Wormholes are rifts in space that connect two star systems. Like stargates, they allow the travel of ships from one star system to another, but unlike stargates, wormholes are not permanent. They connect two systems for only a short time and collapse when either their lifespan ends or too many ships have passed through them. Wormholes can connect any two systems regardless of distance from each other, providing temporary shortcuts to areas that would otherwise take many jumps to reach. Wormholes can also connect to uncharted space, or the Anoikis galaxy (henceforth referred to as Wormhole Space or W-Space); these systems are uncharted, and do not operate like normal systems.

In the Rhea expansion, new types of wormholes were introduced - the massive wormhole system with stations, Thera, and Shattered Wormholes, mysterious spaces which cannot have any residents. Recently the Drifters have appeared, and with them five Drifter wormhole systems that are marked from known space with a “unidentified wormhole” beacon.

Wormholes can be found by scanning down cosmic signatures. Once a wormhole is probed down, it can be warped to and jumped through much like a stargate, though unlike gates they must be warped to and then jumped through as a two-step process.

You may refer to the Scanning & Probing and Exploration guides if you want to learn about finding wormholes.

Wormholes lead to many different places - they can connect W-Space to mapped New Eden systems (henceforth referred to as Known Space or K-Space), others connect from K-Space to W-Space, yet others connect W-space to other W-space systems, and some wormholes connect K-space to K-space. Wormholes forming within W-Space provide the sole method for inter-system travel for residents of the wormhole. There are no stargates in W-Space.

These wormholes are used to quickly travel throughout New Eden, they're also used to access high-sec or low-sec islands without risk of travelling through potentially dangerous space. They're commonly named for the sec status on both ends. High-to-high (H2H), low-to-null (L2N), null-to-high (N2H), etc.

These connect K-Space to W-Space. Players who do exploration use them to access W-Space to run cosmic anomalies and signatures. W-Space inhabitants use them to shop, resupply, sell loot and products and go on K-Space PvP roams. Without these wormholes, W-Space would be a desolate wasteland. Components required to build Strategic Cruisers and their subsystems are available only in W-space.

Since there are no gates available in W-Space systems these wormholes provide the sole means of interstellar transport. Their dynamic formation and dissolution define W-Space interactions, in the form of PvE - capsuleers killing sleeper rats or PvP - capsuleers killing each other. W-Space to W-Space wormholes are very crucial; there are some W-Space systems that rarely get connections to K-Space.

With the introduction of the only named wormhole system Thera, there are now wormholes that connect K-space and W-space to it. Thera has a number of connections, generally documented publicly at Eve-Scout.

Drifter Wormhole systems seem to have 3 to 5 connections to known space plus a static C2 connection. The known space to Drifter wormholes are special in that they have a beacon called unidentified wormhole on the known space side, so they do not need to be scanned down from that side. They have unique wormhole signatures in known space:

• C414 leading to J200727 (Pulsar) - Conflux
• V928 leading to J164710 (Magnetar) - Vidette
• R259 leading to J174618 (Wolf-Rayet) - Redoubt
• S877 leading to J055520 (Red Giant) - Sentinel
• B735 leading to J110145 (Cataclysmic Variable) - Barbican

Inside the wormhole from inside the Drifter system has a normal K162 signature when opened and needs to be scanned down as usual, but is deadspaced, so can only be warped to at 80km. Drifter battleships guard these wormholes and attack anybody trying to pass them. The nature of these wormholes and the Drifter systems is still shifting and a mystery.

There is no automatic update to the “local” chat channel when in w-space, so pilots in w-space will not automatically appear in the local member list like they would in an Empire or a 0.0 space system. This means that there is no indication of who or how many other pilots are in the same w-space system you are in. With a cloak, no one will even know you’re there. If you do type in local chat you will show up in the local member list as normal. It is not advisable to chat in local while in w-space as it reveals your presence in the system.

Note that when you enter a wormhole, there is a visible brightening and a sound effect to indicate that the hole has been activated - so if someone is watching a wormhole, they will know that someone has jumped in.

The color of a wormhole may give you an impression on where it leads. The outline will be the color of your current system and the center will be colored based on where it leads. The color also changes based on the size of the wormhole. See Visually Identifying Wormholes. The changes in Oceanus have changed the visual identification of the wormholes with different graphic effects.

To learn about identifying wormhole types, visit the Wormhole Types page.

Right clicking and showing info on wormhole entrances will display a description about where they lead and their stability status.

Wormholes leading to K-Space take the image and color of the region on the other side, as well as the size of the ship they can accommodate. A red K-Space highsec or lowsec wormhole will most likely take you to Metropolis or Heimatar(Minmatar Space).

Wormholes leading to W-Space take the image and color of the class of W-Space system on the other side. A white W-Space wormhole will take you to a Class 3 W-Space system.

Wormholes leading to Shattered W-Space take the image and color of the class of W-Space system on the other side.

Wormholes come with different restrictions. Wormholes not only allow certain amounts of mass through them in their lifetime, but they also have mass restrictions for each particular transfer. For example, some wormholes from K-Space to C3 wormhole space will restrict ships going through to destroyers or smaller.

