Missions & Complexes

Like many of you, I spent my first several months living in 0.0 mostly running missions. Eventually I minmaxed my way through missions, and was earning a healthy 80mil or so per hour running l4 missions. I knew the system, and could do this forever. But eventually I decided to give null and low sec a chance, to see what it was like. It was the best decision I ever made.

Here's my take on a few of the main areas (ignoring incursions, wormhole, and sov 0.0):

NPC null sec

NPC null is almost always "owned" by an alliance. Yet because they can't stop you from docking you can either ignore and avoid them or join them.

NPC null missions can pay very well. The missions are basically the same as high sec, and you can either run them in an unprobable tengu or in a regular ship when there is no hostiles about (obviously much easier as a member of a corp). I earned about 250m an hour running for true power and later angels. One of the biggest challenges is moving stuff in and out to markets, and there you have to either rely on your corp or get a carrier. Conventional haulers are fodder.

Good profit potential, risk is high but manageable. If you ever jump gates, you either need a scout or an interdiction nullifier. But other than that, its no risker than low sec but tends to have much better and larger gangs.

NPC low sec:

The vast majority of low sec is not worth being in. Rewards are not sufficiently larger to justify the increased risk. Yet for all that, its underutilized and thus ripe to exploit if you can find a way. The only real use I found in low sec was level 5 agents. With a small gang/dual boxing these missions can be run efficiently, safely, and profitable (I was around 250m to 300m an hour based on how well I cherry picked missions). It was a nice introduction to pvp life with relatively low risk and low barriers to entry, and is also suitable for a casual foray as a corp.

Overall I think low sec is pretty worthless. But just remember -- covops cloak on any ship means you are 99% safe on gates. Cloak + MWD means you are ~90% safe. With proper use of safes, unprobable fits as needed, and so on the risk is really pretty manageable.

FW low sec:

FW features smaller gangs and more allies in general, so its a decent place to get your feet wet if you are interested in pvp. But make no mistake, the FW vets will use every bullshiat trick in the book -- station games, nuet reppers, capitals, the works. Just don't expect equal fights, because no matter how pvpers whine its never about the fun of the fight and aways about the easy kill.

FW also has level 4 missions that can be run in a stealth bomber. These missions are a bit tricky at first, but once you get the system down you can earn 150 mil or so an hour without all that much risk (worst case, you pop a 40m stealth bomber). Plexes are literally worthless, don't bother.

But FW overall is a good taste of pvp lite while also allowing some decently profitable mission running. Its a good halfway house.

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That's my honest take. The risk is there, but its a lot lower than fearmongers act like. Personally, I thought it was worth trying to figure out. You will lose ships, but fly basic T2 fit drakes/ravens/so on until you get a hang of it, and its really no big deal. And imo, it made the game a lot more interesting.

Its pretty hard to argue anything is more boring than ratting.

I do find ratting to be generally preferable to missioning; no frustrations of docking, redocking, switching mods, plotting routes. Just warp to anomaly and start shooting. Finish up, warp alt in with Noctis and warp main out to the next. Rinse, repeat, profit.

However... I can't help but sneer at anyone holding out hopes for that elusive faction spawn. Running the odd site here and there over the past few weeks, I've cleared about a hundred of them, and seen not even one.

yeach - dscan is the way of life - but to be sure for a good unprobable tengu you need ~2-3 bil isk and 10 + mil SP .... iam still carebear - played total about half year - recentlu returned after a year break ... lwsec is not easy . 0.0 is hard but in either way you need trusted corp/alliance for now i live in friendly 0.5 ;p hauling stuff around, missioning . tomorrow tengu , in 3 days covop on alt ... then fleet skill - next year - 0.0

eve need good micro and macro management ... and huge knowledge what you really need

Shoulda joined that corp

I am pretty much a carebear (sure I PVP, but I spend more time doing PVE) and I have lived in a great many places.

As far as ratting versus missions, ratting is nice, but you don't (usually) get slave sets ratting, sure I have had some nice implant drops from faction rats, but to be honest you are way better off chaining rats versus clearing belts, the extra chance of getting a faction spawn IMO isn't worth it.

Also, I respect the idea that it isn't all about the isk/hour ratio, I mean I like to use the Gila on missions and plexes from time to time, are there faster ships, of course, but efficiency isn't the reason why I play a video game.

As for the people who say there is no point in low sec, either you don't understand FW or you were doing it wrong. As for level Vs and such, I have to say it generally isn't worth it, but hey some people may consider getting neuted fun.

Exploration and wormholes. It can be tedious, but it's not nearly as monotonous as ratting OR missions. Good money even in C1s if you know what you're doing.