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This is a guide all about how to kill carebears for loot, fun, and tears. Specifically geared towards highsec mission runners you're not at war with. It's surprisingly profitable, since unless you're stupid or fuck up, you don't die. You'll make money slowly, sometimes with sweet faction, deadspace, or officer loot.

Warning: Engaging in this activity will result in loss of your security status, meaning you may no longer be able to access high-sec without being a target yourself for players and the faction police.

Only you will have aggro rights on the hapless mission runner, so you can't use any direct help, only logistics, remote reps etc. The other, vastly more dangerous catch is, if they're in a player corp, their entire corp can shoot you freely. So you need to be able to bust their tank solo, with only logistics support. In theory a T1 cruiser gang could accomplish this with an energy neut vexor/arbitrator getting remote cap transfers and armor reps from gang-mates.
A lower skilled version is a cruiser with remote repping battlecruisers/battleships standing by with points, and DPS. But employing them for anything but RR, cap transfers, or the like requires the mission runner open fire on them directly. Keep in mind if you bring a BS for RR, the mission runner will likely be able to hit it for ~800 to 1000 DPS with Torpedoes. So don't bring a sissy fit with no hitpoints unless you want to watch your support ships go down one by one, then you. A lot of mission runners spend billions on getting an excellent tank + gank that can last for an hour. That's what you're potentially facing.

You don't need to find a system with lots of level 4 agents. Just do it in Motsu, or another major mission hub, but be aware of wartargets, or do it in a gang. Keep reading below.

You hardly need a guide, bring a prober, a fast locking tackler, and lots of friends.

Train up all the astrometrics support skills as high as you can, excepting Astrometric Aquisition as the scan time isn't that significant to begin with. The important one, unfortunately is rank 8 (Rangefinding).

Depends on your kill ship. You need something with either a lot of DPS (like ~1400 if you want to be able to kill eveything, because some plex/officer fits can tank over 1000 forever. One example is Cleg's Mission Golem.) or lots of neuts. Lots of neuts are easier to pull off than 1400 DPS.

• Neut Domi - The problem here is you'll take full damage from cruise, drones, and torps
• Neut Battlecruiser - See above, only slightly less
• Afterburning neut cruiser (recommended) - You take a lot less damage, especially if you take out their drones. The difficulty here is having enough neut capability to neutralize their tank. Ideally quickly. This has been tried in a Vagabond with a medium neutralizer, but exceptional tanks can still hold up to a lone, unbonused medium neut.

Most mission ships have a massive active tank, but not much buffer. This does vary though, some have a buffer and manage to do at least some missions.

• Pilot with skills for probing and killing*
• Logistics backup (not always necessary), but it'll transform a 1v1 into a pretty clear winner vs. loser
• Covops/Prober
• Kill-ship in system (docked, at a POS, being flown by a friend)

• A prober
• Lots of friends

*For highsec mission runner ganking, you must have a pilot capable of both probing and flying the kill ship. The reason being, only you will have aggro vs. the mission runner (garnered from the probe ship), so only you can attack without being CONCORDed. You can bring friends in logistics, or RR ships, but they cannot help you except with remote reps unless the mission runner is really dumb and opens fire on them too.

<EFT> [Helios, Mission Prober] Micro Auxiliary Power Core I Micro Auxiliary Power Core I Co-Processor II

1MN Afterburner II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Ship Scanner I Cap Recharger II Medium Shield Extender II

Expanded Probe Launcher I, Core Scanner Probe I Salvager I

Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I

Hobgoblin II x1 </EFT>

Fitting Notes

• The buffer is not optional.
• The afterburner is not optional. You can't tractor wrecks, and you're speed tanking.
• You could technically split this role into a prober and a salvager, but then you're flying three fucking ships and have to switch too much. Not recommended.
• The rigs are optional, but helpful.
• Substitute Sister's probes if you can, The Sisters' Launcher is not recommended, but if you wanna blow 90M on a covops with 5K ehp, go for it.

