Solo

Eve Online Solo PVP is the hardest thing in the game. Full Stop.

PVPing in Eve Online by yourself is one of the hardest things you can do.  But there is a certain branch of individual pilots who only take on pilots they can tackle and kill themselves.

You can see this in the best streamers, like zehpando and others.  They take their opportunities where they can, and run away from any fight they cannot kill directly.  They bide their time and are patient.  Target selection is key.  Knowing when to dive in, kill your target, and get out is the hardest thing in this game.

As Kismeteer, I'm not great at flying in eve. I'm good at focusing and accomplishing a single goal.  I get tunnel vision though.  I cannot do soloing.  I don't have the ability to see the forest and see the trees instead.  I'm able to annoy people, like helping getting Amelia Duskspace's Imp to hull through damps.

So I have to rely on other people who are better than me.  And it's good to acknowledge their skills.  These are their guides. :)

If you have a guide on using a Loki or a Hecate, maybe the two most popular solo ships, would love to see it.

Two Guides?

Yes, multiple people have VERY strong feelings on this topic.  I have one from Mazzic Karde and now one from Issac Ignunen.  These ships operate somewhat differently.  I appreciate their time and effort submitting these too!

If you are interested in submitting one, we have a general guide inside Pandemic horde here: https://www.pandemic-horde.org/forum/index.php?threads/nbi-this-is-my-favorite-ship-3-month-skill-train-edition.3644/  But it's using this format:

1. Exact fit of the ship you suggest, meta/t2 preferred. Windows key-Shift-S can take a screenshot in game for easy of posting it. Hover over the price in the bottom right to see the expensive modules.

2. How much it costs on the fit posted, and the cost of fit you fly if you bling it regularly. I'd prefer these fits to be reasonable for a newbie, if possible.

3. How bad the skill train is, minus magic 14. Must be under 3 months or close to that. No vet ships here.

4. Why you like flying it

5. How to use it (for new players!) A video helps but not required at all.

Template, cut paste this into your post:

1. The Fit:

2. The Cost:

3. The Training:

4: The Reason:

5: The How:

Mazzic Karde's Imperial Navy Slicer

Mazzic Karde is a pilot who flies only a few ships.  He streams on twitch now and again under https://www.twitch.tv/mazzickarde/ but he's really known for flying solo against the largest alliance in the game, Pandemic Horde.

His most recent stats he shared with me was that he has lost 314 slicers, for a total of 9.72 bil lost.  But he has killed 314 worth 21.64 bil killed, minus 4 bil for two vargurs he tapped for the memes.  So maybe 15 bil in solo kills that are all solo versus an entire group of people chasing him, often 2-5 versus him.  He is maybe one of the best individual pilots I've flown against. https://zkillboard.com/character/1021763479/ speaks louder than words on this.

This is his guide on soloing that I asked him to make for our 'My favorite ship' thread in pandemic horde. https://www.pandemic-horde.org/forum/index.php?threads/nbi-this-is-my-favorite-ship-3-month-skill-train-edition.3644/ has that thread and would love more like this, in this format.

Note, if you want to fight Mazzic, just come to the undock outside MJ-5.  He would love to solo you anywhere though, challenge him!

Preparation - The Fit

[Imperial Navy Slicer, Slicer Pulse 2x Nano]


Extruded Compact Heat Sink

Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Heat Sink II

Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste


5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive

Warp Disruptor II


Small Focused Pulse Laser II

[Empty High slot]

Small Focused Pulse Laser II


Small Semiconductor Memory Cell I

Small Energy Locus Coordinator II

Small Energy Locus Coordinator II



Agency 'Overclocker' SB5 Dose II



Conflagration S x2

Scorch S x2

Multifrequency S x2

Nanite Repair Paste x75

The Cost

25 million ISK

But buy stacks of 10.

The Training plan

Amarr Frigate IV – (V highly preferred)

High Speed Maneuvering IV - (V highly preferred)

Small Pulse Laser Specialization III - (IV preferred)

Acceleration Control IV - (V highly preferred)

Evasive Maneuvering IV - (V highly preferred)

Navigation IV - (V highly preferred)

CPU Management IV - (V preferred)

Weapon Upgrades IV - (V preferred)

Gunnery, Surgical Strike, Trajectory Analysis, Controlled Bursts, Rapid Firing, Motion Prediction IV (V preferred)

Long Range Targeting IV (V preferred)

Thermodynamics IV (V preferred)

Amarr Frigate V is by far the most important skill for flying the Imperial Navy Slicer. Each level gets you a massive 25% energy turret damage and 10% optimal range. You can fly it with level IV but honestly it’s a completely different ship at level V so I highly recommend waiting until you have it maxed.

