Difference between revisions of "Missions"

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A "mission" is a one-time job offered by an NPC (called an "agent") to a player wherein the player must accomplish a set of objectives in exchange for a set of rewards.
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{{MissionLinks}}
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{{related class|Missions (CORE class)}}
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A '''mission''' is a task offered by a non-player character (NPC) to a player that requires the player to accomplish a set of objectives in exchange for a set of rewards. Such NPCs are called [[agents]] and they describe the task and specify the rewards for its completion.
  
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The reward for completing the mission is usually ISK and Loyalty Points; Loyalty Points (LP) are a specialized currency that can only be spent in the Loyalty Point stores of the corporation that gave you the points.
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== Mission levels ==
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Mission levels go from 1 to 5. Higher level missions generally requires that you have better skills and access to bigger ships. Higher level missions also increase [[#Rewards|rewards]]. A mission's level is identical to the offering [[agents]] level with the exception of [[#Storyline missions|Storyline missions]]. As your corporation and faction standing increases, you'll gain access to higher level agents and thus missions.
  
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You can review your Loyalty Points in-game in [[NeoCom|NeoCom]] > JOURNAL button > AGENTS tab > LOYALTY POINTS subtab.
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* '''Level 1''' The most basic type. Can be run by basic [[frigates]]. Only the most basic [[Starting skills|piloting skills]] are required.
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* '''Level 2''' While Mining and Courier missions may be run in frigates, Encounter is designed for [[cruiser]] hulls. You are expected to improve your abilities and learn how to [[Fitting ships|fit out new ships]].
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* '''Level 3''' As you specialize, you will need a [[battlecruiser]], [[Mining Barge]], or a medium-sized [[hauler]]. These missions go faster if you have trained for better ships and at least some [[Tech 2]] fittings.
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* '''Level 4''' These require a [[battleship]], an [[exhumer]], or a large [[hauler]]. These missions can be time-consuming, but they offer large rewards. These missions require [[Omega clone|omega]] to run.
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* '''Level 5''' Mostly encounter (combat) missions designed for [[#Missioning with a fleet|groups of players]] or [[capital ships]] and are exclusively located in Low Security space. Like level 4, these also require omega to run.
  
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==Types of missions==
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== Mission types ==
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Mission type is an in-game parameter that can be found in the mission journal.
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{{Open journal}}
  
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There are four different types of missions: Encounter, Mining, Courier, and Trade.
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[[File:Missing Cargo Warning.jpg|thumb]]
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'''[[Distribution missions|Courier mission]]s''' (also referred to as distribution) require shipping cargo from station to station. Courier missions have no inherent combat. Courier missions are the fastest mission type to run so they are sometimes used for fast standings gains. Courier missions produce a warning when trying to leave the pick-up station without the required cargo in your hold.
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{{Clear}}
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'''[[Mining missions]]''' require you to mine a specific <em>mission</em> ore and bring it back to the agent's station. Level 1 and 2 mining missions have no inherent combat. There is however always a risk of combat during mining missions, through the "[[belt rat]]" NPC hostiles that can show up and are usually rather weak. Note that mission ore except [[Lyavite in Incursions|Lyavite]] has no other uses and can not be traded on the market.
  
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===Encounter Missions===
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'''Trade missions''' The agent wants a specific item to "trade" for the reward. Trade missions have no inherent combat of itself. Trade missions do not occur as basic missions but show up as Storyline and COSMOS missions. The item(s) to trade can often be bought of the market or in contracts but you can also acquire them yourself which might require mining or combat.
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An Encounter mission is a mission to go to a location somewhere in space and complete an objective of some kind. The objective is usually to kill a ship or a set of ships located at the encounter, but it could also be to destroy a structure, to get close to a location and then escape,  to pick up an object at the location (which may or may not be an ambush), or to fly from beacon-to-beacon.
 
  
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An Encounter mission will always create a mission space when the mission is accepted. A mission space is a region of space in some solar system and is populated by objects also created specifically for the mission.
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'''Talk to Agent missions''' (also referred to as travel). The agent sends you to report to another agent. Initiating communication with that agent completes the mission. These missions occur as part of Epic Arcs.
  
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Mission spaces will often contain acceleration gates to move around the deadspace with; these are often locked until nearby enemies have been defeated.
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'''Agent Interaction missions''' (also referred to as branch). The agent offers you the choice of 2 or more missions. Conforming your choice completes the interaction mission and accepts the mission of your choice. These missions occur as part of Epic Arcs.
  
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Encounter missions can usually be recognized as such when reading the description by looking for a bookmark link that only has a solar system name. For example, if a mission description has a bookmark link that only says "Aldrat", then it's definitely either an Encounter or Mining mission.
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'''[[Security missions|Encounter missions]]''' are all other missions. Mostly combat-focused. The job is usually to kill pirates, retrieve stolen goods, or destroy strategic targets. But sometimes it is doing a recon (i.e. go to the target area, look and leave) or transporting items from or to a structure (<em>not a station</em>) somewhere in space. Unlike "true" courier missions encounter transport missions will <em>not</em> warn you when you try to leave the pick-up location without the cargo in your hold. These missions have the highest rewards but they are also slower and involve a risk of dying.
  
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[http://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=CargoDelivery1an Cargo Delivery] is an example of an Encounter mission; you have to fly to a warehouse to pick up cargo, but are ambushed as you get close.
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== Mission categories ==
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=== Basic missions ===
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Basic missions are offered by regular agents and are of the types: Courier, Mining or Encounter. Basic missions are randomly allocated out of a pool except for the missions in a [[#Mission chain|mission chain]].  
  
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===Mining Missions===
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=== Storyline missions ===
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A Mining mission is just like an Encounter mission, except that the mission objective is mining-oriented. This excludes certain Encounter missions that require a mining laser as a gimmick, where you bring one mining laser to a mission space to mine an asteroid for the purpose of luring in a target ship and then destroying the target ship.  Such gimmick encounters don't care about how much ore you mine, and any ore you mine is completely secondary to the mission.
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As you continue to complete missions, you will occasionally get a Storyline Mission offer from a special Storyline agent. The game tracks how many missions you've completed for each combination of level and faction. For every 16 missions of {{Co|lime|''the same level and faction (but not necessarily the same corporation)''}} that you complete, you will get a new Storyline mission offer from the nearest Storyline agent of the same faction. This will always be the Storyline agent closest to the regular agent who gave you your 16th mission (in terms of number of jumps) with two exceptions:
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* If the closest Storyline Agent has already made you an offer that you haven't accepted or declined, then it will be the second-closest Storyline agent that you get the offer from.
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* If the agent who gave you the 16th regular mission that you completed was in High Security, then the Storyline offer will always come from a Storyline agent in High Security.
  
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Mining missions, on the other hand, require you to mine an asteroid or set of asteroids in a mission space until the asteroids are depleted and bring the ore back to the agent's station.
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The Storyline agent will contact you from a station - you will get a notification about an important mission offer - however, you will need to travel to the agent's station to accept the mission. Once you are in touch with the Storyline agent, you accept and complete the mission in the usual way. You cannot work for a Storyline agent unless you've received an offer from that Agent.
  
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There is a risk of combat in mining missions, though the hostiles that show up tend to be much weaker than hostiles found in encounter missions. It is advisable to have some offensive capability (like a set of combat drones) or have a strong enough tank that you can basically ignore any hostiles that show up and start shooting at you.
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Completing a Storyline mission gives large increases to your standing with the agent's corporation and a moderate increase to faction standing. Note that you will also get derived standings, both positive and negative, towards other factions. If you keep doing Storyline missions for [[Minmatar Republic]] you will find that [[Gallente Federation]] will also like you while [[Amarr Empire]], [[Caldari State]] and various pirate factions will gradually start to dislike you.
  
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The mission may require you to mine more ore than can fit in your cargohold; this is typical of mining missions.  Level 1 missions will require mining up to 2000 m3 of ore, level 2 up to 6000 m3 of ore, level 3 up to 9000 m3 of ore or 10,000 m3 of ice, and level 4 up to 45,000 m3 of ore or 20,000 m3 of ice.
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When trying to increase standings with a particular NPC corporation, it is possible to plan your missioning in a way that when you hand in your 16th mission, you get your offer from the Storyline agent of the corporation that you are focusing on.
  
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===Courier Missions===
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Storyline missions are of the types courier, encounter, or trade. There is no relation between the mission type and the issuing Storyline agent's division.
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A Courier mission is a mission to take a piece of cargo from one station to another station. When a Courier mission is accepted, the necessary cargo is spawned in your personal hangar at the pickup station.  You then need to haul it to the destination ("drop off") station using your ship.  Once docked at the destination station you may complete the mission by talking to the agent.  The cargo only counts as delivered if it is either in your personal hangar at the destination station or in your ship's cargo hold while you are docked at the destination station.
 
