EVA

Biodata

Power Progression

EVA advancement occurs through equipment upgrades, new energy systems, and biological transformation rather than a single shared ranking system.

Background / History

Development and Hidden Purpose

EVAs were developed through research into Progenitor-class life-forms. Yui Ikari discovered that synchronization problems could be addressed by housing a person’s soul in an EVA’s core and synchronizing the pilot with that resident soul. She also regarded EVA existence as a means for human souls to endure after their bodies disappeared 69 125.

Their public mission was to defeat Angels and preserve humanity, but EVA development was also tied to the Human Instrumentality Project. SEELE’s Mass-Production Evangelions were intended to arrange their Fruits of Life into a Kabbalistic Tree of Life and trigger an Impact; their S2 Engines provided a backup means of initiating the ritual 98 162.

Early NERV Operations

Unit-01 entered combat with Shinji Ikari during the Fourth Angel’s attack. Unit-00’s subsequent activation test went out of control, but its later successful reactivation gave Headquarters another deployable unit. Unit-02 arrived from Germany as the first production-model EVA designed specifically for combat 5 22 29 48.

The fleet remained subject to technical failures and Angel intrusion. Provisional Unit-05 was lost along with Bethany Base after its pilot destroyed the Third Angel, while Unit-04 was lost during the artificial S2 Engine project. Unit-03’s activation led to its reclassification as the Thirteenth Angel after Bardiel parasitized and remodeled it 45 101 109 110.

NERV ANIMA Era

Following the battle at Headquarters, five repairable Mass-Production Evangelions were converted into orbital EVA Angels. Four additional EVA Angels were created by Ritsuko Akagi for surface deployment. The orbital units formed Misato Katsuragi’s Sword of Damocles defense network, covering the globe from two intersecting orbital rings 133.

That network later failed when all five orbital units refused remote access and descended toward Headquarters. ANIMA deployed Maki and four Ayanami pilots to intercept them; Unit-08 caught Dominion using a concentrated A.T. Field technique modeled on Shinji’s interception of Arael 141 142.

EVAs subsequently became central to open warfare between human factions. A United Nations-led invasion fielded a white Unit-02 equipped with ANIMA-derived technology, while NERV USA later supplied a quadrupedal EVA and its genetically modified pilot. By the finale, EVA transformation had become an ability shared by Heaven’s inhabitants rather than remaining exclusive to selected cockpit pilots 154 174 175 195.

Design and Appearance

• Biological bodies: Beneath their armor, EVAs possess muscles, organs, and organic flesh. Unit-01’s damaged hand armor exposes a white biological fist 6 14 90.
• Restraining armor: Their armor suppresses the biological weapon inside while controlling its movements; it is not merely a protective shell 6 41.
• Chest core: Each EVA has a red, translucent, eyeball-like spherical organ serving as its power source, life-support system, and resting place for the pilot’s soul 110.
• Standard scale: Early units are approximately eighty meters tall. Unit-01 later reaches 180 meters—2.25 times the height of the other EVAs 22 48 138.
• Individual colors: Unit-00 is yellow, Unit-01 purple, Unit-02 red, Unit-04 silver-white, and Unit-08 pink 4 22 48 101 138.
• Pilot-reflective growth: An EVA’s changing physical traits can reflect its pilot’s sense of self. Unit-02 develops conspicuously feminine features, while Unit-00 undergoes subtler changes 138.
• Nonhumanoid variants: Wolf Pack abandons the usual humanoid structure for a fur-bearing quadrupedal body with claws and segmented restraining armor 174 175.

Operation and Limitations

Piloting and Synchronization

• Pilots occupy cockpits within Entry Plugs, which are inserted into the EVA’s spinal conduit system 22.
• Startup procedures include LCL injection. Once synchronized, the EVA moves according to the pilot’s intentions; Shinji initially finds controlling Unit-01 comparable to moving his own muscles 5 18.
• Combat suits contain life-support interfaces and biosignal amplifiers. Matching the suit’s color to the EVA provides a psychological cue intended to improve synchronization 16.
• High synchronization transmits the EVA’s sensations to its pilot. Shinji feels Unit-01’s pain during the Twelfth Angel’s intrusion despite his own body being unharmed 90.
• Synchronization can produce mental and physical contamination, including assimilation toward EVA biological characteristics 54 69.

Energy Supply

Deployment Restrictions

• The Vatican Treaty restricts indiscriminate EVA use and permits a country only three operational EVAs. Japan seals Unit-02 to accept Unit-03 45 106.
• IPEA, the International Project Evangelion Agency, is independent of NERV and manages EVA-related units under the treaty; it also develops EVA models 45.
• The Dummy System offers an alternative to direct human piloting. Shinji refuses to allow it into Unit-01, while a later Unit-02-type EVA uses it for combat maneuvers difficult for a human pilot to execute 102 104 158.

