Introduction

So, you’ve got a new frigate and you’re itching to slap a bunch of weapons on it. Maybe you want to put in some shielding or a new kind of sensor. Maybe you’re a miner and you want to add every kind of mining tool available. Ship fitting is something of an art and players have come up with some ingenious ways to get the most out of there ships and sur prise their enemies.

This guide will not go into the millions of permutations of ships and ship equipment. You’ll figure those out as you play EVE, and you will find detailed discussions about each ship setup in the EVE Forums and on the many EVE fan sites.

Instead, this guide will introduce you to all the basics so you can start planning how you can outfit your ship and what you will have to do when you get a new one. Speaking of ships, let’s start there.

 

The Right Ship and The Right Character for the Job

The first thing you need to ask yourself is: what kind of job will I be focusing on?

Before talking about outfitting your ship we need to talk about your skills and how to create your character. To properly choose and outfit a ship, you must know what kind of work your character will be focusing on in that ship. There is no single ship that is perfect for every kind of work and it can be a very good idea to specialize. It’s true that you can improve and add to your skill set and eventually you can fly several kinds of ships and do several kinds of work, but that takes time and money.

When you start out, you’ll focus on these primary activities: mining/trading or hunting/guarding. If you have friends to help you, you might start with other kinds of work such as manufacturing, but this requires raw materials and ISK. Through mining and fighting, you can make enough money to improve your ship and build your skill set. You can do this alone or with other players, but you really should focus on one or the other in the beginning.

Mining

Not the most glamorous work, but everybody seems to do some eventually. It does take time, but many users don’t realize that mining gives a true feeling of value, as you will remember all the time you spent mining for that new ship. This in turn forces players to act more thoughtfully in their actions. If you get into mining the rare ores found in deep space, you can earn a lot of ISK and it’s never dull as you stand the chance of getting to “know” NPCs in Battleships and Interceptors.

•  Starting miners should focus on getting the largest cargo hold they can.

•  Find a ship with 2 or more Hi Slots Turrets, since mining lasers go into turret slots. Even though your ship has 3 hi slots, it might only have 1 turret slot and 2 launcher slots, which means you can only fit one mining laser and 2 missile launchers.

•  SUGGESTED MINER SKILLS: Mining, Industry, Refining, Drones, Mining Drone Operation, Refinery Management, Metallurgy, Electronics, and Survey.

•  Other skills can be bought that will improve your speed, agility, and so forth.

Hunting/Guarding

Weapons and defenses are the key to the success of a fighting career. For this kind of work you’ll want to focus on getting a ship with a lot of slots and good combat related bonuses so you can mount several weapons, add to your defenses, and maybe even some countermeasure devices to confuse or disable your enemies. Ships that belong to the four different races are also modified for different fighting styles, requiring players to learn different skills and buy different modules that suit their ship.

•  SUGGESTED SKILLS FOR AMARR SHIPS: Small Energy Turret, Gunnery, Repair Systems, Controlled Burst, Gunnery, Energy Management, Energy Systems Operation, Mechanic, Motion Prediction, Sharpshooter, Rapid Firing, and Long Range Targeting.

•  SUGGESTED SKILLS FOR CALDARI SHIPS: Missile Launcher Operation, Small Hybrid Turret, Standard Missiles, Rockets, Gunnery, Shield Operation, Shield Management, Long Range Targeting, Sharpshooter, Motion Prediction, Rapid Firing, and Controlled Burst.

•  SUGGESTED SKILLS FOR GALLENTE SHIPS: Small Hybrid Turret, Gunnery, Drones, Scout Drone Operation, Repair Systems, Mechanic, Controlled Burst, Sharpshooter, Motion Prediction, Long Range Targeting, and Rapid Firing.

•  SUGGESTED SKILLS FOR MINMATAR SHIPS: Small Projectile Turret, Gunnery, Motion Prediction, Rapid Firing, Sharpshooter, Shield Operation, Shield Management, Missile Launcher Operation, Standard Missiles, Rockets, and Long Range Targeting.

Selecting Skills

Once you decide what kind of work you want to do, you can create a character with the right kind of skills to support that work. When you create your character, you will get a set of skills that is derived from the choices you make (race, school, etc.). If you make choices that include the same skill more than once, you will start the game with that skill trained to that many levels. For example, if you make choices that give you Engineering 3 times, your character will start the game with his Engineering skill at level 3. You will have to buy any skills that you don’t get in your basic skill set.

Some people prefer to create a character with fewer skills at higher levels. Other people prefer to create a character with more skills at lower levels. You must choose for yourself, but whatever you do, make sure the skills you start with are right for the kind of work you want to do.