The interesting bits you should pay attention to are the Medium Shield Extender II, Multispectrum Shield Hardener II, Ship Scanner I, and 1MN Afterburner II. They're there because there a few sepcific things you have to watch out for if you plan to combine salvaging and probing on one ship. You must have a decent buffer tank, and you must be able to permarun the tank and the AB (since the speed tank aspect of the ship is actually most of your tank). The primary reason for the buffer is that there's a mission where the instant you land from warp to the probe-hit you get hit for about 1000 rainbow damage. Angry mission runners often park a ship in one of these and wait hours for ships to probe them out. Most of the probers die instantly upon arrival. The above fit does not. This fit has been tested somewhere around 25 times against the toxic gas cloud and survived 100% of the time. An immediate warp out is still recommended, it'll lose a big chunk of shield hit points instantly. Then you warp out, mock the hapless tear-cow in local and continue.
If you keep moving, large ships always do pathetic damage. This fit can speed tank most missions unless there are a lot of small rats. It can even kill small rats (slowly) with the one drone. Battleship rats do no significant damage as long as you're after-burning.
If you fit enough buffer/modest tank and an afterburner you can permarun (orbit wrecks at 500 or 1000 never stop moving) you can ignore most rat DPS, and most mission runner DPS. Large guns won't track you for shit, and missiles will hit for hilariously low damage (the above fit was reducing the volley damage of a pimped out target painting golem to 12). But if they launch drones on you warp the fuck out, fast.
Oh, and note the ship scanner. You always, always, always, use this before you take any loot from a can. Mission runners have been known to use bait ships that have a point and a web. Plus, you can see all the delicious faction gear they're using and see if it's even worth it. Also, you'll see some unbelievably bad battleship fits.

<EFT> [Curse, Deadspace killer] Damage Control II Power Diagnostic System II Power Diagnostic System II Power Diagnostic System II

10MN Afterburner II Warp Disruptor II Multispectrum Shield Hardener II Large Shield Extender II Large Shield Extender II Large Shield Extender II

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Missile Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Missile Medium Diminishing Power System Drain I Medium Energy Neutralizer II Medium Energy Neutralizer II

Medium Core Defense Field Extender I Medium Core Defense Field Extender I

Hammerhead II x5 Hammerhead II x5 Warrior II x10 </EFT>

Fitting Notes

• 55k EHP
• 168 DPS omnitank
• It can permarun one neut + ab without using the NOS.
• The AB reduces most mission runner missile dps to below its passive tank.
• Large guns have trouble tracking, and all but projectiles stop firing after a short time due to the neuts.

1. Probe out ship (battleships, marauders, blackops on scan)
2. Boorkmark the hit from the map screen once it's at 100%
3. Warp in, recall probes, start salvaging
4. Scan the target ship with your ship scanner
5. Afterburn around a can with loot in it (don't just approach)
6. Steal some loot
7. Hope they open fire
8. Return in a neut domi, gank boat, or my personal favorite, a hugely tanked afterburner curse (frequently with a logistics backup)
9. Kill mission runner
10. Profit + Tears

Because it is simple task which requires a relatively small gang, I'm surprised that more people aren't out there ganking mission runners. Therefore, the goal of this article is to facilitate the release of knowledge required to perform such a task, in hopes of stirring up interest. Every aspect of this article has been tested in-house and is not a theory.

In order to gank a mission runner, you must have a gang of 8-10 people. It is up to the FC if he wants to allow more than 10 people in the gang, but after that, everyone else is generally excess DPS. Though we have successfully ganked a mission runner with only 7 people, it is highly advisable to have at least 8 to attempt a gank.
Every gang member needs to have an optimal of around 15km. Since you will be hitting targets as they jump into a system, this is a must. With Dominion's increase in Artillery, Minmatar is now the best race for ganking.
For all the mission runners we have hit, we have calculated their fitting which showed considerable EM holes; if you have the ability to equip for EM damage, do it. If you can't use Curators (sentry drones), use Praetors (heavy drones). Additionally, make sure everyone has two Sensor Boosters with Scan Resolution scripts equipped.

