Difference between revisions of "Mission ships"

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PvE missions have different requirements than do PvP encounters. This page discusses those requirements and describes a number of ships that work well in PvE. For a complete description of what "missions" are, and how to approach them, look at the [[Missions]] page, or try the [[Missioning 101]] course. (Ships specifically appropriate to incursions are not covered here. You may want to read the page on [[Incursions]], or look at the [[Incursions 101]] course.)
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{{MissionLinks}}
{{ShipTypes}}
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This page discusses which ships are especially well suited to run [[security missions]]. You can find information about [[Mining missions|mining]] and [[Distribution missions|distribution]] missions on their pages. For general information about missions, see the [[missions]] page.
== PvE Objectives ==
 
You can (usually) run from a PvE mission. This makes survivability a strategic objective and means that you can use fancy ships and equipment, as you do not expect to lose them. (''Other players may attack you, however, and accidnets do happen – so Insurance is always a good idea''.)
 
  
Each mission has a primary objective, given to you by the mission agent. You should choose your ship and fittings, and plan your tactics, based on this objective. For example, if the mission calls for you to "investigate" an area without necessarily killing any NPCs, you will likely want a faster, more defensive oriented ship and fitting. On the other hand, if the objective says "clear the area of pirates", you will want to bring your best offense to the party.
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== General ship preferences ==
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Encounter missions are about killing enemies, and you can use any kind of ship that has enough offense to get that done. (''For example, I once started a character by training {{Sk|Covert Ops}} to a high level, for reasons having nothing to do with missions. Later, when I decided to start running security division missions with that character, I used a Minmatar [[Hound]] stealth bomber. This is not a particularly good mission ship, but I had no problem completing level 1 and 2 missions.'') The point is: it's all about killing enemy ships – don't let somebody else's opinion of what's "best" get in the way of your preferences, experience, and skills.
  
=== Mining, Distribution, and Research Missions===
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That said, although any kind of ship can be successful in running missions because PvE targets come in waves, and because survivability is one of your goals, brawling tactics are somewhat less desirable in encounter missions than sniping and/or kiting. Faster ships, in particular missile and drone boats, tend to give better support to these kinds of tactics.
[[Missions#Mining_Missions|Mining missions]] require mining ships. A Venture will work at first, but you will want to move up to barges, and then exhumers as your mission levels increase. The only combat in mining missions comes from belt guardian NPCs, and these are no more powerful than the ones that spawn while you are mining ore. The same ships that you use for day to day mining are equally good for mining missions.
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[[File:Breacher.jpg|right|150px|alt= Immage of a Minmatar Breacher frigate|Minmatar Breacher frigate]]
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Particularly if you are just starting to run missions, you probably want to emphasize speed:
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* Mission NPCs will target and chase you until you warp out or they die. And there will be multiple enemies, all focused only on you. So you may want to use a fast ship with longer-range weapons and try to [[Lexicon#Kite|kite]] your enemies. There's nothing wrong with brawling, but kiting is safer.
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* Some missions will have surprising twists or more targets than you expected, and you will want to get some distance between you and your enemies while you rethink your approach.  
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* Some missions require that you obtain an item, but do not require you to kill every enemy at the site … getting quickly in and out is a benefit in these situations.
  
[[Missions#Courier_Missions|Distribution (courier) missions]] require that you transport a given cargo from one station to another. The size of the cargo increases with the level of the missions. There is no combat in distribution missions and you can use the same industrial ships that you would use to transport any cargo. Note, however, that you ''will'' need an industrial ship ... combat ships will not have the capacity to carry these large cargoes.
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Loosely speaking, you want enough defence (armour, shields, speed) to give you time to manoeuvre, and time to escape if things go badly. And then you want as much offense as you can pile on – because the faster you kill the NPCs, the sooner you get to collect your rewards.  
  
[[Missions#Trade_Missions|Research (trade) Missions]] require that you obtain specific items or materials and deliver these to a given destination. The size of the cargoes is usually not a concern, and delivery can be made using almost any ship. (In a pinch, if you have a very small ship, you may want to consider fitting an [https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Expanded_Cargohold_I expanded cargohold] to gain some extra capacity.
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Missiles and drones are often preferred as mission ship weapons. One reason is range - drones, in particular, can operate at range against larger targets while the ship uses its main weapons to finish off the smaller/faster enemies. A second reason is damage selection. Missiles can be easily switched on the fly, and the same is true of drones if the ship has a drone bay large enough to carry multiple flights.
  
=== Security Missions ===
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On the other hand, many players prefer to get in close with a slower, heavily-tanked ship that has massive turret power. This approach has less margin for error, but it does have its advantages; one being that the dead NPCs tend to be in one place, and so easier to loot.
[[Missions#Encounter_Missions|Security (Encounter) Missions]] direct you to go to a particular place and deal with a problem there. Most of these problems include some number of NPC enemies, and usually the solution is to kill them. Naturally, this will require a combat ship. However, it turns out that many ships that excel in PvP combat are not as well-suited for security missions.
 
  
Few ships and players are so evenly matched that they will fight to a draw; consequently, PvP encounters tend to be violent, but brief. On the other hand, PvE enemies almost always outnumber you, sometimes by very large margins. You have to take them out one by one, which means that security mission encounters generally drag on for awhile. You want a different kind of ship, with different fittings, for this kind of encounter.
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EVE has balanced the characteristics and fittings of the ships to make both approaches viable. You will probably be happiest if you simply rely on your experience and go with the approach that best fits your skills and preferred combat style.
  
{{ note box | '''Note''': Because security missions are the only ones that benefit from specialized ships and fittings, the rest of this discussion will be devoted entirely to combat ships. | italics = no}}
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== General fitting preferences ==
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You should choose your fittings, and plan your tactics, based on the mission objective. For example, if the mission calls for you to "investigate" an area without necessarily killing any NPCs, you will likely want a faster, more defensively oriented fitting. On the other hand, if the objective says "clear the area of pirates", you will want to bring your best offense to the party.
  
== General Ship Preferences ==
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Dead mission NPCs can be looted <ref group= Note>Taking the cargo out of wrecks and/or dropped containers</ref> and [[salvage]]d <ref group= Note>Using a salvager or salvaging drone to reclaim parts of wrecks</ref>. Assuming you want the salvage, and that you do not have a friend who will do the salvaging for you, you will need to fit a salvager or carry a salvage drone or two. (You can also bring two ships, one to complete the mission and one to clean up afterwards - but this is usually not worth the effort until you get to Level 4 missions.)
  
Missions are about killing enemies, and you can use any kind of ship that has enough offense to get that done. (''For example, I once started a character by training Covert Ops to a high level, for reasons having nothing to do with missions. Later, when I decided to start running security missions with that character, I used a Minmatar [[Hound]] stealth bomber. This is not a particularly good mission ship, but I had no problem completing level I and II missions.'') The point is: it's all about killing enemy ships – don't let somebody else's opinion of what's "best" get in the way of your own preferences, experience and skills.
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Since you do not intend to die, and since missions pay off in various ways, you should be willing to fit your ship with top-flight gear. This is not just for vanity or fun … the faster you kill the enemies, the sooner you can loot them and move on to the next mission.
  
That said, although any kind of ship can be successful in running missions, because PvE targets come in waves, and because survivability is one of your goals, brawling tactics are somewhat less desireable in missions than are sniping and/or kiting. Faster ships, in particular missile and drone boats, tend to give better support to these kinds of tactics.  
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There is no specific "mission gear" - mission ships use the same fittings as all other ships. The key is to fit your ship to match your tactical style.
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* Kiting: enough speed to stay ahead of the pack, longer-ranged guns or missiles, targeting assists, faction ammunition
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* Drones: drone type should match enemy damage weaknesses, high drone damage, and range, ship weapons to kill the smaller targets
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* Brawling: exceptional tank, heavy damage weapons, enough speed to break off the encounter
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* and so on ...
  
