The role of advantage in FW
Advantage works as a multiplier for Victory Points that a faction gains for completing objectives in the system. The higher the difference between friendly and hostile advantage percentage, the bigger the multiplier. For example, if Gallente had a 100% advantage in the system and Caldari had 50%, all Victory Points gained by Gallente would be multiplied by 1.5. The advantage only affects the winning side - even if your faction is behind in the advantage race, you still gain the base VP value for completing your objectives.
Advantage plays a critical role when you aim to contest the system - the higher it is, the easier it is to contest the system as your enemy needs to run more plexes to maintain VP parity. In addition to that, most advantage-related objectives offer easy Loyalty Points, as enemy players rarely contest the sites. Below you will find descriptions of each objective contributing to the advantage score.
Supply Cache/Supply Depot
How to find them: they spawn randomly in frontline/command ops systems for the faction that has the objective advantage (without counting the bonus from neighboring systems). They are visible as beacons on the overview
Recommended ship: high-damage cruiser
How to complete them: Destroy the structure found at the beacon. If your tank allows it, ignore the rats and focus on the cache itself - with the right setup, it should be down in about 3 minutes. Alternatively, bring a long-range setup and kite the rats around while shooting the building. This tactic is especially effective if you can bring 3-4 stealth bombers to the site, making them vaporize almost instantly.
Outcome: -2% advantage for the faction owning the cache/depot, 15k LP
Fleet Rendezvous site
How to find them: they spawn in frontline systems only and require scanning probes to pinpoint their location. It's an easy signature to find - the 'signal sphere' is noticeably smaller than other cosmic signatures. Respawn time is 20 minutes
How to complete them: Destroy 4 waves of rats and the officer battleship that spawns afterward
Recommended ship: long-range cruiser fitted with Core Probe Launcher
How to complete them: destroy the rats until the boss spawns and take care of them. Keep in mind that while the rats are pushovers, the battleship that spawns at the end can surprise you with overwhelming damage. It also sports MWD and around 80km of effective range. As such, kiting drone-based platforms are recommended, as you can stay at a safe range and let the drones do the job for you.
Outcome: +2% Advantage for the winning faction, 10k LP
Propaganda Beacon/Listening Outpost
How to find them: These are consumable items purchased from your militia's LP store. They require components that can be obtained by completing hacking sites in rearguard systems of the opposing faction
Recommended ship: active tanked cruiser
How to complete them: After you deploy them, a structure will show up with a capture radius and a timer. Your goal is to hold the capture zone for 10 minutes while keeping the site clear of respawning rats. While this may seem simple enough, the structure is visible on the overview, and given their rarity, they tend to provoke fights. As such, launching them is recommended only when in fleet, or in systems with low traffic.
Outcome:
Propaganda Beacon - +1.5% advantage for friendly faction, 15k LP
Listening Outpost - - 1.5% advantage for the opposing faction, 15k LP
Battlefields
While battlefields affect the advantage score, they are already covered in a separate article.
Rand Runner
Below you will find a sample fit that can take care of both the Depots and Rendezvous sites - just warp in at a 100, deploy drones, and keep a safe distance between you and the rats. If your skills allow for it, you can ignore the faction medium drones and go straight for the T2 variation.
Arbitrator Fitting (click to expand)
Summary
I hope this article gave you insight on how advantage works, why is it important for your faction, and most importantly, how to gain it. Even if you don't care about the overall FW metagame, the LP rewards are usually good enough to make a small detour from your usual plexing route to run a depot or two.
Comments