User:Mynutor
Guide: Implants and Jump Clones, Part 1
Introduction and Definition
"Implants" in EVE Online refer to a set of up to ten semi-permanent bonuses applied to your character at any given time. Unlike Skills, which are (mostly) permanent and Boosters which are (mostly) temporary, Implants fitted to your character and the bonuses they give you apply until one of two things happen:
the clone you are in is destroyed either in combat or by self-destructing; or, you proactively jump out of that clone into another clone.
In the first case, any implants that you are using at that time are destroyed with the clone. In the second case, the implants that you are using at that time are stored with that clone until you return to it.
As you were informed in the very first video that introduced you to EVE Online, a "capsuleer" is both an immortal being, and one that can move its intellect freely among various stored bodies. These various stored bodies are generally refered to as "Jump Clones".
The purpose to this guide is to introduce you to the various types of implants in EVE Online and their functions, then to introduce you to this concept of clones that underlies the game itself. Once these two topics are completed, the guide concludes with tips and strategies for using implants and clones to gain a strategic advantage in the game. Due to the length of the material being presnted, this guide is presented in four parts, of which this is Part 1:
Part 1: Introduction, Definitions, Common PvP Implants Part 2: Creating Jump Clones, Managing Jump Clones, Attribute Implants Part 3: Pirate Implants Part 4: Mindlinks, Industry Implants, Specialty Implants Part 5: Jump Clone Strategies, Hints and Tips
Term Definitions
Implant: one of ten semi-permanent bonuses applied to your EVE Online character at any given time. Implants are physical objects that must be purchased within the EVE Online market from other players, are given as mission rewards, or are purchased from in-game faction Loyalty stores. Implants are also given from time to time as free gifts by CCP, the developers of EVE Online. They come in two types: attribute enhancers and skill hardwirings. Implants are fitted into a jump clone's "slots".
Slots: each clone has ten implant slots, numbered one to ten. One through five are for attribute enhancers. Six through ten are for skill hardwirings. Only one implant may be used per slot. Removing an implant from a slot destroys that implant.
Attribute Enhancer: a type of implant that increases one or more of your EVE character's five attributes. Attribute enhancers are used in slots one through five of each clone and each clone must have separate attribute enhancers if their bonus is to be applied. Increasing your character's attributes accelerates your character's skill training. Some attribute enhancer implants also include additional bonuses in addition to increasing attributes.
Skill Hardwiring: a type of implant that provides a bonus to one of your EVE character's skills or abilities, or to one of the attributes of your currently-flown ship. Skill hardwirings are used in slots six through ten of each clone and each clone may have separate skill hardwirings. Typically, skill hardwirings increase the effects of the relevant skill, ability, or ship aspect by between 1% and 6%. Some particularly valuable skill hardwirings increase two skills, abilities, or ship aspects, or increase the aspects by greater percentages.
Pirate implant: the slang term for a type of implant purchased or acquired through completing pirate faction missions and sites. Pirate implants are usually characterized by acting as Attribute Enhancers, but also providing powerful skill bonuses as well. Pirate implants operate best when used as a set. Part three of this guide will focus in part on pirate implants.
Fitting implant: the slang term for a series of implants that make fitting either specific or general types of modules easier. For instance, it is quite common to fit a slot six skill hardwiring that increases the character's ship CPU by a small percentage. This is usually referred to as a "CPU implant", as in "You will need a 1% CPU implant to make this fitting work." There is also a common implant that increases the character's ship power grid, called a "grid implant."
Medical Clone: the generic term for a blank clone with no implants installed. Usually, this term is meant to refer to one of two things: the location that the player will appear after his current clone is destroyed, or the actual clone that the player receives after such an in-game death. A player always receives a medical clone after being killed, regardless of Infomorph Psychology skill. By default, medical clones can store 900,000 skill points.
Infomorph Psychology: a Rank 1 Science skill based on the Charisma and Willpower attributes. This skill has no prerequisites. It allows the use of one additional jump clone per level.
Jump Clone: the generic term for each clone body acquired by a character. A character is entitled to one jump clone per level of Infomorph Psychology skill, plus the initial medical clone, for a maximum of six bodies for a character at any given time if Infomorph Psychology V is trained. Each clone requires its own set of implants and only the implants from the currently active jump clone will be applied to the character.
Clone Vat: the storage facility for a clone or clones. Each character is entitled to a clone vat at each station that he or she can dock in. Station clone vats are capable of storing a single clone. This does not count the active clone that the character is using. Rorquals and Titans are also capable of fitting Clone Vats via a high slot module.
Jump Cloning: this term refers to the act of transitioning from one jump clone to another. It can only be done when the character is docked in a station. The game will attempt to store the current jump clone in the clone vat for the current station. If the player already has a clone stored in that vat, a dialogue warning will appear warning the player that if the jump cloning proceeds, the current clone will be destroyed. Each character may jump clone as frequently as every 24 hours. The game will prevent any attempt to jump clone before the 24 hour timer expires.
Assumptions and Key Points
Each character may only have one clone active at any given time. Only that clone's implants will provide their bonuses. Bonuses in that character's other clones will not be applied.
As noted above, only one clone may be stored per station. Any attempt to jump clone away from a station that already has a clone stored in that station's vat will result in a dialogue warning that the current clone will be destroyed if the attempt proceeds. If a system has multiple stations, that character may safely store one jump clone per station.
It is possible to "swap" jump clones with the one stored in the current station's clone vat without danger. The current clone will be stored in the station's clone vat, the clone in that vat will become the new active clone, and the 24 hour timer before the next jump clone may be performed will start.
If one of a character's jump clones is stored in a Titan or Rorqual, the character may jump to that clone as long as the ship's Clone Vat Bay is activated. More information about creating new jump clones will be provided in part two of this guide.
New implants may only be plugged into a clone while that clone is active and while training for that character is either paused or stopped entirely because another character on the same account is training instead. However, existing implants may be removed at any time without pausing or stopping training.
Each clone not only carries with it its unique implants, it carries its unique clothing items as well.
Common PvP Implants
Skill hardwirings that are useful for PvP are what most EVE players commonly think of when they think of "implants." Until very recently as of this writing, these implants were sorted on the market by the slot they took. Recently, this has been changed so that they are sorted by the bonus they grant. Still, it is often most convenient when building a clone to do so in terms of selecting one implant for each slot from six to ten.
Below is a table of the common PvP implants sorted by slot, and then in rough order of preference for each slot. In other words, implants that are more desirable are generally listed before implants that are less desirable. This list is not comprehensive but instead covers the most common selections for each slot. Rote Kapelle member Namamai was very helpful in putting together this table. Thanks, Nam!
Of course, these implants are not only for PvP; they can be quite useful for PvE as well, particularly PvE that involves ratting, incursions, wormhole ops, and running sites and plexes of all types.
The NPC company that "produces" each implant has been removed from the table for convenience. When searching for a particular implant, it is easiest to search for the final 5-6 letter code. For instance, if a Zainou 'Gypsy' Electronics EE-6## implant is what you're after, just search the market for "EE-6" and you'll be presented all the options.
