Implants
This article is about the nature of implants in general. For the article about the University service that provides +3 implants at a discounted price to EVE University students, see The +3 Implants Program.
Overview
Implants are items that you can plug into your character's brain to boost skills and attributes, helping you to learn faster and be more effective.
You have ten slots available in your head for implants. Each slot takes a specific kind of implant.
Slots 1-5 are for Attribute Enhancers, and slots 6-10 are for Skill Hardwirings.
To use any implant you need at least one level of Cybernetics, which itself requires Science 3. The more powerful and expensive implants require more training in Cybernetics, and often cost significant amounts of ISK, but they can give you indispensable reductions in skill training times, and useful bonuses to your ship's abilities.
Implants can be acquired from Loyalty Points stores of various corporations, storyline mission rewards, and rare NPC loot drops.
How to use an implant
You cannot plug in an implant while training skills. If you are currently training skills, then go to your Character Sheet, select Skills from the list on the left, open your Training Queue, and pause your skill training. Right-click on the implant and choose Plug In; the implant will take effect immediately. Finally, go to your Training Queue and resume your training.
If you remove the implant, it is destroyed. You will not be harmed in the process, though it will sting a little. This is done by pausing the training queue again, going to your Character Sheet, selecting Augmentations, right-clicking the implant in question, and selecting Unplug. Remember to resume training!
Upgrading a set of implants could be a bad idea because it destroys the old set. Instead, you could buy a jump clone, jump to it and install the new set of implants there. Each jump clone has its own set of implants. Only the implants installed in the clone you are currently occupying will have an effect. That way, the old implants are preserved as a backup when your pod is destroyed during PvP.
When using jump clones, never leave two jump clones inactive in the same station (by docking in a station where you already have one inactive clone, and then jumping out of your second clone into a third clone which is somewhere else). You can only have one inactive clone per station. If you leave two inactive clones in one station your oldest clone will be deleted and you will lose any implants installed in it.
Attribute Enhancers
Each attribute enhancing implant boosts a particular attribute, with some of the best (and rarest, and therefore most expensive) ones giving additional bonuses.
There are 5 simple implants for each slot: Limited (+1), Limited-Beta(+2), Basic(+3), Standard(+4), and Improved(+5).
Each slot enhances a different attribute as follows
- Slot 1 - Alpha - Ocular Filter: Perception
- Slot 2 - Beta - Memory Augmentation: Memory
- Slot 3 - Gamma - Neural Boost: Willpower
- Slot 4 - Delta - Cybernetic Subprocessor: Intelligence
- Slot 5 - Epsilon - Social Adaptation Chip: Charisma
Advanced attribute implants come in sets that affect one particular stat. Each implant comes with a bonus that increases the effectiveness of all implants in the set, and a 6th-slot hardwiring adds an extra bonus.
To calculate the total bonus for a set of implants, first the set bonus multiplier is calculated by multiplying together all the set bonuses for the implants in the set. The effect bonus for each implant is then multiplied by the set bonus multiplier, and the total bonus can be found by multiplying the new effect bonus values together for each implant in the set. For more details, see this thread on the forums.
Advanced Attribute Enhancer Reference
The Kronos release in June 2014 made significant changes to these, which will be reflected below. Notably, unqualified version were renamed to "High-grade" and given a +4 bonus; some Low-grade implants were renamed to Mid-grade and given a +3 bonus; and for those, a new Low-grade version was introduced. See the Implants section near bottom of Kronos Patch Notes.