Particularly if you are just starting to run missions, you probably want to emphasize speed:
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[[File:Vexor.jpg|left|150px|alt= Image of a Gallente Vexor cruiser|Gallente Vexor cruiser]]Each type of enemy does a particular kind of damage. And each enemy is susceptible to a particular kind of damage. You want to choose your ammunition, and sometimes change your fittings to match the enemy's damage type. [[npc damage|This page]] provides the NPC information, and includes a chart formatted to be copied to your in-game notepad for quick reference.  
*Mission NPCs will target and chase you ... wherever you go. And there will be multiple enemies, all focused only on you. So you may want to use a fast ship with longer range weapons and try to kite your enemies. There's nothing wrong with brawling; but kiting is safer.
 
*Some missions will have surprising twists, or more targets than you expected, and you will want to get some distance between you and your enemies while you  rethink your approach.
 
*Some missions require that you obtain an item, but do not require you to kill every enemy at the site … getting quickly in and out is a benefit in these situations.
 
  
Loosely speaking, you want enough defense (armor, shields, speed) to give you time to maneuver, and time to escape if things go badly. And then you want as much offense as you can pile on – because the faster you kill the NPCs, the sooner you get to collect your rewards.  
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Some enemies also use one or more forms of [[electronic warfare]]. But with the possible exception of some Level 4 missions, these usually will not require any special refitting.
  
Missiles and drones are often preferred as mission ship weapons. One reason is range - drones, in particular, can operate at range against larger targets while the ship uses its main weapons to finish off the smaller faster enemies. A second reason is damage selection. Missiles can be easily switched on the fly, and the same is true of drones if the ship has a drone bay large enough to carry multiple flights. On the other hand, many players prefer to get in close with a slower, heavily tanked ship that has massive turret power. This approach has less margin for error, but it does have its advantages; one being that the dead NPCs tend to be in one place, and so easier to loot.
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NPCs are more or less immune to most electronic warfare. For example, capacitor warfare cannot drain an NPC's capacitor, but it can replenish yours. And you ''can'' jam an NPC, technically, but their sensor strength is so high as to make this impractical. On the other hand, target painters work … presumably because they improve your capacity without affecting the NPCs. {{Co|#bfbb7d|The bottom line: unless you have some very specific purpose in mind, don't bother to fit electronic warfare modules to your mission ship.}}
 
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{{Clear}}
EVE has balanced the characteristics and fittings of the ships to make both approaches viable. You will probably be happiest if you simply rely on your experience and go with the approach that best fits your skills.
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== Agents and stations ==
 
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In some cases, especially if your skills are not highly developed, it may be necessary to refit for each new mission. And you will be collecting loot. So you will probably want to base your mission ship at the agent's station for the duration of the mission level. With this in mind, try to pick a station that offers repairs, as you will almost certainly need them.
== General Fitting Preferences ==
 
 
 
Dead mission NPCs can be looted. Assuming you want the loot, and that you do not have a friend who will do the looting for you, you will need to fit a salvager or carry a salvage drone or two. (You can also bring two ships, one to complete the mission and one to clean up afterwards - but this is usually not worth the effort until you get to Level IV missions.)
 
 
 
Since you do not intend to die, and since missions pay off in various ways, you should be willing to fit your ship with top flight gear. This is not just for vanity or fun … the faster you kill the enemies, the sooner you can loot them and move on to the next mission. Because an experienced mission runner does not often die, he or she can use more expensive, more powerful ships and gear and so become more efficient at running missions.
 
 
 
Each type of enemy does a particular kind of damage. And each enemy is susceptible to a particular kind of damage. [[npc damage|This page]] provides that information, and includes a chart formatted to be copied to your in-game notepad for quick reference. Some enemies also use one or more forms of electronic warfare, though these probably will not require any special refitting.
 
 
 
NPCs are more or less immune to most electronic warfare. For example, target painters work … presumably because they improve your capacity without affecting the NPCs. And while capacitor warfare cannot drain an NPC's capacitor, it can replenish yours. And you ''can'' jam an NPC, technically, but their sensor strength is so high as to make this impractical. <span style="color:#bfbb7d">The bottom line: unless you have some very specific purpose in mind, don't bother to fit electronic warfare modules to your mission ship.</span>
 
  
There is no specific "mission gear" - mission ships use the same fittings and all other ships. The key is to fit your ship to match your tactical style.
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Also, keep in mind that [[loyalty points|loyalty point]] rewards accrue to specific corporations. If you are running missions for an agent of CreoDron, for example, the points you gain will only work in the CreoDron storefront. Because of this, you probably want to choose your agents from one or two corporations. Loyalty points let you purchase faction ammunition and a variety of enhancement plug-ins, so check out the store before you decide.
*Kiting: enough speed to stay ahead of the pack, longer ranged guns or missiles, targeting assists, faction ammunition
 
*Drones: drone type should match enemy damage weaknesses, high drone damage and range, ship weapons to kill smaller, faster targets
 
*Brawling: exceptional tank, heavy damage weapons, enough speed to break off the encounter
 
* and so on ...  
 
  
In some cases, especially if your skills are not highly developed, it may be necessary to refit for each new mission. And you will be collecting loot. So you will probably want to base your mission ship at the agent's station for the duration of the mission level. With this in mind, try to pick a station that offers repairs, as you will almost certainly need them.
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Your missions will surely take you to an adjoining system, and sometimes further. It is considerably more dangerous to run missions in low sec space, so as part of this selection process, be sure to look at the security level of the systems within two or three jumps of the agent's home base.
  
== Have a Plan ==
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== Have a plan ==
There are a wide variety of activities available to every EVE player, and most of these require different skills. If you are just starting out, you will find life in EVE much easier if you develop a [[Skill Plan]] for your character. The process of deciding which of the many skills to train, and in what order, will help you think through your approach to the game.  
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There are a wide variety of activities available to every EVE player, and most of these require different skills. If you are just starting out, you will find life in EVE much easier if you develop a [[Skills|skill plan]] for your character. The process of deciding which of the many skills to train, and in what order, will help you think through your approach to the game.  
  
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[[File:Drake.jpg|right|150px|alt=Image of a Caldari Drake battlecruiser|Caldari Drake battlecruiser]]
 
If you are planning to do missions, for example, then in terms of ships you may want to consider:
 
If you are planning to do missions, for example, then in terms of ships you may want to consider:
* do you want to train fully in frigates ... e.g., learning frigate skills in each race ... or do you want to move quickly to larger ships?
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* Are you also doing PvP and want to train fully in frigates ... i.e., learning the frigate skills in each race ... or do you want to move quickly to larger ships?
* do you want to gain access to advanced ships by training one or more spaceship skills to Level V?
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* Do you want to gain access to advanced ships by training one or more spaceship skills to Level V?
* how much training time are you willing to allocate to combat and ship handling skills?
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* How much training time are you willing to allocate to combat and ship handling skills?
  
In general, missions require lower levels of combat skills that does PvP - because once you can kill the NPCs at a given level, you need no additional power. And, it usually makes sense to train one particular weapons systems (e.g., missiles, drones, projectiles) to a high level and then look for a ship that uses those weapons. Most of the races have a number of drone and missile ships ... which is one of the reasons why these are a popular choice.
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In general, missions require lower levels of combat skills than PvP - because once you can kill the NPCs at a given level, you need no additional power. And, it usually makes sense to train one particular weapons system (e.g., missiles, drones, projectiles) to a high level and then look for a ship that uses those weapons. Most of the races have several drone and missile ships ... which is one of the reasons why these are popular choices.
  
