Orca Guide

This page should be updated due to game changes.
Reason: The Orca was significantly changed in the Ascension expansion.

File:Orca512.jpg

The incredible Orca

The Orca is a mining support ship, classified as an Industrial Command Ship. The Industrial Command Ships (8x, 55M ISK) skill is required to fly it. Note that even though it is listed under "Capital Industrial Ships" in the EVE market, it does not require the Capital Industrial Ships skill.

Skill requirements

• Industrial Command Ships I
  • Spaceship Command V
  • [[Skills:ORE Industrial III]]
• Mining Director I
  • Leadership I
  • Mining Foreman V

Traits and utility

Cargo space

Possibly the biggest selling point of the Orca is the huge amount of cargo space that it supports for a ship that “only” costs around 800 million ISK. The ship has 4 different areas for storage:

• Cargohold: The Orca's base cargohold is 30,000 m3, which can be expanded through modules and rigs. The cargohold also receives an additional 5% bonus to size for each level of  Industrial Command Ships. Maxed out for hauling, an Orca can fit over 90,000 m3 in its cargo hold. This is the only hold on the ship that receives bonuses from modules and rigs.
• Ore Hold: As its name suggests, the ore hold can contain only mined materials (unrefined ore, ice and gas). Attempting to move modules or anything else into the ore hold will result in an error message. The ore hold receives a 5% bonus to size for each level of  Industrial Command Ships.
• Fleet Hangar: The fleet hangar holds 40,000 m3 and can be made available to other fleet members or members of the pilot's corporation for access in space. This is very useful for supporting mining operations, as mining fleetmates can then use the fleet hangar to store mined ore or ice. The Orca pilot can then move that ore or ice to the ore hold or cargohold, or leave it in the fleet hangar, as space permits.
• Ship Maintenance Bay: This bay holds 400,000 m3, and can only obtain assembled ships. Ship in a fleet hangar can only contain ammunition and charges; attempting to load assembled ships with other items in their cargoholds (such as ore or modules) will result in an error message. For an idea of what can fit in this bay, here are the sizes of some common ships when assembled:
  • Rifter – 27,289 m3
  • Scythe – 89,000 m3
  • Osprey – 107,000 m3
  • Skiff/Procurer – 100,000 m3
  • Mackinaw/Retriever – 150,000 m3
  • Hulk/Covetor – 200,000 m3
  • Raven – 486,000 m3

To allow access the ship maintenance bay, the Orca pilot must set access for fleet members or corporation members or both. If a fleet member wants to switch ships in space, they can open the ship maintenance bay, right click the ship they want to use, and choose either “Board Ship from Bay” or “Launch Ship from Bay.” The "Board" option is safer – it stores the pilot's current ship in the bay, and puts them into the new one in space. It’s only available if there is enough room in the bay to store the new ship minus the old ship. Otherwise, pilots must choose the Launch option, which leaves their current ship abandoned in space, and puts them into the new one. As with any abandoned ship, this could potentially enable theft.

Fitting service

Besides being able to swap ships, the Orca has a fitting service, so pilots can refit their ships while in space. To access this function, right click on the Orca while within 2500m to choose to "Use Fitting Service". Pilots can swap fittings that are in the cargohold of their own ship, or they can pull fittings out of the Orca’s bays. Drones can also be swapped in and out of a ship's drone bay.

Tractor Beam bonuses

The Orca receives two large role bonuses to Tractor Beams: a 250% bonus to range, and a 100% bonus to beam velocity. Both bonuses are helpful, but since most pilots usually only fit one Tractor Beam at most, the range increase is the most noticeable of the two. Orcas equipped with Tractor Beams can serve as storage for a fleet's ore, or the Orca pilot can leave the jetcans in space for other hauler ships to pick up in a central location. Orcas can also combine Tractor Beams with Salvagers to loot and salvage the wrecks of any belt rats that may spawn.

Survey Scanner bonus

Survey scanners on an Orca get a 500% range increase, so you can see how much ore is in every rock in over a 100km radius. This allows the Orca pilot to easily tag asteroids to mark those that are full or nearly empty, and better coordinate the miners.