The next most important train is for T2 small pulse laser specialization in order to use T2 pulses and Scorch ammo which is your go-to for kiting. Conflagration is the T2 short range ammo and it deals an incredible amount of DPS. Bringing along Multifrequency ammo gives you superior tracking in case you get tackled. Having these 3 ammo types is intuitive – scorch for range, conflagration for damage, multifrequency for tracking which allows you to load an ammo and focus on the fight.

The most important group of skills are the navigation skills listed above – speed and agility are your tank and without them you’ll have a hard time using the ship effectively. 

Finally, gunnery skills that increase optimal range, damage, tracking, etc stack with the damage per level bonus that makes the Slicer so powerful.

Why the Imperial Navy Slicer

I love flying the Slicer because it enables me to dive in and out of fights, outmaneuver faster opponents, and get away with murder while being outnumbered. The combination of speed and damage projection lets you engage a wide variety of frigates, destroyers, and sometimes cruisers and the kite playstyle allows you to disengage from fights when the tide turns against you. 

I also love flying the Slicer to keep my manual piloting skills sharp. Flying the slicer effectively will teach you good grid awareness, range control, module/heat/ cap management, transversal, and range control to say the least.

Learning to fly the Slicer effectively will increase your effectiveness when flying basically any other PVP ship.  

• The Slicer has only 36 seconds of capacitor with everything running – this sounds like a very small amount, but with good cap/module management you will avoid over-repping and only use certain modules (and heat them) when absolutely necessary. In other PVP ships these skills will make it possible to live longer under energy neutralizer pressure or high damage without running out of cap or burning modules from heating too long.

• The Slicer only has 3000 ehp before using your small ancillary armor rep which gives you another 1600 ehp if you live long enough to run it dry. If you have poor transversal to a target, you will easily know it because you will be dead in seconds. Paying attention to transversal and proper maneuvering will help you reduce incoming damage as much as possible in other PVP ships. 

• The Slicer cannot be flown effectively by using Approach, Orbit, and Keep at Range – manual piloting is a must. While it can be difficult to learn at first, with time and practice you’ll find that it becomes second nature and something you do without even really thinking. Flying manually and using the Tactical Overlay helps with understanding where threats are and what direction they are moving. This helps you point out hostile ships that are ramming in or trying to run away which can help you make good callouts for your fleet or react quickly on your own to avoid being tackled or to secure a kill. 

I should also say I did not create this fit – it has been used in lowsec and FW for a very, very long time and has been flown by pilots significantly better than me! Chessur was the main inspiration in flying Slicers with this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UieJcWI-YM) along with Needstobereal. Sholto Douglas of Tuskers was a massive inspiration and the major reason I started going to nullsec to fly T1 frigates in search of content.

If the Pulse Slicer isn’t your style, you can replace the guns with T2 Small Focused Beam Lasers and use Microwave S, Ultraviolet S, and Multifrequency S ammo types for long, medium, and short ranges. The Beam Slicer can shoot up to 50km away by default with max skills and does more DPS than the Pulse Slicer at the expense of needing to match transversal to enable your turrets to hit. The Pulse Slicer deals damage while in range, leaving you the ability to focus on flying instead of matching transversal. 

You have to alter your bracket information to show all ships.  Note, this can crash your entire computer.  https://forums.eveonline.com/t/how-to-enable-additional-text-informations-on-all-brackets-in-space/135187 

But How do I fly the Slicer?

A lot goes into flying the Slicer, but there are various things that stand out:

Step 1: Tactical Overlay

Enable the Tactical Overlay by tapping Ctrl-D. This shows you the ranges of targets around you as well as arrows on each ship that show their direction and velocity.

The solid blue arrow coming out of your ship is your vector. If you double click in space to fly in a direction, you’ll see a blue circle in the distance and your ship will turn and point at that location. 

