Rolling a wormhole: the mass maths, without stranding anyone

Rolling a wormhole means pushing enough mass through it that it collapses. You do it to get a fresh static (a new neighbour, a better exit, new sites), or to shut a connection you do not want open. Done carelessly, it cuts one of your own ships off on the far side. The rolling planner does the sums for you. This page is the why.

What a hole will take

Every wormhole type has three numbers in EVE's official data:

• Total mass: how much can pass before it collapses.
• Largest single jump: the heaviest ship that can go through at all.
• Lifetime: how long it lives if nobody touches it.

The real total varies from hole to hole. The figure players work to is about 10% either way, and nothing official confirms it, so treat it as a safety margin, not a fact. A hole listed at 3,000M kg may close anywhere from about 2,700M to 3,300M kg.

The three statics a C3 can have:

Every class page has the same table for its own statics, with a link that opens the planner on that hole.

Reading the hole

"Show info" on a wormhole tells you how much of its mass is left, in three steps:

• More than 50% remaining. Fresh, or lightly used.
• Less than 50% remaining. Players call this "shrunk" or "destab".
• Less than 10% remaining. "Crit". The next heavy jump may close it.

It also tells you the lifetime state: less than a day, less than four hours, less than an hour. A hole near the end of its life can close at any point, whatever its mass says, so do not roll one that is about to expire. Let it go.

The moment the mass reading changes is the most useful thing in the whole process. If it flips to "less than 50%" right after your jump, you now know where the hole's real total sits, to within about two of that ship's jumps. Check after every jump.

What your ships weigh

Mass is on the ship's show info and in the fitting window. Three modules change it, and the numbers below come straight from the modules' own data:

• 100MN afterburner or 500MN microwarpdrive: +50M kg while it runs. So the same ship can jump "cold" (prop off) or "hot" (prop on) and put two very different amounts through.
• Higgs Anchor rig: +100% mass. It is applied after everything else, so it doubles the prop mod's 50M kg too. A battleship that weighs 100M kg bare jumps at about 200M kg cold and 300M kg hot. That is the classic "Rolling 300" battleship.
• Zero-Point Mass Entangler: -80% mass while it runs. It fits only heavy interdictors. An Onyx is 15.4M kg bare, so about 3M kg with an entangler on, and about 65M kg coming back with the entangler off and a 100MN prop mod on. That is how the last jumps are done on a hole that is nearly dead.

The one rule

A ship only goes out if its jump cannot close the hole behind it, even in the worst case. The worst case is the hole being at the light end of its 10% range, with every reading you have taken at its least helpful.

The last ship out comes home as heavy as it can. If the hole closes on that jump, everyone is home, which is the whole point. If someone else is still out, the returning ship has to come back light enough that it cannot close the hole on them.

That is all the planner does: it applies those two rules to every jump and narrows the worst case each time you tell it what show info said.

Polarisation

One pilot cannot jump the same wormhole in the same direction twice within five minutes. Jump out at 05:00 and back at 05:03, and you cannot go out again until 05:05. It belongs to the pilot, not the ship. Swapping pilots between ships gets round it, at the cost of an empty ship sitting on the hole for a moment.

Worked example: a C3's low sec static (U210, 3,000M kg)

One "Rolling 300" battleship, fresh hole, nobody else using it:

1. Four round trips hot: out 300, back 300, four times. That is 2,400M kg, and even a light hole (2,700M) cannot close on any of those jumps.
2. Out cold (200M). Hot would not be safe any more: after 2,400M through, a light hole has only 300M left.
3. Back hot (300M). This may close it, and that is fine: you are home.

Ten jumps, and it is dead or nearly so. If it is still open, show info tells you which: read it, enter it, and the planner either sends a light finisher or tells you to stop.

Recording the show-info readings is what settles the end. In our test runs a D845 at its listed mass needed the readings to finish safely: the "less than 50%" and "less than 10%" changes pinned the real mass down enough for a heavy interdictor to go out without risk.

Worked example: a C3's high sec static (D845, 5,000M kg)

The same battleship takes seven round trips hot (4,200M kg), then out cold and back hot: sixteen jumps, with the hole possibly still open at the end. A battleship alone cannot safely finish it. Bring a finisher (the heavy interdictor above), or accept the risk with probes on board.

This is why a high sec static is the slow one to control: nearly twice the jumps of a low sec static, with your rolling ship on the hole the whole time.

Small holes

C1 statics (to high, low or null sec) and some others let through nothing heavier than 62M kg per jump. No battleship fits. Roll those with cruisers running a 100MN afterburner: roughly 13M kg cold and 63M kg hot.

Sources

• Mass, largest jump and lifetime per hole: EVE's official ESI data (wormhole type attributes), retrieved 24 Sep 2026. See every wormhole type.
• Prop mod +50M kg, Higgs Anchor +100% applied last, mass entangler -80% and heavy interdictor hull masses: EVE's official ESI module and ship data, checked 29 Sep 2026.
• Mass and lifetime readings, polarisation, and the rolling method: EVE University wiki, Wormholes (revision 230353) and its historical static rolling guide (revision 230290), which also describes the "Rolling 300" battleship.
• The 10% spread: the figure players and guides quote. Not official.