Capital ships

Capital ships (Dreadnoughts, Carriers, Force Auxiliaries, Supercarriers ("Motherships"), Titans and Rorquals) are the largest player-piloted ships in EVE. Capitals can only operate outside of high-sec space. While they can use stargates to travel (except to high-sec), they can also jump between star systems using built-in jump drives.

The largest capital ships (Supercarriers and Titans, collectively known as "supercapitals") are so large that they can only dock in Keepstars. Additionally, supercapitals can only be built in systems with a Supercapital Construction Facilities in the Infrastructure Hub, thus building them is restricted to Sovereign Nullsec. This combined with their being no wormhole types that are large enough for supercarriers means that supercapital ships cannot be encountered in wormhole space. (While there is one Wormhole class, K329 Nullsec->C4, which is large enough for a supercarrier to travel, wormholes of that class never generate.)

Most defensive and utility modules designed for subcapital ships can also be used on capital ships. However, there are also certain capital-ship-sized modules which can only be used on capital ships, and some modules whose functions are entirely unique to capital ships. The Capital Ship Modules page details these unique modules.

A long, long time ago...

It was once possible to build capital ships in highsec, so there are still a few that never jumped out of the system they were built in. If they ever do jump out, they will never be able to return, and while they're in highsec they are not allowed to be used for anything that gives the owner any kind of advantage compared to someone that does not own a high sec capital ship; during wars, they're not even allowed to undock. If the pilot breaks these rules, he or she will receive a temporary ban, and the capital ship will be moved to a station in a nearby low sec system. Additionally, capital ships were considerably rebalanced in the Citadel expansion (Spring 2016), in particular introducing Force Auxiliary capital ships.

Docking

Type	Station	Citadel			Engineering Complex			Refinery
	NPC Station	Astrahus (M)	Fortizar (L)	Keepstar (XL)	Raitaru (M)	Azbel (L)	Sotiyo (XL)	Athanor (M)	Tatara (L)
Capitals						1			2
Super-Capitals							1

1. Can be built here, but not dock again once undocked.
2. Rorquals can dock.

Dreadnoughts

Main article: Dreadnoughts

Dreadnoughts ("dreads") are DPS machines, only surpassed as damage-dealers by Supercarriers and Titans. This is achieved through the siege module which can only be fitted to dreadnoughts. A Sieged Dreadnought is immobilized, and cannot receive remote repairs or targeted assistance from allies, but in exchange is nearly immune to electronic warfare and gains significant bonuses to local repair modules. Dreadnoughts cannot deal meaningful damage without entering Siege.

•  Revelation
•  Phoenix
•  Moros
•  Naglfar
•  Vehement
•  Chemosh
•  Caiman
•  Zirnitra

Carriers

Main article: Carriers

Carriers are capital ships with the ability to control Light and Support Fighters (frigate-sized drones). They also have the ability to store 1,000,000 m3 of assembled ships in their ship maintenance bay so pilots who lose their ships can quickly pick up a new one. Other ships from the carrier pilot's corporation (or fleet, depending on the carrier's settings) can also use it to refit in space.

Carriers (and their supercapital counterparts, supercarriers) generally serve as anti-subcapital ships. To facilitate this role, they have access to the powerful Networked Sensor Array, which increases their scan resolution but removes their ability to use electronic warfare modules and disables their warp drive while it is active.

Carriers are also able to equip Command Bursts.

•  Archon
•  Chimera
•  Thanatos
•  Nidhoggur

Force Auxiliaries

Main article: Force Auxiliaries

Force Auxiliaries (singular: "Force Auxiliary", sometimes abbreviated as "FAX") are capital-sized logistics and fleet boosting ships. Force Auxiliaries receive bonuses to logistics drones. Most of the Force Auxiliaries' remote repair power is caused by the triage module which can only be fitted to them. The triage module works similar to the dreadnought's siege module: when active, the FAX is immobilized, and cannot receive remote repairs, but is resistant to electronic warfare and gains massively improved local and outgoing remote repair power. However, the triage module does not reduce the capacitor cost of these repair modules, making FAXes extremely cap-hungry, a fact which many FAX fits reflect in their multiple capacitor injectors.

