---
esi_data:
  fitting_stats:
    cpu_output: 500
    high_slots: 7
    low_slots: 4
    med_slots: 6
    powergrid_output: 830
    rig_slots: 3
  group: Combat Battlecruiser
  hull_stats:
    hp_armor: 3250
    hp_shield: 5500
    hp_structure: 3750
  name: Drake
  race: Unknown
  skill_requirements:
  - level: 1
    skill_id: 33096
  type_id: 24698
  velocity: 150
faction: Caldari State
faction_group: Empire
image: /24698.png
last_updated: '2026-04-21T00:56:44.809367'
ship_class: Combat Battlecruiser
source: eve-university
source_stats:
  armorem: 50
  armorexp: 10
  armorhp: 3250
  armorkin: 25
  armortherm: 45
  bandwidth: 25 Mbit/sec
  bonuses: "<b>Caldari Battlecruiser bonuses (per skill level):</b><br>4% bonus to\
    \ all shield resistances<br>10% bonus to kinetic Heavy Missile and Heavy Assault\
    \ Missile damage<br><b>Role Bonus:</b><br>\u2022&nbsp;Can use one Command Burst\
    \ module<br>25% bonus to Missile velocity<br>50% bonus to Command Burst area of\
    \ effect range<br>"
  capacitor: 2,500 GJ
  cargohold: "450 m\xB3"
  class: Combat Battlecruiser
  cpu: 500
  dronebay: "25 m\xB3"
  externallinks: ''
  extrahold: ''
  extraholdtype: ''
  faction: Caldari State
  forumlinks: ''
  grouping: Standard Battlecruisers
  highlights1: Can use Command Burst module
  highlights2: High Amount of High Slots
  highlights3: ''
  highlights4: ''
  highs: 7
  hulltype: Drake Class
  inertia: 0.65
  info: Of the meticulous craftsmanship the Caldari are renowned for, the Drake was
    born. It was found beneath such a ship to rely on anything other than the time-honored
    combat tradition of missile fire, while the inclusion of sufficient CPU capabilities
    for decent electronic warfare goes without saying.
  launchers: 6
  lows: 4
  mass: 13500000
  maxlockedtargets: 8
  maxvelocity: 150
  mediums: 6
  powergrid: 830
  quote: It has been brought.
  quote_attribution: Unknown Caldari Pilot
  reqskills: '*{{RequiredSkill|Caldari Battlecruiser|I}}

    ** {{RequiredSkill|Spaceship Command|III}}

    ** {{RequiredSkill|Caldari Cruiser|III}}

    *** {{RequiredSkill|Spaceship Command|II}}

    *** {{RequiredSkill|Caldari Destroyer|III}}

    **** {{RequiredSkill|Caldari Frigate|III}}

    ***** {{RequiredSkill|Spaceship Command|I}}'
  scanres: 195 mm
  sensortype: Gravimetric
  sensorvalue: 19 points
  shieldem: 0
  shieldexp: 50
  shieldhp: 5500
  shieldkin: 40
  shieldtherm: 20
  shipid: 24698
  shipimg: Drake.jpg
  shipname: Drake
  sigradius: 295 m
  structurehp: 3750
  targetrange: 65.00 km
  tech: ''
  totaltraintime: 1d 21h 16m 40s
  turrets: 0
  variations: '{{Ship|Nighthawk}}, {{Ship|Drake Navy Issue}}, {{Ship|Alligator}}'
  volume: 252000
  warpspeed: 3.5 AU/s
  warptime: 12.16 s
  wikireferences: ''
source_url: https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Drake
tech_level: Tech 1
title: Drake
type_id: 24698
validation_score: 1.0
---

<img src="/24698.png" alt="Drake" width="300" style="float: left; margin-right: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px; width: 300px;" />

<div style="display: flow-root;">

## Summary

</div>
The Drake, well-known for its excellent tanking abilities, is a very popular PvE ship. In PvE, the Drake can be passively shield-tanked for a stronger tank than a battleship, making L3 missions easy and L4 missions a possibility. However, without very good missile skills L4's will take a long time.

