Soldier of Fortune

The Advanced Military Career Agent is one of the five career agents in the game, which show new players different types of PvE activities in EVE. The advanced military career agent missions teach you about PvE combat as well as some basic PvP combat techniques; you should complete the military career agent missions before you do them. In total these missions pay about 1.5M ISK in rewards.

You should always read mission text carefully, but this particularly the case for these missions. If you don't follow the mission objectives carefully you will likely fail them.

The Swap (1 of 10)

Objective: Destroy rats.

If you've been doing the military career missions so far, then this mission will be a nice easy warm-up exercise. Take a fully fitted combat frigate (e.g. the one you've been using for the military career missions), fly to the deadspace mission area, and destroy three waves of Frigate rats.

Angel of Mercy (2 of 10)

Objective: Blow up your ship to destroy a structure.

Granted when accepted: A faction-specific EWAR frigate (Crucifier /Griffin /Maulus /Vigil).

You will lose your ship in this mission! Luckily, your agent has given you a new frigate ("rigged with explosives", although that's just flavour text; it's a normal ship); activate it.

Since you know you're going to lose it, insure it at the highest level you can afford to get a bit more money back.

Making sure the ship doesn't have any modules fitted and the cargohold is empty, undock and warp to the mission's deadspace area, and activate the acceleration gate there. The acceleration gate will only accept the same type of frigate given by the agent for this mission. The target structure is there; approach it while ignoring enemy fire. When you get sufficiently close, your ship will explode, destroying the structure and the enemy ships (enjoy the lightshow). You will be left floating in space in your pod; return to your agent's station. If you check your wallet you will notice that you received the insurance payout from losing your ship.

Your Undivided Attention (3 of 10)

Objective: Use a Warp Disruptor module on a rat.

Granted when accepted: A Civilian Warp Disruptor module.

Your agent gives you a Warp Disruptor module, which is one of the two common module types (the other being a Warp Scrambler) which prevents other ships from warping away. Fit it to your main combat frigate and undock.

Fly to the mission's deadspace location, target the "fleeing pirate" ship (despite the name, he will wait patiently for you), and activate your Warp Disruptor module. Any other nearby rats will warp off, and you have completed the mission. Return to your agent. You have to get a target lock on the Fleeing pirate ship for the popup to show.

Warp Disruptors (and Scramblers) are particularly useful when fighting other players (PvP), as they will tend to warp off if they think that they are losing the fight, so you need to use a Warp Disruptor / Scrambler to force them to stay if you want to destroy their ship. Conversely, NPC ships (rats) will almost never warp away, so you almost never need to fit a Warp Disruptor / Scrambler in PvE combat.

A Friend in Need (4 of 10)

Objective: Use either a Remote Armor Repairer module or a Remote Shield Booster module to repair a friendly ship.

Granted when accepted: A faction-specific remote repair module (Civilian Small Remote Armor Repairer /Civilian Small Remote Shield Booster).

Your agent gives you a Remote Armor Repairer or Remote Shield Booster module, which repairs the armor/shield of another friendly ship. Fit it to your combat frigate (depending on what other modules you have fitted you may have to remove a turret; you can do so, as you won't need to fight any ships in this mission) and undock.

Fly to the mission location and locate the "damaged vessel". Target it, and, once you're in range (your remote repair module has a maximum range, just like your guns), activate the Remote Armor Repairer or Remote Shield Booster module. After the module completes a cycle, the friendly ship will warp off; you have completed your mission and can return to your agent.

Repairing other ships in combat (referred to as "logistics" in EVE) is an important but somewhat specialised part of EVE gameplay. Most fleets (except perhaps the very smallest gangs) will include one or several logistics ships, who will try to keep their fleetmates alive under fire. While this mission gives a very basic introduction, it over-simplifies things perhaps a bit too much. For one thing, the "damaged vessel" wasn't actually damaged (you could see their shield/armor/structure status when you targeted them). Additionally, the mission implies that using your repair module repaired the damaged vessel's warp drive - in reality, there is no way to "damage" a ship's warp drive, although you can (see mission 3) use modules to temporarily prevent ships from warping away.

Reward: A faction-specific remote repair skillbook (Remote Armor Repair Systems /Shield Emission Systems). They allow you to use Remote Armor Repair/Remote Shield Booster modules (the Civilian repair module you used for this mission doesn't require any skills to use).

The Stand (5 of 10)

Objective: Destroy at least 1 rat, then lose your ship.

Granted when accepted: A faction-specific combat frigate (Punisher /Merlin /Incursus /Rifter).

