The myrmidon is a popular Gallente battlecruiser with excellent mission-running capabilities. It sports a bonus to drone damage and hit points, as well as a bonus to armor repairing. These combine to make a learn, mean, mission-running machine. As a member of the battlecruiser ship class, new players can fly one with reasonable proficiency in less than a month.

This is a guide to setting up the myrmidon the fly in combat missions, with the goal of making the ship as accident-proof as possible. This fitting should be best for newbies that are still learning the limits of what their ships can do, who will appreciate the extra hit points and myrmidon's general survivability.

Why Fly The Myrmidon

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style="font-style: italic;">The myrmidon is well-round, yet still tough enough to get you through even many level four missions.

The myrmidon can field a flight of five medium drones, allowing it to dish out respectable damage of any type. Its ability to repair its own armor equates a tank that can cope with level three missions and even many level four missions. Because drone damage types are completely flexible, the myrmidon does not have to bow out of accepting combat missions against certain NPC types with strong resistances (unlike say, the harbinger).

Most importantly, the tank fielded by the myrmidon is so deliciously effective that you can walk away from a mission-in-progress to make a sandwich, and the worst-case scenario in most level three missions is that a drone or two might die.

High Slots - Guns and Loot

• x4 Heavy Neutron Blaster (Lead Charge M)
• x1 Salvager I
• x1 Small Tractor Beam I

Blasters are the shorter-ranged hybrid turrets, with the highest damage of any turret system, at least on paper. In practice, they are eminently more suited for PvE than for PvP. Heavy neutrons are the most damaging of the cruiser-sized blasters, able to dish out kinetic and thermal damage to targets that get within range. The "default" hybrid ammunition for this fit is Lead M because it uses the least capacitor. If you find that your capacitor is not running out, you may wish to switch to another ammo type for more range or damage.

The tractor beam is for pulling in wrecks that can then be looted and salvaged, boosting your income. Though many players are interested in salvaging, it is worth emphasizing that time spent salvaging level one, two, and three missions is probably better spent running level four missions. Thus, it is best to run through missions as quickly as possible to get to level four missions sooner, rather than wasting too much time salvaging lower-level missions.

Mid-Slots - Crazy For Capacitor

• x10mn Afterburner I
• x4 Cap Recharger

Because your guns and armor repairers use so much capacitor, it is important to not run out mid-mission. With only newbie skills, it is necessary to devote most of your mid-slots to ensuring an ample capacitor supply. If you have trained some fitting skills and find yourself with sufficient CPU and power grid, consider swapping out a cap recharger for a 'Large Capacitor Battery I' or named equivalent.

If capacitor is not proving a problem (perhaps you only need one armor repairer to be active most of the time), especially in level three or lower missions, try swapping out a cap recharger or two for either an 'Omnidirectional Tracking link' or 'Target Painter I', depending on whether you are planning to pay attention enough to paint your targets, or would prefer to just boost your drone damage.

Low-Slots - Tank It Up

• x2 Medium Armor Repairer I
• x1 Armor Explosive Hardener I
• x1 Armor Kinetic Hardener I
• x1 Armor Thermic Hardener I
• x1 Magnetic Field Stabilizer I

That's right, two armor repairers. The capacitor cost is a killer, but will allow players with very low skills to tank damage in missions that were intended by CCP to be oriented toward older players. The two armor repairers should not be left on constantly unless they are needed, but rather you should pulse them whenever you feel the need.

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style="font-style: italic;">The myrmidon is cheap, but can be upgraded over time as mission difficulties increase.

The three armor hardeners listed above are for an "omni-tank" meaning that you should be able to tank most missions reasonably well. You should be able to breeze through most missions with those, without a problem. In more difficult missions, you should change your hardeners so that you are tanking the damage inflicted by the specific NPCs that you are fighting. This will dramatically improve your ability to withstand damage.

The magnetic field stabilizer adds an extra chunk of damage to your blasters. If you are going entirely the drone route and don't plan on micromanaging your guns, it may be better to throw an extra armor harder in there.

Drones

• x5 Hammerhead I
• x5 Warrior I

The exact drones used should vary depending on what NPC you are facing in a given mission. Look up what NPCs you will be fighting against, and swap your drones accordingly.

Rigs (Optional)

x1-x3 Medium Capacitor Control Circuit

The extra capacitor afforded by the "CCC" rigs is only necessary if you are constantly using your second armor repairer. If you are not, it may be better to plug in an "Auxillary Nano Pump I" module for additional repairing, or any of the various armor resistance rigs.

That said, the myrmidon can usually handle level three and lower missions just fine, without breaking a sweat. It is entirely possible to skip the rigs, and I would recommend starting without them and adding them as you find yourself in need of more capacitor and have the ISK to spare.

Upgrading

Like nearly any ship, the myrmidon benefits considerably when its modules are upgraded to a named version or tech two. The cap rechargers and armor hardeners are not too tough to skill up for, and improve significantly. On the other hand, tech two blasters take quite a long skill grind to train for, and are not the main point of the ship by any means. There are better things to train, at least initially.

Note that most players probably don't use tech two drones in missions because of how easy it is to lose them and how much more they cost. For this reason it is better to train up your drone-related support skills. Indeed, this is the best way to improve your myrmidon's performance, and will benefit you down the line when you get into a dominix battleship or any of the tech two Gallente options.

Fly Safe

Put bluntly, in most missions the myrmidon is newbie-proof. You can screw up a bit, but it's pretty tough for a low-level mission to get you into the kind of scrape that would make you lose the myrmidon. This, even with even the most rudimentary skills. Remember to let the drones do the bulk work for you, and to not worry about salvage too much. Fly Safe!

 

Amarr	Caldari	Gallente	Minmatar
Harbinger	Drake	Myrmidon	Hurricane
Prophecy	Ferox	Brutix	Cyclone