Shadow of Cerberus EVE Community Forum

Fit of the Week: Blockade runners

If I measured my EVE time based on the metric "What single type of ship have I spent the largest number of hours in?", the answer would almost certainly be the humble blockade runner.  It's an indispensable tool for the industrialist EVE player, allowing us to get our high-value goods to market in the quickest way possible and return to our manufacturing systems with the raw materials necessary for the next batch of goods.  Because I serve a number of markets other than Jita, my personal manufacturing system is pretty central in New Eden so I spend a ton of time warping alts in blockade runners back and forth, back and forth.  Scoff at "Ripard the carebear" all you like but without these quick little haulers, I would probably soon be bankrupt and would probably have to join Goonswarm to play EVE.  Can't have that.  ;-)

And there's so many hideously bad BR fits out there that I thought I'd lay down the very simple rules for fitting one.  They're very easy to understand.

1. Your rigs are two Cargohold Optimizations.  If you put anything else there, you will eventually be sorry that you did.  Yes, I know, putting Polycarbs or Low Frictions here is awesome.  Resist.  Sooner or later, you'll need the extra cargo room.
2. Your first high slot is a Covert Ops Cloak.  Seriously, there's no reason to have anything else there.
3. There are only three acceptable mods for your low slots: Nanofiber Internal Structures, Expanded Cargoholds, and Warp Core Stabilizers.  If you are putting anything else in your low slots, you are making a terrible mistake.
4. If you do not fit a Microwarpdrive, you will come to regret it.
5. Do not fit an aggressive mod on a blockade runner.  That means all you special people with ECM Bursts on yours, take them off!
6. The rest of your mid slots should be shield resist mods.

Here's basic fits for all four BRs, then a discussion of the specifics:

[Crane, Basic]
'Halcyon' Core Equalizer I
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
EM Ward Field II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

Medium Cargohold Optimization I
Medium Cargohold Optimization I


[Prorator, Basic]
'Halcyon' Core Equalizer I
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Expanded Cargohold II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

Medium Cargohold Optimization I
Medium Cargohold Optimization I


[Prowler, Basic]
'Halcyon' Core Equalizer I
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Salvager I

Medium Cargohold Optimization I
Medium Cargohold Optimization I


[Viator, Basic]
'Halcyon' Core Equalizer I
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

Medium Cargohold Optimization I
Medium Cargohold Optimization I


Each of these ships holds about 5000m3, which is fine for a basic blockade runner.  In the general case, your basic low slots for a BR regardless of where you fly it should be (in order) one Warp Core Stabilizers, two Nanofiber Internal Structures, then fill in with Expanded Cargoholds.  Then throw enough Expanded Cargoholds to fill your lows into your cargo hold.  That will allow you to maximize your cargo room when needed.  Each time you prepare to undock in your BR, only fit as many ECs as you need to carry the load you intend to carry (if more than 5k m3).  If you're in high-sec, unfit a Nanofiber last.  If you're in low- or null-, unfit the Warp Core Stab last.

Many high-sec BR ganks are done with lower alpha ships such as Catalysts or Thrashers, or a single Thorax or Talos.  In this situation, a single WCS probably won't save your ship, but if you survive the initial volley, it increases your odds of getting your ship out of harm's way.  And in low- and null-, that single WCS is absolutely invaluable.  Lots and lots of gate-camps rely on a single fast tackle and if you can shrug that off, the remaining ships will be of no danger to you.

It is also for this reason that you should never fit an Inertial Stabilizer to a blockade runner no matter where you fly it.  This mod increases your ship's signature, which does two things to you and it's very hard to decide which one is worse:

1. it means that gankers can lock you faster; and,
2. it means that gankers can hit you for more damage with larger weapons.

The very tiny benefit that an Inertia Stablizers gives you over a Nanofiber Internal Structure is not worth the downside.

So one more time: fit Expanded Cargoholds until you can carry your intended load.  Then fit one WCS.  Then fill in with Nanofibers to decrease your align time.  And keep in mind that align time rounds up.  In some cases, a second or third Nano provides little to no benefit and should be replaced with a second WCS so you can shrug off even more tackle, particularly if you intend to fly in low or null.  But be aware that a good fleet agility bonus might be the difference between a four- and five-second align, so keep that in mind too as you fit out your lows.

