Forget high sec missions! Live dangerously and head out to Null Sec when you want to make some ISK!
Why grind through boring high sec missions when you could make more ISK in a Stealth Bomber?
A Ninja Ratting Stealth Bomber can make 20-30 million ISK per hour in null sec and that's not even counting the ISK you will get from the Faction Modules you will get every once in a while!
2017 UPDATE: Since the this article was published over 32,000 EVE Pilots have used this information to get out into Null Sec and start making ISK. In an effort to ensure the fittings and method taught here still work I have updated all of the fittings, and added some new information.
So how do you do it?
First you need to optimize your Fit and your Skills.
Let's say you want to Ninja Rat in the Fountain Region. The Rats in Fountain are Serpentis which has a weakness to both Kinetic and Thermal damage types. For this you would want to fly a Manticore or Nemesis because they get bonuses to the damage types you want to do.
So whatever Stealth Bomber you happen to fly, you want to find a region with Rats that are weak to your damage type.
Stealth Bomber Damage Types:
- Purifier = EM Damage Bonus
- Nemesis = Thermal Damage Bonus
- Manticore = Kinetic Damage Bonus
- Hound = Explosive Damage Bonus
Now you should have a null sec region picked out to go to with your ship. Next you need to optimize your Skills. If you plan on doing this often you should invest your training time into missile and torpedo skills as well as the Covert Ops skill.
Below are the fits you should use. I will explain a little about why afterwards...
[Purifier, Ninja Ratter]
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
1MN Monopropellant Enduring Afterburner
Medium Shield Extender II
EM Ward Field II
Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Mjolnir Torpedo
Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Mjolnir Torpedo
Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Mjolnir Torpedo
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
[Empty High slot]
Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
[Manticore, Ninja Ratter]
Damage Control II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
1MN Afterburner II
Medium Shield Extender II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Thermal Dissipation Field II
Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Scourge Torpedo
Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Scourge Torpedo
Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Scourge Torpedo
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
[Empty High slot]
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
[Nemesis, Ninja Ratter]
Damage Control II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
1MN Afterburner II
Medium Shield Extender II
Thermal Dissipation Field II
Kinetic Deflection Amplifier II
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Inferno Torpedo
Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Inferno Torpedo
Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Inferno Torpedo
[Empty High slot]
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
[Hound, Ninja Ratter]
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
1MN Afterburner II
Medium Shield Extender II
EM Ward Amplifier II
Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Nova Torpedo
Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Nova Torpedo
Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Nova Torpedo
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
[Empty High slot]
Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Now let's talk about why I fit them like this. The cloak is what gets you around Null Sec safely and lets you disappear when someone enters the system. You are a Ninja that disappears when ever someone looks for you!
But don't think the Cloak makes you 100% safe, because you can still be caught and uncloaked by Drag and Stop Bubbles. To learn how to avoid and escape Bubble Camps and Gate Camps check out this Survival Guide (over 25,000 Views on YouTube).
Next the Afterburner keeps your sig small and speed up so that you take minimal damage from the rats you are killing.
Your shield resists are optimized toward the types of rats your are fighting. Before flying these you should confirm the damage types and if different change your resist mods/rigs as needed.
Beyond that it's pretty simple, you orbit at 40km around the battleship rats while killing them and should you ever get down below 30% shield you warp out, regen shield and try again.
Wanted to add the new fit I’m using to increase my Security Status in Null Sec with. It’s a Manticore with 2 ballistic controls, which really speeds things up.
I’ve been pretty impressed with it. The high damage output drops rats quickly and the high resists allow it to tank belt rats with ease.
Here it is:
[Manticore, Ratter]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
1MN Afterburner II
Medium Shield Extender II
Thermic Dissipation Amplifier II
Kinetic Deflection Amplifier II
Prototype ‘Arbalest’ Torpedo Launcher, Scourge Torpedo
Prototype ‘Arbalest’ Torpedo Launcher, Scourge Torpedo
Prototype ‘Arbalest’ Torpedo Launcher, Scourge Torpedo
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
[empty high slot]
Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Ancillary Current Router I
Could you take the time to make a “2014” Hound fit for me please?
All fits have been updated
Is this relevant to Serpentis mission running as well? I have been looking for advice on this for a while now.
I’ve never tried a Stealth Bomber in a Mission. I imagine the Frigates would be a big problem.
Why do you guys not run bomb launchers?
Using bombs when ratting would get very expensive and because of fitting demands you would end up reducing your DPS output by fitting a bomb launcher.
Bomb Launchers are best reserved for PVP in my opinion.
