Turrets

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Icon gunnery turret.pngTurrets
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This article details different types of turrets. For information about turret combat mechanics, see Turret mechanics. For information about how turret damage in calculated, see Turret damage.

Turrets are the most common weapon system in EVE. They apply damage instantly, use ammunition or charges, and their effectiveness is partially determined by the traversal speed of the firing ship and its target. This page explains the three variations of turret and their ammunition available in EVE. If you want to delve into the mathematics of gunnery in EVE, see this wiki's page on Turret Damage, and if you want to learn how gunnery works without having to study the mathematical detail, see the Gunnery Guide.

Overview

There are three kinds of turret in EVE:

  • hybrid turrets
  • projectile turrets
  • energy turrets (lasers)

Each type can be further broken down into a set of long-ranged turrets which, broadly, deal high damage-per-shot ('volley', 'alpha') but low damage-per-second (DPS) and poor tracking, and a set of short-ranged turrets with lower alpha but high DPS and superior tracking. Hybrid turrets, for example, are either railguns (long-ranged, low DPS) or blasters (short-ranged, high DPS).

Tech 2 turrets, particularly large and medium ones, require considerable training time. The long-ranged and short-ranged varieties of Tech 2 turrets require separate skills -- returning to hybrid turrets, for example, you need Small Blaster Specialization to use small T2 blasters but Small Railgun Specialization to use small T2 railguns.

Each of the three kinds of turret comes in four sizes:

  • small (mounted on frigates and destroyers)
  • medium (mounted on cruisers and battlecruisers)
  • large (mounted on battleships and tier 3 battlecruisers)
  • extra-large (mounted on capital and supercapital ships)

Ammunition/charges

Each of the three kinds of turret has a selection of types of ammunition (using 'ammunition' loosely -- energy turrets load crystals). Ammunition comes in four sizes matching the four sizes of turret (S, M, L and XL).

Faction ammo is also available (for example, Republic Fleet Fusion S instead of normal Fusion S). Faction ammo is expensive but gives you more damage. Generally speaking it is useful in PvP but rarely cost-effective in PvE. There are 3 levels of faction ammo. In order of power, they are pirate, which deals 10% more damage, navy, which deals 15%, and elite pirate, which deals 20% more. Pirate and elite pirate ammo drop from rare spawns at dead space complexes, and navy ammo is available from various lp stores. Generally navy ammo is the cheapest, due to its ease of acquisition.

Tech 2 turrets can use Tech 2 ammo. Each type of turret has four associated kinds of T2 ammo, two varieties of T2 ammo for T2 short-ranged turrets and two for Tech 2 long-ranged turrets. Using hybrid turrets as an example once again, T2 blasters can load:

  • normal hybrid ammo
  • faction hybrid ammo
  • or two types of T2 blaster ammo (Void and Null)

While T2 railguns can load:

  • normal hybrid ammo
  • faction hybrid ammo
  • or two types of T2 railgun ammo (Spike and Javelin)

T2 ammo is designed to be give you extra tactical options or to be useful in specific situations -- it is not always better than T1 or faction ammo.

Hybrid turrets

Icon turret blaster large.png

Hybrid turrets fire charged projectiles at the enemy using magnetic fields -- using energy, like lasers, but firing solid projectiles, like projectile guns, hence "hybrids".

In practice this means that they use capacitor when they fire (like lasers, though they are less cap-hungry than lasers). Pilots who use hybrid turrets will want to have good capacitor skills and to train Controlled Bursts to support their guns' requirements. Hybrid turrets also have to be regularly reloaded with fresh ammunition (like projectile guns).

Hybrid turrets can only do kinetic and thermal damage.

The two kinds of hybrid turret are:

  • Blasters, which have (very) short ranges and deal (very) high DPS; and
  • Railguns, which have (very) long-ranges and deal less DPS.

Many Gallente ships and some Caldari ships use hybrid turrets as their primary weapon. The Gallente ships tend to be more suited to blasters and the Caldari ships more suited to railguns, but this is not a hard-and-fast rule, as any pilot who flies a sniping Hecate or a blaster Rokh will tell you.

