Caldari Basic Ship and Skill Overview

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The Caldari Basic Ship and Skill Guide is intended to give fitting and skill recommendations for Tech 1 Caldari ships for Player vs. Environment (PvE) and Player vs. Player (PvP) encounters.

This is a work in progress, and the guide's Discussion Thread is on the Eve University forum. Please direct comments, suggestions, and corrections to that thread.

Rookie Ship

The rookie ship is the first ship you start with. If you are Caldari, it will be an Ibis. A new rookie ship is given whenever you dock at a station where you do not have any ships.

Ibis

The Caldari rookie ship, often called the lolbis.

Frigate

Condor

This is the Caldari T1 scout ship, useful for quick transport of small cargo and some level 1 missions.

Caldari Frigate Skill Bonus:

5% bonus to light missile and rocket kinetic damage.

10% bonus to light missile and rocket velocity per skill level.

Bantam

The Bantam is the Caldari mining frigate. It considered the best racial mining frigate due to it's relatively large cargo bay.

Caldari Frigate Skill Bonus:

5% bonus to cargo capacity.

20% bonus to mining laser yield per skill level.

Role Bonus:

-60% mining laser capacitor use.

Griffin

The Griffin is an Electronic Counter Measure frigate, often seen in Uni fleets offering Electronic Warfare support. ECM is touted as the most useful form of Electronic Warfare as it operates by breaking enemy target locks and preventing them from re-acquiring targets for 20 secs. This has the potential to greatly reduce the amount of damage being directed at your fleet, prevent enemies from using Remote Repair modules on each other or to break Warp Disruption, allowing an escape.

Caldari Frigate Skill Bonus:

15% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength.

10% bonus to ECM Target Jammers' capacitor need per level.

Heron

This is the T1 Caldari probing frigate.

Caldari Frigate Skill Bonus:

5% bonus kinetic missile damage per level.

5% bonus to scan strength of probes per level.

5% bonus to survey probe flight time per level.

Kestrel

The Kestrel is the most commonly flown frigate in EVE, even beating the Rifter. This is due to its strong PvE capabilities with four standard launchers. It is perfect for Level 1 missions, static complexes up to DED 2 and can also complete virtually all of the Sisters of EVE Epic Arc. It can be comfortably flown with fairly low skills, primarily due to its ability to 'Range Tank'. ie; stay at sufficient range to eliminate or mitigate a great deal of incoming damage. Furthermore, missile systems make for ideal starter weapons as they do not require capacitor energy (so reducing the need for good capacitor skills) and their damage is not affected by such factors as tracking, optimal ranges and falloff. This greatly simplifies matters for a beginning pilot.

Below is a reasonably standard PvE fit for the Kestrel. The Afterburner allows the pilot to control the range of engagement and it has a basic shield tank to keep the ship intact in those situations where you find yourself in the middle of a group of enemies, such as immediately after using a Warp Gate.

Variations to consider for this fit include the use of Capacitor Control Circuit rigs to allow more extended use of the Shield Booster, swapping the Small Shield Extender for a Shield Boost Amplifier (would require Electronics V or a Co-Processor) or switching the Overdrive Injector System for Nanofiber Internal Structure. With Electronics IV it is possible to fit an Invulnerability Field. However, this is generally not practical as the capacitor simply cannot sustain prolonged activation of this module.

Missile Projection III is strongly recommended as this should give your launchers an approximate effective range of 24km - this is sufficient to stay out of range of most PvE enemies.

Approximate ISK cost is 700,000 with the bulk of this cost being for the 'Malkuth' launcher variants. This can be greatly reduced by using Standard Missile Launcher I in their place. However, as 'Malkuth' versions have lower CPU requirements, this change will almost certainly require the use of a Co-Processor in one of the low slots.

Caldari Frigate Skill Bonus

10% bonus to Kinetic missile damage.

5% bonus to EM, Explosive and Thermal missile damage per level.

