EVE Online's winter expansion, Catalyst, introduced a new class of mining ship, the mining destroyer. Known as the Pioneer, the mining destroyer and its tech 2 and navy variants fill a gap in the progression from mining frigates to mining barges.
In a new way of thinking, the developers decided to introduce the ship and some new mining features with an epic arc. Well, I don't think that a series of three missions qualifies as epic, but the new set of missions, called Fractured Legacy, is found in the Epic Arc section of The Agency. I thought I'd give a short description of the arc.
First, players will need a Venture to run the first mission, The Missing Pilot. Since the mission arc is meant for all levels of players, I won't mention specific modules. I would recommend fitting the following:
2 mining lasers
1 prop module (afterburner or micro-warp drive)
1 medium shield extender
1 Data Analyzer I
1 mining laser upgrade
Also bring an extra mining laser and a nanofiber structure for when you get to fly the Pioneer.
To start the first quest, talk to Elias Peltonnen in the AIR Laboratories station above Kisogo VII. The system is located 3 jumps from Jita so picking up any items is easy if you don't want to fly to the system in a Venture. Elias is a level 1 agent for ORE, so there should not be an issue of accessing the mission series unless you have negative security standings as Kisogo has a security status of 1.0.
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| From the first mission |
The first mission, The Missing Pilot, seems needlessly long. Players go out in a Venture and mine a lot of asteroids. No fair flying ahead and mining the Scordite, the game will not allow locking on the asteroid until all the Veldspar is mined first.
But, the length of the mission does have a purpose. Players are also granted a skillbook, Mining Destroyer, upon accepting the mission. For those who didn't already purchase the book and don't have extra skill points, immediately inject the skillbook and start training. Mining Destroyer I should be ready by the time a player is ready for the second mission. Completing the mission grants a Pioneer.
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| The second mission |
The next mission is Pioneering Spirit, so named because the player has to fly a Pioneer. The player is granted a Basic Mining Survey Chipset to help determine which asteroids to mine. Players need to mine out the asteroids that only hold 2000 units. The ones that hold 3000 units are worthless. After gathering 4000 units of the good ore transfer the ore to an NPC's Odysseus.
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| The final mission |
The final mission is Shattered Catalyst. The mission requires fitting the Data Analyzer I again and navigating through a field of proximity mines. The extra range of the Pioneer comes in handy to mine out asteroids blocking the way between the target structure and the mines. While I avoided the mines, the medium shield extender should help mitigate the damage from a mine if one makes a navigation error. But I didn't actually test the theory.
The final mission provided a nice new feature I hope is added to more items: a user manual.
Players get a 1-run blueprint for the item. Honestly with part of the rationale for the existence of the mission arc is to introduce players to the new mining features in Catalyst, I'm happy with the reward. Whether the reward, if not the arc itself, lasts the test of time really depends on how relevant the Pioneer remains going into the future.
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