Drifter System Overview

• have corresponding Cosmic Signatures which must be scanned as of this March 2026 patch
  • prior to that patch, they spawned as beacons which required no scanning called Unidentified Wormholes, hence the Uni moniker
• have deadspaced warpins 75 km away and ~14° below their holes (but you can land in jump range of the holes with luck or prep time)
  • the same March patch had the unannounced effect of shortening the distance for KS-side drifter holes from 88 to 75 km
  • this measurement is from the now-invisible wormhole beacon to the center of the wormhole (see my explanation of zero spheres)
• are randomly patrolled by NPCs, some of which can 1-hit-kill subs
  (click to show/hide them)

  1. Drifters, e.g. [Name] Tyrannos, which have superweapons that can 1-shot unlucky and/or dumb caps and smaller
     • hence the Drifter System parlance (Drifters occur elsewhere, too, but their deadspaced grid-patrolling mechanic is unique)
  2. Diamond rats, which summon reinforcements and can 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
  3. 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
  4. Angel or Guristas Insurgency NPCs if it's in or near Faction Warfare space in Empire (HS/LS)
  5. Autothysian Lancers, which can be tanked but which can pop small or unsupported subcaps and can trigger the arrival of Drifters
  6. random patrols of Sleeper NPCs related to the Drifter crisis event which hit hard but don't tackle
• fit BS/Orcas and smaller (375,000 tonnes) and pass 750,000 tonnes ±10% or live 16 hours before collapsing
• can be rolled, but seem to respawn based on a long timer of ~20 minutes (difficult to narrow down due to mechanics)
  • this is quite different from most other holes which respawn 60 s after collapsing
• can appear multiple times in a single Observatory system up to a max of 4, and in any mixture (e.g. 1C+2R+1V, 4B, etc)

• have corresponding scannable Cosmic Signatures (and always have; only the KS sides once had always-warpable hole beacons)
• have warpins which are deadpaced at 88 km and ~28 degrees below the hole
• are randomly patrolled by small groups of Sleepers which can easily kill unprepared pilots

• Z647→ C1, D382→ C2, O477→ C3, Y683→ C4, N062→ C5, R474→ C6
• these six JS-bound holes aren't deadspaced, are patrolled only internally by Sleepers, and have the normal stats & behavior of their Type

• each Drifter system has ~40 holes on average (34 KS-bound + 6 static). the March 2026 patch affected this
  (click to show/hide nascent details)

  • prior to that patch, there were ~60 per system on average (54 + 6). it could be that the actual number of holes per system was reduced
    • alternatively, the total number might be unchanged, but holes in backwaters are remaining unwarped and thus dormant for longer
      • (because scanning down then warping to a sig takes more effort than just warping straight its beacon as in the pre-patch sitch)
      • I'm leaning toward the latter explanation. I've been tracking internal hole counts and the data kinda comports w/my theory
• once scanned to ≥ 75% Signal, holes to Drifter systems are called Unidentified Wormhole in the Name column of the Probe Scanner window
  • by contrast, holes leading to non-Drifter systems are called Unstable Wormhole. therefore:
    • if inside a KS JO system, you can tell by the Probe Scanner window if a hole scanned to ≥ 75% leads to a Drifter system or elsewhere
    • likewise, if inside a Drifter system, you can tell whether a ≥ 75% hole is one of its 6 statics or one of its KS-bound holes
• there are 1,026 Jove Observatory systems, but the four such systems in Pochven no longer spawn wormholes
  • assuming 57 KS holes per Drifter & a random distribution, any JO system has ~25% odds of having 1-4 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 9 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