The most common type of fleet PVP in Eve is definitely structure bashing. There are so many citadels anchored across New Eden that it sometimes feels like there is hardly any space for ships left. Especially in low and null security space, citadels are the main conflict driver for major fleet PVP, but also in high security space citadels are commonly attacked by wardec corporations that are hired by wealthy traders.

A couple of years back Player Owned Starbases (short POSes) were the most common structure in the game, but since the introduction of citadels these are now mostly irrelevant. CCP is in the process of removing POSes from the game and most of their functionality  is already replaced by similar citadel features. Since POSes will go away soon, I will not explain POS bash mechanics which are bit different to citadel mechanics.

Types of Structures

There is a great number of different structures in the game. However there are only a few types that you can destroy by shooting them and that are set up by players.  

The most important ones are commonly referred to as Citadels, which is actually only the first type that has been released in the Citadel expansion. With later expansions CCP also introduced  Engineering Complexes and Refineries. The main game mechanics for all three types are similar, with only the ability to fit special modules and hull bonuses making them distinct.

The three types come in up to three different sizes: M, L and XL. These are the Astrahus (M), Fortizar (L) and Keepstar (XL) for Citadels, the Raitaru (M), Azbel (L) and Sotiyo (XL) for Engineering Complexes and Athanor (M) and Tatara (L) for Refineries.

A common feature of all three types is the ability to dock capital ships. The medium sized ones are open for all non combat capitals (freighters and jump freighters). The large ones also allow combat capitals to dock, while titans and supercarriers can only dock in the extra large versions. By this, the large and extra large versions are valuable assets in null security space to safely dock your capital fleet in your home systems or in hostile territory to stage from.

The second structure type, which can be destroyed by simply shooting it, are Player owned Customs Offices (short POCOs). POCOs are anchored close to planets and provide a way to get PI (Planetary Interaction) products from a planet into space. For all transfered goods, the player has to pay a transfer tax to the owner of the POCO.  POCOs cannot fit any modules like citadels and you cannot dock any ships in them. However, since the taxes earned by POCOs can be significant, they can also be a conflict driver.

The final structure types that are only used in null security space are the Ansiplex Jump Gate, the Pharolux Cyno Beacon and the Tenebrew Cyno Jammer.  These are also known as FLEX structures and share the same game mechanics.

The Ansiplex Jump Gate is used to set up an alliance owned jump bridge network. These function very similar to regular stargates, but can only connect to a second Ansiplex Jump Gate in a close by system. By putting up pairs of two, you can create a new connection between two systems. They are used similar to regular jump gates by clicking them in space and select the jump option of the Ansiplex.  The alliance can configure the Ansiplex that a fee must be paid for using them and that they are only usable for the own alliance members or also friendly alliances. Only one Ansiplex can be placed in a system.

 

The Pharolux Cyno Beacon can be used as beacon to jump your capital ships to. It is used like a regular cyno given by a cyno ship and is activated from the fleet menu or right clicking your capacitor in a jump capable capital ship and choosing the option Jump To. 

The Tenebrew Cyno Jammer prevents any ship from lighting a cyno in system.  This effect last 5 minutes after activating the structure.  This one is handy to deploy during big fights to prevent the opposing side to bring in new capital ships by lighting a cyno. 

Citadel Timers

To destroy a citadel you simply need to shoot it until it’s shield, armor and structure hitpoints run out.  The shield HP of a citadel can be attacked at any given time by any number of ships. Citadels have a significant amount of shield HP and also quite a big shield regeneration. To run down the shield HP of even a medium sized citadel in a timely fashion, you should at least have 1000 dps on the field. A medium sized Astrahus has 4.8 million shield HP, which comes to at least 80 minutes of shooting it without counting in shield regeneration with 1k dps.  All citadels have an upper damage limit for shield, armor and structure HP. For example an Astrahus citadel can only lose 5000 HP per second. This limits the minimum time a fleet can run down the shield HP of an Astrahus to about 25 minutes. The larger citadels have more HP but also have a bigger damage cap, which roughly results in a minimum time of 25 minutes to run down shield HP with max dps.

Once the shield HP are gone, the citadel enters a reinforcement mode and you cannot further apply damage until the reinforcement timer is over. The shield reinforcement timer is between 24 to 48 hours and the time of the day it runs out can be  roughly specified by the owner of the citadel.

Once the shield timer runs out, you can hit the armor HP of the citadel, after which you reach the armor reinforcement timer, which is up to one week depending on the space it is anchored in (high, low, null sec or wormhole space). The rough time of the day it runs out can again be specified by the owner of the citadel.  After the armor timer runs out,  you can hit the citadels structure HP. If the structure HP are gone too, the citadel will explode in a pretty explosion.

If a timer runs out and nobody applies damage to the structure, a repair timer between 15 to 60 minutes depending on the security status and military indexes of the system is started. If the repair timer runs out, the citadel becomes invulnerable again and regenerates all HP lost on the previous timers. If somebody shoots the citadel, the timer is stopped as long as you apply 10% of the maximum allowed damage.  A citadel has actually be fueled to be fully operational. If the citadel runs out of fuel, it enters a so called low power mode. By this, it loses parts of its shield and armor HP and you can hit until armor HP runs out for the armor timer to start.

Another special case, when a Citadel is quite vulnerable, is directly after the anchoring process. A Citadels needs about 6 days to be anchored, after which it is vulnerable for 15 minutes without any shield or armor HP. So, if you hit the Citadel in this time window, it can be destroyed directly without any timers.

When a Citadel is destroyed it will not automatically drop any items that are stored inside. It will only drop fuel from its fuel bay and the raw materials or products from any currently running industry job that has been started in the citadel. Items stored inside the citadel will miraculously be teleported to another citadel or station when it is destroyed. This process as called asset safety.

To get to the items stored in a Citadel, it first needs to go into abandoned state. This state is reached if the structure has been in low power mode for 7 days. If an abandoned structure is destroyed, it drops all items that were inside into space. An abandoned structure also has no timers anymore, so you can destroy it from shield into hull in one go. 

The mechanics for FLEX structure are very similar. They also need fuel to operate properly but go into a single timer once the shield and armor  hit points are gone.  FLEX structures only have this one timer that can be up to 24 hours long. If a FLEX structure goes into low power mode, you can destroy it in one go.  Once the structure starts the timer, it cannot be used anymore e.g. Ansiplexes won’t let you jump anymore.

POCO Timers

POCO bashing works very similar to citadel bashing. However,  POCOs only have one timer. Initially you can hit the shield HP and bring it down to 25%. After that the POCO enters reinforce mode reaching from 24 to 48 hours. After the shield timer runs out, it becomes vulnerable again but with 0% shield left. From that point on, you can hit armor and structure HP until it explodes. POCOs regenerate shield HP after the shield timer runs and if nobody shoots it the shield is repaired until it reaches 25% again. After that point the timer is reset and you need to push shield down to 25% to enter another shield reinforcement timer.

Reinforced POCOs are still fully functional and players can export PI products from and to the planet.

There is no maximum amount of damage you can apply to  a POCO, so bring plenty of dps to finish it off quickly. A POCO has 10 million shield HP, 2.5 million armor HP and 2 million structure HP, so a lot less than even a medium sized citadel.

After this very brief summary of structure bashing mechanics, I will explain  how structure weapons work and some of my personal experiences bashing them in the next part of this guide. So stay tuned for part II.