Soldier of Fortune

While I was on Singularity, I decided to try the Advanced Military career funnel mission chain for the purpose of investigating rumors that the chain would blow up your ship and even podkill you. On the surface, this would discourage experienced capsuleers from trying to do the mission chain in all of the hubs merely for faction standings.

As it turns out, two of the missions will destroy your ship, though your agent will provide ships for the purpose and warn you in advance that ship destruction is expected. No mission podkills you.

I describe the chain below. Missions in this chain do not invoke tutorials that give items. Missions described are presumed to be universal, though only the Gallente version is documented here.

(1) The Swap

Blow up some frigates: 1 frigate alone, then 2 frigates after that, then 3 frigates after that. Total of 6 frigates to be destroyed. Easy. Reward: Propulsion Jamming skillbook.

(2) Angel of Mercy

AVOID BRINGING ANY MODULES AT ALL. INSURE THE SHIP. A 1MN Afterburner I may be in order if you're willing to lose it.

Agent will provide a frigate. (For the Gallente, it's an Atron.) Assemble it, make it active, strip it (it shouldn't have modules to begin with, but make sure), undock, take it to the mission site, and collide with the pirate base. There are three enemy frigates, but as long as the approach is started immediately, they won't hit you. The base is a Large Collidable Object or Structure. Your frigate will explode, leaving your pod. All enemy frigates will be destroyed in the same explosion.

Only Tech 1 frigates are admitted into the mission space, probably because the destruction of the player's ship is scripted.

(3) Your Undivided Attention

DO NOT SHOOT ANYTHING IN THIS MISSION.

Agent provides a Civilian Warp Disruptor. There are no acceleration gates; you are dropped 20 km from the "Fleeing Pirate". Warp Disrupt the primary target. DO NOT DESTROY THE PRIMARY TARGET. Secondary targets despawn once the Fleeing Pirate is warp disrupted. Warp back to your agent.

(4) A Friend in Need

DO NOT SHOOT ANYTHING IN THIS MISSION.

Agent provides a Civilian Remote Armor Repair System. No acceleration gates. You're dropped about 9 km off of an NPC called "Damaged Vessel". Use a remote armor repair on it and the mission will complete. Reward: Remote Armor Repair Systems skillbook.

(5) The Stand

KEEP FITTINGS FOR THIS MISSION TO A MINIMUM. INSURE THE SHIP.

The acceleration gate admits only Tech 1 Frigates and Rookie Ships. The Agent provides a frigate with no fittings (for the Gallente, it's an Atron). You are required to destroy at least one enemy ship and then continue fighting until your own ship is destroyed. Agent explicitly warns you in red text not to use an expensive ship.

Upon jumping the gate, there is a single enemy frigate. Destroying it causes 3 Spider Drone II and about a dozen cruisers to spawn; these vessels will use webifiers and EWAR (for Gallente, this is sensor dampening). On the Gallente version, there's really nothing you can do to fight back, since you're dampened so much that you can't lock anything. So, just have the local station selected and warp your pod out when your ship is destroyed.

(6) Don't Look Back

DO NOT SHOOT ANYTHING IN THIS MISSION.

Agent provides a Civilian Afterburner. There is one acceleration gate, normal restrictions. Upon warping to the initial gate, you get a transmission, which accurately describes the situation. Jumping the gate drops you 27 km off the Asteroid Station, a Large Collidable Object. You take (what I presume is) 50 EM damage every 6 seconds until you get to the Asteroid Station. Once you get another transmission from your agent, warp back to your agent.

Gallente Reward: A copy of the Drones skillbook. The Agent warns you upon mission completion that you will need to train the Drones skill to Level 1 to continue.

(7) Weapon of Choice

THIS MISSION VARIES BY RACE OF THE TUTORIAL AGENT. ANYONE DOING THIS TUTORIAL SHOULD ONLY USE DRONES TO COMPLETE THE MISSION

For the Gallente: the agent provides 2 Civilian Hobgoblins. There are no acceleration gates; the warp-in point is 9 km from your target. You must use a drone or drones to destroy the target.

For the Caldari: the agent provides a Civilian Standard Missile Launcher, and the tutorial gives 100 Civilian Bloodclaw Light Missiles. There are no acceleration gates; the warp-in point is 9 km from your target. You must use the missiles to destroy the target.

(8) The Pacifist

DO NOT SHOOT ANYTHING IN THIS MISSION.

The acceleration gate has normal restrictions. The mission talks about fleets and fleet commanders, though you won't actually be in a real fleet as far as the game engine is concerned. Starting at initial warp-in, an NPC CONCORD "Fleet Commander" will give you orders by pop-ups that appear in the middle of your screen. Read the first one carefully before you jump the acceleration gate. NEVER OPEN FIRE ON ANYTHING OR ANYONE.

What you're expected to do is jump the gate, then hold position until you get the CONCORD pop-up ordering you rescue the hostages. Once you get that order, fly to the Prison Facility as though it were a cargo container; get within 2500 meters, open it up, and move the hostages to your cargohold. Then warp out of the immediate vicinity and bring the hostages back to your agent.

Reward: 17000 credits and 21000 bonus credits.

(9) Glue

DO NOT SHOOT ANYTHING IN THIS MISSION.

The Agent will provide a Civilian Stasis Webifier. There is no acceleration gate; warp to the mission location. You will land 32 km from a Pirate Leader, get within webifier range, and webify the target, but DO NOT SHOOT HIM. Close the pop-up from the Pirate Leader and maintain the web until you get a pop-up from CONCORD saying that they'll take it from there. The Pirate Leader's ship will turn into a wreck due to a scripted event. Warp back to your agent.

Reward: One copy of the Destroyers skillbook.

(10) The Exam

You *will* be shooting ships in this mission. DO NOT SHOOT ANY STRUCTURES, ESPECIALLY NOT THE PLEASURE HUBS.

The Agent provides a Tech 1 Destroyer (of the same race as the agent). There are no acceleration gates. No hostiles are immediately visible upon warpin, though a pop-up appears informing you that the hostiles are getting into their ships. The Terrorist Leader and two Mercenary Trainees spawn about 25 km away; they are all frigates. You are required to destroy the leader; you may destroy the wingmen at your discretion, but this is not required unless they're the ones warp scrambling you (see below).

The mission description and the tutorial it triggered warned of enemy webification and warp disruption on you. I used a catalyst with 4 railguns and four blasters. I killed the leader from a constant distance of 20 km while kiting him using lead charges in the railguns, and then closed to within 5 km of the trainees and killed them using my webifier and antimatter charges in the railguns and blasters. I did not notice enemy webification or warp scrambling/disruption; it's possible these were being mounted by the leader, who never got in range to use them.