Missions & Complexes

Hiya

Basically just wondering

Are the mining missions all low sec or can you go level 1-4 in high sec?

Also what is expected in these missions as far as minerals go?

Please help, very interested into industry side of things.

TLN

It's mining. Pay is low, LP is low. L4's can be fun for a couple minutes whilst killing the baddies and looting/salvaging, but then it's mining. If you love mining (like Distro missions), rock it. :)

I'm doing them in high sec in Caldari Space, just took a bit of searching to find an industrial NPC corp with agents in high sec from level 1 to 4 ...

Mostly AFK with my second account, there are some Drone frigates in lvl 3 missions, nothing that a properly fitted Hulk/Mackinaw can't ignore all day long, and there quick and easy to grind Storyline missions ...

Started three days ago, and I'm almost at the required standing for the level 4 agent, with 3's in my Social skills, so it's really not hard ... but it's mining. I do level 4 combat missions with Kery while the alt mines, nice flow of LPs and a bit of ISKies.

I've done well over a hundred level 3 mining missions, and at least 40 level 4 ones, maybe 50 or 60. I do them to gain standing, though, mainly corp standing (for perfect refine) with a secondary benefit of slow but steady faction standing.

Level 3 mining missions tend to require 9000 m3 or so of ore. You can do them in a Mackinaw or Retriever easily, or even in a Hulk or Skiff if you jetcan. There are a few rats, mainly frigate-size, a few cruiser-sized, but you can kill them with your drones (it does require active drone management, though - even before the Retribution expansion) or just ignore them and tank. I've never been asked to gate out of the system my agent was in. Not once. Also, no level 3 missions have required me to suck gas. Nor has there been any ice-based missions, although I think the later is a function of the flavour of space I did them in, as the EVE Survival mission wiki website does list one ice-based level 3 mining mission.

Level 4 mining missions differ from the above.

You may be asked to suck 4250 m3 of gas. A single Venture mining frigate can hold that, but it takes about 35-60 minutes to do (all level 4 mining missions take about that long) so I prefer having my alt along so there are 2 Ventures doing the sucking. Or you may be asked to suck 20k m3 of ice. A single Retriever or Mackinaw can hold that, but it's faster if you're two doing the sucking. Most level 4 mining missions involve ore, and there you have to suck between 40k and 45k m3 of ore, so more than a Mackinaw (or Retriever) can hold. It takes a lot of time, though, so if after 20-30 minutes you jetcan your ore, or warp to station and unload and then come back and resume sucking, you'll be fine. Or if you have an alt, it's safe to just suck semi-AFK because the ore will be roughly evenly distributed between your ore bays, so easily doable in 2 x Retriever.

I have been told to gate 1 system away to suck, I'd guess about 1 time in 8 or 10, and on a couple of occasions that system 1 jump away was a low-sec in which case I rejected the mission. But in my experience it's rare. I'm just saying it does happen, whereas I've never seen it on level 3 missions.

The rats are no harder than level 3 missions. If anything I'd say they're a bit easier.

I just suck the ore using T1 strippers, but it's possible that you'll suck faster using T2 strippers and crystals. T2 crystals gives you roughly 17% faster suck speed if the crystal bonuses apply, but as far as I know, we have no certain knowledge that they do. Merely ******** forum ***-hats who make loud and overconfident ***umptions.

I don't think I've ever done a level 1, and I've done very few level 2s so I won't say anything about those, but anything specific you want to know about level 3s or 4, ask away.

Oh, yeah, that reminds me, distance from warp-in to suction goal is an issue too. For level 3 missions mostly you warp in within range of the roids, or need to STL it only 2-3 km. I still like to squeeze in an AB, even though I have to squeeze it in edge-wise to make it fit.

For level 4 missions, often you warp in 35-45 km from the goal. That makes an AB make even more sense (or an MWD but if you can find a way to fit an MWD on a Mackinaw, please tell me!), but on the other manipulatory appendage, you're going to spend 15-30 minutes orbitting the roid(s) in a state of semi-AFK, so I'm seriously considering a re-think of my 2xMackinaw fits to remove the AB and fit more and more passive tank. Even though I already have an active tank that works. But being able to fit in 2xMLU II would be sweet (instead of needing to spend 2 LOW slots on MAPC and a RIG slot on more powergrid still).

I shudder muchly at all the horrible alt+tabbing you'd have to do to manage 1 Orca and 3 Hulks, but on the other hand, a +50% or bigger range bonus would really help and would alleviate the need for AB. Even just 1 Orca plus one Mack, you don't utilize the Orca's ore bay much, but it gives a suck speed bonus and the stripper range bonus.

Well, I'm not delusional. Getting missions in neighbouring systems has happened to me. Assume I've been offered 50 level 4 mining missions by now. Probably 2 I've declined because they took me into a low-sec system. And I've done 3 to 5 that were in a neighbouring high-sec system.

It'd odd with the level 3 ones, though, because I've done those in several different systems, to earn standing for at least 3 different NPC corps, and done more than 100 total, probably 120 to 150, and never once was I given a mission out-of-system.

Can u recommend a corporation to work for?

A npc corp to run the missions? id like to do mining as i work from home and it would suit me

The ones I worked for where chosen according to my need to get perfect refine (6.67 or 6.70 standing) in a number of systems.

Your ideal setup, if you don't care about standing gain per se, is a corp that has two level 3 or level 4 agents, or one of each, in the same station, so that you can reject missions more easily and get new ones. For starters, maybe you should just look for an NPC corp that has a lot of mining agents. And then try to find agents located in as high security space as possible.