The Role of Race

Each race is capable of doing any kind of work, but the ships for each race are quite different. While every race has ships for every kind of work, some races have better ships for mining while others have better ships for fighting. You should check out the Ships database on sites like www.eve-i.com site to see all the options, but here are some basic rules of thumb: Miners often choose Gallente or Amarr and Fighters often choose to be Caldari or Minmatar. This is not a universal truth as ships are constantly being developed and the capabilities can easily change. The races also have different styles for combat activities and might not suit all players, Minmatar Ships for example are very versatile and most of their ships can control drones, fire missiles, shoot with their turrets and choose between armor defense or shield defense modes, but for a pilot to operate the most versatile ships requires a lot of fast work when they are in a combat situation. These benefits also suit the solo pilot much better than the group based pilots, the strong and sturdy Amarr ships have been favored much more in bigger scale fleet combat activities, simply because they can take more beating before going down and do not need as much attention for the individuals, making them able to give more attention to the fleet commander. So again, it’s a matter of what kind of activity on which you want to focus.

Frigates

Picking the right ship can be confusing if you try to sort through all the ships that are available for sale. To make it a little easier, we will focus on the Frigate. You start the game with a small frigate. With this starter frigate you should be able to do some basic mining, trading, and even a little bit of fighting. But you will be weak and slow, so here are a couple of tips:

•  Your first purchase should be a Cargo Expander. This will let you carry more items in your cargo, whether it’s ore, trade goods, or loot. You will need the Mechanic skill to install it.

•  If you plan on mining, your next purchase should be a Miner I mining laser. This will replace your starter tool and allow you to mine faster.

•  Start planning and saving for your next ship.

There are many other frigates and you will probably buy one of them before you graduate to Cruisers, Industrials, or Battleships. The Frigate class of ships includes a lot of variety. There are frigates for fighting and frigates for hauling; there are fast frigates and slow frigates; some frigates require more skill than others. In short, there is a frigate that would be good for nearly every type of work you might want to do. So how do you choose? Well, first you need to understand the nomenclature of EVE ships.

Hi-Slots, Hardpoints, Turrets and Launchers

When you look at the description of any EVE ship, you will see a lot of stats. CPU, Power, Armor, Shield, Structure, Drone Bay, Cargo Bay, Hi Slots, Medium Slots, Low Slots, and so on. While all of these will eventually play a role in outfitting your ship, the really important ones for the beginner are Cargo and Hi Slots.

Cargo is simple: It’s the size of your cargo hold (aka capacity), which dictates how much you can carry.

Hi Slots are a little more complicated. Hi Slots are the high powered slots where you can install mining lasers or weapons. But there are limits to what kind of weapons, and how many, you can install. To see those limits, you need to look at the “hardpoints,” otherwise known as the Turret and Launcher numbers. The turret number tells you the maximum number of turret type devices you can install
in the Hi Slots. The launcher number tells you the maximum
number of missile launchers you can install in the Hi Slots.

Let’s look at some examples:

EXAMPLE 2: INQUISITOR FRIGATE

•  Hi Slots = 3

•  Turrets = 1

•  Launchers = 3

I can use any three missile launchers within my skill, CPU, and power limits. But I can also choose to use one mining laser or a turret type device in one of these slots.

EXAMPLE 3: BELLICOSE CRUISER

•  Hi Slots = 5

•  Turrets = 3

•  Launchers = 3

This ship has 5 Hi Slots and you can install a maximum of 5 devices, but you are limited to 3 missile launchers and 3 turrets. That means you can fill all the slots with a mixture of turret devices and missile launchers. There are other items that use high slots like, smart bombs and capacitor drainers. These modules, how ever, can use all types of hi slots are not limited with turret or missile launcher slots.

Turret Types

Turrets come in three groups: Projectile, Hybrid and Energy . These groups than are split into two sub groups with one focused on short range combat and the other on long range. You have probably noticed that 2 of the races (Caldari and Gallente) specialize in Hybrid weapons, while the Amarr specialize in Energy and the Minmatar specialize in Projectiles. You can learn the skills for any type of turret weapon, but the race ships are most often better at using the racial based weaponry as most of the ships give bonuses to them.

Projectile

Projectile weapons generally deal the least damage over time; they are best used against armor because most of the ammunition available for projectiles deals kinetic or explosive damage. Their benefit is that they do not require any capacitor; pilots with projectiles can damage their target even though they have put themselves into defensive mode. The long range projectiles (Artilleries) can deal the biggest damage per hit but shoot very slowly and need reloading quite often, when their target is too close it will almost be impossible to hit because turrets of this size cannot track well enough when a target is too close. The short range projectiles (Auto-Cannons) deal the least damage per hit of all turrets but fire very rapidly; they also need reloading quite often.

Hybrid

Hybrid weapons have a good over all balance between damage and requirements and are good against both shields and armor. The long range hybrid weapons (Railguns) have the longest optimal range and deal good damage, fire fairly fast but can have problems with hitting targets that are too close. The short range hybrid weapons (Blasters) have the shortest range of all turrets but can deal incredible damage if the target is within the optimal range.