Command Burst modules

The Orca is capable of boosting fleets is using Command Bursts in its high slots. By default, it can equip and use three Command Bursts simultaneously, and this can be expanded to vie Command Bursts with the use of two Command Burst Processor Rigs (150 calibration each). For most mining operations, Orcas pilots will want to bring all three Mining Foreman Command Burst charges, though some Orca pilots will forgo the Mining Equipment Preservation charge. Shield Command Bursts are not always necessary, particularly if the mining fleet is in higher-security space.

You can customize the burst being provided by a command burst module by changing the ammunition (the charge). The charges for the mining foreman command burst modules are:

Name	Effects	Base Bonus
Mining Laser Field Enhancement	Increases range of mining lasers, strip miners, ice harvesters, gas harvesters, and survey scanners	+30%
Mining Laser Optimization	Reduces cycle time and capacitor use of mining lasers, strip miners, ice harvesters, and gas harvesters	-15%
Mining Equipment Preservation	Reduces volatility of mining crystals	-15%

The Orca receives the following bonuses for each level trained in  Industrial Command Ships:

3% bonus to Mining Foreman Burst effect strength and duration

1% bonus to Shield Command Burst effect strength and duration

Tank

Given the massive hull tank of the Orca, adding a Damage Control II (adds uniform 60% resists to structure HP) and a Reinforced Bulkhead II module (increases structure hit points) will give the Orca a formidable tank. Adding a 500MN Compact Microwarpdrive (for fitting purposes) and shield tank modules will allow an Orca to easily achieve 200k+ EHP, with the additional ability to align in 10 seconds (one cycle of the MWD). With Transverse Bulkhead rigs (increases structure but lower cargo hold capacity) the tank can be pushed well above 400k ehp. If more tank is unnecessary or unwanted, Hyperspatial Velocity rigs (higher warp speed but lower CPU capacity) or Cargohold Optimization rigs (increases cargo hold but reduces armor) can also be useful.

Uses for the Orca

Mining Ops

The obvious use for the ship is to support mining ops, but how?

A long, long time ago...

The Orca has some disadvantages in a mining op. First, it's a pilot that could be mining, assuming they have the skills. For example, if the Orca pilot has the skills they would need to fly a Hulk, they would need to be boosting 4 miners to be worthwhile in terms of yield over mining themselves. This is because an Orca with full bonuses (Industrial Command Ship 5, Mining Director 5, Warfare Link Specialist 5, Mindlink Implant) would have roughly a 25% bonus to each activated mining link.

With the November 2016 Ascension update the Orca saw a drastic change in its ability to contribute to a mining op. It can't provide boosts "off grid" anymore, but it can mine!

Now the Orca has the following mining bonuses for itself:

• 10% (per level of Industrial Command Ships ) bonus to drone hitpoints, damage and mining yield
• 100% bonus to drone mining yield
• -25% reduction in drone ice harvesting cycle time

According to the dev blog describing the changes to the Orca: "With both skill and role bonuses to mining drone yield, the Orca can pull in similar ore volumes to an Exhumer."

Secondly, the cargo space isn’t enough to support 4 or more hulks mining a belt. Even if you fit it for max storage, it holds about 180,000 m3 of ore (remember, the ship bay only holds ships) between the cargohold, orehold, and fleet hangar. That’s about 6 and a half full cans worth of ore. Not bad, but a large mining op will fill up 6 cans quickly. And if the Orca has to warp back to a station to keep dumping ore, that negates the link bonuses, as they deactivate in warp. Losing a range bonus halfway through a strip miner cycle can waste a lot of ore if the asteroid drops out of range. Not to mention that the inertia and warp speed modifiers, while faster than a freighter, will still make your hulk feel like a frigate in comparison, so constantly moving the ship isn’t a real option. A dedicated hauler is still required.

However, the Orca has many bonuses on top of mining yield. The range burst is invaluable, as it cuts down on how often you have to move your mining ships to new targets, considering the speed of most mining vessels. Someone who is out of range is mining zero ore.

Second, the range of the tractor beam on the Orca makes it great for pulling in cans to a central location, rather than having haulers slowboating around belts to scoop them up with pitiful range tractor beams. Or even worse, requiring mining ships to haul their own ore back to station. The orca can also tractor the rat wrecks to a central point as well. Many mining ops have more than one hauler. If one of them is in an orca, not only do miners get the bonuses, but the haulers can be reduced in number since they have a single warp-in point to keep offloading ore. The orca pilot can also use drones to destroy and salvage belt rats allowing miners to equip only mining drones and removing the need for someone to have a salvage module in a high slot. Another advantage of the huge range on the beam is that the orca can pull in cans when a can flipper is in the system. Don't forget that if the Hulks / miners remain within 2500m of the Orca then miners can drop the ore directly into the fleet hangar completely removing the risk of theft.

