Caldari Basic Ship and Skill Overview
This guide provides general information and recommendations for T1 ships of a single player faction.
For more advanced and in-depth information on specific ships refer to EVE ships. This guide simply gathers the characteristics and overview of racial lineups in an easy to browse format for the very new player.
Rookie Ship
The rookie ship is the first ship you start with. If you are Caldari, it will be an Ibis. A new rookie ship is given whenever you dock in your pod at a station where you do not have any ships.
Ibis
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Role Bonus: The Caldari Ibis corvette is a small but stout vessel that fits admirably well as a cargo hauler or small-scale miner. Its reliability makes it a good choice for novice ship captains. |
Frigate
Frigates are small fast ships, used mostly for level 1 missions or for tackling and electronic warfare roles in PvP.
Condor
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Caldari Frigate bonuses (per skill level): The Condor is fast and agile. It has limited cargo space so it's not very suitable for trading or mining. It is best used as an assault vessel in a hit-and-run type of operations. |
The Condor is the Caldari T1 scout ship, useful for quick transport of small cargo and some level 1 missions.
Bantam
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Caldari Frigate bonuses (per skill level): In YC114 each major empire faction, having been embroiled in a harrowing, extensive, long-term war, recognized the growing need for support and logistics functionality in their vessels during the kind of protracted interstellar warfare that might otherwise prove exhausting for its participants. In the Caldari State, this led to the redesign and redeployment of the Bantam. |
The Bantam is the Caldari mining frigate. It is considered the best racial mining frigate due to its relatively large cargo bay.
Griffin
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Caldari Frigate bonuses (per skill level): The Griffin is much used by the Caldari Navy as a support vessel in combat squadrons, using its impressive array of electronic gadgetry to disrupt the operation of target ships, making them easy prey for traditional combat vessels. |
The Griffin is an Electronic Counter Measure frigate, often seen in E-UNI fleets offering Electronic Warfare support. ECM is touted as the most useful form of Electronic Warfare as it operates by breaking enemy target locks and preventing them from re-acquiring targets for 20 secs. This has the potential to greatly reduce the amount of damage being directed at your fleet, prevent enemies from using Remote Repair modules on each other or to break Warp Disruption, allowing an escape. For new players interested in trying out ECM the Griffin is the ideal starting place on your way up to the Blackbird and eventually the Scorpion. Expect to lose them a lot though, as ECM boats are often called primary by enemy commanders.
Heron
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Caldari Frigate bonuses (per skill level): The Heron has good computer and electronic systems, giving it the option of participating in electronic warfare. But it has relatively poor defenses and limited weaponry, so it's more commonly used for scouting and exploration. |
The Heron is the T1 Caldari probing frigate. It is useful for probing down exploration sites and wormholes, though it is weak in combat so you should switch to a tougher ship to do any sites you find. While the Heron is a good starter exploration ship, its T2 cousin the Buzzard has a bigger probe strength bonus and the ability to cloak -- Caldari pilots interested in an exploration or scouting career should consider training towards the Buzzard in the medium term.
Kestrel
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Caldari Frigate bonuses (per skill level): The Kestrel is a heavy missile boat with one of the most sophisticated sensor arrays around. Interestingly enough, it has been used by both the Caldari Navy and several wealthy trade corporations as a cargo-hauling vessel. It is one of few trading vessels with good punching power, making it ideal for solo trade-runs in dangerous areas. The Kestrel was designed so that it could take up to four missile launchers but as a result it can not be equipped with turret weapons nor with mining lasers. |
The Kestrel is a commonly flown frigate in EVE. This is due to its strong PvE capabilities with four standard launchers. It is an excellent choice for Level 1 missions and static complexes up to DED 2. It can be comfortably flown with fairly low skills, primarily due to its ability to 'Range Tank'. i.e.; stay at sufficient range to eliminate or mitigate a great deal of incoming damage. Furthermore, missile systems make for ideal starter weapons as they do not require capacitor energy (so reducing the need for good capacitor skills) and their damage is not affected by such factors as tracking, optimal ranges and falloff. This greatly simplifies matters for a beginning pilot.
