Faction Warfare guideFaction Warfare after Cradle of War: which militia, and what LP is worth

Two updates, new numbers

Faction Warfare (FW) is the war the four empires fight over lowsec. You enlist in a militia, your empire's side in the war, and capture complexes in the warzones: lowsec systems on the empires' borders, each held by one side. Each capture pays loyalty points (LP), which you spend in your militia's LP store. Two updates this year changed what that pays.

Cradle of War, on 9 June 2026, added new complexes. They give far more victory points (VP), the points that push a system toward changing hands, and slightly more LP than the ones they replace. CCP says they stay for the length of the expansion. One of them takes a Tech I frigate and five minutes. On 1 July CCP also undid its cut to battlefields: they pay 150,000 LP again instead of 50,000.

The Cradle of War Major Update of 22 September brought these changes:

• The interceptor complex is gone, replaced by one for assault frigates.
• NPC frigates and destroyers in Scout and Small complexes now drop tags, the loot items some LP store offers ask for.
• Pirate Insurgencies, the events in which pirate militias move into the warzones, got shorter and more contested. They last 7 days instead of 14. A pilot on the winning side can now earn up to 1,500,000 LP from the final payout, up from 464,300.

Which militia to join

There are two wars. Amarr fights Minmatar in Devoid, the Bleak Lands, Heimatar and Metropolis. Caldari fights Gallente in Black Rise, the Citadel, Essence, Verge Vendor and Placid. Each empire's militia is an NPC corporation that solo pilots join.

Pilots, systems and kills are ESI's Faction Warfare statistics on 4 October. Kills are those each militia made in the last 7 days. ESI counts every enlisted pilot, active or not. Frontlines are our count from ESI's star map: systems a militia holds next to one its enemy holds. Of the systems each side holds, 21 Amarr, 30 Caldari, 23 Gallente and 19 Minmatar are contested, meaning the enemy has added VP to them. Jumps are ESI routes, and all four stay inside the hub's own empire.

Caldari has the most pilots and systems. Gallente and Minmatar made more kills than Caldari last week with fewer pilots. Amarr and Minmatar gained the most VP, 1.10 million each. Gallente gained 1.00 million and Caldari 0.97 million. Control changes all the time, so treat this as a snapshot.

For most new pilots the deciding question is where they shop. Enlisting puts you at permanent war with the enemy empire. Its navy attacks you in its highsec, and its militia can shoot you anywhere. What that costs you in trade hubs:

• Caldari loses easy access to Dodixie.
• Amarr loses Rens and Hek.
• Minmatar loses Amarr.
• Gallente: ESI now lists Jita itself as a CONCORD system, but every system around it is Caldari. You still have to cross Caldari highsec to get there.

The ships are up to you: any militia can fly any race's hulls.

Two pirate militias fight the empires in Pirate Insurgencies: the Guristas (Commando Guri) against Caldari and Gallente, and the Angel Cartel (Malakim Zealots) against Amarr and Minmatar. They are small, with 2,490 and 3,423 pilots, and made 1,688 and 1,271 kills last week. You join them from the Insurgencies window. Since 22 September an Insurgency is decided within 7 days. The full winner's payout now takes three times as much personal corruption or suppression as before: the score you build up for the pirates or against them.

The complexes

A complex, or plex, is a site in a warzone system. To capture one:

1. Take its acceleration gate.
2. If the system is the enemy's, kill the defending NPC.
3. Stay within 30 km of the capture point until its timer runs out.

Each plex you capture in an enemy system adds VP to it. At 75,000 VP the system turns vulnerable, which means it can change hands. In your own systems a plex pays only while the system is contested or vulnerable.

The name tells you what can enter:

• Size: Scout, Small, Medium, Moderate or Large sets the ship size.
• Letters set the ship types. BSC allows Tech I combat ships only. NVY adds navy ships, ADV adds Tech II and pirate ships, and ELT adds Tech III.
• The number is how many pilots the reward is built for. Bring more and each gets less.

