When CCP launched DUST 514 last year, the company knew that the game wasn’t quite ready but decided the best way to build it was with the gamers so on May 14th (5/14, get it?) the ribbon was cut.

Official release came just short of a week after the first iteration of the Uprising build deployed.

Uprising 1.0 succeeded Chromosome with a massive graphical overhaul, new environments, skyboxes, three new dropsuits and more, but there was a lot of content still missing: namely the four planned racial variations of weapons, dropsuits, vehicles, and turrets.

The four races of New Eden include the Minmatar master race, their friends the Gallente, the corporate Caldari, and the Amarr. Eventually all four races will have their own variations of gear that reflect their aesthetical, philosophical, technological and militaristic ideals.

At the official release however, DUST 514 launched with all of the medium frames but only two racial variations of the light frame dropsuits and one of the heavy frames constituting about 50% of the intended dropsuit content.

Uprising 1.8, which launched on March 25, has put an end to this delayed chapter of DUST’s development with the Amarr and Caldari light frame and the Caldari, Gallente and Minmatar heavy frames. The introduction of these last five dropsuits also brought with it a complete overhaul of the game’s dropsuit class and race bonuses as well as weapon rebalancing, new side arm weapons, and stealth cloaks.

The following is a brief guide to the new suits and revamped bonuses:

Dropsuits & roles

Armor in DUST 514 is called a Dropsuit. Dropsuits come in three sizes; light frame, medium frame, and heavy frame. They are essentially different sized hulls which are customised to accommodate different roles on the battlefield. There are four main factors that come into customising your dropsuit, but this mini-guide focuses just on the 4th;

1) its available slots for weapons, equipment, and modules

2) the equipping of gear and modules that augment the suit’s strengths and weaknesses

3) training various skills that broaden your available upgrades

4) specialising into roles

Roles – The dropsuit skill tree has three tiers to it. The first is Dropsuit Command which simply opens up access to the second tier. Here, you have access to all four racial variants of the small, medium, and heavy frame dropsuits. These second tier dropsuits come in basic form which means they don’t have any inherent bonuses that are associated with specialising deeper into the third tier; more on that later. They are essentially the foundation frame that you build your speciality from.

Each comes in three grades: standard, advanced, and prototype. As the grade increases, so do the module slots and suit resources, meaning you can equip more modules with higher bonuses to your stats. Once you reach level 3 on a dropsuit, you will open up the third tier which allows you to adopt a special role that grants you at least two unique passive bonuses. One is a role bonus and this is the same across all four racial variants of a role. Then, there is the racial bonus which is unique to each of the four races. The scout role, for example, gets a class bonus of -15% PG/CPU resource requirements for stealth cloaks per level, which is shared by all four scout suits; but the Minmatar scout gets a unique bonus of +5% hacking speed and +5% Nova Knife damage per level. Alternatively, Gallente get -5% to profile dampening and +5% to scan radius, making them harder to scan. The Caldari and Amarr have their own bonuses, too.

Light frame

The light frame is the smallest and most agile of all the suits. It’s quick and can run for longer and jump higher than the rest. The mobility comes at the cost of mass however and so the frame has much lower HP than the other suits. A common mantra for this little suit is ‘stealth > health’ which is especially true for the Scout role. For the time being the light frame only has one role to train into. The other one is the pilot suit which will be the role of choice for the vehicle drivers of New Eden but this hasn’t yet been implemented despite being in some of the game’s menus.

Scout specialisation – As is typical with scout archetype, indirect combat is the scout’s forte as their defences are lacking. They are to be a covert and disruptive force on the battlefield, causing mass chaos before slipping away to flank the next squad or hunt the next straggler. Scouts have slots for light and sidearm weapons, a grenade slot, two equipment slots and varying module configurations.

Role bonus for Scout is a 15% reduction to CPU and PG requirements on cloaking which are by design extremely resource hungry. This bonus makes the Scout role the only one to be able to equip cloaking without compromising the rest of the fitting.

