What a stealth bomber is; the four hulls and their standing.
A covert frigate that fires battleship torpedoes, and is built around getting away with it.
Two figures carry the design. A bomber fits the Covert Ops Cloaking Device and warps while cloaked. When it decloaks it has no targeting delay; every other hull spends seconds recalibrating first. If the attempt goes wrong, the cloak is ready again in fifteen seconds, against the usual thirty.
The armament outweighs the hull. Torpedoes are battleship munitions; the bomber fires them from three launchers at a 99.65% powergrid discount, and each racial hull adds 15% damage per level of Covert Ops to its own damage type, with 10% flight time and 15% velocity per level of the racial frigate skill. The hull itself is paper: two to five thousand effective hit points across the register. The tank is the cloak.
Three rumours, corrected on file:
Four hulls, two prominent munitions observed. The difference between the hulls is mid slots for control or low slots for damage. Figures are the manufacturers' own, from ESI.
| Hull | Bonused type (torpedo & bomb) | Slots H/M/L | Velocity | Sig | Targeting | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hound | Explosive | 5/3/3 | 310 m/s | 38 m | 55 km | Fastest and smallest; three lows for the extra damage module |
| Manticore | Kinetic | 5/4/2 | 280 m/s | 41 m | 70 km | Four mids: the tackle-and-paint platform |
| Nemesis | Thermal | 5/4/2 | 275 m/s | 42 m | 65 km | Four mids for tackle and paint; the thermal bonus suits an unknown tank |
| Purifier | EM | 5/3/3 | 300 m/s | 40 m | 60 km | Three lows for damage; the alpha specialist |
The split is mids against lows. The Manticore and Nemesis carry four mid slots: propulsion, tackle, and the target painter that makes torpedoes honest. The Purifier and Hound carry three lows instead: a third damage module, and the extra damage that follows from it. The field flies the distinction exactly as the paperwork suggests, and one delivery firm of record (§5) flies the four-mid pair almost exclusively.
The damage bonus follows the race: kinetic, EM, thermal, explosive. Any hull loads any flavour; the bonus multiplies its own alone, and §3 rates all four against the tanks they answer.
Torpedoes and bombs, with the arithmetic that governs both.
Battleship munitions on a frigate. The catch is in the two middle columns.
| Variant | Damage | Explosion radius | Explosion velocity | drf | Range (bonused hull excluded) | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tech I | 450 | 405 m | 78 m/s | 0.944 | 12.6 km | Training stock; everything above it hits harder at the same application |
| Faction (Guristas / Caldari Navy / Dread Guristas) | 495 / 517 / 540 | 405 m | 78 m/s | 0.944 | 12.6 km | The working default: more damage, identical application, no fitting change; the price climbs with the damage |
| Rage (Tech II) | 699 | 697 m | 67 m/s | 0.967 | 10.5 km | Battleships, structures, and the well-painted; damage bought at the worst application on the register |
| Javelin (Tech II) | 405 | 405 m | 78 m/s | 0.967 | 18.9 km | The standoff round: half again the range, a tenth off the damage |
The flavour is a choice, not a restriction. Any bomber loads any of the four damage types, and every tier above comes in all four at identical figures. Two things decide the load: the prey's tank, and the hull's racial bonus (§1), which multiplies exactly one flavour, three quarters again at Covert Ops V. All four, rated:
| Torpedo | Type | Against the standard resist ladder | Multiplied by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mjolnir | EM | First into shields, last into armour: commit only when the tank is known | Purifier |
| Inferno | Thermal | Second into shields, fair into armour: the best average, and the default against an unknown tank | Nemesis |
| Scourge | Kinetic | Second into armour, third into shields: the middle of every ladder | Manticore |
| Nova | Explosive | First into armour, last into shields: the Mjolnir's mirror | Hound |
The ladder is the field's reading of standard hulls; plates, hardeners, and faction fits bend it. In practice the racial multiplier into a painted target outbids the theoretically perfect flavour, which is why the load usually matches the hull anyway.
