Test Wiki Please Ignore

The carrier is one of the most versatile ships in Eve. It is one of the most powerful combat ships, as well as your own moving truck for deployments. They are expensive and difficult to use properly, so this guide will help avoid you losing your carrier in a ball of fire.

A carrier is a capital ship and works differently than most ships you've flown. You cannot use Jump Bridges like a sub-capital ship. To make up for this, carriers have a jump drive that allows them to jump to any system in range.

In order to jump to a system, you need:

• A lit Cynosural Field or Cynosural Field Generators in the target system.
• The system must be in range.
• Enough fuel in your fuel bay.
• Enough capacitor to jump.
• Not being warp disrupted (point or bubble).

Cynosural Fields consume Liquid Ozone and are active for 10 minutes. You can light one using any ship but it's best to use a cheap frigate, as you cannot move, warp or dock for 10 minutes and show up on everybody's overview. You must be in fleet in order to jump to somebody's cyno.

Cynosural Field Generators is a POS module that creates a permanent Cynosural Field usable by the alliance. All available cyno generators will show up in your “jump to” list, even if they are not in range. Jumping to an unscouted cyno generator is one of the easiest ways to lose your carrier.

Your maximum jump range is based on the Jump Drive Calibration skill. Post Phoebe carriers have the same base jump distance as all other capitals.

• JDC0 is 3.5 light years
• JDC4 is 6.0 light years
• JDC5 is 7.0 light years

Capitals use isotopes to jump, the amount based on the Jump Fuel Conservation skill. Each race has their own type of fuel: Helium Isotopes for Amarr, Hydrogen Isotopes for Minmatar, Oxygen Isotopes for Gallente, Nitrogen Isotopes for Caldari.

• JFC 0 is 1,000 isotopes per light year
• JFC 1 is 900 isotopes per light year
• JFC 2 is 800 isotopes per light year
• JFC 3 is 700 isotopes per light year
• JFC 4 is 600 isotopes per light year
• JFC 5 is 500 isotopes per light year

The alliance provides the fuel for capital ops.

Jumping uses roughly 75% of your maximum capacitor. You cannot jump if you don't have enough capacitor.

You should have your own cyno alt(s) on a separate account from your capital ship pilot. This should be a character you don't mind being podded because you're going to need to do that a lot to move around. While your 50M SP tengu alt may be able to light cynos, it is not a cyno alt because it probably has implants too. The best cyno alts are have cyno 4 so they can light noobship cynos, and they are not Amarr because CCP hates the Imparior and refuses to expand its cargo bay by 5m3. Bonus points for cyno alts who can fly interceptors/stealth bombers to get survive any camps that may be along your route.

Carriers have some special abilities, making them highly versatile.

Carriers allows any ships in fleet to refit if they are in range (5km). This avoids having to dock up to change your fit, allowing ships to refit based on the situation. This might be the most powerful function a carrier has in a fleet.

Carriers can carry a number of assembled ships in its Ship Maintenance Bay. This means you don't have to repackage a ship (and lose the rigs) when moving. The bay can also be configured to be accessible by alliance or fleet members.

In addition to a normal cargo bay, carriers have a large Fleet Hanger for holding modules and items. Same as the ship maintenance bay, the fleet hanger can be opened to alliance or fleet members and opened in space.

Each race has their own carrier with different strengths and weaknesses. However, virtually all of the content covered in this guide applies to all of the carriers.

The Archon is the Amarr offering and the best armor carrier. Capital and supercapital fleets are usually armor tanked so the armor resists and armor transfer range bonuses are great. The energy transfer range bonus also allows the Archon to cap chain better than its non-bonused counterparts. A notable drawback to the Archon is that it has no bonus to shield transfer range, making it virtually useless on tower save ops.

Amarr Carrier Skill Bonuses:

• 50% bonus to Capital Energy and Armor transfer range per level
• 4% bonus to all Armor resistances per level

The Chimera is the Caldari counter-part to the Archon, sporting shield resists and shield transfer range bonuses. The Chimera is the best shield carrier.

Caldari Carrier Skill Bonuses:

• 50% bonus to Capital Energy and Shield transfer range per level
• 4% bonus to all Shield resistances per level

The Thanatos is the Gallente carrier, specializing in fighter damage. Unfortunately, sentries are used more often than fighters and the weak tank hurts the Thanatos. Because it doesn't get a capacitor transfer range bonus, Thanatos pilots should find a cap buddy rather than join a cap chain.

Gallente Carrier Skill Bonuses:

• 50% bonus to Capital Shield and Armor transfer range per level
• 5% bonus to deployed Fighters’ damage per level

The Nidhoggur is the Minmatar carrier, specializing in logistics. Like the Thanatos it doesn't have a resist bonus giving it a weak tank, but it has bonuses to armor and shield transfer amount. This makes it the best carrier for repairing structures but that's it. Again like the Thanatos, Nidhoggur pilots should find a cap buddy rather than join a cap chain.

Minmatar Carrier Skill Bonuses:

• 50% bonus to Capital Shield and Armor transfer range per level
• 7.5% bonus to Capital Shield and Armor transfer amount per level

Because of the refitting ability of carriers, you should have every possible useful fit in your cargohold. You're expected to know the fits by memory and be able to switch on the fly, sometimes without the FC saying.

Armor:

• Archon
• Thanatos

Shield:

• Nidhoggur
• Chimera

Fighter Bombers can only be used by carriers and Supercarriers. They are expensive and take up a lot of space, but are better than regular combat drones. Fighters have a warp drive (they will automatically follow). The main downside with fighters is the price, as the fleet can lose billions from a single bombing run. All fighters do the same DPS but have different attributes like damage types, speed, tracking speed, and optimal range. Fighters are also not affected by drone skills or mods.