The Drake has fluctuated in popularity for PvP.  Currently its damage bonuses are focused on kinetic missiles, making it less versatile overall. However, its low cost, good missile range, and potential to mount an extremely tough buffer tank makes it attractive despite its damage limitations.  And its skill training aligns with high damage missile hulls such as the Cerberus and Tengu.

The Drake is quite easy to skill for and pilot competently. Its tank bonus makes it forgiving of mistakes, and missiles are an easy to use weapon system that doesn't require the pilot to worry much about angular velocity and range. While it's easy to make it a good L3 mission boat, it's hard to make it fantastic: it is quite slow, without T2 launchers and ammo it only does okay DPS, and clever piloting can't be used to increase missile damage like it can with turrets.
<div style="display: flow-root;">

## Skills

</div>
Skill & Level EffectExplanation Base Skills  
 4% bonus to all shield resistances
 10% bonus to Kinetic Heavy Missile Heavy Assault Missile damage While you can start missioning with this skill at III, skilling to at least IV will provide a foundation of decent tank and decent DPS.  
 5% bonus to heavy missile damage per skill level. Heavy Missiles, due to their long range, are often used in Level 3 mission fits. Train to IV to maximise your time/benefit ratio.   5% bonus to heavy assault missile damage per skill level. Drakes are used in Factional Warfare PvP, often fit with Heavy Assault Missiles. Heavy Assault Missiles have a shorter range than Heavy Missiles. Missile Skills   2% Bonus to missile launcher rate of fire per skill level. This skill is required to operate any rocket or missile launcher. Training it also increases your rate of fire, which means more damage dealt per second.   3% bonus to missile launcher rate of fire per level. Rapid Launch increases your rate of fire, increasing damage dealt per second.  2% bonus to all missile damage per skill level. Simply deals a direct increase to damage dealt.  10% bonus to all missiles' maximum velocity per level. While this skill decreases the time it takes for missiles to actually deal their damage, it also increases their range. A missile that travels faster is a missile that travels further.  10% decrease per level in factor of target's velocity for all missiles. Even though this skill doesn't increase on-paper DPS, it does increase your actual in-game damage application. As a target's speed becomes less of a factor, more damage is applied. This is especially helpful against smaller, faster ships. If you're more familiar with turrets, this is analogous to better tracking speed.  10% bonus to all missiles' maximum flight time per level. Like Missile Projection, this skill increases range, just in a different way. Instead of making your missiles faster, it makes them fly longer. Support Skills  5% reduction per skill level in the CPU needs of weapon turrets, launchers, and smartbombs. Helps with fitting a ship by decreasing the (often large) CPU requirements of weapons. Skills:Engineering 
 Various effects. Engineering skills as needed to fit your ship properly. Shield Skills  5% reduction in shield recharge time per skill level. This basic shield skill allows you to fit shields but also helps with passive buffer tanks that rely on shield regeneration to tank incoming DPS.  5% bonus to shield capacity per skill level. This skill gives a bonus to shield capacity. Larger shield capacity allows for more shield regeneration, again helping passive buffer tanks.  Reduces the chance of damage penetrating the shield when it falls below 25% by 5% per skill level, with 0% chance at level 5.
  This skill reduces the change of damage "leakage" between shields and armor. Training it to IV allows for the use of T2 active shield hardeners, one of the building blocks of a good T2 shield tank.  5% reduction in shield upgrade powergrid needs.
  This skill helps with fitting shields to your ship by reducing how much power they need. Training it to IV allows for the use of T2 shield extenders, T2 passive shield hardeners, T2 shield rechargers , , ,  5% bonus to resistance per level for Shield Amplifiers Improves the effectiveness of passive shield hardeners. Drone Skills  Can operate 1 drone per skill level. Train Drones to V to operate 5 drones. It's important to have a full set of Drones to maximize the effectiveness of your Drake, especially against smaller targets that your Heavy Missiles might have a harder time killing. The Drake only has enough drone bandwidth and dronebay to support 5 light drones, but skilling up those 5 drones can help increase your effectiveness greatly.  5% Bonus to damage of light drones per level. Increase the effectiveness of your drones by making their pew pew more powerful.  Drone control range increased by 5,000 meters per skill level. Useful if you want to attack things that are far away.  5% increase in drone MicroWarpdrive speed per level. Helps your drones get to their targets faster.  5% bonus to drone shield, armor and hull hit points per level. Drones are pretty fragile. This skill will make them a little less fragile, but only a little less.  Increases drone optimal range. This skill is important for sentry drones (due to their immobility) in particular, but can provide a little boost for combat drones as well, despite combat drones having MWDs. Advanced Skills , ,  Allows use of Heavy Missile Launcher II and T2 Heavy Missiles This train may not be worth it if you're just leveling up to Level 4 missions. However, if you've got a Tengu in your future, or if you're grinding Level 3 missions for standings, you'll want to train this sooner rather than later. , ,  Allows use of Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II and T2 Heavy Assault Missiles Same as above.  5% decrease per level in factor of signature radius for all missile explosions. Like Target Navigation Prediction, this skill helps take the edge off smaller targets. This is in the advanced skill category as it requires Missile Launcher Operation V as a prerequisite. ,  Reduces CPU and Powergrid requirements, respectively, for weapons. If you're going to try to fit T2 launchers on a Drake, you're probably going to want this. These skills will also make fitting many other ships much easier. , Gallente Drone Specialization IV Allows T2 Gallente light drones. Substitute any other racial variant for the Drone Specialization skill. If you want to squeeze the most DPS out of the Drake's tiny drone bay, T2 drones are the way to go. They're expensive but worth it. They're superior to T1 drones in almost every way.  Allows for the use of the Damage Control II module. Although many Drake fits do not use a DCII module, it can be useful in some cases.