You will lose your ship in this mission (again)! Unlike in mission 2 you will actually need to do some fighting beforehand, so fit your combat frigate with a few cheap weapons, minimal ammunition, and little else (everything you fit on and carry in your ship will be destroyed in this mission). If you haven't already done so, insure your ship to the highest level you can afford (in general, you should be insuring most of your ships at the start of the game). If you would rather keep the frigate given by the mission, you can choose to fly any frigate or even your corvette into the deadspace.

Undock, warp to the mission's deadspace location, and activate the acceleration gate there. In the first deadspace pocket there is a lone rat, a Kestrel; destroy it. Once it's destroyed, a large fleet warps in, including several cruisers (again, note their Overview icons), who will use Stasis Webifiers and other forms of electronic warfare on you. If you want to you can try and fight them, but you've got no hope. As the rats are not using Warp Disruptors on you, you could warp away and save your ship (which is what you'd normally do if you were overwhelmed), but in this case, the mission requires that your ship be destroyed by the rats.

Once your ship is destroyed, you will (once again) be left floating in your pod in space. Almost all rats (there are very few rare exceptions) ignore your pod (they don't try to destroy it or prevent you from warping away), so look around for a wreck with your character's name on it - that's all that's left of your ship. In EVE, when your ship is destroyed, half of the fitted modules and cargo are destroyed (along with all the fitted rigs), while the other half drop into space for anyone in the vicinity to pick up - and it's usually picked up by your victorious opponent (unless you were only fighting rats and there were no other players nearby). It's not uncommon for your ship to be destroyed while playing EVE, so learn to treat your ships as expendable (or as the first golden rule of EVE says, never fly what you cannot afford to lose).

Defender

		WD	EWAR	L
	1 x Frigate Mercenary Fighter

Cruiser/drone wave

		WD	EWAR	L
	3 x Drone Spider Drone II
	10 x Elite Cruiser Terrorist

You have completed the mission; return to your agent.

Don't Look Back (6 of 10)

Objective: Use an Afterburner module to zoom past a hazardous area.

Granted when accepted: A 1MN Civilian Afterburner module.

Your agent gives you a Civilian Afterburner. You can fit it to your ship (any ship will do, even your corvette), although you may use a non-civilian version you already have.

Warp to the mission's location, and activate the acceleration gate there. In the first deadspace pocket, locate the "Asteroid Station" on your Overview and fly towards it (e.g. using the "Approach" command). Since the station is a long way away, activate your afterburner module to speed up your ship. When you get close to the station, the mission will be completed and you can return to your agent.

Reward: 100 x Civilian Scourge Light Missile / ISK. The missiles are intended to be used for the faction-specific version of the subsequent mission offered by Caldari State agents.

Weapon of Choice (7 of 10)

Objective: Use your faction's primary weapon system to destroy a rat.

Granted when accepted: A faction-specific signature weapon system (Civilian Gatling Pulse Laser /Civilian Light Missile Launcher /2 x Civilian Hobgoblin /Civilian Gatling Autocannon)

In addition to the turret weapons you've been using up to now, each faction also uses another weapon system:

• Drones for Gallente, and to a lesser extent, Amarr.
• Missiles for Caldari, and to a lesser extent, Minmatar.

If you are working for a Amarr Empire or Minmatar Republic agent, then the weapon granted to you would indeed be the same weapon class you already have been using up to this point, possibly worse in quality since it is a civilian module. If you are getting this mission from a Caldari State or Gallente Federation agent, you have a chance to try out a new weapon system.

Trying out Drones

Drones are small semi-autonomous spacecraft which you can order to attack hostile ships. Note that your Drones skill dictates how many drones you can keep active at any given time; you will need this skill at level 2 to fly both of the light drones your agent gives you. In order to use them, you must use a ship with a drone bay. All corvettes carry enough drone bay for one light drone except for Velator which can carry two. Among the ships given out by Gallente Federation career agents in the station so far, Imicus and Tristan are good candidates to try out the two light drones in. Activate a ship with at least some drone capability and move your drones into the ship's drone bay

Undock from the station. Once in space, note that a new window has appeared on your UI: the drone control window, which shows you which drones you have in your drone bay and which you have in space. Warp to the mission's location. There is a single weak rat there that you need to destroy, so you can take your time to learn how drones work. Select the drone(s) in your drone bay, right-click and select "Launch". Your drones will now start orbiting your ship (and you can see them in the "In Space" section of the drone control window), awaiting your command. Target the rat, and order your drone(s) to attack it by selecting them, right-clicking on them, and selecting "Attack" (alternatively, the much easier shortcut key is R).

Note how your drone(s) fly towards the rat, and once they get close, start orbiting it and firing on it. While rats (and players) can and do attack drones, this rat will likely explode before it gets the chance. Once the rat has been destroyed, recall your drones to your drone bay (they won't follow you if you warp away), and return to your agent's station to complete the mission. If you accidentally warped away before scooping the drones in, you can warp back to the mission location, right-click on your capacitor, and select Reconnect to lost drones to establish your link with the drones again.

