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Electronic Counter Measures, also known as ECM or 'jamming'. ECM gives a chance to cause the targeted ship to lose all targets it has locked (with the exception of the jammer), and loses the ability to target anything that is not currently jamming it for 20 seconds (5 seconds for ECM drones). During combat this means the affected ship cannot shoot or use any targeted modules on any of your fleet mates. Your target will still be able to use modules which don't require a target such as smartbombs or other area effect weapons.
A ship or spaceship in EVE Online is an entity used to traverse space, battle enemy forces, ferry materials and products, provide logistical services along with many other uses. A ship may be piloted by a capsuleer (player) or non-player characters such as CONCORD, faction militaries, civilian industrialists, outlawed paramilitary and pirate. Eve Online races. Right off the bat Eve Online will ask you to make what seems like a fairly huge decision, offering four very different races to play as: Caldari, Amarr, Gallente and Minmatar.
As at October 2018, changes to ECM mean that if a jammed target can attack the ship that is targeting it. This is a notable change in mechanics as a solo pilot flying an ECM ship cannot protect itself by jamming an enemy. Before then, ECM was generally regarded as the most effective Electronic Warfare technique, because of its potency and the safety it provided to the user.
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- 6ECM equipment and ships
- 8Flying ECM
- 9ECM targets
ECM Mechanics
Every ship in the game has a base sensor strength and this sensor is always of a certain type (gravimetric, ladar, radar, magenetometric).
The jam strength of your ECM is compared to the sensor strength of your target and the jamming is applied based on probability.
Each individual ECM module is applied separately and there are no stacking penalties. This makes it possible to scale up ECM without limit.
Your chance to jam a target is based on this equation:
- [math] displaystyletext{Chance to jam} = frac{ text{ECM strength} }{ text{Sensor strength} } [/math]
And if you use multiple jammers of same strength:
- [math] displaystyletext{Chance to jam} = 1 - left( 1 - frac{ text{ECM strength} }{ text{Sensor strength} } right)^{text{Number of jammers}}[/math]
Note that when calculating the chance to jam a single target using a rainbow fit, the above formula must be modified, considering that a rainbow fit will have different jam strengths per racial jammer.
Falloff and Optimal range
The ECM modules have two separate range attributes: Optimal and falloff. As long as you are within your optimal range your ECM modules will work with full efficiency but once you go to your falloff the ECM module will start to lose its effectiveness.
The ECM module follows same formula for range as all other modules that have a falloff mechanic:
- [math] text{Jam strength} = text{Base} times 0.5^{Large left( frac{max(0, text{Distance} - text{Optimal})}{text{Falloff}} right)^2 } [/math]
Going slightly beyond your optimal is not a problem but the effectiveness of ECM will degrade more rapidly as you go further away as seen in the table below.
| Parts into Falloff | Relative jam chance |
| 0 | 100% |
| 0.2 | 97% |
| 0.4 | 90% |
| 0.6 | 78% |
| 0.8 | 64% |
| 1.0 | 50% |
| 1.2 | 37% |
| 1.4 | 26% |
| 1.6 | 17% |
| 1.8 | 11% |
| 2.0 | 6,3% |
As seen in the table above at range of optimal + 0.4×falloff the jammers are still 90% effective so going slightly beyond optimal is not a big problem.
Here is an example:let's assume your ECM module has a 50 km range and has a 40km falloff. When your target is within optimal range you have a 20% chance to jam them per cycle of your modules.
- If your target is 50 km away you will have the full 20% chance to jam
- At 60 km (50 km + 10 km) you will now have 17% chance to jam (84% of 20%)
- At is 90 km away (50 km + 40 km) you will now have 10% chance to jam (50% of 20%)
- At 130 km away (50 km + 40 km + 40 km) you now have a 1,25% chance to jam (6,25% of 20%)
Using your ECM Modules
The race-specific modules are not named in a way that makes it obvious what race of ships they're effective against. Remember that each race's ship's all have the same colour background in the portrait image you see when you have them targeted.
- Amarr - Radar (yellow-coloured jammers)
- Caldari - Gravimetric (blue-coloured jammers)
- Gallente - Magnetometric (green-coloured jammers)
- Minmatar - Ladar (red-coloured jammers)
| Your Target Ship | Which Racial Jammer To Use |
|---|---|
| Amarr: Radar jammer | |
| Caldari: Gravimetric jammer | |
| Gallente: Magnetometric jammer | |
| Minmatar: Ladar jammer |
If you can remember these colour match ups then you will remember exactly which module to activate on a ship you are targeting.
When you have successfully jammed your target, you will see a gray circle surrounding the jammer that acquired the jam (shown below the locked ship). Hovering over this will tell you how long until the jam ends. The circle will slowly disappear as the jam ticks down. See the image below.
Examples
you are piloting a Griffin with a set of two racial gravimetric racial jammers on your griffin each giving you 8,39 jamming strength against gravimetric and 2,80 against other sensor types. your griffin also has two radar jammers with same strength but for radar. This is quite highly skilled setup.