This list of skills may seem daunting at first, but you don't need all of them to start doing things! Make it up as you go -- start doing what you want to do and figure out where you need to go from there. You may start with a weak shield and weak missile DPS, but you can have fun right away.

Remember as well that all of these skills are useful for fitting other ships. You're not going to somehow outgrow these skills, even if you outgrow your Drake.
<div style="display: flow-root;">

## Tactics

</div>
If you are coming to the Drake from L2 missions, you are probably used to flying into the middle of the NPCs and killing everything. That's a good way to get yourself killed in an L3 mission; many feature enough NPC firepower to overwhelm even a Drake's tank. Here are a few pointers to start L3 missioning in a Drake:
 If the mission is unfamiliar to you, read about it on EVE-Survival.
 Because the Drake is almost always passively tanked, you have no tools apart from running to mitigate excessive damage. If your shield drops to 50%, align to a celestial and start your afterburner. If it drops to the 25% alarm, warp out, dock, and then come back for more later. When you do come back, warp in at a long range (like 50 or 100km).
 Remember that the Drake is big and slow. You won't be able to sig tank or speed tank incoming damage. Range can be one the most effective ways of mitigating incoming DPS while piloting a Drake.
 Shoot the biggest NPCs first (usually other Battlecruisers); they're the ones damaging you the most.
 However if you're out of range of the Battlecruisers and you're being hit by something else, shoot that instead. Shooting at the "wrong target" is better than not shooting at all.
 Against Sansha and Blood Raiders, use Mjolnir Heavy Missiles unless you have Caldari Battlecruiser V. In all other cases, use Scourge Heavy Missiles.
 Orbiting the NPC blob at 30km works reasonably well.
<div style="display: flow-root;">

## Notes

</div>
The name of the Drake could have come from the legendary English explorer and pirate, but given the avian theme of the Caldari ships, it is more likely that the ship was named for the official name of a male duck.

The quote "It has been brought" references the long-running joke in the EVE community of "Can I bring my Drake?" The origins of this joke come from the time when the Drake was almost the only ship used by newer pilots for PvE (it has since been nerfed, but is still popular). So, when these pilots began exploring PvP, the Drake was pretty much the only ship they had and knew how to fly effectively. This led to fleet commanders often being asked: "Can I bring my Drake?" This happened so regularly that many FCs would become very annoyed at being asked this question, and thus players began to use it just to annoy FCs. The ship was eventually nerfed, but the question is still repeated in fleet form-ups (often excessively) purely for its joke value.
## Patch History