Capital ships with jump drives can go through wormholes, providing the wormhole can support the ship's mass. Cynosural fields can be opened in wormhole space, but ships with jump drives cannot lock on to these fields, nor can they lock on to cynosural fields outside of wormhole space to jump out. Supercapital ships such as Titans and Supercarriers cannot go through wormholes at all, as they are far too large for even the largest wormholes. Capitals can be built in W-space, but they may not be able to take any of exits to K-space or even other W-space connections. Supercapitals cannot be built, as there is no sovereignty in wormhole space.

The color of the flare around a wormhole can tell you the size of ships that can go through:

Flare Color	Meaning
	A royal blue aurora indicates wormholes that only allow frigate-mass ships. This is the most important one to recognize.
	A wormhole with a teal aurora won't allow battleships through, and is the indication of a wormhole connecting to or from class 1 w-space.
	A turquoise aurora highlights a wormhole that allows every ship below capital hulls.
	A yellow aurora indicates wormholes that freighters and capitals can transmit.

Jumping through wormholes introduces additional restrictions on how often in a given time a pilot may jump through a particular wormhole. You may not jump through a wormhole in the same direction twice within five minutes. For example, if you jump through a wormhole at 05:00 and then jump back through the wormhole at 05:03, you will be polarized until 05:05, five minutes after your last transit in that direction. When polarized the wormhole will prevent you from jumping through, and present you with a message informing you how much time is left on your polarization timer. Similarly, if you were to jump as soon as the timer was up, you would be polarized on the other side of the hole until 05:08, five minutes after your last transit in that direction.

One way to manage your polarization timer is to check local chat for time stamps (multiple wormhole jump time stamps are kept in the chat, unlike gate jumps in k-space) for your jumps and then plan accordingly.

Keep in mind that this restriction applies to the pilot, not the ship or the account. The same ship can be swapped by ejection and boarding by different capsuleers for immediate transit through the same wormhole. This is very useful for mass reduction operations without need for multiple ships of same type. This is, however, a somewhat more dangerous way to roll a wormhole, as multiple pilots jumping from ship to ship are at least momentarily extremely vulnerable.

Aggression timers do not apply in wormholes. You still get them when you aggress capsuleers or Sleepers, but they don't have any effect other than delaying your disappearance from space when you log off. As long as you are not polarized you can jump through a wormhole immediately after aggressing any capsuleer in any manner. There is no CONCORD in W-Space, no stargate sentry guns, and commonly no stations. For this reason many battles in W-Space take place very near wormholes. This can provide escape options even if you are webbed, scrammed, or bubbled.

When on grid with a wormhole entrance, right click on the entrance and click on show info. This will give you information about the wormhole. There are 4 sentences in the information.

The first sentence talks about the type of the wormhole. These will be of the following format:

• This wormhole seems to lead into {important part} parts of space.

The next sentence indicates how much life the wormhole has before it collapses. Show Info on the wormhole will list one of the following:

• This wormhole has not yet begun its natural cycle of decay and should last at least another day
• This wormhole is beginning to decay, and probably won't last another day
• This wormhole is reaching the end of its natural lifetime
• This wormhole is on the verge of dissipating into the ether

The third sentence tells you how much mass has passed through the wormhole.

• This wormhole has not yet had its stability significantly disrupted by ships passing through it
• This wormhole has had its stability reduced by ships passing through it, but not to a critical degree yet
• This wormhole has had its stability critically disrupted by the mass of numerous ships passing through and is on the verge of collapse

The last sentence tells you the size of ships that are allowed into the enter the wormhole.

W-Space systems will always contain one or two wormholes that are refered to as “static”. These wormholes, although they disappear with time as other wormholes, are more or less persistent : once the static wormhole collapses, another will re-open somewhere in the system, leading to a different system of same class.

For example, a Class 4 W-Space system can have a static Class 3 wormhole. As soon as the wormhole collapse, another wormhole opens to another Class 3 system. It can be very profitable to collapse a static wormhole on purpose, because it then means another neighbouring system - and maybe another K-Space exit, as well as new combat and exploration sites to run, not to mention new neighbors to kill!

It can also be used to get rid of a connection to enemy corps on alliances inhabiting that precise system: by collapsing the wormhole you then prevent them from getting into your system, while still having another possible exit from the system.

When jumping into a wormhole space, a notice may advise you that there may be changes to the natural physics within this space. For example, you may find that all ships in this w-space have improved shields, or conversely, slower recharge times on shields. There are many possibilities, but remember that they apply to both you and anyone else in the w-space, although not necessarily the Sleepers.

If there is an effect in play in a system, you will see the message, “Local spatial phenomena may cause strange effects on your ship systems.” Look at the target system’s space background and compare with the examples below to determine which phenomina is being displayed.

To determine the strength of the effect, you'll need to know what class the system is. This may be determined from the wormhole you came through. These effects do show up in your ship and module descriptions, so you can also use that to detemine what type and strength the effect is.

For more information, see W-Space system effects.

After a certain amount of mass is transported through or after some time the wormhole will disappear, or collapse. While most wormholes only last for 24 hours, there are some variations to this rule. When a static wormhole collapses a new one with the same properties will spawn somewhere else in the same system. It will have to be scanned down. When a non-static wormhole collapses it simply disappears forever. You can read more on static wormholes.

You can artificially induce “premature” death of a wormhole by rolling a wormhole.

• anoik.is – Find information on a specific wormhole (activity, statics, etc)
• Siggy – Tool for mapping WH chains.
• B0rtfinder – Mapper
• Tripwire – Yet Another Mapper
• Eve Scout – Thera Wormhole Listing/Map