Ship fitting in EVE Online is the art (and science) of equipping your ship with modules, rigs, and ammunition to achieve a specific purpose—combat, mining, exploration, hauling, or support. A good fit can make the difference between victory and a quick trip back to your home station in a pod.
What Is Ship Fitting?
Ship fitting is the process of customizing your ship by installing modules, rigs, and ammunition to optimize it for a specific role or activity.
Think of it like building a loadout in a shooter or an equipment setup in an RPG: your choices determine how effective your ship will be.
- Ships are essentially platforms: their bonuses and stats influence what they’re good at (combat, mining, exploration, logistics, etc.).
- Fitting is how you specialize a ship: for example, a frigate can be set up for fast tackling in PvP, or for scanning down anomalies in exploration.
Your fit determines:
- Tank (how much damage you can absorb or avoid)
- DPS (damage per second you deal)
- Utility (tackling, e-war, logistics, scanning, etc.)
- Capacitor (whether your modules can keep running)
- Mobility (speed, agility, warp capability)
Fitting Mechanics
Every ship has four main fitting restrictions:
- Powergrid (PG) – governs how much raw power your ship has for weapons, armor plates, shield extenders, etc.
- CPU – determines how much processing your ship can handle for electronic modules (weapons, repairers, e-war, propulsion).
- Calibration – governs how many rigs you can install.
- Capacitor (Cap): Your ship’s energy pool. Many modules require capacitor to run. A fit that “caps out” too quickly is useless.
Additionally, ships have different kinds of slots:
- High Slots – typically weapons, mining lasers, cloaks, or utility modules.
- Mid Slots – shield modules, propulsion (afterburners, microwarpdrives), tackle (warp scramblers, webs), electronic warfare.
- Low Slots – armor tank modules, damage upgrades, power/capacitor mods.
- Rig Slots – permanent ship modifications (more DPS, tank, capacitor efficiency, etc.).
- Subsystems (on strategic cruisers only).
Core Fitting Philosophies
- Know your role. A tackle frigate doesn’t need a big tank; it needs speed and scrams. A mission battleship doesn’t need warp disruptors.
- Match tank to slots.
- Shield tanks use mid-slots → better on Caldari/Minmatar.
- Armor tanks use low-slots → better on Amarr/Gallente.
- Capacitor management matters. A fit that drains cap in 30 seconds will fail in PvE. In PvP, cap boosters can be lifesavers.
- Don’t mix tank types. Splitting shield and armor modules makes you weak at both. Pick one.
- Speed is tank. For small ships, agility and velocity often keep you alive longer than raw HP.
- Meta levels matter. Higher-tech modules (T2, faction, deadspace, officer) are more effective, but more expensive. For learning, T1 and “meta” named modules are fine.
- Ships have there own bonus’s – When fitting a ship look at its specific bonus’s, picking the right ship for the task is half the battle.
Types of Fits
When fitting a ship, always start with its intended purpose. Some common fitting types:
- PvE Fits
- Designed for missions, ratting, Abyssals, or incursions.
- Prioritize sustainable tank (shield booster/armor repairer with capacitor stability) and enough DPS to clear NPCs efficiently.
- PvP Fits
- Designed for fighting other players.
- Focused on burst performance (high DPS, strong tackle, or overwhelming e-war).
- Tank is often buffer-based (big shields/armor to survive long enough) instead of sustainable repairs.
- Exploration Fits
- Built for hacking relic/data sites.
- Emphasize mobility, scanning strength, virus coherence, and escape ability (cloaks, warp core stabs).
- Mining/Industry Fits
- Designed to maximize ore/ice harvesting, with enough tank to survive rats or time to warp out.
- Logistics Fits
- Focused on repairing other players (remote armor/shield reps).
- Built for capacitor efficiency, range, and tank.
Tools & Resources
Fitting ships can be overwhelming, so most players use external tools:
- Pyfa (Python Fitting Assistant) – free desktop app to simulate fits.
- EVE Workbench and Osmium (legacy) – online fitting databases.
- In-game Fitting Tool – lets you simulate fits directly inside EVE.
LSE also has suggested fits in-game and on the website for members to use.
- Got to the fittings window
- Click on hulls and fits
- Click on corp fits
Golden Tips
- Don’t fly what you can’t afford to lose.
- Always check the ship’s bonuses—they tell you how it wants to be fit.
- Fit for a role, not for “all-around use,” a ship without a purpose is a bad fit.
- In PvP, assume your ship will be destroyed—plan accordingly.
- Ask for doctrine fits if flying in a corporation/fleet.
- Don’t be afraid to experiment—fitting is half the fun of EVE.
- Practice with cheap ships before upgrading.
- Save your fits in-game for easy refitting.