Probe Manipulation & Bookmarking

You can move combat and core probes around on grids and they can be right-clicked and saved as bookmarks.

Update: New Handy Tool!

On July 9th, 2026, Nicolas Kion's EVE Wrench added the ability to modify probe formations, and it later got a Drifter preset. My guide still works, but it isn't as versatile.
For the same reason, I've also revealed my old method for making warp-to-zero formations entirely in-client.
Warning: Wrench modifies the client-side save file. I don't know if FC (formerly CCP) will be OK with this, so use Wrench at your own risk!

Click to show/hide my thoughts:

I think this is great, but I cannot predict what FC will decide or if they'll take a public stance at all. Some FC staff positively know Wrench exists, but that's not FC approval.
Here's some ad hoc reasoning for and against:

pro: on July 1st, FC open-sourced EVE's engine, Carbon, including the part which encodes saved probe formations, and FC hasn't said not to modify save files
anti: the formation-encoding data format was somewhat obscured beforehand, and FC hasn't specifically said it's OK to edit formations outside the client

Using Wrench for probe formation manipulation seems fine to me unless & until FC say otherwise, but my opinion means nothing!
TMK, FC haven't spoken or ruled about modifying save files this way as of July 20, but they should update their declared exploits if they make a ruling.

Instructions:

Update note: none of what follows is ethically gray. It's all done in-client and has been possible since the "center probes" button was added in September of 2021.

open the Probe Scanner window with Alt + P
click "Launch Pinpoint Formation"
set Probe Size to its smallest value
click "Center current formation on your ship"
with the cursor over the Solar System Map window, hold Control and spin your scroll wheel down, triggering 75 ingame audio ticks
- you don't have to count them out precisely. actually, you can just scroll down furiously for a while if you're impatient
- this further shrinks the formation's size
- fwiw, 75 wheel ticks makes core probes show up at 5.5-6-5 km
  for methe distance probes move in space per wheel tick is governed by the current dimensions of the Solar System Map, though, so dragging it into different sizes or docking/undocking the Probe Scanner window will probably change this count
  
  I will have used a full-screen SSM w/undocked PSW at 1920x1200 (or possibly 1920x1080; I can't remember and don't wanna recount, lol)
  
  this entire popout aside is pretty academic and pointless, honestly... like EVE in its entirety, I suppose! =)
  (haven't counted out w/combats, ain't nobody got time f'that)
click Analyze (or hit B, the shortcut)
if multiple probes don't appear on-grid, keep scrolling in the Solar System Map then re-Analyzing until they do
- if all 8 probes appear haphazardly positioned instead of 1 above, 1 below, 5 horizontally and 1 inside nearer to your ship, you've shrunk too much
  - so scroll up a bit rather than down and Analyze again until the probes are all on-grid and usefully spaced
save useful formations with the "Save Current Formation" button

Notes:

other people can save your probes' locations, too!
re-Analyzing after single wheel-ticks makes meaningful changes to formation scale (useful for ad-hoc scaling, generating straight lines of BMs, etc)
this makes having a Core Probe Launcher in a utility high slot even more useful (and don't forget sixteen core probes in cargo)
you can do more stuff with probe manipulation. making off-grid BMs is nowhere near the extent of the possibilities! experimentation is worthwhile

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