Skills:Drones
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Skills |
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Skills by category |
Overview
- See also: Drone skills
Some training in the Drones category is essential for most PvE and PvP combat. Drones are a useful source of additional DPS, and they are also a key defence against small ships for large ships.
Almost every ship larger than a destroyer has a dronebay. Caldari ships tend to have the smallest dronebays, but even Caldari pilots should aim to be able to field a full flight of five light drones when they start flying battlecruisers.
Memory and perception are important in learning how to operate drones.
The following are the skills in the Drones section (in alphabetical order):
Skill (Multiplier) | Purpose | Alpha Limit |
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Advanced Drone Avionics (5x) | Allows control of EWAR drones. Bonus to drone control range. | ▨▨▨▨▨ |
Amarr Drone Specialization (5x) | Allows control of T2 Amarr drones. | ◼◼▨▨▨ |
Caldari Drone Specialization (5x) | Allows control of T2 Caldari drones. | ◼◼▨▨▨ |
Drone Avionics (1x) | Bonus to drone control range. | ◼◼◼◼▨ |
Drone Durability (5x) | Bonus to drone shield, armor, structure. | ◼◼◼◼▨ |
Drone Interfacing (5x) | Bonus to drone damage and mining amount. | ◼◼◼▨▨ |
Drone Navigation (1x) | Bonus to drone microwarpdrive speed | ◼◼◼◼▨ |
Drone Sharpshooting (1x) | Bonus to drone optimal range. | ◼◼◼◼▨ |
Drones (1x) | Allows control of drones. | ◼◼◼◼◼ |
Fighter Hangar Management (8x) | Increases fighter hangar size. | ▨▨▨▨▨ |
Fighters (12x) | Allows control of Fighters. | ▨▨▨▨▨ |
Gallente Drone Specialization (5x) | Allows control of T2 Gallente drones. | ◼◼▨▨▨ |
Heavy Drone Operation (5x) | Allows control of Heavy Drones. Bonus to Heavy Drone damage. | ◼◼◼▨▨ |
Heavy Fighters (12x) | Allows control of Heavy Fighters. | ▨▨▨▨▨ |
Ice Harvesting Drone Operation (2x) | Allows control of Ice Harvesting Drones. | ▨▨▨▨▨ |
Ice Harvesting Drone Specialization (5x) | Allows control of advanced Ice Harvesting Drones. | ▨▨▨▨▨ |
Light Drone Operation (1x) | Allows control of Light Drones. Bonus to Light Drone damage. | ◼◼◼◼◼ |
Light Fighters (12x) | Allow control of Light Fighters. | ▨▨▨▨▨ |
Medium Drone Operation (2x) | Allows control of Medium Drones. Bonus to Medium Drone damage. | ◼◼◼◼▨ |
Mining Drone Operation (2x) | Allows control of Mining Drones. Bonus to Mining Drone Yield. | ▨▨▨▨▨ |
Mining Drone Specialization (5x) | Allows control of advanced Mining Drones. | ▨▨▨▨▨ |
Minmatar Drone Specialization (5x) | Allows control of T2 Minmatar drones. | ◼◼▨▨▨ |
Mutated Drone Specialization (6x) | Allows control of drones mutated using mutaplasmids. | ▨▨▨▨▨ |
Repair Drone Operation (3x) | Allows control of Repair Drones. Bonus to Repair Drone amount. | ◼◼▨▨▨ |
Salvage Drone Operation (4x) | Allows control of Salvage Drones. Bonus to drone salvage chance. | ▨▨▨▨▨ |
Salvage Drone Specialization (5x) | Allows control of T2 Salvage Drones. Bonus to drone velocity and salvage chance. | ▨▨▨▨▨ |
Sentry Drone Interfacing (5x) | Allows control of Sentry Drones. Bonus to sentry drone damage. | ▨▨▨▨▨ |
Support Fighters (12x) | Allows control of Support Fighters. | ▨▨▨▨▨ |
Combat Drone Control Skills
Drones
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1x |
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30k ISK |
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V |
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None |
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Tech 1 and Faction Drone Damage Amplifiers; Tech 1, 'Integrated', and Empire Faction Light Drones; Mining Drones; Ice Harvesting Drones; ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Tech 1, 'Integrated', and Empire Faction Medium Drones; ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Drone Damage Amplifier II; Salvage Drone I; ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Heavy Drones; EWAR Drones; Shield Maintenance Bots; Armor Maintenance Bots; Hull Maintenance Bots; 'Augmented' Drones; ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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The basic skill of the Drones category. Prerequisite for most other drone skills and an essential skill to train to level V for any pilot who flies anything with a 25m3 or larger dronebay. |
Light Drone Operation
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1x |
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75k ISK |
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V |
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Drones I |
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Tech 1, 'Integrated', and Empire Faction Light Drones |
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Tech 2 and 'Augmented' Light Drones |
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A 5% drone damage bonus is not to be sniffed at, and most combat pilots should train this skill to IV. |
Medium Drone Operation
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2x |
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125k ISK |
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IV |