Merlin

The Merlin is the most capable Caldari frigate for PvP, but still falls behind the Rifter in effectiveness. Its unique selling point is the possession of four midslots which allow Merlin tacklers to fit a Sensor Booster (with Scan Resolution script) without compromising a standard tackler setup. This is useful for quickly grabbing slippery targets such as enemy capsules.

Caldari Frigate Skill Bonus:

5% bonus to shield resistances.

10% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret optimal range per skill level.

Destroyer

Destroyers are ships slightly larger than frigates. They use the same sized modules as frigates, have more high slots. They are often used in PvE for level 1 missions. They are rarely used in PvP, as their DPS is not impressive without high skills, although they sometimes fill the role of anti-interceptor.

Flying destroyers is not recommended for PvP Uni fleets. There are some exceptions, like Thrashers for a specialized Hit & Run fleet.

Cormorant

The Cormorant has eight high slots, making it an excellent vessel to use for salvaging wrecks. Due to its small size it can move speedily across deadspaces, but also has enough cargo space to hold the salvage you collect.

Destroyer Skill Bonus:

10% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret tracking speed.

10% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret optimal range per level.

Role Bonuses:

Penalty: -25% rate of fire for all turrets.

Bonus: 50% bonus to optimal range for small hybrid turrets.

Cruiser

Osprey

The Osprey is primarily used as a mining vessel by Caldari pilots. It's 20% bonus to mining laser yield can mean with high cruiser skills, it can outmine the Procurer mining barge. Caldari miners will tend to continue to use the Osprey, until they are ready to fly a Retriever.

Caldari Cruiser Skill Bonus:

20% bonus to mining laser yield.

10% reduction in Shield Transport capacitor use per level.

Role Bonus:

500% bonus to range of shield transporters.

[Osprey, High Sec, Low Skill Miner]

Osprey can also be fitted out as a logistics vessel in fleets. It's skill bonus is focused on reduced shield repairing capacitor costs, and it has a large extended range for shield repairing.

Blackbird

The Blackbird is an excellent ewar cruiser -- in fact, given its ability to stop the enemy fighting, it might be the most dangerous Caldari T1 PvP cruiser. The main focus of any Blackbird fit should be the midslots, followed by the lowslots. You can find a detailed discussion of Blackbird fitting here.

A 'rainbow' fit of jammers to specifically jam each of the four races is better than a fit with multispectral jammers in almost all situations. It's good to carry spare jammers so you can refit accordingly if you get intel about the enemy's fleet composition.

Caldari Cruiser Skill Bonus:

15% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength per level.

10% bonus to ECM Target Jammer optimal range and falloff per level.

Caracal

Caldari Cruiser Skill Bonus:

5% bonus Kinetic Missile Damage.

10% bonus to Light, Heavy Assault and Heavy Missile Velocity per level.

Moa

Caldari Cruiser Skill Bonus:

10% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret optimal range.

5% bonus to shield resistance per level.

Battlecruiser

Ferox

The Ferox is a versatile gunboat able to fill many roles in PvE or PvP

• viable passive or active shield tank
• hybrid ammo deals primary Kinetic, and secondary Thermal damage types
• capable of over 125km optimal range with Railguns
• large damage dealer with Blasters
• grossly ineffective outside the role it is fit for, even with the ability to switch ammo to modify optimal range

Battlecruiser Skill Bonus:

10% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret optimal range.

5% bonus to all Shield resistances per level

99% reduction in the CPU need of Warfare Link modules.

Drake

The Drake is the most commonly flown ship in all of EVE, effective in both PvE and PvP combat.

Battlecruiser Skill Bonus:

5% shield resistance.

5% bonus kinetic damage of heavy missiles and heavy assault missiles per level.

99% reduction in the CPU need of Warfare Link modules.

Battleship

Scorpion

Caldari Battleship Skill Bonus:

15% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength per level.

20% bonus to ECM Target Jammer optimal and falloff range per level.

20% Bonus to ECM Burst Range per level.

Raven

Caldari Battleship Skill Bonus:

5% bonus to Cruise and Siege Launcher Rate Of Fire.

10% bonus to Cruise Missile and Torpedo Velocity per level.

