Combat Primer for Complete Beginners

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This short guide is for players who may have done EVE's introductory tutorial mission but have not done any other combat. It is very simple, and to keep it simple a lot has been left out. It will tell you everything you need to do to set up a reasonable combat frigate and take it out on a Level I Security Missions. Beyond that, there is much more to learn ... but elsewhere.

Getting Ready

Combat in EVE is complicated ... there's no way around that. An EVE expert knows his or her ship's capabilites and how to equip weapons and gear to match; knows enemy ships and their capabilities; knows how to use the data presented in the heads up displays; knows the physics of projectiles in space.

It's a lot to learn. And you WILL learn it ... just not all at once. So, for now here is enough to get started.

To fight you need at least:

  • A ship
  • Weapons and ammunition for the ship
  • Certain gear to improve your ship's combat abilities
  • The skills to make use of the ship, the weapons, and the gear

Practice at using your ship in combat will come with time. If your goal is to learn how to use your ship while losing it as few times as possible, then you probably want to do something like this:

  1. Start with Security missions,
  2. Join an E-Uni combat fleet using a frigate as a "tackler",
  3. Join as many combat fleets as you can, and work your way up,
  4. All the while training higher level skills.

This guide assumes that you are starting at step 1. It will put you in a PVE oriented ship. These are not the fastest or most powerful in the game, but you can use them to run Level I Security missions while you train more skills and take the E-UNI courses on how to engage in fleet PVP combat. By the time you are ready for PVP, you will know enough to be able to buy and fit out a ship better suited for that kind of combat.

First, Pick a Ship

The process you go through for evaluating and picking a combat ship is extensive, and you will need to read more about it as you improve your combat skills. For now, just assume that you will lose the first three or four ships that you take out, and so be sure to buy an inexpensive ship that you can fly with a few basic skills. Don't worry too much about details, just get a ship that works, buy some good insurance, and go try it out.

Here are four ships - one for each faction. In each case, you need the Faction Frigate skill trained to Level I. You should already have trained that while you were running the tutorial missions, but if not, it only takes a few minutes. You will also need the weapons skills for the ship you choose trained to Level I, as well as a few gear-related skills. Since the weapons and gear skills can be different from ship to ship, they are listed after the list of ships.

(If you want a different faction's ship, you can train that Faction Frigate skill, but keep in mind that you will also have to train some shield, armor and/or weapons skills as well.)

FACTION SHIP DEFENSE OFFENSE COMMENTS
Gallente Atron shields ion charge blasters fastest, least defense
Minmitar Rifter shields projectile autocannon most balanced, can also use missiles
Caldari Kestrel shields guided missiles best shields, longest range, slowest
Amarr Punisher armor laser ray beam best armor, lasers don't need ammo

If you want to check the details, you can use the Compare Tool to look at the four ships side by side. (If you've never used the Compare Tool before, you can skip this for now.)


Each ship needs skill training for its offense and defense, and also to improve its power grid and cpu abilities. Here are some key skills that improve your ability to fight with each of these ships. IMPORTANT: Although Level I is enough to get started, you should try to get each skill to Level III before you begin to train any higher level skills.

Gallente Atron — Shield: Management, Operation, and Upgrades; Gunnery: Gunnery, Small Hybrid Turret

Minmitar Rifter — Shield: Management, Operation, and Upgrades; Gunnery: Gunnery, Small Projectile Turret

Caldari Kestrel — Shield: Management, Operation, and Upgrades; Missiles: Light Missiles, Missile Launcher Operation, Missile Bombardment

Amarr Punisher — Armor: Hull Upgrades, Mechanics, and Repair Systems; Gunnery: Gunnery, Small Energy Turret

All combat frigates benefit from these — Ship Command: Spaceship Command, Faction Frigate; Engineering: Powergrid Management, CPU Management, Capacitor Systems Operation; Navigation: Navigation, Evasive Maneuvering, Afterburner, Fuel Conservation;

These are only the minimum. Even trained to Level III, they will only give you the basic piloting skills. To be an expert combat pilot, you need a much wider range of abilities. So, when you have time, look at the E-Uni full list of basic skills for more information.

Second, Fit Out the Ship With Weapons and Gear

Now that you have a ship, you will need to equip it. Weapons are your first concern, of course, but you also need defensive items such as shield extenders or armor plate, and other tools for improving your combat. A "fit" is a set of weapons and gear that fits your ship ... that is, a set that does not use more power or cpu than your ship can supply.

Fitting is a complicated, time-consuming process. You can, and should, read all the details about how to fit a ship. But for now, you just need a fit that works, and the best place to find these is in UNIWiki. Here is a link to each of the ships described earlier. At the bottom of each linked page, you will find a group of recommended "fits".

