War Mechanics

War mechanics overview

Formal wars let corporations and alliances fight in high-sec and low-sec without CONCORD destroying the aggressor and without security status loss — within the rules of the active war. Wars are a diplomacy tool: declaration, timers, weekly bills, eligibility, allies, surrender, and structure-based objectives.

This guide is split by role. Shared rules (timers, eligibility, war types) come first; then Attacker and Defender sections focus on what each side should do at each phase. Use War HQ in the app to track notifications and timelines for wars touching your characters.

• Parties — wars are between corporations and/or alliances (member corps are included).
• Spaces — high-sec and low-sec war combat is legal between war participants; null-sec is always null rules.
• Not a substitute for diplomacy — standings, intel, and structure timers still matter outside the war UI.

War phases & timers (both sides)

Every aggressive war moves through predictable phases. Mutual wars share the cooldown and combat rules but skip warmup and weekly billing. Ally corps add a separate short warmup before they may shoot the attacker.

Mutual wars do not use the 24h declaration warm-up or weekly ISK bills. They still use the 24h cooldown when retracted or ended.

War eligibility (who can be in a war)

War eligibility controls who may declare wars, be declared on, and join as a defender ally. NPC corporations are never eligible. For player corps, owning certain Upwell structures (or a customs office) makes you eligible — which is also why structure-heavy corps are common war targets.

• Eligible — can declare aggressive wars (if your side meets other rules), be wardecced, and receive ally offers on defense.
• Ineligible — cannot declare or be declared on; existing wars may wind down on a timer if eligibility is lost.
• Alliance eligibility — if any member corp owns a qualifying structure, the alliance becomes embroiled in alliance-level wars.

Aggressive war vs mutual war

Aggressive wars are paid, structure-tied declarations against a target. Mutual wars are opt-in on both sides — invitation and acceptance — and follow a lighter ruleset focused on PvP agreements rather than CONCORD billing.

Attacker — role overview

The attacker is the corporation or alliance that declared the aggressive war (or accepted a mutual invitation). Your responsibilities are paying CONCORD, maintaining War HQ if required, coordinating the 24h warm-up, and renewing or ending the war deliberately.

• CEO or director of the executor corp (in an alliance) declares from Corporation → Wars.
• Shareholders receive notifications when war starts and when it ends.
• Legal targets are the declared defender entity and their allies in that war — not random neutrals.

Attacker — declaring war

Declaration is immediate once you confirm the target search result — there is no second fee confirmation dialog. Plan ISK and structure readiness before clicking Declare War.

• Open Corporation window → Wars (or Alliance → Home tab for executor corp) → Declare War → search target corp or alliance.
• Designate a War HQ Upwell structure for aggressive wars — if HQ is destroyed, unanchored, or leaves space, the war becomes invalid and enters cooldown.
• First week’s war bill is paid automatically on declaration; a bill for week two is issued immediately and must be paid manually to continue past day seven.
• During an existing war’s 24h cooldown, either side may declare a replacement war that starts with combat legal immediately (no new warm-up).

Attacker — bills & renewal

Aggressive wars are rented from CONCORD in one-week slices. If you stop paying, the war becomes invalid — defenders get relief on a timer, but the 24h post-war cooldown may still allow final engagements.

• Flat 100 million ISK per week (current ruleset) — not per member.
• Making the war mutual (defender option) removes your weekly fee while mutual status lasts.
• Track due dates in Corporation → Wars → Our Wars; treat lapse like losing the war objective.

Attacker — winning, losing & invalid wars

Victory in EVE wars is operational, not a scoreboard flag. You win when the defender cannot sustain operations, surrenders, or you achieve your strategic goal before the war lapses. The game ends wars through concrete triggers.

War Report (Corporation → Wars → Open War Report) tracks kills and ISK destroyed — useful for measuring effectiveness, not for automatic victory.

Attacker — surrender & mutual status

Surrender is an offer from either side’s CEO/director; the other side accepts or declines. ISK can accompany the offer. Mutual status is primarily a defender-driven toggle that changes billing and ally rules.

• Send Surrender Offer from Our Wars — include ISK payment if that is the deal.
• If defender sets war mutual: your weekly bills stop, allies are dropped, and neither side may add allies while mutual.
• You may retract a mutual war — standard 24h cooldown applies.
• Mutual wars auto-end after 90 days with no PvP kills between the parties.

Defender — role overview

The defender is the corporation or alliance named in the declaration. You receive notifications at declaration, at war start (warm-up end), and when the war ends. Your goals are survival, ally coordination, structure defense, and choosing whether to escalate (mutual) or negotiate (surrender).

• You do not approve an incoming aggressive war — it is live after declaration, with combat after warm-up.
• High-sec CONCORD still protects non-participants; only war participants gain legal aggression rights against each other.
• Use War HQ and corp notifications to align pilots on timers — duplicate corp broadcasts are normal across characters.

Defender — when you are attacked

From the moment of declaration, assume assets in high/low sec are at risk once the 24-hour warm-up ends. Use warm-up for move ops, fuel, backup structures, and ally outreach — not for pretending the war does not exist.

• Structure timers (armor/hull, vuln windows) are separate from war timers but often coincide — watch StructureUnderAttack notifications.
• If you are not war eligible, you generally cannot be dec’d — but the moment you anchor a qualifying structure you become a target.

Defender — allies & assistance

Only the defender side may accept allies in aggressive wars. Allies fight the attacker legally after a 4-hour preparation timer. Allies cannot join if they are already at war with the attacker.

• Open for Allies — flag on Our Wars so third parties can find you in All Wars → Assistance requests.
• Review Offer Assistance messages; ISK payment is optional and one-time from Master Wallet if accepted.
• Accepted allies engage attackers only after 4h — plan coverage for EU/US TZ gaps.
• Mutual war — allies are removed automatically; coordinate direct with partner corps instead.

Defender — ending the war on your terms

Defenders can force strategic outcomes by destroying the attacker’s War HQ, making the war mutual, accepting surrender, or removing eligibility (structure transfer/decommission) with awareness of delayed end timers.

If your last structure is destroyed during the attacker’s 24h warm-up, combat may still become legal for 24h after warm-up ends before the war fully concludes — plan structure recovery accordingly.

Defender — after the war ends

War end notifications go to involved parties and shareholders. CONCORD resumes normal high-sec rules after the 24-hour cooldown unless a replacement instant war is declared during that window.

• Cooldown fighting — attackers may pursue a last engagement; keep wartime fleets and alarms through the full 24h.
• Instant re-war — either side may declare during cooldown with no warm-up; common when redeploying structures.
• Surrender peace — 14 days where neither party can declare on the other; use for negotiation or recovery.
• Update standings and diplomacy contacts so members do not shoot ex-war participants under old rules of engagement.

War HQ & structure objectives

Aggressive wars tie the attacker to a designated War HQ Upwell structure. Structure combat notifications (under attack, reinforced, destroyed) are the operational heartbeat of many wars — War HQ in NewEden Axiom surfaces these alongside war lifecycle alerts.

• War HQ loss invalidates the aggressive war — primary defender objective in structure-heavy metas.
• Defenders still defend their own engineering complexes and citadels under normal siege rules.
• Corp leaving alliance copies wars to the corp; alliance-level war may enter cooldown simultaneously.