  
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Courier missions never spawn any hazards of their own; you only have to deal with the normal hazards of Stargate travel (gatecamps, suicide gankers, warp interdiction bubbles on Stargates in NullSec, the sovereign space of Empires that hate you, and so on).  Level 1 missions will keep you within the agent's constellation, level 2 and level 3 will possibly send you to a neighboring constellation, and level 4 courier missions will always send you to a neighboring constellation. <ref name="devblog758">http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=758</ref>
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[[The InterBus]] and militia corporations do not offer any Storyline missions.
  
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It is worth noting that although you are at the destination station you can still talk to the original agent remotely to complete the mission without going back to the original station.  They will be listed in the station's "Agents" tab after you dock, or you can start a conversation with them using your mission journal.  However, until you fly back and dock at their station, they will not give you a new mission.
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=== Special missions ===
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These mission types are not regularly available and are bound by conditions you need to fulfill before they are offered to you.
  
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If a Courier mission has an item as a reward instead of ISK, then the item will appear in your personal hangar at the agent's station (which may or may not be the dropoff location for the mission).
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==== Career missions ====
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{{Main|Career Agents}}
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Also known as "Tutorial missions", are missions that are supposed to help teach players how to play EVE Online. It is a good idea to do these when you first start playing EVE, as they give you starter ships and equipment. They also increase your standings with the faction offering the missions. Each player character can only do each tutorial mission from a given [[Career Agents|Career Agent]] once, but the Career agent mission chains do count as Storyline missions and thus increase faction standings after completing a full set.
  
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Level 1 and 2 courier missions can be run using frigates, although you may need to use cargo modules in the low slots. Cargo size for L1/L2 missions can be up to 450 m3 in size. For level 3 and 4 courier missions, you will need an industrial hauler because cargo sizes will be in the 4000-8000 m3 range.
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==== Research missions ====
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{{Main|Research missions}}
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Are a part of the [[Industry]] career path. Instead of ISK and Loyalty Points, these missions award Research Points that can be used to buy [[datacores]] from the agent who gives the missions. You will need to have trained various Science skills to the level required by an agent before they will offer you a mission. Datacores can be sold at the Market, and some players run these missions to make ISK from trading - do keep in mind that the income is quite low. Most players, however, have not trained the Science skills that these missions require. Research missions do count for the storyline mission tally.
  
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===Trade Missions===
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==== Epic arcs ====
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A Trade mission is to obtain a quantity of some material and deliver it to a destination station. Unlike a courier mission, the necessary materials are not spawned for you, you have to obtain them yourself: mine it out of asteroids, buy it off the Market, steal it from another player, and so on. How you get the materials is irrelevant to the mission.
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{{Main|Epic arcs}}
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Are long series of missions. Throughout the arc, you will be offered choices that will branch the arc into one or more directions, and thus the arcs have different outcomes depending on your choices. The missions that make up these arcs typically have very good ISK rewards and the last mission of the arc carries a handsome reward. There are seven Epic Arcs. Most players begin with [[The Blood-Stained Stars]], an arc that can be completed in a T1 destroyer and gives a boost in standings with the [[Sisters of EVE]] and one empire faction of your choice. Seasoned L4 runners will be doing the four empire epic arcs while the fearless pilots can do the two pirate epic arcs. Epic arcs can be repeated once every three months. Epic arcs missions do not give Loyalty points <ref group=Note>At least [[The Blood-Stained Stars]] does not.</ref>. Epic arc missions do count for the storyline mission tally.
  
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==Levels of Missions==
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==== Anomic missions ====
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Most missioning is split into four levels:
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{{Main|Anomic missions}}
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Also known as "burner" missions, are optional Security missions that are offered by level 4 agents. They can always be declined without penalty. Anomic missions present a more difficult challenge compared to other Security missions. You will encounter a small number of very powerful adversaries and you are restricted in ship size. These missions require specialized and expensive ship fits and high skills to solo. They also require piloting skills that are otherwise rarely used in PvE such as [[overheat]]ing.
  
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*'''Level 1''' is where most new players start, although more experienced missioners will generally get a high Connections skill in order to skip these agents. Most level 1 missions can easily be done in a combat-oriented [[Frigate|frigate]] (often the one given by the military tutorials) but a [[Destroyer|destroyer]] may help with some of the harder missions, especially with low skills.
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==== COSMOS ====
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{{Main|COSMOS}}
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Are special missions found in certain regions of space. These missions vary wildly in difficulty from easy L1 to harder-than-usual L4. Unlike normal missions these missions require '''faction''' standings to accept. The COSMOS missions are offered only once and can not be repeated. If you let them expire or fail them they will not be offered to you again and the following missions will not be offered to you. COSMOS missions do not reward loyalty points.
  
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*'''Level 2''' missions are the next step, and most will require a combat [[Cruiser|cruiser]] to complete. Some of the easier level 2 missions can be done in a destroyer, though, depending on skills. At this level pilots are encouraged to start working on fitting and module skills.
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==== Data center ====
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{{Main|Data centers}}
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Involve handing in tags to the agent for standing gains. This effectively allows you to buy faction standings. Note though that each data center mission can be done only once.
  
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*'''Level 3''' missions are tougher again, and most will require a [[Battlecruiser|battlecruiser]] to complete. At least a T2 DC and/or repper/booster are encouraged in order to tank the increased amount of damage thrown at the player, and time spent running Level 3 missions should be used to train for full T2 tank, weapon and drone skills in preparation for level 4 missions. Level 3 will also see the introduction of some more complicated enemies such as scram/web frigates; be on the lookout for these and make sure you have the tracking or drones to take them out.
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== Mission chain ==
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A mission chain is a series of connected missions. Completing a mission will automatically offer the next mission in the chain. Some mission chains share a single [[#Offer timer|offer timer]]. Chain missions can be of a different type than is usual for the agent's division. Mission chains can usually be identified by some form of "part x of y" in the title of the mission but not always (see the mission chain [[Survey Rendezvous]], [[Listening Post]] and [[Kicking the Nest]] for an example).
  
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*'''Level 4''' missions are the end goal for many mission runners. Requiring a [[Battleship|Battleship]], [[Command Ship|Command Ship]], or [[Strategic Cruiser|Strategic Cruiser]] and good skills to complete in most cases. These missions can be a vast source of ISK depending on the corporation and agents.
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== Rewards ==
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Completing missions will reward you with ISK, [[Loyalty Points]], standings and occasionally with items.
  
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*'''Level 5''' missions are designed for groups of players and exclusively located in Low Security space.
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The amount of ISK received is influenced by the {{sk|Negotiation}} skill giving 5% additional ISK per skill level.
  
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==Standings==
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Being paid with ISK is clear-cut, however, new missioneers often forget about Loyalty points they gain whilst running missions. Loyalty Points (LP) are a currency that you receive from the corporation whose agent gives you a mission. These points can be used to buy things at the corporation's store. LP (plus a certain amount of ISK and/or particular items) can be exchanged for valuable items in the LP store of the mission agent's corporation. For some players, it is more profitable to accumulate LP to exchange them for goods that can then be sold than it is to kill, loot, and salvage in encounter missions. See [[Loyalty Points]] for more details on what to do with LP.
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Standings are a measure of how much one entity likes or dislikes another entity and are measured on a real number scale from -10 to +10. A standing of -10 is tantamount to complete and total loathing and conversely +10 is complete and total adoration.
 
  
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===Why Standings Matter===
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The mission LP rewards scale with the system security of the agent and the level of the "Division" Connections skill. The formula for calculating the LP reward is:
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The standings of NPC entities toward a player are important for a couple reasons. Firstly, because higher standings make more profitable missions available. And secondly, several perks become available when an individuals or player-run corporations standings are higher with a specific entity.
 
