New Revelations missions are at the very bottom.

I'm revising my mission descriptions, you'll see a date in parentheses noting the last time I updated it. If you don't see a date, it's old, so use at your own risk.

As I sit here waiting for Gunnery 5 to complete and prepare myself for my first solo level 4 mission, I've been poking away at three level 4 agents to see which missions they offer.

In order of commonality, I've gotten the following missions so far (relative value of LP is in parentheses, 1.0 being max for an agent):

Update: I have since realized that relative LP value is not a fair indicator of the relative difficulty of the mission. I expected Stop The Thief to be easy but got overwhelmed by all the ships and had to warp. Missions involving waves of 5 or so ships are much easier.

I'm expecting to get familiar with the damage types dished out by each mission, and just take 2 hardeners each of the 2 primaries used (for Amarr, EM/Thermal - for Serpentis, Kinetic/Thermal, etc.). Angel Cartel will be a rough one, since all types could be used.

My Mega will be loaded with 2 Siege Launchers (eventually I'll upgrade to Cruise launchers, but in the meantime I'll see what torps can do), 3 large guns, 3 small guns, an afterburner, 2 cap rechargers, a 90% webber, 2 Large Repairers (for now, since I don't know what kind of tanking I'll really need), 4 hardeners (2 of primary types I'm dealing with), and a Capacitor Power Relay.

I'll tweak my build as I experience enemies with harder tanks or damage that they deal. If their tanks are too hard, I'll just add more large guns and depend more on drones for close orbitters. If I'm taking too much damage and my tank breaks, I'll need more cap items so that my repairers can operate longer. Throughout all of this, I'll be raising skills that make my damage, drones and tanking all more effective.

I'll run into trouble if I find a need for all large guns and heavy drones. Then I wouldn't have anything to fend off orbitters, because I only have room for 5 heavy drones in my bay, and light drones would be all I could use against them.

I haven't found any large repairers or guns in level 3 missions, so I'll start with the 'Scout' varieties of weapons, and hopefully I'll be able to find some upgrades eventually. I won't economize on the Large repairs, though. Two 'Accommodations' will be equipped.

...

From what I hear, you also need to be familiar with what kind of damage the enemies are most vulnerable to as well, so that it's easier to break their tank. Those who use only hybrid weapons don't have much of a choice - all of their damage is kinetic/thermal. Those using projectile and laser turrets and missile launchers, however, can customize their damage output.

I'm expecting to do research on other sites to determine the best damage to use and protect against, rather than experiment in the missions. I've seen what happens to a Domi in Rogue Slaver Trader without knowing the right damage to protect against, so I'll be researching whatever I can before trying the missions.

...

Well, I'm not even out of the gate yet and I've already hit a snag. I can't equip 3 425mm guns with the cpu restraints. So, I'll have to settle for 3 350mm's, and even then I may have to turn off one of my 150mm guns, we'll see. Looks like Weapon Upgrades and Electronics are on the list of skills to raise.

I can also significantly reduce the cpu usage by using Carbide guns instead of Scouts. I'll have to see what I can come up with. I also realized I had an implant that reduce weapon cap usage by 3%, but that's not very much.

I was hoping to start on my learning skills, but that may have to wait a couple of days. Sigh.

Later tonite I'll give Stop the Thief! a try, and get a feel for which areas I need to improve in.

...

Ok, well, here we go... after 1.82 million skill points and playing for 10 weeks, my Megathron has its first level IV build and is about to take on its first mission:

Capacitor: 5175, recharge time 397 seconds
CPU: 625.60/632.50
Power Grid: 11950/18600

I wanted to have 3 small guns and a 2 Large 'Accommodations', but I don't have enough CPU. I also wanted 425mm guns instead of 350mm's, but the damage output is very close. I'll just pay for it in range.

It's clear to get a real build going that I'll have to up some skills, such as Electronics and Weapon Upgrades, in order to be able to equip better items.

...

For my first mission, I'll try Stop the Thief!, which is usually an easier mission in any level set. This particular mission has the following targets:

My expectations:

I'll try to take out the Guardian Veterans as they approach. Once they are too close for my large guns to handle, I'll send light drones after them, then start picking off the cruisers. In the meantime, I'll be firing torpedoes at the Mega. I hope to have most of them down before my tanking is threatened. If it doesn't look like I can handle the damage, I'll warp out (hopefully, I assume none here can scramble).

I have thermal and kinetic torpedoes loaded, so I'll figure out which damage type hurts the Mega most. Since the targets are Serpentis, I assume 2 kinetic and 2 thermal hardeners will do me well. I'll find out...

So, here we go...

...

HOLY moly!

I guess the 106 AU warp should have been a hint - at least cap recharged on the way...

I figured I'd warp in at 60km to give me a chance to take some craft out before they got to me. But all the Veterans, Spies, and even the Commodore Megathron MWD'd straight to me. Only the thoraxes stayed behind.

So, I released my light drones and started concentrating on the Veterans like I planned, and turn on all my hardeners when they got to my armor. Unfortunately, after killing 4 Veterans, all of the orbiters were beating my tank, so I had to warp out. I replenished my stock of light drones since a few got killed, and piled on a few more in case I needed to release a new batch, and went back at it.

On my second trip, I took out the rest of the Veterans and started working on the Spies with my drones and small guns. Meanwhile, I was pelting the Mega with my large guns and torpedoes, and he finally went down, especially after I switched to kinetic torps.

The thoraxes were last. They couldn't challenge my tank at all, so I just left the Medium going and picked away at them. Even orbitting at 24km and 176 m/s traversal (0.0076), my large guns were STILL missing, so I hit miy afterburner to kite them. Finally, at 33km and a traversal speed of 145 m/s (0.0044), I was hitting them decently.

When it was all over (600 rounds of large ammo use, or wasted, depending on how you look at it), I had cargo cans littered from 35 to 107 km away. so I warped back, got my looter ship, and looted everything.

So, also now on my list is to train up Motion Prediction.

I'm disappointed that my large guns got so little use. I'll have to work on that. I'm also disappointed that the large gun sound leaves much to be desired. I was really hoping for some deep echo effect. Instead I got something that sounded like fingernails being dragged across a door screen.

At least, though, for once, I really felt like a battleship taking all of that on.

Gone Berzerk is next. the first wave looks easy enough - 5 thoraxes. But if this mission was any indication, I'm going to have to figure out how to hit the dang things, or just tank them and let the drones to the work.

...

Gone Berzerk went much better. With all the hardeners on (2 kinetic and 2 thermal), I never needed to turn on anything bigger than my Medium repair. Frankly, if I needed to turn on both Larges, my cap wouldn't last long anyway - hence the builds that call for 6+ cap items, I'm sure.

Anyway, the first wave, 5 thoraxes, wasn't too bad. Webbed, they dropped to below 28 m/s at 5500m distance, putting them within hit tracking of my 350mm's.

Next came 2 Core Barons (Domis!!!) and 3 more thoraxes. Also not bad, the Domis were taken down first. They orbitted within 5500m as well.

The final wave was a Core Rear Admiral (Mega) and another core Baron (Domi). The Mega immediately started moving away from me, orbitting at 40km. My guns made slow work of him. I took out the Domi and gritted my teeth for the next wave, but none came. Whew. That mission would be a 5/10, since I didn't need to use my Large repair at all and I didn't drop below 90% armor.

So it appears I can handle cruisers just fine as long as they orbit within 10km and are out farther than 4000m. I wonder how well I'd be able to hit a Caldari Blackbird...

Uh oh, a Blockade is up next...

...

The Blockade wasn't bad, much like Gone Berzerk, except a stupid little noob thief named Nemuri Doragon in a Velator showed up and started picking from my cans. I locked on to him, gave him a warning, then sent in my drones as he was heading to another can. He warped away, but I docked until my aggression timer wore off in case he had some dumb little exploit with corpmates waiting for me. Also, my machine locked up on me, so I rebooted to find I had destroyed the last domi in the final wave while I was offline.

Known skills that will help: Battleship 3 for more turret damage and better tracking, Motion Prediction 4 for better tracking, Weapon Upgrades for cpu conservation, Electronics for more cpu.

...

Looking at my current Mega setup, I presume I can improve it in the following ways:

This is definitely a continuing work in progress. If the drones do well enough on their own, I may be able to do without small guns and even a webber. But right now, my damage output is a bit shaky.

...

When I tried Rogue Slave Trader, my hardener tank and Medium Repairer II just barely kept me ahead of the damage, although it might have been worse if every ship came after me instead of some of them attacking my drones. My cap hovered around 32% minimum with all my weapons going, so I was nervous to hit my Large Repairer and break my cap.

I could reduce this by training up Controlled Bursts and using iridium ammo instead, but I'm sure there will be situations where I might need to run the Large indefinitely. So, a nos may be a good investment. A heavy one will reach out to 20km, making it much more flexible. The trouble is my cpu is still a bit lacking. Weapon Upgrades 4 will help with that, but it's a 2 day skill.

Of course, I can ease the cap by losing the afterburner and putting on another Eutectic, and training up Energy Management and Energy Systems Operation, but those are 3 and 6 day skills.

What to do...

I'll try the next mission with a Medium nos and see what that does for me. The heavy nos only provides 1.6 times more cap, so two mediums would outprovide it.

Update: I tried one medium nos on a Blockade. Generating only 5.5 extra cap per second, it allowed all items running as before and held cap at 49% instead of 32%. That's quite an improvement. That allows me to pulse the Large repair every now and then for extra healing.

...

I'm thinking my best next move is to get Instant Recall up to 5 and 3 ranks of the advanced skill, the train Drones up to 5 and get 3 ranks of Drone Interfacing. That should significantly increase my drone damage and help with all these dang Veterans I'm seeing in the ship lists.

Also, training the memory attribute up helps speed up the rest of the learning skills. So maybe I can train up intellect next and then boost a skill that uses it - like Energy Management and Energy Systems operation, for more cpu.

...

I think the biggest challenge of flying a battleship in level 4's is being able to deal the most damage possible to all the targets. Large guns just don't seem to do all that much against cruisers, and much less against frigates, of course. But I'll need large guns to break the tanks of the battleships. So it seems my drones are going to have to take on the bulk of damaging the smaller ships while my ship's resources focus on beating the tanks of the larger targets.

I'll have higher drone skills in a little over a week. That should make a big difference. If I can take a huge wave with a lot of Guardian Veterans in it without warping, I'll know it's a better build.

...

I've been taking a break from my main while he skills Instant Recall to 5. I'll try more missions after I get my drone skills raised. In the meantime, I'm skilling up a Power of 2 alt.

...

3/15/2006

Now that I have Drone 5 and Drone Interfacing up to 3, my light drones are taking out Guardian Veterans much faster now. I just wish I could target them faster.

I also picked up some webber drones and will be able to use those tonite. I mostly only just need them for cruiser orbiters out of range of my webber. But my medium drones alone now seem to be able to take cruisers out faster than my large guns and torpedoes. Still, a webber drone will allow my large guns to contribute more.

I've been trying Pirate Invasion missions with another player. Her Dominix is set up for tanking and nossing, so she just uses drones and I help to blow everything away. I also have nanofibers and a MWD installed to speed up looting. It's a good combo and has been working very well so far. I'm still nervous about trying the harder missions, though, even with a dedicated tanker.

...

I tried out my webber drones. They slow down the distant orbiters nicely, but apparently because they are cruisers, my large guns still don't hit them very well. As a result, whether I was using all Hammerheads, or in combination with 1 or 2 webber drones, the cruisers went down at about the same time. I'll need to test it again with a fresh set of cruisers to be sure. Perhaps target painting drones would help more? That will take more skilling up, and will have to wait.

Update: Trying them out on another wave of Serpentis Chief Defenders (orbit at 23km, 179 m/s, can't hit with large guns without assistance), I got the following results:

So, webbing really doesn't help all that much, I don't think. I will try a target painting mod and see what that does - maybe it will help determine if painter drones will do me any good.

In any case, distant orbitting cruisers really aren't that much of a threat to my tank, it's just a pain taking them down without being able to use my large guns much, and I'm the type that likes to maximize utility.

Perhaps medium guns would help more against them. I'm not sure I want to go that way, since I still need as many large weapons as I can fit to take down the tougher tanks.

...

Well, I discovered a new tactic against distant orbiters - charge them full tilt. They try to move away to get to orbit distance and end up bleeding off transversal velocity because of it. It allows me to take them out in nearly half the time. With this tactic, I don't really need painter drones or webber drones unless I find another benefit for them.

Transversal velocity is the primary deterrant of my large guns. Whatever I can do to reduce that increases my damage many times over.

...

After some experimentation, I've been assembling a list of what combinations of ships just equal a medium tank (4 hardeners and a Medium II repairer):

I would really like to add Guardian Veterans to this list.

You could basically approximate what encounters are built from using this list, and set an expectation as to what kind of tanking you'll need to keep up with the damage (2 Medium Repair II = 1 Large Repair II)

I also discovered that cruisers that orbit within 7km can't hit much at all past that range, but if I get too far away from them, they will MWD straight to me. That might be important to help preserve my tank when I'm fighting those huge waves. It won't help much against the distant orbitters, of course.

...

Well, I'm realizing that without being able to (without wanting to) take the tougher level 4 missions solo, that the missions I can do are a bit on the boring side, kind of repetitive. It would be nice to get some interesting fleet mission operations going sometime.

In a few days, my alt will have Memory, Intelligence and Perception trained up, and I can start training her to fly a Caracal - so that will give me something else to do for a while, too.

So far, Duo of Death wins for most profitable level 4 mission (10 mil in 1 hour, if I do 3 in a row). But some missions, I hear, offer a lot more than that if I can just survive them.

...

Guardian Veterans are taken out by my light drones (Drone 5, Drone Interfacing 3) in 31 seconds regardless of whether or not they are webbed. I haven't measured how long it takes when I'm helping with small guns and torps.

...

I tried Worlds Collide with my corpmate. We started out with Domis. When I warped in, the Serps agroed me. When she warped in, the Guristas agroed her. If I release drones before she arrives, the Guristas agro the drones, so I have to wait until she gets agro before either of us release any drones.

Finally we were able to work down the Serpentis numbers, so I got my Mega instead. Once she got agro on the Guristas, I released heavy repair drones on her to help her tank, then I assisted with my Mega's dps (couldn't do that with my Domi). The Gurista Ravens also have hard tanks.

It's a nasty mission. I ended up cancelling it after we cleared the first area. It was just too much work, and according to notes, the further areas also fully agro on drones. I'll have to work up all areas of my abilities (dps, tanking, cap, drones) in order to take that mission on more comfortably. I took a 2.7% hit (dropped me from 9.7 corp standing down to 9.2). I'll have to keep that to a minimum.

We would have gone into the Serpentis area next, since they don't use missiles and presumably have easier tanks to beat.

Oh well, at least we discovered more of our limitations. Lost a few drones on that one too, since the Guristas sneakily switched targets on us.

...

I've changed my Mega's drone loadout from many lights and mediums to 5 lights and 4 heavies. I release 1 light then 4 heavies when fighting cruisers and battleships, and there is a noticable increase in dps. Why didn't I think of that sooner?

I'm eager to take on that Mammoth again, now.

...

Tech II drone results:

Hobgoblin II's and Hobgoblin I's take frigs out in about the same amount of time. In many cases, Hammerhead II's take frigs out faster than the Hobgoblin II's, but they take a long time to kill Guardian Veterans. I haven't figured out what the Hobgoblin II's are most needed for - Guardian Veterans are one. Perhaps the smallest, fastest (but weakest) drones are another.

I'll have to keep experimenting.

...

I'm now flying a Raven and am using a Gist XL shield booster. This one item makes the game easy mode, although I have yet to try to take on anything really hard (like Zazzmatazz or Silence the Informant). I'll try to be careful how I rate missions, since this setup makes them all much, much easier.

...

Grinding LP's...

I'm trying to work up to 500k LP to get a Navy Mega offer, then trade it for a Navy Raven. The following L4 missions provide me with the given LP/minute, when piloting a Raven.

227 Rogue Slave Trader 2/2 (Downing the Slavers) (20m)
181 Infiltrated Outposts (25m)
158 Duo of Death (10m)
151 Rogue Drone Harassment (30m)
133 Rogue Salve Trader 1/2 (15m)
121 Pirate Invasion (Angel) (30m)
118 Unauthorizard Military Presence (Angel) (25m)
98 Right Hand of Zazzmatazz (30m with one warpout)
91 The Serpentis Spies (15m)
76 Vengeance (Serpentis) (60m)
65 The Mordus Headhunters (70m)

I believe that even though you'll get different rates from different quality agents and system security levels, the order of LP gain should be the same. So grind out those Rogue Slave Trader and Drone missions!

I haven't bothered with Silence the Informant, In the Midst of Deadspace or the Extravanganzas.

I'm recently flying a Cerberus, and I'm sad to find out these times are actually higher. So a Cerberus might not be the best way to go for grinding LP's in a level 4.

After more experimentation, it does do well in missions that are low on BS's. I use it for the Rogue Drone missions, Serpentis Spies, Unauthorized Military Presence (Angel), and Rogue Slave Trader 1/2.

...

Offers

I've also been grinding up LP's in hopes of getting a Navy Megathron so I can trade it for a Caldari Navy Raven. Here are the offers I've gotten along the way:

...

Mission Details

The mission difficulties will be updated as my skills and build increase in effectiveness.

When preparing resistances, I recommend doubling up on two types of active hardeners (4 total) rather than using a nano membrane and two hardeners. It makes tanking MUCH easier on cap, since you don't have to repair as much.

Also note that if you have a ship that can focus heavily on tanking and depend on capless means of dps (missiles, drones), these difficulties will be lower for you. A Dominix, for example, with enough nosses installed to run two Large Armor Repairs indefinitely, is a supreme tanker, and can depend heavily on its many different kinds of drones for dps. A Megathron, however, has to carefully balance its weapon and tanking build, since it has lower drone space for less versatility and has no drone damage bonus. Focus first on a good tank for the long battles.

4/10 The Score

5/10 The Blockade
5/10 Gone Berzerk
5/10+ Smuggler Interception

6/10 Duo of Death
6/10 Intercept the Saboteurs
6/10 The Serpentis Spies
6/10 Worlds Collide (in a Gist tanked Raven)

7/10 Sabotage the Supply Line
7/10 Mordus Headhunters
7/10+ Pirate Slaughter
7/10 Sabotaged

8/10 The Rogue Slave Trader
8/10 Angel Surprise
8/10 Serpentis Extravaganza
8/10 Angel Extravaganza

9/10 or 5/10 Stop the Thief!
9/10- Pirate Invasion
9/10 Infiltrated Outposts
9/10 The Right Hand of Zazzmatazz

8/10 Rogue Slave Trader (chain)

 

Missions to avoid, for now:

Angel Extravanganza

(2/1/2007)

Just a few quick notes: For shields tankers, go 2 explosive and 1 kinetic hardener (at least). There are 5 stages. Stage 1 is a drone trap - meaning if you release drones or bring in a gangmate, all other ships will agro them. Stage 3 is a nasty tower stage. In Stage 5, after killing the small group that agros you, you can just kill the boss and his Spider Drones to complete the mission.

The Blockade (Serpentis)

(2/1/2007)

Reward: ??

Difficulty: 8/10 - some waves will severely dampen your lock range, so be prepared for some close range fighting

Typical profit and time to complete: 16 mil, 55 minutes

Enemy, resistances to use: Serpentis, kinetic/thermal

Best damage to use: kinetic

You'll warp near a stasis tower guarded by some destroyers and BS's. One of them (usually the one with the highest bounty - if multiple have the highest bounty, you'll have to guess), another wave appears. Every wave has a trigger ship. 4 waves will spawn after the first. The final wave has a leader ship that, when destroyed, completes the mission.

Wave 2 is the worst of this mission, usually sending 2-4 BC's, 10 or so HAC's and 5 BS's at you. Their sensor dampening can slam your locking range down to less than 10km, so be prepared to fight at very close range. When Wave 2 appears, I head straight at the BC's to take them out first along with their accompanying cruisers. That takes some damage out of the fight and makes dealing with everything else a little easier.

This mission isn't deadspace, so if need be you can set your own BMs and warp back, or even use distant structures in the mission space and warp to them, since they are over 150km from each other.

Duo of Death (Serpentis)

(2/1/2007)

Rewards: 509k, bonus 442k, 1668 LP (Q 18, 0.9 sec)

Difficulty: 6/10 - You'll need to be a little tank conscious, but it's nothing a decent tank can't handle.

Typical profit and time to complete: 3.37 mil, 20 minutes

Enemy, resistances to use: Serpentis, kinetic/thermal

Best damage to use: kinetic

Unlike the level 3 version, where you just needed to fight the two ships, here you will encounter a small base along with the thieves:

I usually turn some light drones, small guns, and a webber on the drones while I take out the towers with my large weapons from a distance, and save the megathrons for last. I'll nos one of the megas to keep my cap up, just in case I need to pulse my Large repair (I tanked this with 4 hardeners and a Medium Repair II, and had to pulse the Large maybe 4 times).

You'll need decent dps to beat the tanks on the megathrons, otherwise this mission will take you a small while to beat. They aren't much of a threat until they get close, and they don't move very fast, so you have some time to take out a drone and a tower before they get within weapons range of you.

Infiltrated Outposts

(2/1/2007)

Reward: 1.2 mil, bonus 928k, 3784 LP (Q 18, 0.9 sec)

Difficulty: 6/10 - the first stage is easy. In the second part, respect distance. Use drones to kill the Alvi's and Alvums, kill the Alvatis' and Domi's with your BS.

Typical profit and time to complete: 2.1 mil plus maybe 11 mil in minerals, 1-2 hours with looting

Enemy, Resistances to use: Shield tank: EM, thermal, kinetic; Armor tank: EM, explosive, kinetic, thermal

Best damage to use: EM

Part 1

You'll warp in next to a large, beautifully rendered and very inconvenient structure. 2 drone groups are here, one group agroes.

Group 1 (upper left - agroes on warpin if you land close, or when you move)

Group 2 (ahead)

The Drone Controllers drop some really nice alloys. Both groups orbit a Drone Bunker (required targets) that may drop some alloys as well.

Part 2

Move away and agro the right-most group first (this will agro the middile group as well). Watch out for the scrambling Strain drones. As long as you don't get swarmed, your tank should hold ok. Keep your drones on a short leash or they might agro group 3.

Group 1 (ahead left)

Group 2 (ahead above)

Group 3 (ahead below)

Don't forget to destroy the Drone Bunkers here as well - you need to destroy them to complete your mission.

In the end, after I finished the mission and came back to loot, I acquired 11 mil of minerals ranging from Tritanium to Morphite. It used to give out 23 mil or so until CCP decided to adjust it.

Not a bad haul, but 2 hours is a lot of time to spend on this mission. Perhaps if I get my skills up and invest into some tractor beams, it won't be so bad.

The Mordus Headhunters

(2/1/2007)

Difficulty: 7/10 - A lot of ships to kill, can get bad if you can't kill things fast enough, so be warned

Typical profit and time to complete: 12 mil, 1 hour or more

Enemy, Resistances to use: Mordus Legion, kinetic/thermal

Best damage to use: kinetic, in as many forms as you can for the final boss

This is a two-stage deadspace with a lot of ships to kill. Respect distance and prepare for kinetic missile spam. Keep your drones close so they don't agro extra. Kill the Bounty Hunter frigs so they don't web and scramble you.

In the second deadspace is a Mordus Mammoth with a better than average tank. It will pose a challenge for those new to level 4's. Get as close as you can to avoid it shooting down your missiles with defenders, or get within optimal with your highest damage ammo. Kinetic drones will help, too. With a decent set of skills and good variation weapons, it shouldn't be hard to take him down. Save him for last, though.

Pirate Invasion (Angel)

(2/1/2007)

Reward: ??

Difficulty: 7/10 - Damage can get bad if too many ships get close to you

Typical profit and time to complete: 30 minutes, 6 mil

Enemy, Resistances to use: Angel, kinetic/thermal. Shield tank: Explosive, kinetic, thermal. Armor tank: 2 explosive, kinetic, thermal (if your explosive resist is less than 80, you might want to respect distance)

Best damage to use: Explosive, or kinetic with damage bonus

You'll arrive in a single deadspace occupied by a fair number of Angel ships. There are 5 agro groups. 1 will agro with you arrive. You may get more as well, but hte rest start some distance away, so if in doubt, just fly away as you fight.

Pirate Slaughter (Angel)

(2/1/2007)

Reward: ??

Difficulty: 8/10 - Definitely a harder mission. The armada in stage 3 is deadly within 40km

Typical profit and time to complete: ??, 1 hour

Enemy, Resistances to use: Angel, kinetic/thermal; Shield tank: Explosive, kinetic, thermal; Armor tank: 2 explosive, kinetic, thermal (be careful if your explosive resistance is less than 80)

Best damage to use: explosive, or kinetic with damage bonus

This is a 3-space deadspace. Stages 1 and 2 aren't too bad, but watch that your drones don't agro more of them by getting too close. Stage 3, however, pits you against a large armada of ships. I hear that if you fly close to them, you'll only get partial agro and can safely fire at them. But if you fire first, every ship (6 BS's, 8 BC's, 16 cruisers?, some frigs) will come after you. It's a nasty fight if they are close. I usually fly to my maximum effective fighting distance and fire, and keep flying. Once they start getting within 40km, I take more damage than I like to, so I hit my afterburner to put some more distance between us.

Watch out for Arch Gistii frigs - they can web and scramble.

The Right Hand of Zazzmatazz

(2/1/2007)

Reward: 684k, bonus 685k, 2130 LP (Q 18, 0.9 sec)

Difficulty: 8/10 - Lookouts agro your drones when you release them. If all ships get close to you, they will destroy your tank, but you start 60km away and they dont' fly fast anymore.

Typical profit and time to complete: 2.8 mil, 30 minutes. (Barely worth the risk for the ISK, but the LP/minute isn't bad if you're an offer grinder)

Enemy, Resistances to use: Seven - all (for shield tankers, go 2 thermal, 1 EM and 1 kinetic - for armor tankers, replace the EM with an explosive)

Best damage to use: Thermal

Wave 1 (agro on warp-in)

The 7 cruisers make up half the damage you will take from this wave. So, you can either destroy them as fast as you can, or try to destroy the Overlord and Zor first. The Overlord actually goes down fairly quickly. On my first try, I destroyed 4 cruisers before I had to warp out (my cap was getting low and I had lost a couple drones to the Wingmen in waves 2 and 3).

Wave 2

Wave 3

On Zor I found a custom Zor implant for afterburner operation (not worth much), and on some cruisers I found a few Zazzmatazz Bodyguard insignias.

This one explicitly requires you to kill Zor and the Outpost.

My basic strategy with this mission is to warp in, and immediately take out Zor, the Deathguards, the Macleari and the named cruiser. Now that the ships don't fly very fast with their MWD's, it's easy to pick off ships as they get closer (especially that they retain their MWD sig radius). With an afterburner, you can easily keep ahead of the gang.

Some numbers for you:

Quantity, enemy, number of torp/cruise volleys to kill:

(1) Zor 8
(1) Macleari 4
(1) Named cruiser (Olufami, Schmidt, etc.) 4
(3) Bodyguard 7
(1-2) Assassin 8
(1-2) Thug 4
(1) Outpost 7

The Score (Serpentis)

(2/1/2007)

Reward: ??

Difficulty: 4/10 - the very easiest of the level 4's. Great for those new to them.

Typical profit and time to complete: 6mil, 30 minutes

Enemy, Resistances to use: Serpentis, kinetic/thermal

Best damage to use: kinetic

This is a good starter mission for level 4's.

It's a 3 space deadspace. There are a lot of ships, but they are low dps and fairly easy to kill. As long as you fight efficiently with the right tank, you should be fine. Dont' send your drones too far or they might agro other ships.

Serpentis Extravaganza

Quick notes: Tank kinetic/thermal, all stages are drone safe. 3 stages, no tower stage. I've heard stage 3 can have full agro sometimes, but I've done it twice and haven't seen that yet.


The Serpentis Spies

(2/1/2007)

Reward: 296k, bonus 258k, 1042 LP (Q 13, 0.9 sec)

Difficulty: 6/10 - take out three towers (especially a III) if you can before the ships get close, and be ready for the Commodore, it could force you to tank a bit

Typical profit and time to complete: 1.6 mil, 40 minutes

Enemy, Resistances to use: Serpentis, kinetic/thermal

Best damage to use: kinetic

Usually, these missions have involved two groups of ships. A different kind of challenge awaits you here. When you first warp in, a large number of towers lock on and start firing:

(Optional)

The Tower III's cause the greatest damage, as is expected. It also takes longer to kill them.

Far in the distance is a small mass of ships as well:

When you shoot a tower, the ships will agro. But they travel slow, so you have time to take out more towers before they arrive.

It isn't necessary to destroy the towers to complete the mission, but I felt like using my weapons. So, dead towers.


Silence the Informant

(2/1/2007)

Reward: ??

Difficulty: 8/10 - There can be a lots of dps going around on this one, so harden properly

Resistances: 1 EM/1 kinetic/2 thermal for shield tankers; 1 explosive, 1 kinetic, 2 thermal for armor tankers; 1 em and 1 invuln for a shield HAC

Damage to use: Thermal against Mercs, EM against drones (including Spider drones), Kinetic against Parasites. Ships with kinetic damage bonus can substitute for thermal.

Part 1

This is a drone area. You are dropped in the middle of 4 Enforcers, 2 Disintegrators and 1 large Domi Parasite.

Also in the distance are a large number of small drones which are fairly easy to deal with.

Guarding the gate to the next area are 3 more Domi Parasites.

Finally, two towers will be firing at you.

If you shoot the towers, everything will agro. I fight the first group, then kill the small drones, then head towards the gate and destroy the 3 last Parasites. Killing the towers before you take on the 3 Parasites might be prudent if you're in a BS (you don't want the Parasites firing at you from a long distance in your Cerb, so leave the towers and sneak up on them).

Make sure you loot the Parasites, because they drone Elite Drone AI that can be important in some agent offers (usually 100 for a 200 mil implant, multiples possible). They may sell for 1 mil a piece as well.

Part 2

This is the Mercenary area. When you warp in, 3 Wingmen, 5 Commanders and 2 Spider Drones will agro you (from behind). If you need to warp out, I suggest you align first before attempting to do so. Being this heavily webbed will make you turn like a brick, so overclick your attempt to align so you will turn a little faster.

11/18/2006: I lost my Cerberus here my first time in because in a panic I immediately started targeting a Wingman that I thought would agro me first, and it ended up being part of a second agro. I didn't realize it until too late when I fired a missile and didn't see the flashing square around the icon. I attempted to warp immediately and couldn't cancel the warp. So, I couldn't align in time and lost my ship. I'll be trying this again when I can build up enough money to replace the ship and the few mods I lost.

Ok that said...

When you warp in, a Merc group consisting of 5 Commanders, 3 Wingmen and 2 Spider Drones will agro from 60km away behind you. Only 15km ahead, however, will be another Merc group. They won't agro yet, so don't worry about them. Take out the Commanders first, and the rest of the wave is easy to tank.

Next comes the nearby group at the gate. 1 Overlord, some Commanders and 4 Wingmen. I prefer to get some distance first (40km-50km) with my Cerberus before drawing these. I take out the Wingmen first as they are MWDing to me. Then I take out the Commanders and finish off with the Overlord.

Finally, there is a large group above. 3 named Overlords, 6 Commanders and 2 Spider drones. I tried to take out the Spider Drones before they got to me, but I couldn't kill them before the rest of the ships got into range. Next time I do this, I'll just kill the Commanders first and allow the Spider Drones to web me, because even sitting still, the 3 named Overlords couldn't hit my Cerberus.

Part 3

In the final area are a number of towers and the Informant himself. I took out a number of the towers then started heading towards the Road House while I took out the Informant. Neither the Road House or Informant dropped anything of great value. Watch out for the dps on the towers - try not to sit still. The Informant does have a lesser web effect on his ship that only slows you down by about 20%. Next time I may just kill the Informant and leave.

Smuggler Interception (Angel)

(2/1/2007)

Reward: 274k, bonus 295k, 1056 LP (Q 18, 0.9 sec)

Difficulty: 5/10 - not a bad mission. Stage 1 is easy, Stage 2 might require some respected distance.

Typical profit and time to complete: ??, 45 minutes

Enemy, Resistances to use: Angel, explosove/kinetic/thermal; shield tank: explosive/kinetic/thermal; armor tank: 2 explosive, kinetic, thermal

Best damage to use: explosive, or kinetic with damage bonus

This is a fairly easy 2-stage deadspace. In the first stage, you're likely to agro most everything, but pick them off as they get closer and you should be ok. In stage 2, however, letting them all get close to you could get bad, so fly away a bit as you fight. The last ship you kill will drop the cargo you need.

Stop the Thief!

Reward: 193k, bonus 267k, 554 LP (Q -3, 0.8 sec)

Difficulty: 9/10 (or 5/10, see below) - I needed to warp out of this one - way too many ships damaging me on the first visit, and my large guns were of limited use.

Typical profit and time to complete: 2 mil, 50 minutes

Enemy, Resistances to use: Serpentis, kinetic/thermal

Best damage to use: kinetic

When you warp to the location, the following wave agros (note, you may get a radically different set of ships - doing this mission a second time, the wave was only 3 Veterans and 11 other cruisers, only a 5/10 encounter):

This in one of those mass wave of ship missions, where the danger is getting too many orbitting you at the same time. I was shocked at how many ships MWD'd and how quickly they reached me, even the megathron. I worked to take down as many Veterans as I could (light drones, webbing, small guns), and had to warp out after the fourth one went down (my cap was dry).

I had to replenish my supply of light drones because they got agroed and I lost a few. When I came back, I finished off the Veterans and killed the Commodore, and managed to tank the rest of the enemies.

The difficult part of this mission for me was that only the Commodore orbitted at a distance that allowed my large guns to hit it while it was webbed. The Spies and Veterans orbitted too close for large guns, although webbing and afterburner kiting the Spies is an option once the Veterans are down. Even the thoraxes, orbitting at 23km at a speed of 176m/s (speed/distance ratio of 0.0076, gun tracking speed of 0.01476), were being missed all the time. To beat them, I hit my afterburner and put some distance between us. At about 33km (ratio of 0.0044 or so), my large guns were hitting better. It seems if the speed/distance is 1/3 or less of the tracking speed, the large gun hits.

One of the thoraxes had the cargo I needed to loot.

Vengeance (Serpentis)

Reward: ??, bonus ??, max LP for agent

Difficulty: 7/10 - a tougher one, but the Serpentis variety isn't too hard on a tank. The boss is fairly easy to take down as well.

Enemy, Resistances to use: Serpentis, kinetic/thermal

Best damage to use: Kinetic - use Thermal on the boss

Time to complete: 1 hour

It's a low LP/minute mission, I don't put high priority on doing this one.

Stage 1

You'll warp into the middle of a few waves of ships. Only the wave with BC's agroes you.

If you release drones, another wave containing a BS and some Guardian Veterans will agro, so clear the BC waves first, then agro a Veteran and release drones to fight them.

Other than the drone agro problem, this stage is easy.

Stage 2

You'll land right into the middle of 5 Guardian Veterans. HACs beware.

Beyond that, this is another easy stage.

Stage 3

You'll warp into the middle of 4 BC's. Fast kills in a BS.

About 50km away is a small wave of ships to clear before you finally face Xevni Jipon.

Xevni Jipon's wave is just another BS besides him and a few cruisers and frigates. A very easy fight. The towers in the distance won't even agro you if you pull them from 80km out. Xevni will MWD to you - just save him for last.

The Vengeance bosses are notorious for having very hard tanks to beat. However, this boss goes down with less than a full rack of torps and cruises from my Raven, so he's definitely one of the easier ones, probably just a little tougher than the Mordus Mammoth.

Guristas version: Since I've been in Caldari space, I had the pleasure of doing this version. The pocket arrangements are nearly identical. Even the wave placed in the same location in stage 1 sometimes agros when you warp in. However, the primary difference is the 4 towers in stage 3. These actually fire and reach you. Their primary component is EM damage. I usually kil teh two BC's, AB towards the towers, and kill 3 of them before warping out, then come back and AB towards Rachen immediately, killing everything else. I approach Rachen within 1000m and unload, and can usually kill him with a little over a full load of missiles, much less if I'm using kinetic drones. Helping another finish this mission, she didn't ahve 2 BCS's on her Raven and couldn't even beat his tank with 6 siege launchers.

Worlds Collide

Reward: 1.1 mil, bonus 800k, 3393 LP (Q 13, 0.9 sec)

Difficulty: 6/10 (in a Gist tanked Raven) - the first area will slam you hard if you depend on drones (full agro). The Serpentis area is difficult on first warp-in. The Research area is hard if you get Serps there.

Typical profit and time to complete: 18 mil, 1 hour 30 minutes

Enemy, Resistances to use: Serpentis/Guristas, kinetic/thermal

Best damage to use: kinetic

I've tried this mission in my Mega ganged with a Domi, and alone in a Raven. The Raven makes it much easier. Since I recently acquired a Gist B-type booster, I don't even have to warp out anymore.

Part 1

You'll see two gates when you warp in. There are also two large waves of enemies:

Serpentis:

Guristas:

The Serpentis will agro you when you arrive. The Veterans will get to you first with MWD's. The other ships travel slowly. If you release drones here or bring in a gangmate, the Guristas will agro on them. The Guristas will also agro if you approach within 100km. I prefer a Raven for this part, since I don't really need to use drones. I can clear the Serps then go after the Guristas.

Part 2 (Serpentis)

There are 3 groups of ships here, all the same:

One group will agro at close range when you arrive. This is a nasty fight if you don't have good tanking set up. I used to have to warp out multiple times before I could clear the first group. After that, I could take on the other two groups by getting some distance first.

There are two other potential ships you could encounter here:

Part 3 (Research area)

You could get Guristas here (easy, 3 low dps groups agroed separately) or Serpentis (HARD! 5 BS's in first agro group, 2 smaller groups agroable separately), so be careful. At least there are no scramblers and you can warp out.

When you loot the Heron, you will only get 20 crew members. Wait about 15 minutes and you can loot 20 more. In the meantime, mroe craft are likely to spawn, so keep your guard up.

I haven't explored the Guristas side yet, since there are scrambler frigates. I might get brave and try it sometime.

When I am farming, I can usually clear all of part 1 and 2 with 1400 kinetic missiles (3 torp and 3 cruise launchers), plus a few thermals to take out the Vets in part 1.

Rogue Slave Trader (1-2)

This chain was introduced with the Bloodlines patch. It replaces the single mission Rogue Slave Trader, which just required you to warp to a location and destroy a wave of Amarr ships.

Rogue Slave Trader (1 of 2)

Reward: 320k, bonus 371k, 831 LP (Q -3, 0.8 sec)

Difficulty: 7/10 - keep an eye on your tank. An extra battleship arrives after the fighting starts, too.

Typical profit and time to complete: 3.3 mil, 35 minutes

Enemy, Resistances to use: Sansha, em/thermal

Best damage to use: em or thermal

Similar to the level 3 version, you'll need to clear the ships around a Slave Pen, destroy it, and loot the Prisoners from it. When you warp in, the following ships agro:

I took out the webbers first, kept a Slaughterer alive to draw cap from, killed the cruisers, then started working on the battleships.

A few minutes after they agro, another ship arrives:

This one appeared and started targetting my drones. Had it started firing at me instead, the mission would probably have been an 8/10. Then again, I didn't bring em or thermal drones with me, so it was a little more difficult than it needed to be.

Rogue Slave Trader (2 of 2) "Downing the Slavers"

Reward: 744k, bouns 581k, ?? LP (Q -3, 0.8 sec)

Difficulty: 8/10 - the damage comes steady and is tankable. EM/thermal tanking recommended. Heavy EM damage, so shield tankers be warned.

Typical profit and time to complete: 4.3 mil, 1 hour with looting

Enemy, Resistances to use: Sansha, em/thermal

Best damage to use: em or thermal

Again, just like the level 3 version, you'll warp to an asteroid field, fight an easy wave of ships, then warp to an ambush area. Fortunately, the ambush fight is comparitively easier than the level 3 version.

Part 1 (5/10)

When you arrive at the asteroid field, the following ships agro:

Once this wave is down, you can use the Gateway beacon to warp to part 2. Have your shields as high as you can before you start - the EM damage is going to hit hard.

Part 2 (8/10)

You'll warp in about 25km below a Sansha base (hopefully), and everything there will agro:

Stationary emplacements:

I'll provide more data when I visit this mission again - I was busy fighting the first time through.

Needless to say, once you get the missile batteries' attention, you're going to be hit with a very hard barrage of EM missiles. Armor tankers won't have so much of a problem with them, but shield tankers are advised to make sure their EM resistance is at the very least 75% if possible.

When I took this one armor tanking, I first killed the frigates to get rid of their webbing (and potential warp scrambling) and the heavy and cruise missile towers. I was still having some trouble keeping up with the damage, though, since the cruisers as a group seemed to be causing the bulk of the damage. After I got the fight down to 3 cruisers and the battleship, my medium repairer was enough.

I entirely ignored the Stasis towers and Sentry guns until the end. The Stasis towers couldn't reach me, and the Sentries were barely hurting me at all.

Had I landed in the middle of the base instead of 25km below it, I'm sure the fight would have been a lot harder.

Update: After some experimentation, I've found that taking out the frigates and cruisers first is the best route. Even though the towers are launching missiles, their overall damage isn't nearly as much as all the ships. Also, if you're concerned about missile damage, the Heavy Missile towers only have a 30km attack range. Bear in mind that if you move out of range, they may turn on your drones. Finally, it appears that killing the Slaver ships is all that is necessary to complete the mission. So once they are clear, you can warp out.

Revelations missions

A number of missions have returned from the Dragon release.

Also, important note: Even though NPC ships no longer MWD, Spider Drones still do, and the NPC ships retain their MWD sig radius. So, they no longer catch up to you, BUT you can still pop them with torps!