Preparing for Incursions

Recommended skills

The following skills are recommended, if not downright required to fit the modules you have to in order to do incursions. For more information on what the different skills do, see the Support Skills page.

The training times listed for these will assume that you trained Cybernetics I and got a cheap set of +3 attribute implants, which is not only reasonable but highly recommended regardless what you plan on doing in EVE. There's even The +3 Implants Program for unistas to get started.

It's worth thinking one step further and try to figure out which of the advanced hulls you think you'll likely train into, then pick the most suitable path there in terms of which racial ship-line you go down first and what weapon system you train into. For example, if you do not meet the recommended skills for missiles it might be a good idea to consider how much time it would take to cross-train into a turret-based ship right away instead of spending precious time continuing to train missile skills. There's no point trying to pick the "best" Battlecruiser, simply because they all have downsides making them less than ideal for incursioning.

That said, it's perfectly fine to top off your current skills to meet the minimum requirement to come try incursions, if you're not sure you'll like it. You don't have to commit before trying it out.

Damage dealers

Getting the recommended skills for a damage dealer requires roughly 60 days at the most, if you train into a turret-based battlecruiser on a brand new character. In comparison training for missiles is longer, another week, but normally you would only take that route if you already have good missile skills to begin with and only need to top off one or two skills. If your missile skills are too low, it would be more advantageous to start training gunnery skills instead.

Considering that is far more likely that you come looking for incursions after you have played the game for at least a couple of weeks, having trained some of the support skills already (the tutorial mentions many of them), you can often get ready much faster. Add to that the potential of neural remapping and what might seem like a daunting train can be covered in no-time.

While we primarily run shield fleets, most of the skills you use will be reusable for armour fleets as well. The skills required to fit a solid armour tank is listed in the right-most column even though they are not necessary to train right away.

Support skills	Gunnery skills	Missile skills	Crosstraining armour skills
~ 40 days and 6 hours	~ 20 days and 5 hours	~ 26 days and 22 hours	~ 14 days and 16 hours
Cybernetics I Electronics IV Engineering IV Mechanics IV Weapon Upgrades IV Energy Management IV Energy Systems Operation IV Shield Upgrades IV Tactical Shield Manipulation IV Jury Rigging III Shield Rigging III Signature Analysis IV Targeting IV Long Range Targeting IV Target Painting III Propulsion Jamming III Drones V Drone Interfacing III Scout Drone Operation V Combat Drone Operation III Gallente Drone Specialization III Drone Durability I Repair Drone Operation II Shield Emission Systems III <racial> Frigate IV <racial> Cruiser III Spaceship Command IV Battlecruisers IV	Gunnery IV Small <racial> Turret III Medium <racial> Turret IV Motion Prediction IV Rapid Firing IV Sharpshooter IV Surgical Strike IV Trajectory Analysis IV Controlled Bursts IV <weapon> Rigging III	Missile Launcher Operation V Light Missiles III Heavy Missiles IV Missile Projection IV Missile Bombardment IV Rapid Launch IV Guided Missile Precision IV Target Navigation Prediction IV Warhead upgrades IV Launcher Rigging III	Hull Upgrades V Armor Rigging III EM Armor Compensation III Explosive Armor Compensation III Kinetic Armor Compensation III Thermic Armor Compensation III Repair Systems II Remote Armor Repair Systems III

With the above mentioned skills, young unistas interested in doing incursions can fly one of the Minimum Incursion fits, while they train for a more suitable ship. See moving into useful hulls below for further training.

Logistics

Training for logistics is considerably more time-consuming than that of a regular damage dealer. Please remember that when you think the above mentioned skills for a damage dealer is a long train.

It takes up to 80 days to get good enough skills to fly a logistics starter fit.

Support skills	Shield skills	Drone skills	Crosstraining into armour
~ 66 days and 21 hours	~ 7 days and 19 hours	~ 5 days and 6 hours	~ 41 days and 12 hours
Cybernetics I Electronics IV Engineering IV Mechanics IV Energy Management IV Energy Systems Operation IV Energy Grid Upgrades IV Jury Rigging III Targeting V Multitasking III <racial> Frigate IV <racial> Cruiser V Long Range Targeting V Signature Analysis V Logistics IV Energy Emission Systems IV Sensor Linking IV	Tactical Shield Manipulation IV Shield Upgrades IV Shield Rigging III Shield Emission Systems IV	Drones V Drone Durability I Repair Drone Operation II	Hull Upgrades V Repair Systems II Armor Rigging III Remote Repair Systems IV EM Armor Compensation III Explosive Armor Compensation III Kinetic Armor Compensation III Thermic Armor Compensation III <racial> Frigate IV <racial Cruiser V

Thermodynamics

While not critical, being able to overheat your modules for a short while is often more than enough to save your ship when things turn from bad to worse. As such, it's also recommended that people train the following skills:

• Engineering V (+4 days and 6 hours)
• Science IV (+18 hours)
• Thermodynamics III (+11,5 hours)

Moving into useful hulls

Once you have the recommended skills, the step from a Battlecruiser up to a decent Battleship is surprisingly short and you should take this step as soon as possible to get into a decent ship. You might need to top off some of the support skills, pending on what ship you decide to move into, if you run into powergrid, CPU or cap issues.

If the Wartime Standard Operating Procedures (WSOP) is not an issue, there's also the strategic cruisers and the pirate faction battleships. For strategic cruisers you'll most likely continue with the gunnery skills you have but will require some support skills to V and of course your racial cruiser of choice to V. Then you just move towards tech two medium weapons for further efficiency. For pirate faction battleships hulls like the Machariel, Nightmare and Vindicator, which are better in all regards compared to the regular battleships regardless of your skill, you only need to train a secondary racial ship-line.

Flying ships that cost over a billion in just the hull shouldn't be taken lightly however, but from an efficiency point of view there is no reason not to get one.

Battleships	Strategic Cruisers	Pirate Faction Battleships	Crosstraining into a new race
~ 10 days and 2 hours	~ 40 days and 4 hours	~ 17 days and 16 hours	~ 13 days and 8 hours
<racial> Cruiser IV <racial> Battleship III Gunnery V Large <weapon> Turret III	Mechanics V Shield Operation III Electronics V Engineering V Gunnery V Missile Launcher Operation V Navigation V <racial> Cruiser V	<primary> Cruiser IV <primary> Battleship III <secondary> Frigate IV <secondary> Cruiser IV <secondary> Battleship III Gunnery V Large <weapon> Turret III	<racial> Frigate IV <racial> Cruiser IV <racial> Battleship III Gunnery V Small <weapon> Turret III Medium <weapon> Turret III Large <weapon> Turret III

See the recommended battleship fits for vanguards and assaults.

This is just the the beginning ...

Remember that these recommendations are just for the basic levels and there is much room for improvement. Increase these skills, train up for tech two weaponry and max out the gunnery and support skills, and your ship will be much more efficient. You'll also have many more options to improve your fit with better fitting and support skills, like upgrading a module, swap out an ancillary current rig for a damage rig, drop an excessive tank module for more utility modules and so forth.

What you're going to train next differs a little bit based on what ship and what weapons you're going to use. For some fitting skills will be prioritized due to the lack of CPU/powergrid of their hull, for others capacitor skills are more important while others can simply go straight for better ship skills and tech two weaponry.

Fitting skills	Support skills	Gunnery skills	Logistics skills
Prioritize which skills to train first, some are more important than others, so do your research.
Cybernetics V Electronics V Engineering V Mechanics V	Jury Rigging IV Energy Management V Energy Systems Operation V Shield Upgrades V Tactical Shield Manipulation V Shield Rigging V Targeting V Multitasking III Long Range Targeting V	Weapon Upgrades V Advanced Weapon Upgrades V Gunnery V Motion Prediction V Rapid Firing V Sharpshooter V Surgical Strike V Trajectory Analysis V Controlled Bursts V <weapon> Rigging IV Small <racial> Turret V Medium <racial> Turret V Large <racial> Turret V Small <racial> Specialization IV Medium <racial> Specialization IV Large <racial> Specialization IV <racial> Battleship V	Shield Emission Systems V Energy Emission Systems V Sensor Linking V Repair Drone operation V

Once you've trained these skills, you can fly some of the more advanced fits for vanguards or assaults.