Level 4 Recon (common parts 2 and 3)
Recon (2 of 3), Level 4
Faction: Mercenaries.
Mission type: Encounter.
Space type: Deadspace.
Damage dealt: All types. (Thermal: 41%, Kin: 24%, EM: 21%, Exp: 14% from Ambush One.)
Web/Scramble: Mercenary Wingman.
Extras: N/A
Recommended damage dealing: Therm/Kin
Recommended ship class: Battleship
Pocket 1
No aggro upon warp-in. The locked acceleration gate (mission objective) is 72km away from the warp-in point.
The Mining Corporation Headquarters station is about 10km away.
Ambush Spawn 1 is triggered when the Mining Corporation Headquarters station is attacked OR when your ship is within 10km from locked acceleration gate.
Ambush Spawn 2 is triggered when your ship is within 10km from locked acceleration gate.
Ambush Spawn 1:
1x Angel Cruise Missile Battery (Mercenary Cruise Missile Battery) (Cataclysm Cruise Missile.)2x Mercenary Sentry Gun (Tower Sentry Caldari III)
4x Elite Frigates (Mercenary Wingman) (Web/Scramble)
3x Cruisers (Mercenary Commander)
2x Battleships (Mercenary Overlord)
Ambush Spawn 2:
1x Angel Cruise Missile Battery (Mercenary Cruise Missile Battery) (Cataclysm Cruise Missile.)1x Battleships (Mercenary Overlord)
Tip:
- To manage aggro, trigger the first ambush by attacking the Mining Corporation Headquarters station.
- The Mining Corporation Headquarters station drops mainly T1 modules and some Faction ammo.
- The mission is flagged completed once you have triggered both spawns i.e. by maneuvering your ship to within 10km of the locked acceleration gate or by destroying the station.
Blitz
- Fly to the gate in a shuttle, trigger the ambush, warp out.
- Note: The Mercenary Wingman frigates will spawn on top of the warp gate. You may get webbed/scrambled if you're not fast enough in warping out.
Mining
None.Note
- Mining Corporation headquarters has very high HP (approx. 306,550 total).
Recon (3 of 3), Level 4
Faction: None.
Mission type: Recon.
Space type: Deadspace.
Damage dealt: All types (EM, Therm, Kin and Exp.)
Web/Scramble: None.
Extras: Toxic gas cloud damage. MWD now works.
Recommended damage dealing: N/A
Recommended ships: Any well tanked battleship (Raven, Dominix.) or battlecruiser (Drake, Myrmidon, Hurricane.) or a fast cruiser. (Stabber.)
Pocket 1
There are no NPC ships to kill. The next warp gate is 60km away from the warp-in point.
The toxic environment will damage your ship in consecutive toxic cloud waves. Each wave is timed to hit every 20 secs and it deals EM, Therm, Kin, and Exp damage.
Base damage per wave is 500 raw damage with no shield/armor resists applied. For each successive wave, this base damage is increased by around 50-100 damage - e.g. Wave 1 (500dmg), Wave 2 (550-600dmg), Wave 3 (600-700dmg), etc.
A final giant toxic cloud will hit after about 10 waves (or about 3.5 mins). It deals 2000 raw damage with no shield/armor resists applied.
After this final giant toxic cloud there will no more damage coming from the toxic environment.
Warning
- The toxic cloud waves will be reset after you have warped out.
- DO NOT bookmark the (plagioclase/pyroxeres) asteroid field in the next pocket. On attempting to warp to the bookmark, you will be deposited into the toxic cloud, resulting in insta-death for the un-prepared mining ship.
Toxic Cloud Wave (every 20 secs.)
500-1000 EM damage (at 0% EM resistance.)500-1000 Therm damage (at 0% Therm resistance.)
500-1000 Kin damage (at 0% Kin resistance.)
500-1000 Exp damage (at 0% Exp resistance.)
Final Giant Toxic Cloud (hits after about 10 waves.)
2000 EM damage (at 0% EM resistance.)2000 Therm damage (at 0% Therm resistance.)
2000 Kin damage (at 0% Kin resistance.)
2000 Exp damage (at 0% Exp resistance.)
Tip:
- Fit an omni-tank to cover for all damage types. Needs a minimum sustainable 200 dps tank for each damage type.
