Needlejack Filaments: Fleets to Yeet With

Needlejack Filaments are awesome. It’s like having a static nullsec wormhole in your back pocket with a selection of whether you want a fight or (maybe) not. CCP introduced these back during Christmas 2019 as a way to spice things up and get people roaming about nullsec for content rather than vegetating on an asteroid with a bag of Doritos.

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.

They work by launching you into nullsec with either 5, 15, or 25 people, depending on the Needjack Filament that you use. The ‘Noise’ filaments will send you to a relatively random place in nullsec, and the ‘Signal’ filaments will send you into what is theoretically an active area. They will give you a 15-minute timer and cannot be activated again until your PvP timer expires.

A note for future readers: If you’re still stuck for ideas then have a browse of the theorycrafting archives. Most of my fits are good for small groups

Now, you can take whatever you want (battleship and below) through these filaments. You can take a 100MN Cyclone fleet with logi, or you can take a single Virtuoso. It’s up to you. What I’m proposing today, however, is a selection of fun and sometimes weird fits for you to yeet into null together with your friends. They are cheap but effective ships that you can afford to whelp without resorting to the kitchen sink trash that your corp members dreamt up.

Yeet

To discard an item at a high velocity
Alex finishes his soda and proceeds to yeet his empty can into a trash bin
Alex (while throwing the can): “YEET!”

Urban Dictionary

Speedy Shield Hecates

To start with, we have one of my favourites. The shield Hecate. That might seem sacrilegious for a race of armour and hull tankers, but stick with me. By going with a light shield tank, you can keep all those lows for silly amounts of damage; 845 DPS to be exact. There’s also the option of swapping one of those mag stabs to a Damage Control II for a hefty bump in tank. Doing so will increase the tanky version of this fit (without a web) to 14.3k EHP in defence mode. Not bad!

Now you might be saying “but I saw Xtra Squishy run a hull version and it had two webs and lots of damage.” That, my friend, is where the second part of this fit comes in. Small Hyperspatial Velocity II’s. They increase the warp speed to 6.85AU/s with an instawarp in propulsion mode. With that kind of speed, you can cross 20 jumps in less than 10 minutes. With a combat probe launcher and insane amounts of damage, I couldn’t ask for a better throwaway hunting ship.

You could combine them with frigate logi too but I advise against it. That ultra-fast warp speed and instawarp are honestly what keeps you alive. Stay away from the blop and blap expensive stuff when they present themselves. Either that or just turbo dunk some poor ratters.

Shield Hecate: Webby

[Hecate, Speedymemes Web]

Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II

5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive
Fleeting Compact Stasis Webifier
Faint Epsilon Scoped Warp Scrambler
Caldari Navy Medium Shield Extender

Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Expanded Probe Launcher I

Small Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Small Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Small Core Defense Field Extender II


Null S x5000
Void S x5000
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge S x2400
Nanite Repair Paste x111
Core Scanner Probe I x16
Sisters Combat Scanner Probe x8

Shield Hecate: Tanky

[Hecate, Speedymemes Tank]

Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II

5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Faint Epsilon Scoped Warp Scrambler
Caldari Navy Medium Shield Extender

Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Expanded Probe Launcher I

Small Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Small Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Small Processor Overclocking Unit I


Null S x5000
Void S x5000
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge S x2400
Nanite Repair Paste x111
Core Scanner Probe I x16
Sisters Combat Scanner Probe x8

Assault Frigate Wolfpack

Alternatively: Fit Kitchen: Combat Interceptors

I can think of a particular wormhole corp that wouldn’t be too happy with me with how I treat the Enyo. I mean hell, it’s a blaster ship and I left the web off. I’m a monster, truly. I just think it’s a bit sad to see such a cap-reliant ship get brushed into irrelevance when a small neut looks at it the wrong way. Fortunately, you can make up for that in a gang by bringing along a Vengeance or two. Scrams will often do the job though unless you’re up against something overpropped or Phantasm/Nightmare.

