The best covops is whichever one you think looks prettiest. See you next time.
Wait, you’re still here? Fine, fine. But “What’s the best covops for me?” is really a better question. When deciding between the 4 covops frigates (Anathema, Buzzard, Cheetah, Helios), there are a few things to consider. This’ll be from the perspective of exploration, not scouting for a fleet or what have you. I’ll also include starter fits for each one.
I won’t cover the Pacifier here, since it’s a different kind of ship that fills different roles.
Key Differences
For starters, every covops frig is basically competent. They all have the same 50% probe strength bonus at Covert Ops V and the same hacking bonus. All of them can use covops cloaks and all the other usual equipment, and can fit expanded probe launchers. They can all align to warp in under 3 seconds and fit interdiction nullifiers. All have 3 high slots: just enough for a cloak, probe launcher, and nullifier. They’re also all paper-thin and practically useless for any sort of combat, and have small cargoholds. If you have high enough skills and are just interested in pure data/relic exploration or scanning with a ship that won’t break the bank, any covops frig is a fantastic option. If you’re having trouble deciding on an exploration ship in general, check out this guide.
The three main differences between the covops frigates are mid/low slot layout, fitting resources, and whether they have a probe deviation bonus. The slot layouts are as follows:
- Anathema: 4 mid, 4 low
- Buzzard: 5 mid, 3 low
- Cheetah: 4 mid, 4 low
- Helios: 5 mid, 3 low
From an exploration standpoint, the Buzzard and Helios have the best slot layout due to having a 5th mid. The 4th low on the Anathema and Cheetah lets you fit a warp core stabilizer more easily while retaining a sub-3 second warp. However, I don’t recommend running warp core stabs on hulls that don’t already have extra built-in warp core strength, like the Venture and Metamorphosis. This is because without a hull bonus, faction scrams can overpower stabs and keep you from warping anyway (they have 3 points of disruption instead of 2 like non-faction ones).
Even if you don’t want to use a warp core stab, having that 4th low still gives you space to run an Expanded Cargohold, Damage Control, or other utility module without sacrificing align time or a rig to compensate. However, mid slots are generally more valuable for exploration fits.
When it comes to fitting resources, the Buzzard and Cheetah have tight powergrid on most fits. This means you’ll likely have to sacrifice a low or rig for PG. Annoying, but not the end of the world. The Buzzard can still run a grav capacitor rig in the other slot for extra probe strength and the Cheetah can still get sub-3 align with just 3 available lows.
The Anathema and Buzzard get a 25% bonus to probe deviation at Racial Frigate V (which you need just to sit in one anyway). In case you’re not familiar with deviation, Eve Uni has a detailed writeup on it. Basically, the signature you see in your probe scanner is an approximation, not the signature’s actual position. Deviation is the distance between the two. Reducing deviation makes your scans more precise, letting you reduce your probes’ range by more ticks in more cases (e.g., going down from 4AU straight to 1AU instead of needing an additional scan at 2).
That’s a long way of saying that deviation’s an amazing stat that you should definitely try improving, especially if you already have high probe strength. There are far fewer sources of deviation than raw strength, so this makes the already huge 25% boost even more valuable.
The Cheetah and Helios, on the other hand, don’t get a deviation bonus. Instead, they get a 25% bonus to max velocity under cloak. Prior to the nullifier rework that let covops use them, this might’ve been situationally useful for burning out of bubbles. However, covops can pretty much ignore bubbles these days, so it just isn’t competitive with the other covops’ deviation bonus unless you have a really specific use case.
So What’s the Best One?
For pure scanning, the best covops frig is without a doubt the Buzzard. This is because it’s the only one of the bunch that has both 5 mid slots and a deviation bonus. It is tight on powergrid though, so you’ll at the very least need to give up a rig for that on most fits. That’s not too big a deal, since you still have space to run a Gravity Capacitor rig for extra probe strength. You’re just giving up a bit of warp speed or whatever other utility bonus you’d use that 2nd rig slot for, along with some minor module stats. Having to use a weaker compact MWD instead of restrained due to fitting space, for example.
The Anathema and Helios are also competitive. The Anathema loses the 5th mid, but still has the deviation bonus along with way more comfortable fitting than the Buzzard. This makes it the best covops to run a Warp Core Stabilizer on should you choose to do so. The Helios also has no fitting issues, but it flips the Anathema situation by having a 5th mid with no deviation bonus.
Unfortunately, the Cheetah is soundly the worst of the bunch. It has PG issues, no 5th mid, and no deviation bonus. The tight PG even makes it difficult to take advantage of the 4th low for a warp core stab.
That said, it’s worth reiterating that all the covops frigs are basically fine at their jobs just by virtue of being covops frigs. If you think one is prettier than the others, by all means go with that. As with everything in Eve, “I want to” is the best reason you could have for doing something.
Starter Fits
To help you get started, here are some baseline exploration fits. The fits follow the same overall format for every covops: sub-3 second align, expanded launcher, nullifier, MWD, and hacking modules. In addition to a basic explo fit, the Anathema and Cheetah have a second fit with a warp core stab (since their 4th low means fewer sacrifices elsewhere when fitting one). I don’t like stabs on unbonused ships in general, and I definitely don’t recommend one on the Buzzard or Helios. You just lose so much align to fit one without a 4th low.
As always, these fits are baselines that you can and should adjust for your own needs.
Anathema
The first fit’s really straightforward; no fitting compromises necessary. With max omega skills, you can downgrade the istabs to restrained while retaining sub-3s align time.
