New Frontiers, Level 3
Tip:
- All gates in the missions are unlocked.
- Several missions have Energy Neutralizer Towers.
Raw Materials (1 of 7)
Faction: Mercenaries
Mission Type: Encounter
Space Type: Deadspace
Damage Dealt: Therm/EM/Kinetic
Recommended Damage Dealing: Therm/Kinetic
Recommended ship types: Battlecruiser, HAC, Battleship
Warp-in
3x Merc Miners (Bestowers) (warp away after about a minute)2x Merc Lieutenant
3x Merc Elite Fighter (Trigger)
Wave 2
2x Merc Lieutenant3x Elite Fighter
Wave 3
4x Merc FighterWave 4
4x Merc CommanderWave 5
4x Merc CommanderWave 6
2x Merc Commander4x Merc Fighter
Bring mining modules or drones to mine the Green Arisite roid.
Blitz: Mine the Green Arisite and leave. Be careful when approaching the Green Arisite roid not to close since they'll aggro.
Tips:
- The 3 Merc Miners will disappear after a certain time so if you want to kill them, target them first. They drop drugs when killed. Attacking the Miners spawns the 2nd wave of ships.
- The 5th and 6th waves of ships may not spawn (all missions are slightly randomised).
- There are also approx 16433 units of Omber, 591937 units of Veldspar and 1995 units of Gneiss to be mined.
- To find the Green Arisite, add Gneiss to your overview.
Mad Scientist (2 of 7)
Faction: Rogue Drones
Mission Type: Encounter
Space Type: Deadspace
Damage dealt: All kinds (29% Expl, 24% Kin/Therm, 22% EM)
Recommended Damage Dealing: EM
Extras: Neutralizer Towers and Stasis Towers
Warp/Scramble: Strain Drones
Recommended ships: Passive tanked Battlecruiser or HAC
Warp In
All will spawn almost immediately after you warp in. The Raiders/Sunders orbit at 2-4km. There are only few drone cruisers, so it is not a heavy pocket. Destroy the 2 bunkers to stop more respawning.12x Drone Frigates (Sunder Alvi/Raider Alvi)
Wave 2
2x Drone Cruisers (Bomber Alvum)Wave 3
2x Drone Cruisers (Violator Alvum)2x Drone Frigates (Barracuda Alvi)
- An Alvus Mother drone might spawn.
Pocket 2
(you warp in in 35-45km from all, which aggro immediately):
2x Drone Stasis Tower
2x Drone Neutralizer Tower
4x Tower Sentry Drone
1x Drone Battlecruiser (Defeater Alvatis)
2x Drone Cruiser (Bomber Alvum)
5x Drone Frigates (Decimator Alvi/Raider Alvi)
Wave 2
(After the Neut Towers are destroyed)1x Drone Frigate (Devilfish Alvi)
Wave 3
(After Wave 2 is destroyed)2x Drone Cruiser (Devastator Alvum)
2x Drone Elite Frigate (Strain Sunder Alvi)
Wave 4
(After attacking Delainen's Lab)6x Drone Cruiser (Wreck Alvum/Violator Alvum)
2x Drone Destroyer (Shatter Alvior)
5x Drone Frigate (Silverfish Alvi/Raider Alvi)
Destroy "Professor Delainen's Lab". The professor is in the can dropped by the lab.
Blitz: Ignore pocket 1, head straight for the lab in pocket 2. You may prefer to kill the Stasis Towers first.
Toward a Solution (3 of 7)
Mission type: Courier (0.1m3)
The Unveiling (4 of 7)
Faction: Rogue Drones
Mission Type: Encounter
Space Type: Deadspace
Damage dealt: All kinds (48% Expl, 25% Kin, 24% Therm 3% EM)
Recommended Damage Dealing: EM
Recommended ship types: Battlecruiser, HAC
Single Pocket
Warp In
3x Drone Light Missile Battery1x Drone Battleship (Supreme Alvus Parasite "Delainen-ROM Symbiote"), which drops mission loot.
