Minmatar COSMOS: Difference between revisions

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==How to do COSMOS missions==

Like anything else in EVE Online: It depends.

If you want to boost your standings with an Empire, pick agents from this empire and work for them. You will find a list of all the COSMOS agents in the system in the next section. Also look at the list of the agent and pick those that offer you BPCs, if that's what you are aiming for. If you are looking for lore, just pick any agent you have access to and do his missions.

Once you figured out for whom you want to work, the time has come to hopp into a ship with a fitting that will help you to successfully complete the mission. This section shall provide the reader with some basic guidelines on ship classes and fittings suitable for the COSMOS missions. Please note that this section is a personal view from a dedicated Minmatar pilot with some crosstrain into Caldari ships to be able to fly the Drake. Depending on what you are able to fly the experience may change. Additionally, I was not able to work for high level Amarr and Caldari agent as well as for the lone Angel Cartel agent due to low standings. So I don't take their mission offers into account (which weren't that many). The guidelines are dedicated to relatively new pilots that only fly T1 ships until now.

===Courier Missions===

Courier mission offers from COSMOS agent can mostly be done in a dedicated frigate hauler. I used a Probe frigate fitted with Extended Cargohold II modules and 3 Small Cargohold Optimization rigs, which is more than enough for most of the missions. However, quite some missions will send you into lowsec. The ability to fly a CovOps ship helps a lot for those, as all but one mission to lowsec can be done with the small cargohold of a CovertOps ship. The only mission I encountered that requires you to haul 1000m3 cargo out of lowsec was offered by the agent Penda Rakken.

===Encounter Missions===

The difficulty of Encounter missions - missons that don't send you into a COMSOS COMPLEX, LANDMARK of COMBAT SITE - depends on the level of the agent. I used a Hurricane or Drake for all these missions, which usually was more than enough tank and firepower. They are, however, pretty slow ships. Some agents offer you missions where you have to travel more than 100km to the next warpgate, sometimes more than once. The agents offering those missions will tell you to bring a fast ship, so listen to them.

=== COMPLEX, LANDMARK and COMBAT SITE missions ===

The interesting part starts once you are sent into the various COMPLEXes, LANDMARKs and COMBAT SITEs.

There are visible COSMOS COMPLEXes, e.g. the 4 COMPLEXes in the constellation that have a beacon and are shown on the ingame map, as well as hidden COMPLEXes you have to scan down first to warp to the entrance. LANDMARKs, both visible and hidden, that are not shown on the ingame map (Please note: The Sispur's Estate is only a LANDMARK, even it is shown on the ingame map). And there are COMBAT SITEs without any acceleration gates and without any beacons to warp to. If you need to go to hidden location, bring a ship with a Core Probe Launcher fitted, preferably a scanning frigate like the Minmatar Probe.

Every COMPLEX and LANDMARK, hidden or not, have a DED rating that tells you what ship hulls can use the acceleration gate. As examples, the COMPLEX in Inder has a DED rating of 3, which only allows cruiser sized ships, the two visible COMPLEXes in Hjoramold and Traun have a DED 4 rating and allow up to battlecruisers and the Tvink COMPLEX (DED 5) allows battleships (Don't believe the DED ratings given in the ingame maps, they often are wrong). LANDMARKs are generally easier to clear and thus can be done with smaller ship hulls, but for the COMPLEXes I recommend to bring a ship that matches the DED rating. The difficulty of the COMBAT SITEs vary strongly, from "Easy as pie" to "It's a trap!" difficulty. Please refer to the more detailed descriptions of the various sites further down the guide.

I strongly recommend that you have some experience with at least level 3 security missions before you venture deeper into the COSMOS COMPLEXes. You also should be familiar with the concepts of aligning, kiting and drone aggro. You must be able to fit a very good, preferably tech II tank on your ships, especially when you are alone. I can't stress this out enough. While there are large groups of NPCs in the pockets to begin with, they also have a very short respawn timer. Due to the low respawn rates I also recommend to bring tech II or high meta armaments to clear the rats fast (also good for tanking).

While most of the NPC rats you will find in the COMPLEXes and LANDMARKs are from the Angels faction, there are also some other factions present, even from empire factions. Please refer to the detailed site descriptions to learn about the opposing factions and try to fit your tank accordingly. However, sometimes it is not that easy to tell what exact faction you are facing and thus fitting your tank against the expected damage type can be difficult. I generally fitted armor and kinetic hardeners in my armor tanked Hurricane and Tempest (as long as the NPCs I was facing didn't use lasers against me) and two invulnerable fields II with one emp shield rig on my Drake with acceptable results.

As the COMPLEXes can be quite big, I recommend to bring propulsion mods on any ships you use. Preferably a MWD, as they work in all the COMPLEXes and LANDMARKs. If you are interested in the hacking and archaelogy cans in some COMPLEX pockets you obviously have to bring a codebreaker or analyzer mod.