Energy

Laser weapons are very high damaging weapons that require the most capacitor, making them i difficult to use in some situations with other energy-consuming modules. The biggest benefit of lasers is the high shield damage they deal and also that they do not use ammunition, so they do not have to worry about reloading the turrets; this also creates empty space in the cargo bay for other items. The long range laser weapons (Beam Lasers) have good range and deal very good damage but are also semi-usable in closer ranges. The short range laser weapons (Pulse Lasers) do not operate as well in closest ranges like close range hybrid and projectile weapons but have better range and can hit well in the medium ranges.

•  Try this to see a lot of items that you may not normally see. Open the Advanced Market window. Set the range to Region. Turn off the option that says “Show active items only”. Now you can see all the items listed in your region, even if there are none available for sale. Do this a few times in different regions and you start to see what’s common and what’s rare across regions.

Launcher Types

Launchers come in six flavors, separated into two for each ship class. All launchers can fire one type of missile that damages their target and also defender missiles which chase incoming missiles from enemies and try to destroy them. Some launchers can also have missile variants that do not require a target lock. Missiles generally always deal the same amount of damage and can reach distances that turrets can not, but the downside of missiles is that they are also often quite expensive and some missile types might not be able to catch targets moving very fast. For instance, an Interceptor Frigate can travel faster than Cruise Missile, so if you fire a missile at an Interceptor, they will simply outrun the missile until its flight time is over.

Frigate Launchers

•  Rocket Launcher - fires very low damaging rockets at extremely high speed but has very low range.

•  Standard Launcher - fires low damaging light missiles at high speed, but can reach moderate range.

Cruiser Launchers

•  Assault Launcher - fires low damaging light missiles at a higher speed than a standard launcher.

•  Heavy Launcher - fires moderate damaging heavy missiles at moderate speed and can reach long ranges.

Battleship Launchers

•  Cruise Launcher - fires high damage cruise missiles at very slow speed but can reach extremely long range.

•  Siege Launcher - can fire cruise missiles but at faster speed and can also fire sluggish but extremely high damaging torpedoes.

Mid-Slots and Lo-Slots - Where do you want to go today?

There are so many options for outfitting the Mid and Lo slots that it is impossible to cover everything. Just remember this: For every need, there is at least one device. There are scanners, armor plates, repair devices, shield boosters, shield extenders, power boosters, CPU boosters, all kinds of hull modifications, countermeasure devices, sensor arrays, sensor scramblers, targeting disruptors, and so much more.

But like the Hi Slots, these slots are limited by Skills, Power, Capacitor, and CPU (capacitor does not limit the installation of modules; it’s only used when activating them). You can put any Mid device in any Mid Slot and any Lo device in any Lo Slot, as long as you have the necessary skills and your ship is able to support the device.

Only the largest ships will have enough slots, CPU, and power to allow you to use one device from every family. No ship, no matter how large, will ever have enough to allow you to use one of everything, ensuring that one player can never completely dominate the battlefield.

That said, it is recommend that you look at what you want to do and do some “window shopping” for the kinds of devices that will help you. This would include weapons, but we’re talking about the MED and LO slots here. Of course, as soon as you find the kind of devices you think you’ll want, you should check the skill, CPU, and Power requirements for those devices and start saving for the skills, the devices, and a new ship if you need one. Buy the skills first and then start training them while you save money for the devices and the ship.

Building Your Future Through Skills

Success or failure is determined by skill sets. If you want to avoid some costly mistakes, you will take some time and read through all of the info windows. You’ll decide what you want to do so you can choose the best race and the best skills, making sure you can fly the best ship for the job. While you are working for the money it takes to buy your next ship or device, take that time to research your options.

FIGHTER setup EXAMPLE: MiNmatar Slasher

1 low slot, 2 med slots, 3 hi slots (1 as a launcher)

•  Hi Slot 1: 200mm AutoCannon I (Phased Plasma S)

•  Hi Slot 2: 200mm AutoCannon I (Phased Plasma S)

•  Hi Slot 3: Rocket Launcher I (Thorn Rocket I)

•  Med Slot 1: Small Shield Booster I

•  Med Slot 2: Afterburner I

•  Low Slot 1: Gyrostabilizer I

Required Skills

•  Minmatar Frigate Rank 2

•  Small Projectile Turret Rank 1

•  Missile Launcher Operation Rank 1

•  Rockets Rank 1

•  Shield Operation Rank 1

•  Navigation Rank 1

•  Afterburners Rank 1

•  Weapon Upgrades Rank 1

•  Gunnery Rank 2

You need to balance the time needed to make the cash against the time needed to train the skills and buy the hardware. You should buy the skills you need before you need them so that the day you finish training your last skill level, you can go buy your shiny new ship and load it up with the best equipment money can buy.

Here’s the basic process:

•  Identify what you want to do.

•  Identify the hardware you need to do it.

•  Identify the skills required to install and use the hardware.

•  Buy and train skills until you have all the skills you need.

•  When you have the last skill you need, start saving for the hardware.

•  Keep training your skills while you save for the hardware.