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Drones III |
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Tech 1, 'Integrated', and Empire Faction Medium Drones |
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Tech 2 and 'Augmented' Medium Drones |
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A 5% drone damage bonus is not to be sniffed at, and most combat pilots should train this skill to IV. |
Heavy Drone Operation
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5x |
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500k ISK |
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III |
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Drones V |
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Tech 1, 'Integrated', and Empire Faction Heavy Drones; Gecko |
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Tech 2 and 'Augmented' Heavy Drones |
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Not all races have subcapital ships with big enough dronebays to justify using heavy drones, but Gallente battleship pilots, Amarr pilots who fly the Armageddon and Minmatar pilots who fly the Typhoon should train for them. |
Sentry Drone Interfacing
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5x |
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650k ISK |
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Alpha pilot can not train this skill. |
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Drone Interfacing IV; Drone Sharpshooting IV |
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Tech 1 and Faction Sentry Drones |
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Tech 2 Sentry Drones |
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Sentry drones are specialised, and large, and so like heavy drones they're mostly of interest to pilots who can fly ships with 125m3 or more of space in their dronebay. Level V lets you use T2 sentry drones. |
Advanced Drone Avionics
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5x |
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600k ISK |
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Alpha pilot can not train this skill. |
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Drones V; Electronic Warfare IV |
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Small EWAR Drones |
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Medium EWAR Drones |
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Large EWAR Dones |
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The drone control range bonus applies to all types of drones, not just electronic warfare drones. ECM drones are a useful ace-in-the-hole in PvP. |
Racial Drone Specializations
Amarr Drone Specialization
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5x |
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2-4M ISK |
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II |
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Drones V |
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Tech 2 and 'Augmented' Amarr Drones |
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This skill is not seeded in NPC stations so prices will vary widely. |
Caldari Drone Specialization
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5x |
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3-9M ISK |
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II |
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Drones V |
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Tech 2 and 'Augmented' Caldari Drones |
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This skill is not seeded in NPC stations so prices will vary widely. |
Gallente Drone Specialization
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5x |
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3-9M ISK |
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II |
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Drones V |
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Tech 2 and 'Augmented' Gallente Drones |
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This skill is not seeded in NPC stations so prices will vary widely. Gallente drones are very popular because they have good damage modifiers, and a damage type (thermal) which is reliably useful against most PvE and PvP enemies. |
Minmatar Drone Specialization
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5x |
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3-9M ISK |
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II |
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Drones V |
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Tech 2 and 'Augmented' Minmatar Drones |
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This skill is not seeded in NPC stations so prices will vary widely. Minmatar drones are very popular for PvP because they are the fastest drones and although they don't do as much raw damage as Gallente drones they do explosive damage, which hits most armor tanks hard. |
Mutated Drone Specialization
2% bonus per skill level to the damage of light, medium, heavy and sentry drones requiring Mutated Drone Specialization.