However, if you focus on developing skills for mission running, you will inevitably short change skills needed for other activities ... including such as PvP, exploration, mining and so on. ''THIS'' is why it is a good idea to develop a Skill Plan. Such a plan will help you decide which ships you want to use, and the plan can be modified as you gain experience and discover other things that you want to do.
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However, if you focus on developing skills for mission running, you will inevitably short-change skills needed for other activities ... such as PvP, exploration, mining, and so on. ''THIS'' is why it is a good idea to develop a Skill Plan. Such a plan will help you decide which ships you want to use, and the plan can be modified as you gain experience and discover other things that you want to do.
  
== Standard Ships by Mission Level ==
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== Standard ships by mission level ==
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These are '''not''' requirements, but rather general guidelines. You can do Level 3 missions in a destroyer if you want to, and if your skills and abilities will let you pull it off. And although it seems like massive overkill, if you are coming to missioning later in the game and have well-developed skills, and want to go fast, you could use a cruiser for both Levels 1 and 2 - or a battlecruiser for the first three levels. (''Note that a few  missions have special "Ship Restrictions" that limit the type of ship that you may use''.)
  
These are '''not''' requirements, but rather general guidelines. You can do Level III missions in a destroyer if you want to, and if your skills and abilities let you pull it off. And although it seems like massive overkill, if you are coming to missioning later in the game and have well developed skills, and want to go fast, you could use a cruiser for both Levels I and II - or a battlecruiser for the first three levels. (Note that a few  missions have special "Ship Restrictions" that limit the type of ship that you may use.)
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The ships listed here are not a complete set of all "good" mission ships. But these are the ones that players often use. Keep in mind that your skills are a ''BIG'' factor in missioning. The Minmatar [[Hurricane]], for example, gets a five percent bonus to turret damage ''and'' rate of fire per {{Sk|Spaceship Command}} skill level. This means that the damage this ship does at skill Level V is huge compared to what it does at Level I. The need to selectively train the skills that help you the most cannot be overstated.
 
 
The ships listed here are not a complete set of all "good" mission ships. But these are ones that players often use. Keep in mind that your skills are a ''BIG'' factor in missioning. The Minmatar Hurricane, for example, gets a five percent bonus to turret damage ''and'' rate of fire per Spaceship Command skill level. This means that the damage this ship does at skill Level IV is huge compared to what it does at Level I. The need to selectively train the skills that help you the most cannot be overstated.
 
  
 
(''Ships listed in italics are advanced models. These are discussed [[#Advanced_Ships|further down the page]].'')
 
(''Ships listed in italics are advanced models. These are discussed [[#Advanced_Ships|further down the page]].'')
  
=== Level I ===
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=== Level 1 ===
 
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In level 1 missions, you mostly fight frigates with occasional destroyers. As those are small ship types, you want weapons that apply well to small ships. Further, the missions are pretty short, and thus travelling makes up for most of your time. This means that you best use a small ship yourself as it applies well due to its small weapons and also travels fast.
'''Ship Class:''' Frigate, Destroyer
 
 
 
Most players start with missions in a rookie ship via the "Level 0" tutorials. They then begin doing PvP and Level I missions at more or less the same time, usually in a frigate. Each race has six standard frigates, and one or two of these will, with low to moderate skills, easily handle Level I missions as well as combat PvP. The four listed here are the ones most often mentioned as good mission ships for each race.
 
 
 
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left; font-size:80%; margin: 1em auto 1em auto;"
 
|+ '''Mission Frigates'''
 
! scope="col" width="150px" style="background-color:#222222;"  |  SHIP
 
! scope="col" width="100px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | TANK
 
! scope="col" width="100px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | WEAPONS
 
! scope="col" width="80px" style="background-color:#222222;"  |  DRONE BAY
 
! scope="col" width="80px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | SPEED
 
|-
 
| Minmatar [[Breacher]] || shield || 3 missile || 10 || 365
 
|-
 
| Amarr [[Punisher]] || armor || 4 laser || 0 || 355
 
|-
 
| Gallente [[Incursus]] || armor || 3 hybrid || 5 || 340
 
|-
 
| Caldari [[Kestrel]] || shield || 4 missile || 0 || 325
 
|}
 
 
 
Arguably, the Breacher is the best of the set. It is the fastest, and its 2 drones allow for a sniping strategy with two launchers in support and one high slot given over to salvaging. However, if your skills limit you to a ship of your own race, any of these will do quite well.
 
 
 
<div style="margin:0; background-color:#333322; border:1px solid #888888; font-style:normal; text-align:left; padding:1em 1em 1em 1em; overflow:hidden; color:#ffffff;  margin-right:100px; margin-left:100px">This is the point where you should begin making your [[Skill Plan|Skill Plan]] in earnest. Eventually, you will be wanting to fly battlecruisers and battleships, and thinking about those now will help you decide whether to develop higher level tanking skills in shields or armor, weapons skills in launchers or turrets, advanced drone skills, and so on. For example, if you want to fly a Gallente [[Dominix]] someday, then you might consider an Incursus frigate … to encourage development of your armor and drone skills. Or, if you're thinking about a Caldari [[Raven]], then you will eventually need shield and missile skills, which suggests a Kestrel frigate.</div>
 
 
 
=== Destroyers ===
 
 
 
Destroyers fall between Levels I and II. All destroyers have more offense than defense, and all depend on speed rather than armor or shields. As a result, they are somewhat fragile and thus less valuable for mission running. On the other hand, an experienced pilot can make excellent use of a destroyer's offensive capabilities in Level I and II missions. The offensive power will help you finish missions quickly, but keep in mind that these ships cannot handle a lot of damage.  
 
  
The most widely referenced mission destroyer is the Talwar.
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When you do level 1 missions you usually quickly progress to later missions so it's not worthwhile to dedicate a lot of training time for a level 1 mission ship. Thus [[Assault Frigates]] or [[Tactical Destroyers]] are probably not worth it even though they are theoretically the best options. [[Destroyers#Tech 1 Destroyers|T1 destroyers]] are actually the most suited as they are easy to train into and deal significantly more damage than T1 frigates.  
  
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left; font-size:80%; margin: 1em auto 1em auto;"
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While certainly, some T1 destroyers are more suited than others, it doesn't matter too much and the question of which you can already fly is more important for a new player. You can find fittings by CCP in-game under community fittings. Those are rather designed for the [[The Blood-Stained Stars|SoE epic arc]] but that epic arc also counts as level 1 missions. Also don't spend a lot of training time on skills which are exclusive to that ship but rather train general [[support skills]] as well as missile or turret support skills depending on which weapon system you rather use.
|+ '''Mission Destroyers'''
 
! scope="col" width="150px" style="background-color:#222222;"  |  SHIP
 
! scope="col" width="100px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | TANK
 
! scope="col" width="100px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | WEAPONS
 
! scope="col" width="80px" style="background-color:#222222;"  |  DRONE BAY
 
! scope="col" width="80px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | SPEED
 
|-
 
| Minmatar [[Talwar]] || shield || 7 missile || 0 || 255
 
|}
 
  
The Talwar's base speed is slower than a frigate, but the destroyer's bonuses allow it to mount a microwarp drive without the usual increase to signature radius. This makes it very fast and hard to hit. It uses basic kiting tactics to string out a group of targets, keep them at range, and finish them one by one with its missiles. (''The Talwar can be a lot of fun to fly, but if you are serious about missions, you probably want to skip over destroyers and move directly into cruisers.'')
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=== Level 2 ===
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In level 2 missions, you still mostly fight small ships (frigates and destroyers) but there are also some cruisers and battlecruisers mixed in. A T1 destroyer can still do those missions if carefully piloted even with low skills. Assault Frigates and Tactical Destroyers won't have any issues. If you are a new player and don't feel comfortable using a T1 destroyer, you can upgrade to a medium-sized hull. Any DPS bonused [[Cruisers#T1 Cruisers|T1 cruiser]] would work as well as [[Battlecruisers#Combat Battlecruisers|combat battlecruisers]]. You should have a look at the suggested ships for level 3 missions and consider making the jump to the lower-skilled option there right away if you can afford it. It doesn't take much longer to train battlecruisers to three than it does cruisers.
  
