Faction Warfare (FW) is a system in Eve where players join the side of one of the four empires (Amarr, Caldari, Gallente or Minmatar) against another empire. There are two warzones made up of many systems where the players fighting for the factions primarily fight, trying to gain control of as much of the warzone as they can. The two warzones are the Caldari-Gallente warzone and the Amarr-Minmatar warzone. The Caldari and Amarr factions are nominally allied, as are the Gallente and Minmatar factions. This means that if you're in Caldari faction warfare (like TEST was), you're at war with both the Gallente and Minmatar militias.
When you're in faction warfare, you are at war with those in the opposing factions and can shoot them without consequence (at least consequence to security status or CONCORD). Consequently, they can shoot at you as well. You are also unable to dock at stations controlled by the opposing militia, and NPC police in the opposing factions' high-sec space will attempt to shoot you. You have about ten seconds after entering hostile high-sec to get out. This is easily attainable in sub-battlecruiser sized ships.
Individual players can join a faction's militia by docking in one of that faction's stations, and enlisting in their militia. When joining this way, the player joins the militia corporation for that faction. Anyone with the necessary standings can join these corporations, so there is a certain element of distrust towards characters in these corporations.
| Faction | Militia Corporation |
|---|---|
| Amarr | 24th Imperial Crusade |
| Caldari | State Protectorate |
| Gallente | Federal Defense Union |
| Minmatar | Tribal Liberation Force |
Corporations and alliances can also join a faction. In this case, all members of that corporation or alliance are part of faction warfare.
<!– This is something I'm hazy on, I'd like someone to fact check how corp standing is done –> To join faction warfare, the individual, corporation or alliance must have positive standing towards that faction. Corporation standing is determined by the average standing of all members, and alliance standing is the average of all corporations. For an alliance to join faction warfare, every corporation in it needs to have positive standings with the faction. If any corporation's standings drops too low, the entire alliance will be kicked from the faction at the next downtime. Once an alliance chooses to join a faction, it takes effect at the next downtime.
The primary goal of the players in faction warfare is to gain control of all of the systems in their warzone and upgrade them fully. Systems are gained by the attacking faction increasing the contested status of a system to a vulnerable state, thus making the infrastructure hub (also know as the ihub or I-hub) vulnerable. They must then “destroy” the infrastructure hub, causing the system to change to their control.
Main article: Plexing
Plexing refers to the running of either offensive or defensive complexes. This is the only way for EVE characters to change the contested status of a system. Offensive plexing is the running of plexes in systems controlled by the other faction. This raises the contested percentage of the system, and the loyalty points (LP) you receive works towards reducing the upgrade level of the system. Defensive plexing is plexing in systems your faction controls. You do not get as much a LP as you would if you were offensive plexing, but it's typically lower effort and is essential to maintain control of the warzone.
Once a system has been plexed up to a contested status (100% contested), the infrastructure hub becomes vulnerable. These infrastructure hubs are much weaker than null-sec infrastructure hubs with 7.5 million HP in both shield and armor with no resists. Once the hub is brought down to structure, it 'flips' and control of that system is transferred to the other faction at the next downtime. During the attack on the infrastructure hub, opposing mercenaries are able to increase the amount of plexing needed for a system to become vulnerable, possibly making the infrastructure hub to become invulnerable until more plexes are run to increase the contested status until the hub is vulnerable again.
The faction that controls a system may upgrade it. Upgrading a system increases the number of slots in each station, reduces the broker fees for market orders and reduces clone costs in that system. <!– Put in how much LP it takes to upgrade, and what it gets you –>
Warzone control is measured by the sum of the number of controlled systems and their upgrade levels. For example, if your faction controls 2 systems, one at level four, and one at level three, your faction has 2+4+3=8 control points. So, within each warzone there is a maximum amount of control, 606 for the Caldari-Gallente warzone, and 420 in the Amarr-Minmatar warzone. Within that, there are five tiers, achievable at evenly divided milestones. In the Caldari-Gallente warzone, the number of points needed for each level is 121, while in the Amarr-Minmatar warzone tiers take 45 points per tier. Increasing your tier level dramatically increases the amount of loyalty points (LP) you receive for faction warfare related activities.
Main article: FW Missions
Special agents are available to those in faction warfare that give a much larger amount of loyalty points (LP) as a reward. The most lucrative of these are level four missions, which can be run in stealth bombers.
Loyalty Points (LP) are awarded for many beneficial actions in faction warfare, such as plexing, completing missions, and killing members of the opposing militia. You can use these LPs (along with some ISK) in the LP Store. The store is available in stations owned by State Protectorate. Sometimes you will use the items you purchase in the LP Store, but most of the time you will end up selling the special items you get from the LP Store to those who are not in faction warfare but want the advanced items (ammunition, ships, implants, etc).
LPs are also used to upgrade systems, increasing warzone control.
Main wiki article on Loyalty Points