•  Apostle
•  Minokawa
•  Ninazu
•  Lif
•  Dagon
•  Loggerhead

Supercarriers

Main article: Supercarriers

Supercarriers are a more powerful version of carriers with the additional ability to control Heavy Fighters, allowing them to effectively engage other capital and supercapital ships.

Supercarriers are also able to equip Burst Projectors, fleet-scale area-of-effect electronic warfare systems.

•  Aeon
•  Wyvern
•  Nyx
•  Hel
•  Revenant
•  Vendetta

Titans

Main article: Titans

Titans are the largest and most powerful ships in EVE, able to fit several unique modules such as Doomsday devices, Jump Portal Generators, and Phenomena Generators.

•  Avatar
•  Leviathan
•  Erebus
•  Ragnarok
•  Vanquisher
•  Molok
•  Komodo

Capital Industrial Ship: The Rorqual

Main article: Rorqual

This ship is primarily intended for deep space mining support. It has a maintenance bay, corporate hangar, a huge ore hold, and the ability to fit bonused mining leadership links. The Rorqual can fit capital tractor beams and clone vat bays. In addition, the Rorqual has a jump drive and the ability to compress ore. The Rorqual does have a 50%/level range bonus to capital shield transfers, and a 20%/level drone damage bonus, so while it's not intended as a PVP ship, some people have been known to use it for that. The Rorqual has a non-capital little sister, the Orca, that can be seen supporting many highsec mining fleets.

•  Rorqual

Other Ships

In general, when capital ships are being discussed, it is the above ships that are referred to. However in certain contexts, other ships can also be considered capital ships.

• The market group "capital ships" also includes Freighters and Jump Freighters. Freighters are constructed using capital ship components, however they can operate in high-sec.
• The Orca sits on the border between capital and subcapital, as while it can only equip battleship-sized modules and does not require capital skills, it is much more durable than any battleship, it is constructed from capital ship components, and like other capital ships it is immune to the Micro Jump Field Generator of Command Destroyers.

History

Since their initial introduction in 2005 with the Red Moon Rising expansion, most recently in the April 2016 Citadel expansion, all combat related capital ships have received major overhauls to stats, bonuses, and abilities.

Initially, capital ships had very little impact on the events in EVE. Small groups scrambled to be the first to field dreadnought fleets in order to bring down player owned starbases (POSes) which previously only had been possible with large fleets. Carrier fleets were also developed in order to bulk up the damage output of corporations and alliances with many low skilled pilots by remotely assigning fighter drones. In lowsec, groups of pirates found a use for "hot dropping" carriers into ongoing engagements to turn the tide with the properly applied remote repair of a skilled pilot. In this phase of the game evolution, titans and supercarriers (also known as motherships) were regarded as nearly unbuildable, with the first one to officially be created costing the building alliance dozens of POSes, an outpost and their entire presence in nullsec. It took a almost a full year for the first titan to be revealed, and for that entire time - and a few months after - they were regarded as completely useless ships.

However, with continued expansion of the ranks of capital pilots, carriers began to be deployed on the front lines of battleship-class conflicts to great effect, while fleets of ten, twenty, or thirty dreadnoughts could wipe out a hardened tower in less than thirty minutes - a feat previously unheard of without at least 100-150 battleship pilots. The introduction of titans to nullsec combat meant the death of hundreds of enemy ships in the blink of an eye, and alliance warfare was changed forever - capital ships had made their presence felt, and they were here to stay.

Capital ships as a whole were rebalanced upon the release of the April 2016 Citadel expansion. A large number of capital-size modules were added to the game, including armor plates, shield extenders, and capital electronic warfare modules, in order to facilitate more strategic capital ship fittings. The hitpoints of all capital shields, armor, and hull were reduced, and supercapitals were made vulnerable to electronic warfare, though they remain very resistant. Additionally, both a fleet hangar and ship maintenance bay were added to all dreadnoughts to make them more appealing for beginner capital pilots.

The Citadel expansion also introduced a new capital ship class: the force auxiliary. Force auxiliaries are capital logistics platform, and inherited the role from carriers, which were converted to offensive ships. The triage module, previously unique to carriers, was reassigned to be unique to the new force auxiliaries, and any carrier equipped with a triage module upon Citadel's release was converted into a force auxiliary ship of the same race. Force auxiliaries cannot launch fighters, and instead have a very large drone bay and bonuses to logistics drone performance.

See Also

• Jump drives