Merlin
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Caldari Frigate bonuses (per skill level): The Merlin is the most powerful combat frigate of the Caldari. Its role has evolved through the years, and while its defenses have always remained exceptionally strong for a Caldari vessel, its offensive capabilities have evolved from versatile, jack-of-all-trades attack patterns into focused and deadly gunfire tactics. The Merlin's primary aim is to have its turrets punch holes in opponents' hulls. |
The Merlin is the most capable Caldari frigate for PvP, and after the recent Crucible changes, is slightly better than the Rifter in terms of damage and survivability. Its unique selling point is the possession of four midslots which are very useful for tacklers. This now has 3 turret slots (previously it had a 2+2 setup), making it a shorter train as a first tackler frigate.
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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.
Cormorant
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Caldari Destroyer bonuses (per skill level): The Cormorant is the only State-produced space vessel whose design has come from a third party. Rumors abound, of course, but the designer's identity has remained a tightly-kept secret in the State's inner circle. |
The Cormorant has eight high slots, making it a good starting vessel to use for salvaging wrecks. Due to its small size it can move speedily across deadspaces, but also has enough cargo space to hold the salvage you collect.
When it is used in PvE as a combat ship (Level 1 missions and the Sisters of Eve storyline arc) it is strongly recommended that a 'kiting' technique is used, meaning that the capsuleer should keep his range from the NPC ships.
In PvP it suffers from a comparatively large signature radius, a fact inflicting all destroyers. This makes it easy to hit it with cruiser sized weapons while it only sports a frigate sized tank.
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Cruiser
Cruisers are Eve's medium-sized ships. Cruisers are also the only class that has a Tech 3 version, in Caldari, that would be the Tengu. Caldari also have the Blackbird, an Electronic Warfare cruiser known for it's ECM capabilities. The Tech 2 version of Cruiser class ships are divided into four more specialized classes which is much more expensive than their Tech 1 equivalents: Recons (advanced force-multiplying electronic warfare platforms), Heavy Assault Ships (powerful damage-dealers), Heavy Interdictors (nullsec super-tacklers) and Logistics cruisers (remote repair platforms).
Osprey
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Caldari Cruiser bonuses (per skill level): In YC114 each major empire faction, having been embroiled in a harrowing, extensive, long-term war, recognized the growing need for support and logistics functionality in their vessels during the kind of protracted interstellar warfare that might otherwise prove exhausting for its participants. Both Frigate and Cruiser-class ships were put under the microscope, and in the Caldari State the outcome of the re-evaluation process led, among other developments, to a redesign and redeployment of the Osprey. |
The Osprey is primarily used as a mining vessel by Caldari pilots. Its 20% bonus to mining laser yield means that with high cruiser skills, it can outmine the Procurer mining barge. Caldari miners will tend to continue to use the Osprey until they are ready to fly a Retriever.
The Osprey can also be fitted out as a logistics vessel in fleets. Its skill bonus is focused on reduced shield repairing capacitor costs, and it has a large extended range for shield repairing.
Blackbird
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Caldari Cruiser bonuses (per skill level): The Blackbird is a small high-tech cruiser newly employed by the Caldari Navy. Commonly seen in fleet battles or acting as wingman, it is not intended for head-on slugfests, but rather delicate tactical situations. |
The Blackbird is an excellent ewar cruiser -- in fact, given its ability to stop the enemy fighting, it might be the most dangerous Caldari T1 PvP cruiser. The main focus of any Blackbird fit should be the midslots, followed by the lowslots. Note, when flying a blackbird be careful as you likely will have little to no tank so you will be dependent on your jammers or your fellow Unistas to survive. Try to always fight aligned in a Blackbird, that means you select a close by planet or some such, hit align and then start jamming away. When you get shot at and you have no warp-disruptors on then you can go instantly to warp, allowing you to return to the fight again. A dead Blackbird is no use to anyone. You can find a detailed discussion of Blackbird fitting here.