Wave 1
(Spawns almost immediately)2x Drone Battlecruiser (Enforcer Alvatis)
2x Drone Cruiser (Strain Viral Infector Alvum)
10x Drone Frigate (Splinter Alvi/Render Alvi/Infester Alvi)
Wave 2
(When the Drone Battleship's shields drop)2x Drone Cruisers (Annihilator Alvum)
2x Drone Destroyers (Shredder Alvior)
2x Drone Elite Frigates (Strain Sunder Alvi)
Wave 3
(When the Drone Battleship dies, or is near death)2x Drone Cruiser (Devastator Alvum/Annihilator Alvum)
2x Drone Frigate (Silverfish Alvi/Devilfish Alvi)
Wave 4
(When the Light Missile Batteries are attacked)3x Drone Destroyers (Shredder Alvior)
3x Drone Cruisers (Viral Infector Alvum)
Wave 5
(When a Missile Battery is destroyed)1x Drone Destroyer (Marauder Alvior)
Wave 6
(When Wave 4 is destroyed)3x Drone Cruisers (Viral Infector Alvum)
- If you shoot the Drone Bunker right away, you get lots of drone spawns in short succession (new spawn every 3-5seconds). In total there were about 30-45 drones and I had to warp out once at the beginning.
- Smartbombing works great with many close-range drones.
Blitz: Kill the Battleship and get the Elite Drone AI from the can it drops and take to your agent. Watch out for drone aggro.
An Unexpected Twist (5 of 7)
Faction: Rogue Drones
Mission Type: Encounter
Space Type: Deadspace
Damage dealt: All kinds (54% Expl, 22% Kin, 19% Therm, 5% EM)
Recommended Damage Dealing: EM
Extras: Neutralizer Towers and Stasis Towers
Web/scramble: Strain Drones
Recommended ship types: passive tanked Battlecruiser or HAC
The BS Drone (has different names) drops the can you need with the "Hive Mind CPU".
Warp In
(group about 55-60km, neut range is extreme, stasis towers lock range is only about 28km)3x Drone Energy Neutralizer Sentry I Energy Neutralizer
3x Drone Light Missile Battery
2x Drone Stasis Battery Stasis Webifier
2x Tower Sentry Drone I
Wave 1
(After about 30 seconds)4x Drone Destroyer (Shredder Alvior)
4x Drone Frigate (Silverfish Alvi)
Wave 2
(When you attack a tower)2x Drone Frigate (Render Alvi)
Wave 3
(When you attack a different tower)2x Drone Battlecruiser (Crippler Alvatis)
3x Drone Frigate (Raider Alvi)
Wave 4
(When you attack a different tower)4x Drone Cruiser (Wrecker Alvum/Viral Infector Alvum)
3x Drone Destroyer (Predator Alvior)
Wave 5
(After a preset amount of time)1x Drone Battleship (Supreme Alvus Parasite) Mission Objective
3x Drone Elite Frigate (Strain Sunder Alvi) Warp Scrambler
2x Drone Frigate (Raider Alvi)
Wave 6
(When you attack a different tower)4x Drone Cruiser (Annihilator Alvum)
1x Drone Elite Frigate (Strain Splinter Alvi) Warp Scrambler
Wave 7
(When the BS reaches about 50% structure)2x Drone Battlecruiser (Enforcer Alvatis)
2x Drone Cruiser (Disintegrator Alvum)
After few minutes, the Battleship Drone will spawn (Alvus Ruler, Supreme Alvus Parasite, possibly others). It has high damage, even at 50km, so be careful. As you shoot the BS, another group of drones (Wave 7) will spawn.
Blitz: Go in passive tanked, ignore all sentries and neut towers. While waiting for the BS, kill off the first spawn. Wait for the BS to come out of the range of the stasis towers (you won't have cap to tractor the loot can), then go for it, pick up the can, finito.
Alternative Blitz: Go in passive tanked, but kill the Stasis Towers early. There's plenty of time to take care of the triggered Strain spawn before the BS drone with the mission loot spawns, and this way you can attack it earlier (while still closer to the structures).
Tip:
- Smartbombs are a good idea again.
- Stay out of the range of the stasis towers.
- It is best to go for passive tanking and take the towers one by one (starting with the energy neutralizers). Destroy each spawn before continuing to the next tower.
- If you are active tanked, then: primary the energy neutralizers, kill each spawn as it arrives and before proceeding to the next tower. Primary Strain drones (scramblers), and then the Violator Drones as they do the most damage.
Nanite Express (6 of 7)
Mission type: Courier (50.0m3)
Ascendance (7 of 7)
Faction: Rogue Drones
Mission Type: Encounter
Space Type: Deadspace
Damage dealt: All kinds (46% Expl, 29% Kin, 15% Therm, 10% EM)
Recommended Damage Dealing: EM.
Recommended ship types: Battlecruiser, HAC
Warp In
Arrive at deadspace to find 20 or so small/med rogue drones, and briefly the BS.Pathfinder gate to next pocket.