Here are the fit names that you need to look for:

FACTION SHIP FIT NAME
Gallente Atron "Derptron"
Minmitar Rifter "PVE Basic Skills Rifter"
Caldari Kestrel "Basic PVE"
Amarr Punisher "PVE Mission Basic"

For example, here is the recommended "Basic PVE" fit for the Kestrel:

  • Four x TE-2100 Ample Light Missile Launcher
  • Limited 1MN Afterburner I
  • Upgraded EM Ward Amplifer I
  • Small Shield Booster I
  • Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
  • Damage Control I
  • Mark I Compact Power Diagnostic System
  • Two x Small Ancillary Current Router I (Rigs)
  • Light missiles

And here is what those items do:

  • TE-2100 Ample Light Missile Launcher - fires missiles
  • Limited 1MN Afterburner I - gives a quick burst of speed to the ship
  • Upgraded EM Ward Amplifer I - prevents EM damage to the shields
  • Small Shield Booster I - gives a quick boost in shield strength
  • Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction - increases shield strength
  • Damage Control I - prevents damage to the ship
  • Mark I Compact Power Diagnostic System - increases the ship's power
  • Small Ancillary Current Router I - increases the ship's power
  • Light missiles - are fired from the Missile Launchers

You can buy all of the items in the Regional Market. Or, if you have the E-UNI rank of Freshman, you may be able to find some of them in the free gear hangar at Aldrat or HSC campus. Once you have the gear in your own hangar, just open the "Fitting" window and drag each piece of gear onto your ship.

Notice how as you install each piece of gear, the "CPU" and "Powergrid" meters change their values. Each piece of gear uses some power and/or cpu capacity. All of your gear must fit on the ship without overloading either of these meters.

Here, for example are the fitting requirements for a particular light missile launcher. Each item that you want to fit will show this data in its Get Info window. 

QSG missile fit.png


IMPORTANT: Some skills reduce the amount of power and cpu needed for some of the equipment, and this lets you fit more powerful gear. (Look, for example, at Power Grid Management or CPU Management.) If you find that you cannot fit all suggested items into your ship, you may need to improve some of your skills before you can fly. For example, if you do not have the skill "Jury Rigging Level I", you will not be able to fit the device "Small Ancillary Current Router I". Since this device increases the amount of power your ship has available, without it you might not have enough power to install one of your other devices. This is how fitting goes. You need the skills to make the equipment work, but the equipment also works together.

All of this may seem like a lot to do before you even leave the station, and it is, but a badly fitted ship is doomed to die. Luckily, E-UNI's experts have looked at every faction's ships and provided one or more fits for each one. Just look up the ship's name in the Wiki. Even if you aren't completely sure what each piece of gear does, you can be confident that a UNIWiki fit will be a reasonable place to start.

Next, Where Is the Enemy?

In space, the enemy ships may be behind you, or above you ... you just can't assume that you will be able to see them visually. Instead, you need to depend on your ship's scanners and data analyzers to locate and display your targets. The key window for this is the Overview.

You will learn this faster if you actually try it out. So, before you read on, undock your ship and fly to a point where you can see your station.

The Overview Window comes up automatically whenever you undock your ship. It shows you every item that your ship's scanners can locate, and it gives you information about each item. In combat you will be mostly concerned with enemy ships that you want to target. To find them, first click on the word "Distance". This is at the top of a column of numbers, and clicking on it will sort the display on those distance values. You may have to click twice ... you want to have the shortest distance at the top of the display. Since you are floating right next to the place you just undocked from, that station should be the first item that you see at the top of the Overview. Click anywhere in its row to select it. The row will turn a brown color.


QSG overview station 1.png


Before going on, it's important to take some time to think about how the Overview Window works. As you can see, it displays a list of items, along with data about those items, and you can sort the items based on the data.

But there are a huge number of items in space. And in combat, you are going to want to focus in on just the items that matter during the fight. To make that possible, the Overview has a way to select different sets of items for different situations. Across the top of the Overview are a set of five tabs. These give you five different Overview set-ups.


You don't need to think about this much, right now, but as soon as you can, you do need to go to the E-Uni Overview Setup page in UNIWiki and do the setup. This takes about half an hour. It gives you five Overview tabs that are extremely useful in various piloting situations. DOING THIS SET-UP IS REQUIRED FOR ALL E-UNI COMBAT FLEETS.


OK, now on to the basics. If you click on a row in the Overview window, and HOLD DOWN the mouse key, a wheel menu will appear. Drag the mouse to any icon in this wheel to select it. Do that now. Click on the station row, hold the mouse until the wheel comes up, and drag straight down to the icon that looks like a target.