Slot 6 'Rogue' Navigation NN-6## +(1-6)% ship velocity 'Gypsy' Electronics EE-6## +(1-6)% CPU 'Squire' Engineering EG-6## +(1-6)% power grid 'Squire' Energy Systems Operation EO-6## +(1-6)% faster capacitor recharge 'Noble' Repair Systems RS-6## +(1-6)% faster cycling of local armor/hull reps 'Snapshot' Torpedos TD-6## +(1-6)% torpedo damage 'Gunslinger' Small Projectile Turret SP-6## +(1-6)% small projectile turret damage 'Lancer' Small Energy Turret SE-6## +(1-6)% small energy turret damage 'Deadeye' Small Hybrid Turret SH-6## +(1-6)% small hybrid turret damage 'Snapshot' Cruise Missiles CM-6## +(1-6)% cruise missile damage Shaqil's Speed Enhancer +8% ship velocity Numon Family Heirloom +7% faster cycling of local armor/hull reps 'Rogue' Warp Drive Speed WS-6## +(5/8/10/13/15/18)% warp speed
Slot 7 'Snapshot' Assault Missiles AM-7## +(1-6)% HAM damage 'Snapshot' Heavy Missiles HM-7## +(1-6)% HML damage 'Gnome' Shield Management SM-7## +(1-6)% shield HP 'Gunslinger' Motion Prediction MR-7## +(1-6)% tracking speed to all turrets 'Rogue' Evasive Maneuvering EM-7## +(1-6)% ship agility 'Gypsy' Signature Analysis SA-7## +(1-6)% scan resolution 'Deadeye' Trajectory Analysis TA-7## +(1-6)% falloff range to all turrets 'Deadeye' Missile Projection MP-7## +(1-6)% travel velocity to all missiles 'Deadeye' Missile Bombardment MB-7## +(1-6)% flight time to all missiles 'Noble' Remote Armor Repair Systems RA-7## -(1-6)% capacitor usage by remote armor reps 'Squire' Energy Emission Systems ES-7## -(1-6)% capacitor usage by neuts and energy trans 'Squire' Energy Pulse Weapons EP-7## +(1-6)% faster cycling of smartbombs Sansha Modified 'Gnome' Implant +3% shield HP and +3% shield recharge rate
Slot 8 'Squire' Energy Management EM-8## +(1-6)% capacitor size 'Gunslinger' Medium Projectile Turret MP-8## +(1-6)% medium projectile turret damage 'Lancer' Medium Energy Turret ME-8## +(1-6)% medium energy turret damage 'Deadeye' Medium Hybrid Turret MH-8## +(1-6)% medium hybrid turret damage 'Deadeye' Guided Missile Precision GP-8## -(1-6)% explosion radius to all missiles 'Rogue' Fuel Conservation FC-8## -(1-6)% capacitor usage by ABs 'Gypsy' Long Range Targeting LT-8## +(1-6)% max targeting range 'Noble' Mechanic MC-8## +(1-6)% hull HP 'Gnome' Shield Emission Systems SE-8## -(1-6)% capacitor needed to run shield transfers Zor's Custom Navigation Hyper-Link +5% speed bonus from ABs and MWDs
Slot 9 'Lancer' Gunnery RF-9## +(1-6)% rate of fire on all turrets 'Gunslinger' Surgical Strike SS-9## +(1-6)% damage on all turrets 'Deadeye' Sharpshooter ST-9## +(1-6)% optimal range to all turrets 'Deadeye' Target Navigation Prediction TN-9## +(1-6)% explosion velocity to all missiles 'Noble' Repair Proficiency RP-9## +(1-6)% HP repaired/cycle by local armor reps 'Gnome' Shield Operation SP-9## +(1-6)% shield recharge rate 'Rogue' High Speed Maneuvering HS-9## -(1-6)% capacitor usage by MWDs 'Gypsy' Electronic Warfare EW-9## -(1-6)% capacitor usage by ECM 'Gypsy' Sensor Linking SL-9## -(1-6)% capacitor usage by damps 'Gypsy' Weapon Disruption WD-9## -(1-6)% capacitor usage by TDs 'Gypsy' Target Painting TG-9## -(1-6)% capacitor usage by TPs 'Snapshot' Light Missiles LM-9## +(1-6)% light missile damage 'Snapshot' Rockets RD-9## +(1-6)% rocket damage
Slot 10 Warfare Mindlinks (Siege, Skirmish, Armor) 'Noble' Hull Upgrades HG-10## +(1-8)% armor HP 'Gunslinger' Large Projectile Turret LP-10## +(1-6)% large projectile turret damage 'Lancer' Large Energy Turret LE-10## +(1-6)% large energy turret damage 'Deadeye' Large Hybrid Turret LH-10## +(1-6)% large hybrid turret damage 'Deadeye' Rapid Launch RL-10## +(1-6)% rate of fire on all missile launchers Akemon's Modified 'Noble' ZET5000 +8% armor HP Whelan Machorin's Ballistic Smartlink +5% rate of fire on all missile launchers
The bonus for each implant is specified, and is variable based on the quality of implant chosen. For instance, the 'Rogue' Navigation NN-6 implant increases your ship's base velocity by between 1% and 6% depending on the quality of that implant chosen. In each case, the double-hash tag ("##") represents the percentage bonus desired. Normally, these bonuses are 1%, 3%, and 5%. However, specialty CONCORD implants exist for most of them as well in 2%, 4%, and 6% versions. The CONCORD implants, however, tend to be significantly more expensive than the standard types and their prices are much more variable.
Each bonus is applied to the ship characteristic mentioned. The bonuses are flat, and stack with all other bonuses applied without additional stacking penalty. For instance, if a ship has 15000 armor HP and a 'Noble' Hull Upgrades HG-1003 implant is used, the ship will have 15450 armor, 15000 * 1.03. Note in particular that each weapon system has the opportunity to receive two bonuses: a rate of fire bonus from one implant and a damage bonus particular to each weapon type from a second implant. As an example, Heavy Missiles receive a damage bonus from a slot seven implant and a rate of fire bonus from a slot ten implant.
As of this writing, 1% implants tend to be two million ISK or less, 3% implants tend to be 15-20 million ISK, and 5% implants tend to be 120 million ISK. Your budget will define what percentage bonus you go for. Those that get podded frequently will want to stick to less expensive implants, while those that are confident in their flying abilities or their ship can go for more expensive ones.
In part four of this guide, I will cover one of the fundamental things you'll have to decide about your jump clones: whether or not to specialize them. Specialty jump clones will tend to focus on those that provide large bonuses to specific weapon types or specific tactics. These clones are generally easier to build because they are so focused. Generalist clones are more difficult.
Whether generalist or specialized, though, a jump clone will have one or two key implants that define that clone. For instance, it is very common to plug a fitting implant into slot six, but both of the common fitting implants fit in slot six. As a result, you cannot fit both grid- and CPU-enhancing implants on the same clone. As a result, even a generalist clone with a slot six CPU implant will tend to be used for ships that are CPU-constrained like frigates, destroyers, interceptors and the like. Alternately, a jump clone with a mindlink in slot 10 -- even a generalist one -- will tend to use implants that further reinforce the tactics implied by the mindlink chosen... a speed implant in slot six to go with the Skirmish Warfare Mindlink in slot ten, for instance.
Once the key implants are chosen, most players then "fill in" the best choices from the remaining slots available. Again, this will be covered in more detail in part four of the guide.
This concludes part one of this guide. I hope it has been useful!
On to part two...
Guide: Implants and Jump Clones, Part 2
Creating Jump Clones
As was mentioned in part one of this guide, each character is entitled to one medical clone, plus one jump clone per level of Infomorph Psychology trained. However, these additional jump clones are not created automatically and do not appear out of thin air. They have to be created by the player. There are two ways to go about it.
Characters that live entirely in high-sec and never venture into low- or null-sec have only one option for creating jump clones: increasing standing with the in-game NPC corporations. To create a jump clone requires an +8.0 standing with such an NPC corporation. Even more than this, it requires +8.0 standing with the right NPC corporation. Not every NPC corporation in New Eden offers jump cloning services; in particular, virtually none of the care-bear-oriented mining and transport companies do. If you have a character that is 100% oriented in this direction, that's going to limit your options.
If you already have +8.0 standing with a corp, then finding their cloning stations is very easy with Grismar's EVE Explorer. The process is as follows:
At the top left, select "show stations" from the drop-down; then in the first query line just below, in the middle drop-down, select "with service..."; in the third dialogue box on the same line, type "cloning"; click "run query" but ignore the result; in the new query line, in the middle drop-down, select "owned by corp with name containing..."; and in the third dialogue box on the same line, type the name of the corp you have +8.0 standing with; click "run query" again.
You'll be presented with a list of systems and stations where jump clone services are offered. You can even enter the system name you're starting from in the box for that toward the right side and it will tell you exactly how many jumps each possibility is from where you are. It's an extremely handy tool.
