Table of Contents

Fitting

Trying to find out how to fit a Doctrine ship?


Preparations

Before you do anything else, make sure you have the Python Fitting Assistant, or pyfa. Pyfa has at least one fairly annoying bug in Linux.


The Art of Fitting

Fitting basically boils down to adding modules to your ship to make it capable of fulfilling a certain role. This can become a very complex thing given the many ships, the large amount of roles those ships can take and the variety of modules that can go on ships.

The three basic categories for roles are PVP, PVE, and Industry.

Common PVP roles:

Common PVE roles:

Common Industry roles:


Slot Basics

Each ship has a distinct number of slots, which is broken up into three categories: High, Medium and Low slots. If you click on the Fitting button on the left hand side of screen, in game, you can see how many of each slot you have on your active ship. You can also find this information by reading the little box with information in it in game (press the blue exclamation button).

Check out this Ship Modules page for more information on these slots and what type of modules go into them.


Which roles with which ship

Usually the role a ship can fulfill will be determined by the bonuses it gets. Look in the info of the ship you want to fit and see where the bonuses point you too. Or the other way around, if you have a certain role in mind, then pick a ship that has the bonuses that compliment that role.


Fitting Skills

Fitting skills they help you fit modules to your ship. These are essential skills for any pilot in order to maximize the effectiveness of their ship.

CPU Skills

CPU Power or CPU for short is one of the basic attributes for all ships. Your ship's CPU Power output can be increased by training the CPU Management skill to a maximum of 125% of base output. If more CPU Power is required one can fit a Co-Processor or CPU Enhancement to boost CPU output. Additionally certain skills lower the CPU Power requirements for modules such as missile launchers, shield upgrades and electronic warfare modules.

Power Grid

Power Grid (commonly referred to as PG) is a basic attribute for all ships. Training the Engineering skill will boost PG up to a maximum of 125% of base output. Modules such as Power Diagnostics Systems and Reactor Control Units increase a ship's available Powergrid by a percentage. A Micro Auxiliary Power Core also increases available PG by a fixed amount and is more suited to small ships such as frigates. Certain skills such as Shield Upgrades and Advanced Weapon Upgrades reduce the PG requirements for modules such as shield extenders and turrets, respectively.

Rigs

Rigs don't have Power Grid or CPU fitting requirements, but instead require calibration, a rig-specific fitting resource. All ships have 400 calibration points, except for pirate faction ships which have 350. A Tech 1 rig requires between 50 and 250 calibration points, with Tech 2 variants requiring 50% more calibration than their Tech 1 equivalents.They also are destroyed when you repackage the ship (often required for our haulers).


Resists

Damage comes in 4 types, and your shield, armor and structure have inbuilt resistances to each of those. In many fits you will want to fit your ship so that it can reduce incoming damage. Specifically when Ratting.

Make sure you know the basics on how resistance works before trying to fit that Isk making Ratter.

Note: In Pyfa you can see your ships' resists in the right side panel in the “Hitpoints” section.


Weapon Types

For more information on different weapon systems, see Weapons

Turrets

Sizes:

Missiles

Sizes:

Assault Missile Launchers are a specialized cruiser weapon designed to take out frigates.


Damage Type


Ship Resources

“I tried to put this DOOMSDAY on my frigate and it won't Fit!”

All modules have a specific powergrid and CPU requirement to fit. A doomsday for a titan will not fit on a frigate because it requires so much powergrid and CPU to run. There are mods to increase both but beware as you might be able to make it fit by bettering your skills or you might be decreasing the effectiveness of the ship as that slot could be better used elsewhere.

Also of note: mods usually (especially for high slots) come in different sizes for different class ships. Frigates and destroyers are small, cruisers and battlecruisers are medium, battleships are large, and capitals are extra large. Note however, some module names can be misleading: a Medium Pulse Lasers, for example, are small – frigate-sized – guns. Another misleading one is the XL Shield Booster; it is not, in fact a capital sized module (the Capital Shield Booster is, however).

NOTE: You can sometimes fit oversized modules. Example: A 100MN Afterburner on a T3 cruiser, or a Heavy Energy Neutralizer on a T2 cruiser to get 75km neut range. It can be done, but there are many reasons why you wouldn't want to in most cases.

Do not mix turret ranges

Ex. How NOT to fit a Rifter:

Spreading your damage output over different ranges will mean that when you are shooting at the furthest gun optimal (the 250mm arti), the other guns are ineffectual. In this example the 250mm artillery reaches far further, However, long range guns cannot do a lot of damage, even if used close range.

Turning this around, where you are shooting something close, then you are not doing your maximum damage potential. Instead of the 250mm artillery you could have fitted a gun for short range which does more damage, but can only do that in closer ranges.

Mixing ranges makes you a jack of all trades, but in none of those will the fit excel. Instead your fit should maximize your effectiveness in a narrow role. It's up to you to play that role effectively.

A better example of turrets on a rifter:


Fitting Guide

There is no shame in losing a ship, only in losing a poorly fit one.

The goal of this guide is to help understand how and why ships are fit they way they are. It will cover the terminology used, out of game tools that many players find indispensable, damage types, and tank types, resistances and how they are calculated, along with the modules that are necessary for a competent fit.

Fitting a ship correctly is not nearly as complicated as it seems. There may be thousands of modules and combinations but they can be narrowed down to a few general groups. In this section we will outline these groups and some general rules, tips and tricks to avoid shit-fits and general embarrassment.

The physical act of fitting a ship is simple, open the items hangar and the fitting window, drag the item from your hangar to the correct slot. High slot is three lines like a Benz,(/|\) Mid slots are two lines,(–) and low slots are one line(-) These icons tell you what slot a module goes into and can be found on the market screen or the fitting tab of the module’s show info window.

Modules can be divided into general groups, tank, fitting, capacitor, weapons/damage mods and utility.

Every Ship has three “stats” CPU, Power Grid and Capacitor. CPU and Power Grid are for fitting, most modules use some cpu and grid, there are a few with no fitting requirements. Capacitor is what runs all the active modules on a ship. The top right of the fitting window has a capacitor meter showing how long all the modules on a ship can run for. (pic) If the cap is stable it means all the mods can run forever, don’t worry if the ship is not stable, very rarely are all the mods going to be running all the time.


Fitting Order

What goes on first

Let's assume now that you have a certain role you would like to fit a ship for. Open Pyfa, and start fitting the modules that define the role. Always fit those first. This is because there are limited resources and you will or might need to compromise on the quality of the modules against limited resources when finishing the fit. You do not want to compromise the modules that actually define the fit. Certainly not at this stage anyway.

For example:


What goes on second

Next you will want to fit modules that help the modules already fitted, so they get boosted with even more potential. Often you will find that modules are greatly improved by adding those support mods. There are also mods that increase the efficiency of the intended role instead of supporting to already fitted mods. That is what goes on next.

For example:


What is left

You now have the basic role fitted on your ship, but will still have slots and resources left. Never leave slots empty if at all possible. Also try and maximize the resources that your ship has (CPU, Powergrid and Capacitor). If you have alot of those left, then you most likely have not fitted your ship to maximum potential.

You will want to fit modules that expand the possibilities of the ship beyond its most basic role. Here you will also find tweaks and opportunities to make a ship fitted to more specific roles beyond your basic role.

For example:


Optimizing

You will often find that you cannot fit all the modules that you would like. You will need to compromise. You will also notice that you just prefer the fit differently in practice then you theory crafted in Pyfa. Fits might look very good on paper but work out differently when actually piloting them. This is a common thing and often referred to as Pyfa-warrioring.

For example: