Guide: Ninja Ship Setups

EDIT: Currently this guide is ridiculously out of date (“Cold-Gas 1 Arcjet Thrusters” anyone?). A newer and/or different version may be coming sometime, but in the meantime, I’ve left this here as a bit of a time-capsule.

*Update 6-20-11*

Revised, newer guide to come soon (™)

 

When it comes to Ninja Salvaging, I personally like to keep my overhead as low as possible, and this means flying cheap, shitty ships. Yes, you can ninja about in flashy faction-fit rigged Firetails (ahem….VP) and Fleet Stabbers (ahem…Kahega), and you’re going to look like a million bucks doing it. But for the purpose of these guides, I’m talking super-cheap. Oh and as another side note, I’ve not included any discussion on rigs in these setups because a) These are the cheapest setups possible and b) I really don’t know shit about rigging. =/

The cornerstone of the beginning/cheapskate/low-funds ninja is the Minmatar Vigil. Yes, there are tech 1 frigates of other races that will also work well for our penny-pinching purposes (Caldari = Condor, Amarr = Executioner, Gallente = Incursus), and yes, there are CovOps that give you the scan strength bonus, and the above-mentioned Firetail that gives you the speed. But I’m talking bare-bones flying piece-of-shit.

[Vigil, Cheap Salvage-Looter]

Lows:
3x Nanofiber Internal Structure

Mids:
1x Small Shield Extender
1x Cold-Gas 1 Arcjet Thrusters
1x Warp Scrambler 1 -OR- 1x Target Painter -OR- Ship Scanner

Highs:
3x Salvager 1

Basically this is THE ship of choice for Ninja Salvaging. For one, it’s fast as hell; about 1600 m/s with afterburner lvl 5. This thing speed-tanks pretty much anything a level 3 or 4 mission will throw at you if the mission runner warps out and leaves you with full-room agro, just stay the hell away from webbing frigs and destroyers. Its also totally cap-stable, so keeping the AB and all three salvagers running at the same time will never be a problem. It’s got a targeting range of over 50 km so targeting up all the large wrecks in a field is easier than ever. A special note pertaining to the mid-slots: besides the shield extender and the AB, there isn’t a need for a third module in your mids. However, I feel like letting a module slot go empty is a waste, so I refer to this one as the utility belt slot. If you’re at war and still ninjaing (sorry fail-deccers, its true. Your holy crusades to wipe out ninjas by way of war decs do nothing in the way of stopping us from going out and doing just that. If anything it makes us more efficient =) ), keep a warp scram on just in case you come across a WT. Presto! Your cheap-fleat salvage ship has just become a cheap-fleat tackler while the cavalry arrives. Need a little boost in security status? Strap on a target painter. While ninjaing, use it to target whatever large NPC rat that the MR is currently shooting at and you’ll receive a sec boost when it pops (it also confounds the hell out of the MR!). The ship scanner is useful if you feel like some good ole’ fashioned bear-ganking. If you’re looting with the sole purpose of accruing aggro from the MR so as to come back in a big ship and stomp on his furry ass, this is helpful for knowing what you’re going to be up against.

Now if you’re really pinching pennies  with the salvage ship, there’s also the Minmatar Slasher frigate. This baby goes for about 1/3 the price of the Vigil (which in itself is only 300k isk, and that’s in the over-inflated Dodixie market). Its still got the three high-slots for salvagers, but only 1 low slot and 2 mids. Also, its not really cap-stable without putting a cap battery in one of the mids.

[Slasher. Even Cheaper Salvage-Looter]

Lows:
1x Overdrive Injector System 1

Mids:
1x Cold-Gas 1 Arcjet Thrusters
1x Small Capacitor Battery 1

Highs:
3x Salvager 1

You might also notice the lack of shield extender. Coupled with the fact that this only gets about 1250 m/s, when you do get shot at, you’re going to get hit more often. Because of the price-tag, yes, this is probably the best ship for a new pilot to fly when trying ninja salvaging. But once you start, you’ll soon realize that the difference in price between the Slasher and the Vigil is equal to about 2 minutes of ninjaing. So to reiterate, I’d personally go for the Vigil over the Slasher, because of its superior efficiency and the fact that it’s slightly higher price is negligible once you’ve been playing eve for longer than 4 days.

I feel like I started backwards. Before you can salvage and loot someone else’s mission to your little ninja hearts content, you have to find said mission. This is where a scan-ship comes in handy. Again, yes, other races have tech 1 frigates that can be used to scan blah blah blah. This is what I use:

[Probe, Scanner]

Lows:
2x Nanofiber Internal Structure

Mids:
1x Small Shield Extender
1x Cold-Gas 1Arcjet Thrusters

Highs:
1x Salvager 1
1x Expanded Probe Launcher (combat scanner probes)

This is pretty much the only possible setup. Due to the Expanded Probe Launchers MASSIVE CPU requirements, fitting is pretty minimal for the rest of the ship. I throw a salvager on just cause, well just cause (I just can’t help myself).

Anyways, there you have it. Hopefully this is of some use to any who need it. If you’ve got any fitting/required skills questions, evemail me in-game or out of game (aidenmourn@yahoo.com) and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I can.