  
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For an individual:
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: <math> \displaystyle \text{ LP reward } = \text{ Base LP } \times (1.6288 - \text{ System security }) \times (1 + \text{ "Division" Connections }\times 0.1) </math>
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* At 5.0 all L4 Agents for that faction become available to you (4.0 with certain Corporations)
 
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* At 6.67 you are no longer subject to the refining [[Refining#Equipment_tax|Equipment Tax]] with that corporation
 
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* At 8.0 you are able to create [[Jump Clones]] at any station owned by that faction
 
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* The higher your standings toward an NPC entity the lower the [[Trading#Standings|broker fee]] is in their stations. As an example, with a faction and corp standing of 10, the broker fee is reduced to 0.185%, saving you more than 1% through the buy and sell process
 
  
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For a corporation:
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This means that an agent in a 0.5 security system pays 80% more than an agent in 1.0 security system. Note that the system security used here is the [[System security#True security|true security]] of the system.
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* At a corporation standing of 8.0 or higher, [[Jump Clones]] become available to anyone in that corporation
 
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* A corporations derived standing toward a major empire faction allows them to [[POS_and_YOU#Standings|anchor a POS]] in that empires space. Where the faction standing directly correlates to the system security that that corporation can anchor a POS in (i.e. A standing of 5.0 lets you anchor a POS in a 0.5 Sec system, 6.0 in a 0.6 Sec system, etc.)
 
  
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===Standings Incremental Increase and Loss===
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The "Division" Connections skills are:
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When standings go up or down they usually do so as a percentage; this is always a percentage decay towards the extreme end of the scale. For example, if someone has 1.0 standing with an NPC corporation and completes a mission that changes standing by +5%, then the current standing is increased by 5% of the difference from +1 to +10; that's a change of +0.45 with an end result of +1.45.  However, if someone else with a 4.0 standing completes the same mission under the same circumstances and also gets a 5% increase, then that's 5% of the difference from +4 to +10; that's a change of +0.30 with an end result of +4.30.
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* {{sk|Distribution Connections}} - Improves loyalty point gain by 10% per level when working for agents in the Distribution division.
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* {{sk|Mining Connections}} - Improves loyalty point gain by 10% per level when working for agents in the Mining division.
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* {{sk|Security Connections}} - Improves loyalty point gain by 10% per level when working for agents in the Security division.
  
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If something causes a standings decrease, then it's a percentage decay towards -10. For example, if someone with +1.0 standings suffers a -5% change, then that's 5% of the difference from +1 to -10; that's a change of -0.55 with an end result of +0.45. If someone with +4.0 standings suffers that same -5% change, then it's 5% of the difference from +4 to -10; that's a change of -0.7 with an end result of +3.3.
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The rewards are also dynamically adjusted based on past completion data. This dynamic calculation affects ISK/LP payout, bonus reward, and timed bonus reward.<ref name="dynamic rewards">[https://oldforums.eveonline.com/?a=topic&threadID=795200 https://oldforums.eveonline.com/?a=topic&threadID=795200 On the mission reward balancer]</ref>
  
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'''What this means is that gains are reduced and losses are increased incrementally as your standings become higher, and vice versa.'''
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When you complete a regular mission for an agent, you get increased standings with the agent and the corporation, but not the faction. It is worth noting that if the mission involves destroying ships or structures of a different faction, your standings with the target faction will go down due to a "Combat - Ship Kill" malus. Those who wish to be able to fly in all of High Security space are advised to decline all anti-Empire missions (that is, anti-Amarr, anti-Ammatar, anti-Caldari, anti-Gallente, anti-Minmatar and anti-CONCORD). Some exceptions or workarounds exist; for example, a Minmatar agent might give you the mission [[Friendly Spies]], where if you destroy the mission objective but none of the hostile ships you won't lose Gallente Federation standings. In other cases, the standing losses due to "Combat - Ship Kill" are almost insignificant, such as [[Amarrian Tyrants (Level 3)]]. However, some missions will incur -2.4% standing losses for ship kills and might require one or more completed storyline missions for the opposing side to repair the standings losses.
  
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===More About Standings===
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Accepting, and then quitting a level 4 mission will result -6.2% agent, -2.5% corporation and about -0.1% faction standing loss.
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It is worth noting that running out of time on a mission you have accepted (usually a week, but the Wee Bug Problem courier mission has a failure timer of 12 hours) will usually cause a standings loss with the agent, corporation, ''and faction''.  Declining a mission for a particular agent more than once every four hours will also cause a standings loss with the agent, corporation, and faction.  If an agent you recently declined a mission from offers you another undesirable mission, you can click DELAY, wait out the four hour timer while you go do something else, and then click DECLINE.
 
  
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To see a history of how your standings have changed, you can go to [[NeoCom|NeoCom]] > Character Sheet > Standings, scroll through the list of NPC entities, right-click an entry and select SHOW TRANSACTIONS to see how much your standings went up or down for what actions and by how much.  All the percentage changes you see in the Transaction Log are as described above, with the exception that (due to a possible bug) any percentage changes due to "Derived Modification" are percentage changes of 10.0, not percentage decays towards an extreme.  (The experimental basis for this statement is [http://forum.eveuniversity.org/viewtopic.php?p=217210#p217210 here].)
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Gaining standings with an agent, corporation or faction can be lucrative. With higher standings, you will be able to take higher level missions, pay fewer [[Trading#Broker's fee|broker fees]] in NPC stations and get cheaper [[reprocessing]] in NPC stations. See [[NPC standings]] for all advantages of standings. The amount of standing received is influenced by the {{sk|Social}} skill giving 5% bonus per level to NPC agent, corporation and faction standing increase.
  
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==Regular Agents==
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You will also receive ISK from bounties while killing NPC pirates, not [[Factions#Empires|empire factions]]. You will often get more ISK from bounties than from the mission reward. Bounties are a fixed amount per ship type so the total bounty depends on number and types of ships you destroy.
  
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All regular agents have a name, a Level, and a Division.  Storyline Agents will be covered later.  "Level" describes the general difficulty level of the mission that the agent can offer you and can range from 1 to 5; it also affects the standings you need to reach in order for this agent to give you missions. "Division" determines what [[Agent mission types|kind of missions]] you will be offered. <ref name="inferno15">http://community.eveonline.com/updates/patchnotes.asp?patchlogID=226</ref>
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You will also be able to loot and [[salvage]] the wrecks though it depends on the mission level and killed NPCs whether it is profitable or not. There is always a rare chance of an item of considerable value dropping as loot.
  
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For an agent to offer you missions, you must reach a certain standings requirement which depends upon the agent's Level. The requirement is:
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== Mission related timers ==
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=== Offer timer ===
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[[File:Opportunities-mission card-offered.png|thumb|Opportunities mission card with offer timer. Identified by the orange speech balloon on the agent portrait.]]
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The offer or acceptance timer starts when talking to the agent and has a duration of 6 to 7 days. When the mission is not accepted in this time frame the agent will withdraw the offer and send you a message, telling you how displeased they are:
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{{Quote|I can no longer await your response to my offer. I am displeased by your indecisiveness.}}
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Letting the offer timer expire has no consequences for your standings.
  
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*Level 1: Any standings
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Note: COSMOS missions are a one shot offer, so letting the offer expire means that that mission and all missions after that one are no longer available.
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*Level 2: 1.0 or higher
 
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*Level 3: 3.0 or higher
 
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*Level 4: 5.0 or higher
 
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*Level 5: 7.0 or higher
 
  
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To be offered missions from the agent, either the agent's personal standing towards you, their corporation's standing towards you, or their faction's standing towards you must meet the requirement; any one of the three will suffice.  For example, Eveynel Daerne is a Level 3 agent in Orduin IX - Moon 4 - Transstellar Shipping Storage.  This agent is part of the Transstellar Shipping corporation, which is part of the Gallente Federation faction.  The standings requirement is therefore 3.0, so at least one of the following 3 conditions must be true to get missions from Eveynel Daerne:
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The offer timer can be found:
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* in the Opportunities overview by hovering over the hourglass in the bottom right corner of the tile (countdown timer)
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* in the Opportunities mission details view (countdown timer)
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* in the mission journal (timestamp)
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{{Open journal}}
  
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*Eveynel Daerne's personal standing towards you is 3.0 or higher.
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[[File:Mission journal.png|center|frame|The mission journal showing an accepted mission with the completion timer, a non expiring offered mission and an offered mission with the offer timer.]]
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*Transstellar Shipping's standing towards you is 3.0 or higher.
 
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*The Gallente Federation's standing towards you is 3.0 or higher.
 
  
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The fact that Eveynel Daerne is located in the Orduin solar system, which is the sovereign territory of the Minmatar Republic, is completely irrelevant.  High Minmatar Republic standings will not give you access to missions from Eveynel Daerne. This concept applies as a rule to all agents of a faction who are located in a different faction's sovereign space.
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=== Completion timer ===
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[[File:Opportunities-mission card-accepted.png|thumb|Opportunities mission card with completion timer. No speech balloon on the agent portrait.]]
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The completion timer starts when accepting the mission and has a duration of 7 days. Letting the completion timer expire will cause the mission to fail. And will incur a standings penalty with the agent, corporation and faction.
  
