What is an XM anomaly?

Question

On various Ingress discussion forums, there is a lot of talk about planned upcoming "XM anomalies" and who will be partaking but no-one bothers to explain what one is.

What is an XM anomaly?

Answer 1

What is an anomaly?

XM anomalies are huge cross-faction events to cover the important milestones and decisions in the development of the Ingress storyline. The place and time is announced in advance, together with the issue which is to be decided on. Anomalies are grouped into an anomaly series, which plays out in many countries over several weeks or months. The first major one was #13MAGNUS, which started on 12 October 2013 and concluded at 14 December 2013. Since then, there has also been Recursion, Interitus, and Helios.

The outcome of each anomaly has an impact on how the story continues. There are examples below.

How are anomalies played?

They are usually played in small areas of tens to hundreds of portals in selected cities. The major focus is known as a Primary site, and these are measured four times during the day. For each owned portal, link or field, the faction gets points. There are also few "volatile" portals which have much higher point values, but they are known only few minutes before the measurements occur. The exact rules for scoring change between anomalies.

Apart from the Primary sites, the anomaly causes ripples in cities of other (relatively) nearby areas, known as Secondary sites or Remote sites. Victory in those locations also counts towards the total score.

The global Mind Unit control also has an impact on the outcome of Anomalies. This is known as MU shift and is a representation of difference between initial and final global MU totals through the measurements. The faction with higher positive shift gets the points. This means that everybody in the world can have some effect on the event.

The order of influence over the result of each day is generally:

1. Primary sites
2. Secondary sites
3. MU shift

In recent series, there have been two Primary sites per day, with two Secondary sites each.

Anomaly examples

On January 28th 2013, the Enlightened won in Illinois and Hank Johnson's alignment was shifted towards the Enlightened.

On March 2nd 2013, the Resistance won in Scotland and Klue's alignment turned towards the Resistance.

It has been theorized that the results of some events might be the same no matter which faction wins. For example the destruction of Jarvis: were the Resistance victorious, the result could be "The weapon fired, but unfortunately Jarvis was only shattered into shards across the globe." However the Enlightened won and the result was "The weapon malfunctioned and didn't kill Jarvis but caused him to be shattered into 13 shards."

List of anomalies

The Niantic Project wiki contains up-to-date information about anomalies past and present.

Answer 2

Operation Minotaur is an example of an XM Anomaly that was played in the US on August 3rd.

Certain portals were declared more valuable in several cities at certain times.

Also, agents had to create "known glyphs" out of links and fields.

More details are available on the Operation Minotaur page.

Answer 3

anomalies are planned events. Outcomes of the events may or may not effect the story line.

The general format of the events:

Meet with your assigned group before the event.
Group leader will discuss strategy.
Possible last minute farming/ gear movements to enhance planned strategy.
Listen to opening statements from Ninatic, Ingress, game characters, etc...
Move to first cluster of portals.
Use strategy.
Measurement taken (round 1 score)
Move to second cluster of portals.
Use Strategy (or modified strategy).
Measurement taken (round 2 score)
Repeat for all rounds (3 to 5 rounds)
Regather at final location....
Winner is announced.
cross-faction bragging, battle stories exchanged, and possible beer, and food munchies post-anomalies. ... and maybe some bagpipes.... or other merriment. :)