Missions & Complexes

Just a little story...

You know "The Recon"? It's this 3-part Level 4 mission where you can collect around 10.000 LPs in the first two parts in five minutes by using a shuttle and some LPs more in the third part, the "toxic cloud", with something not much bigger than a shuttle.

This mission is the mother of mission blitzing and I used to blitz it all the time. But last time I thought, why not kill the pirate ships in the first part and collect some additional bounties? If it turns out to be to hard I fly into the next pocket (which marks the mission as completed) and then back to station and I can still finish the mission and get the LPs as killing any ships is not required in this mission. Just for fun, no risk!

So, I picked a Tempest (no particular reason, it was the BS I had at this agent station).

In space at mission location I select the gate to the next pocket and click on "Approach". Aound 20 km away from the gate the rats (Angels) appear. So I start shooting at the cruisers and battleships while still approching the gate. It works fine at the beginning but damage is increasing significantly. I reach the gate and align manually in gate direction and stop the ship. A safe spot!

Incoming damage is rather high and it becomes obvious that shield hardeners and booster cannot tank it on the long run. I think, so what, I don't bother, this mission is for blitzing or a tougher tank, let's get out here.

At the point where the shields have around 40%-50% remaining I click on "Activate" the acceleration gate. The warp indicator on the HUD is moving to the right slowly, damage gets higher and higher and I think, well, maybe they will scratch armor a little bit before I am out here.

I am relaxed - and still not in armor - when the warp indicator reaches the usual 75% percent to drop back to 0 for a moment and return to 100%. But it doesn't. It drops back to 0, yes, but ... it doesn't return and remains at 0. I clicked several times more on "Activate"... but nothing happens.

I collided with the gate, was my first thought. So, I checked ship-to-gate position, but no collision. Then I thought, this is a very artful mission: The gate is open when you blitz and don't shoot any ships, but as soon as you shoot the gate gets locked until all rats are killed! What an evil mission developer!

Then I see that there is a message when I click on "Activate" and at the same time I see a warp scrambler symbol above the HUD. And? Why should I care? I don't intend to "warp" out, I just leave this place through an "acceleration" gate. While still shooting at battleships in the hope to kill some fast enough to reduce incoming damage and clicking on the "Activate" button I read the message... and there is no doubt that it says that I cannot warp because I am scrambled.

Now, I remember that Acceleration gates are sometimes called "Warp" gates. Hell! I should start to care about the scambling frigs! In the meantime armor begins to get red and I release five warrior drones and engage the first frig (there were two scrambling me at the same time).

My relaxed mood is lost and - now it's getting embarassing for me - in my desparation I stop the 1400mm Arties and target the frigs. Dear missile boat pilots, please ask some minnie pilot what happens when you shoot with six grouped 1400mm Howitzers at an interceptor orbiting you in 5 km distance. I am not going to explain it.

I all my confusion I forgot the solution which probably had saved me: Just turn on the Afterburner and get distance from the damage spot (I was already aligned in the direction away from the Angels). Instead I didn't move at all and was hoping to kill the scramblers fast enough to get through the "warp" gate.

I didn't kill them fast enough. And the Tempest was uninsured of course.

I still got the LPs (and looted and salvaged my own wreck afterwards). After returning to station in my egg I switched to a shuttle, returned to mission location and blitzed it as usual. The Angels, still being there, just noticed me when I already was at the "warp" gate. I guess they had a party watching at the Tempest wreck and were too much distracted and laughing when the interceptor pilot told his story: "Did you see when he shot with 1400mm Arties at me, hahaha...?"

Lesson: "Acceleration gates" are "Warp gates" and not quailified to serve as a safe place, even not if unlocked. Watch out for scramblers and kill them first (with drones, not with... ), always a good rule of thumb. Regardless of skills, fitting and experience, it's possible to lose battleships in L4 missions. You just must be careless and stupid enough ...

as I was reading this, I was just about to finish a mission.

As I reached the last part of your post, the conclusion, I just got the Recon mission!

Thanks for the tip =)

Just want to add, the last part, my shuttle instapopped in the gas cloud.

It does 4k damage every 20 sec, spread out evenly over all damage types + 8k for the final wave (but you should have finished the mission long before that happens).

When you activate an acceleration gate, it says "Warp Drive Active." To not know, it means either you're deaf or activating a gate for the first time.

I did 3/3 in a Crow interceptor. First cloud hit took me to 50% shields, 2nd hit landed when I was in warp so it did no damage. I don't think there's much leeway in the timing.

[Crow, New Setup 1]
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II

Limited 1MN MicroWarpdrive I
Invulnerability Field II
Medium Shield Extender II

[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

Too slow, gonna pop.

Did the first room of Recon 1/1 (L4) in a Vexor once. Got popped in the second room though.

Jump in
lunch warrior ,
set them to orbit
drone tank it ,
kill the rats
....
profit?







accepting donations for the tip

Recon 1 is a good bench to test new fits on. Recon 2 is easy as pie though.