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Gaining access to higher level missions can be eased by training two skills: [[Skills:Social#Diplomacy|Diplomacy]] and [[Skills:Social#Connections|Connections]] (and "Connections" is not to be confused with other social skills, mentioned above, of the names "{Something} Connections").  Diplomacy gives you a standings boost with agents, NPC corporations, and factions that dislike you to begin with, and this boost is 4% per level of the Diplomacy skill.  Connections gives you a standings boost with agents, NPC corporations, and factions that like you to begin with, and this boost is 4% per level of the Connections skill.  Between Diplomacy and Connections, only one will apply, but it will give a boost significant enough to ease the process of getting access to Level 2 missions.
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The completion timer can be found:
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* in the Opportunities overview by hovering over the hourglass in the bottom right corner of the tile (countdown timer)
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* in the Opportunities mission details view (countdown timer)
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* in the mission journal (timestamp)
  
−
When you complete a regular mission for an agent, you get increased standings with the agent and the corporation, but not the faction.  It is worth noting that if the mission involves destroying ships or structures of a different faction, then your standings with the target faction go down due to "Combat - Ship Kill", but your standings with the agent's faction will not change.  Those who wish to be able to fly in all High Security space are advised to decline all anti-Empire missions (that is, anti-Amarr, anti-Ammatar, anti-Caldari, anti-Gallente, and anti-Minmatar). Some exceptions or workarounds exist; for example, a Minmatar agent might give you the mission [http://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=FriendlySpies3ga&show_comments=1#comments Friendly Spies], where if you destroy the mission objective but none of the hostile ships, then you don't lose Gallente Federation standings.  In other cases, the standing losses due to "Combat - Ship Kill" are almost insignificant, such as [http://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=AmarrianTyrants3 Amarrian Tyrants, Level 3], or [http://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=AgainsttheEmpire3am Against the Empire, Level 3].  Some missions, though, will incur -2.4% standing losses for ship kills and might require one or more completed storyline missions for the opposing side to repair the standings losses (for example, [http://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=AmarrianTyrants1&show_comments=1#comments Against The Empire, Level 1]; yes, the Amarr standing loss on Level 3 is insignificant while the standing loss on Level 1 is bad; losses are only consistent for the exact same mission and level).
+
=== Bonus timer ===
 +
The bonus timer starts with the completion timer and has a duration from 10 minutes to 6 hours. Completion of the missions within the bonus timer grants a bonus reward.
  
−
==Mission Rewards==
+
The bonus timer can be found on the right side of the Agent Conversation window in the Bonus Rewards section.
−
Each mission rewards both ISK and LP (Loyalty Points). You also get a bonus reward(ISK) for completing for completing a specified time frame. The rewards are generally tiered according to the level of the mission/agent. A level 4 mission pays significantly more then a level 1 agent. Normal missions also give agent and corporation standing.
 
  
 +
=== Decline missions timer ===
 +
[[File:Decline-mission.jpg|thumb|The "Decline mission" timer tells you how long you have to wait until you can decline another mission from this agent without losing standing.]]
 +
The decline missions timer starts when declining a mission and has a duration of 4 hours. See {{Section link||Declining missions}}.
  
−
Aside from this, the game has its own formula for deciding how long/hard a mission is, which is used (most likely with some randomization) to calculate the reward offered. The exact algorithm used does not seem to be revealed by CCP but is apparently a dynamic formula that determines the average time it takes to complete.
+
The decline timer can be found on the left side of the Agent Conversation window in the last paragraph of text.
  
−
Confirmed:
+
== Declining missions ==
 +
Declining a mission for a particular agent more than once every four hours will cause a standings loss with the agent, corporation, '''and faction'''.
  
−
*Mission Level
+
If an agent you recently declined a mission from offers you another undesirable mission, you can click DELAY, wait out the four hour timer while you go do something else, and then decline.
−
*Security Status (of the System)
+
{{Clear}}
 +
== Missioning with a fleet ==
 +
{{Main|Mission fleets}}
 +
Members of a fleet who run missions can share all of the standings, LP, and ISK rewards from the mission and bounties automatically. Loot and/or salvage can be shared by hand. This is especially good for newer players, as they generally gain more standings than they share. There are two main kinds of mission fleet: Spider, where everyone runs their own missions, but shares standings, etc. at the end; and Locust, where the fleet members all work on the same mission together
  
−
As stated before, the higher level the mission, the higher the reward. This is the largest factor in determining amount of mission reward. The security status of the system the agent is in. An agent located in low-sec will noticeably give better rewards then an agent in high-sec. This does NOT seem to apply to the destination system. A distribution mission sending you to a 0.3 system will not pay significantly more then a mission that keeps you in high sec.
+
== Advice for new mission runners ==
−
It is for this reason that many players like to do missions in a 0.5 system that is not adjacent/near to low sec systems.
+
If you're new to mission running and your goal is to gain loot, pile up LP to buy things or to increase your standing with a faction, then you may want to lay out a plan to help you run your missions with a minimum of down time. Here are some suggestions.
−
Note that these two factors can be easily tested and have a significant effect on mission reward.
 
  
−
Unconfirmed:
+
'''1. Pick an area in which to work'''
  
−
*Player Security Status
+
The last thing you want is to be running missions in the middle of a contested low sec region where combatants will shoot at you, or in systems that lie on a busy trade route where griefers will target you. Use the map and look for a group of fairly high security systems set off from the major trade routes and other active systems. Keep in mind that you can be scanned down in mission pockets and war targets will attempt to do so.
−
*Player Standing with Agent
 
−
*Player Standing with Corporation
 
−
*Player Standing with Faction
 
  
−
These factors seem to have some anecdotal evidence to support them, but have not been confirmed. Some players believe that higher player agent standing increases the rewards given by an agent. Note that this is independent of the standing requirement linked to mission level; So if this theory was true, raising your standing with a particular agent means that he/she will give you better rewards.
+
[[File:Good_mission_map.jpg‎|500px]]  [[File:Bad_mission_map.jpg‎|400px]]
  
−
The official eve wiki states "including the level of agent you are working for, the quality and effective quality of that agent, your security status, and the system's security level". In other words, that the security status of the player has an effect on the rewards. However, this statement is extremely outdated thus it is unconfirmed of player security status plays a part in calculating mission rewards.
+
'''2. Know what you want; check out what the various agents offer'''
  
 +
Successful mission runs give you ISK and Encounter missions can also give you loot. They also give you standing with the agent that gave you the mission, the agent's corporation, and the agent's faction. In addition, they give you LP that can be redeemed for items in the corporation's store. The corporation you gain LP for is important.
  
−
Note: Previously agents used have to also have a quality value (between -20 and 20) attached, which determined the standings required to access them as well as a reward. This is no longer relevant.
+
Most corporation stores sell the same sets of [[Implants#Attribute Enhancers|augmentation implants]]. However, different corporations offer different sets of [[Skill Hardwiring|skill upgrade implants]], and different factions offer different modules, hulls and ammunition. Roden Shipyards, for example, sells warp drive and astrometric skill upgrades, while Astral Mining offers mining upgrades. Weapons and ammunition offers correspond to the faction's spaceship preferences - Minmitar offer projectile weapons and ammo, Ammar offer laser weapons and crystals, and so on.
  
−
==Storyline Missions==
+
'''3. Pick a corporation with multiple agents in the region'''
  
−
The game tracks how many missions you've completed for each level and each faction. For every 16 missions of the same level and faction (but not necessarily the same corporation) that you complete, you will get a new Storyline Mission offer from a Storyline Agent of the same Faction; you will be sent this offer by EVEmail in your [[NeoCom|NeoCom]].
+
Nearly every station has at least one agent, and there are many duplications in terms of standings and items offered for sale. So if you want to improve your standing with Gallente and you want to buy equipment to improve your mining, then Astral Mining is one of the corporations you would want to consider. Since there are many Astral Mining agents in Gallente space, choosing this corporation will not restrict your choice of star systems all that much.  
  
−
This will always be the Storyline Agent closest to the regular agent who gave you your 16th mission (in terms of number of jumps) with two exceptions.
+
Once you have a goal in mind, use the Agent Finder to narrow your choices of star system. Keep in mind that when you finish running level 1, you will almost certainly have to move to a new system to find a level 2 agent, and again for level 3 and 4. So try to find a group of level 1-2-3-4 agents that are fairly close together.
  
−
First, if the closest Storyline Agent has already made you an offer that you haven't accepted or declined, then it will be the second-closest Storyline Agent that you get the offer from.
+
To avoid unfavorable missions such missions in low/null security space and missions that require you to kill empire ships you will need to decline missions every now and then. It is best to choose your location so that you have a second and even third agent as backup once you can't decline the mission offered from the first agent without losing standings.
  