Minmatar: +5% bonus to hacking speed and + 5% Nova Knife damage. The Minmatar scout suit has the fastest inherent sprint speed and also gets an inherent 10% hack speed from the light frame itself, whereas the other racial variants only get 5%. With the right skills and one complex module, you can achieve 85% faster hacking, making hacks mere seconds. The bonus to Nova Knives make it a deadly espionage/assassin class, great for speedily turning turrets and installations to your favor and defending NULL cannons. This rings especially true when fitted with cloaking. The Minmatar scout is the only suit in the game to get a utility bonus with the hacking buff.

Gallente: +5% dropsuit scan radius and +5% to profile dampening. The Gallente scout suit is the stealthiest of them all. More low slots and the possible 50% inherent scan profile reduction (with dampening skill trained) makes this suit the only one capable of escaping prototype scanners without gimping the fitting. With cloaking equipped it’s electronically and visually a ghost. The dropsuit scan radius it shares with the Caldari suit gives you a wider zone of passive scanning, which will allow you to see mercs who haven’t taken measures to mask their own profile. Staying undetected to get in close range then inflicting massive damage is part of the Gallente battle philosohphy.

Caldari: +5% to dropsuit scan radius and +5% to precision enhancement. The Caldari variant is all about full-on situational awareness on the battlefield. The precision enhancement allows it to see just about all medium and heavy frame suits without the need of modules or an active scanner and with a 25% longer range. This suit is a good choice for those who will be using the new ‘snapshot’ active scanners as they’ll be able to more efficiently see approaching enemies or for people wanting to hunt and ambush scattered squads.

Amarr: +5% to stamina regen and +5% to max stamina. With the ability to run longer and more often, Amarr scouts are perfect for conducting coffee and snack rounds at the Minmatar barracks. With the increased stamina regen, they are able to get from A to B more easily.



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Medium frames

Medium frames have more HP than light frames at the sacrifice of speed. The medium frame progresses into the Assault and Logistics roles.

Logistics specialisation – This is the support class of DUST 514–the "battery" that powers the squad. It sacrifices its sidearm slot for extra equipment slots, allowing it to bring a myriad of combinations of equipment to the field, including active scanners, drop uplinks, repair tools, proximity mines, remote explosives, nano hives to resupply ammo, and the nanite injector to revive fallen teammates (note: the Amarr suit keeps its sidearm slot). The way that you choose to play this class is full of options to facilitate and help your team’s victory.

The role bonus is a 5% reduction to the CPU and PG costs of equipment. For the racial bonuses, Uprising 1.8 brought a deeper union between the lore of EVE and DUST 514 by changing the logistic racial bonuses to reflect proficiency with their own race’s tech. Specialising to level 5 in a suit will return the items performance to that seen up until Uprising 1.8. All logi suits get an inherent hack speed bonus of 15% with the exception of Minmatar which gets 5% extra.

Minmatar: +10% to repair tool range and +5% repair amount per level. The Minmatar logi is taking on the role of triage on the battlefield. Now that friendly HP bars are displayed when you are wielding the repair tool, being able to assess and prioritise who you heal on the battlefield is a lot easier. At higher levels you’ll be able to simultaneously heal two targets at distances of 20-30m. The suit also retains part of its pre-1.8 hacking bonus with an inherent 20% bonus.

Gallente: +10% to active scanner visibility duration and +5% scan precision. The Gallente logibro is now the all-seeing eye of the battlefield. His active scanner is now able to scan for longer and deeper, relaying the location of all but the most profile dampened scouts out there to his squad’s minimap. For squads who don’t want to fall prey to a cloaked scout this suit will be extremely valuable as the direct counter to stealth tactics.

Caldari: +10% nano hive max. nanites , +5% supply rate and repair amount. The Caldari logi is now the master of choke point support. With augmented Nanohives that resupply players’ ammo and/or health at a faster rate they are able to feed the team what it needs when contending for a certain objective or zone on the map.

Amarr: +10% reduction to drop link spawn time, +2 spawn count. The Amarr will now be best at creating rapid waves of opportunity for their team by facilitating faster redeployment into battle. Uprising 1.8’s nerf to the Uplink was to alleviate equipment spam and to return some of the tactical benefit of controlling the installation spawn units, but this suit has the power to keep your front line strong wherever it chooses.



