Wormhole Classification

I knew someone, somewhere, would not stand at rest and lest wormholes not be classified in some coherent manner such that pilots can figure out what they are getting into. After all, 0.0 space has its true security rating to determine the quality of rats even if its not displayed in the game itself.

Sure enough, here we go. Heck, they've even got a map. Allow me to explain...

Some pilots working with the data and eve client, and perhaps some help of friendly devs in IRC channels have determined that there are nine classes of systems. Classes 1-6 represent the wormhole space systems, and class 7, 8, and 9 represent high, low and null sec respectively in k-space.

The six classes of wormhole systems go from easiest difficulty at 1 to hardest at 6. Each of the general descriptions from wormholes covers two classes: Unknown means 1 and 2, Dangerous Unknown means 3 and 4, and Deadly Unknown means 5 and 6. Obviously the difficulty of the Sleepers and the resulting rewards vary depending on the class of the wormhole.

So far so good?

Well there is more. If you look at a wormhole you will see it has a name like K162 or N110. These names are not random. A wormhole of a certain name will always lead to the same class of space. If you are running around High sec and find a wormhole named Z457, if you look at the handy chart in the map linked above you will see that it leads to a class 4 wormhole system (better put your mouthguard in).

Note: there is the line about the K162 wormholes that is not clear. What I think that means is that if the wormhole's name is K162, it leads to a system of the same classification that you are currently in, so its not always set in stone.

Update: Looks like I was wrong about K162 wormholes. From the Scrap Heap Challenge thread, 5th page:

"If you read the map K162 are exit wormholes. There are two kinds of wormholes, ones that spawn inside the wormhole system itself and lead to wherever(therefore making an exit wormhole(k162) on the otherside) and those that spawn in known space and lead into wormhole space(these have the designation)"

End Update

So this chart allows you to look at a wormhole name and determine at a glance if you are entering easy Unknown space or slightly harder Unknown space. Not a huge deal for a prepared gang perhaps, but very important for a solo pilot looking for some easy anomalies.

You'll also notice on that map how the w-space systems are grouped into distinct regions. As soon as someone figures out how to tell the constellation and region IDs of a system, expect them to start mapping systems to the locations. Eve players are obsessive like that.

P.S. The white systems on the map, before anyone asks, are Jove systems. No, there are not any wormholes that lead there.