnes)
- can be rolled, but seem to respawn based on a long timer of ~30 minutes (difficult to narrow down due to mechanics)
- can appear multiple times in a single KS system up to a max of 4, and in any mixture (e.g. 1C+2R+1V, or 4B, etc)
- vary in number between ~49 and ~64 per Drifter system, i.e. 230-320 altogether, usually stabilizing around 59 ±5 per
The JS (internal, K162) sides of the KS holes all:
- have corresponding scannable signatures
- are also deadspaced at 89 km, but at 26.5° below instead of 14
- are randomly patrolled by small groups of Sleepers which can easily kill unprepared pilots
Additionally, each Drifter system has six C2-class statics, one to every class of JS from 1-6:
- Z647→ C1, D382→ C2, O477→ C3, Y683→ C4, N062→ C5, R474→ C6
- these six JS-bound holes aren't deadspaced or patrolled (except by event Sleeper NPCs) & have the normal stats & behavior of their Type
Supplemental info:
- there are 1,027 Jove Observatory systems, but the four such systems in Pochven no longer spawn wormholes
- assuming 57 KS holes per Drifter & a random distribution, any Obs. system has ~28% odds of having > 0 Drifter holes
- no systems containing Jove Observatories are adjacent by stargate; they're all at least one system apart (not counting Ansiblexes)
- two KS systems are nine jumps from the nearest JO (circled in green): Jorus in Heimatar, top right, and 7-ZT1Y in Immensea, top center
- to my knowledge, no KS system is ten or more jumps from a JO, and there are no others at nine
- here's an excellent overview of the structure of the named sites in the Drifter systems (this is quite old, mind)
See also: wormhole primer.