If you don't have a potential corp picked out yet, you can use the same tool to make finding one a little bit easier. Follow the procedure above, but instead of entering "owned by corp with name containing..." in the top line, enter "owned by faction with name containing..." instead. Enter the faction ("Caldari State", say) and you'll be presented with a comprehensive list of all of that faction's cloning stations. The list might be quite long, but it'll give you somewhere to start from. Pick one of the corps, then you can use EVE's in-game Agent Finder to search for the mission types with that corp that appeal to you.
If you're a dedicated miner or industrialist, this will be a bit trickier: you'll be nudged toward the faction R&D corps for your needs. If you're more combat-oriented, this choice is much easier: the faction navies all have multiple jump cloning stations and offer Security missions that will get you up to the required standing.
Any way you go, though, plan on spending a lot of time. +8.0 standing is going to require multiple L4 missions and L4 storyline missions to achieve. It's going to be quite a grinding slog, and this +8.0 requirement is why EVE Survival talks about how to blitz every mission in the game. Do keep in mind, though, that your storyline missions may grant you the right to jump clone in an associated NPC corp long before you can in the corp you're trying for.
Once you have the +8.0 standing though, the process for getting a jump clone is quite simple:
Dock in a station with the relevant cloning facility; select the "Medical" button from Station Services (it's the one with the red cross on it); select the "Jump Clone" tab; select "Install".
You'll be asked if you agree to a 100,000 ISK payment for the creation of the clone. Say "yes" and you're all set.
Players in sovereignty null-sec space with access to a player-owned station with cloning services have it even easier. They follow the same process for creation of the jump clone but obviously do not need to do the standings grind first. Very occasionally, you will hear offers of "free port" null-sec stations that offer this service to anyone, for an ISK fee. These offers are even occasionally legitimate. However, test first using an inexpensive alt in a low SP clone, flying a noob ship. Fly the alt to the station in question and confirm that you can dock there before committing a more expensive ship or pod.
Between these two options, most often in low-sec, is the opportunity to use a friendly Rorqual or Titan pilot to create a jump clone. These two ships are capable of fitting a mod called a Clone Vat Bay. As long as that mod is fitted, it will store a friendly player's jump clone. As long as that mod is active, the player with jump clones installed on that ship can jump to them.
The procedure for creating such a jump clone is a little bit different.
Join a fleet with the pilot of the friendly Rorqual or Titan, and travel to the system where the ship is; warp to the location of the ship within that system; the Titan or Rorqual pilot will need to activate the mod, then select the friendly pilot and grant him access to the Clone Vat Bay; you will be asked if you want to install a jump clone on this ship; say "yes"; dock up your ship.
At that point, within your own jump clone menu, you'll be presented with that ship as a jump cloning option. More on that in a second.
This is the jump cloning option most used by NPC null-sec residents, low-sec residents, and even many sov residents. It is also available to high-sec residents through services occasionally advertised on the EVE Online forums. While "free ports" offering these services are sometimes a scam, jump clone creation through this process almost never is. The Rorqual pilot (and it's invariably a Rorqual pilot) expects to be paid ISK for your clone before he'll create it and will go to various lengths to ensure the safety of his expensive ship... but is still (slightly) risking that expensive ship to provide the service. As a result, scams of this type are quite rare and are quickly discovered when they do happen.
Before creating a jump clone in a ship, make sure that you have the right to jump to that clone immediately, but that will be covered more extensively in...
Managing Jump Clones
As stated in part one of the guide, each character is entitled to one jump clone per level of Infomorph Psychology, plus one medical clone. That creates the possibility for as many as five jump clones plus the active medical clone. Each character may activate a jump clone every 24 hours. When a jump clone is activated, that 24 hour timer is also activated and the character cannot be jump cloned again until the timer runs out.(1) As a result, players will have to engage in a certain amount of jump clone management.
Each station that the player has docking rights at may store a single jump clone. Therefore, the first decision the player will need to make is to pick a number of locations to store these clones. There are three basic strategies involved:
storing all jump clones within relatively close proximity to each other, with different specialties for each clone; or, more general clones scattered more widely; or, some mix of the two strategies above.
If the character is relatively static in terms of movement around the galaxy, then all of that character's jump clones can be stored in close proximity. If the character lives in or near NPC space, all of the clones might even be stored in the same system. Residents of null-sec sov space will have a trickier job since each system may contain a maximum of one station, and many null-sec alliances are forced to deal with relatively widely-scattered systems. Therefore, jump clone management is something the player has to manage in much the same way that he or she manages ships.
Of course, if the player sticks to relatively simple, generic implants for each clone, the magnitude of this problem is greatly reduced. But of course doing so reduces the advantages of having jump clones in the first place unless those jump clones are going to be widely scattered. The major exception is the commonly used "training clone." A training clone is defined as one that has the most expensive attribute enhancers that the player can afford. Training clones are usually either kept in high-sec or in some other relatively safe haven. The general intent of a training clone (usually fitting +5 attribute enhancers) is that the player will rarely if ever un-dock in such a clone and will jump to that clone when the player expects not to play EVE for a greater or lesser length of time. Training clones are quite often kept far away from the rest of a character's clones.
The specific differences between more generic clones and more specialized clones and strategies for using one's jump clones will be discussed in part five of this guide. For the purposes of this part, though, it can usually be safely assumed that widely separated clones will tend to be more generic, with the exception of specialized clones for specific purposes, such as the training clone above, a blank clone used for cynos or scouting enemy territory, a clone stored in a research or industrial hub with implants specific to those tasks, et cetera.
That brings us to the more specialized clones that most players will eventually begin to produce, and where jump clone management skills most come into play. Since the 24 hour timer will prevent jumping from clone to clone rapidly, it's important that a new transition to a jump clone be done with a great deal of forethought and planning. It is quite typical, for instance, for PvP-oriented players to have an armor-specific clone and a shield-specific clone (if not more than one of each). If the FC for a given CTA declares that an armor fleet will be taken out, then four hours later another FC declares the next CTA will be shield, the player involved has quite a problem.
Therefore, do not jump to a jump clone unless you're reasonably sure that you'll be happy in that clone for at least 24 hours. Once that clock starts ticking, there's no going back. So if you think these sort of "mix and match" CTAs might take place, it's a smart idea to go ahead and have a generic clone or two even if you choose to specialize the others.
As you start accruing jump clones, it's a good idea to have a basic plan for what your goal for each clone is, and to write that goal down. Just some short notes will be fine. Assume that a given character has Infomorph Psychology III and therefore has three jump clones and a medical clone. Write down what all four clones are going to be doing, to wit:
Clone #1: training clone, +5s, stored in high-sec Clone #2: mostly clone for null-sec frig PvP, +1s and 3% CPU implant only Clone #3: Drake clone, +3s plus 1-3% shield-specific hard-wirings Clone #4: armor clone for armor HAC gangs, +2s and armor hard-wirings
You can write down general locations for where you'll keep each clone, but don't bother writing specific locations. The clones will likely be moving around too much.
When you jump away from a specific jump clone, you must not have a jump clone already stored in that station. If you attempt to jump away from a station where you already have a clone stored, the game will warn you that doing so will destroy your current clone. Therefore, before jumping to a new clone, you must do one of two things:
either move to a station with no jump clone currently stored; or, jump to the jump clone stored in that station.
If you do the latter, the two clones will swap: you'll shift to the one in storage and the one you're in will be moved to storage. If you do not wish to jump to the clone in the station you are currently docked in, you must travel to another station first before you clone jump, or destroy your current clone during the jump. For this reason, it's ironically a good idea not to store a clone in your main home station unless you have to. If you get camped into that station and there is a jump clone already stored there, there's no clone jumping out without destroying one of your clones.