−
Second, if the agent who gave you the 16th regular mission that you completed was in High Security, then the Storyline offer will always come from a Storyline Agent in High Security.
+
'''4. Pick a base station and start running'''
  
−
You cannot work for a Storyline Agent unless you've received an offer from that Agent.  
+
Here is the map for that area:
 +
[[File:Verge_vendor_mission_map.jpg‎]]
  
−
Completing a Storyline Mission substantially increases your standings with the agent's corporation and faction. When your faction standings are increased in this way it affects the standings of friends and enemies of the faction in question toward you. The amount that the other factions standings change toward you is directly related to their affinity for or dislike of the faction that you are involved with. For example if you are increasing standings with the Gallente Federation, your standings toward the Minmatar Republic will increase by 80% of what the Gallente standing increase because the Minmatar have an 8.0 standing toward the Gallente. Note that your standing with factions which dislike the faction you just ran a mission with will decrease (by the same proportion as above), so if you don't want to alienate too many factions make sure to run missions for each of them.  
+
You need a base because as you go along, you will buy ships, ammunition and other gear and you will pick up loot and salvage from completed missions. It's easiest to keep all this stuff in one place, so plan to go to your agent's base to run missions, then fly back to your base when you need to resupply. It is often best to bring all the refit modules and extra ammo to the agent's station so you don't need to travel more than is needed.
  
−
When trying to increase standings with a particular NPC corporation, it is possible to plan your missioning such that when you hand in your 16th mission, you get your offer from the Storyline Agent of the corporation that you are focusing on.  See [[Mission Hubs]] for examples.
+
=== Two hints for being sure your mission is complete ===
 +
* Look for a green check mark next to the mission
 +
: [[File:Missioncheckmark.jpg‎ |alt= where the green checkmark appears]]
  
−
==Epic Arc Missions==
+
* If you think the mission is finished but you don't see the green checkmark or want to check your objectives, click on the little down arrow next to the mission name and select "Details" from the menu. This will show you the mission briefing and you can take another look at your objectives.
−
An epic arc mission is a series of about fifty missions which are split up into chapters.
 
−
Throughout the arc, the player will be offered several choices which will branch the arc in one or more directions.  The missions that make up these arcs typically have very good ISK rewards and typically the last mission of the arc carries a handsome reward.
 
−
There are seven Epic Mission Arcs. One for each of the empire factions, two for pirate factions (Angels and Guristas) and one for the [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Sisters_of_EVE_(NPC_corporation) Sisters of Eve] corporation.  The last of those is an especially good starting point for new pilots.  Most of the [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Sisters_of_EVE_(NPC_corporation) Sisters of Eve] arc missions can be easily solo'd in T1 fit
 
−
destroyer class ship.  The last few missions may require the help of a corp mate.
 
  
−
'''[[The Blood-Stained Stars]]'''
+
Note that some missions may not get this completion mark.
−
* Faction: [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Sisters_of_EVE_(NPC_corporation) Sisters of Eve]
 
−
* Corporation: [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Sisters_of_EVE_(NPC_corporation) Sisters of Eve]
 
−
* Agent: Sister Alitura
 
−
* Agent Level: 1
 
−
* Location: Arnon IX - Moon 3 - Sisters of Eve Bureau
 
  
−
'''[[Amarr Epic Arc - Right to Rule|Right to Rule]]'''
+
=== Mission preparation and walkthroughs ===
−
* Faction: [[Amarr]]
+
Never fly what you cannot afford to lose applies to running missions as well. When starting, fly the cheapest ship that will do the job and only pay for expensive upgrades once you're sure you can replace them. Also, keep in mind that no activity is 100% safe, mission runners can get scanned down and ganked and even an empty transport ship can become a target for a bored ganker.
−
* Corporation: [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Ministry_of_Internal_Order_(NPC_corporation) Ministry of Internal Order]
 
−
* Agent: Karde Romu
 
−
* Agent Level: 4
 
−
* Location: [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Kor-Azor_Prime_(System) Kor-Azor Prime]
 
  
−
'''[[Caldari Epic Arc - Penumbra|Penumbra]]'''
+
NPC's in missions tend to be very predictable in their setups. For example, Gallente and Serpentis use only Kinetic and Thermal damage against you and are most susceptible to Kinetic and Thermal damage themselves; when they use any form of [[EWAR]], it's always sensor dampening. It helps quite a bit if you set up your ship to deal damage that NPCs are vulnerable to and defend against what they will throw at you. Check out [[NPC damage types]] for a full description and a handy chart that you can keep in your Neocom Notebook.
−
* Faction: [[Caldari]]
 
−
* Corporation: [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Expert_Distribution_(NPC_corporation) Expert Distribution]
 
−
* Agent: Aursa Kunivuri
 
−
* Agent Level: 4
 
−
* Location: [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Josameto_(System) Josameto]
 
  
−
'''[[Gallente Epic Arc - Syndication|Syndication]]'''
+
== Notes ==
−
* Faction: [[Gallente]]
+
<references group=Note />
−
* Corporation: [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Impetus_(NPC_corporation) Impetus]
 
−
* Agent: Roineron Aviviere
 
−
* Agent Level: 4
 
−
* Location: [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Dodixie_(System) Dodixie]
 
  
−
'''[[Minmatar Epic Arc - Wildfire|Wildfire]]'''
+
== References ==
−
* Faction: [[Minmatar]]
 
−
* Corporation: [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Brutor_tribe_(NPC_corporation) Brutor Tribe]
 
−
* Agent: Arsten Takalo
 
−
* Agent Level: 4
 
−
* Location: [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Frarn_(System) Frarn]
 
−
 
 
−
'''[[Angel Epic Arc - Angel Sound|Angel Sound]]'''
 
−
* Faction: [[Angel Cartel]]
 
−
 
 
−
'''[[Guristas Epic Arc - Smash and Grab|Smash and Grab]]'''
 
−
* Faction: [[Guristas Pirates]]
 
−
 
 
−
''Information Sourced from http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Epic_mission_arcs''
 
−
 
 
−
==Other mission types==
 
−
 
 
−
Tutorial missions are missions that are supposed to help new players learn how to play EVE Online.  Each player character can only do each Tutorial Mission from a given [[Tutorial and Career Agents in Eve|Tutorial Agent]] once ever, but the tutorial mission chains do count as Storylines in increasing corporation and faction standings.
 
−
 
 
−
There are other mission types known as COSMOS, and Data Center.  COSMOS and Data Center missions are described in further detail in [[Gaining faction standings fast]].
 
−
 
 
−
==Mission Walkthroughs and Mission Preparation==
 
−
 
 
−
The universe of EVE is a dangerous place, and encounter missions are not exceptions.  The unprepared and unwary can lose their ships unnecessarily.  (Most mining missions are not heavily combat-oriented, though there are a couple of mining missions where a mining barge absolutely should not go in first.)  The first thing to know, as always, is to never fly what you cannot afford to lose.
 
−
 
 
−
The second thing to know is the mission you are being offered.  Always understand exactly what you will encounter in a mission before you accept it; if you accept a mission without understanding it, and it turns out to be too difficult, then your only options are to get help from other players (who may or may not be trustworthy) or to quit the mission.  You might lose your ship in the process of discovering that the mission is too difficult for you.  A great in-game browser (igb) link to add in for missions is [http://eve-survival.org/missions Eve Survival].  Most (if not all) regular and storyline missions are documented there, and you can read the details of what you need to do in the mission before you accept the mission, including (most importantly) details that the agent does not tell you up front.
 
−
 
 
−
The UNIWiki has a good guide to the Sisters of EVE epic arc: [[The Blood-Stained Stars]]. Another good guide for the Sisters of Eve epic mission arc can be found [http://go-dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/jowen/SOE_Epic_Arc_guide_by_Jowen_Datloran_v0.95.pdf here].  EVE-Survival.org also has some useful tips for epic arcs, in general: http://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=MissionReportsEpicArc
 
−
 
 
−
The third thing to know is that NPCs in missions tend to be very predictable in their setups.  The mission guides linked above will go into detail for each particular mission, but there are trends.  For example, Gallente and Serpentis use only Kinetic and Thermal damage against you, but are also most susceptible to Kinetic and Thermal damage themselves; when they use any form of [[EWar 101 Guide|Electronic Warfare]] (EWAR), it's always sensor dampening.  Blood Raiders use mostly EM/thermal damage and are most susceptible to EM/thermal damage, and while they don't use (what the University considers) EWAR, they do use Energy Neutralizers and Energy Vampires.  Mercenaries and Rogue Drones aren't as consistent from mission to mission, but are a lot more consistent over multiple occurrences of the exact same mission and level.  This predictability can be used to your advantage: if you're flying Level 2 or higher missions, you'll want to fit resistance modules for the type of damage the enemy will throw at you: Kinetic/Thermal for Gallente, Caldari, Serpentis, Guristas, and Mordu's Legion; EM/Thermal for Amarr, Sanshas, and Blood Raiders, Explosive/Kinetic for Angel Cartel and Minmatar.  You may need two or more resistance modules of the same type if a lot of damage is going to be thrown at you.
 
