Day 44 : Epic Arc

Trawling through EVE yesterday, thinking that I’d rather be somewhere else, was difficult. By the end of the day I’d had enough and decided to really get into something in EVE that I hadn’t before. Missions. It was either this or risk everything throwing myself into the teeth of low sec PVP’ers. I stopped myself at the last minute.

I decide to go and do the “epic arc” series of missions offered by the NPC organisation called the Sisters of EVE. Generally new players are pointed towards this series of missions after completing their first few days of training. The missions start with very easy tasks and comparatively high rewards. It would give a new player a lot of spending money and takes them on a tour of hi sec empire space.

It’s long enough that I continue it today, heading out in a destroyer called the ‘Constant Sorrow’  (my mood is not great), rolling through space checking out the bizarre yellow skies of Amarr space, the red lit vistas of Minmatar space and the usual black/green nebulas of Gallente space. There isn’t much Caldari space in the series, just a short segment in the border with Gallente space which is very familiar to me since I’ve been trading and mining there since about day 3.

I won’t give much away about the storyline in case someone reading hasn’t done it. A few tips won’t go amiss though. I discovered I had a lot of benefits from having played other games, and from being paranoid

1. At some point you’ll have to fight a hive of drones. There will be two obvious groups. Tempt them out one at a time and kite them to range and destroy them before they swarm you. Some of them will be packing webbing so make sure your afterburner is ready to maintain range for long enough to shoot back.

2. Near the end of the chain you’ll be asked to go hunt down someone called Kristan (or something like that). This was the first time I had to warp out, repair and go back. You’ll need to deal with an energy vampire weapon but if you get the tactics right it isn’t enough to warrant a specific fitting.

3. When you get to the end of the chain, killing some bad dude called Dagan, you are going to be shocked by his shield tank. It’s good. You may need some help. Don’t be afraid to ask around for it, the local system is full up with people that will help. As ever, it is EVE so be wary. I managed to down the guy solo in the Constant Sorrow. I did have a month worth of extra skills to dedicate to the task, even though I’ve gone the mining route,  than a new player might not. I could pour out 150 DPS at range. If you don’t like getting outside help then either fit your boat out as a blaster boat and get in under his range. With either short range or long range weapons consider using a web on him. Don’t be afraid to wipe out his bodyguards, warp and repair, then come back and kick ass.

You’ll earn at least 12-14 million over the entire arc as long as you don’t lose a ship, I took a Salvager and with no ship loss ended up at around 19 million profit. Slower than mining but a hell of a lot more entertaining.

The ‘Constant Sorrow’ - a rail fit Catalyst newbie PVE gun platform.

7x 125mm Compressed Coil Gun ( Antimatter ammo )
1x Salvager ( pack a mining laser too just in case a storyline mission crops up )

1x Experimental 1MN Afterburner
1x whatever you fancy. I fit a battery which came in handy a couple of times. I swapped this out for a Webifier a couple of times. I like slow targets. You’ll need to swap it out for a piece of equipment you are given at one point anyway.

1x Micro Auxiliary Power Unit
1x Small Inefficient Armour Repairer ( or better Meta level one if handy )
1x Damage Control I

I also had a Rig to boost hybrid weapon damage at the expense of rate of fire. I’d chained all my guns and the volley was taking down a lot of enemies in one shot.

I took along anything I thought I’d need - like a web and a Magnetic Stabilizer. I was lucky when a mining laser dropped but think ahead. Don’t waste cash by buying on the local market which is geared around people doing these quests. Haul your shit with you and leave it at the station if you are not using it on the current mission.

In conclusion : very enjoyable, if a little bit of a haul at times. There is one 23 jump trip at one point but that’s the worst by far . You do get to see the sights though. I didn’t think EVE had this level of PVE content to be honest, it was very enjoyable. Do it now if you have a spare day or so, the hardcore among you could run it all in less than 6-8 hours.

NOTE: once I finally finished and headed back to my usual base, I felt like I was coming home. Weird but true. I’d been away touring Empire space for over 24 hours and I was back in my usual system. Even so, how the hell have I become tied to an apparently anonymous place in space? I need to reach out some more.