For each jump clone, you'll need to judge whether you're likely to encounter PvP in that clone and if so, how likely you are to be able to extract that clone if your ship is destroyed. This is mostly a problem for full-time PvPers in null-sec. It is somewhat difficult to lose a clone in low-sec and even more difficult to lose one in high-sec. As your ship is being destroyed, spam warp to any celestial you like and it's almost certain that you'll escape. Hell, if nothing else have a destination set at all times and click the Autopilot button once as soon as you enter structure. If possible, your pod will immediately warp away once your ship is destroyed.
This judgment of how likely you are to lose each clone will help you decide -- along with your finances, of course -- what level of attribute enhancers should be installed in each clone. Only those attribute enhancers in your current clone will assist with training speed. Hint: do not install more attribute enhancers in a clone than you need. It is aesthetically pleasing, but unnecessary, to have a "full set" of attribute enhancers in every single clone. When the clone is created, plug in the ones you need, plugging in the others only as your training plan changes.
Similarly, once you set a strategy for each clone, you'll have to decide how much ISK to devote to each clone. Treat this the same as any other economic decision with un-docked assets: how much can you afford to lose? Specific strategies around cost-effective clones will be discussed in part four of the guide but if you can make a clone more survivable with the expenditure of some ISK, it's usually a smart idea to do so. It's an investment in your own flying abilities. And for strict PvEers, expensive implants can in due course pay for themselves.
The process for jump cloning is quite straight-forward:
Eject from your current ship (the game will not permit you to jump clone while in a ship); click on your character sheet in the Neocom; if you are currently training a skill, select Skills, then click the "Open Training Queue"; pause your current training (the game will not permit you to clone jump while a skill is in training); select "Jump Clones"; decide on which clone you wish to jump to; either right click that clone and click "Jump" from the context menu, or click on the right-facing arrow next to that clone, then select the "Jump" button right underneath; then, go back to your Training Queue and click the "Apply" button to reactivate your training queue, if desired.
After you jump, you will vanish from your current location, appearing at your new location almost instantly. The 24 hour clock will start. IF the clone you're jumping to is stored in a Rorqual or Titan with an active Clone Vat Bay, you will appear in space in a random location somewhat near -- but well off-grid from -- the host vessel. You'll then have to warp your pod from there to wherever you like.
Attribute Enhancers
Attribute enhancers have one and only one function: to speed up the training of skills based on that attribute. They come in varieties from +1 to +5 for each attribute. Each attribute has a base score of 17, and each character has 14 additional points that they may assign to any attributes they like, with a maximum of 10 per attribute. The attribute enhancer score for each attribute is added to that, with a maximum of 5 per attribute. Skills are trained based on a factor based on double the primary attribute for that skill plus the secondary attribute for that skill.
For instance, all T1 ships and most weapons are based on the Perception (primary) and Willpower (secondary) of the character. If the character is maximized for training these skills, with +10 added to Perception and +4 added to Willpower, the character will have a Perception of 27 and a Willpower of 21. This makes the training factor 75: twice Perception plus Willpower. If the character has +4 implants on each, that increases the training factor to 83. If +1s are used instead, the training factor is 77.
In actual practice, each +1 on the secondary attribute adds 30 SP/hour and each +1 on a primary attribute adds 60 SP/hour. Or if you prefer looking at it this way, each +1 added to an attribute speeds training by 16 minutes per day for each +1 on the secondary attribute and 33 minutes per day for each +1 on the primary attribute. These effects stack. Therefore, using +4 implants for both primary and secondary attributes instead of +1s speeds training by 270 SP/hour, or makes training faster by 2 hours, 27 minutes per day.
Particularly early in an EVE pilot's career, this is important.
Each attribute enhancer goes in a slot specific to that attribute:
Slot 1: Perception, called by the game an "Ocular Filter"; Slot 2: Memory, called by the game a "Memory Augmentation"; Slot 3: Willpower, called by the game a "Neural Boost"; Slot 4: Intelligence, called by the game a "Cybernetic Subprocessor"; and finally, Slot 5: Charisma, called by the game a "Social Adaptation Chip".
As noted above, each attribute enhancer comes in flavors from +1 to +5:
+1, called by the game with the prefix "Limited"; +2, called by the game with the prefix "Limited" and the suffix "- Beta" (dash Beta); +3, called by the game with the suffix "- Basic" (dash Basic); +4, called by the game with the suffix "- Standard" (dash Standard); and, +5, called by the game with the suffix "- Improved" (dash Improved).
Therefore, a +5 Willpower implant is a "Neural Boost - Improved" and a +2 Perception implant is a "Limited Ocular Filter - Beta".
It is not necessary to match levels of attribute enhancers, nor is it necessary to use all five types in each jump clone. Nor is it necessary to use any attribute enhancers at all: the jump clone will come with none! But fitting them will greatly speed training. The down side is that once fitted, removing an implant will destroy it.
Searching for attribute enhancers on the market is as simple as either:
using the Browse interface, selecting "Implants", and then "Attribute Enhancers", then selecting one based on the slot it uses; or, using the terms above to search for the implants you like.
For instance, if you want +4s for both Perception and Willpower, use the search function to search for "- Standard" and you'll be presented with all of the +4 options. Simply select the Ocular and Neural implants, and you're done.
As noted above, it's smart to use the best attribute enhancers you can afford based on your budget and the likelihood of the clone being destroyed. As I write this guide (October 2012), attribute enhancer implants are at historic low prices, with +4 "Standard" implants costing only 13-14 million each. As a result, there's very little reason not to go ahead and use them if you can at all afford them. Again, though, there's no reason to use all five all the time. Start with the ones you need for your current training plan, buying the others if you care to but only plugging them in when they're actually needed.
Finally, there are a large number of specialty implants for slots one through five that act as both attribute enhancers and skill hard-wirings. These will be discussed in detail in part three of this guide.
But that concludes part two. On to part three...
Guide: Implants and Jump Clones, Part 3
Pirate Implants
As mentioned in part one and part two of this guide, parts three and four focus on the various sorts of specialty implants. The most common sort of specialty implants are the so-called pirate implants. They carry this name because they are produced from completing pirate faction missions and sites in much the same way most of the standard implants are produced from running empire faction missions and sites. However, pirate implants have a special nature all their own because they are slot one through five implants that carry both an attribute enhancement and a form of skill hard-wiring enhancement. As a result, they are quite valuable, often the most valuable implants in EVE Online.
Many pirate implants come in two varieties: standard (sometimes referred to as "high grade") and low grade. Low grade pirate implants carry a +2 bonus to the affected attribute and smaller bonuses. High grade pirate implants carry a +3 bonus to the affected attribute and larger bonuses. Not every pirate implant set has both low grades and high grades. Many have low grades only at this time.
Pirate implants are also nearly unique in that using a full set (from slots one through five) of the same type of pirate implant will confer a "set bonus". This is a concept that is familiar to other MMOs and single-player RPGs: having the full set confers an additional bonus to the effect each individual implant gives. These set bonuses are conferred whether or not low grades are mixed with high grades though only a full set of high grades will confer the largest bonus.
Pirate implants are named for the first five letters of the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon, and are assigned to their slots in that order. Thus, the Delta implant goes in slot four, and like all slot four implants, affects character Intelligence. However, CCP has set the drop rate of these implants such that their drop frequency is inversely proportional to their slot number. As a result, slot one Alpha implants drop the most frequently and slot five Epsilon implants drop the least frequently. Following the law of supply and demand, Epsilon implants are therefore nearly always the most expensive pirate implants. For some sets, the Epsilon implant's price will exceed the price of the other four implants combined.
Each pirate implant set also has a slot six "Omega" implant. The Omega implant is unique among EVE Online implants in that it does absolutely nothing by itself. Its only effect is to greatly increase the bonus conferred by the slot one through five implants, each bonus taken individually and not as a set. The drop rate for Omega implants is so low and the bonuses they confer so strong that Omega implants are far and away the most expensive type of pirate implant. Indeed, there are a few cases where the Omega implant exceeds the cost of the other five implants -- including the Epsilon implant -- combined! As a result, often players will go without the Omega implant as a cost-savings measure or try to mimic the Omega's effect using less costly implants.
