Gravity well

Overview

A Gravity well (aka "grav-well") is a spatial anomaly which interferes with you engaging your ship's warp drive. If you try to warp through one, it will disrupt your ship's warp drive and bring your ship to a halt.

Some busier sectors with major gravity wells have had Accelerators (a type of in-sector jumpgate) installed to "bridge" the warp-dead area conveniently. A couple of examples of these are to be found in Asteroid Belt Beta (ABA), and in Asteroid Belt Gamma (ABG) —the latter sector uses a gravity well as a measure to help secure the Progen prison known as Detention Center Onorom.

Gravity Shears

A gravity shear is an even more dangerous form of gravity well which also does radiation damage to your hull over time (bypassing shields entirely). A JE's Environmental Shield will protect you from this damage but even level 7 Navigate will not allow you to warp inside a Shear. A TS's Nullfactor Field will both protect you from damage and make warp possible.

Extraction Tactics

By the time a travelling ship has dropped out of warp, its momentum will ensure that it screeches to a halt at a point inside the gravity well. As the border co-ordinates of gravity wells are not mapped (the costs for astrogational surveys of these warp-inhibiting phenomena being prohibitive) the most reliable — although not the fastest — way to extricate yourself it to remain on your original vector and simply activate your reverse impulse engine.

Danger Management

Due to impulse engines being the only locomotion option, gravity wells are notorious lurking places for bandits, particularly a faction known as the Sulami Pirates (note that unlike the Red Dragon and Chavez pirates, the Sulami do not appear on the ENB Faction Chart - it seems that you won't mess up your standing with any other faction if you shoot them down). Sulami pirates will typically fly in a formation of three ships, and tend to have fast impulse engines. Some may possess the ability to see through a Jenquai cloak at close quarters.

Recommended tactics:

Jenquai pilots should cloak as soon as Sulami are spotted and hopefully too far off to see through your cloaking technology; all pilots are best served by switching from a slow reverse-out to turning about and using your faster forward impulse engine.
You should activate your Map (also available by using the "M" key on your keyboard) to ensure that you are on as close to a 180-degree reverse course as possible — you do not want to get lost in a grav-well with pirates on your tail. If your ship is destroyed, you will probably have the cost of a tow added to your XP Debt, as not all Explorer-class pilots (with the Jumpstart skill) will want to risk a rescue inside a gravity well.
To improve your chances of escape if being pursued inside a grav-well, pilots should consider travelling with an impulse-speed enhancing device on-hand in their cargo-hold. If running from bandits, something like a Cat's Paw (all pilots) or a Shark Fin (TEs-only) can be installed to boost your impulse speed and increase your chances of either outrunning pursuers, or increasing the time for them to catch up with you (by which time hopefully you will reach the grav-well boundary and be able to warp away). Both device-types mentioned above are available in levels from 2 through to 9.

Immunity to Grav-Wells

There are two classes of pilot which, when they have certain skills maximised, can travel through gravity wells:

The Jenquai Explorer (partial immunity). When a JE has his Navigate skill maximised (Level 7), he has a 50% chance of successfully warping through a gravity well. This benefit also extends to a group formation of which the JE is a member.
The Terran Scout (full immunity). When a TS has his Nullfactor Field skill maximised (Level 5) and activated, his ship, and all ships in a group of which he is a member, become completely immune to gravity well effects.