| Category | Secondary Effect | Set Name | Set Bonus per slot | Effect Bonus per slot | Total Effect | Attributes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-5 | 6 (Omega) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||||
| Scanning/EW | Radar Sensor Strength | High-grade Grail | 15% | 100% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 75.63% | +4 |
| Low-grade Grail | 0% | 40% | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +7 | +2 | ||
| Ladar Sensor Strength | High-grade Jackal | 15% | 100% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 75.63% | +4 | |
| Low-grade Jackal | 0% | 40% | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +7 | +2 | ||
| Magnetometric Sensor Strength | High-grade Spur | 15% | 100% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 75.63% | +4 | |
| Low-grade Spur | 0% | 40% | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +7 | +2 | ||
| Gravimetric Sensor Strength | High-grade Talon | 15% | 100% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 75.63% | +4 | |
| Low-grade Talon | 0% | 40% | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +7 | +2 | ||
| Probe Scan Strength | Low-grade Virtue | 10% | 25% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 33.83% | +2 | |
| EWAR module optimal range | Low-grade Centurion | 10% | 25% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 33.83% | +2 | |
| Mining | Mining laser range | Low-grade Harvest | 10% | 25% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 33.83% | +2 |
| Navigation | Maximum velocity | High-grade Snake | 15% | 200% | 0.5% | 0.625% | 0.75% | 0.875% | 1% | 24.73% | +4 |
| Low-grade Snake | 10% | 150% | 0.5% | 0.625% | 0.75% | 0.875% | 1% | 16.02% | +2 | ||
| Agility | Low-grade Nomad | 10% | 25% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | -26.94% | +2 | |
| Warp Speed | High-grade Ascendancy | 15% | 50% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 53.63% | +4 | |
| Low-grade Ascendancy | 10% | 25% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 33.83% | +2 | ||
| Tanking | Armor Amount | High-grade Slave | 15% | 50% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 53.63% | +4 |
| Low-grade Slave | 10% | 25% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 33.83% | +2 | ||
| Shield Boost Amount | High-grade Crystal | 15% | 50% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 53.63% | +4 | |
| Low-grade Crystal | 10% | 25% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 33.83% | +2 | ||
| Other | Signature Radius Reduction | High-grade Halo | 15% | 50% | 1% | 1.25% | 1.5% | 1.75% | 2.% | -20.7% | +4 |
| Low-grade Halo | 10% | 25% | 1% | 1.25% | 1.5% | 1.75% | 2.% | -14.3% | +2 | ||
| Energy Emission System Cycle Time Reduction |
High-grade Talisman | 15% | 50% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | -38.12% | +4 | |
| Low-grade Talisman | 10% | 25% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | -26.94% | +2 | ||
| Booster Side Effect Reduction | Low-grade Edge | 10% | 25% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | -26.94% | +2 | |
Special Genolution Core Augmentation Set
A new set of implants were introduced by CCP (as special limited items) that have bonuses but do not fit the standard pattern and are not Tech 2 implants. CA-1 and CA-2 were introduced as holiday giveaway items and CA-3 and CA-4 were available only through a special purchase of commemorative items. These implants require only Cybernetics II and Science III.
- CA-1 perception +3; Provides +1.5% powergrid and capacitor amount bonus; 30% bonus for set
- CA-2 intelligence +3; Provides +1.5% CPU and capacitor recharge bonus; 40% bonus for set
- CA-3 willpower +3; Provides +1.5% ship velocity and shield capacity bonus; 30% bonus for set
- CA-4 memory +3; Provides +1.5% ship agility and armor hit points bonus; 20% bonus for set
Total Effect Bonus is 4.25% for a full set for each of the bonuses. Because each implant gives bonus to a different attribute, they are not combined like the T2 implant bonuses.
Skill Hardwirings
Skill hardwirings increase the skill specified in the implant's description.
Skill hardwirings occupy implant slots 6-10 and allow the user to surpass the bonuses achieved from even level V in most skills by providing up to a 6% bonus to the same attribute as its namesake skill. For example, the slot 6 Inherent Implants 'Lancer' Small Energy Turret SE-601 increases Small Energy Turret by 1% (similar to Small Energy Turret). The code at the end of the hardwiring's name gives a good clue as to what it does, and how powerful it is. Using the example above, SE-601 shows that the implant boosts Small Energy Turret (due to the designation SE), the first number shows that it occupies implant slot 6 and the last number shows that it provides a 1% increase.
For lists of skill hardwirings organised by function, and a summary of slot options, see the List of Skill Hardwiring Implants (or alternatively, see the Evelopedia page).