The low slot Magnetic Field Stabilizer module increases hybrid turrets' damage and rate of fire.

Hybrid ammo

There are eight kinds of standard Tech 1 hybrid ammo. They all do a mixture of kinetic and thermal damage (the proportion varies).

Each ammunition type has a different range modifier, does a different amount of damage and uses a different amount of your capacitor when fired. The better the range, the lower base damage the ammo deals, creating a sliding scale from short-ranged, high-damage Antimatter to long-ranged, low-damage Iron.

Name Modifier to optimal rangeOptimal Cap. need Total damage Kinetic damage Thermal damage
Antimatter -50% 0% 12 7 5
Plutonium -37.5% -5% 11 6 5
Uranium -25% -8% 10 6 4
Thorium -12.5% -40% 9 5 4
Lead 0% -50% 8 5 3
Iridium 20% -24% 7 4 3
Tungsten 40% -27% 6 4 2
Iron 60% -30% 5 3 2
Click on the column headers to sort the table; mouse over them for a more detailed explanation.
Damage is the raw figures for the 'Small' ammo size;
Medium is 2x greater, Large is 4x greater, and Extra Large is 8x greater.

The two Tech 2 ammunition types for blasters are Null and Void (har har). Void is rarely used, while Null is sometimes loaded by blaster-equipped pilots who can't get close to their target or who need to skirmish. The effects of these ammo types on range, tracking speed, and capacitor need is given in the following table:

Name Modifier to optimal rangeOptimal Modifier to falloff rangeFalloff Modifier to tracking speedTracking Cap. need Total damage Kinetic damage Thermal damage
Null +40% +40% -25% 0% 11 5 6
Void -25% -50% -25% +25% 15.4 7.7 7.7

The two Tech 2 ammo types for railguns are Spike and Javelin. Javelin lets railguns pretend to be blasters: it has a much shorter range, higher damage, and a tracking bonus. Spike is an extra-long range ammo, with an 80% range bonus but very large penalties to tracking speed.

Name Modifier to optimal rangeOptimal Modifier to falloff rangeFalloff Modifier to tracking speedTracking Cap. need Total damage Kinetic damage Thermal damage
Spike +80% 0% -75% 0% 8 4 4
Javelin -75% 0% 25% 0% 14 6 8

Projectile turrets

Icon turret autocannon large.png

Projectile turrets are EVE's most low-tech weapons (and the ones which can be most accurately called guns). They work like real-life guns. Projectile turrets don't use up any capacitor when they fire (like missile launchers), but they must be regularly reloaded with fresh ammunition. Unlike the other two kinds of turrets, projectile turrets can do all four different kinds of damage depending on the ammunition they are loaded with.

Most Minmatar ships use projectile turrets as their main weapon. The low slot Gyrostabilizer module increases projectile turrets' damage and rate of fire.

The two kinds of projectile turret are:

  • Autocannon, which have short ranges, good tracking, and deal high DPS; and
  • Artillery, which have long ranges, very poor tracking, and deal less DPS.

Note that one of the kinds of large (battleship-sized) autocannon is called 'repeating artillery'. These are nevertheless classified as autocannons.

Of all the kinds of long-ranged turret in the game, artillery turrets tend to have the best alpha strike. Autocannon, and to a lesser extent artillery, have very long falloff ranges and short optimal ranges, and it's more viable to use projectile turrets in their first falloff range than it is to use lasers or hybrids in their falloff.

Projectile ammo

Main article: Projectile Ammunition

There are eight kinds of standard Tech 1 projectile ammo. The picture here is more complicated than with hybrid ammo: projectile ammo does a wider range of damage types and does not present a gradual exchange of damage for range.

Projectile ammo can be split into three tiers, short-ranged (EMP, Fusion and Phased Plasma), medium-ranged (Titanium Sabot and Depleted Uranium) and long-ranged (Proton, Nuclear and Carbonized Lead). All ammo within each tier has the same range and tracking modifiers, but the different types offer different kinds of damage. The medium-ranged tier (Titanium Sabot and Depleted Uranium) has a significant tracking speed bonus.