Your FC has instructed you to jam the enemy logi, whatever they may bring. The radar jammer works best against the Amarr logi ships (Augoror/Guardian) while the gravimetric is best against Caldari logi ships (Osprey/Basilisk).
You end up against Augorors with 54,2 sensor strength. With single radar jammer on an augoror the chance of successful jam is
- 8,39/54,2 = 0,155.. = 16%
16% chance of jamming the target, 84% chance of doing nothing. Doesn't look too good. Lets put rest of the jammers to work too.
With two radar jammers on same Augoror the jam chance is
- 1 - ( 1 - 8,39/54,2 )^2 = 0,285.. = 29%
29% chance to jam, 69% chance to do nothing. Better jam chance but we can do better.
The two gravimetric jammers are less useful against Augorors but you still decide to put them on the same Augoror. With two radar and two gravimetric jammers on the Augoror the jam chance is
- 1 - ( 1 - 8,39/54,2 )^2 * ( 1 - 2,80/54,2 )^2 = 0.357 = 36%
It is clear that the gravimetric jammers are not helping much against Augorors. If there are any ships with vulnerable sensors (Caldari ships in this case) on field then it may be better to jam them even if they weren't as important jamming targets.
On the other hand if you had had a crystal ball with you when you fit your ship you could have fitted full rack of four radar jammers. In that case the probability to succesfully jam one enemy Augoror would have been Microsoft office works for mac free downloaddownzup.
- 1 - ( 1 - 8,39/54,2 )^4 = 0,489.. = 49%
So far the examples have been about focusing all jams to single target. But the voice of your EWAR FC echoes in your mind 'Spread the jams'.
If all jams are on one target you may successfully jam the target with one jam and be happy, or you may successfully jam the same target with two jammers and wonder if things could be better. If you spread the jams to one jam per target the probability to jam at least one target does not change but there is the chance to jam multiple targets.
Spreading four radar jammers to four different Augorors gives you still the same 49% chance to jam at least one of them But you will also have the chance to jam two, three or four target. The jamming probabilities in this case follow binomial distribution.
| Numbers of targets jammed | probability |
| 0 | 51% |
| 1 | 37% |
| 2 | 10% |
| 3 | 1% |
| 4 | 0,06% |
Skills to improve ECM
As with everything in EVE there are multiple skills that will greatly increase your effectiveness when using ECM.
- Electronic Warfare - Reduces capacitor usage on ECM modules by 5% per level. Requirement for using ECM.
- Frequency Modulation - Increases the falloff distance of all EWAR modules by 10% per level.
- Long Distance Jamming - Increases the optimal range of all EWAR modules by 10% per level.
- Signal Dispersion - Increases your jam strength by 5% per level.
- Electronic Superiority Rigging - Reduces the drawbacks of EWAR and sensor rigs by 10% per level.
Additional skills useful for ECM pilots:
- Long Range Targeting - 5% Bonus to targeting range per skill level.
- Caldari Frigate - Increases hull bonuses of Caldari EWAR frigates.
- Caldari Cruiser - Increases hull bonuses of Caldari EWAR cruisers.
- Caldari Battleship - Increases hull bonuses of Caldari EWAR battleships.
ECM equipment and ships
| Racial ECM jammers - These are the usual jammers used. Each works well against one sensor type but poorly against others. |
| Multispectral ECM Jammers - These modules are reasonably effective on all targets with a high capacitor cost and shorter range than the racial jammers. |
| ECM Burst Jammers - These are short-range high-strength area of effect jammers that work similarly to Smartbombs. On activation, they will attempt to jam all ships in range. However, they will only break all the existing target locks of affected ships, and will not block their ability to lock or re-lock new targets. Burst modules consume a high amount of capacitor and are generally only used on Battleships. Remember that ECM burst jammers will also jam your friends and will get you CONCORD'd if used in high security space, and thus cannot be activated in hisec if your Safety is not set to Red. |
| ECM Jammer Burst Projector - Supercarriers can use an ECM Jammer Burst Projector to apply a 5 strength jam to all ships within a 10km radius bubble projected at a location chosen by the super pilot after a 10 second spoolup. Jams from this projector will last for 40 seconds, rather than the 20 seconds of normal jams. Ships jammed by the burst projector will not be able to target the supercarrier that generated the burst. A weapons timer is applied to the supercarrier for the duration of the Burst Projector's 300 second activation time (reducible with levels in Burst Projector Operation). Consumes 250 Heavy Water upon use. |
| Signal Distortion Amplifiers - These low slot modules increase the strength and optimal range of your jammers. |
| Particle Dispersion Augmentors - These rigs increase the strength of your jammers. |
| Particle Dispersion Projectors - These rigs increase the optimal range of your jammers. |
ECM drones are useful for any pilot but are unaffected by any skills or ship bonuses. Jams only last 5 seconds, while still having a regular 20 second duration.
|
Carriers have the option of using ECM fighters. The Chimera and Wyvern receive bonuses to fighter ECM strength. These fighters also come in Standup versions with the same jam strengths, for use by Upwell Structures.
|
If you know the type of fight you are heading towards you can make a tactical decision and fit full rack of specific racial jammers(or the fleet commander might make this decision before you head out).