LP is CCP's frontline figure before suppression bonuses. Figures come from CCP's Cradle of War notes and patch notes up to 2 October, and for battlefields from EVE University. CCP gives no capture time for the Small AF-1. A battlefield is won on capture points, not a timer. For comparison, EVE University lists 25 VP for a Scout NVY and 50 for a Small NVY.

Each side's systems fall into three tiers, and the tier sets the LP:

• Frontline: next to a system the enemy holds. Pays 50% more LP than Command Operations.
• Command Operations: the ring behind the frontlines.
• Rearguard: further back. Pays next to nothing; EVE University lists a −99% LP multiplier.

Every new complex except the assault frigate one spawns only in frontlines.

In a Tech I frigate, start with the Scout BSC-1. It captures in five minutes instead of ten and respawns every ten. To keep it dangerous, CCP made its NPCs spawn twice as often and far more likely to fit warp disruptors.

In the Moderate NVY-3 the capture room makes battlecruiser hull bonuses 20% stronger, as if you had the Battlecruiser skill one level higher. At 600 VP, it moves a system further than any plex except a battlefield.

The Contested Field Research Facility applies 3 random effects out of 20, such as every lock range set to 30 km or every resistance set to zero. Since 1 July it also gives Tech III destroyers +500 shield, armor and hull.

What LP is worth

LP isn't ISK until you spend it. Each militia corporation has an LP store. Its offers cost LP plus ISK, often with other items too: the Tech I version of a module, or tags looted from NPCs.

To compare offers, work out ISK per LP:

ISK per LP = (Jita price − ISK cost − inputs at Jita prices) ÷ LP

EVE University's rule of thumb is about 1,000 ISK per LP.

Prices are 30-day averages of what traded in The Forge, to 3 October, before sales tax and broker fees. Each figure is for one whole offer, with the Tech I items it takes. The modules each need six enemy navy insignias, priced here at Jita. Loot your own and you keep that value too. The cap booster and both implants are in all four empire stores.

Volume matters as much as the rate. Navy Cap Booster 3200 sold 17,000 a day over the month, enough to absorb about 6.8 million LP a day. The Dragoon Navy Issue sold about 20 a day, which is 234,000 LP.

The highest rate in the stores is a trap. The Zainou 'Deadeye' Small Hybrid Turret SH-601 costs 375 LP and 375,000 ISK. Its 30-day average says 76,000 ISK per LP. But that average comes from one day when 29 traded, some at up to 390 million each. On a normal day it trades around 424,000 ISK, which is 131 ISK per LP, and 9 sell a day.

Ships come as one-run blueprint copies, so you build the hull yourself. For a destroyer that takes the Industry skill at I, plus minerals and two components worth 1.9M ISK at Jita prices. The four navy destroyers Cradle of War added pay 880 to 1,140 ISK per LP. The four older ones sell faster.

Each blueprint costs 12,000 LP and 3.5M ISK. The build cost is the blueprint's full material list at Jita prices, the same for all eight. Jita prices and daily sales are 30-day averages to 3 October. The older four can also be bought with nexus chips instead of ISK.

All eight navy destroyers need only the racial Frigate III and Destroyer II skills, and they can enter Small NVY plexes. So you can fly the one you build.

What you'll lose

FW is lowsec, and the war follows you out of it. Enemy militia pilots can attack you anywhere in New Eden, and neither CONCORD nor sentry guns step in. Many neutrals in the warzones (pilots in neither militia) are pirates who hunt both sides. You also can't dock a ship in an enemy-held Command Operations or Rearguard system; only your pod gets in.

From zKillboard: the last 800–1,000 losses to players of each of the four militia corporations, 18 September to 4 October, which is 2,592 ships and 1,149 pods. Pilots in player corporations aren't counted, so this leans toward solo and newer pilots. Values include fit and cargo, and Frigate includes navy frigates.

Six in ten of those ships were worth under 10 million ISK, and nine in ten under 48 million. 87% died in lowsec and 9% in highsec. Most pods were empty clones: the median pod was worth 10,000 ISK, and 6% carried more than 10 million in implants. zKillboard counts 63% of the ship losses as solo kills.

EVE University's advice:

• Start in frigates and destroyers.
• Keep a few fitted spares where you stage.
• Be able to fit a microwarpdrive, a warp disruptor or scrambler, and a stasis webifier.

