Gallente Basic Ship and Skill Overview
The Gallente Basic Ship and Skill Guide is intended to give fitting and skill recommendations for Tech 1 Gallente ships for Player vs. Environment (PvE) and Player vs. Player (PvP) encounters.
This is a work in progress, and the guide's Discussion Thread is on the Eve University forum. Please direct comments, suggestions, and corrections to that thread.
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.
Velator
The Velator can be used to go through the first tutorial missions, although upgrading to a frigate in the Military tutorial as soon as it is offered is recommended. A civilian shield booster will suffice for the first missions, although beyond the first few missions in the tutorial, civilian modules should never be used.
Frigate
Frigates are small fast ships, used mostly for pve in level 1 missions. They are used mostly for tackling and electronic warfare roles in pvp.
Atron
The Atron is the Gallente fast frigate, although only having two mid slots makes it unloved for tackling in pvp despite its speed and high scan resolution.
It can serve as a level 1 mission runner until Gallente Frigate III is trained for the Incursus, and Destroyers I for the Catalyst.
- Gallente Frigate Skill Bonus:
- 10% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret falloff per level.
- 5% Small Hybrid Turret damage per level.
Imicus
The Imicus is the Gallente scanning frigate, and it boasts a 15 m3 drone bay, enough for 3 light drones. Some players who train drone skills early will use if for level 1 missions instead of the incursus or catalyst.
- Gallente Frigate Skill Bonus:
- 5% bonus to drone range per level
- 5% increase to scan strength of probes per level
- 5% bonus to survey probe flight time per level
Incursus
The Incursus is the typical pve and pvp frigate for Gallente players. It is faster and has a better scan resolution than the tristan, which makes it better for tackling in pvp.
- Gallente Frigate Skill Bonus:
- 10% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret falloff per level.
- 5% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret damage per level.
Maulus
The Maulus is an electronic warfare frigate, specialized in dampening. Its low locking range makes it ineffecitve at range damping snipers. However, it can resolution damp effectively with the help of ECM in the fleet.
- Gallente Frigate Skill Bonus:
- 5% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret damage per level.
- 5% to Remote Sensor Dampener effectiveness per level.
Tristan
The tristan is an excellent pvp frigate, but requires missile skills to use effectively, which many Gallente players will not train early in their career. It is also slower and has less scan resolution than the Incursus, making it a worse tackler for typical Uni fleets.
- Gallente Frigate Skill Bonus:
- 5% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret damage per level.
- 7.5% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret tracking speed per level.
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.
Catalyst
The Catalyst has 8 high slots, all of which can be fitted with guns. It is the typical level 1 mission runner ship for Gallente pilots once they have amassed enough ISK to purchase it and fit it out.
The Catalyst is also used as a salvaging boat.
Cruiser
Celestis
The Celestis the the Gallente EW cruiser. Damps have a poor optimal, and even in falloff, it has difficulty applying damps at typical sniper range. Although it can do well with range damping against mid-range snipers up to 100 km or so. Resolution damping is made much more useful with ECM on the field as well.
Exequror
The Exequror is the Gallente logistics cruiser. It is not often used in pvp. It has a cargo bay bonus which can make it useful for players on trial accounts who cannot train industrial ships. An Exequror fitted with Expanded Cargohold in low slots can haul over 1000 m3 in its cargo bay.
Thorax
The Thorax is the first ship newbie pilots should look at to fill a damage dealing role in pvp fleets. Its bonus to MWD cap and high DPS potential make it an excellent heavy tackler.
Vexor
The Vexor, like the Mymidon and Dominix, is a drone boat. The drone boats are excellent pve ships, and they are also good pvp ships. Drone boats are sometimes fitted with tractors and salvagers to salvage wrecks during missions, this lowers dps, and thus increases mission completion time. Although it also saves time from not having to return to the mission site in another ship to salvage, but wether this saves time in total or merely makes it more convenient is debatable.
The Vexor is also an excellent pvp ship. For low skill pilots, it is usually easier to get DPS out of the Thorax, even with more skills in drones than gunnery.