Abilities & Skills

A.T. Field

The A.T. Field gives EVAs the means to oppose Angels’ absolute defenses 6 19.

• Defense: Unit-01 blocks the Fourth Angel’s destructive light without injury 6.
• Neutralization: EVAs can neutralize an Angel’s field so conventional EVA weapons can damage the target 19.
• Offensive projection: Shinji uses Unit-01’s field to deliver impacts before physical contact and later produces spears of light 6 128.
• Concentration: Trained pilots can gather field energy into a smaller defensive area. Maki applies this technique when catching Dominion 142.
• Limits: An EVA’s physical strength alone may fail against an intact field, while layered Composite A.T. Fields can resist sustained neutralization and attacks 6 121 124.

Pilot-Dependent Manifestations

• Unit-01’s eye lasers are not a standard EVA ability. They appear only when Shinji pilots it and are attributed to his A.T. Field manifesting an ability the unit did not originally possess 14.
• Shinji can remotely deploy Unit-01’s field from a simulation cockpit to expel an invading Angel 90.
• EVA growth can reflect the pilot’s self-image, eventually extending to integrated human–EVA bodies 138 169 195.

Beast Mode

• Maki activates Unit-02’s Beast Mode using the passcode “THE BEAST” 124.
• Activation places immense physical and mental strain on the pilot 124.
• The beastlike unit tears through individual layers of the Power Angel’s field but cannot overcome their continuous replacement 124.

Flight and Mobility

• EVAs can be transported and air-dropped into combat zones, then connected to portable power supplies 57.
• Mass-Production Evangelions and later EVA Angels use wings for flight 127 142.
• Field Stepping Boosters regulate the A.T. Field to direct the thrust of N2 pulse Flame Jets 141.
• An S2 Engine alone does not guarantee stable A.T. Field lift; ANIMA has not mastered unaided takeoff for its ordinary upgraded units 141.
• F-Type Armor can work with an A.T. Field to improve agility despite increased armor weight 143.

Notable Models

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Type B Equipment — Standard EVA combat loadout 36.
• Type G Equipment — Specialized ballistic-calculation equipment mounted on Unit-00’s right arm; severely restricts movement during the positron firing operation 36.
• F-Type Armor — Used by transformed Unit-01 and later upgraded across ANIMA’s standby fleet in a second-stage form 128 138.
• High-Frequency Vibrating Particle Knife — Shoulder-stored melee weapon. Unit-02’s custom version has a replaceable blade with high destructive power but substantial wear 16 50.
• Conventional firearms — Rifles and larger guns become useful against Angels once their A.T. Fields are neutralized 16 19 121.
• A.T. Field-enhancing sword and shield — Unit-01 equipment built around special field-activating metal 37.
• Sonic Glaive — Used by Maki in Unit-02 against the Power Angel 121.
• Replica / Pseudo-Spears of Longinus — Transform on contact with A.T. Fields and are designed to breach them; later become standard Headquarters EVA equipment 127 143.
• Gamma-ray laser cannon — Mounted on Dominion; its base breaks apart during atmospheric descent 142.
• Spear of Cassius / Longinus — Unit-01’s divine weapon changes between these forms and later becomes a bow that fires a highly compressed A.T. Field arrow 158 184.

Relationships

• Ritsuko Akagi — Head of the EVA Development Project; directs technical research, upgrades, and pilot examinations, and creates ANIMA’s four surface EVA Angels 4 69 133.
• Misato Katsuragi — Commands EVA deployments and establishes the Sword of Damocles orbital defense project 5 57 133.
• Shinji Ikari — Unit-01’s pilot; his exceptional synchronization and A.T. Field drive its abilities and godlike transformation 14 69 129.
• Rei Ayanami and the Ayanami pilots — Rei pilots Unit-00; other Ayanamis operate ANIMA’s surface EVA Angels 22 133.
• Asuka Langley Shikinami — Unit-02’s designated pilot; her self-image influences its growth, and she later becomes an integrated human–EVA being 15 138 169.
• Maki — Pilots Provisional Unit-05, Unit-02, and Unit-08 in separate operations 39 121 142.
• Mari — Genetically modified American pilot created to operate the quadrupedal Wolf Pack 174 175.
• Yui Ikari — Researcher who identifies soul-based synchronization as a solution to EVA control problems. Shinji infers that her soul resides in Unit-01 104 125.
• SEELE — Uses EVAs as instruments of Human Instrumentality, including a Mass-Production EVA ritual array intended to trigger an Impact 127 162.