Name Modifier to optimal rangeOptimal Modifier to tracking speedTracking Total damage EM damage Thermal damage Kinetic damage Explosive damage
EMP -50% 12 9 2 1
Phased Plasma -50% 12 10 2
Fusion -50% 12 2 10
Titanium Sabot +20% 8 6 2
Depleted Uranium +20% 8 3 2 3
Proton +60% +5% 5 3 2
Nuclear +60% +5% 5 1 4
Carbonized Lead +60% +5% 5 4 1
Click on the column headers to sort the table; mouse over them for a more detailed explanation.
Damage is the raw figures for the 'Small' ammo size;
Medium is 2x greater, Large is 4x greater, and Extra Large is 8x greater.

Note that the range bonuses or penalties applied by these ammo types only apply to optimal range. If you're using autocannon, which have tiny optimal ranges anyway, your ammo's range modifier doesn't matter very much. It's more important if you're using artillery. This means that autocannon should always be fitted with the most damaging ammo possible, and if a ship has a falloff bonus, it's probably meant to use autocannon.

The two Tech 2 ammunition types for autocannon are Barrage and Hail. Barrage has a tracking penalty but a 40% falloff increase, and is popular with ships like the Vagabond which like to skirmish in falloff range. Hail has a penalty to falloff range and a large penalty to optimal range, and to tracking, but it deals very high damage. In practice the range and tracking speed drawbacks mean that Hail rarely offers more DPS, although it can be effective against big, stationary ships or POSs. Barrage does roughly equal amounts of explosive and kinetic damage, while Hail does a lot of explosive damage and a little kinetic on the side.

Name Modifier to optimal rangeOptimal Modifier to falloff rangeFalloff Modifier to tracking speedTracking Total damage EM damage Thermal damage Kinetic damage Explosive damage
Barrage 0% +40% -25% 11 5 6
Hail -50% -25% -30% 15.4 3.30 12.10

The two Tech 2 ammunition types for artillery are Quake and Tremor. Quake, much like Javelin for hybrids, lets artillery pretend to be autocannon, with high damage but much-reduced range. Tremor has a dramatic 80% range bonus, but a very significant penalty to tracking. Both do a mixture of explosive and kinetic damage.

Name Modifier to optimal rangeOptimal Modifier to tracking speedTracking Total damage EM damage Thermal damage Kinetic damage Explosive damage
Quake -75% +25% 14 5 9
Tremor +80% -75% 8 3 5

Energy turrets

Icon turret beam large.png

Energy turrets -- lasers -- fire beams of light to damage the enemy.

While they don't need normal ammunition, lasers use up a lot of capacitor when they fire, more than hybrid turrets. Lasers are usually fitted on Amarr ships, which have large capacitors and often bonuses which reduce lasers' capacitor requirements, but training in capacitor skills and Controlled Bursts is still an absolute necessity for Amarr pilots.

Lasers can only do electromagnetic and thermal damage. These are usually the weakest natural resists of shields but the highest natural resists of armor.

The two kinds of laser are:

  • Pulse lasers, which have short ranges and deal high DPS; and
  • Beam lasers, which have long ranges and lower DPS.

Most Amarr ships use lasers as their primary weapon. The low slot Heat Sink module increases lasers' damage and rate of fire.

Frequency crystals

Although they don't require normal ammunition, lasers must still be loaded with crystals. Standard Tech 1 crystals are never used up and never break down, so lasers never have to be reloaded. Unlike projectile or hybrid ammunition, crystals can be swapped instantaneously while the weapon isn't firing, letting pilots alter their guns' range very quickly.

There are eight kinds of standard Tech 1 crystal. They all do a mixture of electromagnetic and thermal damage (the proportion varies), apart from Radio crystals which only deal electromagnetic damage.

Each crystal has a different range modifier, does a different amount of damage and has a different modifier to lasers' capacitor use. The better the range, the lower base damage the ammo deals, creating a sliding scale from short-ranged, high-damage Multifrequency to long-ranged, low-damage Radio.