If you find drone combats to your liking, then Tristan serves as a good starting-level drone ship, although your damage potential would likely be quite limited compared to other options such as Incursus until you reach level 5 of your Drones skill.

Trying out Missiles

Missile ships use guided missiles which automatically home in on their target. In order to fit the light missile launcher module, you need a ship that has a launcher-compatible hardpoint. Note that there are many ships with multiple weapon hardpoints but none of which are launcher-compatible, thus making it impossible for you to fit a missile launcher. Regardless of factions, your corvette will allow mounting a missile launcher on them, and thus you are free to use it for this mission. Among the ships given out by Caldari State career agents in the station so far, Heron will serve nicely, and if you decided not to sacrifice one for mission 2 Griffin.

The general combat mechanics of missiles are similar to how turrets work, with some notable differences. Like guns, missiles have a limited range (roughly equivalent to their maximum velocity multiplied by their maximum flight time), but they do not have the optimal/falloff distinction - any missile that reaches its destination before its timer runs out hits the target, while they will be completely ineffective beyond their maximum range. Missiles damages are also uniform, meaning that it will not deal either higher-than-usual (e.g., wrecks, smashes) or lower-than-usual (e.g., grazes, glances off) damage. Unlike guns they can't miss their target as long as it is in range, but they do take time to cover the distance from your ship to the target, and will deal less damage to small and fast targets. Missile launchers do not consume capacitor when fired, and they generally take longer to cycle and reload compared to turrets.

If you would like to try out missiles more, Kestrel is usually a good choice for beginning pilots, especially for PvE contents.

The Pacifist (8 of 10)

Objective: Follow instructions and retrieve hostages from a structure.

You can use any ship you like for this mission. Undock from the station and warp to the mission's location.

A window will pop up with instructions from your (NPC) fleet commander, giving you detailed instructions; follow them closely. As soon as the fleet commander tells you to:

• Activate the acceleration gate
• In the first deadspace pocket, don't engage any enemy ships
• Fly to the prison structure and retrieve (loot) the hostage
• Return to your agent

This mission is very straightforward, and is intended to teach you to follow instructions from your fleet commander when flying in player fleets (there are no scenarios in EVE where you are flying in an NPC-controlled fleet).

Glue (9 of 10)

Objective: Use a Stasis Webifier on a rat.

Fit your ship with a Stasis Webifier ("web") module (either one you have lying around, or the Civilian module your agent gives you for this mission). Warp to the mission's location, approach the rat, and (once you're within range - webs have a maximum range, beyond which they have no effect) activate the module.

CONCORD ships will then warp in and destroy the rat. The mission is complete, you can return to your agent.

This mission is intended to teach you about using webs, but if you've previously done the military career agent missions you should by now be more than familiar with their use. Webs are very commonly used in PvP (although more rarely used in PvE), as they slow down the enemy ship, making them easier to hit, and making it easier for you to keep your ship at an ideal distance for the weapons you have fitted.

The Exam (10 of 10)

Objective: Destroy a rat.

Your agent gives you a Destroyer (e.g. a Catalyst). Destroyers are larger and slower than the Frigates you've been flying so far, but can mount many more weapons, making them particularly good at fighting Frigates. You will need to purchase the Destroyer skill book (as it is no longer given as a reward for completing mission 9). Keep in mind that you need to train the Destroyer skill at least to level I in order to fly your Destroyer.

Assemble and activate your new Destroyer, then fit modules to it. It's recommended that you fit:

• As many turret weapons as it will fit. You can strip your current ships of their module, or buy new modules from the market (they are not particularly expensive). It's best to only mount identical weapons (don't, for instance, mix long-range and short-range weapons, as no matter at what range you are, half your weapons will be ineffective).
• A propulsion module (afterburner or microwarpdrive).

You can fit the remaining slots on your ship with modules of your choice, if you want; a web probably isn't a bad idea.

Undock and warp to the mission location. There will be three rat Frigates for you to fight; one of them is the "terrorist leader" you're meant to destroy, the other are his wingmen. The terrorist leader will be flying a more advanced faction Frigate, which will warp disrupt (preventing you from warping away) and web (slowing you down) you.

Use the skills you've learned so far to win the fight. Keep at the appropriate range for weapons, turn on your propulsion module, use a web on your target (if necessary, and if you fitted one), and fire all your guns at one target until it's destroyed. It's up to you whether you want to destroy the terrorist leader or his wingmen first - but keep in mind that as long as the former is alive, his warp disruptor will prevent you from fleeing should the fight go badly for you.

Once the terrorist leader has been destroyed, return to your agent.