If you left click once on another target on the overview or a locked target, you’ll see a second arrow coming out of your ship that is flashing and blue. This is the other ship’s direction and speed. Using these arrows and information about the grid is essential to being successful as a Slicer pilot.

Step 2: Ship Names in Space

If your computer can handle it and you tend to be in smaller fleets/gangs, enable all ship names in space using the following CCP endorsed process. This process is easily reversable by deleting the text out of the prefs file. Having all of the ship names and distances in space along with vectors from the tactical overlay gives you an incredible amount of information about the state of the grid at a glance.

Step 3: Manual Piloting

Clicking on a target will also create a gray line between you and the ship you have selected. If you fly perpendicular (90*) to this line constantly, you will be orbiting the target. If the inside angle is less than 90* you will get closer to the target. If the inside angle is greater than 90* you will get farther than the target. Jettisoning a cargo can and practicing manually orbiting at different ranges and different speeds will help your manual piloting skills.

Step 4: Module/Cap Management

As stated previously, the Slicer has only 36 seconds of cap running all modules. However, with skill points spent into the correct cap related kills you will find that you are cap stable with your MWD and your pulse lasers running. Most pilots are used to flying DPS ships that are relatively cap stable so they keep a warp disruptor on a target constantly. With the slicer, this isn’t required unless the target is not interested in fighting you. The only time that a target worries about being pointed is if it is trying to leave before it dies. Therefore, you must only point a target when its tank is nearly broken and it tries to run away – you’ll see the target’s vector change suddenly, usually toward a nearby structure or celestial. This is your signal to point them and match their vector to stay in range, using MWD or point heat if necessary.

Always run your pulse lasers hot for the first part of the fight and always run your ancillary rep hot and repair it while it reloads. 

If you didn’t know, the spacing of each module in each slot on your ship affects how quickly the modules heat up. Imagine each module as a volcano when it is heated – it spills heat over onto adjacent modules. The ideal setup is to keep modules you heat frequently (like MWDs, points, shield boosters, armor reps, etc) on the edges of the rack with less heated or passive modules in-between if possible. 

Heat doesn’t wrap around from top to bottom of the rack and onlined but inactive modules count the same as empty slots. The more modules that are online and active (and heated!) result in much faster heat buildup and damage. 

Your guns should have an empty slot between them which means that they can be heated for longer than normal so take advantage of it. The SAAR is the only active module in the low slots and you always want to heat ancillary reps for maximum repairs per second and repair them while they reload. The MWD is touching the point as there are only 2 midslots on the Slicer, but as long as your point is online but inactive you can heat your MWD for 2-3 cycles in a row reliably with a high Thermodynamics skill. Pulsing your MWD heat cycles and spacing out how frequently you use it can get you more performance before burning out. 

Step 5: Finding a fight

An ideal target for you is a larger blob with overzealous tackle or isolated support ships. Just because you can’t kill the whole blob doesn’t mean that you can’t skirt the edges trying to bait ships into following you out of their fleet’s DPS range to kill them on your own. I prefer staging systems in nullsec for this approach but it might be overwhelming at first for newer Slicer pilots. Tagging along with standing fleet to fight ESS/nano gangs can be beneficial because you can get a feel for how the ship flies and perhaps get tackle to burn after you to kill it. 

Staying alive is paramount – don’t get baited trying to chase a target that runs back into the blob. Let them run and repair your modules to wait for the next one. 

Step 6: Orbiting and Feathering

When you’re significantly faster than a target, you will have to turn quite a bit and orbit them to stay in pulse range.

When a target is significantly faster than you, you will get caught and lose when flying in a straight line. But believe it or not, it is possible to maintain range and even escape these faster ships. This technique is called ‘feathering’ – using superior agility and a slower top speed to maintain range in turns from opponents who are faster and have worse agility. This is a semi-advanced technique, but it is touched upon by Chessur in the video linked above as well as by Amelia Duskspace in the video linked below. 

The 2x Nanofiber fit for this Slicer gives you extremely good agility which means you maintain the vast majority of your speed in your turns and you can make tighter turns with that speed. An interceptor may be faster, but it will swing wide in turns due to inertia and it might be flying faster but it can’t apply that speed in the direction that it needs to in order to catch you. I make extensive use of feathering while flying the Slicer. 