=== Level II ===
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=== Level 3 ===
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In level 3 missions, you mostly fight medium-sized opponents (cruisers and battlecruisers) but small opponents are still numerous, battleships occur in only very few level 3 missions. It doesn't surprise that now medium-sized ships are good options as their medium-sized weapons apply well. The small targets still pose a challenge for your application though.
  
'''Ship Class:''' Destroyer, ''Assault Frigate'', Cruiser
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Generally, good options are [[Battlecruisers#Combat Battlecruisers|T1 (combat) battlecruisers]], [[Heavy Assault Cruisers]], faction (pirate and navy) cruisers, and battlecruisers. T1 cruisers work too but battlecruisers generally deal more damage which makes them the better choice. As level 3 missions are a bit more challenging than 1 and 2, it's worthwhile to have a more in-depth look at which ships in those classes work especially well.
  
Cruisers are by far the preferred ship class for Level II missions. Each race has one or two cruisers that will work well in missions; the ones listed here are generally popular.  
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The [[Gila]] works especially well. It has low skill requirements to work and the relevant skills (mostly drone and support skills) are useful for a wide range of other ships. It can also run level 4 missions. The downside is that the Gila is expensive compared to most other options.
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Its drones are the primary damage while rapid light missile launchers (RLML) are used as a secondary type. The drones work from biggest target to smallest, while the RLML clears the smallest targets first. As a tank, you would usually use a shield regeneration tank.
  
Notice that there are four different weapons systems represented here, along with drones. Since EVE skills often build on one another, you will find that the choices you make for cruisers will tend to carry over to Battlecruisers and Battleships. So, if you came into the game through the Gallente, for example, and have begun to train Hybrid Turrets, this is another place where you may want to rethink that and switch to some other system. It is NOT required that you make a change ... this is just a good time to stop and think about it.
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Some other options which are especially noteworthy when you have trained in certain weapon systems:
  
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left; font-size:80%; margin: 1em auto 1em auto;"
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* For medium hybrid guns, a railgun fit [[Ferox]] works well. You can usually clear a few frigates before they get under your guns and your light drones can finish off the remaining frigates (true for all turret-based ships). A [[Brutix]] would also work but the Ferox works out a bit better.
|+ '''Mission Cruisers'''
 
! scope="col" width="150px" style="background-color:#222222;"  |  SHIP
 
! scope="col" width="100px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | TANK
 
! scope="col" width="100px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | WEAPONS
 
! scope="col" width="80px" style="background-color:#222222;"  |  DRONE BAY
 
! scope="col" width="80px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | SPEED
 
|-
 
| Amarr [[Omen]] || armor || 5 laser || 40 || 260
 
|-
 
| Gallente [[Thorax]] || armor || 5 hybrid || 50 || 240
 
|-
 
| Caldari [[Caracal]] || shield || 5 missile || 10 || 230
 
|-
 
| Minmatar [[Rupture]] || shield or armor || 4 projectile, 1 missile || 30 || 210
 
|-
 
| Amarr [[Arbitrator]] || shield || 4 any || 150 || 200
 
|-
 
| Gallente [[Vexor]] || shield || 4 hybrid || 125 || 195
 
|}
 
  
The Vexor and Arbitrator have bonuses to drone hit points and damage. The Vexor is one of the most widely used mission ships and is also used in PvP; the Arbitrator has a larger drone bay, and because it has no bonus to a specific weapon system, it can mount any type … which makes it a good choice if you have not trained in hybrid turrets. (''Note that the Arbitrator's bonus to tracking disruption is wasted in mission running as it has no effect on NPC targets.'')
+
* For medium projectiles, the [[Hurricane]] is a good choice. For missions, it could either be shield or armour tanked, you could also use either autocannons or artilleries. Its plus point is that you can switch your damage type to some degree.
  
The Omen and Thorax are also both widely used. Each is fast, mounts five guns and can carry a flight plus a few more drones. The Caracal is light on drones, but its speed and five missile launchers are good for kiting. The Rupture is a very balanced ship; it has the most defense and can be tanked for either shields or armor - and its four projectile turrets (plus one launcher, if desired) work well at kiting.
+
* For medium energy turrets, the [[Harbinger]] is a good option. On the plus side, you can quickly switch ammo, but you are locked to EM/thermal damage which is bad for some missions. The navy issue is a straight upgrade but the [[Phantasm]] would be even better but much more expensive.
  
=== Level III ===
+
* For drones, you can use the Myrmidon. You have your best DPS with heavy drones but for smaller targets, those will struggle to apply and you have to switch to lower DPS smaller drones. The many frigates also mean that the NPCs more often target your drones.
  
'''Ship Class:''' Battlecruiser, ''Heavy Assault Cruiser''
+
* For missiles, you have the [[Drake]] and [[Cyclone]] as T1 battlecruiser options. Medium-sized missiles struggle with application though. T1/faction missiles just about apply to NPC cruisers at maxed skills without any bonus to them. If you have suboptimal skills, you want to fit in an additional application. T2 high-damage missiles need additional help for application all along. When dealing with cruisers and battlecruisers the selectable damage types make up for it to a degree. But the numerous frigates and destroyers are especially annoying as the application is even worse there. Sadly the light drones are usually not enough to clear them efficiently in level 3 missions. The [[Drake Navy Issue]] is a serious upgrade to the Drake in level 3 missions as it gains an application bonus and is no longer soft damage locked. The obvious downside is its price (similar to the [[Caracal Navy Issue]]).
  
Battlecruisers are the most popular Level III mission ships. Each race has three standard battlecruisers. One of these will be a high offense, low defense assault ship. One will use the race's primary weapons system, and one will use an "unusual" weapons system. (''For example the Hurricane uses standard Minmatar projectile weapons, while the Cyclone is bonused for missiles.'')
+
=== Level 4 ===
 +
In level 4 missions, you face mostly battleships supported by all the smaller ship classes. This means the incoming damage is generally significantly higher than before. Also in many missions some of the frigates warp disrupt you.
  
Any of the non-assault boat battlecruisers are viable for missions. (The Drake is one of the most popular ships in EVE, but the choice of the others is somewhat arbitrary and was made here to emphasize different weapons systems.)
+
While the previous levels are mostly run to progress to higher levels, level 4 missions are widely run for profit as they're usually the highest level available for an NPC corp. (Level 5 missions only exist for a few corps.) We're discussing here ships and their fits who are good all-around level 4 mission runners which means you use one ship for all missions and do pretty much all sorts of missions. This means we don't discuss ships for [[blitzing]] in detail, please check there for those. Also, some people might extensively switch between ships to achieve the best possible results. This is also not considered because it's not very common as the benefits aren't that big and it requires extensive investment in skills and ISK. There is an important exception to that and those are [[anomic missions]] aka burner which require specialized fits which are widely used.
  
