Missiles

Missiles are an unusual weapon system. Unlike the three kinds of gun (hybrid, projectile and energy weapons), missiles have one range, rather than a combination of optimal and falloff, and missile users don't have to worry about turret tracking speeds and the target's angular velocity. (Although, as will be explained below, large missiles can struggle to hurt small and fast targets just as large guns do.) Guns apply their damage to their target as soon as they fire (assuming they hit), but missiles take time to travel to their targets. It's also easier to control the type of damage a missile launcher is doing.

These characteristics make missiles particularly popular in PvE situations such as mission-running. The fact that they take time to travel to their targets makes it difficult to use missiles in some roles in PvP, such as nullsec sniper battleship warfare, but they are still useful in PvP.

The Caldari are the main missile-using race, though there are a few Minmatar and Gallente ships, and a few T2 Amarr ships, which also use missiles.

Kinds of Missile

Missiles are unusual in their categorisation:

• Large size, high dps, short range, slow: Torpedoes (Siege Launchers)
• Large size, low dps, high range, faster: Cruises (Cruise Missile Launcher)
• Med size, high dps, short range, fast: Heavy Assault Missiles, 'HAMs' (Heavy Assault Missile Launcher)
• Med size, lower dps, high range, slower: Heavy Missiles, 'HMLs' (Heavy Missile Launcher)
• Med size, low dps, shorter range, fast: Standard Missiles (Assault Missile Launcher)
• Small size, (theoretically) high dps, short range, fast: Rockets (Rocket Launcher)
• Small size, lower dps, more range, slower: Standard Missiles (Standard launcher)

• FoF Missiles come in all standard, heavy and cruise missile sizes and do not require a lock-on to fire, however they are not controlled and will fly towards a random hostile target within range.
• Defender Missiles can be fired from any size launcher and are able to destroy missiles currently in flight. They are one of the few ways to reduce incoming missile damage, but are mostly only used by NPC's, as they are not very reliable and reduce the user's DPS.

The Assault Missile Launcher uses the same small Standard Missiles as a Standard Launcher but is a medium-sized module (as far as fittings go) with higher firing rate and capacity. Fitting requirements vary around the lineup, with HAMs having such absurd requirements it is almost impossible to properly fit them in most cases other than a Drake (don't even try on a Nighthawk, for example). Also, short range versions are UNGUIDED, not affected by the precision skill. They also have slower explosion velocity than the guided ones (the long range version).

Rockets suck all around.

Missile Specifics

Range

The range of missiles generally tends to be one of the tougher things to figure out as the modules loaded with missiles do not show their range. One option would be to use EFT, although it does not take missiles' acceleration time into account so you would need to take approximately 2-3% off the predicted flight range.

If you decide to do a calculation manually, you will need a calculator. The formula is (Missile Velocity*Missile Flight Time)*(skill/ship modifiers). The skills that affect the range of missiles are Missile Bombardment (Rank 2) and Missile Projection (Rank 4). There are several ships which have bonuses that increase missiles' velocity and flight time, Caracal and Raven among them.

As a rule, the guided versions of the missiles (Standard Missile, Heavy Missile, Cruise Missile) do less damage but have much greater range than their unguided cousins (Rocket -- though they're an exception for damage -- Heavy Assault Missile, Torpedo).

Damage

Missile damage is based on several factors, the main ones being the speed of target ship and its signature radius. As missile launchers do not need to track, tracking disruption and high angular velocities do not reduce missile damage.

When determining damage, the target ship's signature is measured against the missile's explosion radius; the smaller the explosion radius is compared to the signature radius of the target ship, the more damage it does. However the missile will do no more than its full damage if its explosion radius is the same size or smaller than the target's signature radius. Target Painters used by the attacker side and Shield Rigs, Shield Extenders and active Micro Warp Drives fitted the target can increase the target's signature radius. The guided missiles get a bonus to their explosion radius with levels in the Guided Missile Precision skill, which does not affect the short-ranged missiles, as noted above.

The speed of the target ship also affects missile damage. It is compared to the missile's explosion velocity. The faster the target is moving, the less damage it takes from the missile, and it is even possible to outrun a missile, evading the damage completely. However, even if ship is stopped, it will not take anymore than full damage possible. The Target Navigation Prediction (Rank 2) skill affects the missile explosion velocity, and there are also rigs that increase missiles' explosion velocity and explosion radius. The attacker can also use Stasis Webifiers to slow down their target.

As a rule, the smaller the missile type, the higher its explosion velocity and smaller its explosion radius, so a Heavy Missile (which is considered a cruiser-sized missile) would do full damage to battleships but would do greatly reduced damage to fast moving frigates. Torpedoes have the largest explosion radius and slowest explosion velocity followed by Cruise Missiles; Heavy Missiles and Heavy Assault Missiles generally have similar explosion velocities/radii; Standard Missiles have the highest explosion velocity and Rockets have the smallest explosion radius.

All missiles do a single type of damage, and all missiles come in four varieties, one for each of the different damage types. You can, for example, buy four different kinds of Light Missile: Bloodclaw (kinetic damage), Flameburst (thermal), Piranha (explosive) and Sabretooth (electromagnetic). You can distinguish between them by the colour of their warhead in their icon images: kinetic missiles have green warheads, thermal red warheads, explosive yellow warheads and electromagnetic blue warheads. Since all pirate factions have at least one weakness to a particular damage type which can be entirely exploited by the missile user, missiles are considered the best way to deal damage in PvE combat. Certain ships, such as the Drake and Caracal, give a damage bonus to particular missile damage types, while other missile ships generally increase the damage through firing rate bonuses or general damage bonuses.

The only module that directly increases missile damage is the Ballistic Control System, which increases both damage and firing rate. There are also two rigs that increase the damage potential of missiles, the Warhead Calefaction Catalyst (which increases damage) and the Bay Loading Accelerator (which increases firing rate) -- note that these have a high calibration requirement.

Tech 2 Missiles

Tech 2 missiles come in two kinds: the high-damage Fury/Rage version, which has shorter range, faster explosion velocity and larger explosion radius and deals more damage, but increases the user's Signature Radius; and the long-range Precision/Javelin version, which has a greater range, slower explosion velocity, smaller explosion radius and lower damage, and decreases the speed of the user's ship. All Tech 2 missiles can only be launched from Tech 2 launchers, and are much more expensive than their Tech 1 versions.

Further Reading

• A flash-based interactive guide to missiles which lets you play around with different signature radii and explosion velocities.