- Fit an afterburner to quickly cover the distance to the warp gate to save time and if your tank does not meet the minimum requirement.
- Stabber setup: Y-S8 Hydrocarbon I Afterburner (or T2), 2x Large Shield Extender II, 3x Overdrive Injector. This is the fastest way to complete the mission.
- The mission is flagged completed once you have activated the warp gate and warped off to safety.
Mining
If you can get your Miner though the cloud in the second Pocket, you find:45 Roids Veldspar = 1382948 Units
30 Roids Plagioclase = 259119 Units
16 Roids Pyroxeres = 139845 Units
CategoryLevel4
1 Hornet t1
10 Cap Boosters 50
and a small cap battery.
NOT RECOMMENDED in killing the station.
just another setup FYI
This droped a can which contained faction ammo
782.24hp/s (EM: 90.56hp/s, Expl: 22.88hp/s, Kin: 197.06hp/s, Therm: 471.73hp/s)
Completed Part 3 in a Drake with 2xLSEII, 3xShield Recharger II, 3 Shield power relay II and a 10MN Afterburner II. (Shield never went below about 60%)
The Drake was fitted with 2 x Invul. II and a DC II. The waves hit for 250-350 each and the final one hit for 750.
Can someone confirm this?
LAR2/LAR2/Therm2/Kin2/Expl2/EANM2/DCU2
didn't have to turn on the 2nd LAR. the final big wave is barely noticable.
Log shows:
[ 2009.08.20 05:17:10 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>Toxic Cloud Environment hits you, doing 482.0 damage.
[ 2009.08.20 05:17:10 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>Toxic Cloud Environment hits you, doing 374.0 damage.
[ 2009.08.20 05:17:10 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>Toxic Cloud Environment hits you, doing 171.7 damage.
[ 2009.08.20 05:17:10 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>Toxic Cloud Environment hits you, doing 300.0 damage.
Notice how the damage is 4 times the normal amount.
I went back in with a Megathron, grabbed my dropped loot and slow boated it to the gate, total damage taken was 16,204.7!!!
Don't know if this is a fluke or they changed this mission. Beware.
3 of 3 is very easy in a Domi with omni-tank (2x LARII, 1x Thermic Hardener, 1x Kinetic Hardener, 1x Explosive Hardener, 1x EM Hardener and a DCUII). Only one repper is needed so you can fit a 100mn AB to speed it up.
MrHellcat - the toxic cloud damage doesn't even show in my log. Not sure why, never has for me.
Dps down the cruisers first to break the dps up on the inc. Cruise missile tower following that, and then bs. If your tank can't hang align on warp in and cruise out. This works only if you attack the station first to get 4 webs instead of scrams. Low skilled pilots and leave active drones out when you leave and when you warp back in they will have aggro buying you enough time to drop another ship if you are having trouble.
Destroying the station is a terrible waste of time. Terrible loot and mission completion off of shooting it once and then destroying spawn 1.
Happy hunting.
On 3 I did it in an passive shield ishtar with t2 fit with 1 ab, 1 em amp, rest shield ext. The damage couldn't break my tank, sat there for a while at the end just to test it.
All in all this is great for standing grinding.
Second time I did it, I made the mistake of not heading towards the gate, when my shield alarm went off, I warped out when I saw what I had done. After docking to refresh the shield, I came back and slow-boated over, and took not a single point of damage! The waves evidently go on for so long from your initial warp-in, then stop after the big final wave. Just warp out, go away for a few minutes, let the waves complete, then come back in, you could do this in a noob frigate (if you warp out quick enough initially, that is)
0 seconds: 500 EM, 300 Thermal, 300 Kinetic, 500 Explosive
5 seconds: 2200 perfect omnidamage
25 seconds: 2400 perfect omnidamage
45 seconds: 2600 perfect omnidamage
65 seconds: 2800 perfect omnidamage
95 seconds: 3000 perfect omnidamage
115 seconds: 3200 perfect omnidamage
135 seconds: 3400 perfect omnidamage
155 seconds: 3600 perfect omnidamage
175 seconds: 3800 perfect omnidamage
225 seconds: 8000 perfect omnidamage
By "perfect omnidamage", I mean 25% EM, 25% Thermal, 25% Kinetic, and 25% Explosive.