But if you do not know what kind of ships you are going to jam it is tough to choose between fitting several multispectral jammers or a variety of race specific jammers.
- The practice of fitting one of each racial ECM is known as fitting a rainbow configuration. This generally gives higher jamming strength than multispectral if at least some of jams are aimed at right type of ships. If you are ever in doubt about what kind of jammers to fit, you should go with a rainbow configuration.
- If you plan on fighting and jamming multiple ships then you should fit racial jammers. This will allow you as the ECM pilot to target a few different ships and have a high chance of locking them all down (i.e. jamming them).
- If you plan on fighting individual ships (or very small gangs), and don't know what type of ship you will be fighting ahead of time then ECM will be more effective with multispectral jammers since you could activate more than one on a single target and have a higher chance of locking them down.
- If you have intelligence about the ships being flown by your enemy you can have your pilots fit multiple jammers which match the race type of your target ship(s). It can be useful to carry a spare set of one of each of the four racial jammers in an ECM ship's hold, for refitting on the fly.
Ships for ECM
Since there are no stacking penalties for ECM large number of unbonused jammers will work well. But even though all types of ships can use ECM there are certain ships that have hull bonused aimed for ECM use.
Tech 1 ships:
- Griffin
- 15% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength per caldari frigate level
- - 10% bonus to ECM Target Jammers' capacitor need per caldari frigate level
- Blackbird
- 15% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength per caldari cruiser level
- 12.5% bonus to ECM Target Jammer optimal range and falloff per caldari cruiser level
- Scorpion
- 15% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength per caldari battleship level
- 25% bonus to ECM Target Jammer optimal and falloff range per caldari battleship level
- 25% Bonus to ECM Burst Range per caldari battleship level
Faction ships:
- Griffin Navy Issue
- 20% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength per caldari frigate level
- -85% penalty to ECM optimal range and falloff
- -85% reduction to ECM Jammer activation cost and CPU requirements
Advanced ships:
- Kitsune
- 20% bonus to ECM target jammer strength and 10% reduction in ECM target jammers' capacitor need per caldari frigate level
- 15% bonus to ECM target jammer optimal range per electronic attack ships level
- Rook
- 10% Bonus to ECM Target Jammer capacitor use per caldari cruiser level
- 30% Bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength per recon ships level
- Falcon
- 10% Bonus to ECM Target Jammer capacitor use per caldari cruiser level
- 30% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength per recon ships level
- Widow
- 30% bonus to ECM target jammer strength per black ops ships level
Tech 3 ship:
- Tengu with Obfuscation Manifold subsystem
- 10% bonus to ECM target jammer optimal range and strength per Caldari core systems level
Countering ECM
Now you should understand exactly what ECM is and how it works within Eve. How is it countered? In order to make it harder for ECM modules to jam you you simply need to increase your sensor strength. You can do this in a variety of ways:
- Get a bigger ship. Bigger, more powerful ships have naturally larger sensor strength: e.g a Merlin (frigate) has a sensor strength of 11 while a Raven (battleship) has a sensor strength of 22.
- Sensor Booster modules (mid slot) - These can be loaded with ECCM scripts to increase the strength against jamming. As active modules, they can also be overheated - and will normally overheat for quite some time.
- Signal Amplifiers (low slot) - These modules are similar to Sensor Booster modules but use low slots and give smaller bonuses.
- Remote Sensor Boosters - These allow you to remotely project ECCM script support on to your friend's ship.
- Gravimetric / Magnetometric / Radar / Ladar Sensor Compensation skills - Increase sensor strength by 4% per level of their respective sensor types.
Often, however, the most effective way to counter ECM is to destroy the ECM ship(s) or hurt them enough that they're forced to warp out. The Griffin, Blackbird, Kitsune and Falcon tend to be only barely tanked if they're tanked at all, while the Rook and the Scorpion can mount tanks, but usually still have unimpressive defenses for ships of their respective sizes. ECM pilots tend consequently to be fairly jittery, so even if you can't actually kill them, if you can demonstrate the ability to hurt them they often run away.
A long-ranged, high-alpha weapons such as a artillery can deal an intimidating amount of damage in one volley, which is good for this. In battles which are being fought at long range anyway, damage-dealers fitted with long-range missiles are often tasked with this kind of 'anti-support' fire because by the time their missiles travel to the primary target it would be dead anyway, and volleys of heavy or cruise missiles can also persuade ECM ships to run away.
Drones can also be an effective option. ECM ships often have trouble defending themselves against drones: drones keep fighting even if their parent ship is jammed and, although a single drone is easily jammed, the coordination and time required to lock onto and jam a full flight -- assuming the ECM pilot even has five jammers -- are considerable. Griffins and Kitsunes mount small weapons which can hurt drones, but usually can't tank the drones for long enough; a Blackbird fitted with Rapid Light Missile Launchers and a large plate or shield extender might be able to destroy drones, but the pilot would still be distracted.