Grav-well Locations

Akeron's Gate — dead center between the gates to Freya and Saturn. Pilots can go around by warping to either the Pluto Accelerator or to asteroid Jyn (left of centre).
Ceres — explorers of this recently opened system report at least two grav wells. However, the Sulami Pirates were not seen. Do not know if these grav wells merely serve as speed bumps while approaching the Chavez station there, or if Sulami Pirates that would normally spawn had recently been destroyed or where busy chasing some other traveller. Caution is advised...
Freya — there are two grav wells in Freya, one just southwest of Nav Gateway 3 and one southwest of Nav Freya 4. Workarounds are a bit tricky — Freya has five gate locations and the routes required differ somewhat. You can use the planet and moons as warp-targets to by-pass them, before resuming a route using plotted navpionts, as follows:
- from Akeron's Gate — pilots should target moon Seidr. If going to Jotenheim or either Centauri gate, stop warping in the "nowhere area" just left of the Jotenheim gate. Retarget and proceed. If going to either of Ragnarok or Nifleheim Cloud, stop warping near Nav Freya Planetary 2, retarget and proceed.
- from the Centauri gates — for Jotunheim the route is clear. For Akeron's Gate, stop warp short of Nav Gateway 3, then retarget and warp to Freya Field 2, retarget to Akeron's Gate and continue (Mist Runners (CL10) and Mist Lords (CL12) are found at Freya Field 2). For Nifleheim Cloud or Ragnarok, target moon Seidr and stop near Nav Freya Planetary 2, then retarget and proceed (The moon Seidr has no mobs if you forget).
- from Jotunheim gate — for both the Centauri gates, the route is clear. For Akeron's Gate, follow same multi-step procedure as from Centauri gates. For Nifleheim Cloud and Ragnarok, follow the procedure of warping toward moon Seidr, etc.
- from Ragnarok — for Nifleheim Cloud route is clear. For Jotunheim, target moon Brisings and stop warping when near the FP-Xnn asteroids, then retarget and proceed (mind the CL23 mobs actually amongst these asteroids and stop short of them). For Centauri, go to Jotunheim gate first, then proceed via clear route. For Akeron's Gate use above method to go to Jotenheim gate first, then follow procedure laid out under Centauri above (or go through Jotenheim).
- from Nifleheim Cloud — for Ragnarok the route is clear. For all others, target moon Brisings and follow instructions above under Ragnarok gate.

Note: the moon Falk has CL 23 mobs and CL 40 plus Nagifars. Avoid going there until/unless you can handle them.

Jupiter — the grav-well in Jupiter affects few pilots, as it's far from any popular flight-path: indeed, few realise there actually is one in this sector! It is to be found south of the visible navpoint Asteroid JP-X42 and also the three other hidden astroid navs to the south of Asteroid X42 (-X41, -X40, and -X39). Right in the middle of the gravity well there is a Red Dragon Outpost nav at co-ordinates 351x, 29y, -1z.
Lagarto — this sector is the ultimate grav-well nightmare. Its northernmost reaches are riddled with them, and new pilots are advised to seek the guidance of experienced pilots who already have the narrow path of navpoints through the grav-well fields stored in their navigation computer. While on this narrow path you may see an unmapped nav-point in the east: this is a ship called the PAX Decima Gemina: be aware that it is on the other side of a grav-well, so don't stray from the path unless you want to spend oodles of time to slowly impulse-engine yourself over & back in order to map it.
Menorb — the starbase in this sector, Androzari station, is located inside a gravity well that encircles the station by about 6k-10k.
Muspelheim — between the gate to Odin's Rex (southeast end) and Nav Muspelheim 5. Pilots travelling from any stargate in the sector are advised to always plot their course to Nav Muspelheim 6 (located to the north of the gate to Odin Rex sector, Odin's Belt system) and then proceed to destination from there. Mind the CL13 mobs near Nav 6.
Muspelheim — from the gate to Aragoth Prime, warping directly to Surti Alpha (a moon) will land you in the grav well before you get as far as the Jormund Path. Warping from Nav Muspelheim 2 directly to Muspelheim may also land you in it (it'll be on your right). Returning from either the planet or moon to the AP gate avoids this one because your normal path follows the navs.
Odin Rex — one grav well between Nav Odin Rex 5 and nav Sight. Most routes to Balder avoid this unless you are coming from the Vali area. The return from Balder or the Chavez Camp usually doesn't take this route anyway. Warp to Balder from Nav Odin Rex 3 or 4 to avoid this one.
Odin Rex — second grav well between Nav Odin Rex 1 and The Path (Hodr). Only likely route that will hit this is warping from Odin's Belt gate to/from Hodr via the established navs. Guess this was put in to trap our Progen friends who want to whack Chavez at the Chavez Outpost behind Hodr.
Paramis — located a short distance due north of the gate to Blackbeard's Wake. To evade its effect, sight on and then freewarp about half the distance towards The Controller Project navpoint. There is also a Gravity Shear due West of the gate to Blackbeard's Wake (causes hull damage).
Vishao's Cove — Grav well to northeast, east, and southeast of Vishao's Peril. Not on a normal flight path. Interferes with killing CL45 Baka the Reaper whose usual flight path is mostly east of Vishao's Peril. This grav well seems larger than the others. Sulami Pirates may sortie from their grav well to attack players to west of Vishao's Peril but will quickly return to their normal haunts.

Location Charts

The approximate locations of some gravity wells are mapped as red circles on the sector charts to be found at the ENB Maps website ( http://enbmaps.de/ ).