Newbie's First Trip to a Wormhole Guide
This guide is intended for a player in their first trips into a Wormhole (WH). It will cover navigating the WH, a brief section on Tripwire, and then a quick overview of the different types of sites and classes in WHs and what you can do with them during day tripping. For these purposes, the guide will not discuss scanning mechanics, although using the WH (and finding it) all require a good amount of scanning.
Why should I bother with a WH?
Wormholes can be extremely lucrative when run properly, even to a relatively new player. Additionally,by posting WHs that you find to the alliance tripwire, you may discover shortcuts to fights or roaming locations!
Help! I've found a WH!
If you are exploring, you will occasionally find a WH signature. These signatures must be scanned down to 100% before you can warp to it. Once warping you will land a small distance off the hole itself. Before we jump into the hole, there are a few steps that we need to take. If you would like, you can either bookmark the hole and warp to a safe, or you can cloak up near the hole while you take care of this.
- Bookmark the hole itself by right clicking on the WH and then select "Save Location." This will come in handy if you need to make multiple trips to the hole. If you are a casual explorer operating on your own you can use any naming convention you like. Members of Spoopy Newbies use a specific naming convention to help us navigate between multiple holes, which can be found in here.
- Open tripwire on your favorite browser, and log into your account. If you do not have an account, you can set one up for free. Once logged in, ensure that the two arrows on the top of the window are orange so the program knows to follow your path and create a map for you. If you are feeling really fancy, you can select the gear on the top right of your screen and then add yourself to a mask (BNI members should use Brave Collective" mask). This lets you share your work with others! Minimize Tripwire (Don't close it!)
- Right click the hole and select "Show Info." A window will pop up which allows you to see a few critical details about the hole.
- There are 3 useful pieces of information. The destination, the lifetime, and whether it has been massed out by ships passing through.
- The one that we are interested in right now is the hole's lifetime. If the message says "Beginning to Decay" it has at least 4 hours of life left before it disappears (usually). If the message says "End of Life" it has between 15 minutes and 4 hours of life before it disappears. If the message says "on the verge" then it has less than 15 minutes before it disappears. Unless you are prepared to find your way out of a different hole, it is not recommended to enter a hole that says "End of Life" or "on the verge".
- When you are ready, jump through the hole just like you would jump through a gate!
Inside the Hole
Just like jumping through a gate, you will now have a 1 minute invisibility timer that breaks on movement or module activation. Use this time to get a few things set up!
- Bookmark the hole you jumped through. Without bookmarking the hole, you would have to scan it back down before you can leave! If you forget to bookmark the hole and something happens to your ship you will have now way of getting out of the hole and will have to self-destruct your pod (unless someone helps you out of the hole).
- Open D-Scan. Hit it, make a note of any ships on D-scan. (Now is probably a good time to warp off the hole, set your safe, and cloak up).
- One of the big differences between WH space and K-space is the absence of a populated local channel. While cloaky ships in K-space still show up on local, in WH space there are no ways to tell if someone is sitting cloaked in a your system.
- The absence of local also makes it impossible to tell when someone has entered or left your hole. The ONLY way of telling if someone is in your hole is seeing them on D-scan or being on grid with them. This makes cloaky hunting ships the kings of WH space.
- Once you have landed on your safe, hit D-scan again, make a note of any ships on D-Scan.
- Open the scanning interface. Select an anomaly or a signature at random, hit Ctrl+A, then Ctrl+V to copy the signature list. Open up your tripwire window (you had it minimized, right?). Select the window (click in the browser), and then hit Ctrl+C. This automatically updates tripwire with all the signatures and anomalies in the hole.
- The absence of any anomalies means that the WH system you are in is probably lived in. Be cautious if that is the case.
- Other signs of use are citadels, POS with active force fields, and ships on D-scan.
- Hit D-Scan again. Did anything else change? Did a ship vanish or appear? Did probes come out? What kind of probes are they? If they are combat scanner probes and you are decloaked, someone could be trying to scan you down!
- Hit D-scan again. (Are you getting the picture yet?)
Surviving in a WH
The chances of survival in a WH can be dramatically increased by following 2 basic rules.
- Remember your ABC, Always Be Cloaked.
- People will not be able to scan you down while cloaked, and often times groups will roll through if you do not appear on their D-scan. It is also possible to D-scan while cloaked, giving you information about enemy fleets while they can not gather any on you.
- D-Scan, D-Scan, D-Scan.
- Bind your D-Scan to a keyboard key, and mash that key. It is your only method of gathering information about other people potentially being in the hole with you.
