Frigates

Frigates are the smallest and fastest ships in Eve. New pilots begin by flying frigates, and the Tech 1 frigates only cost a few hundred thousand ISK. Don't be fooled by the low cost of frigates and the fact that they're used by novice pilots, though: frigates can play an important role in battle, and in numbers or with skilled pilots even Tech 1 frigates can be deadly.

There are a number of classes of Tech 2 frigates, which have advanced abilities and are also much more focused on a particular role: tackling interceptors, cloaking and scanning covert ops frigates, surprise-attack stealth bombers, electronic attack ships for electronic warfare, and assault ships, which are designed purely to deal and survive damage.

T1 Frigates

Besides shuttles and rookie ships, each race has six frigates which can be (unofficially) sorted by their roles.

In fleet PvP Tech 1 frigates are generally used for tackling or electronic warfare, two roles in which they can have a significant impact. Tech 1 frigates are also flown for solo pvp: their speed and small size helps solo pilots to pick their targets, and their low cost makes them comfortably expendable. The Minmatar Rifter is particularly common, because it is one of the best combat T1 frigates, possibly the best. In a dogfighting fit with autocannons, afterburner, web and scram, it can take on most other frigates, and even some larger targets, and win. The Punisher and Incursus are the Amarr and Gallente equivalents, but they don't quite reach the level of the Rifter, which has earned a reputation as "Eve's AK47".

In PvE frigates are used to complete Level 1 missions, though once new pilots are a little wealthier and better-trained they often begin to use destroyers instead.

Shuttles

Shuttles are a cheap and fast way to travel between systems. They are cheap to construct and buy off the market and they move fast for their price, thus making them an excellent choice for travel. While shuttles have been known to be used as scout or survey ships, their most common use is as intermediary travel in order to pick up other, more expensive ships. They have very limited cargo space and cannot fit any modules.

• Amarr Shuttle
• Caldari Shuttle
• Gallente Shuttle
• Minmatar Shuttle

Rookie Frigates

Little more than slower, armed shuttles, rookie ships (or "noobships") are the basic frigates that new pilots start with. You can acquire a new noobship (together with a civilian weapon, a civilian mining laser and one unit of Tritanium) for free by docking your pod in a station where you don't already have any ships. On their own these are not much use for anything other than basic errand-running. Eve University has, however, been known to field fleets composed entirely of noobships, more for their comedy value than for their effectiveness in battle.

All four rookie ships can carry at least one light drone in their dronebay. The Gallente Velator can carry two.

• Impairor (Amarr)
• Ibis (Caldari)
• Velator (Gallente)
• Reaper (Minmatar)

Mining

Mining frigates all have bonuses for mining. While they're a great start for any would-be miner, they are notoriously bad in combat situations.

• Tormentor (Amarr)
• Bantam (Caldari)
• Navitas (Gallente)
• Burst (Minmatar)

Electronic Warfare

Electronic Warfare frigates all have bonuses to electronic warfare modules, such as target painters, ECM jammers, remote sensor dampeners and tracking disruptors. Electronic warfare frigates can be a helpful force multiplier for a fleet that also has some damage-dealing ships, and they are one of the ships that new pilots can usefully fly in an Eve University wartime fleet.

• Crucifier (Amarr, tracking disruption)
• Griffin (Caldari, ECM jamming)
• Maulus (Gallente, remote sensor dampening)
• Vigil (Minmatar, target painting)

Exploration

The Tech 1 exploration frigates all have bonuses to help pilots scan for PvE exploration sites or for PvP enemies with probes. Fitted with a Core Probe Launcher, they can make a good cheap alternative to their advanced Tech 2 Frigate#Covert Ops equivalents.

• Magnate (Amarr)
• Heron (Caldari)
• Imicus (Gallente)
• Probe (Minmatar)

Fast Frigates

These ships are built to align and accelerate quickly. They can catch up to larger ships and use tackling modules on them very fast, and are the base hulls for each race's Tech 2 interceptors (see below). They are ideal for fast travel or small cargo runs and they make a great alternative to a shuttle, especially in lowsec or during wartime, as they can typically enter warp from cloak before the enemy can lock them.

The Amarr Executioner can more or less tackle, and the Gallente Incursus is a capable fleet tackler.

• Executioner (Amarr)
• Condor (Caldari)
• Incursus (Gallente)
• Slasher (Minmatar)

Damage Dealer

Damage-dealing frigates are typically split into two sub categories, those which use missile launchers and those which use gun turrets. In general, they tend to have the ability to take a little more damage than and deal out a little more damage than other frigates. The Gallente have two turret ships, as they do not tend to use missiles - although the Tristan can fit launchers, it receives no bonus for them.