Second Pocket
Around 30 small/med drones and the Mother Drone BS you need to destroy.Initial Spawn:
1x Drone BS (Delainen-Solar Cinder Entity)
Wave 1
(Spawns a few moments after warp-in)11x Drone Frigate (Hunter Alvi/Silverfish Alvi)
11x Drone Cruiser (Viral Infector Alvum/Violator Alvum)
Wave 2
(Spawns when Wave 1 frigates are killed off)2x Drone Cruiser (Violator Alvum)
Wave 3
(Spawns when all from Wave 1 are killed off)3x Drone Frigate (Hunter Alvi)
3x Cruiser (Viral Infector Alvum)
Wave 4
(Spawns when BS attacked)4x Drone Frigates (Hunter Alvi)
3x Drone Cruisers (Violator Alvum)
Tip:
- Kill any drones that target you, and then the BS.
- New drone spawns don't always aggro, and can be ignored.
Blitz: Go straight for the BS, ignore everything else. DPS is a bit heavier than in Part 5.
CategoryLevel3
I wanted to say, though, that I disagree somewhat with the sequence of primary targets recommended for New Frontiers pt. 5. The guide says to make the energy neutralizer towers your primary, then to pick off the Strain drones. However, doing it this way just resulted in me getting killed -- by the time I destroyed all the towers, the Strain drones were on me and I was scrammed. I actually lost several Ravens and ended up quitting this mission twice before I figured out the trick (for me at least):
Each e-neut tower spawns 3 or 4 Strain drones when it is destroyed. The safest way to finish the mission is to destroy 1 neut tower, then destroy the strain drones it spawns when it dies. Otherwise you end up scrammed before you can destroy all the towers, and if you use an active tank you're screwed.
Of course this means that if your weapons depend on cap to fire, you're hosed (unless you use cap injectors, natch). So this strategy may be best recommended for Caldari, since our missiles don't use cap. Still, I think it's the best, safest (and so far only) way I've found to solo New Frontiers 5.
Using the drake with active hardeners I flew towards the towers first and stayed at 59km range, because my heavy missiles didn't shoot farther. Then warpout before the scramblers come in range, refill the cap, get back in, kill the scrams first and then everything else.
A Raven flying away from the site should be able to take out the towers quickly (they have 110km range), and even with a cap damaged active tank it should be able to finish all the drones off (making use of the cruise missile range and the drones once you got full aggro).
New Frontiers 7 has also pretty massive damage and a BS with massaggro of 30+ ships in room2, but it's nowhere near malicious as NF5.
On a sidenote: the Dominix of a friend was able to tank full stage aggro in NF5 and NF7 without any problems. But the Domi can tank anything, so...
After you warp in, fly away from the neut towers and don't do anything. Wait for the mother drone to spawn. It will follow you.
Once it is about 50km away from the neut towers, turn around and burn towards the mother drone while shooting it with everything you have (haven't tried it with drones)
Once it is dead, scoop the mission objective from the mother drone's wreck and fly home.
Note:
-Take a cap injector and cap charges with you if your guns need cap, you will be neuted dead by the time the mother drone spawns.
-This way this mission can be done in a cruiser probably. No need for uber fancy and expensive battleships.
Warped in, and the drone BS plus 3 light missile batteries were the only NPC in the room. I fired on a missile battery and this spawned:
3x Violator cruisers
4x Splinter (frigs?)
2x Decimator
3x Infestor
I then got 6 more waves. Wave's 1-3 came in rapid succession, and waves 5-6 came only after I had targeted and damaged the BS. I waited to take out the BS until waves 1-4 were killed. I couldn't tell if they were timed spawns or triggered, sorry. :-/
Wave 1:
2x Ripper
Wave 2:
2x Maurader
Wave 3:
3x Violator
Wave 4:
2x Defeater
1x Annihilator Strain
2x Devastator
Wave 5:
2x Strain Sunder
2x Shredder
Wave 6:
1x Annihilator Strain
2x Hunter
The drone bunker did not drop loot, and I did not take it out until the room was clear.
PeregrinePriscus adds: This mission is actually fairly trivial if done in a Passive tanked drake. 5 Heavy, 2 assault in the high, 3 Shield amps, 3 large shield extenders in the mid, 3 SPRs and 1 BCU in the low, along with two shield extender rigs and a shield power relay rig. When I warped in I focused my heavies on the light missile and stasis towers, and used my light missiles on any frigates that came in range (<36km). I worked over any frigates that came close with the lights, and any destroyers I hit with the heavies. Any pauses I worked on the missile/stasis towers. When the BS spawned, I hit it with the heavies and it went down fairly easily. Right now I'm cleaning up the heavy neut towers one at a time and blasting the spawns before moving to the next. At no time did I drop below 3/4 shielding (18176 shields with 441.76 recharge time).
