Wormhole Basics

• wormholes are transient probe-scanned objects which connect two star systems, temporarily allowing ships to jump between them
• their jump ranges are 5 km (double that of stargates & Ansiblexes) and their radii are 3 km, so they can be jumped from a 16 km-wide sphere centered on their brackets
• their associated Cosmic Signatures are undeadspaced 10 km from the hole's center which is the same as 7 km from its nearest edge (explanation if this is unintuitive)
  • except on Pochven holes (undeadspaced at 75) and on
    "Unidentified"once scanned to ≥ 75% Signal, holes to Drifter systems are called Unidentified Wormhole in the Name column of the Probe Scanner window
    
    all other holes are called Unstable Wormhole
    holes to Drifter systems (deadspaced at 75 outside and 88 inside)
  • rarely, covert ships can decloak in warp to a CSig by passing through the hole. if you must avoid that, warp to 70/100 then bounce to a celestial or on-grid probe BM
• they have these 5 characteristics (see Sothis Ast's whtype.info for a fabulous visualization):
  1. a Type of 1 letter and 3 numbers, visible in space & on the overview. one hole of a pair is always K162. a non-K162 is always the originating (i.e. first) side of any pair
  2. a lifetime counter which begins ticking down only when someone initiates warp to its non-K162 grid. a hole disappears or "collapses" once its counter reaches 0
  3. a total throughput mass which, if exceeded,
     collapsesdeliberately collapsing holes is called rolling them
     
     this may be done to static holes (which always respawn in the same system) to roll the dice on a new useful connection (for PvP, PvE, or logistics)
     
     holes might also be deliberately collapsed to restrict ingress during a PvE session or to deny logistical routes to others
     
     the latter kinds of collapsing aren't "rolling" in the same sense, but they're still called rolling
     the wormhole. a jump which will collapse a hole will be successful and the hole will disappear behind the ship
  4. an individual ship mass limit called a Maximum Ship Size. hidden variation in this value is explained below along with holes' size-indicating color-coded aurorae
  5. an origin and a destination category. there are 14 possible categories in 6 groups:
     1. 3 categories of Known Space AKA KS or New Eden - 5,213 stargate-connected systems in 65 regions grouped into High-Sec (HS), Low-Sec (LS), and Null-Sec (NS)
        • wormholes do not spawn in Exordium, EVE's 53-system PvP-less starter/tutorial region, nor in Jita or Zarzakh
     2. 7 of J-Space AKA JS or Anoikis - 2,598 systems grouped into Classes 1-6 and 13, only accessible via wormholes. all but one are named "J" followed by 6 digits
     3. 1 of Drifter/Uni space - 5 named systems only accessible via "Unidentified" wormholes, the large quantities & unique mechanics of which set these systems apart
     4. 1 of Thera - one giant system with numerous wormholes. has stations with jump clone & home station functionality. its holes are publicly mapped by EVE-Scout
     5. 1 of Pochven - 27 systems connected in a loop via a separate gate network. accessible via wormhole or filament. filaments are useful for exfiltrating stuff to Jita
     6. 1 of Tabbetzur and Turnur - Turnur became a mini-Thera in 2022 and EVE-Scout map it. Tabbetzur got a similar treatment in 2025 but EVE-Scout don't map it
        • they're both also in KS. they get their own category because of similar hole mechanics which are unique to them, detailed at length below
• they reveal their 5 characteristics via their distinct visual appearances and/or Show Info windows, so you can know the characteristics before jumping, even at a K162
  • there are
    73 unique wormhole nebulae1 each for the 65 KS regions
    1 each for JS classes 1-6
    1 shared by C13s/Drifters/Thera
    1 for Pochven
    which are all individually recognizable and spatially groupable by shared colors. more in the visual appearance ID guide
• you can jump a particular wormhole only twice every 5 minutes. you're polarized with respect to a hole you can't jump through due to recent transits
• unlike stargates & Ansiblexes, you can jump wormholes with a weapons (combat) timer
• ~40% of JS systems have 1 of 6 system-wide effects which alter the performance of ships & modules (you can filter for these with anoik.is/systems)
• Local chat in Drifter/Uni space, JS, Pochven and Thera only shows present pilots in the Member List if they send a message. in KS, Local always lists all present pilots