Industrial
Iteron
The Iteron line of ships, from I to V, are excellent haulers. The Iteron V when rigged is the industrial ship with the largest cargo capacity, although for most players and Iteron I or III will suffice. Industrials can be used to store mission loot and salvage, to haul at a later time and sell at a trade hub for more ISK than can be made in most backwater mission stations.
Battlecruiser
Brutix
The Brutix is reknowned for its high DPS potential in PvP. It is also a popular suicide gank ship.
Although Gallente ships are usually better armor tanked, the Brutix benefits from a shield tank in several areas. Low slots can be dedicated to gank modules to increase DPS. The shield tank Brutix also has the advantage of being faster than an armor tank, which means it can get into the short blaster range sooner.
Myrmidon
The Mymidon is the typical level 3 missioning ship. It can fit a passive shield tank like the Drake, but most Gallente players will focus on armor tanking skills, and its armor repair cap bonus make it an excellent armor tanker. The myrmidon should be fitted with Hobgolins and Hammerheads, as well as Minmatar or Caldari drones depending if the rats are weak to explosive or kinetic damage.
The Myrmidon can also be an excellent pvp ship, though the damage potential is much less than the Brutix. It can have a good buffer tank, and some myrmidon pvp fits have double or triple repair modules. Myrmidons can also be fit and rigged for speed with a shield tank.
Battleship
Dominix
The PVE Dominix fits are cap stable with Energy Management IV and Energy Systems Operation IV, and Fuel Conservation III (for the afterburner version). Meta 4 guns are used since every little bit of DPS helps when doing L4 missions. Normally you should not lose a Dominix to missions, since you should have good drone skills to kill warp jamming frigates fast. The low tank version should be used in easier missions and the high tank in harder missions. Pilots with higher cap skills might want to switch one of the CCC rigs for an Auxiliary Nano Pump. Some people prefer heavy drones, other prefer sentries. Try both and upgrade whichever you prefer to Tech 2. If you use sentries, you might want to consider 1 or 2 Omnidirectional Tracking Links in mid slots, no afterburner.
Hyperion
The Hyperion is unloved by many. In battleship fleets, remote repping is far superior, making the local rep bonus pointless. For Uni operations, it might act as a decent bait ship during peace time lowsec patrols for pilots with too much ISK on their hands.
Megathron
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 I would recommend using 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 can sometimes have difficulty tracking enemies. Enemies should be kept close to optimal, 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.
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.
Tech and Meta Levels
These fittings were made mostly using Tech 1 Meta 0 modules, or Tech 2 for larger ships. This is partly to avoid confusion with higher meta names. Also, this insures that ship fittings are relatively cheap to get into without spending too much for new players with cash flow difficulties. And during war, pvp fittings using Tech 1 Meta 0 modules are provided by the university.
Higher Meta items up to meta 4 will often be easier to fit. Tech 2 is Meta 5, and harder to fit. Meta 3 and 4 are expensive, often more expensive than Tech 2. Meta 1 and 2 will often be less expensive than Meta 0, due to supply and demand on the market.
Drones
Small drones should be used against frigate and destroyer sized enemies, medium drones should be used against cruiser and battlecruiser 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 isnt an issue, they can deal relatively well with those.
Never use Amarr drones, due to their low damage multiplier, they are useless even against enemies who's lowest resistance is EM damage. Gallente drones have the highest damage multiplier, and thermal damage is the best or second best damage to deal against most rat types. For level 1 to 3 missions, gallente drones are fine to use exclusively, although switching drones will make more efficient runs. At level 4 missions, it is strongly recommended to always fit the best drone types to match rat weaknesses.
Drone aggro should be watched. When arriving in a mission room, aggro should be aquired 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.
Hot keys are recommended for drone management. They need to be initially launched manually from the drone window, though hot keys can be set for attack and return to drone bay.
In pvp, Gallente and Minmatar 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.
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.
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.
For level 4 missions, many players switch from the destroyer to a battlecruiser. Unfortunately, the Gallente battlecruisers have 6 or 7 high slots, instead of 8 like for some other races. The hurricane is well liked as a salvaging boat for its speed (for a BC sized ship) and 8 high slots.