Missiles

Missile Basics

Unlike the rounds fired from laser, hybrid or projectile turrets, missiles take considerable time to reach their target.

The damage done by a missile is affected by three properties:

1) Missile maximum flight range can be calculated by multiplying its velocity and flight time. If the missile cannot reach the target, it will not do any damage.

2) Target signature radius is compared to the missiles explosion radius to determine missile damage.

3) Target velocity is compared with the missiles explosion velocity to determine missile damage.

Flight Range

Calculating the distance a missile can cover is rather easy:

Each missile has its own velocity and max flight time, listed in meters/second and seconds respectively when you look up information on the missile. Multiplying these two factors gives the distance in meters the missile will travel before expiring.

Both of these properties will be modified by your character's skills. To see modified attributes, load missiles into launcher of your ship and right click on them to show info.

NOTE: Just because a target is within your missiles range do not assume that your missile will be able to reach it. A fast traveling target may move out of their maximum flight range in the time that missile takes to fly to its location.

Basics of Missile Damage

Explosion Radius is one of properties of missiles that gets factored in when calculating damage output. Each missile has an explosion radius and each target has a signature radius. If the targets signature radius is bigger than or as big as the missile’s explosion radius the missile will deal full damage (velocity factor described later may reduce this damage). If the targets signature radius is smaller than the missile’s explosion radius the damage done will be reduced.

Keeping it simple: Big missiles do less damage on small ships then they do on big ships, and small missiles will do the same amount of damage to big ships as they do to small ships.

Related Skills and Modules: The explosion radius of missiles can be reduced by training the skill "Guided Missile Precision”. One can also use target painters to boost signature radius of target ship and maximize damage.

Missile Type	Explosion radius	Ship Type	Typical Signature Radius
Torpedo	450m	Carrier	2950
Cruise	300m	Dread	1740
Heavy	125m	Battleship	400
Assault	125m	Cruiser	125
Light	50m	Frigate	40
Rocket	20m	Pod	25

• A torpedo vs. a battleship above will have a slight damage reduction.
• A rocket vs. a pod will do full damage.
• A cruise missile vs. a frigate will have its damage significantly reduced.

Explosive Velocity is another property of missiles that gets factored in for calculating damage that they do. If the target is slower or as fast as the missile’s explosion velocity, the missile will deal full damage (damage can be reduced by radius as described before). If the target is faster than the missile’s explosion velocity, the damage done will be reduced. NOTE: explosion velocity is not same as missile's traveling velocity.

Keeping it simple: Low explosion velocity does less damage on fast ships.

Related Skills and Modules: Missile’s explosion velocity can be further increased with the skill “Target navigation prediction”. Stasis webifiers can decrease the target’s velocity, thus increasing how much damage it receives.

Base Explosive Velocity
Torpedo	71 m/s
Cruise	69 m/s
Heavy	81 m/s
Assault	101 m/s
Light	170 m/s
Rocket	85 m/s

Rate of fire of missile launcher is the property that directly relates to your ship's damage output. The faster you can fire missiles at a target, the more damage per second (DPS) you can yield. Different launchers have different base Rate of Fire (RoF). Rocket launchers have the highest RoF of all launchers in game. When flying ships fitted with these launchers you better make sure you have packed enough ammunition in your cargo. On the other hand, large ship launchers, such as cruise and torpedo launchers, have some of the lowest RoF in game.

Keeping it simple: The faster your launchers can fire the next round of missiles, the more damage your ship will do.

Related Skills and Modules: Missile Launcher Operation, Rapid Launch, Specialization skills, Bomb Deployment all serve to increase RoF of missile or bomb launchers. You can also fit Ballistic Control Unit to your ships to improve both RoF and damage output of your missiles.

Link to formula used to calculate damage done by missiles in EVE: Missile Damage

Types of Missiles

Regular (Standard) missiles

Missile Type	Use	Base range
Rockets	Very Short Range	4.500m base
Light missiles	Medium Range	18.750m base
Assault missiles	Short Range	9.000m base
Heavy missiles	Medium Range	37.500m base
Cruise missiles	Long Range	75.000m base
Torpedoes	Short Range	9.000m base

NOTE: Faction and T2 varieties of Regular (Standard) missiles exist (more on this later).

Defender missiles: Anti-missile missiles. These attack incoming missiles and attempt to destroy them before they can reach their target. NOTE: may require more than one defender to destroy incoming missile. Can only be activated if there are incoming missiles.