So the benefit of this fleet as you can see is partially in its variety. Going for a mixed bag of specifically fitted assault frigates makes you more capable while making your fleet appear to be a ragtag bunch of ships. The Vengeance brings a web, and nicely balanced resists (274DPS + 12.7k EHP). The Enyo is a cap-reliant turbo max DPS facemelter (439 DPS + 13k EHP). The Wolf is very balanced and is the fastest of the three (311 DPS + 12.5k EHP).

Don’t forget that assault frigates also benefit from an Assault Damage Control. While this won’t necessarily win the fight for you, it almost sets a minimum time to kill each of your fleet ships. Rather than being blapped instantly, your ships will tank minimum about 15 seconds against a big fleet. With just five of you that can easily buy minutes; enough time to burn down a blingy ship or two, especially lightly tanked Kikimoras without logi.

My top tip would be to watch out for heavy tanking brawlers such as Marauders and the Deimos. They will typically apply quite well to you while shrugging off your damage. The trap is that you get committed. Once you lose two people you might be tempted to keep trying, but by that point, it’s already too late and they are likely tanking the lower DPS easily. If you stay until someone else dies then a fourth person will be tackled. That’s how you lose four ships when really you could have just left in the first place.

[Wolf, Klámstrákur]

Corpii A-Type Explosive Plating
Corpii A-Type Kinetic Plating
Assault Damage Control II
Counterbalanced Compact Gyrostabilizer
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer

5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive
Warp Scrambler II

Small Energy Nosferatu II
200mm AutoCannon II
200mm AutoCannon II
200mm AutoCannon II
200mm AutoCannon II

Small Trimark Armor Pump I
Small Projectile Burst Aerator II


Barrage S x4000
Hail S x4480
Nanite Repair Paste x88
Republic Fleet EMP S x1200
Republic Fleet Fusion S x1200
Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S x1200

[Enyo, Engin Miskunn]

Assault Damage Control II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer
Centii A-Type Explosive Plating
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive
Small Capacitor Booster II
Faint Epsilon Scoped Warp Scrambler

Light Ion Blaster II
Light Ion Blaster II
Light Ion Blaster II
Light Ion Blaster II
Rocket Launcher II

Small Hybrid Burst Aerator II
Small Transverse Bulkhead II


Hobgoblin II x1


Null S x4000
Void S x4480
Nova Rage Rocket x700
Navy Cap Booster 400 x10
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge S x2850
Nanite Repair Paste x88
Caldari Navy Nova Rocket x700

[Vengeance, Spillingardans]

Assault Damage Control II
Crosslink Compact Ballistic Control System
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer

5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive
Fleeting Compact Stasis Webifier
Warp Scrambler II

125mm Gatling AutoCannon II
Rocket Launcher II
Rocket Launcher II
Rocket Launcher II
Rocket Launcher II

Small Bay Loading Accelerator II
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I


Hail S x2200
Inferno Javelin Rocket x1000
Mjolnir Rage Rocket x3000
Nova Rage Rocket x3200
Scourge Javelin Rocket x1000
Nanite Repair Paste x88
Caldari Navy Inferno Rocket x1000

The Sentry Stratios

Ok, stay with me here. This is a weird one. It’s not the typical null whelpfleet, it’s more of a thing for the guys who like gatecamping just SO much. By setting up Gardes on a stargate then anchoring a cheap medium bubble a little way off you can set up an ultra cancerous near instalock camp. The secret here is that you burn your Stratios fleet up to 140km away from the gate and become nigh-untouchable.

Being a cloaky camp, this also becomes very easy to shift about in nullsec without any fear of someone catching even just one of you. They’re also less than 230m ISK so that just barely fills the quota of “being a cheap fleet”. Be sure to also bring a set of spare drones+mobile depot just in case a massive fleet comes through and blaps them.

Another tip is to bind a hotkey to reconnect to drones. You will need to do this once you uncloak and while you turn on all four scripts and spam lock. You can reconnect to drones once per minute so be aware of that when you think there might be a new target coming up soon. I recommend playing EVE-themed Pictionary and drawing ships while you camp. That’s the Foxholers way.