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left; font-size:80%; margin: 1em auto 1em auto;"
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There are a lot of options for level 4 missions. We'll start the discussion with the best options which are expensive and require a lot of skills, then move on to some less skill intense and cheaper options, to then discuss a wide range of options and how far they're less optimal than before but still interesting to you.
|+ '''Mission Battlecruisers'''
 
! scope="col" width="150px" style="background-color:#222222;"  |  SHIP
 
! scope="col" width="100px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | TANK
 
! scope="col" width="100px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | WEAPONS
 
! scope="col" width="80px" style="background-color:#222222;"  |  DRONE BAY
 
! scope="col" width="80px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | SPEED
 
|-
 
| Minmatar [[Hurricane]] || shield || 6 projectile || 40 || 180
 
|-
 
| Amarr [[Harbinger]] || armor || 6 laser || 75 || 175
 
|-
 
| Caldari [[Drake]] || shield ||6 missile || 25 || 150
 
|-
 
| Gallente [[Myrmidon]] || armor or shield || 4 any || 200 || 145
 
|}
 
  
The Myrmidon is a drone ship. It is not bonused for a particular type of weapon, and it can be tanked either way … which allows great flexibility in fitting. The Myrmidon can carry large, mixed flights of drones, which is especially useful in mission running. The Drake is one of the most widely used ships in the game. It's dps is smaller than the Hurricane's, but it can mount a better tank. The Harbinger, too, is popular. It is a very balanced ship - rather fast with a very good tank, six lasers, and a substantial drone bay.  
+
==== Marauders ====
 +
[[Marauders]] are the strongest all-around level 4 mission runners by a large margin. There are extensive discussions about which marauder is actually the best. This mostly depends on the mission you run. As each agent has his own pool of missions, people might have a very different experience on how a specific marauder performs depending on their agent's mission pool. It's usually considered better to fit short-range weapons on a marauder as even with those it can reasonably project its damage to 100 km and more with long-range ammunition plus appropriate fitting. At the same time, you are highly mobile due to the [[MJD]] bonus. That said in a few missions long-range weapons perform better; you could refit for those. There are also a few advocates for long-range weapons all around but they are certainly in the minority.
  
Depending on your preferred style of play, any of these ships will do well in Level III missions.
+
'''{{co|red|Warning}}''': Marauders are frequent gank targets just for their base hull value. Do not use them at ganking hotspots such as popular mission hubs like Lanngisi and refit for the tank when travelling when you relocate to another agent. Also obviously do not use them when you are wardecced.
  
=== Level IV ===
+
==== Gila ====
'''Ship Class:''' ''Heavy Assault Cruiser'', Battlecruiser, Battleship, ''Marauder'', ''Command Ship'', ''Strategic Cruiser''
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The [[Gila]] can run level 4 missions reasonably well. The important part is that it already can do so with relatively low skills i.e. the relevant skills at three or four. This is because its drone bonuses aren't linked to any skill. As it is a cruiser, you can dissipate a lot of the incoming damage from battleships by fitting an [[afterburner]]. A shield regeneration tank works well on a Gila and is easy on fitting and capacitor skills. If you have low skills, you probably want to switch your shield hardeners according to the incoming damage though. Rapid light missile launchers allow you to quickly clear webbing or warp-disrupting frigates.
  
The battleship is the primary choice for Level IV missions. The missions are considerably harder than they were at earlier levels. They involve larger numbers of more difficult enemies, and players are advised to have developed their basic combat and ship handling skills before they proceed. Evelopedia has a [https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Level_4_mission_ship_fits good article] on fitting ships for Level IV missions.
+
That said at maximum skills the better T1 battleship options outperform a Gila in mission running. But as a low-skill option to check out missions, it is very well suited as it can also be used for several other PvE activities such as [[Abyssal Deadspace|abyssals]] or [[combat sites]]. The skills trained are also beneficial to a lot of other ships.
  
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left; font-size:80%; margin: 1em auto 1em auto;"
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==== Cruise missile battleships ====
|+ '''Mission Battleships'''
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Cruise missiles have general attributes which make them strong in level 4 missions. They have sufficient range to cover the whole room in a mission. So you do not have to move toward targets to deal damage. They have choosable damage types so you can adapt that to increase your realized damage. There are downsides though, one of them is the travel time of missiles. When you just put damage on a far-away target it might die while the next volley is still in flight and thus you lose DPS. You can mitigate that by switching to the next target in time but that requires more attention than with turrets. Cruise missiles also struggle to apply well which means you have to fit for additional application and ideally have an application bonus on your hull.
! scope="col" width="150px" style="background-color:#222222;"  |  SHIP
 
! scope="col" width="100px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | TANK
 
! scope="col" width="100px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | WEAPONS
 
! scope="col" width="80px" style="background-color:#222222;"  |  DRONE BAY
 
! scope="col" width="80px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | SPEED
 
|-
 
| Minmatar [[Tempest]] || shield or armor || 6 projectile || 75 || 127
 
|-
 
| Gallente [[Megathron]] || armor || 7 hybrid || 75 || 122
 
|-
 
| Caldari [[Raven]] || shield || 6 missile || 75 || 113
 
|-
 
| Amarr [[Apocalypse]] || armor || 8 laser || 75 || 113
 
|-
 
| Gallente [[Dominix]] || armor || 6 any || 375 || 109
 
|-
 
| Minmatar [[Maelstrom]] || shield || 8 projectile || 100 || 94
 
|}
 
  
The Raven and Dominix are arguably the two most popular Level IV mission ships. Fitted with cruise missiles and a strong shield tank, the Raven is fast enough to use kiting as a tactic. The Dominix has bonuses to drone damage and range, and carries multiple flights of various sizes. It has no weapons system bonuses and can be fitted with up to six turrets, though usually a few guns are sacrificed for utility fittings.
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Three T1 battleship hulls work well with cruise missiles: the [[Praxis]], the [[Raven]], and the [[Typhoon]]. The Raven is more suited to a shield tank and the Typhoon rather an armour tank. The Praxis can use fits very similar to either. If the Praxis is shield tanked it usually needs one or two co-processors in the lows for enough CPU.
  
The Apocalypse and Maelstrom provide massive offense via eight turrets. Both have good tanks, and both have roles in PvP fleets as long range damage dealers.
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The Praxis is the best low-skill option as its bonuses don't depend upon skills. The Raven nicely leads into the Golem as a progression. The Typhoon is the best if you see it on its own as the application bonus (expl. velocity) is rather beneficial.
  
The Tempest and Megathron are well balanced ships with good speed, tank, drone capacity and solid damage via turrets.
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Meta 4 launchers ('Arbalest' Cruise Launcher I) are sufficient for the start but it goes without saying that T2 launchers are obviously to be aspired for to achieve the best performance.
  
=== Level V ===
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The [[Raven Navy Issue]] and [[Scorpion Navy Issue]] are straight upgrades from the Raven. The Raven NI gains an application bonus and the Scorpion NI has an extra mid-slot which can also be used for more applications. The [[Barghest]] can also be used with cruise missiles. Nevertheless, it's probably more worthwhile to go straight from a Raven to a Golem than to go for the navy versions.
  
Level V missions require a fleet of ships and are beyond the scope of this page. See the [[Mission Fleet]] page for more information.
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==== Other battleships ====
 +
All battleships can run level 4 missions if fitted accordingly. Navy and pirate faction battleships are strong but expensive, and Marauders are still significantly stronger. Thus faction battleships are mostly an option when you can't fly a marauder but feel the need to upgrade from a T1 hull. The [[Machariel]] and [[Barghest]] have their places when [[blitzing]]. And the [[Rattlesnake]] is the strongest option when you have committed to drones. The [[Dominix]] is a good T1 option there. Blaster-based T1 battleships struggle with range and battleships are slow to move around; railguns also don't work out especially well; still they both work if you want to. Energy turrets have the issue of being damage locked but again you can make them work. Autocannons on T1 hulls struggle again to project damage; artilleries have much less damage and don't track well; still, you can make things work in like artillery + MJD setups.
  
== Advanced Ships ==
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==== Other general options ====
 +
[[Heavy Assault Cruisers]] should all be possible if fitted accordingly. The [[Ishtar]] would be among the better options and perform similarly to a Gila. They are more skill-intensive to get into than a Gila or T1 battleship. Thus HACs are mostly an option if you're character has narrowly trained into one of them.
  
Advanced piloting is heavily dependent on skills and ship fitting and is only recommended to experienced players. For those who might be thinking about training their skills to these levels, here are some representative mission ships. Keep in mind that one of the key features of advanced ships is their flexibility. Most of these ships can be fitted for either PvP or PvE.
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[[Strategic Cruisers]] often come up probably because before their rework a long time ago they used to be very strong. People are often impressed by the Tengu's 1k DPS with scourge rage heavy assault missiles. Their range is comparably short and, if you don't deal kinetic, your DPS goes down to 800. A T1 battleship generally outperforms a Tengu, at the same time being cheaper and easier to skill into. That said there is a niche for them when you are [[blitzing]] in nullsec as they can be fitted cloaky and nulli.
  
