Mission Running Part 1: General Info

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a mission runner. I also do some trading and manufacturing. I've tried mining, and I think it would be ok properly outfitted. But you can't mine much volume just using an Osprey. And even offloading to an Industrial gets old as you have to offload so often.

In this post I'm going to go over a few things that I've found helpful in mission running. Solo mission running. If you mission with a gang I would think some things will change.

This isn't meant to be a guide, just some of my own experiences. So enjoy and feel free to comment, be they cheers or jeers.

Agents

First decide what kind of missions you prefer. Kill missions, courier, mining, etc. This will dictate what kind of Agent to choose.

Typically I've found that kill missions will give the most money, standings and loyalty points. So, unless you have a good reason for doing otherwise stick with Command, Internal Security, Intelligence, Security, and Surveillance Agents.

Decide who you want to run missions for. There are some corporations that offer unique loyalty point rewards. Such as Sisters of EVE having the Sisters of EVE probes.

• Run missions for one corporation. Even if you're not trying to grind standings with them. This way, you will increase your standings quicker anyway and will have access to higher level agents sooner. Which will give you more money, loyalty points, and standing increases per mission.
• Keeping this in mind, locate the next higher level agent for this corp and keep an eye on it so you know when you can run the next level missions.

When requesting a mission look at the time limit for the bonus reward. It's important that you complete the mission within this time as it will almost double the reward amount. Usually you'll be able to finish the mission well within this time even with looting and salvaging. I typically plan for the mission to take between a third and a half of this time. So if you can't play this long delay the mission and complete it some other time. Or if you're just looking for the standings or loyalty points ignore the time limit.

If you get a mission you don't like or don't want to do you can decline it. However if you decline a mission from the same agent more than once in four hours you will loose standing with that agent.

Upon occasion you will get a mission that has you killing ships from other Empire Factions. As a Caldari I get missions to kill Gallente. If your standing with other Factions becomes less than -5.0 you are treated as "Kill on Sight" or KoS if you venture into their space. So, if you intend on ever going into those areas, keep an eye on your standings with that faction and decline some of these kill missions.

Skills

As soon as you can afford it, train Connections to level III or IV. This gives a significant increase in your effective standings.

Also train Social (gives bonus to standings increase per skill level), and Negotiation (gives additional pay per skill level).

If your standings with a corp is very low and you want to run missions for them you need to train Diplomacy. Diplomacy increases your standings with hostile corporations.

There are also a number of skills (Military Connections, Political Connections, etc.) that will increase loyalty point gain with certain types of agents. These are usually fairly expensive skills, so you can hold off on these for a while.

Train up your refining skills to support your mission running, both Refining and Refinery Efficiency.

In addition to this you need to have skills to fight your ship decently, but missioning does not require outstanding skills at all.

Loot

Keep everything, don't sell it! Let me repeat. KEEP EVERYTHING. Now with that in mind, there will be a few things that you can sell. But these are the rare module drops or skill book drops.

In general the common module drops are worth more in mineral value after they've been reprocessed. This is not 100% true, but probably 90% true. So, get used to what the modules sell for. Both through an "instant sell" and through sell orders.

Once you reprocess the loot you have minerals to use for manufacturing or you can sell them through sell orders.

Salvage

Salvage everything. When you can afford it by a destroyer and outfit it with tractor beams and salvagers. I do 4 of each. Some people do 3 tractor beams and 5 salvagers. Put as many cargo expanders and capacitor batteries on it and also an afterburner.

If the mission has multiple pockets I tend to salvage each pocket before going on to combat the next. This can help lessen the chance of ninja salvagers.

Only sell your salvage if you're absolutely sure you're not going to do any manufacturing. If you do sell it, check the prices. Many times salvage does "instant sell" for almost what you could get for it through a sell order. If you are going to do manufacturing I know that salvage is used in making rigs. I'm unsure if it's used elsewhere.

The next part of the article will talk about ships and running the missions.