Reinforced Bulkhead 2 and a Damage Control 2 gives over 200k EHP at Level 5 - you can make this higher with shield mods and rigs if you like ...like everything else there is compromise - more cargo space less EHP and vice versa - so depends on what you are using the orca for and where.....

Reinforced Bulkhead 2 and a Damage Control 2 gives over 200k EHP at Level 5 - you can make this higher with shield mods and rigs if you like ...like everything else there is compromise - more cargo space less EHP and vice versa - so depends on what you are using the orca for and where.....

For the moment, in High-Sec as a Booster. So I'm guessing no need to flee (so no need for MWD) and simply outlast the Burst DPS onslaught until Concord arrives?

I should point out one last thing...

None of these fits, no matter how tanky, will ensure your survival in a suicide gank and will most certainly not save you if your Orca pilot is caught up in a war dec.

In the former case (suicide ganking) it will just make your ship significantly harder and more troublesome to nuke... which will hopefully make such people choose a more "squishy" target. However, if you overload your ship with sufficiently valuable things (see: value that equals or exceeds the cost it would take to gank your ship) then all bets are off.

In the latter case (War dec), having a large tank will just stall the inevitable. The Orca is NOT a combat ship and can possibly be killed by mere Frigate... it will simply take awhile.
The best way to be safe is to GTFO whenever a hostile enters the system you are in (by checking pilot list in Local chat) and/or have your miners ready to pull out combat ships from the Orca (from the ship Maintenance Bay). I suggest Griffins loaded with ECM mods.


edit: also FYI... those Tech 2 rigs are ungodly expensive for a mere 5% extra shields each.

Yup. Well the goal in high-sec when faced with suicide ganking would be just to outlast the enemy until Concord arrives, unless I've contracted mercenaries for escort duty before hand. But definitely for low-sec mercenary escorts will be standard. Yes even contracting mercenaries runs the risk of double-dealing, but moving operations into low-sec is a distance away anyway. So until then best I can do to prevent that is to form solid trustworthiness with a mercenary company or two now.

As for war decs... how does a corporation get pulled into it even if one has done nothing wrong? Is it like setting bounties, you can do it to anyone out of the blue?

almost 300m isk of rigs

just use tech 1 rigs and keep a eye on local, plus set orca align to some close station to warp out when ganker arrive

almost 300m isk of rigs

just use tech 1 rigs and keep a eye on local, plus set orca align to some close station to warp out when ganker arrive

To be perfectly frank... mining in low-sec is only marginally more profitable than mining in high-sec. Sometimes you will find some nice ore deposits in certain spacial sites... but not much else.

Moreover... you cannot pay any merc enough ISK to defend your mining ops in a dedicated sense (i.e. you won't be able to get people to sit with you and shoo off attackers). It is extremely boring work and mercs would rather be shooting things.

And speaking as someone who sometimes mines in low-sec (mostly for giggles and lol-baiting)... your best defense is to simply avoid confrontation in any mining ship unless you have PvP-fit everything and plan to spring a trap against dumb people (which is funny until said people come back in force).


More or less. You don't have to do anything wrong. If someone is feeling cheeky AND has the ISK to pay the fees (50 million ISK starting + additional an 5 (?) million per corp member after 50 members... all of which doubles for each week the war is active), they can declare war on your corporation for as long as they want and engage with impunity.

You can't fit a MWD to an Orca without using rigs for power grid. Even then, your max velocity will only be 275ms with all appropriate skills at 5.

The main reasons for eventually moving operations to low/null-sec are 1. The ORE theme. 2. Mining will get tedious in hi-sec so the heightened danger present in low/null-sec would alleviate the monotony, even inject excitement and a sense of adventure. But without protection this endeavor would not come to fruit. So to give mercs more shooting and less boring one would need to make the targets they would be protecting very enticing, right?

Well a hi-sec mining fleet would entail 56 ORCAs. A Low/null-sec mining fleet would entail 50 ORCAs and 6 Rorqauls. Even if you break that down it would still be 10 ORCAs and a Ror per wing or 2 ORCAs per squadron.

Some friendly advice... join a low-sec PvP corporation for a small while and learn how they operate (what better way to avoid hunters than to learn how the hunters operate?).
The reason I give this advice is because you seem to have little understanding how actual combat works and why mercs will largely be useless in a mining operation.


Why in god's name would you need 56 Orcas???? Oh wait... let me guess... you think you can actually mine with these ships?

Beyond mining drones, Orcas do not have the capacity to mine asteroids as they cannot fit mining lasers of any kind. The Orca is a Support Ship... the paired-down, high-sec version of the Rorqual. You will need Mining Barges and Exhumers to eat up the asteriods.