There are 14 types of pirate implants, detailed in the table below:
Implant Set Low grade/Both Effect of implants Centurion Low grade Increases optimal range of all electronic warfare Crystal Both Increases shield boost amount Edge Low grade Reduces booster side effects Grail Both Increases radar (Amarr) sensor strength Halo Both Reduces ship signature radius Harvest Low grade Increases mining laser range Jackal Both Increases ladar (Minmatar) sensor strength Nomad Low grade Increases ship agility Slave Both Increases ship armor hit points Snake Both Increases ship velocity Spur Both Increases mag (Gallente) sensor strength Talisman Both Reduces duration of all energy transfer modules Talon Both Increases grav (Caldari) sensor strength Virtue Low grade Increases probe scan strength
Far and away the two most commonly used pirate implants are Slave sets and Snake sets, produced by the Sansha Nation and Serpentis, respectively. A closer examination of these two sets will be valuable for the pilot considering investing in these implants. Most often, pirate implants are associated with expensive ships and are used to help protect the investment in those expensive ships. Therefore, for the purposes of this examination, I'll use a faction-fit Machariel as a subject ship for Snakes, and a dead-space fit Damnation as a subject fit for Slaves. In the following tables, when referring to four implants, the table assumes the player will use the slot one through four implants and not the slot five implant.
Our subject Machariel has a single Domination Nanofiber Structure, and a single T2 Polycarbon Engine Housing rig. Running under MicroWarpdrive with no fleet links or boosts, such a ship has a top speed of 1741m/s. This is modified by the various Snake implants as follows:
Implant set New top speed Improvement None 1741 meters/second 0.0% Four low grades 1812 meters/second 4.0% Five low grades 1849 meters/second 6.2% Four low grades, LG Omega 1923 meters/second 10.5% Five low grades, LG Omega 2020 meters/second 16.0% Five low grades, HG Omega 2080 meters/second 19.5% Four high grades 1827 meters/second 5.0% Five high grades 1877 meters/second 7.8% Four high grades, LG Omega 1960 meters/second 12.6% Five high grades, LG Omega 2095 meters/second 20.3% Five high grades, HG Omega 2172 meters/second 24.8%
Our subject Damnation has two 1600mm plates, two C-type EANMs, an A-type Energized Thermic Membrane, and two T2 Trimark Armor Pumps. With no fleet links or boosts, such a ship has 35654 armor HP and 331k EHP. This is modified by the various Slave implants as follows:
Implant set New armor HP / EHP Improvement None 35654 / 331k 0.0% Four low grades 41147 / 379k 15.4% Five low grades 45087 / 413k 26.5% Four low grades, LG Omega 42608 / 392k 19.5% Five low grades, LG Omega 47715 / 436k 33.8% Five low grades, HG Omega 50458 / 460k 41.5% Four high grades 42281 / 389k 18.6% Five high grades 47703 / 436k 33.8% Four high grades, LG Omega 44064 / 404k 23.6% Five high grades, LG Omega 51147 / 466k 43.5% Five high grades, HG Omega 54776 / 497k 53.6%
The tables clearly show the significant impact of the Omega implants and the reason they are so desirable. The effects of pirate implants while also under the effect of a fleet booster's Mindlink and fleet links is so powerful as to be nearly over-powered. The speed of the subject Machariel with a full set of low grade Snakes, plus a low grade Snake Omega is 2020m/s. Adding a T2 Rapid Deployment Warfare Link, plus the Skirmish Warfare Mindlink on a Loki to the subject Machriel raises the Machariel's speed to 2636m/s, a 30% increase over the low grade Snakes alone, and a 51% increase to the ship's base speed.
Similarly, under the effect of a full set of low grade Slaves, plus the low grade Slave Omega, our subject Damnation has 47715 armor HP and 436k EHP. Adding a T2 Passive Defense Warfare Link, plus the Armored Warfare Mindlink to this same Damnation raises its armor HP to 54872 and its EHP to an incredible 599k! This represents a 15% improvement to armor HP over the "slaved" Damnation, and a 54% improvement to armor HP over the "unslaved" Damnation. The ship itself has 81% more EHP and is effectively nearly twice as difficult to kill.
This is why players invest in pirate implants.
The other pirate implants are generally used for more specialized pursuits. You'll notice that four of the sets -- the Grail, Jackal, Spur, and Talon -- work to improve the ship's effective sensor strength. These implants are quite often used by logistics pilots where preventing being jammed is so important. A typical Basilisk running a single low-slot mod for increasing sensor strength has a Gravimetric sensor strength of 32.6. Until Retribution, that effectively represents a 50% chance of being jammed by a solid Falcon pilot. Adding a full set of low grade Talon implants improves that to 43.9, reducing that jam chance to about 33%. As of this writing, a full set of low grade Talons costs only 78 million ISK, far less than the cost of the ship itself.
Crystal and Halo implants are most often used in PvE. The Crystal sets are extremely powerful in the hands of actively boosting Tengu, Raven, and Raven Navy Issue pilots. The former are quite often found in ratting or null-sec site-running scenarios. The latter ships are most often found in missions. However, there is a large subset of pilots that enjoy using Crystal implants for their effect on dead-space shield boosters and the new Ancillary Shield Booster modules. A full set of low-grade Crystals can greatly improve the survivability of a PvP Cyclone, Maelstrom, Rokh, Rattlesnake, or Scorpion Navy Issue. As I've mentioned once before, Rote Kapelle calls such tactics "Bushido".
Halo implants have the opposite impact: by greatly reducing a ship's signature radius, passively tanked ships -- particularly Strategic Cruisers -- can use these implants to reduce the effect of attacks on the ship. This is quite often seen in shield-based Incursion Tengus and Lokis. Even an inexpensive purchase of slot one through five low grade Halos can reduce the signature of a typical Incursion Tengu by more than 20 meters, a 10% improvement on paper but a quite effective practical improvement to the ship's damage mitigation. Halo implants are sometimes used by PvP interceptor pilots for the same reason, though of course at a much greater risk of loss.
Virtue implants are most often used in wormholes, where their effective increase of sensor probe scan strength makes finding even the most difficult wormhole or w-space site quite easy. Centurion implants are of course beloved of specialized Falcon pilots, but are expensive because of their extreme rarity. Centurion Epsilon implants are almost never found. Talisman implants are the nearly exclusive domain of Bhaalgorn pilots; their effect is mostly intended for neuts and nosferatus. Nomad implants, interestingly enough, are most often used by freighter and jump freighter pilots. Eleven seconds can be trimmed from a Fenrir's align-and-warp speed with a set of low grade Nomads and a single 5% ship agility implant. That's a 30% improvement.
Finally, Edge and Harvest implants are collector's items, not implants actually used by players. Their drop rate varies from "incredibly rare" to "non-existent."
The expense of pirate implants in general is not inconsiderable. Though a few types are relatively inexpensive (a full sensor strength or Halo set comes to mind), the truly useful ones will generally set you back a half billion ISK or more. As of this writing, a full set of high grade Slaves including the Slave Omega costs about 2.5 billion ISK. A full set of high grade Snakes is even more expensive, at about 2.7 billion. They are therefore not implants that should be used lightly unless you have a great deal of confidence in your ability to extract your clone, or the chances of your pod coming under attack are slight (such as a set of Slaves used only in incursion armor fleets in high-sec).
On the other hand, balance the expense of the implants with the cost of the ship. There are very few armor-tanking super-cap pilots that don't use a full set of high grade Slaves with their ships. Their 2.5 billion ISK cost pales to relative insignificance when weighed next to the enormous cost of these ships, and the benefit conferred by 50% additional EHP when these implants are used with a linked Command Ship or Strategic Cruiser. A "snaked" Machariel or skirmishing ship will tend to be much more survivable than an "unsnaked" one. As with many aspects of EVE, "what can you afford to lose?" will be your guiding question.
