Gallente Basic Ship and Skill Overview

This guide provides general information and recommendations for T1 ships of a single player faction.

For more advanced and in-depth information on specific ships refer to EVE ships. This guide simply gathers the characteristics and overview of racial lineups in an easy to browse format for the very new player.

Basic Ship and Skill Overviews -- Amarr | Caldari | Gallente | Minmatar | ORE | Pirate

Rookie Ship

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

Frigate

Frigates are small, fast ships, used mostly for PvE in level 1 missions. They are also used for tackling and electronic warfare roles in PvP.

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.

Ammunition, Range, and Kiting

You should carry 3 types of ammo during missions, and switch when required. By default, close range (antimatter or plutonium) ammo should be used. 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 it is recommend to use 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 will often have difficulty tracking enemies. Enemies should be kept close to optimal with the 'keep at range' option, 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 from range.

Antimatter requires the most cap, has the shortest range, and does the most damage. Lead requires the least cap, has no range modifier, and does middling damage. Iron has the longest range, and the least 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. Or better yet, use EFT and import your character skills to see all of your ship's stats.

For PvP, faction antimatter and null (blasters) or spike (rails) are usually used. Void (blasters) and Javelin (rails) are not recommended due to the tracking penalties in conjunction with being short ranged. It is often better to keep at range close to your optimal in PvP to avoid tracking problems. Orbiting can cause tracking problems, except with small ships orbiting large ships due to the higher signature radius making shots hit the target easily.

Since Incursion, some of the T2 ammo with a range penalty are no longer completely useless. However, they still have a tracking penalty. They should not be used unless you are sure the tracking and range differences won't be a problem. Void has better optimal and worse falloff than faction antimatter, and a noticeably better dps. Javelin has worse optimal than faction antimatter, and the dps is not significantly better.

When using a battleship that requires cap boosters, it is recommended to keep a medium standard container in the cargo hold. This will provide extra space, which is handy for switching out ammo types and picking up loot after a fight. Always make sure you have the required space for one full load of ammo in the cargo hold, otherwise switching ammo will be difficult.

Tech and Meta Levels

These fittings were made mostly using Tech 1 Meta 0 modules for frigates and cruisers, and meta 4 and Tech 2 for larger ships. Higher Meta items up to meta 4 will often be easier to fit. Tech 2 is Meta 5, and usually harder to fit. Meta 3 and 4 are expensive, often more expensive than Tech 2. Meta 1 and 2 modules will often be less expensive than Meta 0, due to low demand and high supply on the market. Sometimes meta 4 is cheaper and better than Tech 2, like for ECCM modules.

In PvP, frigates and cruisers are often not worth fitting expensive modules on for low skill point or inexperienced pilots. Tech 1 Meta 0 modules are provided freely by the university. Once pilots have the skill points, a certain amount of combat experience, and enough ISK to replace bigger ships, they should consider moving to a battlecruiser with T2 fittings.

Pilots without T2 guns fitting a BC for PvP should probably avoid the overpriced meta 3 and 4 guns. Some of the meta 3 and 4 medium guns are reasonably priced, but many are not, and will only make your ship into a loot piñata for the enemy when it is destroyed, for very little increase in effective dps. It is recommended to get T2 guns before getting into BC, BS, or any T2 damage dealing ships for PvP.

Meta 4 guns are recommended on some of these PvE ships, as many gallente pilots in their early careers will focus sooner on T2 drones than T2 guns. Some Meta 4 guns are reasonably priced, others are hideously expensive. If you can't afford to lose expensive Meta 4 guns, downgrade them to meta 3 or 2 instead.

Meta level can be checked in the 'show info' window under the attributes tab. Items without a meta level displayed in the attributes tab are meta 0. Meta level can also be displayed in a ship or station hangar when the items are displayed in list mode. To add the Meta column, right-click the header and select 'show meta lvl'.

Drones

Small drones should be used against frigate sized enemies, medium drones should be used against cruiser sized enemies, and heavy drones should be used against battleship sized enemies. Sentries are mostly meant for battleship sized enemies, but if smaller enemies are far enough that tracking and signature radius isn't an issue, they can deal relatively well those.

Amarr drones are not recommended; due to their low damage multiplier, they are rarely useful. Even against rats who's lowest resistance is EM damage, they can be outperformed by Gallente drones. However, the Amarr curator sentry drones can be good to use against rats with a low EM resist (depending on range and tracking). Gallente drones have the highest damage multiplier, and thermal damage is the best or second best damage to deal against many rat types. It is strongly recommended to fit the best drone types to match rat weaknesses.

• Caldari scout drones: Guristas, Mordu's Legion, Mercenaries, Serpentis
• Gallente scout drones: Blood Raiders, Sansha's Nation, Rogue Drones
• Minmatar scout drones: Angel Cartel

Some of these factions have ships with variable resists in different ship sizes. It is advised to check the two lowest resist options and compare drone damage reports. NPC Damage Types

Drone aggro should be watched. When arriving in a mission room, aggro should be acquired by approaching enemies and shooting them with guns. If a new wave of enemies arrives and the drones catch aggro, they should be recalled to the drone bay, and released only when the enemies have targeted your ship. Under normal circumstances, you should never lose drones when using proper aggro management with rats. Some missions have particular aggro rules that can lead to drones getting shot, check Eve Survival mission reports for details.

Keyboard shortcuts are recommended for drone management. Drones need to be initially launched manually from the drone window, but shortcuts can be set for attack and return to drone bay commands.

In PvP, Gallente and Minmatar scout 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. Explosive damage is also better than thermal against a wider range of T2 ships that have augmented resists. Amarr drones are sometimes used in PvP to gank mission runners and ratters that have a weak EM hole. For sentries, bouncers are popular for their damage type and range.

In general, it is better to keep drones in passive mode. In missions and wormholes, drones on active can trigger a new wave earlier than desired. In PvP, drones on active mode can lead to having an aggression timer when it is not wanted and being unable to dock or jump through a gate.

See Drones and Using Drones for more advice on drone selection and deployment.

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. The listed EHP and DPS in various fits include both gun and drone DPS, and exclude any enhancements such as overheating, boosters, or implants.

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.

Once players can afford it (hull price can range from 40 to 50 million ISK), the Noctis is strongly recommended for salvaging.

Enhancements

The Thermodynamics, Cybernetics, and Biology skills can grant pilots increased performance with overheating, implants, and boosters.

See the Overloading, Implants, and Booster Drugs articles for information on these.

Related Links

• Basic skills and Support skills - Training support skills is a key step towards flying a ship well. Read up on support skills here.
• Fitting Guidelines - Some general guidelines for fitting ships.
• Fitting Modules and Rigs Guide - A list of rigs and module types with short descriptions.
• NPC damage types and NPC Ship Attributes - To see which resists to use and damage types to deal against NPC rats.
• Creating an Alt Hauler - Having an alt hauler can be useful for shopping trips during wartime, if you are living in highsec.

Ship Skill and Fitting Overviews -- Amarr | Caldari | Gallente | Minmatar | ORE | Pirate Factions