Missions
Looking for something to do? Missions can be profitable ways to kill some time. In general missions are a set of tasks that must be accomplished to gain a reward. Sometimes missions can take quite a bit of effort and/or money. In general missions that take more effort or money give better rewards.
Missions can be divided in to four categories based on what is needed to be done to get the reward.
Storyline missions
Sometimes called "mission chains", storyline missions are usually a series of short to long missions that lead up to a large reward. For example, in Sol there is a chain of missions that result in the very valuable Warden as the prize.
Merchant missions
Scattered randomly throughout the universe are merchant missions. These require 10 of either plus-gear (from Free Market) or Oversized gear (from Gargan) + 1 Pirate Crest. The reward is cost of the purchase plus between 5% and 50% and one of the Trader's marks. The danger factor of the system is tied to the size of the investment and the reward for completion.
- Note: The merchant secondary skill is not required for these missions...
"Help us" missions
Randomly distributed throughout the universe is a series of station-gear supply missions. The managers of these poor stations are in desperate need of an Adonis Radar or Ambro Shield and are willing to pay well with credits and some hard-to-find pieces of equipment.
Trade missions
A few special systems have trade missions. These missions permit the exchange of one item (or set of items) for another and are repeatable as many times as you want. The Enforcer Rank missions in Sol are a classic example. Gargan is another system with a large number of these missions.
The mission system was used for these exchanges due to a limitation in how the game was programmed.