JoachimLeHigh adds: This is probably the toughest mission in this series. Because of the neuts, my smartbomb strategy didn't work. I recommend a tachyon fitted apocalypse with a cap-transfer cruiser for support till the neuts are down. I also flew this mission with a passive shield-tanked drake and a blasterthron along with my beam apoc, the drake went in first, then the 'thron and I came in. I worked on the towers while the 'thron popped anything with the name "strain" in it.
BenThomas adds: Passive tanking is definitely the way to go with this mission. Each time you take out an energy neutraliser various frigs etc. spawn, even in a well tanked battleship if you take out too many energy neutralisers and forget to take out the other ships you could end up struggling a bit. I took out three energy neuts, took out the spawns, then took out the rest of the neuts and the respective spawns. Then worked my way through everything else starting with the strain drones. In a well tanked passive BS you can solo this very easily. For 90% of the mission I had no cap, and my shields never went below 80%.
CireXinehp adds: completed with a Megathron. I took out all the neuts at range with rails, then came back with the smartbomb trick, then again with rails to take the BS.
MaobihVanire adds: this is rather easy to do in a Damnation. you can target and hit things at over 90km with 5 missile launchers if you mount a sensor booster 2, so when you come into the mission you can move to greater then 80km hitting the neut towers as you go to that distance and not having to turn on MAR's (the greatest consumer of cap for the damnation, and usually have two). any of the drones that get close can be dealt with via small drones + lasers before they are a threat. once the nos towers are gone you can kite the drones around. Also, I think they have toned down the cap drain, i remember watching cap go to nothing rather fast, and was not a problem this time. as of 2008-08-12
Zaknussem adds: When I did this mission, I saved the Mother Drone for last. Killing it spawned 9 drones over by the Drone Bunkers. I guess that if you kill the Mother Drone first, all the drones in the mission will be spawned.
JoachimLeHigh adds: I highly recommend a smart-bomb fitted BS for this mission. I flew this in an apoc fitted with 8 large emp smartbombs, flew in, waited for all of the drones to aggro and enter range, then activated all 8. Once I vaped all of the close-range ships, I came in a beam-fitted harbinger to finish off the rest, as well as the mother drone.
JoachimLeHigh adds: Smartbomb trick works great in the first pocket, but the second pocket only about half the drones come into smartbomb range.
Luckly, it wasn't that hard. I had to warp away 2-3 times before actually scooping the can, but it was worth it.
Fit 2 or 3 Cruise launchers and the rest with Heavies.
2 x invuln 2, 1 magnetic, 1 x thermic, 1 x amp and 1 x xl booster
4 x flux and 1 x bcu
3 x CCC rigs
You warp in at the 60K mark or so and use cruise to take out the neut towers. After each spawn from a tower kill, they fly towards you slowly....use lights to take out the frigs and meds to take out the cruisers along with your heavies.
This way, you dont have to move.....they come to you.......and this method ruled out the stasis towers as they cant reach :)
Just shoot away till theres nothing left.
NOTES:
* 2 x Cruise takes a while to kill the towers.
* As your in a CNR your shield is extremely large, therefore simple cycling of the booster is all thats required. I never went below 65% shield.
*The neut towers have little effect on cap but taking them out gets the spawns which give compounds which give ISK and adds satisfaction.
*On spare highslot i fit a Drone Link Augmentor I use with caution though as they will be shot at with each new spawn.
Hi 7 x Hvy Launcher2, 1 x Drone Link
Mid 2 x LSE2, 4 x Shield Res Amps2 (1 of each type)
Lo 2 x Shield Power Relay2, 1 x Damage Control2, 1 x BCS2
Rigs 3 x CDF
little probs with neut stages as cap mostly irrelevant. I would advise having some levels trained in the four shield compensation skills pref to at least 3, which if you are a caldari toon then you should be anyway...
Shield recharge rate of about 300 secs and about 13500 total shield...