FoF Misiles: Friend or Foe missiles do less damage than standard missiles but do not require a target lock which is perfect if you have been jammed by ECM. FoF missiles go for the closest target that has an "aggression" flag set towards you.

Bombs: Fired by stealth bombers. Once launched bomb travels straight ahead for approximately 30km before detonating. Area of effect is 15km.

Varying Damage of Missle Types

One of the Advantages of Missles are that you can select any of the four Damage types. They are all presented here.

	Damage Type
	Thermal	Kinetic	EM	Explosive
Torpedo	Inferno	Juggernaut	Mjolnir	Bane
Cruise	Cataclysm	Wrath	Paradise	Devestator
Heavy	Widowmaker	Scourge	Thunderbolt	Havoc
Assault	Hellfire	Terror	Torrent	Fulmination
Light	Flameburst	Bloodclaw	Sabretooth	Piranah
Rocket	FoxFire	Thorn	Gremlin	Phalanx

There are several types of missiles for each class of missile. The Fury/Rage and Javelin/Precision types are T2 and require specialization in that Class. FoF missiles can be used in any class as long as the single skill is trained.

Note the following about the three types: Fury/Rage also increase your signature radius. Javelin/Precision will slow down your velocity. FoFs do not require a target lock, but will attack the nearest hostile target (So you don't need a lock, but you don't aim them).

	Missile Type
	Standard	Faction	Fury/Rage	Javelin/Precision	FoF	Faction FoF
Torpedo	450	517	576	405	--	--
Cruise	300	345	384	260	225	258
Heavy	150	172	192	130	113	129
Assault	100	115	128	90	--	--
Light	75	86	96	65	56	64
Rocket	25	28	32	22.5	--	--

Types of Launchers

• Rocket Launcher - fit to frigate hulls; loaded with rockets
• Standard Launcher - fit to frigate hulls; loaded with light missiles
• Assault Launcher - fit to cruisers as anti-frigate defense; loaded with light missiles
• Heavy Assault Launcher - fit to cruisers; loaded with heavy assault missiles
• Heavy Launcher - fit to cruisers; loaded with heavy missiles
• Siege Launcher - fit to battleships and stealth bombers; loaded with torpedoes
• Cruise Launcher - fit to battleships; loaded with cruise missiles
• Citadel Launcher - fit to capital ships; loaded with citadel torpedoes
• Bomb Launcher - fit to stealth bombers; loaded with bombs

For all of these types of launchers (except Citadel and Bomb launchers) several varieties are available in game:

Named Launchers: Arbalest, Limos, Malkuth, ZW-4100, XT-9000, XT-2800, XR-3200, SV-2000, TE-2100, OE-5200, etc. Named launchers tend to be used a lot in PvP. They generally have slightly better fitting, RoF, and capacity for a slight increase in cost. Since meta launchers are dropped in PvE they tend to be abundant on the market at a reasonable cost. The meta 4 launchers tend to be rather expensive though, so meta 3 is usually the more sensible option. Load them with faction missiles to increased damage in PvP (ex: Caldari Navy Paradise Cruise Missile).

T2 Launchers: These require more skill to fit; the corresponding missile launcher skill has to be trained to level V. So for example if you would like to use Cruiser Launcher II your character first has to train up Cruise Missiles V, which is a three week skill. T2 launchers are the only launchers able to fire T2 missiles.

Cosmos Launchers: Example ‘Balefire’. These have superior fitting requirements, but are quite rare and more expensive. You can find these selling on contracts.

Faction/Officer Launchers: Some of the richer mission runners invest in these to run missions even quicker, but they are not a good ISK investment for PvP due to the fact that even the worst officer launcher costs a few hundred million ISK. As with Cosmos launchers these get sold over contracts.

Anti-Missile Tactics

Fly faster than missiles flying after you: If your speed is greater than the missile’s velocity, it will never catch up with your ship. The goal here is to outrun the missile until its maximum flight time is exceeded. This is not an option to use countering some of the faster missiles in game, such as light missiles, as no ship is fast enough to outrun them. You can exercise it against some of the slower missile types, such as cruise and torpedo missile. Note that turning drastically reduces your speed and the missile can take a shorter path to catch you.

Fly out of missile maximum flight range: Missile can only cover a certain range before it eventually runs out of fuel and expires. If you are sitting close to the border of this range already you can attempt to move out a bit further. This tactic works best again short range missiles such as rockets, assault, and torpedoes.