The first thing you must do is choose a target system. The system should be a mission runner hub and have a 0.5 security status. Irjunen, Sivala, Umokka and Gulfonodi are popular mission hubs that meet this criteria. You will not have a problem finding a target in one of these systems.
It's likely that concord will be on one of the gates in these systems - you need to pull them off. First, you need to get a safespot off grid near the gate with concord - 500km to 1000km away from the gate is usually a good distance. Have your gang equip 5x Mining Drone I's per person and warp to you in the safe spot (PREP #1). Since mining drones only take up 5m3 per, it's up to the FC if he wants everyone to come with these drones in bay by default (max drones minus 1 per person when ganking usually doesn't make a huge deal).
Once everyone is in the safespot, warp in a concord prep ship. This can be a brand new alt character with Energy Pulse Weapons I trained (takes like 10 minutes), in a frigate that can fit 2x Small Smartbombs (damage type doesn't matter). Have everyone approach the concord prep ship and deploy all mining drones. Once everyone's drones are within range (small smartbombs have a 3km radius), the concord prep ship activates both smartbombs.
Concord spawns 1 battleship (pulled from the gate - which is the nearest concord spawn that exists) per mining drone destroyed. Since Mining Drone I's have like 90hp, they will instapop. This should completely clear concord off the gate. If for some reason there are still some left (there shouldn't be, this is enough to clear out a freighter gank concord spawn), head to the other side of the gate (PREP #2) and perform this again (you will need more mining drones). You must head to the other side of the gate, else you will just be utilizing the same concord that are already at your first prep safespot. This is how you should prep:

Once concord is off the gate, have your gang get into a system 1 jump over to avoid suspicion. You are going to need multiple scouts for ganking mission runners. You need to have one sitting at the mission hub station scanning possible targets with a passive targeter/ship scanner. He needs to add viable targets to his address book, with a note of about how much they are worth. Once a target has been identified, he needs to talk with another scout and tell him which direction the target warped off to (a gate, deadspace etc). If the target warped to a gate, it is likely he is starting a mission.
The second scout needs to sit on the other side of the gate you intend to gank at (the gate that the target warped to).
When the target is leaving your ganking system to start a mission, everyone (except the scanning scouts, of course) needs to jump into the ganking system and warp to a designated safespot about 500-1000km from the gate, and then align to the gate. All sensor boosters and tracking computers should be activated, and all racks should be overloaded (for those who have HEAT).
Though your initial concord pull should have been more than adequate to clear concord off of most gates in the system, make sure there is no concord at the gate. If there is, pull them away, quickly.
At this time, you should have scoopers in place at the gate as well. Any ship that has an MWD and about 200-300m3 cargo space, which can go about 2000-4000m/s will do (fast frigates, etc). The faster/more survivable the ship is, the better. You NEED to be able to outrun other people who are around that might try to steal the loot. A neutral scooper is always better.
Note: You can also scan down mission runners while they complete their mission. This will allow you to skip the gate-clearing part of this article.

Okay, so your scouts have identified a target who has just started a mission. All of your ships are in position at the safespot and ready to go, and there are no concord ships at the gate (faction police don't matter).
It will take an average of 15-20 minutes for a mission runner to complete a mission, so sit tight. Patience is the key to these ops - you must be patient enough to wait for a viable target to be identified, and then wait in the staging area for the go command. Once the scout sitting on the other side of the gate identifies that the target is returning from his mission (warping to the gate the scout is at), the FC warps the entire gang sitting in the safespot to the gate at 0.
In warp, all ships prefire all weapons and offensive modules (warp disruptors, target painters etc). Once exiting warp at the gate, everyone deploys drones and waits for the target to exit cloak.
Once the target decloaks, everyone immediately clicks the target (which will lock and fire immediately since you are prefired) and fires as soon as possible - meaning, don't wait for the FC to give a command to click YES on the concord warning message, press YES as soon as it pops up. Be sure to have your drones engage the target as well.
Note: Gallente users need to MWD to the target while you are locking them to ensure you get more DPS out of your blasters.
Scoopers should MWD to the target as fast as possible during the attack, in order to get to the wreck faster.
If everything went correctly, the target should be destroyed, and you as well. Warp your pods out immediately, and make sure your scoopers got the loot.
Everyone who engaged in the kill (including scoopers) should stay in a safe spot for 15 minutes to ensure that they aren't attacked during this time and to avoid any aggro bugs.

Suicide Ganking is nothing new, nor is mission runner ganking. With the proper amount of knowledge and firepower, anyone can do it. It can be extremely profitable and produce a large amount of tears. More importantly, there's nothing like destroying 3b of someone's net worth and keeping 1/2 of it.