H: 7x XR-3200 Heavy Launchers
M: 3xLSE2, 2xInvuln (V-M15), 1xShield Recharger2
L: 2xShield Power Relay2, 1xBCS (Muon Coil), 1xPDS2
R: 3xCore Defense Field Purger
Never any drama, probably didnt need the second ship.
so i think a passive ship isnt necassary, as log you have enough range to take out the neut towers immediatly
The absolute key for any active tankers should be to kill those neut towers ASAP. Use whatever means you have to -- long-range guns, drones (with their range boosted by drone link augmentors as necessary), etc. It's made more complicated by the web towers that slow your advance once you get within 40km or so.
T2 drones make a huge difference. I had a mishmash collection of T1 drones I used at first, but they would get picked off one by one, despite my best efforts to try and recall them whenever they started taking fire. I decided to go and pick up some T2 drones instead, and they made things a lot easier.
Cap Booster 800s help too. It really is all about those neut towers. Knock them out, and the mission becomes pretty easy.
Spawning order seems to be:
Initial Spawn - 4 Miners: nothing
- 3 Elite Fighters: Spawn 6
- 1 Lt. (into hull): Spawn 3
- 1 Lt. (destroyed): Spawn 2
Spawn 2: - 1 Lt (into hull): Spawn 7
- 1 Lt: none
- 3 Elite Fighters: Spawn 5
Spawn 3: None
Spawn 4: None
Spawn 5: None
Spawn 6 - 2 Commanders: None
- 4 Fighters: Spawn 4
Spawn 7: None
There is an order that prevents the triggering of spawn 6 (and therefore 4). I think this happens if one or the other of the initial Lts. are killed before the fighters.
I warped in and there was 4 cruiser and the BS. After the few seconds the rest of the first wave appeared. (11 frig/7 more cruisers) However, the BS warped out.
There is now a Pathfinder Gate in this area.
I carefully killed 10 frigs then 10 cruisers. But, after the 11th of each was killed there was no more spawns.
I'm heading now into the 2nd Pocket. (wish me luck)
Tried to take out the BS as soon as I saw it, but it warped away before I was able to target it. DPS in this one seemed pretty heavy for a level 3 mission.
- use pathfinder gate in room 1, ignore enemies
- shoot the Drone BS while orbiting in max range, warp out immediately after destroying it. Mission done. 5 minutes.
Nice little mining mission. Roids were placed nicely and close.
47 Green Aristite
1995 Gniess
16433 Omber
430k Veldspar
Plz. add this to hints in the mission.
Don't go in with anything active, it just isn't worth the ship loss.
Hint: T2 small drones do well enough against the drones.
I also had a smartbomb for a couple of these, and it helped a LOT.
Drake w/
high - 6x Malkuth heavy
mid - 3x Large Shield Extender II - 3x Shield Recharger II
low - 4x Shield Power Relay II
rigs - 3x Core Defence Field Purger I
Target order i took
1: Neut Towers (so i can warp out if/when necessary)
2: Cruiser sized Drones
3: Frigate Sized Drones
4: Anything else in the way
5: BS Sized Drone / Final Target
10 towers = approx 8-10 spawns+ from attacking towers
Insanely easy with a decent passive tanked drake.
warp in, attack closest spawn/tower, kill spawn/tower. attack next spawn/tower kill the spawn/tower rinse and repeat till finished.
I tanked the entire mission with the primary target BS's attacking me throughout w/o any problems as I dealt with the towers and their spawns one by one.
Highs:
7x arbalest heavy missile launchers w/ scourge missiles (non faction)
1x salvager I
Mids:
2x Large shield extender II's,
3x mission specific hardener I's,
1x shield recharger II,
Lows:
3x Beta Reactor Control: Shield Power Relay I
1x Power Diagnostic System I
Rigs:
3x Core Defence Field Purger I
Drones:
Hornet I's (4 out only when frigates get within 35km)
5x Render Alvi(F/D), 5x Decimator Alvi(F/D), 4x Annihilator Alvum(C/BC), 5x Devastator Alvum(C/BC). All Drones were at about 33km from Warp in.
Part 5, warped in at 60km with mega mod beams on apoc, standard ammo killed many nicely, radio killed 80km+ targets. 3 neuts killed off first :)
Part 7, bm'd entry, warped out and back in at 50 -dropped all with mega mod pulse apoc w/radio-standard. Pocket area spawn is 24km average. BS is 30km. Pulsed everything with multifreq (16km optimal) and droned anything inside 10km.
7 of 7 - Some kind of NOS exists during part 7 of this mission. I was not able to stabilize my cap at the levels I normally do. I believe it may be coming from the Viral Alvums, as I was getting better power output as they died out