Caracal
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Caldari Cruiser bonuses (per skill level): The Caracal is a powerful vessel that specializes in missile deployment. It has excellent shield defenses, but poor armor plating. Its missile arsenal, when fully stocked, is capable of making a piece-meal of almost anyone. |
The Caracal is arguably the most effective Caldari cruiser for PvE. It receives strong bonuses to increasing the range of it's missiles, as well as a damage bonus to one specific line of missiles. It can fit an effective shield tank and keep opponents at bay while dealing damage to them from afar. Some skilled pilots can even handle L3 missions in such a ship.
There are some niche uses for the Caracal in PvP, for example as dedicated frigate-hunter as its Rapid Light Missile Launchers can deal a huge amount of DPS to frigates. With higher fitting skills it is also possible to equip it with a full rack of Heavy Missile Launchers and achieve ranges in excess of 130kms, possibly useful in forcing enemy Ewar cruisers off the field.
Moa
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Caldari Cruiser bonuses (per skill level): The Moa was designed as an all-out combat ship, and its heavy armament allows the Moa to tackle almost anything that floats in space. In contrast to its nemesis the Thorax, the Moa is most effective at long range where its railguns can rain death upon foes. |
The Moa is the gunboat of Caldari cruisers, receiving bonuses to both hybrid turret range and shield resistance. Although some may use railguns with the optimal range bonus to keep their distance from a fight, others will choose to fit a strong shield tank and get closer with blasters to increase their DPS. Overall, this is not a very popular ship as most Caldari pilots choose missile weapon systems over hybrid turrets for their ease of use.
Battlecruiser
Battlecruisers are sometimes considered as a more powerful version of Destroyer class ships, they fit the same sized weapons as Cruisers and more widely used as a damage dealing ship than Destroyers. One of the most notable Battlecruiser class ship is probably the Caldari Drake, which is well known for it's tanking capabilities.
Ferox
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Caldari Battlecruiser bonuses (per skill level): Designed as much to look like a killing machine as to be one, the Ferox will strike fear into the heart of anyone unlucky enough to get caught in its crosshairs. With the potential for sizable armament as well as tremendous electronic warfare capability, this versatile gunboat is at home in a great number of scenarios. |
The Ferox is a versatile battlecruiser capable of a strong passive or active shield tank and of over 125km optimal range with railguns or heavy kinetic and thermal damage with blasters. However, it is overshadowed by the Drake, whose seven bonused launchers far surpass the Ferox's unbonused five, and its hybrid turret range bonus is generally less favored than the damage bonus and additional turret of the Gallente Brutix battlecruiser.
Drake
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Caldari Battlecruiser bonuses (per skill level): Of the meticulous craftsmanship the Caldari are renowned for, the Drake was born. It was found beneath such a ship to rely on anything other than the time-honored combat tradition of missile fire, while the inclusion of sufficient CPU capabilities for decent electronic warfare goes without saying. |
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Battleship
Battleships are the biggest combat ships in the game before Capital-class ships. Battleships usually mount large sized weaponry and mostly used as a damage dealing combat ship in Eve, although there are several Battleships that have different role, such as the Scorpion.
Scorpion
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Caldari Battleship bonuses (per skill level): The first Scorpion-class battleship was launched only a couple of years ago, and those that have been built are considered to be prototypes. Little is known of its capabilities, but what has been garnered suggests that the Scorpion is crammed to the brink with sophisticated hi-tech equipment that few can match. |
The Scorpion is Eve's only dedicated ewar BS. With lots of space for jammers and substantial ECM range and strength, it can wreak a lot of havoc in PvP. But to free up midslots it's often forced to rely on a weak armour buffer tank (best supported by remote repairs) in its four lows, and like the Blackbird it's frequently primaried. Flying a Scorpion is a noble job, but usually a short one! The Scorpion also has a niche PvE use as a decoy in w-space combat, attracting fire from Sleepers with its ECM while its fleetmates repair it and deal damage.
