Faction Warfare: Mission Guide

Faction Warfare missions are the fastest way to rise standings and - with lvl 4 missions - the fastest way to gain Loyalty Points (=ISK) with your militia. There are only security missions available, so you will always have to shoot NPCs. FW security missions are a bit different from 'normal' security missions, this guide will be focussing on the differences of FW missions and on possible ship fittings. This guide will also focus on missions from the Caldari militia, the State Protectorate, since BRAVE is about to join them.

Level 1 missions are always available. For level 2 missions you need a standing of at least 1, level 3 missions require a standing of at least 3 and to accept level 4 missions a standing of at least 5 is required. Like with 'normal' missions these standings do not have to be your personal standings towards State Protectorate, but you can also have the standings towards the Caldari faction. If the corp standings are higher than your personal standings then these standings will enable you to take missions from the agents.

It only takes a couple of hours to grind up your standings to be able to do level 4 missions, several skills help though: The connections skill gives you a fixed percentage of additional standing per level of the skill, thus saves you a bit of grinding. The social skill increases every standing gain. Negotiation yields additional mission ISK pay, and the Security Connections skill increases your LP payout significantly. This last skill is fairly expensive (~20 million ISK), but it can be bought in the CalMil LP store.

For level 2 (and level 1) missions this is a very cheap and fast ship:

[Tristan, FW lvl 2]
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Medium Shield Extender II
5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive
Thermal Shield Amplifier II

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

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I

Hobgoblin II x5

It is fast aligning to get through all those lowsec systems you need to go through in short time & fairly safe. It has enough firepower to kill the targets you need to kill (you always want to 'blitz' the missions). It is fast (>3km/s) to cover the distances you encounter in FW missions. Your tank is the shield buffer - if you loose shield, just pull range with your MWD, no NPC will hit you at 100km+. Keep your traversal up, and only use your MWD when you need it. If you can't use the T2 modules, just use meta modules instead.

Level 3 missions can either be completed in the level 4 mission ship or in a T3 Destroyer like this:

[Jackdaw, FW lvl 3]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

5MN Microwarpdrive II
1MN Afterburner II
Thermal Shield Amplifier II
Small Shield Booster II
Kinetic Shield Amplifier II
Kinetic Shield Amplifier II

Light Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Light Missile
[empty high slot]

Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints I
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Small Capacitor Control Circuit II

This Jackdaw is fast aligning in Propulsion mode and can tank enough in defensive mode. Dualprop for sigtanking with AB / getting around with MWD. Jackdaws are really slow. T3 dessies also can not enter the mission sites for lvl 2 missions.

Level 4 missions are generally done in a bomber. The key here is range, to be able to mitigate incoming damage through sig- and speedtanking. Since Gallente ships also apply a very high amount of sensor dampening, these bomber fits are generally built around 4 primary values: dps, range, speed and a massive targeting range.

[Manticore, FW lvl 4]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range Script
Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range Script
Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range Script
1MN Afterburner II

Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Mjolnir Torpedo
Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Mjolnir Torpedo
[empty high slot]
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Mjolnir Torpedo

Small Hydraulic Bay Thrusters II
Small Rocket Fuel Cache Partition II

Caldari Navy Scourge Torpedo x1000

This fit can hit to >75km (given the right skills), depending on the dampening the targeting range might in some missions temporarily be lower though. Once you are experienced with this fit it is possible to upgrade the AB to a deadspace AB for increased speed. Do not fly these ships into Gallente highsec since you can not cloak there due to FW mechanics - members of the enemy militia do camp the shortcuts in gallente highsec to catch you.

You get the missions from agents in State Protectorate stations. Use your agent finder - but remember that you can not dock in systems currently owned by GalMil. Every station has one agent of every level (1-4). A list of all stations can be also found on dotlan.

Since the mission objectives are in Gallente space, far away from the agents, you want to pick up as many missions as possible and then fly over to Gallente space to do all these missions at once. When choosing which missions to accept, you probably should avoid missions that require you to pick up an item because (a) you are speedtanked, and stopping to get the item can be problematic, and (b) the requirement to return the item to the agent will prevent you from completing the mission remotely. Remember that you can decline one mission from each agent every 4 hours without a standing loss.

You can turn in the missions remotely (unless you have to return something to your agent). Since Aunsou (Our current staging as of September '15) is in Gallente lowsec outside of FW space, you can still dock there, and since Aunsou is near most of the possible mission locations it is totally viable to accept the missions in an interceptor, then come back to Aunsou, get in your pve ship and complete them.

Tip: Plan your route. Adding all the systems with mission objectives to your autopilot in some order(rightclick - add waypoint) probably gives you a very unefficient route. Click the A next to your autopilot display on the overview and use the "Optimize route" function to let EVE calculate the shortest route through all the waypoints you currently have in your route (including your current position).

The main problem with the missions is the fact that once you warp to the mission complex it pops up on the overview of everyone in system - like the FW complexes do, too. So people hunting you do not need probes, they just can warp to the mission complex. Be careful when warping to the first warp gate, people like to immediately warp there when the mission beacon pops up on their overview. If you get in a fleet (alone) you can use the fleet warp options to warp to the gate at 10km - you don't have that option with your personal warp commands. Always warp to acceleration gates in FW at 10km so you don't get tangeled up in the gate. During your mission watch short dscan, be careful, warp out in case you get hunted, and really think about wether to warp in again. Let missions decay instead of aborting them if you don't want to warp in again to avoid massive standing losses. FW missions have a pretty low expiration time.

Most of the rats you have to kill are >50km away from the initial warpin, that is why you need the propmods - this also gives you a bit of reaction time in case somebody warps in on you. Stay away from the warpin when you have the chance to. Only kill the mission objective - often industrials, a single commander rat or a structure. Tank the other rats and gtfo once the mission is completed. In multi-room-missions warpgates are often not locked or unlock after a single commander rat has been killed - use that warpgate as soon as possible. A bit of outdated and incomplete mission guides can be found on eve-survival.org - but normally you just have to read the mission details to know what to shoot. There also is only a small number of missions, so you will have the same missions over and over again.

Since the mission complexes are often located off the main routes in a system, bookmarking them as safes is a very good idea.

Remember that you can complete the missions and collect the reward remotely when docked.