==Agents==

@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 ==How to do COSMOS missions==
+Like anything else in EVE Online: It depends.
+If you want to boost your standings with an Empire, pick agents from this empire and work for them. You will find a list of all the COSMOS agents in the system in the next section. Also look at the list of the agent and pick those that offer you BPCs, if that's what you are aiming for. If you are looking for lore, just pick any agent you have access to and do his missions.
+Once you figured out for whom you want to work, the time has come to hopp into a ship with a fitting that will help you to successfully complete the mission. This section shall provide the reader with some basic guidelines on ship classes and fittings suitable for the COSMOS missions. Please note that this section is a personal view from a dedicated Minmatar pilot with some crosstrain into Caldari ships to be able to fly the Drake. Depending on what you are able to fly the experience may change. Additionally, I was not able to work for high level Amarr and Caldari agent as well as for the lone Angel Cartel agent due to low standings. So I don't take their mission offers into account (which weren't that many). The guidelines are dedicated to relatively new pilots that only fly T1 ships until now.
+===Courier Missions===
+Courier mission offers from COSMOS agent can mostly be done in a dedicated frigate hauler. I used a Probe frigate fitted with Extended Cargohold II modules and 3 Small Cargohold Optimization rigs, which is more than enough for most of the missions. However, quite some missions will send you into lowsec. The ability to fly a CovOps ship helps a lot for those, as all but one mission to lowsec can be done with the small cargohold of a CovertOps ship. The only mission I encountered that requires you to haul 1000m3 cargo out of lowsec was offered by the agent Penda Rakken.
+===Encounter Missions===
+The difficulty of Encounter missions - missons that don't send you into a COMSOS COMPLEX, LANDMARK of COMBAT SITE - depends on the level of the agent. I used a Hurricane or Drake for all these missions, which usually was more than enough tank and firepower. They are, however, pretty slow ships. Some agents offer you missions where you have to travel more than 100km to the next warpgate, sometimes more than once. The agents offering those missions will tell you to bring a fast ship, so listen to them.
+=== COMPLEX, LANDMARK and COMBAT SITE missions ===
+The interesting part starts once you are sent into the various COMPLEXes, LANDMARKs and COMBAT SITEs.
+There are visible COSMOS COMPLEXes, e.g. the 4 COMPLEXes in the constellation that have a beacon and are shown on the ingame map, as well as hidden COMPLEXes you have to scan down first to warp to the entrance. LANDMARKs, both visible and hidden, that are not shown on the ingame map (Please note: The Sispur's Estate is only a LANDMARK, even it is shown on the ingame map). And there are COMBAT SITEs without any acceleration gates and without any beacons to warp to. If you need to go to hidden location, bring a ship with a Core Probe Launcher fitted, preferably a scanning frigate like the Minmatar Probe.
+Every COMPLEX and LANDMARK, hidden or not, have a DED rating that tells you what ship hulls can use the acceleration gate. As examples, the COMPLEX in Inder has a DED rating of 3, which only allows cruiser sized ships, the two visible COMPLEXes in Hjoramold and Traun have a DED 4 rating and allow up to battlecruisers and the Tvink COMPLEX (DED 5) allows battleships (Don't believe the DED ratings given in the ingame maps, they often are wrong). LANDMARKs are generally easier to clear and thus can be done with smaller ship hulls, but for the COMPLEXes I recommend to bring a ship that matches the DED rating. The difficulty of the COMBAT SITEs vary strongly, from "Easy as pie" to "It's a trap!" difficulty. Please refer to the more detailed descriptions of the various sites further down the guide.
+I strongly recommend that you have some experience with at least level 3 security missions before you venture deeper into the COSMOS COMPLEXes. You also should be familiar with the concepts of aligning, kiting and drone aggro. You must be able to fit a very good, preferably tech II tank on your ships, especially when you are alone. I can't stress this out enough. While there are large groups of NPCs in the pockets to begin with, they also have a very short respawn timer. Due to the low respawn rates I also recommend to bring tech II or high meta armaments to clear the rats fast (also good for tanking).
+While most of the NPC rats you will find in the COMPLEXes and LANDMARKs are from the Angels faction, there are also some other factions present, even from empire factions. Please refer to the detailed site descriptions to learn about the opposing factions and try to fit your tank accordingly. However, sometimes it is not that easy to tell what exact faction you are facing and thus fitting your tank against the expected damage type can be difficult. I generally fitted armor and kinetic hardeners in my armor tanked Hurricane and Tempest (as long as the NPCs I was facing didn't use lasers against me) and two invulnerable fields II with one emp shield rig on my Drake with acceptable results.
+As the COMPLEXes can be quite big, I recommend to bring propulsion mods on any ships you use. Preferably a MWD, as they work in all the COMPLEXes and LANDMARKs. If you are interested in the hacking and archaelogy cans in some COMPLEX pockets you obviously have to bring a codebreaker or analyzer mod.
 ==Agents==