One Scout BSC-1 at 11,250 LP, sold at 1,000 ISK per LP, pays for about two median frigate losses.

Enlisting

To enlist alone, dock at a station of the empire you want to fight for and open the Militia Office. You join its militia corporation at once. Your base standing with that empire must be 0.0 or higher. Standing is the −10 to +10 score a faction keeps on you. "Base" means skills that raise it, such as Connections, don't count.

In a player corporation, the CEO or a director enlists the whole corporation. It takes effect after the next downtime. Since Cradle of War every member needs standings above −5.0 with the faction. A member who drops below that is warned at downtime and removed from the corporation 24 hours later.

EVE University suggests staging in a highsec system on your empire's border with the warzone, at a station of your militia corporation so the LP store is at hand. New characters arrive close by: each rookie shipcaster out of Exordium lands you in its empire's War HQ. Today Amo is 2 jumps from the Minmatar frontline at Hadozeko, Intaki 3 from Moclinamaud, Mehatoor 4 from Kourmonen and Onnamon 5 from Vlillirier.

You can leave at any time from the Militia window and keep your LP. The enemy navy may go on attacking you for several hours afterwards.

Skill plan

Two plans, to train in order. They use Gallente Frigate and Gallente Destroyer for a Tristan and an Algos Navy Issue. The Tristan is the ship militia pilots lost most, and both ships carry drones and turrets. For another race, change those lines and Small Hybrid Turret to your race's ships and weapons. Copy a plan, then in game use "import from clipboard" in the Skill Queue window. Each line is one level, and prerequisites always come first.

Spaceship Command 1
Gallente Frigate 1
Gallente Frigate 2
Gallente Frigate 3
Gunnery 1
Small Hybrid Turret 1
Small Hybrid Turret 2
Small Hybrid Turret 3
Gunnery 2
Gunnery 3
Drones 1
Drones 2
Drones 3
Light Drone Operation 1
Light Drone Operation 2
Light Drone Operation 3
Navigation 1
Navigation 2
Navigation 3
Afterburner 1
Afterburner 2
Afterburner 3
High Speed Maneuvering 1
CPU Management 1
CPU Management 2
CPU Management 3
Propulsion Jamming 1
Power Grid Management 1
Power Grid Management 2
Mechanics 1
Hull Upgrades 1
Hull Upgrades 2
Mechanics 2
Repair Systems 1
Repair Systems 2

Gallente Destroyer 1
Gallente Destroyer 2
Gallente Destroyer 3

Times assume a fresh character with no implants and 20/20 attributes: 1,800 SP an hour on Omega, half that on Alpha. Plan 1 is 81,000 SP: the frigate, a microwarpdrive, a warp disruptor or scrambler and a web, light drones, small guns and basic armor tank. Plan 2 is 16,000 SP, and an Algos Navy Issue needs only level II of it. Every line trains on Alpha.

Do I need a player corporation?

No. Enlisting alone puts you straight into your militia's corporation, with its LP store, its agents and the Militia chat channel. A player corporation helps with fleets and spare ships.

Can the enemy militia shoot me in highsec?

Yes, anywhere in New Eden, and CONCORD won't step in. The enemy empire's navy also attacks you in its highsec. It doesn't use warp disruptors or scramblers, so you can usually warp away, and it leaves pods alone.

Which complex should I start with?

In a Tech I frigate, the Scout BSC-1. It takes five minutes and pays 11,250 LP in a frontline, and only Tech I attack and combat frigates can follow you in.

Does plexing in my own systems pay?

Only while the system is contested (the enemy has added VP to it) or vulnerable. A stable system, with no enemy VP, pays nothing. This defensive plexing is also how your side stops the enemy taking the system.

What happened to the interceptor complex?

CCP removed the Small Interceptor-1 on 22 September and added the Small AF-1, which only assault frigates can enter. It pays 37,500 LP in a frontline, and every NPC in it fits a warp disruptor.

Can an Alpha fly a navy destroyer?

Yes. EVE University lists navy ships up to battleship size as flyable on Alpha. A navy destroyer needs only the racial Frigate III and Destroyer II.