So recently I decided to return to my character that I started many months ago on a 14 day trial. So I purchased myself a month of game time to see if this thing is really for me or not.

So I played for a couple of days, doing fine. At this point I'm owning a nice Catalyst, with some nice guns on it and I'm actually feeling pretty powerful. I was on an Epic Arc quest and I was doing pretty good, bandits were barely hurting me and I burned though missions pretty fast. But suddenly, a spike in the difficulty. I was sent on a mission with a lot of lesser enemy ships and one serious ship between them. It really caught by surprise and I barely managed to warped out of there. I repaired and went back in, only this time, taking out the lesser vessels one by one as I'm warping back and forth for repairs. Eventually I got all of them, and could concentrate on the boss of the bunch, thus completing the mission.

The next mission did not go so well. The encounter I was sent to consisted of, what at least seemed to be, the same quantity of enemies. I thought that I could employ the same strategy as before, but I did not take into consideration Warp Drive Jammers. Needless to say that I did not have a chance. I could only stare at the screen as my sweet Catalyst burst into pieces. In retrospect I should have expected a much greater challenge after the last mission, and should not have gone on the next one without improving my ship.

This was greatly demoralizing, but I decided to use the insurance money to buy another Catalyst and started looking at ways for improving my chances, starting with counter measures to Warp Jamming. I found myself a nice Warp Drive Stabilizer on a station a few jumps away and started making my way there to pick it up. I noticed that the station is on a 0.4 sec area, but I figured that it'll be ok. It was not. As soon as I warped to the station, I was one-shotted by a player, losing my second Catalyst in 15 minutes. Again, this was on me. I had no business in low sec areas, and should not have used auto-pilot to get there. But this was too much for one evening, and so I quit the game.

Few days later I decided to get back to it. I bought a *third* Catalyst and started refitting it. This time, I'm going back to the basics. I've found some low level missions and started refilling my bank account. After a day I feel like I'm back on my feet, but I'm still continuing with low level missions. I got to a series of missions that introduce the scanning mechanic and I started going though it. One mission in the middle of the series asked me to detect a signature anomaly (or something) and retrieve some proof that I've been there. After a long session of scanning, I finally find the acceleration gate and warp to that location. Again, a huge infestation of enemies. The acceleration gate warps me to the belly of the beast and I'm being bombarded from all directions. Before I even notice, my shield is down and as I'm trying to warp out of there, my ship blows up. I honestly did not expect this kind of challenge from such a low level mission and I did not know what else I could do.

So clearly, I'm not playing this game correctly. It seems like the recurring motif here is me not being able to escape when things go bad. I really need suggestions on how the hell to quickly get away from sticky situations. I there any way to predict if a certain encounter is too much for my level? Also, it seems like no where is completely safe. I once got targeted by a player in a 0.8 sec region near a station. 0.8 is considered dangerous of newbies?

I'm actually really enjoying this game despite all of this and really want some advice on how to stay out of trouble ;)

Firstly some basic tips.

• If your not docked in EVE, your not safe.
• If you can't buy it again (at least once if not twice over) don't fly it. [you seem to have this down]
• If missions/things/the game in general suddenly become harder, you need a bigger ship and/or better skills.

So really, you've done everything right except not taking the hint you need a better ship. You should only be doing lvl1 perhaps lvl2 missions in a catalyst. The Epic Arc missions are just that, EPIC arcs, so in the start it will be easy, and will get progressively harder. You simply need better ships to do the missions.

Again I'll say, Your never safe in EVE, even in 1.0 your not safe. If goonswarm wants to gank, they will suicide, in the process killing you.

Your skills also play a major part. You may be able to get through the missions if your skills are all lvl4/5 but if your skills are all lvl2/3 you just need to train more.

If you want some help on choosing a good PvE mission ship, the best mission ship is the Drake IMO. I don't know what a Catalyst is but I fly the drake and I can solo level 4 missions- albeit it'll take me hours since the Drake's DPS is crap.

The Drake is also one of the safest ships to fly, and it's super cheap too. You can AFK autopilot and probably never get destroyed because you can make the tank so ridiculous on that bad boy.

For the price and the low-level skills required to make this ship a beast, it's well worth the time and the money. You don't even need to put tech 2 equipment in it to make it last in level 3 missions.

As for getting killed by players, the guy above got it all right. You're not safe anywhere, so best bet is to get a ship that is built to last and take any abuse. My main advice though is join a good corp.

@BigChickenDinner: Yeap. A Catalyst just ain't gonna cut it with the missions I was going for. However, after blowing up twice and buying a third ship, I went for level 1 missions. The thing that got me blown up the third time was less my fault. It was the scanning intro missions. I was sent to look for a specific signature anomaly and eventually found one. But then I was overwhelmed by the amount resistance there and got my ass kicked. Today I realized that the signature anomaly *had* to be tagged as a "training" anomaly in order to be perfectly safe. I did not pay attention to that and warped to a proper one that was way over my level. So I spent today recovering and it went pretty well.

@Rohok: I looked up this "Drake". Waaaay over my price range. Especially now. Also, I have no skills for Battlecruisers.

Gotta say that all in all, EVE is one of the deepest games I've ever seen. It's incredibly interesting and engaging. Why is this not featured in a "Random PC Game" yet? I guess they're afraid too many people will find it boring...

For level 3 missions, I'd recommending starting with a Vexor (if you're more into drone skills) or a Thorax (if you're into gunnery) and then you can move into a battlecruiser. One of the interesting things about that class of ship is that the skill to fly them isn't race specific. So even if you've been training along Gallente lines and plan on flying Gallente battleships, you can train Battlecruisers up and fit right into a Minmatar Hurricane, Amarr Harbinger, or Caldari Drake just fine.

Prices have been rising for a while all over New Eden, I think Drakes are now 40-50 million now which is for newer players is ridiculous. Back when they were new they cost around 20. Still, Rohok is right; it's easy to use and incredibly durable. It's worth it saving up for a battlecruiser that can cruise through level 3 missions, and the Drake (from personal experience) can even do level 4s.

@ToastMan:

Honestly I don't run missions much right now, but I hear this is a must for any mission runner.

@ALTF4_FOR_COLORS said:

@ToastMan:

Honestly I don't run missions much right now, but I hear this is a must for any mission runner.

I second this. Eve Survival is the resource for mission runners.

Also, look up fits on Battleclinic if you're having trouble/can't decide what to fit. Also, download the ISK guide, though don't expect to sit down and read it in a day. Take it all in bit by bit.

Running missions in a Catalyst? I was a Caldari pilot so I am unfamiliar with the hierarchy of Gallente ships but I did fly a Catalyst as my salvage ship and it was great for that. Drakes are nice for the tank and the long range missiles but you need backup or decent drone skills to handle the little guys.

You might check out battleclinic at http://eve.battleclinic.com/browse_loadouts.php and search for Catalyst loadouts. I found one somebody named a Mission Catalyst...perhaps it will help, I was a missile pilot so I know little of the guns.

http://eve.battleclinic.com/loadout/60976-Mission-Catalyst.html

Good luck!

Get rich and a big ship so you I can call in air strikes from you when Dust 514 comes out :)