In April of this year I decided to pursue wormholes, as I was looking for something different then nullsec and the typical ti-di fight here and there. I wanted to play EVE in a different way; I wanted to make enough ISK to PLEX while I spent money on PVP ships, and not spend most of my time ratting to do so. I decided to take a small break then find a corp to dive into wormholes with, and instead of diving into wormholes, I stumbled and fell into it.
The Story
I started out with a very small corp with about 5-7 active members. We lived out of a C5-C5 and spent most of our days ratting. I had a good ISK buildup and I bought a bunch of ships, moved in, and was ready to start a new side of EVE. We would do Rattlesnake ratting fleets and make ~250 mil a hour per person, which is not bad ISK.
I would lose ships and replace them. We as a corp wanted to focus on PVP, but we did not have the experience or numbers to really be good at it. Larger C5 and C6 groups would come in and stomp us. The problem of my nullsec experience showed itself when I pursued something different. I was used to fleets and fits being provided; therefore, I did not know how to fit ships, let alone use them in a small gang environment. I was fighting 2-3 bil T3 cruisers with pilots who had been living in wormholes for years, so I thought that if you bling a ship it makes it good. That did not help my wallet.
As my net worth started to dwindle down from the original twenty billion, I was let down. I was not making enough to replace my ships, and the PVP content mostly involved getting stomped on by larger, better, richer groups.
I learned the true nature of J-space when a group known as Inner Hell placed down a few POS in system, along with a small fleet of dreadnoughts. We tried to put up a fight, then got destroyed. They would wipe structures. Leadership came up with a plan to move into a C4-C3, but I was done. I knew that this corp could not even survive in a C4 environment. I packed up, and my losses stacked up to ~12 billion. I thought about quitting the game, but I just joined another corp.
This corp had much more active members, had a better environment, and could defend itself better against attacks. I am now re-learning the game. I thought I knew how to fit ships, but I didn’t, and I’m just now learning how to PVP and fit ships instead of pressing F1 and paying respects to the enemy.
What is wormhole space like?
It is different. Of course, like most of you might know, there are no jump gates, and all systems get randomly connected to other systems. There are no massive fleets since wormholes have mass limits, and there isn’t much territory in wormhole space. The PVP and PVE assets are also much different.
PVE / ISK
Lets just say that wormhole income is the best in the game for a PVE activity. Out of the six classes, the ISK tends to get better the higher class you are in, along with the difficulty. The rats don’t produce bounties paid out by CONCORD, but they drop “Blue Loot” and salvage. This makes it riskier, meaning someone can kill you while you haul your loot to a trade hub. The risk pays off, of course.
I have lived in C5 space the entire time, so I don’t know how much each class exactly makes for the most efficient form of ratting. Most of the time, C1 and C2 income is usually equal to nullsec income when it comes to ISK/hour. C3 and C4 space tends to run 150-400 mil/hr (the 400 is pushing it in C4 space). C5 and C6 are known as “High Class” because of the amount of gas, moons, relic/data sites, and how much the rats are worth. PI you can get up to twice the output of nullsec, but the ratting is where the main ISK is. Ratting in C5 or C6 space is most efficient with a dreadnought, and can run you anywhere between 1-3 billion a hour, but you are almost guaranteed to lose your dread. As soon as a connection opens up to a large corp while you are mid siege, consider yourself dead. There is also gas that can get you 70mil/hour, along with exploration and mining. Krabbing corps are generally looked down upon and will get evicted, since they usually don’t fight back and provide easy loot.
PVP
PVP in wormholes is mainly limited to small gang and solo, since the wormholes can only take a certain amount of mass through them before they collapse. There are little to no capital fights since C5 and C6 wormholes can only handle 3-4 cap jumps in total, so its a huge risk. That’s why high DPS ships such as the Leshak are very useful, because you can bring up to 3,000 DPS for the size of a battleship. Ships tend to be blingy since you can make lots of ISK in wormholes. In a fight every kill/loss matters, because once you start losing ships your fleet’s effectiveness starts to deteriorate as well. Every ship counts. Also, there is no local chat, so you never know who could be lurking out of your d-scan range.
Living
With the introduction of citadels, living in WH space has become a lot easier, but still comes with plenty of challenges. There is rarely access to markets, and you can’t jump clone in/out of wormholes. Once you get podded, you need to find your way back into the hole, so during fights/evictions this is hard. Also, there is no asset safety; therefore, if a structure blows up everything inside of it will drop as loot.
Conclusion
The past few months have been the best in my EVE career. I have gone from almost quitting the game to wanting to play more. I have been the richest I have ever been, I have had the most fun, and I am with a great group of people. If you want to try something new, I highly recommend diving into the unknown. You might stumble, find bad corps, or have to re-learn the game, but overall, the experience is worth it.