The application problem, stated once. A torpedo's full damage applies only to a target as large as its explosion radius and as slow as its explosion velocity. Nothing an explorer flies is 405 metres wide.
D base damage · S target signature · E explosion radius · Ve explosion velocity · Vt target velocity · drf the tempering exponent
The field's formula (EVE University, Missile mechanics); every constant from the manufacturer's dogma.
The remedies are on every fit in the register: target painters to inflate the target's signature (the field carries them four to eight times as often as webs), webs where the range allows, rigor and calefaction rigs, and, for frigate prey, rockets, whose 0.644 exponent barely feels a frigate's speed. Rage buys damage at the worst application; Javelin buys range at a tenth under Tech I damage. The hull's own bonuses stretch every range figure by half again at skill V.
The only unguided munition in service, and the only one that can kill the ship that launched it.
| Bomb | Effect | Filed remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Electron / Scorch / Concussion / Shrapnel | 5,800 damage, one type | Damage against a 400 m signature; battleships feel all of it, frigates a fraction |
| Void Bomb | −1,800 GJ | Capacitor, not hull |
| Focused Void Bomb | −15,000 GJ | A capital's capacitor, removed by a frigate; 5,000 m radius |
| Lockbreaker Bomb | 12.5-strength ECM | All four sensor types, everyone in the area |
The flight. Every bomb travels 30 kilometres unguided and then detonates, on differing schedules: twelve seconds for the damage bombs, seven and a half for Void and Lockbreaker, fifteen for the Focused Void. The effect radius is fifteen kilometres for all but the Focused Void's 5,000 metres. The blast respects no allegiance: fleetmates and the launching bomber are as eligible as the target.
The launcher. One per bomber, and it takes every bomb type, one type loaded at a time; changing the payload is a reload. Roughly 67 seconds between launches at Bomb Deployment V; the unskilled figure is more than double that.
The solo case. Roughly half the bombers lost in J-space carry a bomb launcher, and not for fleet work: a damage bomb finishes what torpedoes started or discourages a rescue; a Void bomb takes 1,800 GJ out of an active tank; the Focused Void takes a capital's capacitor out of the argument entirely. Bombs work in nullsec and Anoikis only; empire space forbids them.
The solo delivery, and the small gangs that run it.
The Ministry acknowledges prior art. One firm has run this trade since YC116, and named it properly.
WiNGSPAN Delivery Services, founded by Chance Ravinne on 22 July 2014, twelve years to the day before this circular's verification date, states its mission as being "to distribute free munitions to New Eden's most vulnerable pilots, empowering them to rise up against those who would do them harm", and describes agents "willing to wait for the exact right moment to deliver ammunition director [sic] to a customer's ship — whether they ordered it or not!" The Ministry has reviewed the paperwork and finds the framing administratively impeccable. The firm remains in vigorous practice: two hundred kill involvements in the week before printing, by its own killboard. The Ministry holds files on the firm and its founder, linked above.
Their killboard files the method: roughly a third of deliveries are made solo, the rest in gangs with a median strength of three, and among bombers the firm flies the four-mid Manticore and Nemesis almost exclusively.
The method, as the record shows it. The bomber arrives cloaked and waits: on a wormhole, at a site the customer will finish scanning shortly, above a gas cloud already being huffed. The painter is the first module after the tackle. On decloak the point and the paint land before the target's overview updates; torpedoes do the rest to anything cruiser-sized or above, rockets to anything smaller.
Two figures discipline the whole affair: a fifteen-second wait before the cloak returns if it goes wrong, and a hull that will not survive being the customer instead.
Who actually takes delivery, per eight hundred J-space killmails: frigates, capsules, haulers, and Customs Offices make up the bulk of the trade; battleships appear when gangs reach six or more. The romantic version of this doctrine kills battleships; the working version kills whatever was already committed to something else.