Flying ECM
Although flying an ECM ship can involve tough targeting decisions and complex jammer micromanagement (see below!), when you start out you can make things fairly simple for yourself. Assuming you're not flying a large, tanked ship (the Scorpion) or a ship with a covops cloak (the Falcon) -- in which case you should know what you're doing anyway -- you need to:
- be near the edge of your optimal range
- fight aligned
- run away if you're being shot
- help your fleetmates escape tackle if retreating
On most ECM ships ECM's long optimal range is one of the things that keeps you out of trouble, so you should try to warp to targets at your optimal range, not at zero. (Sometimes you will have to fight at short range -- if the enemy jump into an offensive gatecamp, for example.)
Your best way of staying alive is to warp out, and to be able to warp out quick enough if something starts attacking you you should be pre-aligned. When you arrive on-grid where a fight's happening, or when a fight starts where you are, you should quickly select a convenient celestial object (planets are good), or a bookmark, and align to it.
Then, if you find yourself being targeted or if the FC orders the fleet to scatter, you can get out quickly by warping to the celestial you're aligned to. If the fight's still going on, you can then warp back in (warp at your optimal range to one of your fleetmates who was in the middle of things) and carry on jamming. Be careful when choosing an object to align to, however. If the enemy is between you and the celestial you are aligned to, your course will take you towards the fight, and your range advantage will be negated. If you align to an object in the opposite direction of the enemy, you risk straying out of your optimal range, and decreasing the likelihood of successfully jamming your opponent. Whenever possible, pick a celestial which, when aligned to, will put you on a course perpendicular to that of your foe, assuming you're near your optimal range, and the enemy isn't burning directly towards you. This will ensure that you don't rapidly get out of range, or wander into the midst of the battle.
If your fleet is losing the engagement and the FC calls for a retreat take a moment to see if any of your fleetmates are tackled by the opposing fleet. If so, and their ship is more expensive than yours, a valuable tactic is to jam the ships which have points on that ship. If it's not obvious which ships to jam ask the pilot in Mumble to call out the ships with points on him. If you think you can jam out the tackle tell your fleetmate to align out (he should be already) and spam their warp-to buttom as you jam the tackle. Call out any successful jams so your fleetmate can see if they're free to warp off.
With more experience you may notice situations where it might be worth staying around until you die to get a crucial jam in, but that's something you have to make a call on yourself.
If you have some time (you are not about to die) you can gain a large advantage if you do not active all of your ECM modules on a target.
Let's assume there are two targets attacking you and your friends. Immediately you target both of them and decide you will turn on two multispectral jammers for each (four in total). One of the targets gets lucky and avoids both of the jams and the other target gets jammed from your first ECM module. The lucky enemy (that didn't get jammed) then happily targets you and blows you up! Ouch.
Now that is an unpleasant scenario we might have avoided.
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This time we decide to turn on one module per target.Target 1 is lucky and doesn't get jammed.Target 2 is unlucky and we jam them.
At this point we have 2 more modules to work with.We attempt to jam target number 1 with another module and he is AGAIN lucky (just like in the first example)We finally turn a third module onto target 1 and this time we jam him and live to fight another day!
You can see with this example that it is in your best interest to use as little number of jammers on your targets until you get an actual jam. Remember that the activation time of ECM modules is 20 seconds, which is the same length of time that the jam will last (5 seconds for ECM drones).
If you want to you can turn the auto-repeat on your jammers off. This is one of the options in the menu you get when you right-click the jammer's button on your HUD when you're in space. With auto-repeat off your jammers will deactivate after every cycle, saving you the trouble of deactivating them yourself if their target is already jammed by another jammer.
Overheating
Like many other modules, ECM jammers can be overheated. Overheating an ECM jammer increases its jamming strength. This can be very useful but, as with ECM in general, since it only increases your chance to jam, it's still a gamble: overheated jammers can fail to jam their targets, and when that happens you still have the heat damage from overheating. And, just like any other module that can be overheated, if you overheat too much you'll burn your jammers out. You may find it useful to persuade a fellow corpmate to be your practice dummy, letting you practice overheating and get a feel for how long you can heat your jammers before you do it in battle.
ECM targets
Unless you only have one or two enemies, judging which enemy you should try to jam is an important decision. Your Fleet Commander may tell you to jam a particular target or even appoint an EWAR target caller, in which case you should obviously follow their orders. However, most FCs, most of the time, will not issue specific orders for their ECM ships, leaving the decision to you.
Often, particularly when you're in a large fleet, the primary target called by the FC for the damage-dealers is not the best ship to jam, since hopefully it will die soon anyway. Instead you should quickly look at what the enemy have and find some good targets for ECM.
If there are other ECM pilots in your fleet it can be useful to coordinate with them so that you don't waste time jamming the same target several times over. In a small fleet you might report your jams textually in the fleet chat channel, or even over Mumble on ECM subchannel. In a large fleet you could try setting up a separate EWAR chat channel for EWAR pilots.
Here are some ships that often make good ECM targets.