−
 
 
−
Finally, try to set up your ship to do the damage types that the enemy is most vulnerable to.  Those who rely on hybrid or laser turrets to do damage are out of luck in this regard.  Those who rely on non-sentry drones to do damage should use Minmatar drones if the enemy is susceptible to explosive damage (typically Minmatar Republic and Angel Cartel), and Gallente drones for all other targets (because drones have an ATTRIBUTE called DAMAGE MODIFIER which is 1.6 for Gallente drones and smaller for everything else, so the increased thermal damage done by Gallente drones overcomes the extra thermal resistance of whoever you're throwing drones at).  Missiles should be chosen for their damage types.  Sentry drones should also be chosen for their damage types (primarily because Garde-class Gallente Sentry Drones have great damage and tracking speeds, but horrible range compared to other sentry drones).
 
−
 
 
−
==Farming==
 
−
Farming a mission means to do the same mission over a few days by NOT completing the mission
 
−
ie. for Vengeance, you can kill everything except one rat in the last pocket
 
−
and then redoing the mission after downtime (all the rats will respawn) till the mission expires.
 
−
 
 
−
This is very good for high value missions like Angel Extravaganza (AE), Blockade, Worlds Collide, Vengeance, or Cargo Delivery. Since farming involves putting the agent who's given the mission on 'standby' you should consider your isk/playtime
 
−
 
 
−
To check the viability of farming a mission, use [[http://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=MissionReports Eve Survival]] to see if your mission has a 'completion trigger'.
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
Example:
 
−
 
 
−
I usually play everyday for an hour. It takes me an hour to do Angel Extravaganza. Angel Extravaganza gives me 40mil isk with bounties, loot, and salvage.
 
−
If I got AE, I would kill everything except Tiogo Kargaz who would complete the mission. I could then repeat this after every downtime till the mission expires.
 
−
40mil isk x 6days = 240mil isk.
 
−
 
 
−
Now say I decided to kill Tiogo and complete the mission. On the next 6 days, I could get average missions that give ~20mil isk
 
−
20mil isk x 6days = 120mil isk.
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
The downside is the repetitive monotony and if you want to play some more after you semi-complete the farm-mission. This can be somewhat mitigated if you have multiple agents. I can have an agent on standby for farming Blockade and then keep doing missions with another agent.
 
−
 
 
−
See [[Mission_Fleet#Mission_Rewards_in_a_Fleet|Mission Rewards in a Fleet]]
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
Note: Say you have a pocket with wrecks that you want to loot and/or salvage, but there's a pirate you have to keep alive in it to farm. You would need someone to loot/salvage while you tank the rat (or vice versa). You could also try fitting salvagers and/or tractor beams on a tanky ship or just abandon the wrecks.
 
−
 
 
−
==Stuff to Bring==
 
−
Besides ammo/crystals there are things you might want to carry in your cargo/dronebay.
 
−
 
 
−
'''Tag/Keys''': Gate Key for Dread Pirate Scarlet, Angel Pallidum Tag for L4 Angel Extravaganza bonus room, or Zbikoki's Hacker Card for Worlds Collide. When doing [[Mission_Fleet#Locust_Fleet|Locust Fleet]] you may not want to fly all the way back to station to pick them up. Consider carrying extra for fleet mates! (How many times have I had people warp out of the AE bonus room then be unable to get back in to help because they don't have a diamond tag?)
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
'''Warp Core Stabilizers''': These are great during wartime. If your mission is in a different system than your agent, you can fill your lows with core stabs so you can escape if you jumped into some war targets (WT). When you arrive at the system your mission is in, just dock up and refit your usual low modules (which you placed in your cargo hold before you left :) ). I saved my hurricane from a WT this way (having 6 core stabs means need at least 3 scramblers and 1 disruptor to stop your warp). This isn't a good idea for just missions; it's always a good idea to keep core stabs in your cargohold. If a WT comes into your system, you can dockup, refit, then go to a different system. Remember to count: if there's 3 WTs and you have only 4 core stabs you could be scrammed. If you plan to do this, know your aggression mechanics and have a hardy shield tank.
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
'''ECM drones''': Also good for wartime. If you're scrammed, try unleashing these guys. If you're lucky, the WT will lose lock and you can warp away. These go in your dronebay, not in your cargo.
 
−
 
 
−
'''Extra Mods''': Most people switch resists for what rat they're against. Say you're mid-mission and discover your tank isn't so great. It's easier to refit in that system then jump back to your base to pickup extra resists. Also applies if you want more damage mods. Having an omni-shield buffer goes nice with lows full of core stabs when traveling is nice during war. Remember you have a limited cargo space, so don't go overboard.
 
−
 
 
−
Remember: only bring what you can afford to lose
 
−
 
 
−
== Sorting Loot ==
 
−
If you looted all the wrecks you'll have a bunch of items that you can sell or reprocess. Depending on the item, it can be more profitable to sell than reprocess or vice versa.
 
−
A handy tool to decide what to do is [[Eve_Refinery|Eve Refinery]]
 
−
 
 
−
== Using Loyalty Points ==
 
−
New missioneers often forget about the Loyalty points that they gain whilst running missions. These points (in addition to a small amount of ISK) can be exchanged for valuable items in the Loyalty Points store of the Corporation that you've completed the missions for. Very often, it is more profitable to run missions as quickly as possible to accumulate as many Loyalty Points as possible in order to exchange them for goods which can then be sold than it is to kill, loot and salvage every rat in each mission. Completely clearing missions in that manner takes a relatively long time, whereas simply completing the Objectives required to complete the mission and gain the Loyalty Points reward can often be done in a much shorter amount of time, allowing you to complete more Missions in the time you would ordinarily spend Looting and Salvaging. This method also has the advantage of shortening the amount of time it takes to achieve the Standings required to run higher level Missions, which are correspondingly more profitable in Loyalty Points terms as well.
 
−
 
 
−
==Finding an agent==
 
−
You can now go to 'People & Places' and under the 'Agents' tab click 'Agent Finder' at the bottom. This can also be accessed when docked via 'Station Services' window under the 'Agents' tab.
 
−
*[http://util.eveuniversity.org/Missions/AgentRangefinder/ Agent Rangefinder]
 
−
*[http://eve-agents.com/ EVE-Agents.com could be out of date]
 
−
*[http://eve-online.itemdrop.net/eve_db/agents/ Itemdrop]
 
−
 
 
−
==See Also==
 
−
 
 
−
*See also [http://www.newedenlibrary.net/eon/faction_standings.shtml Inter-Faction Standing Relationships]
 
−
*Another great mission guide is the EVElopedia mission guide [http://wiki.eveonline.com/wiki/Missions_guide EVElopedia Missions Guide]
 
−
*[[:Category:Missioning]]
 
−
 
 
−
==References==
 
 
<references />
 
<references />
  
−
[[Category:Guides]]
+
[[Category:Missions]]
−
[[Category:Missioning]]
 

Latest revision as of 10:51, 17 June 2024

Agent.png
Missions
Mission Reports
Mission Guides
Special Missions
Helpful Links
E-UNI Emblem.png EVE University offers
a class on:

A mission is a task offered by a non-player character (NPC) to a player that requires the player to accomplish a set of objectives in exchange for a set of rewards. Such NPCs are called agents and they describe the task and specify the rewards for its completion.

Mission levels

Mission levels go from 1 to 5. Higher level missions generally requires that you have better skills and access to bigger ships. Higher level missions also increase rewards. A mission's level is identical to the offering agents level with the exception of Storyline missions. As your corporation and faction standing increases, you'll gain access to higher level agents and thus missions.