Are faction and officer spawns still possible? I heard they were buffed to be soloable by capital ships only..
Yes they are… Some guys in our corp got an Officer a few nights ago and faction rats a very common in Null Sec.
The officer did take a 2 or 3 of them to kill though.
Add a small autocannon or blaster to take care of close scramming frigs that happen to be around.
This works “okay,” but it’s not at all quick. It’s fun, and you breeze through gatecamps, however you WILL get ganked while you’re ratting with sufficient frequency that you won’t break even on ISK. The security status gains are pretty good though.
If you only rat in empty systems you will be fine. Just cloak when someone comes into system.
Your biggest threat is jumping into a bubble, but even then you will escape most the time.
You are right… This works great for raising sec status.
I can attest to his method and setup. I found a Shadow Serpentis ship that had dropped a Snake Delta implant worth 400 million isk at face sell value. While your luck may not be as good as mine was when I ran that night, running a chain of 20 systems in which you already have bookmarks to camp the gates at safely easily nets you 30 million an hour. Kill every battleship at all the belts and hope that you catch a faction mob at one of them. I get about 2.5 million in bounties per belt and average 5-6 belts per system taking about 20 minutes in each system. Once you get your routine down this can be an easy way to make isk. Also note that in a purifier with fairly decent skills you can still take down Serpentis ships. It’s just more time/cost effective to hunt prey that are vulnerable to your damage. Doesn’t mean you have to ignore the belt completely just because it’s not the right faction. If there is a faction mob, you should attack it regardless of the faction affiliation.
Just my 2 cents
Beyond that it’s pretty simple, you orbit at 40km around the battleship rats while killing them and should you ever get down below 30% shield you warp out, regen shield and try again.
((Sorry but how do you manage killing the frigates size rats? I’d lived in 0.0 a long time and in every belt where I see BS… there is always 2-3 frigs… We all know the little damage torps do to frigs so it will take years to kill the frigs sorry to say that, if you need to warp in-out constantly; you just can’t make even 20M an hour… So give us some advice for that 😉 thx ))
Don’t kill the Frigs (at least not all the time) = Rat Farming:
If you kill an entire spawn then it will re-spawn at random, no telling what you will get next, but if you only kill the BS in the spawn leaving the smaller ships even only one of them, then when it re-spawns it will re-spawn the same ship types as before, in a system with lots of belts you kill all the spawns that don’t contain the maximum number of BS you want. Any spawn that does have lots of BS’s you don’t kill the smaller ships, after only a very few cycles through all the belts you have every belt full of BS to profit from.
I prefer a bomb launcher to insta-pop, or at least bring most battleships into low armor. I volley a cycle of torpes first and huck a bomb right after the torps. If the BS is still alive i just let the torps cycle until finished. Bombs are about 1M to 1.5M a piece right now so you need to pick your rats accordingly to make more that that at least.
The real payday im looking for is the drop.
Setup a Purifier and spent good part of the weekend ratting. A few times had pilots in the system looking for me but cloaked and waited them out… no problems. BS and cruisers were easy to take down as instructed. Didn’t need to take the frigs down but even when I did, just took a few torps to pop them.
Never lucked out with any faction drops thou, just standard T1 stuff, same as highsec missions leave.
So is the faction stuff just a gamble and roll of the dice or do the odds increase the deeper in nullsec you go?
Faction stuff only drops from faction rats, so depending on the space you are in you can identify them before you ever kill them. All of them have different starts to their names, like: Shadow Serpentis, True Sansha, Dread Gurista, Dark Blood, etc
Usually no need to even check the loot unless it’s one of those or even rarer a officer which has a very different name and is tough to kill.
But yes it’s all by odds, some people say there are ways to “encourage” faction spawns, but I’ve never seen proof of it or had much luck trying. If I was to go looking for faction rats, I would set a long course through empty null sec and then check but not clear every belt of every system as I went. That way you are “rolling” the dice as many times as possible and more likely to get a spawn. Most likely you will get one faction rat every 10-15 jumps I would say.
If you just want the ISK, go through and pop all the Battleships in a system then jump to the next and repeat. That will “roll” the dice a little more and you are concentrating on the highest value targets that the bomber does the best damage to.
I tried to fit my Nemisis, using the suggestions above and could not get any of the mods to fit. Not enough CPU. How can they fir all those mods?
You need better skills most likely… Launcher Rigging, Weapon Upgrades, and the Electronics Skill will all help you to fit this.