Raven
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Caldari Battleship bonuses (per skill level): The Raven is the powerhouse of the Caldari Navy. With its myriad launcher slots and powerful shields, few ships can rival it in strength or majesty. |
The Raven is possibly the most used PvE ship for Level 4 missions as it has good range when fitted with Cruise Launchers (in addition to the usual effectiveness of selectable damage type from missiles) and can sport a good active shield tank (either cap-stable with a Large Shield Booster or a X-Large Shield Booster for non-cap-stable 'pulsing'). Its drawbacks are a small drone bay, usually filled with a flight of Light Drones and a flight of Medium ones. In addition it is a very slow ship, as most Caldari boats are.
For PvP it can be fitted with Torpedo Launchers to get good close range DPS or with Cruise missile Launchers for sniping distances. Its main strengths though lie in PvE.
Rokh
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Caldari Battleship bonuses (per skill level): Having long suffered the lack of an adequate hybrid platform, the Caldari State's capsule pilots found themselves rejoicing as the Rokh's design specs were released. A fleet vessel if ever there was one, this far-reaching and durable beast is expected to see a great deal of service on battlefields near and far. |
The Rokh is a solid shield-tanked hybrid turret platform. Although it doesn't have the raw damage bonuses found on the Megathron and Hyperion, its optimal bonus sometimes helps it deal more applied DPS when fitted with blasters. When rail-fitted it can achieve tremendous optimal ranges -- even, uselessly, beyond the hard 250km targeting range limit. Although it can be used for PvE, most Caldari mission-runners prefer missiles' flexibility and ease-of-use.
Industrial
Badger
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Caldari Hauler bonuses (per skill level): The Badger-class hauler is the main cargo-carrier for the Caldari State, particularly in long, arduous trade-runs. Its huge size and comfortable armament makes it perfectly equipped for those tasks, although the Caldari seldom let it roam alone. |
The Badger is the basic Caldari industrial hauler ship. It's useful to train to use a Caldari Industrial in order to haul ore from your jetcans to the station, or for filling with mission loot to haul to a trade hub in order to sell for larger profit margins. Level 3 courier missions will likely need a ship the size of a Badger to complete them.
Badger Mark II
The Badger Mark II has a cargo hold noticeably larger than the Badger, and is better defended. However it is marginally slower at subwarp speeds, and takes longer to turn. In general though the larger cargo hold offsets the disadvantages and so training Caldari Industrial to III to fly this ship is definitely worth it, particularly if you constantly find yourself filling the Badger's hold.
Ammunition, Range, and Kiting
Missiles
In PvE you are likely to be using missiles, since missiles have some advantages over turrets in PvE, especially for new pilots. One of missiles' advantages is that each kind of missile comes in four versions, each of which does one of the game's four damage types.
This means you can always target the weaknesses of NPC enemies by selecting the missiles which will damage them most. You should select the missile that will hit their weakest resistance (so, for example, explosive missiles against the Angel Cartel) unless you're in a ship (like the Drake) which has per-level bonuses to kinetic damage. If you're in a ship with kinetic missile damage bonuses and you have the relevant ship skill (Battlecruiser, for the Drake) trained high enough then kinetic may do more damage.
Missile range is roughly (not exactly) flight time multiplied by speed. Missiles have no optimal or falloff, they are either in or out of range. The long range missiles popular in PvE often let you outrange the enemy, and a propulsion module (an afterburner or microwarpdrive) will hopefully let you kite the enemy and keep them at range.
Hybrid Turrets
If you've chosen to fight with hybrid turrets you should carry 3 types of ammo during missions, and switch when required. Use close range (antimatter or plutonium) ammo by default. 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 try 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.
