Propulsion equipment
Propulsion modules are a type of active module which increase your ship's speed (at the cost of capacitor energy). Higher speed allows you to dictate the range at which combat takes place (optimising the effectiveness of your ship's weapons and/or reducing the effectiveness of enemy ships' weapons).
Afterburners and microwarpdrives
Afterburners (AB) and Microwarpdrives (MWD) are the most commonly used propulsion modules. Afterburners increase the ship's maximum speed by around 150%, while Microwarpdrives increase it by around 500%. Compared with Afterburners, Microwarpdrives use more capacitor energy, reduce the ship's total capacitor capacity, are shut down by warp scramblers, and are generally harder to fit.
There are different sizes of propulsion modules based on basic ship hull size. Using an undersized afterburner on a larger ship will cause the speed boost to become much smaller.
General guideline for module sizes:
| AB Size | MWD Size | Notes |
| 1MN | 5MN | Frigates and Destroyers (actual thrust is 1,500,000 N) |
| 10MN | 50MN | Cruisers, Battle Cruisers and Industrials (actual thrust is 15,000,000 N) |
| 100MN | 500MN | Battleships (actual thrust is 150,000,000 N) |
| 10000MN | 50000MN | Capital ships (actual thrust is 1,500,000,000 N) |
The max velocity bonus listed in module info is only one factor in actual velocity increase. The maximum velocity of a ship using a propulsion module is
- V_max = V_base × ( 1 + V_bonus × ( Thrust / mass ))
In practice that last thrust/mass term is almost equal to one when using properly sized propulsion module and the new maximum velocity is just base velocity multiplied by velocity bonus of propulsion module.
Certain ships require certain size afterburner to function properly or heavily favor certain types of modules with hull bonuses.
Oversized afterburners
It is possible to fit ships with oversized afterburners: 10MN on frigate/destroyer or 100MN on cruiser/battlecruiser. The high fitting requirement of larger afterburner usually makes this harder to do. In this case the full maximum velocity formula needs to be used.
Generally the resulting maximum velocity is close to normal sized microwarpdrive but the added bonus is that the oversized afterburner is not shut down by scramblers. The drawback is greatly increased ship mass which makes maneuvering harder.
Related skills
The following skills directly effect afterburners and/or microwarpdrives.
- Acceleration Control 5% Bonus to Afterburner and Microwarpdrive speed boost per skill level.
- Afterburner 5% reduction to Afterburner duration and 10% reduction in Afterburner capacitor use per skill level.
- Fuel Conservation 10% reduction in afterburner capacitor needs per skill level.
- High Speed Maneuvering 5% reduction in MicroWarpdrive capacitor usage per skill level.
Micro Jump Drives
The Micro Jump Drive (MJD) is a propulsion module that instead of making the ship move faster it jumps the ship forward 100km in the direction it is facing. Upon arrival, the ship maintains its direction and velocity. Warp scramblers can be used to disrupt the module.
Micro jump drives can be used only on T1 and T2 battleships, combat battlecruisers, command ships and deep space transports. Marauders gain specific bonus encouraging use of this module.
Micro jump drives can be used offensively to close on a target or defensively to jump out.
Micro Jump Drive operation
When the module is activated the module spools up for 12 seconds (reduced to a minimum of 9 seconds by Micro Jump Drive Operation). During this time the ship can not change its direction. The signature radius of the ship is also increased by 150% during the spool up time. A ship attempting to activate an MJD gains a visible orange-white rippling cone in front of it.
The jump is interrupted if the jumping ship is warp scrambled when spool up time ends. Bubbles, warp disruptors and warp core stabilisers have no effect on micro jump drives. Active bastion module also prevents the ship from jumping. Deactivating the module during spool up time has no effect.
After spool up period the ship jumps 100 km to the direction it is facing. The ship retains its velocity and locked targets through the jump. Other ships will also retain locks on the ship that jumped.
After the jump has been completed or aborted by scrambler the MJD module enters 180 seconds long cooldown period that must pass before the module can be used again. Even if the jump fails the module will enter cooldown period.
Micro Jump Field Generator
Micro Jump Field Generators (MJFGs or booshes) are similar to Micro Jump Drives but they have several important differences.
- Only Command Destroyers can fit Micro Jump Field Generators.
- A Micro Jump Field Generator does not only move the ship itself, but also moves most objects which are within 6km of the boosher. Up to twenty-five ships will be carried along.
- Drones, Fighters, Bombs, and Warp Disrupt Probes will also be moved, however will not count against the 25-ship limit.
- Capital ships, (Jump) Freighters, Orcas, and Deployables will not be moved.
- Warp scramblers prevent the boosher or its targets from being jumped. (Any target that is scrammed will not be jumped, or if the boosher themself is scrammed nobody will be jumped.) This can be used defensively by fleet members scramming each other to prevent being separated.
- Ships which are invulnerable can't be booshed away (undock timer, gate cloak, tether, the short invuln time after you drop out of warp as examples).
- MJFGs cannot be used in Highsec. Activating one gives the user a
weapon timer for 60 seconds (meaning you cannot take a gate or dock after using one). In lowsec your Safety settings need to be red as you can potentially gain a 
criminal timer. (Compare to ECM burst and smartbombs. However, it is not known what circumstances would give a criminal timer.) For this reason logistics pilots should also set their safeties to red if a boosher is in a lowsec fleet. - The spool time is a bit shorter (9s before skills) and is reduced by the skills Micro Jump Drive Operation and Command Destroyers down to a minimum of 6s (5.06s, rounded up). While spooling, the Command Destroyer cannot change direction or speed and a blue ring of light with a glowing spark in the middle appears in front of it.
- Objects can only be affected by one boosh in a single server tick (second). However, multiple booshes over consecutive ticks will still take effect.
Micro Jump Field Generators open up many interesting tactics:
- You can split up hostile fleets and isolate targets.
- You can use it as an escape tool for fleets.
- With many command destroyers you can chain booshers and make slow sniper fleets move around the grid quickly, allowing them to "kite" enemies that would otherwise catch up with them.
- You can suddenly get on top of a target to tackle it. Remember that you can boosh a warp disrupt probe.
| A long, long time ago... |
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Beat around the Boosh expansion Micro Jump Field Generator reworked to move a maximum of 25 capsuleer ships at once. All fighters, drones, probes and bombs will always be moved |
Mobile Micro Jump Unit
Mobile Micro Jump Units may be deployed in space, with modest restrictions on proximity to stargates, stations, starbases or Upwell structures. They allow all nearby ships (within 2.5km) to jump themselves 100km away in whatever direction they are facing, by right-clicking the Unit and selecting Jump. Jumping using a Mobile Micro unit has a 12-second spool-up, not reduced by skills, and produces the same orange-white rippling cone visual as using a Micro Jump Drive.
The unit occupies 50m3 cargo space, takes one minute to deploy, cannot be picked up once deployed, and lasts for two days if not destroyed. For ships up to 1 million tonnes (including the Rorqual), it can provide a brief window of escape to jump 100km and then try to warp away if under attack.
The Mobile Micro Jump Unit is the only source of micro-jumping available to Alpha clones.
Related skills
Micro Jump Drive Operation I is required to use any micro jump drives and reduces the spool up time duration by 5% per skill level.
Anchoring I is required to use the Mobile Micro Jump Unit.