Name Modifier to optimal rangeOptimal Cap. need Total damage EM damage Thermal damage
Multifrequency -50% 0% 12 7 5
Gamma -37.5% -15% 11 7 4
X-Ray -25% -25% 10 6 4
Ultraviolet -12.5% -35% 9 6 3
Standard 0% -45% 8 5 3
Infrared +20% -35% 7 5 2
Microwave +40% -25% 6 4 2
Radio +60% -15% 5 5 0
Click on the column headers to sort the table; mouse over them for a more detailed explanation.
Damage is the raw figures for the 'Small' ammo size;
Medium is 2x greater, Large is 4x greater, and Extra Large is 8x greater.

The advanced crystals for lasers gradually get damaged over time and will finally disintegrate. Tech 2 crystals have a chance to decay for each cycle, and last around 1000 shots, while faction crystals will last exactly 4000 shots.


T2 Pulse Laser Crystals

The Tech 2 crystals for pulse lasers are Conflagration and Scorch. Conflagration does more damage than Multifrequency at the cost of a 30% tracking speed penalty and a 25% greater capacitor usage. Scorch has a damage only slightly lower than Imperial Navy Multifrequency, but has a huge 50% increased optimal range, however loses 25% tracking. Conflagration is little used but Scorch is very popular, simply because the benefits of Conflagration generally do not outweigh its drawbacks when compared with Imperial Navy Multifrequency, yet Scorch applies good DPS at phenomenal ranges.

Name Modifier to optimal rangeOptimal Modifier to tracking speedTracking Cap. need Total damage EM damage Thermal damage
Scorch +40% -25% 0% 11 9 2
Conflagration -50% -30% +25% 15.4 7.7 7.7


T2 Beam Laser Crystals

The Tech 2 crystals for beam lasers are Aurora and Gleam. Gleam deals good damage and receives a tracking bonus, but has a much shorter range. Aurora comes with a massive 80% range bonus but low damage and a heavy penalty to tracking speed.

Name Modifier to optimal rangeOptimal Modifier to tracking speedTracking Total damage EM damage Thermal damage
Aurora +80% -75% 8 5 3
Gleam -75% +25% 14 7 7

Gunnery Skills

Besides the skills which let you use guns themselves (Small Energy Turret, Medium Projectile Turret, Large Hybrid Turret &c &c -- these skills also give you 5% more damage per level with their related turrets) EVE has a panoply of skills which make your guns more effective. These support skills taken together make a big difference to your DPS, range, tracking and so on; anyone serious about using guns should plan to train most of them to at least level IV, and some of them to level V.

  • Controlled Bursts: Reduces capacitor needs of hybrids and lasers by 5%/level. Vital, unless you only use projectile turrets -- in which case, it's useless.
  • Gunnery: Lets you fire your guns 2% faster per level (and -2% to cycle time is better than +2% to firepower).
  • Motion Prediction: 5% faster gun tracking speed per level.
  • Rapid Firing: 4% faster firing per level. This is important because -4% to firing cycle is a 5% increase to DPS. (But also a higher cap demand for hybrids and lasers.)
  • Sharpshooter: 5% to optimal range per level. Important for everyone, but especially snipers.
  • Surgical Strike: Adds 3% to turret damage/level. This is a rank 4 skill, taking longer to train, so focus on other skills first.
  • Trajectory Analysis: Requires Gunnery IV. Improves falloff of your guns, 5%/level. Important for everyone, but especially snipers and Minmatar pilots. (And especially especially Minmatar snipers!).
  • Weapon Upgrades: 5% less CPU required to fit turrets and launchers per level. Vital fitting skill.
  • Advanced Weapon Upgrades: Requires Weapon Upgrades V. Decreases turret and launcher powergrid requirements by 2%/level. Also a vital fitting skill.

Skills which, while not filed under Gunnery on the character sheet, are particularly significant include:

Related modules summary

Besides turrets themselves there are a number of related modules which you can fit to improve their performance. In this list the links for items are to the basic Tech 1 Meta 0 version -- as always, you can expect significantly better performance from Tech 2 or high-meta versions.

Remember that stacking penalties mean that it's usually not worth fitting more than three modules which have the same effect.

