Fit Kitchen: No Local Edition

So I’m going to take a hard stance here and say that a potential “Local Blackout” is the best news since the glass of prosecco that I just poured. It’s fantastic, I love it, it’s the best, thank you CCP. If you’ve been living under a VNI-shaped rock for the last few days then check out this video from the Scope.

The fits described in this article were created before the resistance nerf in April 2020. Post-patch revised fits will be marked with a ++ at the start of each fitting name although screenshots will not always be updated.

And now because I’d be bad journalist if I didn’t capitalise on recent events for more clicks, let’s take a stroll through various ways to fit a recon ship; preferably Combat Recons which are the kind that doesn’t appear on dscan. Force recons are fine, too, but they’re a bit more specialised half the time since covert cynos are a thing. First up will be the Curse and Pilgrim. With a direct offensive option by way of neuting I’m sure that they’ll be some of the most popular to choose from.

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Amarr Neuts: Curse & Pilgrim

If it wasn’t obvious I’ll be focusing more on the solo and small-gang PvP fits here with an emphasis on keeping things affordable. I don’t want to start with “Step 1: Buy three A-type invuls”. Also in true Fit Kitchen fashion we’ll start with the heavy neut curse. As you can see on the right, this monstrosity chunks capacitors for 1,200GJ. That’s enough to almost effectively cap out an opposing curse in one shot.

However, since a joule is effectively just a unit of energy, we can do the maths and work out that one gigajoule is equal to 239,006 kilocalories. In nicer units we can say that one 1GJ/s works out to 470 Big Macs per second. Therefore, every time the heavy neut Curse cycles (from over 78km+ mind you) it sucks almost two hundred thousand Big Mac meals out of the target. Here’s the fit:

[Curse, HEAVY O_O]

Dark Blood Reactor Control Unit
Dark Blood Reactor Control Unit
Dark Blood Reactor Control Unit
Dark Blood Reactor Control Unit

Republic Fleet Large Shield Extender
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Medium 'Gattotte' Capacitor Booster, Navy Cap Booster 800
Small Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 400
50MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive

Corpus C-Type Heavy Energy Neutralizer
Small Energy Neutralizer II
Small Energy Neutralizer II
Small Energy Neutralizer II
Small Energy Neutralizer II

Medium Ancillary Current Router II
Medium Ancillary Current Router II


Infiltrator II x5

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Now that isn’t the fit I’d necessarily recommend for general use. In a small gang scenario you likely want a bit more versatility than “hey I can neut from really far away!”, although that is good fun. Instead, my aspiring recon pilot friend, you can focus on one of two areas in an Amarrian ship such at this. Either stick with a neuty-shooty Curse that can take some punishment and hold a point, or go all out with weapon disruption from an armour Pilgrim.

Flying a shield Curse is hella fun. With the potential to suck up 49,000 Big Macs per second (-105GJ/s) you can flatten a cap regen Myrmidon in just 60 seconds. Most other targets, however, will drop off much sooner and you can basically just say ‘no’ to Hecates. As with all XLASB ships, watch out for alpha damage and try to utilise your neut range well here. Curse damage is also mostly just complimentary so don’t pretend to be a Gila and get back to sucking instead.

The Pilgrim, on the other hand, is a little more multi purpose. It features a Covert Cyno but don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a specialised hunter. It also isn’t exactly a throwaway 90k+ EHP entry point for blops. Instead, this is about as tanky as a cheap Pilgrim will go without cosplaying a literal brick. Neuting potential does drop down to 15.6k Big Macs per second (-33GJ/s), but bringing some extra toys to the table may be worth it. Of note is that an afterburner is a valid option too. Just be wary of bubbles and having to fully commit to every target.

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Minmatar Webs: Rapier & Huginn

I don’t like the Huginn at all. Compared to its sister ship, the Rapier, it really struggles to do anything useful with the high slots other than close-range DPS or long-range Nerf cannons. That said, I’m sure I can work some magic for the masochists out there. Instead, consider the Rapier and it’s beautiful missile hardpoints. Thanks to the magic of Rapid Light Missile Launchers it’s entirely possible to delete interceptors and related tackle pretty much instantly using this ship. As with the Curse before it, I can recommend an XLASB fit and present here one that my corp member Rex dreamed up.