  • Level 1 The most basic type. Can be run by basic frigates. Only the most basic piloting skills are required.
  • Level 2 While Mining and Courier missions may be run in frigates, Encounter is designed for cruiser hulls. You are expected to improve your abilities and learn how to fit out new ships.
  • Level 3 As you specialize, you will need a battlecruiser, Mining Barge, or a medium-sized hauler. These missions go faster if you have trained for better ships and at least some Tech 2 fittings.
  • Level 4 These require a battleship, an exhumer, or a large hauler. These missions can be time-consuming, but they offer large rewards. These missions require omega to run.
  • Level 5 Mostly encounter (combat) missions designed for groups of players or capital ships and are exclusively located in Low Security space. Like level 4, these also require omega to run.

Mission types

Mission type is an in-game parameter that can be found in the mission journal.

With the Viridian expansion the mission journal was removed from the Neocom and the short-cut settings. Its keyboard short-cut was assigned to the newly introduced opportunities window.

However, for the time being as of 7 September 2024, the mission journal can still be called using the slash command /open journal in any of the chat windows.


Missing Cargo Warning.jpg

Courier missions (also referred to as distribution) require shipping cargo from station to station. Courier missions have no inherent combat. Courier missions are the fastest mission type to run so they are sometimes used for fast standings gains. Courier missions produce a warning when trying to leave the pick-up station without the required cargo in your hold.

Mining missions require you to mine a specific mission ore and bring it back to the agent's station. Level 1 and 2 mining missions have no inherent combat. There is however always a risk of combat during mining missions, through the "belt rat" NPC hostiles that can show up and are usually rather weak. Note that mission ore except Lyavite has no other uses and can not be traded on the market.

Trade missions The agent wants a specific item to "trade" for the reward. Trade missions have no inherent combat of itself. Trade missions do not occur as basic missions but show up as Storyline and COSMOS missions. The item(s) to trade can often be bought of the market or in contracts but you can also acquire them yourself which might require mining or combat.

Talk to Agent missions (also referred to as travel). The agent sends you to report to another agent. Initiating communication with that agent completes the mission. These missions occur as part of Epic Arcs.

Agent Interaction missions (also referred to as branch). The agent offers you the choice of 2 or more missions. Conforming your choice completes the interaction mission and accepts the mission of your choice. These missions occur as part of Epic Arcs.

Encounter missions are all other missions. Mostly combat-focused. The job is usually to kill pirates, retrieve stolen goods, or destroy strategic targets. But sometimes it is doing a recon (i.e. go to the target area, look and leave) or transporting items from or to a structure (not a station) somewhere in space. Unlike "true" courier missions encounter transport missions will not warn you when you try to leave the pick-up location without the cargo in your hold. These missions have the highest rewards but they are also slower and involve a risk of dying.

Mission categories

Basic missions

Basic missions are offered by regular agents and are of the types: Courier, Mining or Encounter. Basic missions are randomly allocated out of a pool except for the missions in a mission chain.

Storyline missions

As you continue to complete missions, you will occasionally get a Storyline Mission offer from a special Storyline agent. The game tracks how many missions you've completed for each combination of level and faction. For every 16 missions of the same level and faction (but not necessarily the same corporation) that you complete, you will get a new Storyline mission offer from the nearest Storyline agent of the same faction. This will always be the Storyline agent closest to the regular agent who gave you your 16th mission (in terms of number of jumps) with two exceptions:

  • If the closest Storyline Agent has already made you an offer that you haven't accepted or declined, then it will be the second-closest Storyline agent that you get the offer from.
  • If the agent who gave you the 16th regular mission that you completed was in High Security, then the Storyline offer will always come from a Storyline agent in High Security.

The Storyline agent will contact you from a station - you will get a notification about an important mission offer - however, you will need to travel to the agent's station to accept the mission. Once you are in touch with the Storyline agent, you accept and complete the mission in the usual way. You cannot work for a Storyline agent unless you've received an offer from that Agent.

Completing a Storyline mission gives large increases to your standing with the agent's corporation and a moderate increase to faction standing. Note that you will also get derived standings, both positive and negative, towards other factions. If you keep doing Storyline missions for Minmatar Republic you will find that Gallente Federation will also like you while Amarr Empire, Caldari State and various pirate factions will gradually start to dislike you.

When trying to increase standings with a particular NPC corporation, it is possible to plan your missioning in a way that when you hand in your 16th mission, you get your offer from the Storyline agent of the corporation that you are focusing on.

Storyline missions are of the types courier, encounter, or trade. There is no relation between the mission type and the issuing Storyline agent's division.

The InterBus and militia corporations do not offer any Storyline missions.

Special missions

These mission types are not regularly available and are bound by conditions you need to fulfill before they are offered to you.

Career missions

Main article: Career Agents

Also known as "Tutorial missions", are missions that are supposed to help teach players how to play EVE Online. It is a good idea to do these when you first start playing EVE, as they give you starter ships and equipment. They also increase your standings with the faction offering the missions. Each player character can only do each tutorial mission from a given Career Agent once, but the Career agent mission chains do count as Storyline missions and thus increase faction standings after completing a full set.

Research missions

Main article: Research missions

Are a part of the Industry career path. Instead of ISK and Loyalty Points, these missions award Research Points that can be used to buy datacores from the agent who gives the missions. You will need to have trained various Science skills to the level required by an agent before they will offer you a mission. Datacores can be sold at the Market, and some players run these missions to make ISK from trading - do keep in mind that the income is quite low. Most players, however, have not trained the Science skills that these missions require. Research missions do count for the storyline mission tally.

Epic arcs

Main article: Epic arcs

Are long series of missions. Throughout the arc, you will be offered choices that will branch the arc into one or more directions, and thus the arcs have different outcomes depending on your choices. The missions that make up these arcs typically have very good ISK rewards and the last mission of the arc carries a handsome reward. There are seven Epic Arcs. Most players begin with The Blood-Stained Stars, an arc that can be completed in a T1 destroyer and gives a boost in standings with the Sisters of EVE and one empire faction of your choice. Seasoned L4 runners will be doing the four empire epic arcs while the fearless pilots can do the two pirate epic arcs. Epic arcs can be repeated once every three months. Epic arcs missions do not give Loyalty points [Note 1]. Epic arc missions do count for the storyline mission tally.

Anomic missions

Main article: Anomic missions

Also known as "burner" missions, are optional Security missions that are offered by level 4 agents. They can always be declined without penalty. Anomic missions present a more difficult challenge compared to other Security missions. You will encounter a small number of very powerful adversaries and you are restricted in ship size. These missions require specialized and expensive ship fits and high skills to solo. They also require piloting skills that are otherwise rarely used in PvE such as overheating.

COSMOS

Main article: COSMOS

Are special missions found in certain regions of space. These missions vary wildly in difficulty from easy L1 to harder-than-usual L4. Unlike normal missions these missions require faction standings to accept. The COSMOS missions are offered only once and can not be repeated. If you let them expire or fail them they will not be offered to you again and the following missions will not be offered to you. COSMOS missions do not reward loyalty points.

Data center

Main article: Data centers

Involve handing in tags to the agent for standing gains. This effectively allows you to buy faction standings. Note though that each data center mission can be done only once.

Mission chain

A mission chain is a series of connected missions. Completing a mission will automatically offer the next mission in the chain. Some mission chains share a single offer timer. Chain missions can be of a different type than is usual for the agent's division. Mission chains can usually be identified by some form of "part x of y" in the title of the mission but not always (see the mission chain Survey Rendezvous, Listening Post and Kicking the Nest for an example).

Rewards

Completing missions will reward you with ISK, Loyalty Points, standings and occasionally with items.

The amount of ISK received is influenced by the Negotiation skill giving 5% additional ISK per skill level.

Being paid with ISK is clear-cut, however, new missioneers often forget about Loyalty points they gain whilst running missions. Loyalty Points (LP) are a currency that you receive from the corporation whose agent gives you a mission. These points can be used to buy things at the corporation's store. LP (plus a certain amount of ISK and/or particular items) can be exchanged for valuable items in the LP store of the mission agent's corporation. For some players, it is more profitable to accumulate LP to exchange them for goods that can then be sold than it is to kill, loot, and salvage in encounter missions. See Loyalty Points for more details on what to do with LP.

The mission LP rewards scale with the system security of the agent and the level of the "Division" Connections skill. The formula for calculating the LP reward is:

[math] \displaystyle \text{ LP reward } = \text{ Base LP } \times (1.6288 - \text{ System security }) \times (1 + \text{ "Division" Connections }\times 0.1) [/math]

This means that an agent in a 0.5 security system pays 80% more than an agent in 1.0 security system. Note that the system security used here is the true security of the system.

The "Division" Connections skills are:

  • Distribution Connections - Improves loyalty point gain by 10% per level when working for agents in the Distribution division.
  • Mining Connections - Improves loyalty point gain by 10% per level when working for agents in the Mining division.
  • Security Connections - Improves loyalty point gain by 10% per level when working for agents in the Security division.

