 
 Can Use Covert Ops Cloak
HIGHLIGHTS
RELATED UNI-WIKI REFERENCES
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Advantage is the child of preparation and silence.
SHIP BONUSES
Minmatar Hauler bonuses (per skill level):
Ship Attributes
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Summary
The Prowler is the Minmatar Blockade Runner, a small, fast transport for moving compact, valuable cargo through any kind of space. It is by far the fastest of the four Blockade Runners at sub-warp speed (220 m/s base, against 160 to 170 m/s for the others), and it aligns about as quickly as the Viator. In exchange it carries a little less than the Viator and much less than the Crane (3,500 m³ base, against 3,600 m³ and 4,300 m³). These are base figures: Blockade Runners often fit Expanded Cargoholds in the low slots when a load needs the space, and together with cargo rigs this can make the hold three to four times its base size. Expanded Cargoholds cost speed and hull hit points, so fit only as many as the load needs.
Like all Blockade Runners, the Prowler is also used to support Black Ops fleets, mainly as a fuel truck carrying isotopes for the bridging Black Ops battleship, and as a loot truck when the fleet kills something with valuable drops.
Skills
Tactics
A Blockade Runner survives by never being locked, not by tanking. The in-game description says it can withstand heavy fire, but the hull has only a few thousand hit points and anything that locks it can usually kill it. Its real defences are its Covert Ops Cloak, its fast align and good habits:
- Warp cloaked. After a gate jump, hit warp to your destination and activate the cloak immediately after. The ship aligns and warps while cloaked. Anything within 2,000 m of you (gate litter, wrecks, CONCORD, other ships, structure fighters) will decloak you or stop you cloaking, so watch for it on gates.
- Use insta-dock and insta-undock bookmarks for every station and structure you use. In highsec, the dock and undock are where Blockade Runners are most often caught.
- Fast align is enough. An align time under about 3 seconds is plenty; chasing sub-2 is unnecessary.
- Cargo scanner immunity cuts both ways. Nobody can see what you carry, so gankers tend to treat every Blockade Runner as worth shooting, whatever is in the hold. Keep the value inside what you are willing to lose.
- Low and null security space: smartbombing ships wait on the out-gate, on the direct line from the previous gate. Bounce off a celestial instead of warping straight gate to gate. In bubble space, fit an Interdiction Nullifier and a microwarpdrive.
Fitting principles
- High slots: the Covert Ops Cloak, plus an Interdiction Nullifier wherever bubbles are possible. Always use the T1 nullifier: it recharges faster (1 min 40 s against 2 min 30 s for the T2). The T2 lasts longer per cycle (15 s against 10 s), but a Blockade Runner gets into warp so quickly that the extra seconds make no difference, unlike on a Deep Space Transport with its 10-second cloak, MWD and warp cycle.
- Mid slots: propulsion (a microwarpdrive in bubble space; an afterburner is acceptable in lowsec without bubbles) and a passive buffer. Hardeners, damage controls and large shield extenders that bloat your signature are mostly wasted slots on a Blockade Runner.
- Low slots: Inertial Stabilizers. Swap in Expanded Cargoholds only for the volume you actually need.
- Rigs: cargo rigs for more capacity, or Hyperspatial rigs for warp speed.
See Blockade Runner for more on the class.
Notes
- The warp speed in the infobox (3.5 AU/s) is the base value, before the 75% Blockade Runner role bonus and the Transport Ships skill bonus. The Prowler's actual warp speed is much higher.
Patch History
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Version 22.02 - Patch 2025-03-12.1
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