It is also definitely worth considering the impact that pirate clones have on a character's training speed. Most often, low grade pirate implants are used and these sets feature only +2 attribute increases. Therefore, it's usually in your best interests only to pull out the pirate implants for specialty fleets that can really take advantage of them. This both keeps their use to ships that really deserve it and makes it less likely that the player will lose them. Only characters that are supremely confident in their ability to extract their pods, characters that are extremely rich, or characters for which training speed is not an issue should be pulling their pirate implants out every time.
That last case provides special opportunities, by the way. If a character is either not training, or has such a high number of skill points in desired skills that training is not an issue, pirate implants can provide a little boost to that player's skills or survivability. A good example is a ratting alt strictly using a Tengu whose skills are no longer being trained -- the character has the highest-desired Tengu skills. In this case, a set of low grade Crystals to increase the ship's survivability might be desirable. Alternately, scanning alts not being trained further can benefit from low grade Virtue sets, and freighter alts can definitely benefit from low grade Nomads.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that though fitting a full set of pirate implants is optimal and fitting at least four is preferred, it is worth considering fitting only a single pirate implant here or there to slightly benefit skills. The low grade Snake Alpha, for instance, usually runs under 10 million ISK and can provide anywhere from 25 to 50 meters/second benefit to a fast interceptor pilot. This tiny extra boost can be a boon if the pilot doesn't wish to go with a full low grade Snake set and has already taken advantage of the other speed-enhancing implant options. Similar small, inexpensive benefits can be gained from the Halo implants as well as the sensor strength implants. Low grade Jackal implants usually run under 10 million ISK each and each one provides a +1 boost to Minmatar sensor strength, effectively decreasing the likelihood that a Stiletto tackler will be jammed off by 11% for each such implant fitted.
This concludes part three of the implant guide. Initially intended to include sections on industry implants, mindlinks, and other specialty implants, those sections will be covered in part four.
Guide: Implants and Jump Clones, Part 4
Mindlinks
As mentioned in part one and part two of this guide, parts three and four focus on the various sorts of specialty implants. After pirate implants (covered in part three), the most common type of specialty implant are Mindlinks. Mindlinks may only be used by characters that have both Cybernetics V and have trained one of the five trees of the Leadership skills to the highest extent possible. Within the Leadership skill tree, there are five types of skills to which Mindlinks are applicable:
Armored Warfare; Information Warfare; Siege Warfare; Skirmish Warfare; and, Mining.
Each of these skills within the Leadership tree has a "first tier" skill that grants passive bonuses within each category. For instance, Siege Warfare grants a 2% bonus to shield HP per Siege Warfare level trained, to a maximum of 10%. However, this bonus is only applied if the character that has that skill is both part of a fleet, and is a designated squad, wing, or fleet booster for that fleet. At Siege Warfare V, the Siege Warfare Specialist skill is unlocked. The Siege Warfare Mindlink only becomes available when this "second tier" skill is also trained to Level V. The other Mindlinks are unlocked in a similar fashion, and their bonuses again only apply if the character using the Mindlink is in a fleet and is a designated squad, wing, or fleet booster for that fleet.
Once all of these conditions are met, the purpose of a Mindlink is two-fold:
they enhance the bonus that is already granted by having the "first tier" skill at Level V; and, if the character in question is in a ship that can fit a gang link, it will greatly enhance the bonuses provided by those gang links.
The first bonus is very easy to understand. At Siege Warfare V, as a booster, the character with no Mindlink grants a 10% bonus to shield HP. At Siege Warfare Specialist V and while using a Siege Warfare Mindlink, the same character grants a 15% bonus to shield HP. This is the passive bonus to a Mindlink. The other bonuses are as follows:
For skill At Level V alone Plus Mindlink Armored Warfare +10% armor HP +15% armor HP Information Warfare +10% targeting range +15% targeting range Siege Warfare +10% shield HP +15% shield HP Skirmish Warfare +10% ship agility +15% ship agility Mining +10% mining yield +15% mining yield
Mindlinks may only be used in a character's slot 10, and a character may only have one Mindlink installed at any time. However, up to three characters can provide Mindlink boosts for a fleet, one each in the squad, wing, and fleet positions. However, only the highest boost will be applied. If there are characters with Skirmish Mindlinks in both the wing and squad positions, the pilots in the fleet will not receive a double benefit. However, if there is a character with an Armored Warfare Mindlink in the fleet position and a character with a Skirmish Warfare Mindlink in the wing position, and squad leaders in all squad positions, all pilots in that fleet will receive the benefits of both Mindlinks as long as both Mindlink characters are in space, in ships, and the squad commanders for the fleet are also in space and in ships.
The second bonus provided by a Mindlink is to greatly enhance the bonuses provided by any gang links the Mindlink user has fitted to his or her ship. The exact bonuses conferred by every gang link and every Mindlink is well beyond the scope of this guide. Consult the Leadership skills guide of your choice to learn about the exact bonuses. However, to use a single example, the Siege Warfare Mindlink can enhance the effects of the Shield Harmonizing gang link. Under normal circumstances, this gang link enhances the resistances of the ship under its effect.
Suppose a typical Incursion Basilisk is receiving bonuses from a Shield Harmonizing gang link. Assuming the platform providing the bonus is a Caldari Vulture, the resistances of such a ship will be as follows:
No Mindlink No Mindlink Mindlink Mindlink No bonus T1 gang link T2 gang link T1 gang link T2 gang link 76/91/86/77 77/92/88/79 77/92/88/80 78/92/88/81 79/93/89/82
As you can see, each step up provides increasing bonuses. Ships without high resistances will benefit even more. For example, the EM resistance of a typical shield-tanked Hurricane jumps from 55% with no bonuses to 64% when under the effect of a T2 gang link supported by a Siege Warfare Mindlink.
As you probably expect, pilots that can use Mindlinks are rare and the Mindlinks themselves can be expensive, ranging from 60 million ISK for an Armored Warfare Mindlink to 125 million for Siege to 225 million for Skirmish. Most expensive of all are the Mining Foreman Mindlinks which as of this writing cost 1.2 billion ISK. Drops for this Mindlink are limited to a few select missions and they are highly prized by miners. A fully-skilled Hulk pilot flying a mining-optimized Hulk can bring in 1900m3 per minute of ore. If under the influence of a fully-skilled Orca pilot using T2 mining gang links and a Mining Foreman Mindlink, this increases to more than 3000m3! As a result, Mining Foreman Mindlinks are capable of paying for themselves.
Other Specialty Implants
Like the standard implants, there are two types of other specialty implants: attribute enhancers and skill hard-wirings. In addition to the pirate implant attribute enhancers, there are a number specialty attribute enhancers. The most common as of this writing are the Genolution Core Augmentation CA-1 and CA-2. A slot 1 and slot 4 implant, respectively, the Genolution implants were given as holiday gifts by CCP last year. The CA-1, like all slot 1 implants, increases Perception. But it is also a fitting implant increasing both ship's capacitor and power grid output. The CA-2, like all slot 4 implants, increases Intelligence. But it is also a fitting implant increasing both ship's CPU and reducing the capacitor recharge time. All fitting bonuses from these two implants are +1.5% unless both of these implants are used, in which case they are subject to an additional 50% bonus. These two implants make some very impressive fittings possible, particularly when combined with other fitting implants, and as such are becoming quite expensive. They cost about 60 million ISK each as of this writing and the cost continues to increase as the limited number of them are destroyed.
In addition, some epic mission arcs, standard missions, and sites drop specialty attribute enhancers or skill hard-wirings. They are listed below:
Implant Slot Effect 1 Effect 2 Imperial Special Ops Field Enhancer - Standard Slot 1 Perception +4 +5% armor HP Republic Special Ops Field Enhancer - Standard Slot 3 Willpower +4 +5% velocity Ogdin's Eye Coordination Enhancer Slot 7 +7% rate of fire bonus (none) Sansha Modified 'Gnome' Implant Slot 7 +3% shield HP -3% shield recharge Zor's Custom Navigation Link Slot 7 +10% AB duration (none) Zor's Custom Navigation Hyper-Link Slot 8 +5% speed bonus (none) Pashan's Turret Customization Mindlink Slot 9 +6% tracking bonus (none) Imperial Navy Modified 'Noble' Implant Slot 10 +3% armor HP +3% armor repair Pashan's Turret Handling Mindlink Slot 10 +7% damage bonus (none)
As you can probably imagine, several of these specialty implants are rare and expensive. Some drop so rarely that they are quite literally worth hundreds of millions or even billions of ISK.
