Pilot Archive

Vortex Squadron:

This guide is intended as a walkthrough of each mission in the squadron, and gives you a heads up on what to expect when going into the next mission, when you will need friends, etc... It is not intended to hold your hand and do everything for you, you will still have to put in the work There are no cheats or exploits here either, your skills will have to be sufficient.

Welcome to Vortex Squadron. I will warn you up front that you have selected one of the harder squadrons in Jump to Lightspeed, and will most likely be enlisting the aid of friends on several missions to advance. If you think you will have difficulty in finding people to help you, or are looking for a lighter load, then I suggest moving to another squadron now before you get frustrated. The truly difficult missions will not come until Tier IV, but they are very challenging if not using your droid interface properly, or having less than perfect equipment outfitted on your ship.

First, a note about newbie missions and Tier I training. All squadrons have a set of 4 newb missions that must be completed in order to train any pilot skills. They all consist of the same thing, a patrol, a destroy mission, an escort, and an assassination. As all squads are the same, and these missions pose no difficulty, they will not be discussed here. After you have completed these introductory missions, you will not have to do any more missions until reaching Tier II, all skills are gained through XP. This is the reason that Tier I and intro missions are excluded from this guide.

I have also included at the end of each quest the next skillbox training that is recommended. You should be using a droid interface as early as you possibly can, and should continue to use it throughout your mastery of pilot. These commands are essential to smoothing your way through the profession and will save you a lot of frustration later on. There are guides regarding droid interfaces on other threads, so I will not go into much detail here, but I strongly recommend that you build a good flight computer/astromech and upgrade it at every opportunity.

Once you have completed all of Tier I, you can attempt to get special landing permission to land at the abandoned Rebel Base on Dantooine. Since this is where most of your missions will come from, getting this permission might not be a bad idea. To obtain the mission, you /comm the Dantooine Space Station, and request special landing permission. It is strongly recommended that you be at least 1-2-1-1 Pilot and use weapon overload III to complete this quest at this early stage.

First Objective: Escort. You will be asked to intercept and disable one of the Dantooine supply freighters than have been appropriated by the Imperial Navy. Do this, and then you will escort the ship back to the Dantooine Space Station. The patrol route passes near a group of fighters that will add in to the fight if you are not careful.
Second Objective: Battle. The Imperials are sending a strike force to attack the Dantooine Supply Fleet! It consists of 1 TIE Advanced, 1 Interceptor, and 8 TIE Fighters. You must destroy all of these ships to complete the mission. After this you will recieve landing rights at the Dantooine Rebel Base where your trainers are.
*MISSION COMPLETE*

Another very useful quest for you is also at the Dantooine Space Station. Completing this mission will allow you to get full repairs at the Dantooine station instead of partial repairs. The way to access this quest is by /comm'ing the station and requesting repairs, when the monkey man there tells you he can only repair part, ask him why? He will give you a mission that is two parts. First, you have to go make a delivery to a ship in a sector he will determine, next you will travel to Tatooine space to perform an escort mission. All spawns in this quest are Tier II and should be no difficulty for you to handle, once you have finished the escort, next time you talk to the Dantooine station, you will be given full repairs. From here forward, all repairs done at this station will be full repair!

Tier II Box II
You will recieve this mission after you train in your first Tier II skillbox.

First Objective: Escort. You will be sent to Lok System to kidnap an Imperial Scientist for interrogation. When you arrive in Lok, travel to the waypoint given and rendezvous with the Rebel Officer. You will then escort him for awhile and be engaged by waves of Tier II Corsair Raiders. Once you have completed this first escort, you will move on to the second objective.
Second Objective: Inspection. You will recieve coordinates to the Imperial Scientist. You are to disable his vessel, then inspect it. Once you have done this, you will realize that the scientist ship was just bait for a trap, and two fighters will spawn on you, take them out.
*MISSION COMPLETE* Suggested Skill: Equipment II (1-2-1-1)