You have such a large drone bay that it's possible to take a set or two of every type of drone. Some useful ones to have:

• Armor and Shield repair drones for when repairing without triage.
• ECM drones for when you get tackled alone.
• Salvage drones for when you've got nothing better to do.
• Light combat drones for when you can't track frigates.

Okay, so you've got your rusty new Nidhoggur and just gotten into the capitals group, WAT DO?

First thing is to check the stickied capitals forum post and make sure you are fit right for the current tactics. Make sure you have all the relevant modules and get yourself fueled up, that includes stront for a few cycles of triage. You should try to keep at least 40k isotopes on hand so that we don't have to wait around fueling people up when a happens.

When a broadcast does go out, join the fleet, stay docked, and read the MOTD. The MOTD contains important information like how many isotopes you will need, what kind of fits we are leaving with, etc., For scheduled ops, this information will often be in the op posting and broadcast, but the MOTD is always the most accurate and up to date version.

The most important thing to make sure of during an op is that you stay within refit range (5km) of another carrier. The ability to swap modules is truly the most powerful aspect of a carrier. Get used to the fact that EVE sometimes has a mind of its own with regards to navigation instructions and its your job to keep the game in check. So if the FC has everyone aligned you need to periodically verify that you are still aligned. If the FC has everyone in a tight cluster around something, periodically verify that you are not drifting away from the group.

You don't need the fits memorized, but you should have some idea of what “tank fit”, “cap fit”, and “slowcat fit” are for your carrier. They are all described above. Don't be afraid to have EFT/pyfa open with the fits for reference during an op. Don't worry about things too much for your first op, but one thing you will want to get used to over time is the idea of tweaking your fit without the FC telling you to.

Let's go through an imaginary op (that might really just be a vague AAR of last week's 1-S IHUB fight) as an example.

• Watchlist the FC and the drone assign, these are probably the same person and it will be in the MOTD
• Get ready for cap chain/buddy as appropriate for your carrier
  • Nids and Thannies find a cap buddy via fleet chat and watchlist him or her.
  • Archons and Chimeras join the cap chain channel. (Someone who flies an Archon or Chimera should write tips here, I fly a Nid)
• We are about to jump slowcats into 1-S yet again to defend our IHUB. Before jumping in, refit to your tank fit and a 100MN MWD in the mids. The tank will help you survive and the MWD will help you get back to the carrier blob faster.
• Okay, now you are in system. First thing is to break invuln by approaching either the FC or your cap buddy so that your cap buddy can lock you up and start giving you cap.
• Next depends on the situation
  • Are you being primaried by a hostile fleet? If so, stay tank fit.
  • Is there a hostile fleet at all? If so, switch to whatever fit the FC called for (in this fictional case it would be slowcat fit)
  • Is nothing happening? Switch to whatever fit the FC called for, but maybe swap in some capacitor mods to get capped back up faster. Once you are capped up or if hostiles appear, switch to the fit the FC called for.
• For when fighting starts:
  • If at any point you get primaried by hostiles, switch back to your tank fit and broadcast for reps (shields for chimera, armor for everyone else)
  • For bomb damage or random hits by POS guns, you and your cap buddy should just help each other out and give a few cycles of reps as needed. In other fleets when bombed, it is common to broadcast for the item they are not tanked for (example shield tanked Rokhs broadcast for armor) DO NOT DO THIS IN CAP FLEET.
  • Unless your drones/fighters are literally right next to your carrier, do not try to recall them when bombed. Recalling them turns their MWDs on and just like a subcap with an MWD on, they will die.
• Eventually the fighting dies down and we get ready to jump out. As we are preparing to leave it is very important that people stay aligned and above jump cap. If you are not at jump cap, start refitting for cap immediately.
  • If for some reason you have to broadcast for cap, when you are full you should also broadcast “in position” or say “cap full” in fleet, because we can't see your cap level.
• Once back home, try to replace the fuel you used on the op so you are ready for the next op.

You're flying a very expensive ship, and everybody will want to kill you. Here are some simple steps to avoid losing your big boat.

• Don't rat in a carrier. It makes you a huge target and there are cheaper ships you can use. We lose more ratting carriers than anything else.
• Post-Scylla you can no longer assign fighters to a pilot not on your grid, so there is now even less reason to rat with a carrier.
• Make sure you scout a cyno beacon before jumping to it. If there are significant hostiles in system, use a station cyno or another route instead. That one neutral hostile can easily be a cloaked dictor/hictor with a cyno.
• Quickly do everything the FC says. Enemies are always looking to pick off stragglers, so you don't want to be that guy who wasn't aligned or jumped too slow.
• Double check your fuel bay before you undock or jump. If you don't have enough fuel, immediately tell the FC and avoid getting left behind.
• Bring all of the fits in your cargo bay. If the FC asks for a fit and you don't have it, you will hurt the fleet and it could result in your death.
• If you can, tell the fleet when you get disconnected. Otherwise, you could get left behind or probed down after an emergency warp.
• Spam dock after jumping to a station to avoid getting bumped out of the dock radius.
• Never warp to a gate or random cyno unless the FC tells you to. You don't want to be there when enemies come streaming through.
• Don't aggress on station if there is an enemy fleet in system unless you have support. You'll be laughed at if you die to sub-caps, and there could be an enemy titan in system ready to drive-by.

• Applying to capitals
• The Big Post of Useful Capital Information
• EVELopedia Carrier Article