Blockade Runners are Tech 2 industrial ships, specialized for travel through dangerous areas of space. Though they can carry only relatively small amounts of cargo (compared to other industrial ships), they are some of the fastest and most agile ships in EVE, and can fit covert ops cloaking devices, making them very hard to catch by enemy pilots.

Most blockade runners can carry around 4000-6500 m3 of cargo (depending on fit), which is slightly less than the fast Tech 1 industrial ships. Additionally, every blockade runner can be fit for maximum cargo space, allowing them to carry just over 10,000 m3 (so that they can carry a packaged cruiser), but at the cost of reduced agility and/or speed.

Blockade runners are immune to cargo scanners (so others players cannot tell what you are transporting), but can still be scanned for contraband by NPC customs ships.

Blockade runners are the fastest industrial ships by quite a margin, both at sub-light speeds and in warp. In sub-light, they can do at least 200 m/s, and can top 300 m/s when fit for speed (which is comparable to a fast cruiser). In warp, blockade runners are some of the fastest ships in EVE: when fit for speed, they can reach over 9 AU/s, meaning they can easily outrun any ship save for speed-fit interceptors and the Leopard.

In addition to their speed, blockade runners are also very agile. Even when fit to maximise cargo space, they can align and warp in 5 seconds (assuming the propulsion module is not active); speed-fit blockade runners can align in 4 seconds (or even 3 seconds for some extreme fits, which is as agile as a frigate). Reducing align time is, however, heavily dependent on having good navigation skills or fitting implants.

Given that blockade runners are designed to fly quickly and stealthily, it's not surprising that their tanks are relatively weak. They have around 8-15k effective hit points (EHP), which is roughly comparable to the Tech 1 bulk transports. On the upside, their signature radius is around 110m, half of the Tech 1 industrials', which makes them harder to lock on to or hit with weapons. Nonetheless, blockade runners are fragile for their size; most cruisers with a similar signature radius have 4-10x as much EHP.

Blockade runners can fit covert ops (CovOps) cloaking devices, which means they can warp while cloaked. They can also use covert jump bridges (created by Black Ops battleships).