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6x |
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65M ISK |
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Alpha pilot can not train this skill. |
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Amarr Drone Specialization I, Caldari Drone Specialization I, Gallente Drone Specialization I, Minmatar Drone Specialization I |
Drone Support Skills
Drone Avionics
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1x |
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60k ISK |
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IV |
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Drones I |
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Tech 1 and Officer Drone Link Augmentors |
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Black Eagle Drone Link Augmentor |
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Drone Link Augmentor II |
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A useful skill to allow drones to attack targets farther from your ship. |
Drone Durability
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5x |
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100k ISK |
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IV |
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Drones IV |
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Increasing drone hit points decreases the chance of losing drones, and thus saves money by reducing the number of drones you need to replace. |
Drone Interfacing
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5x |
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750k ISK |
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III |
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Drones V |
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Each level of Drone Interfacing is like having half of another drone. Excellent support skill. |
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1x |
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100k ISK |
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IV |
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Drones IV |
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Warrior SW-300 |
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Valkyrie SW-600 |
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Tech 1 and Faction Drone Navigation Computers; Berserker SW-900 |
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Drone Navigation Computer II |
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Faster drones means they get to the target and deal damage, and then return to you when you need them back, quicker. High levels in Drone Navigation also help your drones chase fast PvP targets like interceptors. |
Drone Sharpshooting
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1x |
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150k ISK |
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IV |
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Drones V |
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Tech 1 Omnidirectional Tracking Links/Enhancers |
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Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer II; ![]() |
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Omnidirectional Tracking Link II |
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5% optimal range per level. Possibly not so important for normal combat drones, which can move around on their own. If you rely on long-ranged, stationary sentry drones then this skill will help them. |
Non-Combat Drone Control Skills
Ice Harvesting Drone Operation
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2x |
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100k ISK |
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Alpha pilot can not train this skill. |
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Ice Harvesting II; Drones I |
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Ice Harvesting Drone I |
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Tech 2, 'Excavator', and 'Augmented' Ice Harvesting Drones; ![]() |
Ice Harvesting Drone Specialization
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5x |
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18M ISK |
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Alpha pilot can not train this skill. |
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Ice Harvesting Drone Operation V; Ice Harvesting IV |
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Tech 2, 'Excavator', and 'Augmented' Ice Harvesting Drones |
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Required for advanced ice harvester drone use. |
Mining Drone Operation
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2x |
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50k ISK |
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Alpha pilot can not train this skill. |
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Drones I; Mining II |
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Tech 1, Harvester, and 'Excavator' Mining Drones |
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Tech 2 and 'Augmented' Mining Drones; ![]() |
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A useful support skill for miners. |
Mining Drone Specialization
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5x |
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10M ISK |
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Alpha pilot can not train this skill. |
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Mining Drone Operation V; Mining IV |
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'Excavator' and 'Augmented' Mining Drones |
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Required for advanced mining drone use. |
Repair Drone Operation
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3x |
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200k ISK |
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II |
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Drones V; Drone Durability I |
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Tech 1 Light Armor/Shield/Hull Maintenance Bots |
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Tech 1 Medium Armor/Shield/Hull Maintenance Bots |
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Tech 1 Heavy Armor/Shield/Hull Maintenance Bots |
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Tech 2 Armor/Shield/Hull Maintenance Bots |
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Repair drones can be a useful augmentation to a remote repair effort, but don't expect them to perform nearly as well as a properly fitted and piloted logistics ship. Remember that you can't order your drones to repair yourself. |
Salvage Drone Operation
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4x |
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500k ISK |
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Alpha pilot can not train this skill. |
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Drones IV; Salvaging II |
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Salvage Drone I |
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Salvage drones can recover salvage from wrecks and bring them to your cargo hold. Note that this bonus is percentage point increase, not percentage increase. For example a drone with base access difficulty bonus of 3% will have access difficulty bonus of 11% at level IV (3%+4×2%=11%) |
Salvage Drone Specialization
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5x |
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13M ISK |
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Alpha pilot can not train this skill. |
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Salvage Drone Operation V; Salvaging IV |
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Salvage Drone II |
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Improves salvage drone efficiency. Note that this bonus is percentage point increase, not percentage increase. For example with level 1 the T2 salvage drone has 16% access chance bonus which increases to 18% on level 2. |
Fighter Skills
Fighters
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12x |
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75M ISK |
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Alpha pilot can not train this skill. |
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Drone Interfacing V; Leadership V |
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Tech 1 Light/Heavy/Support Fighters; Shadow; ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Tech 2 Light/Heavy/Support Fighters |
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Only carriers and supercarriers can use fighters. |
Light Fighters
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12x |
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110M ISK |
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Alpha pilot can not train this skill. |
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Fighters I |
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Tech 1 Light Fighters |
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Tech 2 Light Fighters |
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Light fighters can be used by both carriers and supercarriers. Before the Citadel expansion, these were known simply as "fighters". |
Heavy Fighters
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12x |
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110M ISK |
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Alpha pilot can not train this skill. |
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Fighters I |
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Tech 1 Heavy Fighters; Shadow |
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Tech 2 Heavy Fighters |
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Only of interest to supercarrier pilots, since only supercarriers can use heavy fighters. Before the Citadel expansion, these were known as "fighter bombers". |
Support Fighters
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12x |
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110M ISK |
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Alpha pilot can not train this skill. |
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Fighters I |
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Tech 1 Support Fighters |
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Tech 2 Support Fighters |
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Support fighters can be used by both carriers and supercarriers. They were introduced in the Citadel expansion. |
Fighter Hangar Management
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8x |
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20M ISK |
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Alpha pilot can not train this skill. |
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Fighters I |
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Tech 1 and Faction Fighter Support Units; Networked Sensor Array |
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Fighter Support Unit II |