Rokh

Caldari Battleship Skill Bonus:

10% large hybrid optimal range per level.

5% shield resistance per level.

Industrial

Badger Mk. I

This is the basic Caldari industrial hauler ship. It's useful to train to use a Caldari Industrial in order to haul ore from your jetcans to the station, or for filling with mission loot to haul to a trade hub in order to sell for larger profit margins. Level 3 courier missions will likely need a ship the size of a badger to complete them.

Caldari Industrial Skill Bonus:

5% Bonus Cargo Capacity and Max Velocity per skill level.

Badger Mk. II

The Badger Mk. II has a cargo hold noticeably larger than the Badger, and is better defended. However it is marginally slower at subwarp speeds, and takes longer to turn. In general though the larger cargo hold offsets the disadvantages and so training Caldari Industrial to III to fly this ship is definitely worth it. Particularly if you constantly find yourself filling Badger's hold.

Caldari Industrial Skill Bonus:

5% Bonus Cargo Capacity and Max Velocity per skill level.

Ammunition, Range, and Kiting

Missiles

In PvE you are likely to be using missiles, since missiles have some advantages over turrets in PvE, especially for new pilots. One of missiles' advantages is that each kind of missile comes in four versions, each of which does one of the game's four damage types.

This means you can always target the weaknesses of NPC enemies by selecting the missiles which will damage them most. You should select the missile that will hit their weakest resistance (so, for example, explosive missiles against the Angel Cartel) unless you're in a ship (like the Drake) which has per-level bonuses to kinetic damage. If you're in a ship with kinetic missile damage bonuses and you have the relevant ship skill (Battlecruiser, for the Drake) trained high enough then kinetic may do more damage.

Missile range is roughly (not exactly) flight time multiplied by speed. Missiles have no optimal or falloff, they are either in or out of range. The long range missiles popular in PvE often let you outrange the enemy, and a propulsion module (an afterburner, for missions, because a microwarpdrive won't work in deadspace) will hopefully let you kite the enemy and keep them at range.

Hybrid Turrets

If you've chosen to fight with hybrid turrets you should carry 3 types of ammo during missions, and switch when required. Use close range (antimatter or plutonium) ammo by default. If you are taking too much damage at close range, switch to medium range (lead or thorium) or long (iron or tungsten) range ammo and fire from further away.

Guns can suffer from tracking issues, so try using the 'keep at range' option instead of the 'orbit' option. With the amount of enemies in missions, orbiting is less likely to mitigate the total incoming damage from rats. Even close to optimal, when orbiting and using close range ammo, guns can sometimes have difficulty tracking enemies. Enemies should be kept close to optimal, this should keep angular velocity low to avoid suffering from tracking issues, and as long as enemies are within optimal there will be no reduction in damage.

To find out your optimal with ammo, load ammo in your guns, then right click and show info. The optimal displayed in the attributes will be adjusted for ammo and skills.

Tech and Meta Levels

These fittings were made mostly using Tech 1 Meta 0 modules, or Tech 2 for larger ships. This is partly to avoid confusion with higher meta names. Also, this insures that ship fittings are relatively cheap to get into without spending too much for new players with cash flow difficulties. During war, pvp fittings using Tech 1 Meta 0 modules are provided by the university.

Higher Meta items up to meta 4 will often be easier to fit than Tech 2, and are also heavily used for PvE where the extra effects from the item can be leveraged, but the loss from the cost kept to a minimum. Tech 2 is Meta 5, and harder to fit, since it has much higher skill requirements. Note that Meta 3 and 4 modules are expensive, often more expensive than Tech 2. Meta 1 and 2 modules will often be less expensive than Meta 0, simply due to supply and demand on the market.

Of particular note to Caldari pilots are the keywords for meta levels associated with highly needed Caldari modules. These include those for missiles, hybrid turrets, passive shield modules and active shield modules. Knowing the keywords for these might help spot them from standard mission drops or within contracts on the market. This is not an extensive or all inclusive list, only those of particular need within Caldari specialties. When in doubt, check the item information for its meta level or consult the market price for its value.

