Pirate Faction Ship Overview

Pirate Faction Ships are expensive, high-performance ships built by pirate factions. Aside from the four main empire factions (Amarr, Caldari, Gallente, Minmatar) and the mining faction ORE, there are seven pirate factions that have made their ships available to capsuleers. Pirate faction ships require two different racial ship command skills, and gain bonuses from both. Each faction has three available ships: one frigate, one cruiser, and one battleship, and many pirate factions also have one or more capital ships. Pirate battleships are some of the strongest sub-capital ships in the game.

Several pirate corvettes were distributed as a promo at Pax East 2013. These were the Angel Cartel Echo, the Blood Raider Hematos, the Guristas Taipan, the Sansha's Nation Immolator, and the Serpentis Violator.

Building Pirate Faction Ships

No BPOs exist for pirate faction ships. All blueprints are 1-run BPCs. Most blueprints have a small chance of dropping as loot in exploration combat sites belonging to that faction. For example, in Serpentis Narcotic Warehouses there is a chance to find a 1-run BPC for a Serpentis ship.

The BPCs can also be obtained with Loyalty Points in a station belonging to that faction. However, most pirate factions own very few stations, and those few are often in nullsec space, making the act of earning and spending LP very difficult.

The rarity of pirate BPCs makes them very expensive, but the material requirements for building a pirate faction ship are similar to those of Tech 1 ships of the same size. This means that their insurance payout is very low compared to their cost.

The Pirate Factions

Angel Cartel

Races: Minmatar and Gallente

Focus: Speed and warp speed

Frigate:  Dramiel

Cruiser:  Cynabal

Battleship:  Machariel

Location: Curse (48 stations) and Fountain (16 stations)

Angel Cartel ships have bonuses to projectile turrets and warp speed. Each ship is among the fastest in its class.

Blood Raiders

Races: Amarr and Minmatar

Focus: Webs and capacitor warfare

Frigate:  Cruor

Cruiser:  Ashimmu

Battleship:  Bhaalgorn

Dreadnought:  Chemosh

Force Auxiliary:  Dagon

Titan:  Molok

Location: Delve (13 stations)

Blood Raider ships have bonuses to web range and Energy Neutralizer and Nosferatu strength. They can use Energy Nosferatu modules to drain power from enemy ships, regardless of their own capacitor level. The ability of the  Bhaalgorn to quickly and completely drain its opponent's capacitor makes it useful against capital ships. Blood Raider ships also have small numbers of turret slots, but large damage bonuses to laser turrets, allowing them to power their guns with Nosferatus and still deal significant damage.

Guristas

Races: Caldari and Gallente

Focus: Shields and drones

Frigate:  Worm

Cruiser:  Gila

Battleship:  Rattlesnake

Dreadnought:  Caiman

Force Auxiliary:  Loggerhead

Titan:  Komodo

Heavy Attack Drone: Gecko

Location: Venal (9 stations)

Guristas ships have highly resistant shields, and a unique way of using Drones: each ship can field only two drones of their appropriate size (light drones on the Worm, medium drones on the Gila, and heavy/sentry drones on the Rattlesnake and Loggerhead), but those drones are many times stronger than normal, so that their total strength is at least equal to five drones fielded by an ordinary ship. Guristas ships also feature powerful missile launchers, however their missiles are restricted to Kinetic and Thermal damage.

As capital ships do not normally use drones, Guristas capital ships (the Caiman and Komodo) also come with Fighter tubes and increased fighter damage.

Mordu's Legion

Races: Caldari and Gallente

Focus: Missiles and warp disruption

Frigate:  Garmur

Cruiser:  Orthrus

Battleship:  Barghest

Location: Pure Blind (1 station)

The newest pirate faction ships, Mordu's Legion ships have bonuses to missile damage and warp disruption range. Their missiles travel three times as fast as normal, but last half as long as normal, so their range is effectively increased by 50%, while mitigating the delayed-damage problem which normally plagues missile ships in PvP. Their extended-range warp disruptors then allow their ships to hold enemies on grid, while staying beyond their opponents' retaliation range. Accordingly, Legion ships are also fast and lightweight.

Sansha's Nation

Races: Amarr and Caldari

Focus: Afterburners and lasers

Frigate:  Succubus

Cruiser:  Phantasm

Battleship:  Nightmare

Supercarrier:  Revenant

Heavy Fighter: Shadow

Location: Stain (75 stations)

Sansha's Nation ships have bonuses to energy turrets and afterburner strength. They can reach almost MWD speeds with afterburners, and suffer none of the penalties associated with MWDs.

Serpentis

Races: Gallente and Minmatar

Focus: Blasters and webs

Frigate:  Daredevil

Cruiser:  Vigilant

Battleship:  Vindicator

Dreadnought:  Vehement

Supercarrier:  Vendetta

Titan:  Vanquisher

Location: Fountain (79 stations)

Serpentis ships have bonuses to hybrid turrets and web strength. A single web from a Serpentis ship is enough to reduce its opponent's speed to 10% or less of its normal value (allowing the Serpentis ship to catch up and melt it with blasters).

Servant Sisters of EVE

Races: Amarr and Gallente

Focus: Exploration and armor

Frigate:  Astero

Cruiser:  Stratios

Battleship:  Nestor

Location: Pure Blind (6 stations) and various locations throughout HiSec and LowSec space (42 stations)

The one "pirate" faction not hostile to the four empires, Sisters of EVE ships have bonuses to armor and drones, and carry very large drone bays. Their ships also all feature bonuses to scanner probes and Hacking modules. The Astero and the Stratios can fit Covert Ops Cloaking Devices (the only non-T2 ships able to do this), allowing them to warp cloaked. The Nestor has the mass of a battlecruiser, and a ship maintenance bay that allows nearby fleet members to refit their ships in space.