Scanning in the hole
Now that we are in a WH and we are confident that nobody is trying to kill us (right now), we should look at tripwire more fully. In the top left corner is the class of the WH that we are in. In general, higher class WHs have more lucrative rewards, but the sites are more dangerous or more difficult to complete. The most critical differences are that C1-C3 WHs will occasionally spawn pirate relic and data sites (much like null sec), which can be run easily by an explorer.
Additionally, you should look at any environmental effects present in the hole. Some WHs have a status effect for all ships in the hole that change how they tank, or make them do more or less damage with certain weapon systems. Mousing over the status effect in tripwire gives a summary of the effects.
If you are not in tripwire, you can find out the class/type of wormhole at http://wh.pasta.gg/
If you are thinking of running combat sites, it is a good idea to check zkillboard.com for the hole and see how active it is. If there have been many kills in your timezone by the same corp, it is likely that they are living in the hole.
We can now safely decloak, drop our scanning probes, and then cloak back up.
Now is a good time to hit D-scan again. You should see your probes on D-scan. If not, now is a good time to add your probes to d-scan!
- Right click on the overview menu hamburger bar (the three little bars on the top left of the overview).
- Select "Open Overview Settings"
- Enter "Probes" into your overview settings, and make sure "Scanner Probe" is checked.
- Save and close all windows.
- Make sure your probes now show up on D-Scan.
If you wish to fully scan down the hole, you can now scan down each signature in the hole. There are a few different options that you will find, and each present a unique method for making ISK.
Keep mashing D-scan, it is your ONLY method of gathering intelligence in a WH.
For all PvE activities in a WH, this link is key to success and survival. WH PvE Bible
Gas Sites
Gas sites can be very good isk in higher class WHs, with potential returns totaling over 100mil Isk/ hr, even with relatively low skills. In lower class WHs you may not get the same amount of income, but it is still worth checking out.
The best advantage of WH gas huffing is that it has an extremely low ISK barrier to entry. A fit venture may only cost 10mil, and even the worst gas sites will make this back quickly. Additionally, the skills required are quick to train.
Gas huffing is typically done in a venture or prospect, fit with a 5MN microwarpdrive and gas harvesters. Mining the clouds is the same as mining an asteroid with 1 critical exception. At some point between 12 and 18 minutes after someone first warps to the site, sleeper rats will spawn in the site. These rats are extremely dangerous, so have a timer ready and be prepared to warp out when they arrive. If these spawns are cleared, For a more detailed guide to Gas Huffing, check out our Gas Huffing Guide.
Relic and Data Sites
In a C1-C3, Pirate relic and data sites spawn (similar to the ones in Null-sec). These sites can be easily run by a skilled explorer for a quick buck.
The key difference is the presence of sleeper data and relic sites. These are difficult combat sites and will have rats in them that will very quickly destroy an unprepared explorer. In order to prevent accidental death, only warp to sites containing the pirate faction names. Explorers should be wary about covert research sites as well. These pirate faction names are below.
- Blood
- Sansha
- Angel
- Gurista
- Serpentis
The absence of one of these names means the site is a sleeper spawn, and should not be attempted unless prepared. For running those sites, check out our ratting guide.
Ore Anomalies
Much like ore anomalies in K-space, ore anomalies in WH space contain ore. Sleepers also spawn into these, so be prepared to clear them out if you wish to mine in them. Generally, mining in a WH does not give any real advantages over mining in K-space, and it is not practiced as a day-tripping activity.
Combat Anomalies
Much like combat anomalies in K-space, combat anomalies in WH space contain rats that can be killed. Unlike WH space, the rats (sleepers) do not have a concord bounty. Instead, they drop valuable loot which is sold to NPC buy orders. These rats are very difficult, and these sites should not be attempted without proper planning. For a more detailed look at WH ratting, check out our guide.
Wormholes
Of course, it is possible to find additional WHs to another location. Feel free to bookmark that hole and then go through it and bookmark the other side. If you had it set up correctly, tripwire will auto follow your progress and make a map for you.
Updating Tripwire
When you are done scanning, copy and paste your (now scanned) signature list into tripwire. You should see that tripwire automatically updated each signature with the results, meaning that if you exit the hole and return you will be able to pick out the sig that you wish and only have to rescan that one if you have not bookmarked it.
Conclusion
Wormholes offer exciting methods of generating income and travel for both new and experience players. The keys to WH survival are the ability to quickly and consistently read D-scan, as well as having basic situational awareness.
Questions? Ask in slack, or contact Spoopy Newbies in game!