Assault specialisation – This role adheres to your typical assault archetype: it’s the all-round combat operative best suited to making the initial breach. Naturally it’s the middle ground in eHP and mobility between light and heavy frames. The racial bonuses generally make up for the weapon classes main drawbacks making them more effective when in the hands of the right suit. It has a light and sidearm weapon slot, grenade slot and an equipment slot.

The role bonus is 5% reduction to the CPU and PG fitting costs of weapons per level.

Minmatar: +5% to projectile light/sidearm clips. The Minmatar assault gets up to 25% increase to the ammo capacity of the Combat Rifle and the SMG, allowing this suit to deal more damage before reloading is necessary.

Gallente: +5% reduction to hybrid-blaster light/sidearm hip-fire dispersion and kick per level. This bonus applies to the Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Plasma Cannon and the Ion Pistol and gives more accucare fire without the need of iron sights.

Caldari: +5% to reload speed of hybrid railgun light/sidearm weapons per level. The Caldari battle mantra is to stop the enemy at range before it gets close enough to be a problem. With 25% faster reload speed, the Caldari assault is able to keep the enemy pressed back, affording them a shorter window to advance or break cover.

Amarr: 5% reduction to laser weaponry heat build-up per level. Amarr use laser weaponry that has a habit of heating up quickly, and if its usage isn’t carefully regulated, it can overload doing damage to the wielder. This bonus reduces that heat build up so that such weaponry can be used for longer; this bonus is especially useful for the Laser Rifle as its damage output increases with the firing duration.



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Heavy frames

The largest frames constitute the juggernauts of DUST 514. They are the slowest but have massive amounts of HP to soak up way more damage than the other classes.





The Sentinel specialisation – Sentinel is the only role that is able to equip and use the current roster of heavy weapons which include the HMG and the Forge Gun. The 3% resistance bonus for each suit protects them against their direct rival’s technology, so the Minmatar are protected against Amarr weaponry and the Gallente against Caldari weaponry. It has all the slot types bar equipment.

The role bonus for the Sentinel is 5% splash damage resistance, making them extra resilient to area of effect damage from various sources.

Weapon class is important to understanding the following racial bonuses.There are 5 main classes of weapons in DUST 514:

Projectile weapons include the Minmatar Combat Rifle, SMG and HMG.

Explosive weapons include the Minmatar Flaylock Pistol, Mass Driver, Locust Grenade, Remote Explosives and the Caldari Swarm Launcher.

Laser weapons include the Amarr Scrambler Rifle, Laser Rifle and Scrambler Pistol.

Hybrid-blaster weapons include the Gallente Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Plasmas Cannon, and Bolt Pistol.

Hybrid-rail weapons include the Caldari Rail Rifle, Sniper Rifle, Forge Gun, Magsec SMG, and Ion Pistol.

The race bonuses are as follows:



Minmatar: 3% shield resistance to laser weapons and 2% armor resistance to hybrid-blaster weapons.

Gallente: 3% armor resistance to hybrid-railgun weapons and 2% armor resistance to projectile weapons.

Caldari: 3% shield resistance to hybrid-blaster weapons and 2% shield resistance to laser weapons

Amarr: 3% armor resistance to projectile weapons, 2% shield resistance to hybrid-railgun weapons.

Commando – While the Sentinel’s bonuses concern resistances to their direct rival’s weaponry, the Commandos get a damage increase with their own weapons. They get two light weapon slots, a grenade slot and an equipment slot as well as the usual high and low slots.

Minmatar: 2% damage to light projectile and explosive weapons.

Gallente: 2% damage to light hybrid-blaster weapons.

Caldari: 2% damage to light hybrid-railgun weapons.

Amarr: 2% damage to light laser weapons.

CCP has said that there will be new roles and deeper specialisations coming in the future, but as of 1.8, this is what gamers have at their disposal. Which dropsuit best suits your playstyle? Let us know below.