In the mean time try:
[Nemesis, Ninja Ratter Low CPU]
Damage Control II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
1MN Afterburner II
Medium Shield Extender II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
Kinetic Deflection Amplifier II
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Prototype ‘Arbalest’ Torpedo Launcher, Mjolnir Torpedo
Prototype ‘Arbalest’ Torpedo Launcher, Mjolnir Torpedo
Prototype ‘Arbalest’ Torpedo Launcher, Mjolnir Torpedo
[empty high slot]
Small Processor Overclocking Unit I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Use evemon, @ http://evemon.battleclinic.com/ to find out what skills you need and how to fit ships. I just downloaded it last nite right before i was bout to give up on Eve. It changed my mind. Worth it and its free. Helps you become a better user and get more out of the game.
EVEMon and EFT are required programs for EVE in my opinion. Especially when you are new to the game. Thanks for mentioning it, I will put some links in the side bar for them.
If you just view yourself during shots an then recloak, why do you need Damage Control etc?
Shouldn’t I go for higher DPS instead?
I’m very new to EVE so I have a few days left before I can fly a SB.
I have just an overall question… I was wondering do you think you could make a video to go into detail on how to check age, detail, weaknesses, on an NPC and PvP. Do you scan them, or is it something you have just learned over time concerning knowing the weakness of a target and such. The only reason I say anything is because I have seen you do it several times on different videos, but it is so fast I keep missing where you start looking, buttons to press etc. Hah I probably sound like a very slow person atm but eh thought I would suggest being a newbie to the game. Thanks again for you site constantly learning more every day!
For PVE here are the basic damage types to use against different rats:
Angel Cartel = Explosive
Blood Raiders = Electromagnetic/Thermal
Caldary Navy = Kinetic
EoM = Kinetic
Guristas = Kinetic
Mercenary = Thermal
Mordu’s Legion = Thermal/Kinetic
Sansha = Electromagnetic/Thermal
Serpentis = Thermal/Kinetic
The Syndicate = Kinetic/Thermal
Thukker Tribe = Explosive
For PVP:
I made one guide about it a long time ago here: http://www.eveproguides.com/win-before-you-fight-learn-pvp-lesson/
Also you can right click on any ship type, or link it in chat first then click it to show info. This will tell you the resists for shield and armor as well as other information.
Beyond that, alot of it is experience and just learning as you go.
Hey thanks for this, I appreciate the time and help you have given me! As always keep up the good work I am super impressed!
I simply cannot rat quickly against Angel rats using the Hound setup listed here. I have CovOps at 4, torpedo supporting skills at 3 or 4. Nowhere near as fast as using a Hurricane with Fusion faction ammo. What am I doing wrong?
You’re not doing anything wrong. I used this setup as a test to try and kill a Serpentis High Admiral and barely got a bite out of its shields before its regen made the situation a stalemate.
Even dropped the cloak so I could run three Torpedo Launcher II’s but still no luck.
I think it would be great for jumping on unsuspecting noobs coming in from lowsec but that’s about it for this fit.
What are the arbalest siege torpedo launchers? they arent in market anywhere
They have been renamed to: Prototype ‘Arbalest’ Torpedo Launcher
I will update the fits above now.
Having trouble finding Magnetic Scattering Amplifier II and “Bane” torpedos as well.
never mind – I found this page.
http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Module_changes
Did great in a Manticore. Got a fuckin’load of loot. Went away almost unscathed each time until I started going back to my makeshift base in lowsec to get additional torps and encountered a Clone Soldier Trainer in a belt. That fucker had light missile launchers and took me into the structure on his first hit! Wasn’t able to warp out in time ;(
Safe to say that a bomber isn’t the ideal ship to hunt these new Tag rats? lol….
You can hunt tags in these stealth bombers but you need to know the distance at which the NPC hits too. Fit rigs for greater torpedo range as well as a target painter. Orbit and pain..
The clone NPC’s hurt a lot (experience) but it is possible..
Ya, main problem I see with staying at range is the fact that you will need to eventually close the gap to loot the wreck. But, I guess it could work.
Fit bomb launcher in empty high slot ..then offline it. You can online it if you need one. It is nice option when you are jumping through systems and you land on a big fight… warp off to safe, wait for cap..offline missile launchers..online bomb launcher.. warp back cloaked… align in to center of the fight, uncloak, fire bomb…rinse repeat.
I think this is a better EveMon link:
https://evemondevteam.github.io/evemon/
Good catch, I didn’t know they finally moved it.
Are these still viable fits?
Yes, I just updated them.
Hello, im new in EvE, wanted to try manticore for that, are those builds still viable today?