An Update On Drifters - The Wandering Death
Greeting Capsuleers,
CCP Affinity and CCP RedDawn from Team Space Glitter to give you a little more detail on the past, present and future of those mysterious space entities, the Drifters.
With the Carnyx release, the previously inaccessible Unidentified Wormholes popping up over New Eden opened, allowing you to traverse them for the first time.
These wormholes only appear in systems that contain the ominous Jove Observatories, which the Drifters and Seekers have been guarding in a rather aggressive manner.
Braving these Unidentified Wormholes grants access to new wormhole systems that include system-wide effects commonly found in other wormhole systems, shattered planets, and various sites that build upon the existing Drifter mysteries and tell some tales of old.
Capsuleers have also been encountering larger, named Drifter sites which encourage group cooperation and timing to unlock their deepest secrets.
It’s no surprise that the Drifter and Circadian Seeker presence in these systems is high and reports of a new, previously un-encountered Drifter called the Hikanta Tyrannos have been surfacing.
Whatever secrets the Drifter sites hold, it appears to be worth defending. And worth assaulting, as since the Antikythera Element was first discovered, Capsuleer abilities have been enhanced with the appearance of the Entosis Link.
Drifter Recap
During the Rhea release, shortly after the discovery of Caroline’s Star, capsuleers stumbled upon a cloaked structure surrounded by huge lightning clouds. This structure seems to be of Jove origin and was visited by previously unseen scout drones called the Circadian Seekers.
Little is known of the origin of these drones, but their appearance triggered a cascading series of events in New Eden. They are very passive drones and their main objective seems to be exploring systems and scanning everything they come in contact with, but they were particularly drawn to the cloaked structures.
During the Proteus release, the Circadian Seekers became slightly more hostile and territorial. If players tried to attack them, they would not only retaliate but also call reinforcements. They really did not want to be disturbed… but what were they trying to find?
Tiamat was the first release where the massive structures uncloaked. It was revealed that they are Jove Listening Posts and had been there for potentially thousands of years, secretly watching us.
Also, with the uncloaking of the Jove Observatory came a very hostile force. The Drifters appeared in New Eden. We know they are of Jove Ancestry and they are working with the Circadian Seekers.
The Drifters are very hostile towards anyone who approaches the Jove Observatories and if players retaliate they have to face the Drifter superweapon; a weapon of unknown origin that does incredible amounts of omni damage. They are a very dangerous force and extreme caution is advised, as seen in this Scope video.
Shortly after this, during the Scylla release, some of the reasons for the Drifter hostility near the Jove Observatories became clear. Both the Drifters and Seekers started deconstructing the Jove Observatory and removing mechanical parts called Antikythera Elements. They also started to steal the corpses of capsuleers after each battle. Both the corpses and Antikythera Elements were taken into the unidentified wormholes that appeared beside Jove Observatories. Whatever the reason for the Drifters and Seekers taking these mechanical and biological parts, they wanted to keep it well hidden. Capsuleers were not able to follow them in to the wormholes.
Before the release of Mosaic, the Drifter threat was quite contained. If you stayed away from the Jove Observatories and did not try to interfere with the harvesting of the Antikythera Element, you were relatively safe. However, this being EVE, the chance to own and research some ancient Jove technology became too great. Imperial Armaments start to conduct research in to the Antikythera Element and Carthum decided to market a new module made using this element; the Entosis Link. You can read more about the Entosis Link in this blog by CCP Fozzie, and watch this Scope Video.
Capsuleers soon discovered they could use the Entosis Link on the Jove Observatory to gain some insight into the data the Jove had kept over the years. You can see an example of this in a video by Reload.
The Drifters did not take kindly to the Amarr Empire researching the Antikythera Element and encouraging capsuleers to use it to build more Entosis Links. They build a greater force and decided to invade systems under Amarr control. The force within the Throne Worlds continues to increase and there are rumors of an impending war. You can watch the Imperial Navy mobilizing in this Scope video.
With capsuleers able to enter the Drifter wormholes and get a glimpse of what the Drifters have been doing all these months and with the Drifters distracted by the Amarr Empire and the impending war, perhaps now is the time for their true relevance to become clearer. You can watch a Scope video on the Drifter sites here.
Their threatening nature is giving the Empires cause to concern and a fair good few of you have already fallen victim to their superweapon.
What we do know for sure though, is that the story of the Drifters is far from over.