Logistics ships
Logistics ships are T1/T2 cruisers and T1/T2 Frigates which can rapidly repair their allies' shields or armor. They have high sensor strengths, so they aren't the easiest ships to jam, but if you do jam one it won't be able to heal the rest of the enemy gang for twenty seconds. Some gangs depend mostly on their logistics ship(s) for their tank, so this can be a battle-changing move.
Jamming can be extra devastating if the logistic ships are running a cap chain. Jamming will disrupt the chain and in best case can cause multiple ships to cap out causing the chain to collapse.
The T1 logistics frigates are the Inquisitor (Amarr), Bantam (Caldari), Navitas (Gallente), and Burst (Minmatar).
The T2 logistics frigates are the Deacon (Amarr), Kirin (Caldari), Thalia (Gallente), and Scalpel (Minmatar).
The T1 logistics cruisers are the Augoror (Amarr), Osprey (Caldari), Exequror (Gallente), and Scythe (Minmatar).
The T2 logistics cruisers are the Guardian (Amarr), Basilisk (Caldari), Oneiros (Gallente) and Scimitar (Minmatar).
Enemy EWAR
If the enemy have their own EWAR ships it can be useful to jam them. This goes especially for enemy ECM ships. Equally, of course, electronic warfare ships and especially ECM ships have high sensor strengths for their hull size.
Damage dealers
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If you don't see any stand-out targets, like logistics ships, jamming enemy damage-dealers is probably a safe decision. This usually means battleships and battlecruisers but the enemy might field a fast-moving gang of smaller ships. The T2 cruiser-sized heavy assault cruisers and frigate-sized assault frigates are noteworthy smaller damage-dealers, and they don't have very high sensor strengths.
If you're flying a Blackbird, Scorpion or Kitsune you will have a long enough range that you will be one of the few ships in the fleet that might be able to counter enemy snipers. With good ECM range skills, the Blackbird and Kitsune should have a decent chance to jam sniper HACs, and the Scorpion should have a decent chance to jam sniper battleships. (This is where a Targeting Range script can come in useful if you fitted a Sensor Booster.) Keep in mind that your jammed target can still shoot back at you if you're in range, and that damps or tracking/guidance disruptors may be more appealing, depending on the situation.
Triglavian Ships
Ships from the Triglavian Collective have a spooling mechanic, whereby their damage or reps get stronger the longer they're sustained on a single target. A Triglavian ship can be jammed to break its spool on a ship, reducing its potency. Like with jamming sniper damage-dealers, damps or tracking disruptors are more reliable for this purpose.
Jamming and aggression
Sometimes it is unwise to jam someone who is trying to play docking games with you. To win at docking games you sometimes need to rely on the fact that when your target shoots someone he starts a so-called weapons timer and cannot dock for 60 seconds, hopefully giving you time to kill them. If you happen to get a jam off on a person playing docking games he won't be able to get weapons timer for 20 seconds (5 seconds for ECM drones).
Weapons timers also prevent pilots from jumping through stargates, and so the same principle applies if you want to keep someone aggressed on one side of a stargate.
Overheating
Overheating can be a powerful tool on an ECM ship, as overheating a jammer increases its jam strength by a full 20%, which can make a large difference in the odds of getting or missing the jam. However, because jammers have a fairly long cycle time (at 20 seconds), and fairly high Heat Damage (of 6.6HP) (or even more for Burst Jammers), a single overheated jam cycle from multiple jammers can build up a lot of Rack Heat, and cause a lot of collateral damage to the rack.
If in doubt, don't overheat. Better to miss a few jams than to miss all the jams after the first minute because you burned your midslots out.
See also
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Empires
The Eve Online universe includes a series of five established governments. These include one government for each of the four dominant empires (Amarr, Caldari, Gallente, and Minmatar) as well as one for the fifth isolated empire (Jove). Each includes an established hierarchy, political system, and corporation membership.
| The largest of the five main empires, the Amarr Empire is a sprawling patchwork of feudal-like provinces held together by the might of the emperor. Religion has always played a big part in Amarrian politics and the Amarrians believe they are the rightful masters of the world, souring their relations with their neighbors. Another source of ill-feelings on the part of the other empires is the fact that the Amarrians embrace slavery. | The Caldari State is ruled by several mega-corporations. There is no central government to speak of - all territories within the State are owned and ruled by corporations. Duty and discipline are required traits in Caldari citizens, plus unquestioning loyalty to the corporation they live to serve. The corporations compete aggressively amongst themselves and with companies outside the State, resulting in a highly capitalistic society. | The Gallente Federation encompasses several races, the Gallenteans the largest by far. The Federation is democratic and very liberal in a world full of dictators and oligarchies. The Caldari State was once part of the Federation, but a severe dispute resulted in their departure and a long war between the Gallente Federation and the Caldari State. The Gallenteans are the masters of pleasure and entertainment and their rich trade empire has given the world many of its most glorious and extravagant sights. | The Minmatar Republic was formed over a century ago when the Matari threw out their Amarrians overlords in what is known as the Minmatar Rebellion. The Matari had the support of the Gallente Federation and to this day, the two nations remain close allies. Yet, only a quarter of the Matari people reside within the Republic. The rest are scattered around the world, including a large portion still enslaved within the Amarr Empire. Minmatar individuals are independent and proud, possessing a strong will and a multitude of tribal traditions. |
Governments
Despite significant size and organization, some factions are not recognized by the five main governments as equals. These factions also differ in their sovereignty status: the Ammatar Mandate and the Khanid Kingdom are semi-autonomous client states of the Amarr Empire while the Thukker Tribe is an independent offshoot of the Minmatar Republic.
