Hope reunites you with Arlen in the Pneuma system. It lists warp 1 to start and warp 70 to complete, and between those two points it asks for 7 million Tritanium and 15 kills on level 40 or higher hostiles. Completing it pays 3,611,000 Dilithium and 110 4-star Uncommon Refined Ore. The reward is large, but this is not a mission you pick up unprepared.
Hope objectives
Five objectives, in this order, with no choice split:
- Meet with Arlen, in the Pneuma system.
- Find the trader, in New Berlin.
- Donate 7,000,000 Tritanium.
- Defeat 15 hostiles of level 40 or higher.
- Bring the components back to Arlen, in the Pneuma system.
The first two steps are travel. You warp to Pneuma to open the mission with Arlen, then head to New Berlin to track down the trader. Nothing there costs you anything except flight time.
The third and fourth steps are where the mission actually lives. Seven million Tritanium leaves your warehouse in one go, and 15 hostiles at level 40 or above is a real combat session rather than a couple of quick kills. The mission does not tie that hostile objective to a named system, so any level 40 or higher spawns you can reach will count toward the 15.
The last step returns you to Pneuma to hand the components to Arlen and close the mission out.
Where and what warp
Pneuma is the pickup and the finish line, and New Berlin is the middle stop. The mission is listed at warp 1 to start and warp 70 to complete, so somewhere across those five steps you are travelling well outside early-game space. Warp 70 is the number to plan around: if no ship in your fleet has that range, you will get partway through Hope and stall.
Warp range comes from the ship plus your warp research, so check the fleet you intend to use before you take the first objective rather than after you have already donated the Tritanium.
Hope rewards
Completing Hope gives:
- 3,611,000 Dilithium
- 110 4-star Uncommon Refined Ore
The Dilithium is the headline. A payout in the millions covers a serious chunk of research or a ship tier-up, and story missions that hand it over in one lump are worth going out of your way for. The Refined Ore is a 4-star material, so it is only useful once you are building and refitting at that grade, which lines up with the warp 70 range the mission asks for. Finishing Hope also opens the next mission in the story line.
Tips
Bank the Tritanium before you start. Seven million is a donation, not a purchase, and once it goes it is gone. If your warehouse is near that number, work the mining side first and take the mission when you are comfortably over the line rather than exactly on it.
Anything above your protected storage is exposed while you sit on it. Stockpiling that much Tritanium makes your base a more attractive raid target than usual, so try to arrive at the donation step quickly instead of holding the pile for days.
Run the hostile objective in parallel. Fifteen level 40 or higher kills is the longest stretch of the mission by time, and since no system is specified for it, you can knock those out on whatever grind route you already use while your survey ships fill the Tritanium gap.
Bring a fleet that can survive level 40 targets comfortably. The mission counts kills, not attempts, so a fleet that wins slowly is fine and a fleet that keeps needing repairs is not. Repair time between fights will cost you more than the flight to Pneuma ever does.
Check the warp path before the last leg. Coming back to Arlen at the end means another trip to Pneuma, so leave enough of the fleet fuelled and in position that the return is a single jump rather than a slow crawl back across the map.