  • Each turret has an associated low slot module which boosts its damage and rate of fire. These 'damage mods' have already been mentioned individually, and they are
    • Magnetic Field Stabilizers ("magstabs") for hybrids
    • Gyrostabilizers ("gyros") for projectile turrets
    • Heat Sinks for lasers.
  • Another important low slot item is the Tracking Enhancer ("TE"), which increases your tracking speed, optimal range and falloff.
  • Unlike TEs, the Tracking Computer is a midslot item. It uses capacitor and has to be activated, but can offer a more substantial tracking speed bonus as well as small bonuses to optimal and falloff range. It can be loaded with either the Tracking Speed script, which doubles the tracking speed bonus but removes the range bonuses entirely, or the Optimal Range script, which removes the tracking speed bonus but doubles the range bonuses (it doubles the falloff bonus despite its name).
  • There is also the remote Tracking Link, a module which you can use to boost another ship's tracking speed and range (it can be scripted like the Tracking Computer). Although a few ships (like the Scythe) get bonuses for these, they're rarely used.
  • Sensor Boosters ("sebo") and Remote Sensor Boosters ("RSB") are active midslot modules which increase targeting range and scan resolution (speeding up locking time). Like Tracking Computers they can be scripted for more targeting range or faster locking.

Names reference

Category Race Type Range Small Medium Large Extra Large
Frigates, Destroyers Cruisers, Battlecruisers Battleships Dreadnoughts, Titans
Projectile Minmatar Autocannon Short 125mm Gatling Dual 180mm Dual 425mm 6x2500mm Repeating Cannon
150mm Light 220mm Vulcan Dual 650mm
200mm 425mm 800mm
Artillery Long 250mm Light 650mm 1200mm Quad 3500mm Siege
280mm Howitzer 720mm Howitzer 1400mm Howitzer
Hybrid Gallente/Caldari Blaster Short Light Electron Heavy Electron Electron Blaster Cannon Ion Siege Blaster Cannon
Ion Ion Ion
Neutron Neutron Neutron
Railgun Long 75mm Dual 150mm Dual 250mm Dual 1000mm
125mm 200mm 350mm
150mm 250mm 425mm
Energy Amarr Pulse Short Gatling Focused Dual Heavy Dual Giga
Dual Light Heavy Mega
Small Focused
Beam Long Dual Light Quad Light Dual Heavy Dual Giga
Small Focused Focused Medium Mega
Heavy Tachyon


Turret Comparison

Tech 1 Frigate/Destroyer Turret Comparison

All Frigate and Destroyer turrets are categorized as "Small".
+60% Optimal Tech 1 charges do 5 damage per shot...
+0% Optimal Tech 1 charges do 8 damage per shot...
-50% Optimal Tech 1 charges do 12 damage per shot...
...multiplied by the damage modifier of the turret.

Tech 1 Cruiser/Battlecruiser Turret Comparison

All Cruiser and Battlecruiser turrets are categorized as "Medium".
+60% Optimal Tech 1 charges do 10 damage per shot...
+0% Optimal Tech 1 charges do 16 damage per shot...
-50% Optimal Tech 1 charges do 24 damage per shot...
...multiplied by the damage modifier of the turret.

Tech 1 Battleship Turret Comparison

All Battleship turrets are categorized as "Large".
+60% Optimal Tech 1 charges do 20 damage per shot...
+0% Optimal Tech 1 charges do 32 damage per shot...
-50% Optimal Tech 1 charges do 48 damage per shot...
...multiplied by the damage modifier of the turret.

Tech 1 Dreadnought/Titan Turret Comparison

All Dreadnought and Titan turrets are categorized as "Extra Large".
+60% Optimal Tech 1 charges do 40 damage per shot...
+0% Optimal Tech 1 charges do 64 damage per shot...
-50% Optimal Tech 1 charges do 96 damage per shot...
...multiplied by the damage modifier of the turret.



See also

  • Turret Damage for the mathematics of gunnery.
  • Gunnery Guide for less mathematical discussion of gunnery.
  • Missile Launchers and Drones for EVE's other main weapon systems.
  • NPC Damage Types for more information about the different kinds of damage (this is still relevant to PvP even though it's directed at NPC damage dealing).
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