(''Advanced ships are usually very expensive, and they require high level skills to make them effective enough to justify the cost. The Ishtar, for example, is a cruiser sized drone boat often used with sentry drones. It is not worth buying an Ishtar unless you have Level IV and V drone skills. And you can't fit it properly without a number of Level V engineering skills.'')
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[[Command Ships]] are very skill-intensive and generally don't provide more DPS than a T1 battleship.
  
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left; font-size:80%; margin: 1em auto 1em auto;"
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At least some [[Battlecruisers#Combat Battlecruisers|T1 (combat) battlecruisers]] work for level 4s such as the Drake or Myrmidon but their DPS is usually a bit low compared with the alternatives. As they are cheaper than the alternatives, they might be decent options for new players to fleet up together. Similar to some T1 cruisers which can survive but just don't perform well due to lacking DPS.
|+ '''Mission Destroyers'''
 
! scope="col" width="150px" style="background-color:#222222;"  |  SHIP
 
! scope="col" width="100px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | TANK
 
! scope="col" width="100px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | WEAPONS
 
! scope="col" width="80px" style="background-color:#222222;"  |  DRONE BAY
 
! scope="col" width="80px" style="background-color:#222222;"  | SPEED
 
! scope="col" width="150px" style="background-color:#222222;"  |  CLASS
 
! scope="col" width="150px" style="background-color:#222222;"  |  MISSION LEVEL
 
|-
 
| Caldari [[Hawk]] || shield || missile || 0 || 273 || assault frigate || II-III
 
|-
 
| Gallente [[Ishtar]] || armor || any || 375 || 175 || heavy assault cruiser || III-IV
 
|-
 
| Gallente [[Kronos]] || armor || hybrid || 125 || 105 || marauder || IV
 
|-
 
|  ----------------- || || ||  || || ||
 
|-
 
| Caldari [[Tengu]] || shield || missile || - || - || strategic cruiser || IV
 
|-
 
| Minmatar [[Sleipnir]] || shield || projectile || 25 || 165 || command ship || IV-V
 
|}
 
  
*<span style="color:#eeffcc">Hawk</span> is representative of Assault Frigates, generally well-rounded ships with good speed and defense. Hawk has bonuses to shields and missiles, and it also has a role as a tackler in PvP.
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=== Level 5 ===
 +
In level 5 missions, you face a significantly higher number of hostile NPCs. Many missions also include [[Capacitor warfare|energy neutralizing]] towers which put significant pressure on your capacitor.
  
*<span style="color:#eeffcc">Ishtar</span> is a Heavy Assault Cruiser. It has bonuses for drones and a massive bay that can carry multiple flights. Although it is popular in PvP, with  careful fitting an Ishtar can take on Level IV missions. (This Evelopedia article provides a number of Level IV [https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Ishtar_(Fitting) Ishtar mission fits]).
+
Most commonly level 5 missions are [[Blitzing|blitzed]] with carriers which you can use in some of the ungated missions. Carriers are sometimes complemented with long-range battleships (usually cruise missiles) for a few blitzable missions which don't allow carriers. Sometimes such long-range battleships are also used instead of carriers.
  
*<span style="color:#eeffcc">Kronos</span> is a Marauder, a heavy duty battleship. It has a very strong tank, a good drone bay, four heavy guns, and can fit a micro jump drive. Its four additional high slots allow for a variety of utility fittings. Marauders are expensive to train, very expensive to buy, and they require high level skills. That said, who wouldn't want one?
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If you don't want to blitz, you could solo those missions in Marauders. There are also mentions of passive-tanked battleships which do not use capacitors to run some missions.
  
*<span style="color:#eeffcc">Tengu</span> is a Tech III Strategic Cruiser. As such, it has no standard configuration, but rather depends on installed "subsystems" to establish a fit. Here, for example, is a Battleclinic [http://eve.battleclinic.com/view_loadout.php?id=68352 Tengu PvE missile fit]. Strategic cruisers are very expensive; subsystems require special skill training, and subsystem modules are very expensive. Consequently, while strategic cruisers are very powerful ships, you do not see many of them on any given day.
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Another option would be to form a fleet. Even though those are rarely heard of, they might be the best option for lower-skilled pilots. Due to the huge amount of energy neutralizers, logi with cap transfers is probably a good idea.
  
*<span style="color:#eeffcc">Sleipnir</span> is a Command Ship. It is able to carry [[warfare links]] that provide combat bonuses to fleet members. These ships are especially useful when doing [[Mission_Fleet|missions in a fleet]].
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== Notes ==
 +
<references group= Note />
  
[[Category:PvE]]
+
[[Category:Missions]]
[[Category:Missioning]]
 
[[Category:Guides]]
 
 
[[Category:Ships]]
 
[[Category:Ships]]

Latest revision as of 09:36, 22 March 2024

This page discusses which ships are especially well suited to run security missions. You can find information about mining and distribution missions on their pages. For general information about missions, see the missions page.

General ship preferences

Encounter missions are about killing enemies, and you can use any kind of ship that has enough offense to get that done. (For example, I once started a character by training Covert Ops to a high level, for reasons having nothing to do with missions. Later, when I decided to start running security division missions with that character, I used a Minmatar Hound stealth bomber. This is not a particularly good mission ship, but I had no problem completing level 1 and 2 missions.) The point is: it's all about killing enemy ships – don't let somebody else's opinion of what's "best" get in the way of your preferences, experience, and skills.

That said, although any kind of ship can be successful in running missions because PvE targets come in waves, and because survivability is one of your goals, brawling tactics are somewhat less desirable in encounter missions than sniping and/or kiting. Faster ships, in particular missile and drone boats, tend to give better support to these kinds of tactics.

Immage of a Minmatar Breacher frigate

Particularly if you are just starting to run missions, you probably want to emphasize speed:

  • Mission NPCs will target and chase you until you warp out or they die. And there will be multiple enemies, all focused only on you. So you may want to use a fast ship with longer-range weapons and try to kite your enemies. There's nothing wrong with brawling, but kiting is safer.
  • Some missions will have surprising twists or more targets than you expected, and you will want to get some distance between you and your enemies while you rethink your approach.
  • Some missions require that you obtain an item, but do not require you to kill every enemy at the site … getting quickly in and out is a benefit in these situations.

Loosely speaking, you want enough defence (armour, shields, speed) to give you time to manoeuvre, and time to escape if things go badly. And then you want as much offense as you can pile on – because the faster you kill the NPCs, the sooner you get to collect your rewards.

Missiles and drones are often preferred as mission ship weapons. One reason is range - drones, in particular, can operate at range against larger targets while the ship uses its main weapons to finish off the smaller/faster enemies. A second reason is damage selection. Missiles can be easily switched on the fly, and the same is true of drones if the ship has a drone bay large enough to carry multiple flights.

On the other hand, many players prefer to get in close with a slower, heavily-tanked ship that has massive turret power. This approach has less margin for error, but it does have its advantages; one being that the dead NPCs tend to be in one place, and so easier to loot.

EVE has balanced the characteristics and fittings of the ships to make both approaches viable. You will probably be happiest if you simply rely on your experience and go with the approach that best fits your skills and preferred combat style.

General fitting preferences

You should choose your fittings, and plan your tactics, based on the mission objective. For example, if the mission calls for you to "investigate" an area without necessarily killing any NPCs, you will likely want a faster, more defensively oriented fitting. On the other hand, if the objective says "clear the area of pirates", you will want to bring your best offense to the party.

Dead mission NPCs can be looted [Note 1] and salvaged [Note 2]. Assuming you want the salvage, and that you do not have a friend who will do the salvaging for you, you will need to fit a salvager or carry a salvage drone or two. (You can also bring two ships, one to complete the mission and one to clean up afterwards - but this is usually not worth the effort until you get to Level 4 missions.)

