For capsuleers in EVE Online driven by the adrenaline of spaceship combat and the thrill of PvP encounters, the Eve Air Career Program, specifically the Soldier of Fortune path, offers a fantastic starting point. Whether you dream of engaging in large-scale fleet battles, executing daring ambushes, or mastering covert operations in the vast expanse of New Eden, this career path is tailored to ignite your PvP career. The lawless territories beyond the safety of high-security space are ripe with opportunities for pilots eager to find action and hone their combat skills.
Navigating the Soldier of Fortune Career Tracks
The eve air career program‘s Soldier of Fortune path is broken down into several key tracks, each designed to introduce you to different facets of combat and PvP in EVE Online. Completing these tracks rewards you with valuable skill points, accelerating your pilot development and getting you closer to your combat aspirations. Let’s dive into each track and understand how to efficiently navigate them.
Career Agent Missions: Your First Steps in Combat
Embark on your Soldier of Fortune journey by seeking out a career agent. While the Agency in-game can point you towards agents of your own racial faction, remember that any racial agent can offer you the same missions, regardless of your character’s race. For a comprehensive list of agent locations across empire space, refer to this list of all career agents on the EVE University Wiki. Even if you’ve completed career agent missions before, you can revisit this content with another agent to progress through this track.
The Soldier of Fortune career agent missions are unique as they intentionally involve ship destruction – a crucial learning experience for any aspiring PvP pilot in EVE. Don’t worry about the cost, as the agent provides the ships for these missions. A smart tip is to insure these provided ships before undocking. This allows you to recoup some ISK even when you’re fulfilling the mission objective of losing a ship, turning a learning experience into a slightly profitable one. The initial mission will require you to bravely pilot a frigate on a suicide run into a station, while another will test your mettle against overwhelming enemy forces. These missions are designed to introduce you to the realities of combat in EVE Online, where loss is a part of the learning curve.
Social: Connecting with the EVE Community
The Social track of the eve air career program focuses on essential interactions within EVE Online’s vibrant community. The tasks here are straightforward and designed to get you familiar with communication tools. You’ll be asked to engage in chat, join a fleet – which you can even create yourself to complete this task – send an EVE mail, and add another pilot to your contacts. These actions are fundamental to social gameplay in EVE, whether you’re coordinating with fleetmates or building connections with fellow capsuleers.
One known issue within this track is the corporation task. If you are already part of a player-run corporation, the task might not automatically complete. New players in starter corporations will find this task completed by default. However, if you’re in an established player corporation, you might need to temporarily leave and rejoin your corp to register completion of this sub-task. Keep this potential workaround in mind as you progress.
Electronic Warfare: Mastering the Art of Disruption
Electronic Warfare (EWAR) is a cornerstone of effective PvP in EVE Online. Recognizing its importance, the eve air career program includes a dedicated track to introduce you to EWAR modules. Fortunately, this track can be completed swiftly and safely, without the need for risky combat encounters.
The tasks describe using webifiers, paint modules, warp disruptors/scramblers, and weapon disruptors on 5 capsuleer ships. However, the game actually tracks the cycles of EWAR modules used, not necessarily unique targets. This clever mechanic allows for a rapid completion strategy. Fit a ship with one of each type of EWAR module in your mid-slots. Invite a friend or willing pilot to a duel. Activate each EWAR module on your dueling partner and let them cycle five times each. This method efficiently completes the entire Electronic Warfare track, letting you quickly move on to other combat disciplines.
Combat: Engaging and Securing Kills
The Combat track is where you put your ship’s weapons to work and engage in actual combat scenarios. This track requires you to achieve 75 kills in frigates, destroyers, or cruisers. If you’ve previously engaged in Enforcer career missions or run combat anomalies using Tech 1 (T1) ships, you may find this track already partially or fully completed. This is because the eve air career program is designed with new players in mind, encouraging the use of entry-level ships to learn core combat mechanics.
If you find your kill count lacking, it’s likely because you’ve been primarily flying Tech 2 (T2) or Tech 3 (T3) ships. Remember, kills secured in these advanced hulls do not count towards this track’s progress. Revert to flying T1 frigates, destroyers, or cruisers and actively seek out combat opportunities in appropriate areas of space to rapidly accumulate the required kills.
PvP: Delivering the Final Blow
The PvP track of the eve air career program directly encourages player-versus-player combat. Your objective here is to deliver the final blow to a total of 5 other capsuleers, resulting in a generated killmail. This track directly contributes to your killboard and provides tangible evidence of your PvP prowess.
