Complete Guide to Ammunition Choices

This guide is for people who want to know what ammunition to carry in new ships they've trained and why. It's actually posted (amongst other guides) internally on The Tusker forums if anyone was curious. 

Whilst there is some benefit in carrying every single ammunition type available, often for cargo bay reasons (both for loot & cap boosters), this isn't wise for the very slight increase in performance over using the following list. Selecting the right ammunition is crucial - most pilots have absolutely no idea on which ammunition to carry and why and blindly follow whoever told them how to fit their ship, which themselves often never pay attention to correct damage selection. In lage fleet warfare, this makes little difference, but for those who solo/small gang pvp often, this difference is often crucial. 

First of all, a quick summary of correct damage types to use (assuming some specific hardening has been done to patch large resist holes (less likely at frigate level, much more likely at BS level where you have more slots for tanking):

Tech 1 ships:

Armour tanked - Explosive > Kinetic > Thermal > EM

Shield tanked - EM > Thermal > Kinetic > Explosive

Unsure or unclear - Thermal / Kinetic > EM/Explosive

Tech 2 ships:

Amarr - Thermal > EM > Kinetic > Explosive

Caldari - EM > Explosive > Thermal > Kinetic

Gallente - EM > Explosive > Thermal > Kinetic

Minmatar - Explosive > Kinetic > Thermal > EM

Missiles:

Missiles are radically different from turrets - their Tech 2 versions actually penalise the ship as a whole as well as the missile launcher, making them less desirable than turrets. Additionally, Caldari ships often have specific damage bonuses to Kinetic missiles, making them the default ammunition of choice rather than the full damage selection offered by other race's missile boats. However, an opposing damage type must still be sought to use against Caldari & Gallente T2 ships.

NOTE: For support ships such as Recons which do not do much DPS with their launchers, DO NOT USE Tech 2 missiles - both penalties (furies increasing your signature radius and javelins reducing your velocity) are unacceptable for a mere 10-20 DPS increase over faction ammunition.

Caldari Ships with Kinetic Bonus - Use Kinetic ammunition as default, swapping to Mjolnir if fighting Tech 2 Caldari or Gallente targets.

Close range missiles - Heavy Assault Missiles, Rockets, Torpedoes etc.

Caldari Navy Mjolnir - Does EM damage. Nice contrast with Kinetic damage as mentioned above. Use against targets smaller than you or same size targets who are not webbed.

Caldari Navy Scourge - Default missile choice to have in your launchers. Use against targets smaller than you or same size targets who are not webbed.

Mjolnir Rage - Does EM damage. Nice contrast with Kinetic damage as mentioned above. Use against targets larger than you, although can be used against tagets the same ship size as you if they are webbed. Can be used on smaller targets if you have a target painter or two as well as a web on the target. Increases your signature radius substantially!

Scourge Rage - Does Kinetic damage. Use against targets larger than you, although can be used against targets the same ship size as you if they are webbed. Can be used on smaller targets if you have a target painter or two as well as a web on the target. Increases your signature radius substantially!

Long range missiles - Heavy Missiles, Standard Missile Launchers, Cruise Missile Launchers etc.

Same as above, although adding in Scourge F.O.F. missiles to use when you are damped or ECM'd to hell. They will fire on the closest target that is currently aggressing you, including drones.

Missile boats with no damage bonus - Same as above, but instead of using Scourge (Kinetic) missiles, use Nova (Explosive) missiles in order to have two completely different damage types, as well as carrying some Inferno (Thermal) missiles when not sure on how the enemy is tanked.

Turrets:

Energy Weapons - Good base damage, good range but relatively poor tracking and uses large amount of capacitor. Instant swapping of crystals & their low volume makes ammo choice selection fairly easy. Also locked to EM/Thermal damage types.

Pulse Lasers - Close range variant, but able to project to medium range due to Scorch.

Conflagration - Used for very close range brawling. Use when you are able to dictate the enemy's transversal by manually piloting or using "keep at range" command, by being faster than them (having a web here helps). Also works well when shooting ships larger than you. Uses more capacitor than other crystals, but the added DPS is worth it, as well as it doing 50:50 ratio of EM:Thermal damage, meaning that is much stronger against targets where EM damage is lackluster.

Imperial Navy Multifrequency - Standard close range ammunition when shooting targets that you can't reduce their transversal. Does more EM damage than Thermal.

Scorch - Long range ammunition, predominantly EM damage.

Beam Lasers - Long range variant, high DPS, good tracking & range.

Gleam - Short range ammunition with a tracking bonus.

Imperial Navy Multifrequency - Standard medium range ammunition. Does more EM damage than Thermal.

Imperial Navy Standard - Standard long range ammunition. Does substantially more EM damage than Thermal.

Hybrid Turrets - Highest damage weapon system with best tracking, but generally lacking in range. 5 second reload time. Locked to Kinetic/Thermal damage types.

Blasters - Close range variant, high DPS, high tracking but typically poor range.

Caldari/Federation Navy Antimatter - Short range ammunition. Does more Kinetic damage than Thermal.

Null - Long range ammunition.

Void - Used for very close range brawling. Use when you are able to dictate the enemy's transversal by manually piloting or using "keep at range" command, by being faster than them (having a web here helps). Also works well when shooting ships larger than you. Does half Thermal and half Kinetic damage.

Railguns - Long range variant, moderate DPS, high tracking and high range.

Caldari/Federation Navy Antimatter - Short range ammunition. Does more Kinetic damage than Thermal.

Caldari/Federation Navy Iridium - Medium range ammunition. Does more Kinetic damage than Thermal.

Caldari/Federation Navy Uranium - Long range ammunition. Does more Kinetic damage than Thermal. 

Javelin - very short range ammunition, with a significant tracking bonus. Does more Thermal damage than Kinetic.  

Projectile Turrets - Good damage selection, moderate range, good tracking but low base DPS although most Minmatar ships have a "double damage" bonus on their hull, ie. Turret Rate of Fire & Turret Damage.

Autocannons - Close range variant, low DPS but good tracking

Barrage - Used for kiting purposes. Does predominantly explosive damage.

Hail - Used for very close range brawling. Use when you are able to dictate the enemy's transversal by manually piloting or using "keep at range" command, by being faster than them (having a web here helps). Also works well when shooting ships larger than you. Does predominantly explosive damage.

Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium - Used when you need more tracking, ie. medium turrets vs frigates and you are unable to pull range or neut them off you. Does a mixture of damage types so will hit at least one resist hole.

Republic Fleet EMP - Close range ammo, does predominantly EM (bit of explosive).

Republic Fleet Fusion - Close range ammo, does predominantly explosive (bit of kinetic).

Republic Fleet Phased Plasma - Close range ammo, does predominantly thermal damage (bit of kinetic).

Artillery - Long range variant, high alpha but low DPS

Quake - Short range, slightly higher tracking version of RF Fusion.

Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium - Used when you need a bit more range than EMP/Fusion/PP will give you. Also gives a moderate tracking bonus. Does a mixture of damage types so will hit at least one resist hole.

Republic Fleet EMP - Close range ammo, does predominantly EM (bit of explosive).

Republic Fleet Fusion - Close range ammo, does predominantly explosive (bit of kinetic).

Republic Fleet Phased Plasma - Close range ammo, does predominantly thermal damage (bit of kinetic).

If you found this guide useful, please post in the comments as well as suggestions for anything else you want covered.