Missions

Missioning in high sec is highly recommended for new players only because it is easy, soloable, and teaches you more about game mechanics.

It is not great isk per hour compared to other more lucrative incomes, but can be easy to coast into.  Try it out for a bit, and then consider joining a corporation to try more interesting content.

Career Agents

I cover the Career agents in another post, and this goes double for this.  You need to complete all of them to complete the tutorial.

Ratting basics

I cover the idea of 'ratting' in another page: Null sec ratting.  It covers factions and how to find ship fits etc as well.

NPC Pirates == Rats (Pirates)   If someone says pirates, they mean PC pirates.

If you are starting out, can join `L1-3 Mission Fits` in game to find level 1 through 3.

Join `L4 Mission Fits` in game to find all the level 4 mission fits that are recommended.

The basics

Who to run missions for

We will be doing Security mission here because they pay better in faction and rewards.  Mining and Distributions are lesser.

This is personal preference.  I usually recommend caldari for new players, though their jita alts in the future will replace them buying stuff.

I was running Minmatar/Gallente because the LP rewards were good at the time, and Angels were easy to kill.  Sisters of Eve had good rewards as well.

However, my standings with Caldari then suffered, which caused my taxes in jita to rise.  These are hard to repair later on, so make a decision and stick with it.

Don't allow standings to fall to -5.0.   Can do the Sisters of Eve Epic arc once every 3 months.

Standings

You need to grind your standings to run some missions.  Each improvement in a corporation gets you access to better standings.  Each successful mission improves the standings with the corporation.  Once you do 15 missions, you get standings with the faction they're involved with.   And if you have enough standings with the factions, you can go straight to level 5s with any corps, including the R&D corps.

Level 1s, anyone can do.  (Frigates and Destroyers!)

Level 2s, you need standings of 1.0.  (Cruisers!)

Level 3s, you need standings of 3.0.  (Battlecruisers!)

Level 4s, you need standings of 5.0. (Battleships!)

Level 5s, you need standings of 7.0.  (These are in low sec, Marauders/Carriers/T2 ships!)

I have more details on quick grinding factions as well.  Along with details on getting standings for tax purposes.   Note that it takes whatever is higher, your corporation or faction standings.

Note, having good Social skills before grinding standings is almost required.

Where to run missions

Use the Agent finder for the corporation(s) you want to run for in the faction you want to run for.  Find a couple in a single station for maximum effectiveness!

Research the mission

You must RESEARCH the mission you're being given BEFORE you accept it.  You go on Eve Survival and look up the mission first to see if you think your ship could handle it.  You can also look at the discussion comments to see what other people struggled with.

For instance, when you're doing missions for Caldari, you're given a few key bits of information in the mission text.  We'll assume it is level 2 The Blockade in a Vexor.  We look it up on google and find: https://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=Blockade2gu to figure out our research.

• Who you are fighting.  You might be given missions to kill Guristas as Caldari, which we'll use for this case.

• Match your tank to their damage.  Guristas do mostly kinetic, and some thermal.  https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/NPC_damage_types has a list.  So we'll put an extra kinetic hardener on.

• Match your damage to their tank!  This is the reverse, if you have selectable damage types, make sure you're hitting into their holes.   The Guritas are weak to Kinetic and Thermal. Kinetic drones are fast but have a terrible damage multiplication, so we'll do Thermal damage instead, even if they are slow.

• Research the mission.  Look up the mission on eve-survival.org and figure out what special things are there.  Like this one has a stasis tower.  And if you are speed tanking, that can end your trip real quick. 

• Know what ewar is involved.  You might need counters for the ewar on field.  ECM is what Guristas use.  https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Electronic_warfare see what counters you can come up with.

• Know the order in which you kill things.   Kill webs first, then scrams, then points, then small stuff, then move up from smaller stuff, and then finally the triggers.  Triggers spawn the next wave.  So don't kill them out of order.

• Faction changes. Does this kill an NPC I don't want to kill?  I'm fine with killing guristas, it will give me negative standing with them, but I don't care.  I might care if it's killing gallente so I might skip a mission.  You only want to skip missions every 4 hours so you don't have your standings with the group you're running for drop!

• What sec is it in.  Low sec can be harder to run in.  If this is 0.5 or higher, easier to run in.  If I run an expensive ship, I might have a set level like 0.7 I don't want to go below.

• Can you complete it now.  Research rewards have bonuses, you want all the bonus.  So make sure you can complete it in time!

• Restock on ammo.   Make sure you bring ammo. :D

• Know when to warp out.  You need to make plans of 'if this gets this low (30% shield or 30% cap), I'm warping out'.   Know that condition and when you're pulling drones and running.

Faction mission timing

You want to run a set of missions of all the same 'level' so you can get a faction mission.  Every 15 missions with the same faction, you get a faction mission to run.  Make sure it's 15 securities and not a random mining one or you'll get a crappy faction mission!

Accept and let's go!

You're good to go, let's just rip it!

Level 1, the easy mode!

Level 1 missions are easy.  They are doable in Frigates and destroyers.  They are ways to get your feet wet.  There are different harder ones from time to time, but most are just 'run away and shoot from a distance' or 'get up close, blast something, then run away'.  They pay nothing but get your faction up and you can run a ton of them.

Level 2, harder but managable

You will spend the least amount of time here.  These don't pay great, but they are easy in a good cruiser.  Just make sure not to pop the triggers early.

At this point, if yo'ure mixing the types of things you are fighting, you might need two different ships or fits to deal with different threats.  If it's a lot of frigates, you put more light drones in or nav computers.  If it's only a single battleship, heavy drones. etc.

I have fits for the vexor in Null sec ratting that can help you do ratting against rogue drones, you have to adapt the vexor to match the rats you are shooting though.

Level 3, the longest grind

This gets you the faction to run level 4s.  You also should be able to grind to a battlecruiser to run these.  You can even start to use the battleship you'll buy to run level 4s here, but it's a slog.  They pay better but nearly as good at level 4s.  A lot of Cruisers and Battlecruisers to kill!  You'll start to recognize the types of missions at this point.

Level 4, the holy land - Omega only!

Then you do the real grind :D  You do these in a battleship usually or a very well fit HAC or t2 battlecruiser, but just a Battleship will usually get it done.

Note, these pay pretty good but nearly as well as other things.  But now, you should be an old pro.  Once you get bored, consider other money making pve things:

Null sec ratting is the most common PVE activity

Incursions are boring but pay great 

Abyssals are very hard but pay great as well 

Faction Warfare is solid pvp and making money 

Wormhole PVE needs a group but great money 

etc etc etc

Note, you must be omega to run level 4 missions now.