Investment Guide: Level 1 Mission Algos Drone Boat

In Eve Online you need a little isk to get started in which ever direction you choose to head be it PvP or PvE or a hundred different other paths. To get started working over that first 10 million isk hump, players general turn to mining or missions. Today I want to go over the skills and fit for an Algos drone boat level 1 mission set up. Why drones? The answer will be different for everyone but for me I like the play style of drones they boast pretty good range for a new player. They are very forgiving when learning the game and great when you can switch them to aggressive if your feeling over whelmed in a mission. The typical skilled mining player will have already put some skill training into drones so its a natural cross over.

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Skills
Gallente Frigate 3
Gallente Destroyer 3
Weapon Upgrades 1
Drones 4(at least to 4 if not 5)
Capacitor Management 2
Afterburner 1
Shield Upgrades 1
Tactical Shield Manipulation 1
Gunnery 1
Small Hybrid Turret 1
Mechanics 3
Repair Systems 2
Remote Armor Repair Systems 1
Scout Drone Operation 1

Optional for Salvage Drone
Survey3
Salvaging 2
Salvage Drone Operation 1

Total time: 3 days, 11 hours, 6 minutes, 2 seconds; (Time based on no remap)Cost: 2,137,500

Keys to drone boats are drones you can only launch as many drones as your drone skill allows so training Drones to level 4 and 5 is advised especially if you plan on using drone boats into higher level missions. Also because more drones in space means more damage on target. These are the bare minimum skills to fit the Algos you will naturally want to train your skills higher looking forward to higher level missions.

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Fit

[Algos, PvE Shield]
75mm Compressed Coil Gun I
75mm Compressed Coil Gun I
75mm Compressed Coil Gun I
75mm Compressed Coil Gun I
75mm Compressed Coil Gun I
Small 'Arup' Remote Bulwark Reconstruction

Experimental 1MN Afterburner I
Medium Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I
Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I

Drone Damage Amplifier I
Drone Damage Amplifier I
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I


Hobgoblin I x5
Hammerhead I x2
Salvage Drone I x3

Ship fit source: Algos - UniWiki

This Algos is passive shield fit I used it to run level 1's and then level 2 missions. Keep in mind this fit is for the most part low skilled for pilots without a lot of training. I was fine flying it until I started doing level 2's I got blown up a few times. I would suggest upgrading when you start doing level 2's. The next ship in the series is a Vexor its a great drone boat and works a lot better for level 2's than the Algos.

While this guide isn't meant to be all encompassing as far as mission running goes hopefully this provides you with templates for a skill plan and a ship fit. See below for more mission running resources.

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Other Resources:
Eve-survival.org
Evelopedia Missions Guide
UniWiki Missions

Operation: Mission Grinding

Before I could start doing level 1 missions I had to think ahead, as is the case for most things in Eve. A little planning can go along way to avoiding a headache. I first thought about the two reasons I wanted to do missions in the first place. The first and biggest reason was I wanted to work towards setting up a POS(Player Owned Station) in order to do that I needed NPC faction standing(reputation) in the system I would be setting it up in.

Standing Required for POS
System Sec    Standing
0.4                  4
0.5                  5
0.6                  6
0.7                  7

The second reason to do missions was to try out level 4 missions as an income source and for the fun of it. Level 4 missions require at least a base level of trained skills in order to survive. Also you need a certain level of standing with an NPC corporation in order to do the level 4 missions.

Agent Level Standing
Mission    Standing
1                -10
2                1
3                3
4                5
5                7

Now that I know what level of standings I needed for my two previously mentioned goals it was time to choose a location. I needed to work on the NPC empire faction where my operating base is so I could set up a POS close to where I play. As far as choosing a NPC corporation to grind standing I wanted to choose one that had a good mission hub nearby(a mission hub would be a station or system with multiple level 4 mission agents in it).

After some careful consideration I choose an area to do missions in and started working on level 1s. Now I should note that there is a lot more to consider when grinding missions for standings I will post a few resources below for further reading. Also I hope to post a few of the ship fits as investment guides that I have been using to grind in.

Eve-survival.org
The Plan(Standings Grinding)
Standings Mechanics