EVE New Citizens Q&A

1. The reward does increase from level 4 to level 5 missions. But that's about it.

2. Most people find level 3 courier missions (in a fully cargo-expanded Amarr Magnate frigate) the fastest way to grind standing, but mind-numbing boring.

3. Level 5 missions are only available in lowsec, which brings its own complications (PvP). The NPC incoming damage and energy neutralizing can make soloing these missions very tough without lots of skills or a very expensive ship.


P.S. I personally spend most of my time doing level 3 combat missions using a blaster-fit Harpy Assault Frigate. Not for standing nor ISK earning efficiency, but because I enjoy it. I also do level 4 missions in an auto-cannon Vargur Marauder when I'm in the the mood for a change.

The reward of the mission depends on each mission, really; but generally all level 1 missions pay less than level 2 missions, and so on. But you need higher standings with the NPC corp that you're doing missions for, in order to unlock its higher level agents.

So basically, when you do missions, you get the cash payout, but you also get standings; the agent likes you more, and his whole corp likes you a little. The agent will eventually cap at +10.0, but you're interested in the corp standings because you unlock level 2 agents when your standing is at 1.0 with the NPC corp, level 3 at 3.0, level 4 at 5.0, and level 5 at 7.0. So as soon as you unlock the next higher level agents, you should do missions for them, for higher payouts and accelerated progress.

The Social skills can give you a direct boost; you can probably jump straight to level 2 agents if you train some of the social skills to 4.

Don't really have experience with level 5 missions, but:

- they are in lowsec
- you need a fleet of people to be able to handle the NPCs in there

So, most people stick to high-sec level 4 missions, which are somewhat difficult and require a battleship with a serious tank and DPS, but there are plenty of level 4 agents that are strictly high-sec, so you don't have to count the loss of a 2-400 million battleship (possibly daily) in your "profit" calculations.

Also, I think that Incursions have replaced level 5 missions as the preferred group content. They can happen in high-sec, and you need fleets up to 20-40 highly coordinated people, and the payout is pretty good, so people do that instead.

The advantage of high agent standing is you can decline several in a row to get to the good ones.

For example someone with very good frigate skills but poor BC or BS skills might want to run level IV burners while declining all the regular level IVs that pay less and need a large ship.

1. standings max out at 10, so yes there is a limit. is there a practial limit somewhere on the way, maybe but I've never taken the time to look, the differences are pretty small. plus I have high faction standings so that kinda wipes out any small variations in agent/corp standings. As said earlier the main increase is stepping up on agent level.

2. I will usually blitz lv3s to quickly raise standings, it is pretty much the easiest way to go fast, doesn't require extra specialized ships and can be done at most skill levels. Although depending on which LP store it is I might just do 4s and blitz those. LV4 combat storylines have pretty big increases. I did five lv4 combat storylines and went from 6.93 or so to 8.09 standings at the faction level. to quickly raise standings via lv4s you do need pretty good skills and be able to blitz most missions.

3. level 5s are usually with navy corps, so your LP pool is competing with FW LP (which has a few advantages, mostly in extra items/implants and cheaper ships). Most of the people that I have heard talk about lv5s are blitzing them. I haven't tried to do lv5s since they were brand new and on the test server. this includes having over 7.0 faction standing to decline undesirable missions. Going this way will generate a lot of LP so knowing LP markets is crucial.

Your standings increase will be a percentage of the difference between your current standing and 10.0 so the law of diminishing returns sets in with a vengeance as you improve. I've had 9.9 standing with Sisters of Eve for a year - not sure if it's even possible to get 10.0!

If you are looking for a quick and relatively easy way to boost standing as a new player:

1. Train your social skills - social, connections and diplomacy to level 3
2. Run the tutorial missions for all 3 starter corps in your faction (this can only be done once). The storyline in each mission chain will pay 1.5% standing.
3. Run the Sisters of Eve Epic Arc (can be done every 3 months) gives roughly 8% standing boost for the faction of your choice. http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/The_Blood-Stained_Stars

Math is ideal. The real-world is not.

You need 9.995 effective standing to have the UI round that and display it as 10.00