Simply warp out: Another tactic practiced against larger, slower missiles. Missiles, unlike ammo, take time to reach their target. If you warp out before the hit you, you can avoid their damage. This tactic works well if the missile ship is sitting some distance away from you giving you 10-20 seconds to react before impact. Remember that an intact ship that is not on grid but ready to warp back into the fight is more useful to your gang than a ship that is dying or that has fallen dead to missiles.

Defender missiles: Defender missiles have a base speed of 7500 m/s and do 70 HP of base damage to incoming missiles Defender missiles can be loaded into all varieties of missile launchers with the exception of bomb launchers. Current opinion on these is that they do not work too well; as such you will almost never see these get used for PvP.

Smartbombs: These work on same principle as defender missiles. Smartbombs do damage to the missile and can destroy it before it reaches its target. Since smart bombs do damage to anything within their area of effect, so they can be used to destroy multiple incoming missiles. The trick here is to time their activation correctly and set them off when incoming missiles are within 5km range of your ship.

Electronic warfare: Two types of electronic warfare work against missile boats: ECM and dampeners. Tracking disruptors do not work against missile launchers because missile launchers do not track, neither do they have optimal or falloff ranges. Dampeners counter one of the advantages of flying a missile ship: being able to lock and always hit targets from extended ranges. Once dampened to below 20km targeting range, a missile ships lose a portion of their utility in PvP. ECM breaks target lock of missile ship making it unable to target anything. Missile ships have a defense against ECM, FoF missiles. However FOF missiles do less damage and focus only on the closest aggressed target. Some PvPers also forget to bring them along, making ECM quite effective to use against their ships.

Missile Related Skills

For Missile Launcher skills primary attribute is Perception, secondary attribute is Willpower.

Bomb Deployment: Basic operation of bomb delivery systems. 5% reduction of Bomb Launcher reactivation delay per skill level.

Citadel Torpedoes: Skill at the handling and firing of citadel torpedoes. 5% bonus to citadel torpedo damage per skill level.

Cruise Missiles: Skill at the handling and firing of very large guided missiles. 5% bonus to cruise missile damage per skill level.

Cruise Missile Specialization: Specialist training in the operation of advanced cruise missile launchers. 2% bonus per level to the rate of fire of modules requiring Cruise Missile Specialization.

Defender Missiles: Skill with anti-missile missiles. Special: 5% bonus to defender missile max velocity per skill level.

FoF Missiles: Skill with friend or foe missiles. Special: 5% bonus to F.O.F (light, heavy and cruise) damage per skill level.

Guided Missile Precision: Skill at precision missile homing. Proficiency at this skill increases the accuracy of a fired missile's exact point of impact, resulting in greater damage to small targets. 5% decreased factor of signature radius for light, heavy and cruise missile explosions per level of skill.

Heavy Assault Missile Specialization: Specialist training in the operation of advanced heavy assault missile launchers. 2% bonus per level to the rate of fire of modules requiring Heavy Assault Missile Specialization.

Heavy Assault Missiles: Skill with assault missiles. Special: 5% bonus to assault missile damage per skill level.

Heavy Missile Specialization: Specialist training in the operation of advanced heavy missile launchers. 2% bonus per level to the rate of fire of modules requiring Heavy Missile Specialization.

Heavy Missiles: Skill with heavy missiles. Special: 5% bonus to heavy missile damage per skill level.

Missile Bombardment: Proficiency at long-range missile combat. 10% bonus to all missiles' maximum flight time per level.

Missile Launcher Operation: Basic operation of missile launcher systems. 2% Bonus to missile launcher rate of fire per skill level.

Missile Projection: Skill at boosting missile bay propulsion systems and manipulating guided missiles' jet engines. 10% bonus to all missiles' maximum velocity per level.

Rapid Launch: Proficiency at rapid missile launcher firing. 3% bonus to missile launcher rate of fire per level.

Rocket Specialization: Specialist training in the operation of advanced rocket launchers. 2% bonus per level to the rate of fire of modules requiring Rocket Specialization.

Rockets: Skill with small short range missiles. Special: 5% bonus to rocket damage per skill level.

Standard Missile Specialization: Specialist training in the operation of advanced standard missile launchers and assault launchers. 2% bonus per level to the rate of fire of modules requiring Standard Missile Specialization.