| The Ammatar Mandate is part of the Amarr Empire, a client state of Minmatar origin. During the time the Amarrians occupied the Minmatar homeworlds one of the Minmatar tribes, the Nefantars, collaborated heavily with the Amarrians. The Nefantars fled Minmatar space during the Minmatar Rebellion and the Amarr Emperor set them up in Amarr controlled areas close to Minmatar space, and soon everyone had started calling them Ammatars. Today, the Ammatars enjoy semi-autonomy in their own space and are still embroiled in a war with their former Minmatar brethren. | The Khanid Kingdom, also known as the 'Dark Amarr' due to the coloration of their ships, was founded a few centuries ago when the last Amarr Emperor was chosen. Khanid was one of the royal heirs at the time and, in accordance with tradition, should have killed himself after failing to become emperor. This Khanid refused to do so and split his vast domains from the Amarr Empire. The empire retaliated, but only managed to conquer some of the vulnerable outer regions from Khanid. The Kingdom still upholds many of the traditions of Amarrian society but has also wholeheartedly embraced the customs of others, mainly the Caldari. Many visitors to the Kingdom feel like it is a surreal mix of the Amarr and Caldari empires. | The Thukker Tribe is one of the seven original Minmatar tribes. After the Minmatar Rebellion, the Thukkers left Minmatar space and took up the nomadic lifestyles of their ancestors, only this time in space. The closest thing they've got to home is the Great Wildlands region, where they are very numerous, but the Thukkers like to be on the move, constantly going from one solar system to another in their huge caravans, trading, and scavenging. Respectable citizens of EVE frown upon the Thukkers, considering them to be nothing but scoundrels and thieves. Indeed, the Thukkers often operate on the shadier side of the law, but their resourcefulness and diligence count a lot more for their success than their criminal activities. |
Institutions
The Eve Online universe also includes a number of non-governmental or pseudo-political entities. Included among these are officially recognized entities designed to handle operations between various government factions (The InterBus) as well as on the behalf of all government factions (CONCORD Assembly).
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| CONCORD is an independent organization founded a century ago to facilitate negotiations between the races to improve relations, as well as to foster inter-stellar trade through policing and regulations. Starting as a fledgling meeting ground for diplomats, CONCORD has in the decades since it was founded, slowly increased its power and influence. It has become an entity independent of the races, as it is able to largely fund its own operation through customs, confiscation of contraband goods, and other means. | The InterBus is one of the more successful joint ventures the empires have undertaken. It was formed some 30 years ago to act as a neutral passenger transportation company that would span the entire known world. Since then, it has evolved a bit, especially when it started to ferry goods too. The InterBus is used by the SCC to ferry goods between stations, as they are reliable and operate in every station in the world. As InterBus has to operate not only in empire stations but also in pirate havens and other stations associated with organized crime, the company has to uphold a very strict policy regarding neutrality and secrecy. Even if the company is owned by the empires, no information regarding shipments or station locations is ever given out. The strict adherence to these rules has allowed InterBus to operate without harassment in every corner of the world of EVE, making them one of the pillars of the interstellar community. | The Society of Conscious Thought is three centuries old and was founded by a Jovian named Ior Labron, who was in search of spiritual enlightenment. The Society has since then taken many guises and been anything from a religious sect full of hermits to a political institute playing the power game. Today, the Society is mainly known for their scholastic achievements. Their schools are widely regarded as the best ones in the world of EVE and rich and influential parents everywhere fight to get their kids admitted. Offering large sums of money is, however, no guarantee for admittance, as the Society has its own peculiar selection process that seems to have little rhyme or reason to outsiders. The Society operates in remote areas, where they build strongholds called Kitz. Not all kitz are schools, some are still devoted to spiritual enlightenment or scientific pursuits. |
Independent Organizations
Some large organized factions operate with little to no sovereign space. These groups usually operate both inside and outside of the five empires. Most are born out of corporations and their institutions.