If you’d like more information, assistance, or some sparring practice while learning to fly the Slicer feel free to message me either in-game (Mazzic Karde) or on Discord (mazzickarde). Fly safe and I’d love to hear about your successes and failures with the Slicer!

Amelia Duskspace’s Manual Piloting Video below explains these concepts, please watch and practice!

Issac Ignuen's Kikimora Soloing Guide

I'm Issac Igunen - I started EVE in 2018, started smallganging in 2021, and started nanoing with a Kiki in mid-2022. In the time since, I've racked up over 2.5k Kiki kills, with over 800 solos and killing about 120b with under 5 involved.  https://zkillboard.com/character/2114006305/ 

In that same time:

Eventually, it fell out of my favor, and I moved on to other ships. Regardless, the experience I've had with it stretches over a period of a year and a half, in some of the more difficult metas and areas of EVE. Even in spite of recent nerfs, Kikis will always have a special place in my heart as the ship I learned to do nano in. This guide attempts to convey the most important lessons I received in those 18 months, and highlight a commonly used, yet rarely understood, ship for solo.

Preparation - The Fit

[Kikimora, haha spool go brrRRR]

Entropic Radiation Sink II

Entropic Radiation Sink II

Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Damage Control II


Warp Disruptor II

Republic Fleet Medium Shield Extender

5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive


Light Entropic Disintegrator II


Small Polycarbon Engine Housing II

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing II

Small Core Defense Field Extender II



Mystic S x500

Nanite Repair Paste x50

Tetryon Exotic Plasma S x50

Occult S x200

Meson Exotic Plasma S x100

Agency 'Overclocker' SB3 Dose I x1

Synth Frentix Booster x1

This is more or less the basic shield nano Kiki fit, and the one I learned how to do nano in. It costs about 100m, and post-nerf does about 180 dps before spool with Mystic. You can change around the rigs to fit your personal preference; I like having 2 polycarbs because speed is king (and the Kiki's isn't incredible), and the CDFE because I like having it over an EM reinforcer; I would definitely recommend something to plug your EM hole though. It's all a matter of personal preference.

Editors note: You have some options here too.  A 5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive decreases your signature a lot, all the Meta Modules affect a lot.  Issac Igunen recommends factioning the point, and then the quad 5mn fits easily.  Or maybe an A-type prop to fix the cap issues. You could abyssal the Warp Disruptor II with a Decayed Warp Disruptor Plasmid which costs 3k, and just need to get it 50% more cpu and can fit an EE-601 (1 mil) cpu implant, might need to try a few times, but that does tank your cap usage a LOT. You can also fit an EM-702 (10.5 mil) to get sub 3 second in warp, or sub 4 with MWD on.  A Low Friction II in the rig can get you sub 2 but you need that speed!  Lots of options.

The Cost

98 mil in jita. https://janice.e-351.com/a/5NX3Bu

The Training plan

An absolute MUST is Small Disintegrator Spec. to at least III. The use of Mystic is a crux of the entire fit, and without it, it will be hilariously weak. In addition, while it's not strictly necessary to fly Kikis, having Triglavian Destroyer to V over IV gives 11% more range and 12.5% more damage - post-nerf, both are extraordinarily helpful, and as a former Kiki main, I consider it to be the best train of my EVE career.

Navigation skills (Acceleration Control, High Speed Maneuvering) are very important as well. Anything to improve speed is huge, and since the cap on a Kiki is rather poor (it lasts 2:50 running point, MWD, and gun), anything that reduces the cap load helps a lot with longevity on a grid, helping make up for its dearth in staying power. In my opinion, you should aim to have gunnery support skills at 4-5, then Disintegrator Spec III, then Trig Destroyer V.

Why the Kikimora

Pre-nerf, Kikimoras wiped damn near everything else destroyer down, and against mostly anything bigger, they could evade damage surprisingly well, had a not insignificant amount of buffer, and spooled to obscene dps. While post-nerf, their abilities against smaller targets in particular have suffered, a sufficiently prepared and experienced pilot should be able to do mostly the same as before the nerf in the majority of engagements.  Editors note: Considering removing pre-nerf, it's a past era, sadly. Let me know what you think!