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. 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 than Tech 2, and are also heavily used for PvE where the extra effects from the item can be leveraged, but the loss from the cost kept to a minimum. Tech 2 is Meta 5, and harder to fit, since it has much higher skill requirements. Note that Meta 3 and 4 modules are expensive, often more expensive than Tech 2. Meta 1 and 2 modules will often be less expensive than Meta 0, simply due to supply and demand on the market.
Of particular note to Caldari pilots are the keywords for meta levels associated with highly needed Caldari modules. These include those for missiles, hybrid turrets, passive shield modules and active shield modules. Knowing the keywords for these might help spot them from standard mission drops or within contracts on the market. This is not an extensive or all inclusive list, only those of particular need within Caldari specialties. When in doubt, check the item information for its meta level or consult the market price for its value.
Missile Module Meta Levels
- Meta 1 - 'Malkuth'
- Meta 2 - 'Limos'
- Meta 3 - LL-NNNN (Where LL is a two character letter designator, and NNNN is a 4 character number designator.)
- Meta 4 - 'Arbalest'
Hybrid Turret Module Meta Levels
Blaster based:
- Meta 1 - Regulated
- Meta 2 - Limited
- Meta 3 - Anode
- Meta 4 - Modal
Railgun based:
- Meta 1 - Carbide
- Meta 2 - 'Scout'
- Meta 3 - Compressed Coil
- Meta 4 - Prototype I Gauss
Passive Shield Module Meta Levels
Shield Extenders:
- Meta 1 - Supplemental Barrier
- Meta 2 - Subordinate Screen
- Meta 3 - Azeotropic Ward
- Meta 4 - F-S9 Regolith
Active Shield Module Meta Levels
Shield Amps:
- Meta 1 - Ionic Field Accelerator
- Meta 2 - 5a Prototype
- Meta 3 - 'Stalwart'
- Meta 4 - 'Copasetic'
Shield Boosters:
- Meta 1 - Converse Deflection
- Meta 2 - Neutron Saturation
- Meta 3 - Clarity Ward
- Meta 4 - C5-L Emergency
Drones
Caldari ships never have large dronebays for their size, and never rely on drones as a primary weapon system. However, Caldari pilots should still train some drone skills for PvE and PvP combat since they provide useful supplementary DPS and are an essential defence for large ships; in L4 missions the most dangerous enemies can be frigates since, unlike all the other rats, they can warp scramble you, stopping you from escaping if your tank breaks. And light drones are the Raven's only effective defence against frigates. Consider Tech 2 light and medium drones a good medium-term goal.
Small drones kill frigates and destroyers, mediums drones hunt cruisers and battlecruisers, and heavy drones do well against battleships and reasonably well against battlecruisers.
As with missiles, you can pick the drone type that hits your enemy's weakest resist. (With the exception of Amarr drones, which do such low damage that it's not worth it.) 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, it's fine to exclusively use Gallente drones, although switching drones may make you more efficient. In Level 4 missions, consider varying between Gallente, Caldari and Minmatar drones to match rat weaknesses.
Watch for drone aggro. When arriving in a mission room, don't launch your drones until you've gotten the attention of a group of rats by shooting them. If a new wave of enemies arrives and attacks the drones or a new group of enemies aggro the drones, they should be recalled to the drone bay, and released only when you have full aggro. 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. The hurricane is well liked as a salvaging boat for its speed (for a BC sized ship) and 8 high slots. The noctis is a great, if somewhat expensive, dedicated salvaging ship.
Related Links
- Basic skills and Support skills - Training support skills is a key step towards flying a ship well. Read up on support skills here.
- Fitting Guidelines - Some general guidelines for fitting ships.
- Fitting Modules and Rigs Guide - A list of rigs and module types with short descriptions.
- NPC damage types and NPC Ship Attributes - To see which resists to use and damage types to deal against NPC rats.
- Creating an Alt Hauler - Having an alt hauler can be useful for shopping trips during wartime, if you are living in highsec.