Missile Module Meta Levels

1. Meta 1 - 'Malkuth'
2. Meta 2 - 'Limos'
3. Meta 3 - LL-NNNN (Where LL is a two character letter designator, and NNNN is a 4 character number designator.)
4. Meta 4 - 'Arbalest'

Hybrid Turret Module Meta Levels

Blaster based:

1. Meta 1 - Regulated
2. Meta 2 - Limited
3. Meta 3 - Anode
4. Meta 4 - Modal

Railgun based:

1. Meta 1 - Carbide
2. Meta 2 - 'Scout'
3. Meta 3 - Compressed Coil
4. Meta 4 - Prototype I Gauss

Passive Shield Module Meta Levels

Shield Extenders:

1. Meta 1 - Supplemental Barrier
2. Meta 2 - Subordinate Screen
3. Meta 3 - Azeotropic Ward
4. Meta 4 - F-S9 Regolith

Active Shield Module Meta Levels

Shield Amps:

1. Meta 1 - Ionic Field Accelerator
2. Meta 2 - 5a Prototype
3. Meta 3 - 'Stalwart'
4. Meta 4 - 'Copasetic'

Shield Boosters:

1. Meta 1 - Converse I Deflection
2. Meta 2 - Neutron Saturation
3. Meta 3 - Clarity Ward
4. Meta 4 - C5-L Emergency

Drones

Caldari ships never have large dronebays for their size, and never rely on drones as a primary weapon system. However, Caldari pilots should still train some drone skills for PvE and PvP combat since they provide useful supplementary DPS and are an essential defence for large ships; in L4 missions the most dangerous enemies can be frigates since, unlike all the other rats, they can warp scramble you, stopping you from escaping if your tank breaks. And light drones are the Raven's only effective defence against frigates. Consider Tech 2 light and medium drones a good medium-term goal.

Small drones kill frigates and destroyers, mediums drones hunt cruisers and battlecruisers, and heavy drones do well against battleships and reasonably well against battlecruisers.

As with missiles, you can pick the drone type that hits your enemy's weakest resist. (With the exception of Amarr drones, which do such low damage that it's not worth it.) Gallente drones have the highest damage multiplier, and thermal damage is the best or second best damage to deal against most rat types. For Level 1 to 3 missions, it's fine to exclusively use Gallente drones, although switching drones may make you more efficient. In Level 4 missions, consider varying between Gallente, Caldari and Minmatar drones to match rat weaknesses.

Watch for drone aggro. When arriving in a mission room, don't launch your drones until you've gotten the attention of a group of rats by shooting them. If a new wave of enemies arrives and attacks the drones or a new group of enemies aggro the drones, they should be recalled to the drone bay, and released only when you have full aggro. Under normal circumstances, you should never lose drones when using proper aggro management with rats.

Hot keys are recommended for drone management. They need to be initially launched manually from the drone window, though hot keys can be set for attack and return to drone bay.

In PvP Gallente and Minmatar drones are used almost exclusively. Gallente drones for their damage potential, Minmatar drones for their speed and explosive damage which armor tankers will not always patch.

Tank & Gank

Different rat (NPC pirates) factions have different damage type resistances, and deal different damage types.

Drones and hardeners should be switched around based on rat types.

Damage type resistance and dealt by rats can be found in the NPC Damage Types article.

Mission-specific damage profiles can be found on Eve Survival.

All EHP in this guide is given with EFT calculations, not in-game EHP.

Salvaging After the Mission

Salvaging boats are usually used to clean up rooms after missions are complete. To do so, make sure you bookmark one wreck for each room in the mission, since the acceleration gates will disappear after the mission has be turned in at the agent. Once the mission is turned in, the MWD can be used to propel the salvaging boat within tractor range faster.

For level 4 missions, many players switch from the destroyer to a battlecruiser. Unfortunately, the Gallente battlecruisers have 6 or 7 high slots, instead of 8 like for some other races. The hurricane is well liked as a salvaging boat for its speed (for a BC sized ship) and 8 high slots.

Further Reading

For information on Tech 2 ships, for all races, follow the Ships link in the Categories list below