Visual Appearance ID Guide (link to separate page)

Exploring/Scanning/JS Best Practices

• use the directional scanner to reduce the likelihood of being caught unaware (many remap it from V to spacebar given its utility)
• habitualize BMing both holes, and the holes themselves rather than their sigs! this has 3 benefits (if you avoid interdiction, smartbombing, lancing, etc):
  1. warping to 0 on a hole BM always lands you in jump range (whereas going to 0 on a sig can land you outside jump range)
  2. warping to a hole BM at more than
     7,500 m3 km hole radius plus
     2 km decloak radius plus
     2.5 km warp variance
     cannot cause a decloak on the hole itself (though it's still possible to decloak on ships/objects near it)
  3. if trying to warp as close as possible to a hole without decloaking, you needn't compensate for the CSig potentially being offset directly opposite your warp-off spot
• recall your probes immediately when done scanning. probes betray your presence
• ABC: Always Be Cloaked. if you don't need to be uncloaked, be cloaked
  • related: do not linger in space. if you have no timers and aren't doing anything, safelog or dock & log off ASAP
    • do not idle at a POS. don't hang around docked up, either; the number of pilots docked in a structure is visible to anyone outside it
      • it's counterproductive and unnecessary to habitually and unthinkingly volunteer your own activity information
• have a probe launcher, 8 probes and a mobile depot in the cargo holds of any non-scanning ships you take into JS as well as some extraction filaments

Supplemental Facts

• JS class can be determined by clicking the system name at the top left; the first letter of the Region name denotes the Class:
  • A=C1, B=C2, C=C3, D=C4, E=C5, F=C6, G=Thera, H=C13/tripnull, K=Drifter/Uni
• C1-3 are often referred to as lowclass whereas C5 and C6 are highclass. C4 is one of those or neither, depending on who you ask
  • broadly, higher-class holes have more difficult & lucrative PvE sites so are more desirable to inhabit (if one can defend oneself there, ofc)
• wormhole spawning mechanics are fairly well understood (this was linked above; it here in case it wasn't checked out up there)
• wormholes cannot connect a system to itself, but they can connect systems which are adjacent by stargate
• shattered systems have ruinous planets and no moons, contain unique PvE sites, and can spawn sites from a class above or below their own
  • a unique group of 25 of these called C13s or Tripnulls only connect to JS/NS via Small wormholes. they get expanded site spawns & C6 Wolf-Rayet effects
  • 3 shattered C4s are unique in having Sansha instead of Sleeper rats, among other things: J005299, J010556, and J011195
• structures as well as POS and POCOs can be anchored in non-shattered JS but one cannot jump clone into or out of JS structures or set them as home stations
  • you can jump clone within a single JS structure, i.e. swap clones
• capitals can't jump into C1-C4 (nor non-Nestor BS into C1) but they can be built there if players anchor a structure & harvest/import the raw materials as necessary
  • this is why there are capital kills in C1-C4 despite capitals being unable to jump into them
• Small holes technically have 3 million tonnes of throughput, but that value regenerates. they really have infinite throughput, collapsing only when their life timers end
• HICs and the Odysseus can use Zero-Point Mass Entanglers. while active, ZPMEs greatly reduce both mass and mobility. HICs and Odysseis can enter Small holes this way
• each KS region has a unique skybox and thus a unique wormhole graphic, but they have similarities based on their relative locations
• each JS class from C1-C6 has a unique skybox & wormhole graphic. Thera, the 5 Drifter/Uni systems and all 25 Tripnulls share one
• all wormhole CSigs always generate due east of their wormholes as per the default (un-rotated) view of the Solar System Map
  • this is consequential in a few scenarios, e.g. if bypassing Drifter deadspace w/probes. it's trivial to demonstrate yourself
    • save a CSsig (not its hole) as a BM, approach it to get on it at 0, set your dscan angle to 5° and hold dscan while clicking the hole to point your camera straight at it
      • you'll see this every time: the cone points straight left/west