Standard Missiles: Skill with manually targeted missiles. Special: 5% Bonus to light missile damage per skill level.

Target Navigation Prediction: Proficiency at optimizing a missile's flight path to negate the effects of a target's speed upon the explosion's impact. 10% decrease per level in factor of target's velocity for all missiles.

Torpedo Specialization: Specialist training in the operation of advanced siege launchers. 2% bonus per level to the rate of fire of modules requiring Torpedo Specialization.

Torpedoes: Skill at the handling and firing of torpedoes. 5% bonus to torpedo damage per skill level.

Warhead Upgrades: Proficiency at upgrading missile warheads with deadlier payloads. 2% bonus to all missile damage per skill level.

Missile Ships

As you can see from the ship bonuses listed below, Caldari ships tend to favor kinetic type damage as quite a few of their ships receive damage bonuses to this damage type. This makes them especially potent against Minmatar T2 ships that have lowest resistances on armor and shield as explosive/kinetic and that often rely on speed tanking tracking of turret ships.

Caldari ships that receive bonuses to missile launchers and missiles:

Caracal - Caldari cruiser, +5% bonus to kinetic missile damage per level on Caldari Cruiser skill, +10% bonus to light, heavy assault and heavy missile velocity per level on Caldari Cruiser skill

Drake - Caldari battlecruiser, +5% bonus to kinetic damage of heavy missiles and heavy assault missiles per level on Battlecruisers skill

Raven - Caldari battleship, +5% bonus to cruise and siege launcher rate of fire per level on Caldari Battleship skill, +10% bonus to cruise missile and torpedo velocity per level on Caldari Battleship skill

Crow - Caldari interceptor, +50% base bonus to kinetic missile damage, +10% bonus to missile velocity per level on Interceptor skill

Hawk - Caldari assault frigate, +25% base bonus to missile kinetic damage, +10% bonus to missile velocity per level on Assault Ships skill

Cerberus - Caldari HAC, +25% base bonus to kinetic missile damage and +50% base bonus to missile velocity, +10% bonus to heavy assault and heavy missile flight time per level on Heavy Assault Ships skill, +5% bonus to missile launcher rate of fire per level on Heavy Assault Ships skill

Onyx - Caldari HIC, +25% base bonus to kinetic missile damage, +10% bonus to heavy assault and heavy missile velocity per level on Heavy Interdictors skill

Rook - Caldari recon, +5% bonus to heavy and light missile kinetic damage per level on Recon Ships skill

Nighthawk - Caldari command ship, +25% base bonus to assault missile, heavy assault missile and heavy missile launcher rate of fire, +5% bonus to heavy missile kinetic damage and +5% bonus to heavy missile explosion velocity per level on Command Ships skill

Flycatcher - Caldari light interdictor, +50% base bonus to rocket and light missile velocity, +15% base reduction of Light missile damage reduction factor, +5% bonus to rocket and light missile kinetic damage per level on Interdictors skill

Non-Caldari ships that receive bonuses to missile launchers and missiles:

Eris - Gallente interdictor, +5% bonus to rocket and light missile thermal damage per level on Interdictors skill

Lachesis - Gallente recon, +5% bonus to heavy missile launcher and assault missile launcher rate of fire per level on Recon Ships skill

Heretic - Amarr interdictor, +25% base bonus to rocket damage, +25% base bonus to rocket and missile explosion velocity, +10% bonus to missile velocity per level on Interdictors skill

Malediction - Amarr interceptor, +25% base bonus to rocket damage

Vengeance - Amarr assault frigate, +25% base bonus to rocket damage

Sacrilege - Amarr HAC, +25% base bonus to heavy assault missile damage

Typhoon – Minmatar Battleship, 5% bonus to siege and cruise missile launcher RoF

Rigs

Bay Loading Accelerator I
Bonus: +10% to rate of file of missile launchers
Drawback: +10% increased CPU need of missile launchers

Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I
Bonus: +15% to missile velocity
Drawback: +10% increased CPU need of missile launchers

Rocket Fuel Cache Partition I
Bonus: +15% to missile maximum flight time
Drawback: +10% increased CPU need of missile launchers

Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Bonus: +10% to missile damage
Drawback: +10% increased CPU need of missile launchers

Warhead Flare Catalyst I
Bonus: +15% to missile explosion velocity
Drawback: +10% increased CPU need of missile launchers

Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
Bonus: -15% to missile explosion radius bonus
Drawback: +10% increased CPU need of missile launchers