| The origin of Mordu's Legion lies in the Gallente-Caldari War when a group Intaki military personnel sided with the Caldari. The Intaki were put into a separate unit with a Caldari officer named Mordu. After the war the Intaki settled in Caldari space, but unwillingly became entangled with Caldari locals in the Waschi Uprising. Mordu's Legion was formed at that time as a mercenary fighting force and after the uprising, it continued in existence. The Legion is loosely associated with the Caldari Navy, but are in most part totally independent. Mordu's Legion is commonly hired by companies to protect valuable assets outside empire space, for instance Outer Ring Excavations pays them handsomely to patrol the Outer Ring region. | Outer Ring Excavations, or ORE, is the largest independent mining corporation around. ORE was originally a fledgling Gallentean company that struck gold when they found extremely rich Nocxium asteroid belts in the Outer Ring region. When the Gallente Federation tried to force ORE to reveal the location of the asteroid fields the company left Gallentean space and set up base in the Outer Ring region. They used their massive wealth to buy protection for their bases and keep their operation secret. Several pirate factions have tried to muscle in on the ORE territories, with little success. | The Sisters of EVE are mainly known for their humanitarian aid efforts to those suffering because of war, famine, or even just being lost in space. But the Sisters of EVE base their existence on strong religious beliefs, which they have coupled with scientific facts. They believe that the EVE Gate is a gateway to heaven - that God resides on the other side of the Gate. As well as dedicating themselves to aiding those in need, they are also busy with scientific experiments around the EVE Gate, hoping to gain a better understanding of the forces at work there. | The Syndicate was formed by Intaki exiles from the Gallente Federation during the Caldari-Gallente War, slowly growing in stature and influence until it reached its current status as an important link between the empires and the illegal elements in the outer regions. Syndicate space is a pirate haven but still retains enough civility to allow pretty much anyone to travel there to do business; their markets are always chock full of contraband goods and illegal wares that are hard or impossible to come by elsewhere. Each Syndicate station is an autonomous entity, but they cooperate on security and information issues. The unofficial leader of the Syndicate is Silphy en Diabel, a former Sister of EVE that returned to Syndicate space to save her family's fortune. Since then she's turned out to be just as resourceful and ruthless as her late father. |
Criminal Organizations
Some factions are organized to perpetuate illegal practices outside the control of the five governments. Among these activities are piracy and drug manufacturing (Guristas Pirates and Serpentis) as well as banned religious and social practices (The Blood Raider Covenant). Sansha's Nation is a rogue state which none of the Empires recognize as legitimate and was destroyed in the past by an ad-hoc coalition of all four with the assistance of the Jove.
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| Operating from the heart of the Curse region, the Angel Cartel is today the largest and best organized of the space-based criminal factions. The Angels are divided into several groups, each with a very special function. It is commanded by the Dominations and in the century they've been lurking in deep space they have stolen, plundered or sabotaged countless number of ships and kidnapped, molested or murdered thousands of people. The Angels recruit members from all the races, and are thus not bound to any one zone of operation, which spans almost the entire known world. Many believe that the Angels got their power by uncovering Jovian technologies hidden in their ancient homes, now infested by the Angel Cartel. | The Amarr Empire has had its share of religious cults and fanatics in the past, but few have been as successful, or been feared as much, as the Blood Raiders. The Blood Raiders are a sect of a ancient cult called Sani Sabik, which uses blood in their rituals. The Blood Raiders believe that cloned bodies have 'purer' blood than other bodies and this explains why they operate mainly in space, attacking unwary space farers and draining their bodies of blood. The Blood Raiders are led by the fearsome Omir Sarikusa, who has remained on top of the DED most wanted list for many years now. Under his leadership the Blood Raiders have become more organized and they have established several bases in the Bleak Lands region. | The Guristas Pirates were founded by Jirai 'Fatal' Laitanen and his friend Korako 'the Rabbit' Kosakami, a pair of ex-Caldari Navy officers who proceeded to make themselves a constant thorn in the side of the Caldari State. The Guristas are traditional pirates in the sense that, rather than a creed or ideology, their operations are motivated by plain and simple greed. While they are based in the region of Tenal, they have many bases close to Caldari space from which they embark on daring raids, often into the State itself. Though the Guristas are considered more honorable than many of their counterparts, they are still extremely dangerous and not to be trifled with. | Sansha's Nation was founded more than a century ago, shortly after all the empires had come into contact, just when space exploration and colonization was taking off. Sansha was a Caldari tycoon who carved out a sizeable piece of space for himself. There, he set out to create a utopian state. His vision and charm attracted thousands of people and for some time the Nation flourished. But Sansha became ever more warped as his success increased. He started experiments, combining capsule technology with the human mind, creating zombie-like creatures that had the cold, calculating mind of a computer, but the ingenuity of a human. When this became public knowledge, Sansha was condemned and the other empires joined forces to bring him down. His forces were decimated and scattered to the winds. Remnants still remain far in the outer regions, but the once glorious Nation has been reduced to pirates and pillagers. | The Serpentis Corporation was founded several decades ago by Igil Sarpati and made its name in the galaxy through hi-tech neural booster research, but was crippled by the discovery of their fatal side-effects and subsequent ban throughout Empire space. The company was re-established by Igil's adopted son, Salvador Sarpati, and with time its ties with the underworld grew and the Serpentis research stations, scattered around in remote areas, became infamous pirate havens. Sarpati made a deal with the Angel Cartel early on to provide protection for his stations and the duty was taken on by the Guardian Angels. Both sides have prospered enormously for this deal - Serpentis can operate in peace and the Angel Cartel gets access to the illegal research efforts of the Serpentis. It is strongly believed that Serpentis is the main developer and manufacturer of illegal neural boosters, especially since Sarpati's father was a renowned specialist in that field. The home of Serpentis is in the Phoenix constellation in the Fountain region. | The Equilibrium of Mankind is a doomsday cult of Amarr origin founded roughly 1500 years ago by Ocilan Ardishapur, who was both the head of the Ardishapur Family and a relative of the reigning Amarr Emperor. The cult is centered around the corrupted teachings of Aramon Khalid and believes that those who do not follow the Equilibrium's way should be exterminated in order to bring about paradise. Under this belief, they have committed several atrocities throughout their history, including the activation of an Avatar-class titan's Judgement doomsday weapon in orbit of the planet Reschard IV, killing almost 90% of all living things on the planet. |
Precursors
A tiny handful of civilizations survived the collapse of the EVE Gate, with the Jove being the sole example of such 'precursor' civilizations that remained in New Eden. Recent events have seen the emergence of other organizations that can claim the title, such as the Drifters and the Triglavian Collective.