[Anathema, Anathema Explo]
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive
Data Analyzer II
Relic Analyzer II
Cargo Scanner II
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher
Interdiction Nullifier I
Small Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade II
Nanite Repair Paste x50
Sisters Combat Scanner Probe x16
Sisters Core Scanner Probe x16This second Anathema fit shows how you might go about fitting a warp core stab. To compensate for losing the 4th low, just use a low-friction rig if you want to preserve your sub-3 align time. Unfortunately, a stab eats up enough CPU that you’d be hard-pressed to fit an expanded launcher even with a compact MWD.
If you want to use the 4th low for utility like more cargo space or faster on-grid velocity instead of a stab, you can use this fit as a starting point. You should still be able to fit an expanded launcher in that case.
[Anathema, Anathema Explo WCS]
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Warp Core Stabilizer II
5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive
Data Analyzer II
Relic Analyzer II
Cargo Scanner II
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Sisters Core Probe Launcher
Interdiction Nullifier I
Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints II
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade II
Nanite Repair Paste x50
Sisters Core Scanner Probe x16Buzzard
Once again, the Buzzard’s the strongest scanning covops on paper due to its 5th mid slot and deviation bonus. However, its PG is low enough that it needs to make a few compromises elsewhere on most fits. This particular fit downgrades the MWD to compact, sacrifices a rig slot for PG, and downgrades the remaining Gravity Capacitor rig to T1 due to limited calibration.
[Buzzard, Buzzard Explo]
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Data Analyzer II
Relic Analyzer II
Cargo Scanner II
Scan Pinpointing Array II
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher
Interdiction Nullifier I
Small Ancillary Current Router II
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Nanite Repair Paste x50
Sisters Combat Scanner Probe x16
Sisters Core Scanner Probe x16Cheetah
It’s like an Anathema, but with no deviation bonus and even worse fitting! Again, the subwarp velocity bonus would be more useful if covops couldn’t just ignore bubbles these days. Still a covops though.
[Cheetah, Cheetah Explo]
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Vigor Compact Micro Auxiliary Power Core
5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive
Data Analyzer II
Relic Analyzer II
Cargo Scanner II
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher
Interdiction Nullifier I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade II
Small Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Nanite Repair Paste x50
Sisters Combat Scanner Probe x16
Sisters Core Scanner Probe x16To fit a stab, downgrade the MWD to compact, use a core launcher, add a PG rig, and downgrade the grav capacitor one.
[Cheetah, Cheetah Explo WCS]
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Warp Core Stabilizer II
5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Relic Analyzer II
Data Analyzer II
Cargo Scanner II
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Sisters Core Probe Launcher
Interdiction Nullifier I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Small Ancillary Current Router II
Nanite Repair Paste x50
Sisters Core Scanner Probe x16Helios
Not much to say here. The Helios works well and doesn’t struggle with fitting. As an example of adjusting low slots for align time, this fit still gets sub-3 warp with max omega skills with 2 istabs and a nano instead of 3 istabs. It also has a drone bay with room for exactly 1 drone. Not that it has the bandwidth to actually use it while the nullifier’s online.
[Helios, Helios Explo]
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive
Data Analyzer II
Relic Analyzer II
Cargo Scanner II
Scan Pinpointing Array II
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher
Interdiction Nullifier I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade II
Small Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Hornet EC-300 x1
Nanite Repair Paste x50
Sisters Combat Scanner Probe x16
Sisters Core Scanner Probe x16Adjusting Covops Fits
The most straightforward adjustment you can make is playing around with your lows to achieve your target align time (under 3 seconds for these ships) with the lowest possible penalties.
This depends on your relevant skills (Evasive Maneuvering and Spaceship Command). You might be able to get away with running restrained variants for reduced penalties if you have both skills at V. On the flip side, pilots with bad skills might need to run full T2 istabs and even a rig on top of that.
Something else to consider is whether you want to run an expanded probe launcher. I say do it if you can fit one; there’s practically no price difference compared to a core and it lets you use combat probes. Even if you intend to explore peacefully, you might still find abandoned ships and drones you can’t get to otherwise.
Sisters launchers have the best probe strength out of all variants along with easy fitting, but are quite expensive compared to the cost of a covops hull. If you have the skills and fitting room, I recommend running a much cheaper T2 launcher instead. Just remember that covops have very limited fitting resources, so it might just not be realistic to use T2 depending on your fit.
Everything else is pretty standard. T1 nullifiers are the best due to having the lowest cooldown; consider offlining it when doing a Ghost Site, Silent Battleground, or other site that you need lock range/speed for. Restrained MWDs are best because they have the lowest cap penalty (MWDs passively reduce total cap even when not running). T2 scan arrays are nice but require their respective scan skill at V. The T1 variants still provide a nice bonus with much lower skill requirements.
Final Notes
While amazing exploration and scan ships, it’s difficult to make covops frigs do anything else due to how specialized they are. Mind you, it can still be done in some cases, but you kind of have to build the entire fit around it. If you want a ship for standard data/relic exploration or scanning and aren’t interested in things like Sleeper Caches, DEDs, attacking other explorers, or defending yourself, any covops frig will serve you well. Otherwise, a different explo ship is probably a better choice. Though there are differences between them, all 4 get the job done and are a great option for well-skilled omegas who want something inexpensive.
By the way, you actually can (partially) run Sleeper Caches in them.
You forgot to mention that the Ansthema is the best looking by a Long Shot and has the prettiest SKINs.