Fit Kitchen: The Svipul

Ok, I’m finally doing it. I said I’d “do the Svipul next” over a year ago so here we finally are, ready to dive into another tech 3 ship. The Svipul is the Minmatar Tactical Destroyer and, despite a huge dropoff in popularity these days it’s still a bloody good ship. It has dropped from the 2015 heights of ~60,000 kills per month right down to an average of about 8,000 these days. This is almost entirely a product of just how insanely OP the old 10MN fits used to be. But none of that matters any more. Right now it’s about making use of a really versatile hull and really living up to the at destroyer namesake.

Moving on to stats, I have a few different blocks to usual. Tactical destroyers are some of the most interesting ships in EVE with their ability to shift between various modes mid combat. To stay sane I will only provide a screenshot of one mode that best represents the fit. Just make sure you read my descriptions.

So there’s a lot to be excited about when picking up a Svipul. The dual shield/armour bonus is incredibly strong and dropping your MWD signature bloom can be great for fighting bigger ships. Prop mode easily brings you to the same speed as many assault frigates. And sharpshooter mode is perhaps even more interesting, increasing lock range to 100km and sending damage numbers skyward. The unique EWAR resistance combined with the tracking bonus means that a sharpshooter mode Svipul has even more opportunities to roleplay your average lowsec gate gun.

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Shield Svipuls

It makes a lot of sense to structure this into various types of tank rather than brawly or kitey fits as I sometimes do. I say this because even a kiting artillery Svipul could be extremely strong up close (not that it should be used that way!) and plated Svipuls can still get somewhere fast with prop mode. You just need to know how to fly them and that comes from practice. Switch to sharpshooter if you need the tracking/damage up close, for example, or stay in defensive if you are the one person in fleet being shot at.

Moving onto fits anyway, we’ve got what is probably the simplest cookie cutter Svipul fit: dual Medium Shield Extenders. This setup is extremely easy to fly, tops out at 567 DPS, and will tank 25.9k EHP in defence mode. Prop mode provides a decent 2.56km/s (3.7km/s hot) with MWD on. Obviously, you’ll use prop for moving about but it’s your choice between defence and sharpshooter once on target. Defence will allow you to keep the MWD on and act like an Assault Frigate. Sharpshooter will let you put out more DPS in the race to kill.

It’s possible to use that same fitting style in more of a fleet-style setup by swapping MSE to shield hardener. This version with shield links has the same EHP but with an insane 83.9% resist average. You’re then fitted with neut+nos just to top it off. Truly a terrifying fleet (in this ship class) with a bit of frig logi. You might also want to fly this variant in order to swap the shield hardener to a web for the scram+web shield Svipul.

Continuing the theme of medium shield extenders being really damn good, we have a passive fit option too. As it turns out, this still works! As passive Svipul tanks 341 EHP/s while putting out 253 DPS cold in defence mode. Throw in the links Bifrost and this climbs to 475 EHP/s. I’ve not had a chance to fly it myself yet, but theoretically a Svipul fit like this would easily tank an Osprey Navy Issue without thinking twice.

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Armour Svipuls… Sort of..

So it turns out that in most cases, an armour fit Svipul is just kinda trash. I’ve had long standing success with them for the last 4-5 years in Wolf Rayet wormholes with them, but most armour fits just don’t come close to the power of a shield fit. I’d put this down to the sheer amount of EHP that a MSE provides compared to a 400mm plate. Having to use up low slots on fitting for that plate also doesn’t help in dropping your tank even further. There are still a couple of ways to make this work at least.

As I’ve mentioned the Wolf Rayet setup, it looks like the first fit below and it has a very niche purpose: alpha damage in Wolf Rayet wormholes. This particular fit can deliver 5k damage in one volley so it doesn’t take much to work out how many you need to start one-two shotting much larger ships. The only thing to really be aware of that it does lose out to a more well-rounded fleet that uses Confessors or any light/rapid light missile setup. You have to be super careful with positioning and deliver those volleys to finish the fight as fast as possible. if you want to see how well they work then watch this little clip vs some (admittedly untanked) Kikimoras.

The other “armour” fit I’ll be showing off is actually a dual tank setup that uses a Medium Ancillary Shield Booster in a mid slot too. I created this since i don’t really trust the Small Ancil Armour Rep to get through every cycle. Dual armour rep fits are a bit spooky, too, since they’re always only about 4k EHP away from death with so little armour buffer. I’ve flown this and it works well enough. I’d advise only really using it if you’re a fan of dual tanks.

A bit disappointing for a ship with 33% bonus armour resists but what am I gonna do eh. The rest of the options were a bit basic, a bit boring, and completely outshone by the shield variants to be honest. Why bother taking a version of the same ship with reduced EHP, speed, damage, and resists when I’ve got much better and more fun options. Quick note: The C13 WR PvE Svipul is still good.

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Speedy Svipuls

I wanted to write a lot more than I have here about Svipuls, but it’s difficult. Many of the fits that you might come up with for this ship fall under the same bus as many other attempts at another small ship theorycrafting article. There just isn’t enough variety in those slots. The Svipul may be versatile, but fitting options don’t change much. ‘Tis a simple ship.

To round things out, then, here’s my attempt at a true kiting artillery Svipul as well as an equivalent buffer fleet version. Both are somewhat “ok” on the scale of doctrine efficacy. I’d use them, but then I like trying things that are a little bit off meta. I’ve heard of some groups using variants that feature Defender Launchers front and centre, but that isn’t a concern in the areas of space that I fly in so it isn’t worth me commenting on.

That’s it for now then anyway. As always please do let me know in the comments below, on Discord, or on Twitter if there is anything I can do to improve these articles. I’d also love to hear about any particular Svipul fits that you guys like in the comments below. It’s quite easy for me to overlook a particular flying style that isn’t very common.