| The Jove Empire is isolated from the rest of the world to all but a selected few, and the Jovians are a mystery to the other races. fueled not only by their elusiveness but also their highly advanced technology, eons ahead of the other races. The Jovians have been civilized longer than any other race in the world of EVE and have gone through several golden ages, now long-since shrouded in the past. The current Jovian Empire is only a pale shadow of its former self, mainly because of the Jovian Disease - a psychological disorder that is always fatal. While they are technically part of the CONCORD-aligned Empires, barring a few rare exceptions they have stayed isolated in their home regions, and recent events indicate that the Jove Empire has effectively ceased to exist. | The Drifters are an ancient race of Jovian origin. Their history is mostly unknown, though we do know that they splintered from the rest of the Jove during the first or second Jovian Empire and appear to be working with Sleeper technology. Whether this is voluntary on behalf of the Sleepers is unknown. | The Triglavian Collective is an ancient human civilization with a mostly unknown past who isolated themselves in Abyssal Deadspace at some point in the distant past. Triglavian society consists of multiple clades and subclades that do not always appear to agree with each other and resort to what they call 'provings' to resolve disputes. They are currently engaging in hostilities with the Drifters and seem to have allied themselves with some elements of the Rogue Drones. |
Ancient Civilizations
Some factions have little to no presence in the Eve Online universe; lost civilizations which only exist in the form of historical artifacts or long-silent creations.
| Sleepers | Takmahl | Talocan | Yan Jung | Terrans |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Sleepers are, like the other ancient races, an ancient human civilization that populated New Eden thousands of years ago before vanishing. These days the only remains of them in the New Eden cluster itself are ruins and strange artifacts that can be found in the Ani constellation of the Metropolis region. Sleeper technology is said to be comparable to T2 in some areas, while in others they had much more advanced knowledge. From those few known artifacts, it was also deduced that the Sleepers were masters of virtual reality, neural interfacing, and cryotechnology. Considerably more was learned about the Sleepers with the release of the 'Apocrypha' expansion in Spring 2009, which introduced Sleepers as inhabitants of the newly introduced wormhole space, aka Anoikis. Subsequent investigations of wormhole space eventually revealed that the Sleepers were an offshoot of the ancient Jove Empire's 'Stasis People'. At this point, all interactions within Anoikis appear to be with drones rather than manned vehicles; the Sleepers themselves are currently in stasis, with their inert bodies plundered for technology by capsuleers. | The Takmahl were once part of the Amarr Empire but migrated to the Araz constellation after being exiled from the Empire proper, living isolated from other interstellar civilizations for centuries. The reasons for their exile remain unclear, but they were supposedly labeled heretics due to their Sani Sabik practices and/or because they worshiped different gods. Their fate is unknown, but while the Takmahl themselves are no longer present in New Eden some in the Amarr Empire believe them to be the precursors of the Blood Raiders. The relics and technology they left behind show they were undoubtedly masters of cybernetics and bio-engineering technology, and many can be found in the Museum Arcana to this day. | Talocan archaeological sites were discovered by the Caldari State in the Okkelen constellation, and examination of the technology found there indicated the Talocan were masters of spatial manipulation and 'hypereuclidean mathematics'. Unfortunately, this was the limit of what could be determined from the ruins there, as the sites were overrun by Rogue Drones. | According to Sebast Mathon, the Yan Jung nation immigrated into New Eden through the EVE Gate and settled in the Deltole system, especially on Deltole V and VI, which seem to have been much more inhabitable back then. Yan Jung archaeological sites can be found in the Algintal Constellation within Gallente Federation space and, judging from the remains of the technology found there, were masters of advanced gravitronic technology and force field theories. | The civilization(s) from which all others in New Eden originated, little-known by anyone in-universe and commonly regarded as a myth by those who do. While there have been many rumors and fan theories about them over the years, ranging from their technological level to whether they still exist at all, almost nothing about them has been revealed by sources in-universe or out. |