The fitting philosophy underneath all of it is the firm's own teaching, and it survives every balance pass: application outranks paper damage. A bomber's slots divide into the fixed baseline, the cloak, three launchers, the tackle, a probe or bomb launcher, and a contest between raw damage and application that the doctrine settles by spending two to four slots on application without apology. A painter kept is worth more than a launcher upgraded. Against a customer wearing warp core stabilisers, the tackle stacks; against a slow lock, a scripted sensor booster. And the engagement is planned end to end before the decloak: point range held, web range refused, transversal up, exit aligned. A delivery is a procedure, not a fight, and the procedure is written before the customer knows the shop is open.
Nine fits, sourced and dated; figures are the sources' own.
Copy as EFT for the fitting window, DNA for links, or an in-game chat link. Appraisals ask the Jita sell book live.
EVE Workbench, Proxuz Avi, uploaded July 2026 (client "Cradle of War") · source ↗
Source's figures: est. 59.77M ISK · 2.65k EHP. Double painter, MWD, point, and a bomb in the spare high: the current standard shape.
[Manticore, Multibox Torpedo Bomber] Ballistic Control System II Ballistic Control System II 5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive Warp Disruptor II Phased Scoped Target Painter Phased Scoped Target Painter Covert Ops Cloaking Device II Torpedo Launcher II Torpedo Launcher II Torpedo Launcher II Bomb Launcher I Small Processor Overclocking Unit I Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I Scourge Rage Torpedo x800 Caldari Navy Scourge Torpedo x800 Scourge Javelin Torpedo x800 Concussion Bomb x2 Nanite Repair Paste x50
EVE Workbench, March 2026 (client "Catalyst") · source ↗
Source's figures: est. 43.86M ISK. Full tackle: scram, point, and web on one bomber. The launchers are Tech I as published; the Ministry assumes the reader owns a market tab.
[Manticore, manti torps] Ballistic Control System II Ballistic Control System II Warp Disruptor II Warp Scrambler II Stasis Webifier I 1MN Monopropellant Enduring Afterburner Torpedo Launcher I Torpedo Launcher I Torpedo Launcher I Covert Ops Cloaking Device II Core Probe Launcher I Small Bay Loading Accelerator II Small EM Shield Reinforcer II Mjolnir Rocket x111 Sisters Core Scanner Probe x8
EVE Workbench, Sindarin Elrond, March 2026 (client "Catalyst") · source ↗
Source's figures: est. 43.42M ISK. Rockets, not torpedoes: they apply in full to the frigates explorers actually fly, which torpedoes never will.
[Manticore, Explorer Hunter Rockets] Ballistic Control System II Ballistic Control System II Warp Disruptor II Warp Scrambler II Stasis Webifier I 1MN Monopropellant Enduring Afterburner Rocket Launcher I Rocket Launcher I Covert Ops Cloaking Device II Rocket Launcher I Core Probe Launcher I Small Bay Loading Accelerator II Small EM Shield Reinforcer II Sisters Core Scanner Probe x8 Mjolnir Rocket x111
EVE Workbench, Vale Koenig, 2019, last modified 2024 · source ↗
Source's figures: est. 229.74M ISK · cap stable. The polarized glass cannon, pre-2020 vintage; the architecture survives, the numbers predate two balance passes.
[Manticore, Solo-Hunter, Polarized Bomber] Ballistic Control System II Ballistic Control System II 1MN Y-S8 Compact Afterburner Peripheral Compact Target Painter Astro-Inertial Compact Missile Guidance Computer Astro-Inertial Compact Missile Guidance Computer Covert Ops Cloaking Device II Polarized Torpedo Launcher Polarized Torpedo Launcher Polarized Torpedo Launcher Sisters Core Probe Launcher Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I Small Warhead Rigor Catalyst II Scourge Rage Torpedo x1980 Caldari Navy Scourge Torpedo x1620 Missile Range Script x2 Missile Precision Script x2 Sisters Core Scanner Probe x8 Nanite Repair Paste x250 Agency 'Pyrolancea' DB3 Dose I x2
EVE Workbench, NordicHS, June 2026 (client "Cradle of War") · source ↗
Source's figures: est. 142.80M ISK · 1.75k EHP. Polarized launchers at Javelin ranges with a sensor booster: the long-arm ambush.