Pre-nerf, the name of the game was to just heat Mystic and hit with 260 dps out of the gates Post-nerf, everything is spool, spool, spool. Maintaining Mystic spool at all costs is the bread and butter of Kiki gameplay now, and unless you're getting hard tackled and can't track with Mystic at all, you should aim to keep it loaded and spooling. Mystic max spool is 575 dps, which is downright oppressive. This dps is comparable to a 3 Magstab Rail Brutix Navy Issue with Navy Antimatter, and has nearly perfect tracking; as long as you can hold spool and stay grid to reach this level, you'll find Kikis tear through surprisingly tough opponents like butter.

In addition, in a Kiki, you can heat forever whereas in a Hecate you'd be lucky to get 10 shots off before you have to turn your heat off, because a Kiki only uses 1 high slot, it takes a stupidly long time for rack heat to build. I recall heating for a whole 40 cycles in a row, and still only burning the gun to 75%. With a more realistic scenario where you have to change targets or drop heat here and there, the longevity with heat is incredible. In addition, heating gives +15% raw damage, meaning that although it won't help you spool faster, the fact you can heat for a full 90 seconds and shrug it off lets you sustain even higher dps than other equally classed ships can hold for such a long time. A side effect of this is that if you need to use your heat, you're better off using it at the end of a fight, when this +15% is worth the most considering spool. Keep in mind, however, that except for the officer gun, Triglavian weapons require an obscene amount of paste to repair, and it is not feasible to carry enough paste to repair it. Because of this, more than other ships, Kikis are stronger in any space where you have docking and repair access, where you're able to make up for this weakness in the cost of heating

But How do I fly the Kiki?

By and large, Kikimoras are a relatively easy ship to fly compared to a Slicer, they are much more forgiving of mistakes in positioning with a respectable (~8k) buffer, and the base gameplay loop is almost always the same:

Against anything going under 500m/s, I've found it safe to simply use the orbit at 18km command, inertia slings you out to 21-22km, and this is enough buffer with t2 point range that anything going slow can't slingshot you off. For something between ~500-1500 m/s, in my experience you can still use the orbit command and just be prepared to manual pilo.  For example, if they try to pull away from you, you may need to either heat your point or burn in, or both, to continue holding them down, or if they lunge in, you should heat prop and burn away. Past 1500m/s, or with multiple ships on grid, I'd heavily recommend manually piloting in order to control engagements, as you are very vulnerable if caught by something with respectable dps and tank.  The added control of manual piloting is crucial to staying between 13 and 24km, which is the critical range you should aim to stay in. Because of the obscene tracking on Trig guns, you need to take next to no care about whether or not you can track targets, and focus only on your positioning on the grid, as opposed to relative to what you want to shoot.

Kikimoras are also easy to choose ammo for

Even though Mystic has a 50% tracking penalty, this is still excellent, resulting in a tracking value of 256, comparable to pulse lasers with scorch. Keep in mind, you get to shoot with this tracking out to 40. In all my time flying Kikis, I have never once had issues with tracking with Mystic against something past 10km. If something is going slow enough with a small enough sig, you might outtrack yourself orbiting with prop on; you can simply keep it off and turn it back on if you need it.

Although the post-nerf damage was heavily reduced (I recall hitting a Crow for 120 damage with Mystic), the core gameplay of Kikis remains the same, spool impressively hard, and win the dps race with your decent-enough buffer. Not many realize this, but because the Kiki's ROF is so much higher than a Vedmak's, with 2 Radiation Sinks on both it takes 2.5 minutes of spooling for a Vedmak to finally start deal more aggregate dps than a Kiki over the same time.  Keeping in mind Kikis also track spectacularly, whereas Vedmaks have some trouble with tracking with Mystic. Kikis are an incredible and (in my opinion) underutilized source of cheap, quick, and oppressive dps in small gang environments.

Of course, Vedmaks have massively better staying power, meaning they're good against things with a reasonable capacity to shoot back, but I stress again that the buffer on a Kiki is surprisingly decent, and can take a decent amount of punishment, as long as you respect the fact it will never be spectacular, and always be prepared to leave a grid when you start taking more dps than you can really shrug off.