Sentry Stratios

[Stratios, Sentry Stratios Cancer]

Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Co-Processor II
Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer II

Sensor Booster II
Sensor Booster II
Sensor Booster II
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II
50MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Drone Link Augmentor I
Drone Link Augmentor I
Drone Link Augmentor I
Drone Link Augmentor I

Medium Targeting Systems Stabilizer II
Medium Targeting Systems Stabilizer II
Medium Ionic Field Projector I


Garde II x4
Hornet EC-300 x5
Infiltrator II x5
Ogre II x4
Warden II x4
Warrior II x5


Nanite Repair Paste x100
Sisters Combat Scanner Probe x8
Sisters Core Scanner Probe x8
ECCM Script x3
Scan Resolution Script x3
Targeting Range Script x3
Optimal Range Script x1
Tracking Speed Script x1
Mobile Medium Warp Disruptor I x2
Medium Ancillary Armor Repairer x1
Expanded Probe Launcher I x1

Any T1 Cruiser!

This should be an obvious one and it doesn’t take me to point out a ton of potential fits out there. Nevertheless, I have a few options here for you. They are the kind of ships to put five or six people into just to see what happens.

The first fit is the standard-ish kiting Stabber. They will either apply 350’ish DPS from 30km with Barrage, or burn tanks with 600 DPS Hail at close range. Modules have intentionally been changed to meta to make things incredibly cheap. A set of ten only costs about 200m ISK. The real benefit of using a Stabber fleet is that nobody expects them to actually be good. That’s the theme I like to try and focus on in roams. Looking weak will get you more fights than looking like the biggest baddest gang out there.

Another option would be the Scythe Fleet Issue. Not everyone knows how well it works with an afterburner and how fast it can be on an MWD. This thing behaves like a budget Phantasm while actually being tankier due to that tiny sig and massive ancillary shield tank. Expending all charges brings it to around 54k EHP with a decent amount of DPS. The real joy of this ship is in that surprising amount of survivability by orbiting with that afterburner. it feels good to dodge bullets.

It might be worth bringing something else to support your cruisers, too. A Keres would be excellent, but so would something like an instalock interceptor. I’m a big fan of the Ares fit below. It relies entirely on speed and the Damage Control to survive. You can also swap those Overdrives out for restrained inertial stabilisers to reach the magical 2s instawarp point. With a long point, long scram, and 1687mm scan res this little frigate catches almost anything.

[Stabber, Cheap Beeps]

Gyrostabilizer II
Counterbalanced Compact Gyrostabilizer
Tracking Enhancer II
Fourier Compact Tracking Enhancer

Large F-S9 Regolith Compact Shield Extender
Large F-S9 Regolith Compact Shield Extender
Faint Scoped Warp Disruptor
50MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive

220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II

Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Polycarbon Engine Housing I


Warrior II x5


Barrage M x3500
Hail M x1800
Nova Fury Light Missile x500
Caldari Navy Mjolnir Light Missile x500
Caldari Navy Nova Light Missile x500
Nanite Repair Paste x20
Republic Fleet EMP M x1300
Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M x640

[Scythe Fleet Issue, XLASB Dual Prop]

Damage Control II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Counterbalanced Compact Gyrostabilizer
Gyrostabilizer II

X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
10MN Afterburner II
50MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Warp Scrambler II

Dual 180mm AutoCannon II
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II
Small Energy Neutralizer II

Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer II
Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer II


Warrior II x5


Standard Blue Pill Booster
Agency 'Hardshell' TB5 Dose II


Navy Cap Booster 400 x9
Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M x800

[Ares, Tackle Ares]

Signal Amplifier II
Damage Control II
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II

Warp Disruptor II
5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive
Warp Scrambler II

125mm Prototype Gauss Gun
125mm Prototype Gauss Gun
125mm Prototype Gauss Gun

Small Targeting System Subcontroller II
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing II


Federation Navy Antimatter Charge S x1980
Nanite Repair Paste x50

Otherwise, that’s all for now. You can take anything you like out into null and keep jumping around, but I would urge you to take ships that you perhaps aren’t used to flying. If there’s a fit here that you have never tried before then get in one and see what you think. Enjoy 😀