[Purifier, Purifier (Longbow Polarized)] Ballistic Control System II Ballistic Control System II Pro-Nav Compact Missile Guidance Enhancer Missile Guidance Computer II F-90 Compact Sensor Booster 1MN Y-S8 Compact Afterburner Polarized Torpedo Launcher Polarized Torpedo Launcher Polarized Torpedo Launcher Covert Ops Cloaking Device II Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I Small Hydraulic Bay Thrusters II Targeting Range Script x1 Missile Range Script x2 Caldari Navy Mjolnir Torpedo x788 Nanite Repair Paste x50 Missile Precision Script x1
EVE Workbench, Otto Estidal, 2025 (client "Equinox") · source ↗
Source's figures: est. 64.64M ISK · 2.62k EHP. Torpedoes, a bomb, a painter, and a point on a working budget.
[Purifier, *Max DPS + Bomb [S] Co-Processor II Crosslink Compact Ballistic Control System Crosslink Compact Ballistic Control System Peripheral Compact Target Painter 5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive Warp Disruptor II Torpedo Launcher II Torpedo Launcher II Torpedo Launcher II Covert Ops Cloaking Device II Bomb Launcher I Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I Mjolnir Rage Torpedo x2120 Electron Bomb x2
EVE Workbench, 2025 (client "Equinox") · source ↗
Source's figures: est. 148.36M ISK · 1.66k EHP. Polarized Novas with a Focused Void Bomb in the rack: fifteen thousand gigajoules of someone else's capacitor.
[Hound, Polarized + Void] Ballistic Control System II Ballistic Control System II Co-Processor II 5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive Warp Disruptor II Kapteyn Compact Sensor Dampener Polarized Torpedo Launcher Covert Ops Cloaking Device II Polarized Torpedo Launcher Bomb Launcher I Polarized Torpedo Launcher Small Processor Overclocking Unit I Small Warhead Rigor Catalyst I Nova Javelin Torpedo x1 Nova Rage Torpedo x181 Scan Resolution Dampening Script x1 Focused Void Bomb x3
EVE Workbench, Circuitsnap6, 2025 (client "Equinox") · source ↗
Source's figures: est. 25.72M ISK · 2.57k EHP. The cheapest entry on the register; a scram and intent.
[Hound, Brawly Hound] Ballistic Control System I Ballistic Control System I Parallel Enduring Target Painter 5MN Cold-Gas Enduring Microwarpdrive Warp Scrambler II Upgraded 'Malkuth' Torpedo Launcher Upgraded 'Malkuth' Torpedo Launcher Upgraded 'Malkuth' Torpedo Launcher Covert Ops Cloaking Device II Guristas Nova Torpedo x1096
A J-space loss of June 2026, representative of the Nemesis pattern in the field sample · killmail ↗
No published figures; the fit is reproduced from the wreck. Torpedoes, a bomb, a painter, hyperspatial rigs, and the warp core stabiliser of a pilot who intended to leave.
[Nemesis, As observed in the field] Nanofiber Internal Structure II Warp Core Stabilizer II Peripheral Compact Target Painter Small Azeotropic Restrained Shield Extender Small Azeotropic Restrained Shield Extender 5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive Torpedo Launcher II Torpedo Launcher II Torpedo Launcher II Bomb Launcher I Covert Ops Cloaking Device II Small Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer I Small Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer I Scorch Bomb x3 Inferno Rage Torpedo x900
The register favours the published and the dated over the theoretical. Prices move; the appraisal button asks the market at the moment you press it. The polarized entries surrender every resistance by design; the accurate word is brittle, and the insurance forms are filed accordingly.
The bomber is cheaper than what it kills.
The register runs from twenty-five to two hundred and thirty million ISK, and the working end of it sits under seventy. A bomber is priced to be spent: the sum works whenever the target's hull, pod, or Customs Office is worth more than the bomber, and it usually is. Take the shot that is offered; decline the shot that is a trap. A bomber that comes home is margin.