Abyssal Deadspace guideAbyssal Deadspace for beginners: Tranquil and Calm filaments

Seven tiers, three ship sizes

A filament is an item you activate in space. It pulls your ship into Abyssal Deadspace, a separate space full of NPCs (enemy ships the game controls).

Every filament has a tier and a weather. The tier is how hard it is. There are seven tiers, from Tranquil (T0) and Calm (T1) up to Cataclysmic (T6). Here T0 and T1 are tier numbers, not Tech I or Tech II ships. Each tier up has tougher NPCs and better loot.

Where you can open one depends on the system's security status. That is the number next to the system's name; 1.0 is the safest.

• Tranquil filaments are the only ones that open in 1.0 and 0.9 systems, Exordium included. Exordium is EVE's new starter region, where every new character begins and no player can shoot you.
• This came with the 19 May 2026 patch that opened Exordium. Before it, no filament opened in 1.0 or 0.9 space.
• Calm and higher need a system of 0.8 or lower.

A run is three pockets, small arenas linked by gates. Each pocket has NPCs, a loot cache and a gate to the next one. A run goes like this:

1. You activate the filament and land in the first pocket. The 20-minute clock starts.
2. You kill the NPCs and take the loot from the cache.
3. You take the gate to the next pocket and do the same again.
4. The gate in the third pocket takes you back out, to where you opened the filament.

The clock is the big danger. The 20 minutes cover all three pockets, not each one. If you are still inside when time runs out, your ship is destroyed. So is your pod, the capsule you sit in. That leaves you under 6 minutes 40 seconds a pocket on average.

What you can take in depends on the size of your ship:

• Cruiser: one ship on one filament. Tech 3 strategic cruisers aren't allowed.
• Destroyers: up to two ships on two filaments.
• Frigates: up to three ships on three filaments.

A destroyer or frigate run always uses all its filaments, even if you go alone. You must also be in a fleet to open one, but a fleet of just you is enough. In return, a frigate run's main cache in each pocket holds three times the loot. In a destroyer run it holds twice as much. The smaller containers don't change.

Before you start

Have these ready before your first run. The details are further down.

• A Tech I frigate with an Abyssal fit. Tech I is the basic version of a ship. A fit is the set of modules on it. EVE University (a corporation that teaches new players, with a large wiki) tested four Tranquil fits. They cost 2.3 to 4.4 million ISK (the game's money).
• The skills. The Punisher fit needs about 500,000 SP (skill points) on top of a new character's skills. Every skill in it trains on Alpha, the free account type.
• Filaments. A frigate run uses three. Tranquil filaments cost 12,900 to 123,000 ISK each in Jita, the game's main trade hub (its busiest market).
• A fleet. For a frigate run, even a fleet of just you.
• A ship you can afford to lose. If the clock runs out, you lose it and your pod.

Weather

The second word of a filament's name is its weather. A Calm Electrical filament, for example, has Electrical weather. Each weather weakens one thing about your ship and strengthens another.

Some terms in the table:

• Resistance: how much of one damage type (EM, thermal, kinetic or explosive) your ship shrugs off. Lower resistance means you take more of that damage.
• Turret optimal and falloff: the range of your guns.
• Capacitor: the energy your modules run on.
• Scan resolution: how fast you lock targets.

The table shows each weather's penalty, its bonus and what its filaments cost. Read the Penalty column first: it tells you which weather hurts your ship.

In Tranquil and Calm the penalty is 30% or 50%, at random. From Raging (T4) up it is 50% or 70%. Prices are 30-day averages of Jita trades, to 3 October. Calm Gamma sold 4,900 a day, 67% more than in June and early July.

Pick a weather whose penalty misses your ship:

• Electrical is the usual first pick. Its faster capacitor recharge keeps your guns, repairers and propulsion running. Three of EVE University's four Tranquil fits are for it.
• Dark cuts the range of turrets (guns). Missiles and drones don't care, which is why EVE University runs its Kestrel in Dark.
• Firestorm adds armor HP, so it suits armor-tanked ships (ships that rely on armor to survive). Gamma adds shield HP, so it suits shield-tanked ships.

Every weather except Dark also opens a hole in one of your resistances.

What a run pays

The chart shows the median loot of one run, in million ISK, by tier and ship size. Median means half the runs paid more and half paid less. Compare the bars: frigates earn the most in both tiers.

These medians come from runs that players log on Abyss Tracker, a site that collects run results. EVE University gave them in February 2026. A frigate run uses three filaments and a destroyer run two. With friends, the loot is shared. At Agitated (T2) the medians are 13.48M, 8.70M and 5.47M, but EVE University doesn't recommend that tier.

At Calm, a frigate run pays twice what a cruiser run does. At Tranquil it pays three times as much.

What drops:

• Triglavian Survey Databases, known as "red loot". Nearly every run drops them. NPC buy orders, set by the game, take them for a fixed 100,000 ISK each. In Jita they trade at 96,700.
• Zero-Point Condensate (33,000 ISK in Jita) and Crystalline Isogen-10 (47,000) are other common drops.
• The rest is filaments and mutaplasmids (items that change a module's stats at random). Now and then you also get a blueprint copy or a skill book.

The filaments cost little next to that. Three Calm Firestorm filaments for a frigate run cost about 17,000 ISK at Jita prices. Three Calm Exotic, the most expensive Calm weather, cost about 232,000.