Additional functions that you can provide are:

• Repair ships with drones as needed
• Store a wide variety of spare mining crystals
• Store combat ships in the hangar, should the op be working in a lower sec area with tougher rats.
• Use a survey scanner to find and mark the biggest asteroids in the belt, so that people can focus on the most profitable rocks first.

Hauling

The Orca is a wonderful shipping hauler - the capacity of the Cargo Hold, with sufficient skills and rigs, gives the Orca one of the largest shipping spaces in the game, exceeded only by freighters. For more information about how to use the Orca to earn ISK as a speculative hauler, see this class syllabus: Hauling 101

Wormhole Support

Flying your expensive ship into a wormhole, assuming you’ve got one that can support the mass of the ship, requires serious nerve, but it can provide you with a mobile platform for refitting, swapping ships, storing loot, and repairing. Many corps set up POSes for this sort of thing, but the orca doesn’t require all the logistics that keeping a POS fueled and online would.

Fit remote reppers / repper drones, and a cloak. Stay cloaked and aligned in a safespot until needed. Uncloaking should only be done when there are no ships in the system outside of your fleet.

Missioning

Running two accounts in missions, one of which is flying an Orca, can be helpful. In combat missions, you can provide non-mining command burst bonuses to your other character, and tractor the wrecks to a central point while the other character fights. Clear the room, and then head back to the orca to get your salvage ship, or refit your combat ship right in space. Since all the wrecks are already together, you can fit 8 salvagers instead of the usual 4 salvagers + 4 tractor beam configuration, and quickly salvage everything. For mining missions, the benefits are obvious. You can semi-afk your way through the mission and never be in danger of your can expiring. Occasionally you may get a courier mission that requires a huge amount of storage for hauling, particularly some of the storyline courier missions. Instead of needing a freighter, or making multiple trips, the orca can fit the bill.

Less Reputable Uses

Suicide gankers, canflippers and ninja-looters can use Orcas as mobile bases. They can hold all the loot that they’ve gotten through suicide ganking or other means, and they can provide a nearby platform for switching and refitting ships when needed - even during combat, and often as a bait-and-switch tactic. Outlaws, meanwhile, can enter highsec in a pod to avoid NPC aggro and just pull a ship out of an Orca's bay. If you’re in an industrial ship and you see an Orca with a bunch of non-mining ships, be on your toes. Canflippers and ninja-looters with Orca support are to be especially avoided.

This page should be updated due to game changes.
Reason: The skills and bonuses given are different after the Ascension expansion

Maximum boost skills

(In no particular order)

• Mining Foreman V (2x) - Increases duration of Mining Foreman Burst effects by 10% per skill level.
  • Mining Director V (5x) - Boosts the strength of Mining Foreman Burst effects by 10% per skill level. Required for Mining Foreman Mindlink and ORE Mining Director Mindlink.
• Shield Command V (2x) - Increases duration of Shield Command Burst effects by 10% per skill level.
  • Shield Command Specialist (5x) - Boosts the strength of Shield Command Burst effects by 10% per skill level. Required for ORE Mining Director Mindlink.
• Industrial Command Ships V (8x) - 5% bonus to cargo capacity per level and 3% bonus to effectiveness of mining foreman links per level
• Cybernetics V (3x) for the Mining Foreman Mindlink - 25% increase to the command bonus of Mining Foreman Link modules. Replaces Mining Foreman skill bonus with fixed 15% mining yield bonus.

When looking at time to train vs. benefits received, Industrial Command Ships V can be saved for last. Depending on mapping and implants, Industrial Command Ships requires more than 30 days to train from level IV to level V and amounts to only 3% bonus to effectiveness of Mining Foreman Bursts.

Additionally, at least 1 level of Wing Command can be helpful, depending on the size of the mining fleet.

See also

• Creating an Alt Orca Pilot
• Creating an Alt Miner
• Mining
• Mining 101
• Mining 102
• Orca
• Amarr Mining Campus
• Mining Op