The Caldari Merlin and Minmatar Rifter can be good fleet tacklers. The Punisher can tackle in a pinch.

Launcher

• Inquisitor (Amarr)
• Kestrel (Caldari)
• Breacher (Minmatar)

Turret

• Punisher (Amarr)
• Merlin (Caldari)
• Atron (Gallente)
• Tristan (Gallente)
• Rifter (Minmatar)

T2 Frigates

Interceptors

These are the primary tacklers everywhere but nullsec(where interdictors and HICs take over). They have the highest scan resolution of any ship class, and only the Vigil (the Minmatar electronic warfare frigate) can match their sub-warp speed. While their main purpose is tackling, many interceptors can also be fitted to be effective combat ships. Their firepower and tank will be low compared to other ships, but they have the advantage of very high speed (even when combat fitted) and awesome agility.

Each race has two interceptors, one designed purely for tackling, with a bonus to the range of tackling modules, and the other designed more for damage-dealing.

Amarr

• Crusader: Pulse with scorch and Kite outside web range.
• Malediction: Amarr tackle interceptor.

Caldari

• Crow: Kiting ranged missile spam.
• Raptor: Caldari tackle interceptor rather overshadowed by the Crow despite having a longer-ranged point.

Gallente

• Taranis: Slower interceptor, great DPS, one of the best dogfighting frigates.
• Ares: Gallente tackle interceptor.

Minmatar

• Claw: Fastest interceptor, decent dogfighter.
• Siletto: Perhaps the best tackle interceptor due to its slot layout.

Covert Ops

Cov-ops frigates can warp while cloaked, and have several uses. As scouts they can stealthily gather intelligence and use their scanning bonus to probe out enemy targets. In exploration they can use the same scanning bonuse to probe down PvE exploration sites. Cov-ops frigates can also be used for tackling things they've scouted or probed out, but that's only for experienced pilots who know what they can and can't hold long enough for help to arrive, and which targets are worth the risk.

• Anathema (Amarr)
• Buzzard (Caldari)
• Helios (Gallente)
• Cheetah (Minmatar)

Stealth Bombers

Stealth bombers are very specialised ships which can warp cloaked and don't have a sensor recalibration delay preventing them from locking targets after decloaking. They can fit torpedo launchers and bomb launchers (although bombs -- devastating area-effect weapons -- can only be used in nullsec). Stealth bombers put out extraordinary DPS but die very fast if anyone manages to put some damage on them. They are the bane of large ships, especially in nullsec. In groups, flown well, stealth bombers can take down carriers.

• Purifier (Amarr)
• Manticore (Caldari)
• Nemesis (Gallente)
• Hound (Minmatar)

Electronic Attack Ships

These vary a lot from race to race. Basically, they are frigate sized version of the combat recon ships.

• Sentinel (Amarr)
• Kitsune (Caldari)
• Keres (Gallente)
• Hyena (Minmatar)

Assault Ships

Assault ships (commonly called "Assault Frigates" or "AFs" to distinguish them from HACs) are have good tanks and usually high DPS. If you get tackled by an assault ship, you're generally not going anywhere: they're a pain to get rid of when properly fitted. Their disadvantage compared to interceptors is that they're slower, and often sacrifice their MWD and fit an afterburner instead to survive longer after tackling a target.

Some assault ships make decent tacklers, and they can provide decent damage in a fleet of small ships. If the fleet has larger damage-dealing ships assault ships can lack a role, though they may still be a good defence against other small targets.

In PvE assault ships can take on missions and combat sites which would normally be too difficult for a frigate-sized ship.

Amarr

• Retribution Uses lasers. Tough, high-damage ship which struggles to tackle or fly solo because it only has one midslot.
• Vengeance Uses rockets. Equally tough ship with three midslots, but limited damage because rockets are an underwhelming weapon.

Caldari

• Harpy Uses hybrid turrets. Commonly fit with railguns as a mini-sniper.
• Hawk Uses missile launchers. Limited use in PvP, helpful in PvE.

Gallente

• Enyo Uses hybrid turrets. Commonly fit with blasters for face-melting point-blank DPS.
• Ishkur Drone boat. Superb. Potentially 50m3 drone bay.

Minmatar

• Wolf Uses projectile turrets. Very high DPS.
• Jaguar Also uses projectile turrets. Decent DPS, fastest assault ship.

Faction Frigates

• Amarr Navy Slicer
• Caldari Navy Hookbill
• Cruor
• Daredevil
• Dramiel
• Gallente Navy Comet
• Republic Fleet Firetail
• Silver Magnate
• Succubus
• Worm

Rare/Unique Frigates

• Silver Magnate
• Gold Magnate