Distribution missions are probably the easiest type of missions you can do. Distribution agents usually ask you to bring some item from one station to another, most of the times handing you over the item in the current station. Sometimes distribution agents will rarely give out non-distribution missions that require a combat ship or sometimes even some mining gear. However, these missions are very easy and can usually be done in your distribution boat.
I ran distribution mission for the Republic University, a distribution only NPC corp that operates in Minmatar space. My Minmatar faction standing was quite low when I started, so I could only get missions from a level one agent.
Level 1 Missions
I chose an agent close to Hek, quickly fitted my first distribution boat, and off I went to do some serious hauling. The level one distribution missions are probably the easiest missions in the game and the agent asks you to bring some goods to a station that is a jump or two away from his home station. The rewards for the missions were between 41K and 110K ISK and between 35 and 110 LP. The volume of the transported items was never greater than 320 m3, which allows you to run all missions in a T1 frigate, which also speeds up the warping and jumping process compared to a bigger and slower T1 industrial hauler.
In average it took me 3 minutes to finish a mission. This allows you complete almost 20 missions per hour. However, if you look at the pitiful rewards offered by the missions, I hardly made a million ISK in rewards per hour. If you exchange your LP for a rate of 1500 ISK / LP, this came to around 1,5 million ISK / h for me. This very low value even beats high sec exploration as the worst rate of income in the game so far.
My agent also offert one security mission that I finished by just throwing on some T1 drones, some tank and a couple of guns, and one mining mission that I finished with a single Mining Laser I on my frig. So no proper PVE or mining boat was required for these. One mission required a Data Analyser, but that was handed out when I accepted the mission and the hacking was as easy as in the tutorial missions.
Every 16 missions, I got a storyline mission of the same level as my agent by the closest Minmatar storyline agent. The storyline missions were also very easy and sometimes rewarded by a +1 training implant, which costs about 1 million ISK in Jita. These missions increased my faction standing with the Minmatar Republic and corp standing to Republic University quite a bit. If you can get and sell a training implant, you can push your income by a few bucks. If every second storyline mission were dropping an implant, this resulted in 600k ISk extra per hour.
This ended up to be the fit I used for most of my level one missions:
There is little to say about the fit. Small Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer Is in the rig slots to make you warp faster and Inertia Stabilizers Is in the lows to get you into warp faster. The guns in the highs and the active shield tank in the mid slots was needed for the single combat mission. Additionally I used 5 Hobgoblin Is to increase dps. This fit is, with only 1.2 million ISK including the hull, super cheap and does its job. Of course you can also use any other T1 frig instead of the Heron that has sufficient cargo space to hold the maximum of 320 m3 cargo for level one missions. I didn’t put any T2 or expensive meta items on the fit, since these will increase the costs of the fitting quite a bit, with very little return. Any new player can probably fly this within a couple of hours and buy it by the ISK from the tutorial missions.
Level 2 Missions
After a couple of hours grinding level one missions, I finally got a standing of greater one and unlocked a level two distribution agent. The level two missions were not much different from the level one’s, apart from slightly bigger loads to transport and better payout.
In average I got 100k ISK and 76 LP per mission. The maximum distance you need to travel to deliver a package went up by one jump to a maximum of three jumps, which increased the average completion time to 4 minutes. The maximum volume of the packages was 450 m3, which is a little too big for the cargo bay of my Heron. By fitting a Expanded Cargohold I in one of the low slots, you can however increase it just enough.
With 4 minutes to complete a mission, I could finish 15 missions an hour, which comes to 3,2 million ISK / h.
The level two agents did not offer any other mission types, so I could run all missions in the same Heron fit. Again, every 16 level two missions you will get one storyline mission, which now sometime rewards you with a +2 training implant, which goes for around 5 million ISK in Jita. If we just assume that every second storyline mission gives one out, this would increase your income to around 5,5 million ISK / h.
Level 3 Missions
The grind up to level three missions and the minimum corporation standing of three took me a couple of afternoons, but finally I unlocked the agent and got my first mission. The package volume for level three mission increases quite a bit to between 1.000 m2 and 4.000 m3. This was way too much for my little Heron and I had to switch to a proper T1 industrial ship to get enough cargo capacity. After looking at each available T1 hauler, I picked the Nereus hull because it has the fastest align time and warp speed of all haulers, which are the key stats to finish your missions fast, which translates in more ISK / h. The cargo capacity of the hull is big enough to finish most missions and if it doesn’t fit, simply use some Expanded Cargo Hold IIs in the low slots to increase cargo space.
This is the fit a used for my level three missions:
This fit is basically the T1 industrial version of my Heron, just with bigger cargo hold and no guns. It aligns in under 5 seconds and has an impressive warp speed of 7 AU, which is almost as fast as an Interceptor. Again, it doesn’t break the bank with about 13 million ISK for the hull and fitting.
The maximum distance to travel increased again by one jump to a maximum of four jumps away from my agent. This also increased the average completion time by one minute to 5 minutes per mission. The average rewards were 166K ISK and 180 LP. With these stats I could finish 12 missions an hour, which comes to 5,2 million ISK / h.
The level three agent only offered distribution missions and the implant rewarded by the corresponding storyline mission increased to a +3 training implant. Since the number of missions you can do per hour becomes lower with the level of your agent, the amount of storyline mission you can get per hour decreases too. Let’s assume you can get one implant worth 9 million ISK every three hours, this increases your income by 3 million ISK / h to a total of 8,2 million ISK / h.
Level 4 Missions
Finally, after an eternity of hauling dolls, frozen food, homeless (seriously!), weapons and dirt, I unlocked the level 4 distribution agent. The maximum distance for a mission increased to 5, the maximum volume to 9700K m3 and the rewards were in average 280K ISK and 470 LP per mission. With an average completion time of 6 minutes this result in 10 missions per hour and an income of 9,8 million ISK / h.
If you count in the storyline mission, which now provide +4 implants worth 20 mill a piece, this value increases to around 16 million ISK / h.
On thing you should look at before you start to run level 4 missions, is that the agent is at least 5 jumps away from the closest low sec system. This is also the case for the lower level agents, however the higher the maximum distance of the mission, the more of a problem this becomes. If he is not, you will end up with quite some missions that lead into low sec and you must not go there with the above T1 indy fit. Any player with a PVP fitted ship greater than a frigate can and will simply kill you in low sec. If you want to haul into low sec, you will need the T2 industrial version, which can fit a covert ops cloaking device and warp cloaked. You can avoid almost all hostile players by simply cloaking up once you break your gate cloak and warp away. However, the cost of such a ship (200 million+) is in no relation to the rewards of the missions, so I would simply avoid going into low sec.
Looking at the number, the higher level missions earn some ISK with very little effort and investment. This might be a good activity for brand new players. The distribution missions in general require only minimum attention, so if you like gaming and watching Netflix at the same time, this might be an activity for you. 😉
It is also very easy to grind towards storyline mission in the lower levels and increase your faction standing relatively fast. If this is what you want and you don’t care about the income, distribution missions might be a good choice too.