The Kiki's role is still far and away as anti-tackle. The incredible tracking and spooling dps makes them excellent at fragging interceptors, or for that matter, most frigates. Assault Frigs are a little trickier since they tend to have ADC, projection, and excellent speed. Beam Retris in particular are a difficult matchup; they have a good damage type against Kiki's shield resist profile, and although they have a Thermal hole, the Explosive t2 resists make it tricky nonetheless. Against Beam Retris, a Kiki should try to goad it into engaging, so you're not forced to be closer than Standard range, and then close in for point once it starts running out of ancil charges or looks keen on disengaging. Use of heat liberally is extraordinarily useful for range control against a ship that is faster, more agile, and projects well.

While on the subject of heat, I should mention when to use heat on mids: heat on Point gives +20% range; with t2 point this brings it to 28.8km, and heat on prop significantly boosts your speed. Both of these are crucial to winning tough fights. Pulsing prop heat can give you the speed you need to get out of a tricky position, or to outrun drones and let them burn into you to defang. Point heat gives you a lot more breathing room between web and point range, and lets you start an engagement with much more control than otherwise. Editors note: heating your prop can MAJORLY affect a static orbit, causing you to steer too far/too close! Careful!

Kiki target avoidance

With most of the strategy-focused portion done, I'd like to look at a few matchups and how (in my experience) they typically go.

Beam Retris - Dictate range

As mentioned before, Beam Retris are rather difficult.  They hit into your resist holes, and have strong projection and local tank. With most of these difficult matchups, the key is to play mind games, however possible. Against a Retri, your goal is to make it come into you, allowing you to pull it off of any assistance it may get, and letting you dictate how fast it closes range. Anywhere from 300-500m/s is ideal.  This is fast enough to make it think it is catching you, and lets it think it applies good dps to you (which it will) as it changes ammos during the burn in. If it pulls away at all, however, you must lunge in to secure point and maintain spool, heating prop if necessary. As you'll most likely be pulling the Retri away in a straight line, it should be easy to lunge in for point. All things considered, you shouldn't get too worried of being too close. You may miss a shot or two at very close range, but since your speed is so similar to that of the Retri, you can slingshot it or just heat prop away if needed to leave. As with all of these difficult matchups, you should be heating your gun the entire time.

Hecates - Make them burn

Hecates are the main other difficult engagement you'll come across. They are very fast in propulsion mode, and have a 2 second align time, meaning they dictate when they want to start a fight. They also have excellent control (usually 2 webs and a scram) and obscene dps. If you are caught by a hecate and it's not in very deep hull, you likely have lost. Because of this, most Hecate pilots will be overconfident and believe very strongly in their dps.

The main danger against a Hecate once it is pointed is a lunge or slingshot. A lunge consists of it dropping to low speed so you burn around it in an orbit, then heats prop in to grab tackle on you. A slingshot is a more advanced version, where it will turn around while chasing you, forcing you to burn back in to hold point, and then turn again to tackle you. Because your inertia is significantly worse than a Hecate's, all else being equal, this will catch you. However, by piloting somewhat cautiously when going for the initial turn, you can maintain a good fraction of your speed, and depending on how hard it leads you away, you can be ready to breeze past it if it turns in. It is absolutely critical you heat your prop (and also point) if the Hecate tries to slingshot or lunge; if it does the same and you're caught down a cycle of heat it will catch you. If you get caught by the Hecate, it is worth thinking about how long you've been spooling: if you've gotten 12 or more cycles off, you should stick to Mystic, otherwise, swap to Occult, and in both cases, heat and pray. You may worry about your tracking with Mystic, however, I've found that with you being double webbed and scrammed, Hecates will often slingshot to 3-4km away from you, doing a small fraction of their dps. No matter whether they decide to slowboat in or prop on, you will have few difficulties tracking. My record against Hecates used to be atrocious, with me feeding 4, 5 times in a row. A year later, I was trading about 10:1. https://zkillboard.com/character/2114006305/stats/ Even post-nerf, dealing with Hecates is absolutely still doable. 

Kiki 1v1 - Git Gud with ammo selection

Kiki 1v1s are always tricky.  By definition, anyone engaging in one has a 50% chance (on average) of winning, and understanding how the ship works in and out is crucial to getting the leg up on your opponent. In particular, the fit I use is not too tanky, which, as in all 1v1s, ends up as a dps race. As such, understanding both how you can leverage the other person's mentality to your own benefit and how to force them to make mistakes is crucial to mastery of any ship. Starting an engagement at range, your main strength is in your speed.  You are somewhat faster than tankier Kikis, which lets you dictate the engagement.