Two types of specialty implants with limited audiences are those intended for those who frequently use combat boosters and those who frequently use scan probes. Both types are reasonably rare finds. The former are only rarely purchased or used. The latter are mostly useful to "scan alts" of dedicated wormhole players that demand the maximum performance out of their scan ships. These scanning implants are most often used in conjunction with Virtue implants which further increase scanning ability. The combination of Virtues with these implants can go a long way toward making "unprobeable" ships probable. At the very least, they make finding wormhole-based sites quick and easy.
Boosters Slot 8 'Alchemist' Biology BY-8## +(5-10)% booster duration Slot 9 'Alchemist' Nanite Control NC-9## -(3-5)% side effect penalty Slot 10 'Alchemist' Neurotoxin Recovery NR-10## -(3-5)% side effect chance
Scanning Slot 6 'Prospector' Astrometric Pinpointing AP-7## -(2-6)% probe scan deviation Slot 7 'Prospector' Astrometric Acquisition AQ-7## -(2-10)% probe scan time Slot 8 'Prospector' Astrometric Rangefinding AR-8## +(2-6)% scan probe strength Slot 9 'Prospector' Archaeology AC-905 +5% archaeology success chance Slot 9 'Prospector' Hacking HC-905 +5% hacking success chance Slot 9 'Prospector' Salvaging SV-905 +5% salvaging success chance Slot 10 'Prospector' Environmental Analysis EY-1005 -5% faster cycle time
The 'Prospector' Environmental Analysis EY-1005 implant provides 5% faster cycle time for salvagers, hacking modules, and archaeology modules and is therefore beloved in wormholes and among some site/mission runners.
Finally, note that there are a few specialty implants out there that are available, but not advertised in traditional ways on the market unless you are aware of them. Chief among these is the Inherent Implants 'Noble' Hull Upgrades HG-1008 implant. Like the other HG-10## implants, this one provides an armor HP boost. However, the rare HG-1008 provides an 8% armor boost, much greater than the standard implants of this type. As a result, it is highly prized by super-cap pilots, who use it almost exclusively. As of this writing, this implant is available on the market for nearly two billion ISK!
Industry Implants
Finally, though they are often overlooked, there are a series of implants useful for industry-based players. These fall into two categories, those intended for industry players using research and manufacturing, and those intended for miners:
Research and manufacturing Slot 6 'Beancounter' Research RR-6## +(1-3)% faster time research Slot 7 'Beancounter' Metallurgy MY-7## +(1-3)% faster material research Slot 8 'Beancounter' Industry BX-8## +(1-2)% faster manufacturing Slot 8 'Beancounter' Refining RX-8## -(1-2)% refining waste Slot 8 'Beancounter' Science SC-8## +(1-3)% faster blueprint copying
Mining Slot 8 'Alchemist' Gas Harvesting GH-8## +(1-3)% faster gas harvesting Slot 10 'Highwall' Mining MX-10## +(1-3)% mining yield Slot 10 'Highwall' Mining Upgrades MU-10## -(1-3)% mining upgrade CPU penalty Slot 10 'Yeti' Ice Harvesting IH-10## +(1-3)% faster ice harvesting
Most of these bonuses fall into the "every little bit helps" category. Still, the mining and ice harvesting implants have high drop rates and are therefore inexpensive enough to be affordable for even the casual miner. It is very unfortunate that both the blueprint copying implant and the faster manufacturing implant are slot 8: it forces industry-based characters to choose between them or more often, to have two characters devoted to these different trades.
The RX-8## refining implant is quite useful for null-sec industrialists. I have covered mineral compression at several points in the past. The 2% refining bonus granted by the more expensive of these two implants closes the (very small) refining gap left by having perfect skills and a high-end null-sec refining station. Without this implant, large numbers of 425mm Railgun Is moved to null-sec would be subject to a small amount of waste once converted back to minerals. With this implant, even that small amount of waste is eliminated and all of the minerals from producing these modules with a perfect blueprint are recovered in null... and from there, usually become super-capital class ships... As a result, there is always someone docked in every null-sec refining station that has this implant; often, there are several someones with them.
This concludes part four of the implant guide. The final part will cover "jump clone management," which is a far more complex task than it really has any right to be...
Guide: Implants and Jump Clones, Part 5
As I covered in part four of this guide, as you train up the Infomorph Psychology skill and as you pick out skill hard-wirings and other implants that you want to start using, sooner or later you're going to have to come up with a...
Jump Clone Strategy
The first question you're likely to ask once you start down this path is "What level should I train Infomorph Psychology to?" And there's a basic guide that will answer at least part of that question for you. It's a decision that you're going to have to make for every one of your mains and every one of your alts. For each of them, count up three things:
the number of roles that this character is going to have; the number of specialties that this character is going to have; and, the number of constellations that this character is going to be living in, not counting the first constellation.
What is a role? In this context, a role is a duty that that character performs or a set of skills or ships that the character will be flying while in that clone. Some common roles are:
industrialist or miner, reprocessing modules or ores;
PvP interceptor, frigate, or interdictor pilot; command ship pilot (each racial type counts as a separate role); and, capital ship pilot (each of dread, carrier, and super-capital counts as a separate role).
Regardless of your final jump clone strategy, each of these roles is going to demand a separate jump clone because of the nature of the needs of each role. Command ship pilots, for instance, require mindlinks to be effective and each mindlink is going to require its own jump clone. PvP interceptors, frigates, and interdictors are highly risky roles and are almost certainly going to require a blank or near-blank clone in order to mitigate the risk of this PvP style. Mining becomes much more effective with the appropriate skill hard-wirings in place, and so on. Each of these roles will almost certainly demand a separate clone.
What is a specialty? Specialties are even deeper subdivisions than roles, often associated with pirate implant sets or pilots dedicated to a specific type of ship. Some common specialties are:
scanner alt; freighter alt; super-capital pilot; high-end Crystal PvP or PvE pilot; and, dedicated skirmish pilot.
Each of these specialties is also going to demand a dedicated jump clone to perform these duties to their fullest, again regardless of your eventual jump clone strategy. A dedicated scanner alt living in a wormhole will need to have at least one set of skill hard-wirings related to scanning plus perhaps a Virtue set. A dedicated freighter alt will benefit greatly from a Nomad set and skill hard-wirings to increase ship agility. Super-cap pilots simply must have a Slave clone, and so on.
Each constellation that the character operates in after the first will probably be worthy of a jump clone just to save travel time. This sort of thing is going to apply to:
market alts that operate in multiple high-sec markets; PvE players that alternate between missioning in one constellation and mining in another; PvP players whose corp or alliance is spread across a wide area of space; PvP players who wish to spy on an enemy corp or alliance or have a cyno alt in a different constellation; and so on.
This count is mostly going to be of use to players that follow a more generalist model when it comes to their jump clones (see below).
Count the number of constellations that the character has to operate in after the first. For each role and specialty, add one to that number. That is the total number of jump clones that you'll need. To that, add one if you wish to have a dedicated training clone. This clone carries a set of +5 attribute implants and rarely undocks, or only undocks in the safest of scenarios. Subtract one from the sum of these factors and that's the level to which you need to train Infomorph Psychology. And yes, if you get greedy, you might come up with a number that is greater than five. In this case, you're going to have to scale back your ambitions somewhat or combine roles or constellations into a single jump clone.
