Factional Warfare Complexes

Factional Warfare Plexes

Each solar system located inside the Factional Warfare zone will spawn a certain number of FW Plexes that will show up as anomalies on the scanner (ALT+D). Depending on the system location and which faction a player is part of, pilots may either conquer or defend the complex.

The main objective to capture FW Plexes is to make the system Infrastructure Hub vulnerable to open attack. Each captured plex increases (for the aggression faction) or decreases (for the defending faction) the percentage of Capture status in the system. When the capture status reaches 100%, the system Infrastructure Hub becomes vulnerable and can be destroyed to change the occupancy of the system to the attacking faction.

Finding Factional Warfare Plexes

The FW Plexes are classified as Cosmic Anomaly in the Scanner menu (ALT+D). Players may warp to the FW Plexes just like any other Cosmic Anomaly site by clicking on the warp to icon (->>>) under the "Signal" column.

When first warped to, the FW Plexes will become available as a warp-in beacon in the overview. From this point, it is possible for anyone to warp directly to the plex using the beacon in the overview.

If your ship matches the acceleration gate restriction filter, it is then possible to warp inside the plex using the acceleration gate to capture the plex.

Plex naming convention

FW plexes come with different names, all starting with the faction name (ie Amarr, Caldari, Gallente, Minmatar) they belong to, may be followed or not by an adjective (Novice, Small, Medium or Large) then ending with a flavor noun like Installation, Compound, Outpost. The adjective indicates the Plex size for the purpose of claiming it and the restrictions that may apply :

• Novice, small-sized plex only allows T1 and faction frigates
• Small, small-sized plex only allows T1, T2 and faction frigates frigates, T1 and T2 destroyers
• Medium, medium sized plex only allows T1, T2 and faction frigates frigates, T1 and T2 destroyers, T1, T2 and faction cruisers
• Large is without any acceleration gate thus no restriction (yes, it allows even capital ships in).

Capturing Plexes

Capturing a plex is is fairly simple, all you have to do is stay within 30km of the plex and kill any NPC or war targets (pilots from the opposing faction) that are also located within 30km of the plex. The countdown timer of the plex will start to run once there are no more Faction NPC or war targets within the 30km radius.

Please note: After the Kronos expansion (released on 3rd June 2014), the tank of the NPCs in the plex were buffed and respawns within 2-3 minutes after being destroyed.

The site is guarded by Faction NPC spawns whose ship size varies based on the size of the FW Plex:

• Novice: NPC Faction Frigates
• Small: NPC Faction Destroyers
• Medium: NPC Faction Cruisers
• Large : NPC Faction Battle Cruisers

Factional Warfare Plex limitations

• If the FW Plex is gated (meaning, if it possesses an acceleration gate at its entrance), then no cynosural fields are allowed.
• Only flying a proper ship, not a pod or shuttle, will count towards the timer.
• Cloaking modules do not work in FW Plexs

The countdown timer

When capturing a FW plex, pilots have to pay attention to the countdown timer that will show the following:

• [Faction name] capturing [time]: a faction is currently conquering the site as at least one player is close enough to the beacon. It will be captured in the amount of time specified.
• Contested: two or more players belonging to opposing factions are close enough to the beacon. One of the two opposing factions will have to be eliminated for the capturing process to resume (the timer is not restarted when switching from "capturing" to "contested"). This flag is also shown when no faction is currently capturing the beacon.

Please note: If a first faction has been capturing the site for a certain amount of time before being crushed by an opposing force, the victors will first have to undo the capturing time before starting to claim it for their own.

Example: a Minmatar Republic strike team seizes and starts capturing a FW Plex belonging to one of the Amarr Empire systems. Timer displays 7 minutes out of 15 elapsed when an Amarr fleet destroys the Minmatar and conquers the site. The Amarrians will have to wait 7+15 = 22 minutes before capturing it.