Fed Navy webs as standard are a necessity, bringing your cold, non-linked range up to 56km. That’s enough to reach from Keflavík airport to CCP’s offices in Reykjavík with room to spare for anyone who tries to run away. Links and heat take the range even further out to 93.4km, or the equivalent of about a million Big Macs laid out in a line. I did the maths on that, it’s a surprisingly nice number. Not as much as an abyssal 129km web (1.35M BM’s), but more than enough for almost anything else in EVE. If you’re really serious about webbing, too, I can recommend the MR-80x series of implants, the 3% range bonus is only 27m ISK at time of writing!

As for the Huginn, it really is a bit of a sad story. With a lack of powergrid and middling damage bonuses there isn’t a huge amount you can do with turrets. A polarised version is nifty and does way damage than it has a right to but who wouldn’t primary that as it sits at 5km to apply. Artillery is equally sad when fitting 720mm guns means setting up a monthly subscription of Reactor Control Units. The best I came up without imitating the Rapier is below. It’s essentially a platform based entirely around trying to make 650mm Arty work. I can’t really say it’s any good. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Caldari Jams: Rook & Falcon

Since the ECM rework we certainly have seen the Rook and Falcon fall from grace a little bit, and for good reason. Now that pesky ECM boat at range can be your new primary, introducing more mechanics than simply Ctrl+Click. Being the centre of attention as an jamming recon pilot is obviously not the best thing in the world, but we can work around that. Either stay at stupid range and be a basic bitch, or get up close and channel your inner Heavy Assault Missile.

The Rook fit below, in my humble opinion, is actually pretty effective. Since we’re using these ships almost entirely for their dscan immunity, the jamming can come as secondary. In return we see a whopping 600 DPS hot from a recon ship! In a fleet where DPS may well be quite limited that’s really nice to have; it isn’t like anyone expects the Rook to be the powerhouse anyway. In fact if jams and align time weren’t so useful, I’d swap out the ECM entirely. What you’d get in return is a 90k EHP punching bag to keep your enemies distracted with the fear of jams. Fortunately there is the quad shield booster Blackbird if you want to dip your toes into that style of play.

Conversely, my Falcon is entirely committed to jamming, more so than even Michael Jordan in 1996. With a 29k EHP armour paper tank you do have to be sure to keep range. Getting caught out with how jams work now is pretty much a death sentence. Fortunately, your radar jam chance against the Drekavac menace is 85% thanks to the Jam Calculator. Even the off-type ECM has a 37% chance each against a Kikimora which is pretty nice. Both are excellent targets considering the spool-up mechanic. Whichever way you slice things, though, jams aren’t quite the pocket sand that they used to be with the exception of EC-300’s.

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Gallente Scrams: Arazu & Lachesis

Because pointing someone from 24km isn’t quite enough, the Gallente invented two of the spookiest ships you’ll ever find on grid. With an abyssal point you can held from well over a million Big Macs away (116km) and scrams have a maximum range of 43.6km from the absolute best mods. Strangely, both the Arazu and Lachesis do very similar jobs as far as recons go. The combat recon Lachesis has an additional mid slot, but otherwise they’re both typically fit in a similar way.

My favourite way to run a Lach is using a fairly typical shield tanked scram/point setup. Guns, tank, speed, and a sprinkle of capacitor is about all you need to be effective. Feel free to de-bling the fit and go to town. Any kind of point that doesn’t appear on dscan is invaluable in catching DED runners. There isn’t much else to say about this ship other than that you’re a great target and everyone hates you.

The Arazu is a bit more of an interesting ship purely due to its reliance on scan resolution damping, the kind that everyone forgets about. The way this hunting fit works is such that when landing on a target you can activate all three damps and dunk their resolution right down. Taking a Rattlesnake for example, it comes all the way down to 13.3mm. That’s as large as your average coffee bean. The result is such that you and your buddies get well over a minute to sit pummelling the poor krab before they can even lock.

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That’s all folks! Have fun and enjoy the salt.I heard that the krab tastes pretty good this time of year.

o/