4 : Enemies Abound (5 of 5) (Minmatar Republic)

[Alessa Atreides]

I tried this mission on my own, after not having any problems with most any level 4 missions in my Raven. However, i got majorly raped and barely escaped with my ship. Thank God, because it would have taken months to recover that stuff on my ship. I mean, im only 5 months in....

Anyway, if you're going solo on this, i don't recommend going after the gate first. The shield and Armor go down quickly, but the Structure is tougher than diamonds. Especially if you're alone. The most i've seen my ship dish out, is 3085.5 to the Mega Structure in Enemies Abound 4 of 5.

Anyway, take out those damn cruisers and battle cruisers (if there ARE any BC's) right off the bat. You can deal with the inevitability of maybe 12 or more battleships, but if 30 or more cruisers and battle cruisers are added to that, life ends quickly.

[Alessa Atreides]

i lost about 0.7 standing with CPF, when i gave up on the mission...but i figured that it's better to give up, since i don't have any of my buddies online. i guess i need to make a few. im not going to 470mil for one mission! lol

[Quilo]

Did this in a Drake and an alt in a Domi. Used Domi as a shield tanker, had no problems even when last spawn had arrived

[mithrandi]

I did this in my Tengu; I have Low-Grade Crystal Alpha/Beta implants and a Pithum C-Type booster, which probably made tanking the damage a lot less scary, but the main thing is that using T2 Heavy Missile Launchers with Scourge Fury ammo (switching to Caldari Navy Scourge for the frigates), and only 3 x BCS II, I was able to kill nearly the whole of each wave as it spawned. Toward the end I had a few Darkanas hanging around, but that's not too much of a problem.

The Darkanas were by far the hardest to kill with kinetic missiles (apparently explosive works better, I was too lazy to check), but at 600m/s in a cruiser, you take little if any damage from the battleships, so just focus on the frigates (if they web or scramble you), and the cruisers to eliminate the incoming damage; the battleships pose little threat if you can keep moving. I suspect lesser cruiser-class ships will struggle to clear the waves as quickly, but as long as you prioritise the cruisers and the frigates, and you have reasonably high velocity / low signature radius, you should be able to keep damage taken down to a survivable level.

You may die of boredom blowing the stargate up, however...

EDIT: My exact setup, if anyone is curious:

[Tengu, Heavy Missiles]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Power Diagnostic System II

Invulnerability Field II
Invulnerability Field II
Pithum C-Type Medium Shield Booster
Republic Fleet 10MN Afterburner
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile

Medium Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

Tengu Defensive - Amplification Node
Tengu Electronics - Dissolution Sequencer
Tengu Propulsion - Fuel Catalyst
Tengu Offensive - Accelerated Ejection Bay
Tengu Engineering - Augmented Capacitor Reservoir