[This post is part of my EVE Online archives. While I no longer play, these community stories helped shape what I write about today—world-building, gaming culture, and digital communities. If you enjoyed this, you might like my latest piece on Star Wars, city-building games, or Dune.]
Minmatar ships tend to be odd birds. Besides the use of projectile weaponry, they tend to be all over the map in terms of other major systems. Some make use of missiles, others add in drones. Some are natural armour tankers, others better with shields, and some can go either way depending on the setup.
The downside of this is that you need a lot of varied skills trained well in order to handle the Minmatar lineup; the upside is that once you have those skills you have access to a flexible and powerful fleet.
I'm going to look at two Tech 1 Minmatar Frigates, the Rifter and the Breacher, and discuss some basic setups.
The Breacher
Often overlooked, the Breacher is one of the few Minmatar ships dedicated to missiles and as such can be thought of as a Minmatar version of the Caldari Kestrel. While it only has four missile launcher hardpoints, it is a lot faster with smaller signature radius and higher scan resolution for faster locking. Taking advantage of those strengths is easy.Lows
Ballistic Control System II
Overdrive Injector System II
Mids
1MN Afterburner II
Small Shield Extender II
Highs
3 x Standard Missile Launcher II
This fast little ship can harry opponents up to 40 km away and fly over 1100 m/s without overheating and without the huge signature increase from a MWD. Not a bad setup for level 1 mission running should you want to avoid getting too close to the NPCs.
It takes a lot of practice to balance the capacitor using modules and make sure you don't run dry at the wrong moment, but once that skill is mastered you can take on a lot of ship types and be confident of coming out on top. The numerous named modules is to save on CPU.
The Rifter
The Rifter is actually decent at level 1 missions and frigate belt ratting as well. While the armour tank will work adequately in that scenario, the Rifter is one of those ships that can choose to shield tank in a pinch.Lows
2 x Gyrostabilizer II
Overdrive Injector System II
Mids
Small Shield Booster II
1MN Afterburner II
Small Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 200
Highs
3 x 200mm AutoCannon II
Rocket Launcher II
You're going over 1200 m/s and the shield booster can keep you alive in those situations where you bit off more than you can chew. Your DPS is surprising with the Gyrostabilizers and big 200mm calibre weapons. Fly in, orbit tight, kill target, hit the next one. If things get too hot, boot it out of there with your afterburner and shield booster blazing.
Now, there is a world of options between the first and second setups. Passive armour tanks, bigger guns, energy neutralizers, afterburner versus MWD, the list is damn near endless. Hence why the Rifter is well liked by pod pilots.
The opinions shared here are those of its author and not necessarily mine. /CrazyKinux
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This is going to sound like a record skipping, but I've been late, really late that is, in posting the Table of Content for the latest issue of EON. 