Tier II Box III
You will recieve this mission after you train your second Tier II Skillbox

First Objective: Escort. You will be dispatched to the Yavin system to escort a scientist who is trying to purchase data related to Force Crystals and their properties. You must escort him out of the system and defend him against the TIE Fighters that will spawn. The spawns come very fast, so be prepared to handle multiple waves of fighters at once. A useful trick is to disable the fighters instead of just blowing them up, you can buy yourself some time this way. This escort is fairly long, so be prepared for that also.
*MISSION COMPLETE* Suggested Skill: Advanced Fighters (2-2-1-1)

Tier II Box IV
You will recieve this mission after training your third Tier II Skillbox.

First Objective: Capture. The smuggler who sold the data to the scientist from the previous mission has been captured by the Empire and you have been unleashed to rescue him. Travel to Yavin and proceed to the waypoint. You must disable the Imperial Prison Transport to get to him, and of course deal with the escort fighter. Once you have disabled the ship, you must escort it out of the system. No difficulty here, all the ships are Tier II.
*MISSION COMPLETE* Suggested Skill: Droid Theory (2-2-1-2)




Tier II Exit Quest
First Objective: Inspection. You are to travel to the waypoint in the Dantooine system and disable the shuttle you find there. Inspect it to get the coordinates that Vrovel requested.
*MISSION COMPLETE* You should at this point have all Tier II skillboxes trained, so no suggestions 

Tier III Box I
You must complete this quest prior to receiving your first Tier III Skill. You will be granted the skill regardless of how much xp you have, so no need to grind.

First Objective: Assassination. You are dispatched by your new trainer to destroy an Imperial Inquisitor making his way through the Dantooine System. Travel to the waypoint and handle him.
Second Objective: Escort. You are now ordered to escort an Imperial Informant through the system. Again, standard escort mission, no surprises here, just fighters. There are a large number of Valarian and Imperial spawns near the waypoint, so be careful.
Third Objective: Survival. The Informant you just escorted to the Rebel Base is a spy! You have to defend the waypoint you were assigned for a 7 minutes while the Rebel Base on Dantooine prepares for attack. These quests are fairly straight bforward, if you need more time between spawns, stick to disabling instead of destroying the fighters.
Fourth Objective: Inspection. That pesky Imperial Spy that you escorted to the base earlier is trying to escape now. Disable him, inspect him, and dock to take his data. Afterwards you can blow him up to make yourself feel better =).
Fifth Objective: Deliver. Take the data you just acquired to the waypoint and dock with the ship there to transfer it. When you arrive at the waypoint a group of TIE's will spawn, take them out before docking so they aren't taking potshots at you while you are in the process of the data transfer.
*MISSION COMPLETE* Suggested Skill: Advanced Equipment (2-3-2-2)

Tier III Mission II
First Objective: Battle. The Bothans require your assistance in a fight they are having before they will agree to translate the data you acquired from the Imperial Spy. Travel to the waypoint and engage the fighters there. It is a fairly large group, so be ready with an escape macro or shield shunts.
Second Objective: Rescue. Travel to the waypoint given, and dock with the ship there to repair it. After repairs are complete, you will be asked to escort the ship out of the system.
Third Objective: Patrol. You must scour the system to make sure any Blacklight Pirates lingering about are handled. Follow the route provided by your flight computer. At the end of your route, you will be accosted by 4 fighters, take them out to complete this stage.
Fourth Objective: Inspection. You are given a waypoint to travel to to perform an inspection of a Blacklight Squadron Leader. Disable him and clean up the rest of the surrounding fighters, then dock with him. The fighters will continue to respawn on you even after you have completed your objective, so use your boosters to get some distance, then turn around and mop up whats left of them.
*MISSION COMPLETE* Suggested Skill: Advanced Chassis (3-3-2-2)