Which ship

EVE University's advice, step by step:

1. Start Tranquil in a Tech I frigate.
2. Then run Calm in an assault frigate. These are Tech II frigates: stronger, pricier and Omega only. Omega is the paid subscription.
3. If you are Alpha or low on SP, run Calm in a Caldari Navy Hookbill or a Worm instead.

Its pilots tested four Tranquil fits for new characters. None of them needs an Omega-only skill.

The table compares the four. DPS is the damage you deal per second. Tank is how much damage per second the fit can soak up over time, so higher is safer. If you are unsure, take the highlighted Punisher: EVE University's pilots call it probably the safest of the four.

The fits, with their skill lists and videos, are on EVE University's Abyssal Community Fits page. Tank is EHP (effective hit points: your hit points after resistances) per second, against Pyfa's Abyss-All damage profile. Pyfa is a free fitting tool. The four hulls (the bare ships) cost 0.3M to 0.5M ISK in Jita. The rest of each fit's price is modules.

For Calm the ships cost more. The table shows their Jita price and how many sell a day. The "Account needed" column tells you which ones an Alpha can fly.

Jita prices and daily sales are 30-day averages to 3 October. The Gila, Ishtar and Vexor Navy Issue you see in abyssal videos are for higher tiers. They cost 204M, 140M and 39M ISK. And at Calm, a cruiser earns half what a frigate does.

Twenty minutes: how not to lose your ship

If the 20 minutes run out with you inside, you lose your ship, your pod and any implants in it. You wake up in your medical clone at your home station.

EVE University tested its fits hardest against two spawns (NPC groups) that end most Tranquil runs: the Skybreaker Disparu Troop and the Devoted Hunter. Beyond those, the clock is what kills you. These habits help:

• Test a new fit a tier lower. Don't take a new fit straight into a new tier. Then a mistake costs only a cheap run.
• Kill the capacitor drainers first. Some NPCs neutralize (drain) your capacitor. Without capacitor your repairers stop, and so do laser and hybrid guns.
• Turn off the microwarpdrive once you are in range. The microwarpdrive (MWD) makes you much faster. But it drains your capacitor. It also blows up your signature (how big a target you are), so you take more damage. And your guns track targets worse.
• Skip the smaller containers when a run is slow. The clock doesn't stop while you loot.
• Pull your drones in before you take the gate. Drones left behind are lost.
• Watch for players when you come out. Outside Exordium, opening a filament leaves an Abyssal trace. Anyone can find it with combat probes (probes that find ships in space). Someone can wait there for you to come out.

Skill plan

These are the skills EVE University trained for its Punisher fit. Every prerequisite (a skill you must train first) is added. To load them:

1. Click the copy button on the plan below.
2. In game, open the Skill Queue window.
3. Use "import from clipboard".

Each line is one skill level, and prerequisites always come first.

Spaceship Command 1
Amarr Frigate 1
Amarr Frigate 2
Amarr Frigate 3
Amarr Frigate 4
Gunnery 1
Gunnery 2
Controlled Bursts 1
Controlled Bursts 2
Controlled Bursts 3
Motion Prediction 1
Motion Prediction 2
Motion Prediction 3
Rapid Firing 1
Rapid Firing 2
Rapid Firing 3
Sharpshooter 1
Sharpshooter 2
Sharpshooter 3
Small Energy Turret 1
Small Energy Turret 2
Small Energy Turret 3
Small Energy Turret 4
Gunnery 3
Gunnery 4
Surgical Strike 1
Surgical Strike 2
Surgical Strike 3
Trajectory Analysis 1
Trajectory Analysis 2
Trajectory Analysis 3
Mechanics 1
Hull Upgrades 1
Hull Upgrades 2
Hull Upgrades 3
Hull Upgrades 4
Repair Systems 1
Repair Systems 2
Repair Systems 3
Power Grid Management 1
Power Grid Management 2
Power Grid Management 3
Power Grid Management 4
Capacitor Management 1
Capacitor Management 2
Capacitor Management 3
Science 1
Science 2
Science 3
Science 4
Thermodynamics 1
Thermodynamics 2
Thermodynamics 3
Capacitor Management 4
Energy Grid Upgrades 1
Energy Grid Upgrades 2

Times assume a fresh character with no implants and 20/20 attributes (20 in both stats that set training speed). That is 1,800 SP an hour on Omega and half that on Alpha. The plan is 669,000 SP counted from zero. EVE University counts 500,000 on top of the skills a new character starts with. Every skill in it trains on Alpha.

Can an Alpha run Abyssal Deadspace?

Yes. Alpha is the free account type. EVE University's Tranquil fits use no Omega-only skills or modules. For Calm, it suggests a Caldari Navy Hookbill or a Worm to Alpha pilots.

Can I take a frigate in alone?

Yes, but it still uses three filaments. You also have to be in a fleet, even a fleet of just you. A destroyer run uses two filaments.

Can I open filaments in Exordium?

Only Tranquil ones. Calm and higher need a system of 0.8 or lower, so you have to leave Exordium first.

What happens when the 20 minutes run out?

Your ship and your pod (the capsule you sit in) are destroyed. You wake up in your medical clone. Everything inside is lost.

What happens at downtime?

Downtime is the daily server restart. If you are inside, you are sent back to the system you came from. Any drones not in your drone bay are lost.