While the goal is clear, this track has been reported to be somewhat inconsistent in tracking kills. Sometimes, not all final blows are properly registered. As the saying goes in EVE, “there’s no kill like overkill.” Therefore, it’s advisable to continue engaging in PvP beyond the initial 5 final blows to ensure the track completion registers. Persistence is key in this track.
Capacitor Warfare: Draining Your Opponent’s Power
Similar to the Electronic Warfare track, the Capacitor Warfare track within the eve air career program can be efficiently completed using a cooperative approach. This track focuses on energy neutralization (neuts) and energy nosferatus (NOS), modules that drain an enemy ship’s capacitor – their energy source.
To quickly complete this track, fit your ship with several neut and NOS modules. Duel a willing friend and proceed to drain their ship’s capacitor. Be mindful that most ships won’t transfer capacitor energy if the target’s capacitor level is lower than your own ship’s. You might need to allow your duel partner’s capacitor to recharge periodically or advise them to fit capacitor injectors to maintain a higher capacitor level. For optimal capacitor warfare, pilot a ship of the same or smaller class than your target to maximize the effectiveness of your neuts and NOS.
Faction Warfare: Engaging in Organized Conflict
The Faction Warfare (FW) track introduces you to large-scale, organized PvP within EVE Online. However, the current implementation of Faction Warfare might present challenges in completing this track for pilots not already involved in FW corporations. Traditionally, participation in Faction Warfare requires joining a corporation that has enlisted with one of the empire factions.
If you are not currently in a Faction Warfare corporation, you might encounter difficulties in completing this track until the upcoming Faction Warfare overhaul. This overhaul is expected to allow individual pilots to pledge allegiance to a faction without their entire corporation needing to be a FW corporation. For a deeper understanding of Faction Warfare, consult the Uniwiki article on Faction Warfare. If you are already part of a FW corp, simply continue participating in typical FW activities: engage enemy pilots, defend or capture complexes, and complete a Level 1 FW mission to progress through this track naturally.
Support: The Unsung Heroes of Fleets
The Support track shines a spotlight on the crucial role of logistics pilots, often called “logibros,” in EVE Online fleets. These pilots are the lifeline of any fleet, responsible for keeping their allies alive in the heat of battle. This track, like others, can be efficiently completed with the help of friends if you prefer a faster approach over joining actual fleets.
Equip your ship with remote shield and armor repair modules. Duel your friends and practice your support skills by remotely repairing their ships while taking damage yourselves. This method allows you to quickly cycle through the support tasks and gain practical experience with remote repair modules, essential skills for any aspiring fleet support pilot.
Destruction: Embracing Ship Loss as a Learning Tool
The Destruction track of the eve air career program encourages you to confront the reality of ship loss in EVE Online. This track requires you to experience ship destruction a total of 20 times. For seasoned PvP pilots, this number might seem trivial. For players new to PvP, or those who primarily engage in PvE activities, this track pushes you outside your comfort zone and towards accepting ship loss as a normal part of the EVE experience.
It’s important to note that simply self-destructing cheap ships like T1 frigates or corvettes will not count towards this track. Only true lossmails, generated when your ship is destroyed by another entity (NPC or player), will register progress. Embrace the explosions, learn from each loss, and after 20 ship destructions, this track will be complete.
Duels: Practice and Preparation
The final track, Duels, within the eve air career program, offers another easily completable segment. This track requires you to initiate 15 duels. The beauty of this track is that you don’t actually need to engage in combat or even be in space after initiating the duel request.
Simply invite friends to duels 15 times. You can be docked, in a station, or even in space – the location is irrelevant. The act of initiating the duel is what counts towards track completion. This makes it a quick and effortless way to wrap up your Soldier of Fortune training.
Claim Your Rewards: Skill Points and Combat Readiness
Congratulations! Upon completing all the tracks within the eve air career program‘s Soldier of Fortune path, you will be rewarded with a substantial 750,000 skill points! This injection of skill points will significantly boost your pilot’s capabilities, allowing you to train into more advanced skills and ships faster, accelerating your journey towards becoming a proficient PvP pilot in EVE Online.
To maximize the benefits of the eve air career program, consider relogging your character after completion. For players with multiple characters, repeating the entire program on альт characters is a highly efficient way to accumulate even more “brain-juice” – skill points – further enhancing your overall EVE Online experience and fleet readiness. The Soldier of Fortune path is designed to be a repeatable and rewarding introduction to the combat-focused careers available in the vast universe of EVE Online.