Tier III Mission III
First Objective: Patrol. You are sent to search for the Blacklight Pirate Leader. The mission will take place in Endor space, so get setup and hyperspace over there. Once you have your patrol waypoint, go through the patrol route. When you reach the end you will be attacked by 4 Blacklight Pirates. Be wary, as this last patrol point is right on top of a Tier IV spawn of Blacklight Pirates, and they will aggro you on sight.
Second Objective: Survival. You are directed to a waypoint where you are to hold position while Vortex command searches for the Blacklight Headquarters. You will be confronted with waves of fighters, all Tier III, and nothing you shouldn't be able to handle in your new X-Wing.
Third Objective: Patrol. You are now on the prowl for the Blacklight Leader. Follow the route you are given.
Fourth Objective: Assassination. You are asked to destroy the Blacklight Leader. He will come in with a group of fighters around him, again, should not pose much difficulty for you in your snazzy new fighter.
*MISSION COMPLETE* Suggested Skill: Advanced Droid Theory (3-3-2-3)


Tier III Mission IV
First Objective: Battle. You are to travel to the Dathomir System and engage a fighter group. This group consists of 7 fighters, you will have assistance from Rebel NPC's, so don't worry too much, just keep on the move. I would recommend taking out the bombers first as their missiles are a nuisance.
Second Objective: Patrol. In search of more of the Inquisition's ships, you must run a patrol through the system. No fighter spawns in this one, just a standard patrol.
Third Objective: Survival. The Vortex will ask you to travel to a waypoint and hold there while they calculate a new safe location for you, the spawns you will encounter are Tier III TIE's like usual, if you read the mission text, it will sound much worse than it is...
Fourth Objective: Capture. You are asked to retrieve one of the experimental fighters that have been the focus of this mission string. Disable him and destroy his escort, you will then escort him out of the system. This is also a straightforward escort, no surprises.
Fifth Objective: Delivery. You will travel to the waypoint given and dock with a freighter there to transfer the now subdued cyborg pilot of the Experimental TIE Fighter you just captured, once you have him, you will need to take him to another drop point to pass him off. Fighters will spawn as you approach the drop point, take out the bomber and continue to the drop zone, they will keep coming at you so you have to dock while under fire. Have your shield shunt prepared in case they get a few lucky shots. Once you have finished the docking maneuvers, the mission is complete, now just mop up what is left of the fighter spawns and get yourself home.
*MISSION COMPLETE* This mission will complete your Tier III Pilot Training, no suggestion required.

While most of what you have done up to now should not have given you terribly much trouble, the upcoming mission set is extremely difficult. I would strongly suggest bringing friends with you to make the going easier. Unless you are using absolute top of the line equipment and know your droid interface and tactics very well, you will make a lot of trips to the space station and have to do multiple restarts of your missions before you will meet success. Also, unless you have a particular desire to pilot an A-Wing, the order of skills that you train in this Tier is not particularly relevant. Training one box over another will not provide you with any solid advantage over another box, so train whatever skill you like. With that in mind...

You will now be taking your missions from a new trainer that can be found in the Dearic Theater. Dearic is on Talus just in case you didn't know :-p

Tier IV Mission I
You will recieve this quest after training your first Tier IV Skill
First Objective:Survival. The Vortex are evacuating their base on Dantooine and are transporting personnel through the Endor System. You are asked to go to a waypoint and hold there so the last remaining shuttles can make it through alive. These are Tier IV fighters and are no pushovers, so concentrate!! You are going to be dealing with a LOT of fighters here, more than you've ever encountered at one time, so get ready for a very tough battle. Tips for success: Use your IFF Scramble pilot trick. When you engage the first wave of fighters, the second is going to come quickly after, and a third, and fourth. You will also most likely draw the Tier V droid fighters right near the waypoint into the battle as well. Using the IFF will buy you precious seconds to recharge your shields, don't expect it to last long though . Another useful trick for this one is barrel rolling. To do a barrel roll, you roll in one direction (for this example we will say you roll right), then pitch up and yaw right. This maneuver, while difficult to master, will put you into a spiral flying pattern, and most of your enemies’ shots will whiz past you. This is an excellent technique to use when running from an opponent as well as when you are in very thick action, such as this. You can pretty much give up on destroying all the fighters; they come too fast, so just stay moving and stay alive. Capacitor to shield shunt III is also REQUIRED to do this one solo. However, it is much easier and more fun to bring a friend . Once you are done, hyperspace to Area D-435 in Endor to clear aggro and head for the next target.
Second Objective: Assassination. An Inquisitor is trying to escape after the battle from the previous section went so poorly, you are not to allow him the opportunity. Target the TIE Advanced named Imperial Inquisitor, the rest are irrelevant. You can kill them if you like for xp, but once the Inquisitor is dead, the mission is complete.
*MISSION COMPLETE*