EDIT (13/Jun/2013): One more time: align time rounds up.  If you are trying to cut your align time from 3.4 seconds to 3.2 seconds, you are wasting your time unless you are going to have a fleet agility booster in system to cut that align time from 3.2 seconds to 3.0 seconds.  It is for this reason that "max agility" BR fits are nearly always a myth.

While it's amusing and semi-effective to try to buffer tank a blockade runner, don't do it because having that Microwarpdrive is generally so much more useful.  Because you can accelerate under MWD while cloaked, if you run into a situation where you're tempted to tank, it will be a better choice to MWD, then cloak the ship.  In this way you can either burn back to a nearby gate in relative safety, or you can burn off in a random direction to prevent someone decloaking you.  An afterburner just isn't going to cut it for either of these situations.  The buffer tank will also increase your sig slightly and honestly, if someone can cut through your HP without the buffer tank, they can probably cut through it with.

In much the same way, don't try to active tank a BR.  Even the toughest BR has no more combat HP than a assault frigate, and it has double the sig.  Your small amount of buffer probably isn't going to stand up even with a fast-cycling ASB.  Instead, I like to use active resists on my BRs, but it's honestly mostly for the peace of mind factor.  As you come out of warp on a busy station or an unscouted gate, decloak and turn them on.  They may or may not buy you the few fractions of a second you need to jump or dock.

Finally, one little high-sec BR trick that isn't used enough: give a BR to your alt in your manufacturing system, and a second identically fit BR to your alt in your biggest market system.  Decide on a meeting point half-way in between, create a safespot there, and give the bookmark to both alts.  When you need to transfer goods to market, load the first BR in your manufacturing system to capacity.  Load the BR in the market system with raw materials, also to capacity.  Then undock both and fly both to the meeting point, and trade cargoes.  This has a couple of advantages:

• it roughly halves the amount of time that the transport run takes; and,
• it confuses gankers, who expect BRs to travel on one-way paths, reducing the likelihood that you'll be randomly ganked.

Remember that as of December 2012, BRs are now immune to cargo scanning.  But there's still every reason to go ahead and cloak as you warp them around.  That also improves your odds of not being a victim of a random gank.

Which BR is the best?  They all have their fans.  But for my money, it's the Prorator for high-sec, and the Viator for low and null.  Believe it or not, the Prorator is the quickest aligning one.  It also holds the most.  The Viator has quickness and a tiny ship model on its side, which is the best for evading gate-camps.  The Prorator loses here because its model is huge.  I've decloaked lots of Prorators but decloaking a Viator is very tough.  But the Prowler has lots of fans for that second high slot and of course lots of Prowler pilots can also fly Fenrirs and Nomads so I can understand the loyalty its fans have for it.  And Prowlers are popular in w-space where that second high slot can carry a probe launcher and for scanning moons.  The Crane is indisputably the worst one.  Huge model, slow, poor agility, poor carrying capacity.

EDIT (13/Jun/2013): With the advent of Odyssey, you no longer need Racial Industrial V to unlock freighters.  I've also explicitly mentioned the advantages of the Prowler's second high slot.  Thanks for the comments on these points!

That's it: keep BRs simple, clean, consistent, and effective.  Don't try a lot of razzle dazzle because the ship simply isn't tough enough to do anything fancy.  Instead, use its advantages of agility, small sig, and speed to get the goods to market.  Happy hauling!


All Fits of the Week are intended as general guidelines only.  You  may not have the skills needed for this exact fit.  If you do not, feel  free to adjust the fit to suit to meet your skills, including using meta  3 guns and "best named" defenses and e-war.  Ships can also be adjusted  to use faction or dead-space modules depending on the budget of the  pilot flying it.  Each FOTW is intended as a general guide to introduce  you to concepts that will help you fit and to fly that particular type  of ship more aggressively and well.
Source: Fit of the Week: Blockade runners