The rewards are also dynamically adjusted based on past completion data. This dynamic calculation affects ISK/LP payout, bonus reward, and timed bonus reward.[1]

When you complete a regular mission for an agent, you get increased standings with the agent and the corporation, but not the faction. It is worth noting that if the mission involves destroying ships or structures of a different faction, your standings with the target faction will go down due to a "Combat - Ship Kill" malus. Those who wish to be able to fly in all of High Security space are advised to decline all anti-Empire missions (that is, anti-Amarr, anti-Ammatar, anti-Caldari, anti-Gallente, anti-Minmatar and anti-CONCORD). Some exceptions or workarounds exist; for example, a Minmatar agent might give you the mission Friendly Spies, where if you destroy the mission objective but none of the hostile ships you won't lose Gallente Federation standings. In other cases, the standing losses due to "Combat - Ship Kill" are almost insignificant, such as Amarrian Tyrants (Level 3). However, some missions will incur -2.4% standing losses for ship kills and might require one or more completed storyline missions for the opposing side to repair the standings losses.

Accepting, and then quitting a level 4 mission will result -6.2% agent, -2.5% corporation and about -0.1% faction standing loss.

Gaining standings with an agent, corporation or faction can be lucrative. With higher standings, you will be able to take higher level missions, pay fewer broker fees in NPC stations and get cheaper reprocessing in NPC stations. See NPC standings for all advantages of standings. The amount of standing received is influenced by the Social skill giving 5% bonus per level to NPC agent, corporation and faction standing increase.

You will also receive ISK from bounties while killing NPC pirates, not empire factions. You will often get more ISK from bounties than from the mission reward. Bounties are a fixed amount per ship type so the total bounty depends on number and types of ships you destroy.

You will also be able to loot and salvage the wrecks though it depends on the mission level and killed NPCs whether it is profitable or not. There is always a rare chance of an item of considerable value dropping as loot.

Mission related timers

Offer timer

Opportunities mission card with offer timer. Identified by the orange speech balloon on the agent portrait.

The offer or acceptance timer starts when talking to the agent and has a duration of 6 to 7 days. When the mission is not accepted in this time frame the agent will withdraw the offer and send you a message, telling you how displeased they are:

“

I can no longer await your response to my offer. I am displeased by your indecisiveness.

”

Letting the offer timer expire has no consequences for your standings.

Note: COSMOS missions are a one shot offer, so letting the offer expire means that that mission and all missions after that one are no longer available.

The offer timer can be found:

  • in the Opportunities overview by hovering over the hourglass in the bottom right corner of the tile (countdown timer)
  • in the Opportunities mission details view (countdown timer)
  • in the mission journal (timestamp)

With the Viridian expansion the mission journal was removed from the Neocom and the short-cut settings. Its keyboard short-cut was assigned to the newly introduced opportunities window.

However, for the time being as of 7 September 2024, the mission journal can still be called using the slash command /open journal in any of the chat windows.


The mission journal showing an accepted mission with the completion timer, a non expiring offered mission and an offered mission with the offer timer.

Completion timer

Opportunities mission card with completion timer. No speech balloon on the agent portrait.

The completion timer starts when accepting the mission and has a duration of 7 days. Letting the completion timer expire will cause the mission to fail. And will incur a standings penalty with the agent, corporation and faction.

The completion timer can be found:

  • in the Opportunities overview by hovering over the hourglass in the bottom right corner of the tile (countdown timer)
  • in the Opportunities mission details view (countdown timer)
  • in the mission journal (timestamp)

Bonus timer

The bonus timer starts with the completion timer and has a duration from 10 minutes to 6 hours. Completion of the missions within the bonus timer grants a bonus reward.

The bonus timer can be found on the right side of the Agent Conversation window in the Bonus Rewards section.

Decline missions timer

The "Decline mission" timer tells you how long you have to wait until you can decline another mission from this agent without losing standing.

The decline missions timer starts when declining a mission and has a duration of 4 hours. See § Declining missions.

The decline timer can be found on the left side of the Agent Conversation window in the last paragraph of text.

Declining missions

Declining a mission for a particular agent more than once every four hours will cause a standings loss with the agent, corporation, and faction.

If an agent you recently declined a mission from offers you another undesirable mission, you can click DELAY, wait out the four hour timer while you go do something else, and then decline.

Missioning with a fleet

Main article: Mission fleets

Members of a fleet who run missions can share all of the standings, LP, and ISK rewards from the mission and bounties automatically. Loot and/or salvage can be shared by hand. This is especially good for newer players, as they generally gain more standings than they share. There are two main kinds of mission fleet: Spider, where everyone runs their own missions, but shares standings, etc. at the end; and Locust, where the fleet members all work on the same mission together

Advice for new mission runners

If you're new to mission running and your goal is to gain loot, pile up LP to buy things or to increase your standing with a faction, then you may want to lay out a plan to help you run your missions with a minimum of down time. Here are some suggestions.

1. Pick an area in which to work

The last thing you want is to be running missions in the middle of a contested low sec region where combatants will shoot at you, or in systems that lie on a busy trade route where griefers will target you. Use the map and look for a group of fairly high security systems set off from the major trade routes and other active systems. Keep in mind that you can be scanned down in mission pockets and war targets will attempt to do so.

Good mission map.jpg Bad mission map.jpg

2. Know what you want; check out what the various agents offer

Successful mission runs give you ISK and Encounter missions can also give you loot. They also give you standing with the agent that gave you the mission, the agent's corporation, and the agent's faction. In addition, they give you LP that can be redeemed for items in the corporation's store. The corporation you gain LP for is important.

Most corporation stores sell the same sets of augmentation implants. However, different corporations offer different sets of skill upgrade implants, and different factions offer different modules, hulls and ammunition. Roden Shipyards, for example, sells warp drive and astrometric skill upgrades, while Astral Mining offers mining upgrades. Weapons and ammunition offers correspond to the faction's spaceship preferences - Minmitar offer projectile weapons and ammo, Ammar offer laser weapons and crystals, and so on.

3. Pick a corporation with multiple agents in the region

Nearly every station has at least one agent, and there are many duplications in terms of standings and items offered for sale. So if you want to improve your standing with Gallente and you want to buy equipment to improve your mining, then Astral Mining is one of the corporations you would want to consider. Since there are many Astral Mining agents in Gallente space, choosing this corporation will not restrict your choice of star systems all that much.

Once you have a goal in mind, use the Agent Finder to narrow your choices of star system. Keep in mind that when you finish running level 1, you will almost certainly have to move to a new system to find a level 2 agent, and again for level 3 and 4. So try to find a group of level 1-2-3-4 agents that are fairly close together.

To avoid unfavorable missions such missions in low/null security space and missions that require you to kill empire ships you will need to decline missions every now and then. It is best to choose your location so that you have a second and even third agent as backup once you can't decline the mission offered from the first agent without losing standings.

4. Pick a base station and start running

Here is the map for that area: Verge vendor mission map.jpg

You need a base because as you go along, you will buy ships, ammunition and other gear and you will pick up loot and salvage from completed missions. It's easiest to keep all this stuff in one place, so plan to go to your agent's base to run missions, then fly back to your base when you need to resupply. It is often best to bring all the refit modules and extra ammo to the agent's station so you don't need to travel more than is needed.

Two hints for being sure your mission is complete

  • Look for a green check mark next to the mission
where the green checkmark appears
  • If you think the mission is finished but you don't see the green checkmark or want to check your objectives, click on the little down arrow next to the mission name and select "Details" from the menu. This will show you the mission briefing and you can take another look at your objectives.

Note that some missions may not get this completion mark.

Mission preparation and walkthroughs

Never fly what you cannot afford to lose applies to running missions as well. When starting, fly the cheapest ship that will do the job and only pay for expensive upgrades once you're sure you can replace them. Also, keep in mind that no activity is 100% safe, mission runners can get scanned down and ganked and even an empty transport ship can become a target for a bored ganker.

NPC's in missions tend to be very predictable in their setups. For example, Gallente and Serpentis use only Kinetic and Thermal damage against you and are most susceptible to Kinetic and Thermal damage themselves; when they use any form of EWAR, it's always sensor dampening. It helps quite a bit if you set up your ship to deal damage that NPCs are vulnerable to and defend against what they will throw at you. Check out NPC damage types for a full description and a handy chart that you can keep in your Neocom Notebook.

Notes

  1. ^ At least The Blood-Stained Stars does not.

References

  1. ^ https://oldforums.eveonline.com/?a=topic&threadID=795200 On the mission reward balancer
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