Tier IV Mission II
You will recieve this mission after you train your second Tier IV Skill
First Objective: Assassination. You are dispatched to Yavin to destroy a High Inquisitor. The Master Inquisitor flys a TIE Agressor and is Tier V, so he should be your primary target. If you have never faced an Agressor before, there is something that needs to be said about this ship… it is extremely annoying . The Agressor possesses a rear turret that will continue to fire at you even when you are behind the ship, and if you aren’t careful it will make very short work of you. Target Weapon 1 (you can target components and systems of a targeted ship using the [ and ] keys)as the component and pound him until he’s dead, then clean up the remainder of his escort.
Second Objective: Battle. A group of 10 TIE Fighters will spawn, one of which is a TIE Opressor. Take out all targets to complete this quest.
*MISSION COMPLETE*

Tier IV Mission III
You will recieve this mission after training your third Tier IV Skill
First Objective: Rescue. There is a Vortex spy marooned in the Dathomir System. Travel to the location you are given and dock with the ship to initiate repairs, once these are completed, you will then be asked to escort him out of the system. The fighter you are escorting is a standard TIE, meaning it has no shields. When armor takes damage, the damage does not regenerate, so you must be extra careful that this ship does not take damage if you can help it. The waves of fighters that will spawn on you are fairly large (5-7) fighters at a time, and will come quickly. Expect to be dealing with 15-20 fighters at a time. The way to save the ship you’re escorting is to aggro all the TIE's as quickly as possible. Once you have landed a hit on one of the fighters in the attack wave, all of them will ignore your escort target and come after you. Thankfully, this escort is very short and will be completed quickly.
Second Objective: Assassination. An Inquisitor is chasing after the spy you just rescued, and you need to make sure he is unable to catch him. This is your first encounter with a VT-49 Decimator. The Decimator is a light battle cruiser with two gun points on it, one on top and one on bottom. It is lightly armored however and will fall to you quickly, if you stay with it. Disable the guns first if you are using slightly less powerful weapons on your own craft, then destroy it at your leisure. Once he is gone, you should have little trouble defeating the rest of his escort.
*MISSION COMPLETE*

Tier IV Exit Quest
This is the final quest you will recieve before heading to the master missions. This guide does not detail these missions as there are several threads and guides already that deal with this subject.

First Objective: Battle. You are sent to make a strike against the Inquisition that will cripple their operations. You will travel to the system, and assist the NPC Fighter squad in destroying a Decimator and 8 other fighters. Use the same tactics as the previous mission, attack the decimator first then clean up the remainder of the ships.
Second Objective: Battle. You will be sent to a new location to do the same again. Only this time, there is no Decimator in the battle group, so kill em’ all!
*MISSION COMPLETE*

Congratulations! You have now finished all of the core quests for Vortex Squadron. Report to your trainer for instructions to follow for the Master Missions target=_blank>

Message Edited by PhatMadness on 03-23-200508:44 AM

Message Edited by PhatMadness on 03-23-2005 08:46 AM

Reserved for future editing/expansion

Thanks Washell =). Yes the intention is to have an index of all the squad mission listings added to the FAQ thread at the top. Once this is done, all the information referred to in the guide will have a linked thread within the same post =). I didn't feel it necessary to type the guide for the Corvette nine times lol