Since you do not intend to die, and since missions pay off in various ways, you should be willing to fit your ship with top-flight gear. This is not just for vanity or fun … the faster you kill the enemies, the sooner you can loot them and move on to the next mission.

There is no specific "mission gear" - mission ships use the same fittings as all other ships. The key is to fit your ship to match your tactical style.

  • Kiting: enough speed to stay ahead of the pack, longer-ranged guns or missiles, targeting assists, faction ammunition
  • Drones: drone type should match enemy damage weaknesses, high drone damage, and range, ship weapons to kill the smaller targets
  • Brawling: exceptional tank, heavy damage weapons, enough speed to break off the encounter
  • and so on ...
Image of a Gallente Vexor cruiser

Each type of enemy does a particular kind of damage. And each enemy is susceptible to a particular kind of damage. You want to choose your ammunition, and sometimes change your fittings to match the enemy's damage type. This page provides the NPC information, and includes a chart formatted to be copied to your in-game notepad for quick reference.

Some enemies also use one or more forms of electronic warfare. But with the possible exception of some Level 4 missions, these usually will not require any special refitting.

NPCs are more or less immune to most electronic warfare. For example, capacitor warfare cannot drain an NPC's capacitor, but it can replenish yours. And you can jam an NPC, technically, but their sensor strength is so high as to make this impractical. On the other hand, target painters work … presumably because they improve your capacity without affecting the NPCs. The bottom line: unless you have some very specific purpose in mind, don't bother to fit electronic warfare modules to your mission ship.

Agents and stations

In some cases, especially if your skills are not highly developed, it may be necessary to refit for each new mission. And you will be collecting loot. So you will probably want to base your mission ship at the agent's station for the duration of the mission level. With this in mind, try to pick a station that offers repairs, as you will almost certainly need them.

Also, keep in mind that loyalty point rewards accrue to specific corporations. If you are running missions for an agent of CreoDron, for example, the points you gain will only work in the CreoDron storefront. Because of this, you probably want to choose your agents from one or two corporations. Loyalty points let you purchase faction ammunition and a variety of enhancement plug-ins, so check out the store before you decide.

Your missions will surely take you to an adjoining system, and sometimes further. It is considerably more dangerous to run missions in low sec space, so as part of this selection process, be sure to look at the security level of the systems within two or three jumps of the agent's home base.

Have a plan

There are a wide variety of activities available to every EVE player, and most of these require different skills. If you are just starting out, you will find life in EVE much easier if you develop a skill plan for your character. The process of deciding which of the many skills to train, and in what order, will help you think through your approach to the game.

Image of a Caldari Drake battlecruiser

If you are planning to do missions, for example, then in terms of ships you may want to consider:

  • Are you also doing PvP and want to train fully in frigates ... i.e., learning the frigate skills in each race ... or do you want to move quickly to larger ships?
  • Do you want to gain access to advanced ships by training one or more spaceship skills to Level V?
  • How much training time are you willing to allocate to combat and ship handling skills?

In general, missions require lower levels of combat skills than PvP - because once you can kill the NPCs at a given level, you need no additional power. And, it usually makes sense to train one particular weapons system (e.g., missiles, drones, projectiles) to a high level and then look for a ship that uses those weapons. Most of the races have several drone and missile ships ... which is one of the reasons why these are popular choices.

However, if you focus on developing skills for mission running, you will inevitably short-change skills needed for other activities ... such as PvP, exploration, mining, and so on. THIS is why it is a good idea to develop a Skill Plan. Such a plan will help you decide which ships you want to use, and the plan can be modified as you gain experience and discover other things that you want to do.

Standard ships by mission level

These are not requirements, but rather general guidelines. You can do Level 3 missions in a destroyer if you want to, and if your skills and abilities will let you pull it off. And although it seems like massive overkill, if you are coming to missioning later in the game and have well-developed skills, and want to go fast, you could use a cruiser for both Levels 1 and 2 - or a battlecruiser for the first three levels. (Note that a few missions have special "Ship Restrictions" that limit the type of ship that you may use.)

The ships listed here are not a complete set of all "good" mission ships. But these are the ones that players often use. Keep in mind that your skills are a BIG factor in missioning. The Minmatar Hurricane, for example, gets a five percent bonus to turret damage and rate of fire per Spaceship Command skill level. This means that the damage this ship does at skill Level V is huge compared to what it does at Level I. The need to selectively train the skills that help you the most cannot be overstated.

(Ships listed in italics are advanced models. These are discussed further down the page.)

Level 1

In level 1 missions, you mostly fight frigates with occasional destroyers. As those are small ship types, you want weapons that apply well to small ships. Further, the missions are pretty short, and thus travelling makes up for most of your time. This means that you best use a small ship yourself as it applies well due to its small weapons and also travels fast.

When you do level 1 missions you usually quickly progress to later missions so it's not worthwhile to dedicate a lot of training time for a level 1 mission ship. Thus Assault Frigates or Tactical Destroyers are probably not worth it even though they are theoretically the best options. T1 destroyers are actually the most suited as they are easy to train into and deal significantly more damage than T1 frigates.

While certainly, some T1 destroyers are more suited than others, it doesn't matter too much and the question of which you can already fly is more important for a new player. You can find fittings by CCP in-game under community fittings. Those are rather designed for the SoE epic arc but that epic arc also counts as level 1 missions. Also don't spend a lot of training time on skills which are exclusive to that ship but rather train general support skills as well as missile or turret support skills depending on which weapon system you rather use.

Level 2

In level 2 missions, you still mostly fight small ships (frigates and destroyers) but there are also some cruisers and battlecruisers mixed in. A T1 destroyer can still do those missions if carefully piloted even with low skills. Assault Frigates and Tactical Destroyers won't have any issues. If you are a new player and don't feel comfortable using a T1 destroyer, you can upgrade to a medium-sized hull. Any DPS bonused T1 cruiser would work as well as combat battlecruisers. You should have a look at the suggested ships for level 3 missions and consider making the jump to the lower-skilled option there right away if you can afford it. It doesn't take much longer to train battlecruisers to three than it does cruisers.

Level 3

In level 3 missions, you mostly fight medium-sized opponents (cruisers and battlecruisers) but small opponents are still numerous, battleships occur in only very few level 3 missions. It doesn't surprise that now medium-sized ships are good options as their medium-sized weapons apply well. The small targets still pose a challenge for your application though.

Generally, good options are T1 (combat) battlecruisers, Heavy Assault Cruisers, faction (pirate and navy) cruisers, and battlecruisers. T1 cruisers work too but battlecruisers generally deal more damage which makes them the better choice. As level 3 missions are a bit more challenging than 1 and 2, it's worthwhile to have a more in-depth look at which ships in those classes work especially well.

The Gila works especially well. It has low skill requirements to work and the relevant skills (mostly drone and support skills) are useful for a wide range of other ships. It can also run level 4 missions. The downside is that the Gila is expensive compared to most other options. Its drones are the primary damage while rapid light missile launchers (RLML) are used as a secondary type. The drones work from biggest target to smallest, while the RLML clears the smallest targets first. As a tank, you would usually use a shield regeneration tank.