QSG overview station 2.png


In fact it IS a target. Choosing this icon will lock that row in as one of your targets. When this happens, a separate display will appear on your screen. You can click on this any time to select that target.

If you ask about it in Chat, you will find that nearly every player has a different opinion about WHERE the Overview Window and Locked Targets should be placed on their screen. Where you put them are up to you, but they are easy to move:

  • The Overview Window has a moving bar all along its top edge. Just click there and drag the window to a spot that works for you.
  • When you have targets up, if you look really close you will see a little circle-with-a-target-in-it icon somewhere near the set of locked target displays. There is only one icon, and when you click on it and drag, you move all of the locked target displays.


QSG overview station 3.png


As you do more and more combat, you will get a feel for where you want these displays. If you want, move them now and put them somewhere that seems comfortable.

And Finally, How to Shoot and When

It does no good to fire your weapons at a ship that is too far away to hit. It's hard to practice this without real targets, so now might be a good time to get yourself a Level I Security Mission and start fighting.

If you don't know where the missions are, click the Agent Finder button on your Neocom Menu. At the top of Agent Finder window, move the little grey slider arrow to 1. And to the left, set the menu for Agent Type to Security. This will show all the Agents who offer Security Missions at Level I.

Look at the locations of the Agents. Pick one in a star system with a security rating of 1.0 or 0.9 (because you do not want PVP criminals trying to kill you while you do your missions). Right click on the agent's location to set your destination to that Agent's station and fly there.

When you land, you will see the Agent in the Station Overview. Double-click on the agent and read the mission offer. Accept it and set your destination to the mission's location. Be sure that your ship is ready - check your fitting and ammunition supply - then undock and go. (When you are in space, information about your current mission will appear at the very top left of your screen. You can also open the "Journal" service and find the mission information in there.)

When you find the NPC enemies, they will show up as little red icons in your Overview Window. You can see this in the next image. The enemy is always red ... in your Overview, and also out in space. (The green icons are my ship's drones ... green ships are always friendly.)


QSG targeting overview.png


Each Locked Target Display has the name of the enemy below it, and its distance from your ship. Do not start to fire until your ship is within range. If you don't know the range of your weapons, check that now and remember the distance. Firing before you are in range is just a waste of ammunition.

To fire at an enemy simply click the Locked Target Display and then click your Weapon. When firing starts, a little icon of your weapon will appear underneath the locked target. As your weapon hits, the white ring around the locked target will turn red, indicating that the shields, and then the armor, of the enemy are being destroyed. Just before you kill an enemy, there will be a little beeping sound, and then the Locked Target Display will fade and vanish.

That's pretty much it. Kill them all and head home.

And Even More Finally... "Oh, Oh, Podded" ...

And, of course, sooner or later you will face an enemy who is too big, or you will slip up and make a mistake, and then your ship will explode and you will find yourself in your pod. No problem ... NPCs do not shoot at pods ... so just fly home and buy another ship.

When you start PVP, you will find that unlike NPCs, Players do enjoy killing pods. The E-Uni Overview Setup (and remember you MUST do this set-up) has a tab especially made to be clicked on when you realize that your ship is going to explode. It gives you the best set of places to aim for in order to save your capsule.

Next Steps

This Guide recommends starting out with Security Missions for three reasons:

  • NPCs are easier to kill than Players. And, really, in the beginning the more time you spend alive and in your ship, the faster you learn.
  • The best ships and fits for running missions are not as well suited for PVP combat. Missions will give you some cash that you can use to help buy and fit a PVP ship.
  • PVP combat requires additional skills and experience. In particular, you need to know how to "tackle" an opponent's ship. Until you learn about that, you won't be much help to a PVP fleet.

So here are the next steps on the road to PVP stardom:

  • When you log on, join the Standing Fleet for your campus.
  • Do Security Missions and practice combat.
  • Try different combinations of ammunition. Look at other possible weapons and equipment fits, and as your skills improve, try some of these out in combat.
  • Talk to people. Every day there are expert combat pilots online who you can talk to via Chat or Mumble. Ask questions. The faster you learn, the better you will get at PVP.
  • Take the E-Uni courses and read the pages in the UNIWiki.
  • Look in the Calendar, and watch in Chat, for announcements for fleets that are willing to take beginners ... when you find one, volunteer.


And here are some places to start:

PVP in General

Tackling

Ship Fitting

Ships

  • Faction Ship Guides - these give all of the ships for a particular faction and describe their particular attributes
Amarr
Caldari
Gallente
Minmatar

Fleets

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