Let's use one of my own mains, Ripard Teg, as an example. He only needs to operate in a single constellation in Syndicate, but the first constellation doesn't count so his initial count is zero. However, he has four roles: he flies Vultures, Claymores, and Damnations; and he often flies interdictors. In addition, he has one specialty: he often operates as a dedicated skirmish pilot. Finally, he has one dedicated training clone. Four roles plus one specialty plus zero additional regions plus one training clone is six. Subtract one from that is five, so Ripard is required to have Infomorph Psychology V, associated with six jump clones:
a Vulture clone with a Siege Warfare Mindlink; a Claymroe clone with a Skirmish Warfare Mindlink; a Damnation clone with a Armored Warfare Mindlink; a skirmish clone with a set of Low-Grade Snake attribute enhancers; a training clone with a set of +5 attribute enhancers; and, a more or less blank clone for flying interdictors.
With the current limitation on the Infomorph Psychology skill, Ripard can't have any more roles or specialties without giving up one of his current ones. If I wish to get him a Crystal clone or a scanner clone, he'll have to give up one of the clone roles he already has.
This is what I will refer to as a "specialist" jump clone strategy: each and every jump clone has a stated purpose. Before I talk about specialists and how they differ from generalists, though, it will be instructive to talk once more about the jump clone timer.
As of this writing, there exists in EVE one of the worst mechanics in the game: the jump clone timer. Once a player begins acquiring jump clones, the process for moving between them was covered in part two of this guide. However, managing the timer is a very important part of a player's jump clone strategy. If a player has an announced CTA using shield ships on Tuesday night, it will be very important for that same player not to jump into his armor capital ship clone on Tuesday morning. If he does so, he might not wish to risk this sub-optimal clone on the CTA op and as such will be forcibly required to miss the op.
Likewise for a generalist, if a CTA is called in a distant region for Saturday afternoon, it won't do for the player involved to jump into a clone in a distant region on Friday night. I have been on Teamspeak many, MANY times where ops have been delayed because a key participant only has "10 more jumps" before their distant clone can cross New Eden to reach the location that the op is actually departing from!
As a result, specialists and generalists alike need to keep their jump clone timer in their thoughts at all times.
Specific strategies
"Specialization is for insects", according to one of Robert Heinlein's beloved characters. Players that follow the generalist strategy live by this mantra. Particularly for PvP players, the generalist model specifies that all the player's jump clones be kept as similar as possible, providing a broad base of benefits that will be applicable to as many ship types as possible. For instance, if a player is a PvPer and nearly always flies turret-based ships, then a good generalist clone is:
Slots 1-5: whatever attribute enhancers are desired; Slot 6: 'Rogue' Navigation NN-603; Slot 7: 'Gunslinger' Motion Prediction MR-703; Slot 8: empty, or Zor's Custom Navigation Hyper-Link; Slot 9: 'Gunslinger' Surgical Strike SS-903; Slot 10: empty.
This is a relatively inexpensive implant set that will nevertheless provide significant benefit to virtually any turret-based ship that it is used in. It's a clone that you don't have to think about. If your corp or alliance has stations scattered across a wide region and you or they base ships in all of them, then you can store one clone per constellation using this model and be quite happy with its performance every single time. The only type of ships that this clone will not be as useful for will be recons and drone- and missile-based ships.
In these situations, an even more generalist clone can be designed, perhaps one only using speed, agility, and ship capacitor implants or the like that are truly universal to all ships.
Many PvPers following a generalist strategy eschew skill hard-wirings altogether and go with basic attribute enhancers and that's all. This is also a perfectly valid strategy and will limit that player's potential losses, particularly in null-sec. However, in high-sec or low-sec PvP, it makes perfect sense to go with at least a basic skill hard-wiring set that provides a few benefits to as wide a range of ships as is possible.
The generalist strategy is also quite useful for alts designated for specific purposes. For instance, a mining alt that ice mines in widely scattered constellations depending on what type of ice is needed can fit a basic ice-mining skill hard-wiring set:
Slots 1-5: whatever attribute enhancers are desired; Slot 6: empty, or 'Gypsy' Electronics EE-6## if needed; Slot 7: 'Gnome' Shield Management SM-703; Slot 8: empty, or 'Squire' Energy Management EM-803; Slot 9: Shield Operation SP-903; Slot 10: 'Yeti' Ice Harvesting IH-1003.
And again, this is a clone that will serve well for a dedicated ice-harvesting alt no matter where in New Eden it flies.
The advantage of the generalist strategy is that the player that follows it has less book-keeping, lower potential losses, and a much easier logistical needs (particularly if they go with blank or near-blank clones). Generalists will also be much less beholden to the jump clone timer unless they have a need to be in a different constellation. However, even if that is the case, the generalist model works well here also given that the generalist jump clone will be suited to whatever ship type is needed once the distant clone arrives. Generalist clones are generally also cheaper.
The disadvantage to the generalist model is that the generalist player gives up specific advantages to the specialist. If two players of equal character skill and player skill meet, both are in equivalent ships, but one player is in a generalist clone and the other is in a specialist clone, chances are excellent that the specialist will take the match. Specialist clones have a significant advantage in PvE as well, able to tank longer, do more damage, track faster targets, or use tighter fittings thanks to specialty implants fitted for that purpose.
The specialist, by contrast, as noted above will have a jump clone tied to each role or specialty that they play. Usually, the strategies for fitting such clones will be self-evident. For instance, a Siege Warfare clone associated with a Vulture or command ship-fitted Tengu will look like this:
Slots 1-5: whatever attribute enhancers are desired; Slot 6: 'Rogue' Navigation NN-603 Slot 7: 'Snapshot' Heavy Missiles HM-703 or 'Gnome' Shield Management SM-703; Slot 8: 'Squire' Energy Management EM-803 Slot 9: 'Deadeye' Target Navigation Prediction TN-903; Slot 10: Siege Warfare Mindlink.
Such a clone is going to be expensive, and it's only going to be useful in four or five classes of ships. It's certainly not going to be useful in any sort of armor fleet unless you're flying a Sacrilege or Legion and not even then if you elect for the 3% additional shields in slot 7.
This is the danger of the specialist strategy: your clones are going to tend to be over-specialized to given roles. And if you're trapped in this Siege Warfare Mindlink clone when a T1 cruiser fleet starts, while your Caracal or Bellicose is going to be impressive, you'd best pray you don't get podded. ;-) In a few cases, you're going to find yourself in a clone that is so poorly constructed for a fleet that's going out you're going to be left with little choice but to wave good-bye as the fleet leaves without you.
Of course, if you're more of the PvE or mining type, then ultra-specialized clones will be no problem at all. Consider a clone for an L4 mission runner/incursion-runner that strictly uses a Nightmare:
Slots 1-5: Low-Grade Halo set; Slot 6: 'Squire' Energy Systems Operation EO-605; Slot 7: 'Gnome' Shield Management SM-705; Slot 8: 'Squire' Energy Management EM-805; Slot 9: 'Lancer' Gunnery RF-905; Slot 10: 'Lancer' Large Energy Turret LE-1005.
This is a fantastically expensive clone (and some incursion-runners will enhance it further with a 6% implant or two), but will create tremendous benefits for the pilot involved. The Halo implants will greatly reduce the Nightmare's signature while the rate of fire and damage implants substantially increase DPS. The capacitor implants will help a great deal for the cap-hungry lasers or the occasional X-Large Shield Booster, and the benefit of 5% extra shield HP will be useful in both scenarios also. This is an expensive specialty clone, and worth it to the specialist. The abilities of the Nightmare are greatly enhanced by it.
That's the advantage to a specialist strategy: your ship and implants work together to provide optimal performance. The disadvantages are listed above, and there's generally one more: specialist clones are more expensive. You're paying for all of those extra benefits. Even if you settle for 3% implants, chances are good you're going to have four or five of them instead of the two, three, or four of the generalist. The specialist is also much more likely to use mindlinks, pirate implants, and other specialty implants.
Which strategy you choose will make a big difference in what ships you fly and how you fly them, so choose wisely!
This concludes the five part Implant and Jump Clone Guide. I hope it has been useful!