Some other options which are especially noteworthy when you have trained in certain weapon systems:

  • For medium hybrid guns, a railgun fit Ferox works well. You can usually clear a few frigates before they get under your guns and your light drones can finish off the remaining frigates (true for all turret-based ships). A Brutix would also work but the Ferox works out a bit better.
  • For medium projectiles, the Hurricane is a good choice. For missions, it could either be shield or armour tanked, you could also use either autocannons or artilleries. Its plus point is that you can switch your damage type to some degree.
  • For medium energy turrets, the Harbinger is a good option. On the plus side, you can quickly switch ammo, but you are locked to EM/thermal damage which is bad for some missions. The navy issue is a straight upgrade but the Phantasm would be even better but much more expensive.
  • For drones, you can use the Myrmidon. You have your best DPS with heavy drones but for smaller targets, those will struggle to apply and you have to switch to lower DPS smaller drones. The many frigates also mean that the NPCs more often target your drones.
  • For missiles, you have the Drake and Cyclone as T1 battlecruiser options. Medium-sized missiles struggle with application though. T1/faction missiles just about apply to NPC cruisers at maxed skills without any bonus to them. If you have suboptimal skills, you want to fit in an additional application. T2 high-damage missiles need additional help for application all along. When dealing with cruisers and battlecruisers the selectable damage types make up for it to a degree. But the numerous frigates and destroyers are especially annoying as the application is even worse there. Sadly the light drones are usually not enough to clear them efficiently in level 3 missions. The Drake Navy Issue is a serious upgrade to the Drake in level 3 missions as it gains an application bonus and is no longer soft damage locked. The obvious downside is its price (similar to the Caracal Navy Issue).

Level 4

In level 4 missions, you face mostly battleships supported by all the smaller ship classes. This means the incoming damage is generally significantly higher than before. Also in many missions some of the frigates warp disrupt you.

While the previous levels are mostly run to progress to higher levels, level 4 missions are widely run for profit as they're usually the highest level available for an NPC corp. (Level 5 missions only exist for a few corps.) We're discussing here ships and their fits who are good all-around level 4 mission runners which means you use one ship for all missions and do pretty much all sorts of missions. This means we don't discuss ships for blitzing in detail, please check there for those. Also, some people might extensively switch between ships to achieve the best possible results. This is also not considered because it's not very common as the benefits aren't that big and it requires extensive investment in skills and ISK. There is an important exception to that and those are anomic missions aka burner which require specialized fits which are widely used.

There are a lot of options for level 4 missions. We'll start the discussion with the best options which are expensive and require a lot of skills, then move on to some less skill intense and cheaper options, to then discuss a wide range of options and how far they're less optimal than before but still interesting to you.

Marauders

Marauders are the strongest all-around level 4 mission runners by a large margin. There are extensive discussions about which marauder is actually the best. This mostly depends on the mission you run. As each agent has his own pool of missions, people might have a very different experience on how a specific marauder performs depending on their agent's mission pool. It's usually considered better to fit short-range weapons on a marauder as even with those it can reasonably project its damage to 100 km and more with long-range ammunition plus appropriate fitting. At the same time, you are highly mobile due to the MJD bonus. That said in a few missions long-range weapons perform better; you could refit for those. There are also a few advocates for long-range weapons all around but they are certainly in the minority.

Warning: Marauders are frequent gank targets just for their base hull value. Do not use them at ganking hotspots such as popular mission hubs like Lanngisi and refit for the tank when travelling when you relocate to another agent. Also obviously do not use them when you are wardecced.

Gila

The Gila can run level 4 missions reasonably well. The important part is that it already can do so with relatively low skills i.e. the relevant skills at three or four. This is because its drone bonuses aren't linked to any skill. As it is a cruiser, you can dissipate a lot of the incoming damage from battleships by fitting an afterburner. A shield regeneration tank works well on a Gila and is easy on fitting and capacitor skills. If you have low skills, you probably want to switch your shield hardeners according to the incoming damage though. Rapid light missile launchers allow you to quickly clear webbing or warp-disrupting frigates.

That said at maximum skills the better T1 battleship options outperform a Gila in mission running. But as a low-skill option to check out missions, it is very well suited as it can also be used for several other PvE activities such as abyssals or combat sites. The skills trained are also beneficial to a lot of other ships.

Cruise missile battleships

Cruise missiles have general attributes which make them strong in level 4 missions. They have sufficient range to cover the whole room in a mission. So you do not have to move toward targets to deal damage. They have choosable damage types so you can adapt that to increase your realized damage. There are downsides though, one of them is the travel time of missiles. When you just put damage on a far-away target it might die while the next volley is still in flight and thus you lose DPS. You can mitigate that by switching to the next target in time but that requires more attention than with turrets. Cruise missiles also struggle to apply well which means you have to fit for additional application and ideally have an application bonus on your hull.

Three T1 battleship hulls work well with cruise missiles: the Praxis, the Raven, and the Typhoon. The Raven is more suited to a shield tank and the Typhoon rather an armour tank. The Praxis can use fits very similar to either. If the Praxis is shield tanked it usually needs one or two co-processors in the lows for enough CPU.

The Praxis is the best low-skill option as its bonuses don't depend upon skills. The Raven nicely leads into the Golem as a progression. The Typhoon is the best if you see it on its own as the application bonus (expl. velocity) is rather beneficial.

Meta 4 launchers ('Arbalest' Cruise Launcher I) are sufficient for the start but it goes without saying that T2 launchers are obviously to be aspired for to achieve the best performance.

The Raven Navy Issue and Scorpion Navy Issue are straight upgrades from the Raven. The Raven NI gains an application bonus and the Scorpion NI has an extra mid-slot which can also be used for more applications. The Barghest can also be used with cruise missiles. Nevertheless, it's probably more worthwhile to go straight from a Raven to a Golem than to go for the navy versions.

Other battleships

All battleships can run level 4 missions if fitted accordingly. Navy and pirate faction battleships are strong but expensive, and Marauders are still significantly stronger. Thus faction battleships are mostly an option when you can't fly a marauder but feel the need to upgrade from a T1 hull. The Machariel and Barghest have their places when blitzing. And the Rattlesnake is the strongest option when you have committed to drones. The Dominix is a good T1 option there. Blaster-based T1 battleships struggle with range and battleships are slow to move around; railguns also don't work out especially well; still they both work if you want to. Energy turrets have the issue of being damage locked but again you can make them work. Autocannons on T1 hulls struggle again to project damage; artilleries have much less damage and don't track well; still, you can make things work in like artillery + MJD setups.

Other general options

Heavy Assault Cruisers should all be possible if fitted accordingly. The Ishtar would be among the better options and perform similarly to a Gila. They are more skill-intensive to get into than a Gila or T1 battleship. Thus HACs are mostly an option if you're character has narrowly trained into one of them.

Strategic Cruisers often come up probably because before their rework a long time ago they used to be very strong. People are often impressed by the Tengu's 1k DPS with scourge rage heavy assault missiles. Their range is comparably short and, if you don't deal kinetic, your DPS goes down to 800. A T1 battleship generally outperforms a Tengu, at the same time being cheaper and easier to skill into. That said there is a niche for them when you are blitzing in nullsec as they can be fitted cloaky and nulli.

Command Ships are very skill-intensive and generally don't provide more DPS than a T1 battleship.

At least some T1 (combat) battlecruisers work for level 4s such as the Drake or Myrmidon but their DPS is usually a bit low compared with the alternatives. As they are cheaper than the alternatives, they might be decent options for new players to fleet up together. Similar to some T1 cruisers which can survive but just don't perform well due to lacking DPS.

Level 5

In level 5 missions, you face a significantly higher number of hostile NPCs. Many missions also include energy neutralizing towers which put significant pressure on your capacitor.

Most commonly level 5 missions are blitzed with carriers which you can use in some of the ungated missions. Carriers are sometimes complemented with long-range battleships (usually cruise missiles) for a few blitzable missions which don't allow carriers. Sometimes such long-range battleships are also used instead of carriers.

If you don't want to blitz, you could solo those missions in Marauders. There are also mentions of passive-tanked battleships which do not use capacitors to run some missions.

Another option would be to form a fleet. Even though those are rarely heard of, they might be the best option for lower-skilled pilots. Due to the huge amount of energy neutralizers, logi with cap transfers is probably a good idea.

Notes

  1. ^ Taking the cargo out of wrecks and/or dropped containers
  2. ^ Using a salvager or salvaging drone to reclaim parts of wrecks