If you switch ammo, you should try to turn your gun on cold for the first cycle and then have it heat for the second.  Heating takes a tick and waiting to turn your gun on for an extra tick is worth it. From range, I would first attempt to string the other Kiki out in Meson range. Although Meson is an objectively worse ammo than Mystic, especially against another Kiki, this allows you to get some free potshots at the other Kiki, and also to goad it into shooting you back with Meson. Once it takes the bait and starts shooting Meson at you, you should get into Mystic range and begin spooling that. As long as you dictate the engagement, your opponent will always be behind you in terms of spool cycles. Post-nerf, active tanked Kikis got slightly buffed relative to buffer ones, however, the dps of having 2 radsinks should still punch through most active tanks. Once you begin spooling Mystic, never drop it unless you get caught.

You can attempt to bait the other Kiki to switch ammo by getting into Occult or Tetryon range (15/17km); take care to not get caught. Your main goal after starting to spool Mystic is to hold point, so the other Kiki can't disengage if it starts losing the dps race, and to bait your opponent into breaking their own spool, at which point you have effectively guaranteed victory. Keep in mind that if you do end up caught for whatever reason, you should evaluate how spooled into Mystic you are. If you will deal significantly more damage with Mystic than Occult (this breakpoint is about 11-12 cycles into Mystic spool), resist the urge to switch to Occult and hope you've spooled hard enough. Having adopted these strategies, my Kiki 1v1 record currently sits at 36:8; much better than the 50/50 that is statistically expected, and very impressive considering the tankiness of other Kikis, usually in more shield buffer, compared to my fit.

EAFs and Recons - Dangerous!

EAFs and Recons are mostly do-not-engage. They cap you out, damp you out, or cripple your speed. Against any of the Recons, I wouldn't recommend staying on that grid.

EAFs are more workable. They vary greatly in threat.

Of course, a Kitsune 80 off and a ceptor burning for you is a completely different story; if you can't isolate and deal with the EAF alone, they're too effective as a force multiplier for you to pick it off with anything else coming to help it.

Jackdaws - Long Range missiles hurt

The final engagement I want to mention are the Jackdaw

Against a Jackdaw, you should aim to be spooling Occult at close range. Assuming you start from ~30km (any further and you should look to disengage, or at least be ready to), your aim is to heat prop while shooting Mystic, then once in Occult range, heat it into the Jackdaw. If possible, you can also play prop games.  Orbit it at around 5-8km, wait for a missile volley, and then red cycle your prop.  For the second volley, you should have good speed but high sig, slightly reducing incoming dps, and the third, some residual speed and low sig, significantly reducing incoming dps. Fighting LML Jackdaws is also much less dangerous than against a Hecate, as they rarely have a scram, and apart from that, a Kiki is significantly faster than them.

Kikis and the small gang meta

In a small gang, Kikis are in a tricky position: They do great amounts of dps, although only after spooling (which often is more a liability on a busy and fluid grid), have mediocre speed and buffer, and even worse resists. For these reasons, I wouldn't recommend Kikis in a smallgang environment, especially when Retris have everything a Kiki doesn't, except for the oppressive damage in time. If you wish to go Ishtar hunting, however, I've had great success with dualboxing a Kiki and a Keres. All told, they cost 150m, and synergize extremely well.

In particular, having a web helps enormously in defanging Ishtar drones. Once you have point and damps, even if it launches more drones, it can't set them to attack you. Even with just 1 Kiki, I've gotten some excellent fights and kills in this setup, and either as the basis for a gang or a multiboxing "solo" pvp roam, I see no reason it wouldn't excel even more.

Issac Igunen's Kiki Guide conclusion

I appreciate that you've taken the time to read through this entire guide, go out there and try Kikis out! They were a ton of fun for me and I'm sure they'll be so for you too. If you have any more questions about Kikis, feel free to reach out to me ingame or on Discord (blueshoes317); I'm always happy to talk Kiki. As mentioned on Mazzic's Slicer guide on this blog, Amelia Duskspace's guides on piloting are an enormously helpful resource to those starting out to nano, and if some of the terms I used to describe positioning sounded alien to you, I would strongly recommend checking them out to gain a basic understanding of the core principles of positioning.

Editor: Issac Igunen is also in the wckg discord below as 'Sue' and would love feedback. :)