• the mechanics governing how far ships spawn from wormholes after jumping them differ considerably from stargate spawning mechanics
  • wormhole spawn distance is not fixed, but is instead based on hull mass and the hole's remaining throughput mass (Ctrl + F "potential distances" here)
  • given a "lower bound of 2.5km," wormhole spawn radii vary between 5,500 and 16,800 m (diameters 11,000-33,600)
    • the nearest edges of spawned ships are placed in those ranges
    • these values are measured from a hole's center, not from its Overview-reported edge. read about zero spheres and look at this image if you don't appreciate this
    • lighter ships spawn in the closer side of that range, heavier ones toward the farther
      • wormhole spawn distances increase (still as a function of hull mass) as remaining hole mass decreases
        • the largest radius/diameter listed above is a maximum for the heaviest possible ship jumping a crit hole
  • here are spawn diameters of stargates for comparison. main takeaway: wormholes are much easier to interdict than gates!
    • wormhole spawn radii are almost always considerably smaller than even the smallest gate spawn radius
      • only the heaviest possible hulls on mass-reduced jumps get a radius bigger than than the smallest 3 gate radii (and then only by ~1,500 m)
• semantic fluff of little consequence (click to show/hide)

  • instead of JS or J-Space, some people say WS or w-space, for wormhole space. some also say they "live in a wormhole" or suchlike
    • this unnecessarily muddles two distinct concepts: planetary systems and wormholes
      • every "place" in EVE (perhaps apart from Abyssal Deadspace) is a system, and no system is also a wormhole (a wormhole being a transient gatelike object)
        • as I said, this distinction is of essentially no practical consequence, but I'm a tedious pedant who values precision & distinctness in language
• there are 8 sizes of total wormhole throughput mass, listed here (in tonnes, not kg) along with average throughput for various hull classes. data last updated June 6th, 2025
  • there is much variation around these averaged group counts! for exact throughput numbers, use my calculator or use a dscan tool w/tonnage totals then divide it in
    • there's only one 5 mil hole (D845) and it only fits BS and smaller. 500k and 100k holes only fit BCs/Haulers/Nestors and smaller

  • mass, t↓ hull→	Cap	Freighter	Rorqual	Bowhead	Marauder	Orca	BLOPs	BS	Nestor	Barge	BC	Hauler	Cruiser	Porpoise	Shuttle	Destroyer	Frigate	Corvette	Capsule	Zephyr
    5,000,000	✖	✖	✖	✖	33	34	34	51	250	286	376	378	433	1,112	3,125	3,386	4,326	4,337	156,250	1,000,000
    3,300,000	3	4	5	9	22	22	23	34	165	189	249	250	286	734	2,063	2,235	2,855	2,863	103,125	660,000
    3,000,000	3	4	4	8	20	20	21	31	150	172	226	227	260	667	1,875	2,032	2,596	2,602	93,750	600,000
    2,000,000	✖	3	✖	5	14	14	14	21	100	115	151	152	173	445	1,250	1,355	1,731	1,735	62,500	400,000
    1,000,000	✖	2	✖	3 *only fits through C729	7	7	7	11	50	58	76	76	87	223	625	678	866	868	31,250	200,000
    750,000	✖	✖	✖	✖	5	5	6	8	38	43	57	57	65	167	469	508	649	651	23,438	150,000
    500,000	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	25	29	38	38	44	112	313	339	433	434	15,625	100,000
    100,000	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	✖	5	6	8	8	9	23	63	68	87	87	3,125	20,000