Total pre-resistance damage is 36,600 hitpoints if you stay for the final wave.
As with Recon Level 2, the wave at 5 seconds doesn't always appear. My Dominix observed it (1 test to measure if it was safe to use a Drake), my Drake has never seen it (used for the resistance measurements; 5 tests). Unlike Recon Level 2, most of the waves are perfect omnidamage, and it's even less worthwhile to try to optimize against one kind of damage.
Armageddon
LARII
EANMII
ExII+KiII+TmII
3x ODI II
AB
Made it through within 9 waves.
Caracal
4x LSE II
1x 10MN AB II
2x Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Rigs
3x Core Defense Field Extender I
High slots:
7 x XT-9000 Cruise Missile Launchers loaded with Cataclysm Cruise Missiles
1 x Drone Link Aug
Mids:
2 x Invulnerability Field II
1 x Photon Scattering Field II
1 x Heat Dissipation Field II
1 x Large Shield Booster II
1 x Caldari Navy Shield Boost Amplifier
Lows:
2 x Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System II
3 x Capacitor Flux Coil II
Rigs:
3 x Large Capacitor Control Circuit
I pull out my Drake and fit an afterburner for Recon 3 of 3. Piece of piss, shields never get below 80%, toxic cloud barely scratches it.
I warped in with a Caracal (was too hard), so i warped out again, getting my Megathron. After ~ 5min i warped back in again. I approached the gate without beeing hit at any time. Neither the 20s Waves, nor the "big" waves are triggered.
Can anybody confirm such an Experience?
Try the following:
- Warp in
- Warp out after first hit
- Wait 5 min,
- Then try it with SAME ship, if you are still beeing hit, try another ship...
Basically same comment as RentBoyUk, never got below 80% for 3/3 with AB
Warping to your bookmark gets you back to the beacon. Warping to your bookmark @ 50km puts you very close to the acc gate.
Also i can confirm my experience: The Waves aren't triggered with second warp in anymore... (Just the big one after 20 secs - if i would have waited longer, maybe it wouldnt, too....)
took me 5 mins with a megathron that way...
I went back in with a Stabber fitted as the OP suggested with two Large Shield Extenders, AB, and 3 overdrive injectors in the lows, and got destroyed as I was trying to warp out and still 10 km from the gate.
I don't remember this mission being so hard in the past. Beware!
I was able to do it with my Maelstrom battleship, which has an X-Large Shield booster and multiple hardeners and Shield Boost Amps. The only scary part was the last toxic damage hit, which took my shields to 50%. Then I was able to rep the shields and salvage my previous two ships. :(
N-Type EM
N-Type Therm
N-Type Kin
N-Type Exp
DCU 2
2x LAR (meta 4)
CRx3
Meta 4 AB
Final hit at 10km from the gate, barely made a dent in my armor.
Didn't need the 2nd repper at all.
12:38:42 Combat Toxic Cloud Environment hits you, doing 89.0 damage.
12:38:42 Combat Toxic Cloud Environment hits you, doing 83.9 damage.
12:38:42 Combat Toxic Cloud Environment hits you, doing 151.5 damage.
12:38:42 Combat Toxic Cloud Environment hits you, doing 121.4 damage.
etc
one medium repper, done in 6 cloud volleys.
Never was below 90% of armor.
Lows: DCl II, Power Diagnostic System I,
Meds: Gistii B-Type Small Shield Booster, Small Shield Extender II, 2xInvulnerability Field II
High: 3x Strip Miner
easy as.
LSB II, Boost Amp II, 3x IVU II, 1x Photon Scattering II, AB II
Made it to the warp out before final wave, was taking about 100-200 damage a wave.
Hung around to see what final wave would hit for, and it hit for about 500 damage.
1x EM Armor Hardener
1x Kinetic Armor Hardener
1x Thermal Armor Hardener
2x Medium TII Armor Rep
1x Medium AB
Never hit for more than 480 after resists, consider my ship's base armor is over 5k it was a very light hit, easily repaired dmg by turning on repair before next hit, I could have ran both reps the entire time but there was no need to.