Newbie
This is Kismeteer's guide to getting started with Eve Online.
I have a list of things for new players that I recommend you follow, in a specific order. Read instead of asking the same questions we get daily.
This entire galaxy is yours, go and take control of it!
Here are some quick buttons to common topics, but I'd follow this page first.
tldr: Pick who looks good, Must do Aura Missions, Must do Career agents (soldier of fortune last), Should do AIR Career Program, Should do Sisters of Eve Epic Arc, Try some Beginner Activities (ask for doc), I recommend Exploration for 60 mil an hour, then must join a corporation for access to the best ship, FriendSHIP.
We have a very precise reasons for suggesting this order instead of going straight to a corporation. You need to learn the game, and you don't want to look like a spy to a corporation.
What to do first (click to read!)
Eve Academy
CCP has their own Eve Academy - https://www.eveonline.com/eve-academy You can use that instead if you prefer.
Their Combat Mechanics site is particularly helpful.
Note, most of these mechanics are embedded in the game under the Neocomm ( The big E in the upper left corner.) Then go to Activities | Agency | Help section, which has videos. You can link these people in game as well. This is why asking 'in game' under Rookie help is so useful.
If you skipped the tutorial, you can create a new character (with 1 mil free SP via recruiter link!) or watch New Player Experience (aka NPE) on youtube.
Note: You are protected from griefing during this page, but are on your own as soon as you exit this set of learning experiences!
Picking Your Faction
Your Empire Faction (aka race) does not matter much. Most of your decisions in your first two weeks in Eve Online don't matter much. https://imgur.com/a/Y7yvrCs has images from all the loading screens.
You pick one based on how the character looks, which you cannot change much later. You can also choose based on where their home station is as well. Role playing is an option too, but you'll eventually fly every faction of ship.
Amarr's headquarters are the Amarr 8 system, second largest trade hub, but is also the largest region in eve.
Caldari's headquarters are near Jita 4-4, the biggest trade hub, and the most common "jita alt" choice. Jita is 10x bigger than the Amarr.
Gallente's headquarters are near Dodixie 9-20/Oursulaert, the third largest trade hubs, and the home of Freedom :D
Minmatar's headquarters are near Hek 7-12/Rens 6-8, the smallest of the trade hubs, but has some the most duct tape!
So pick a factionthat resonates with you!
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/f2m0ak/which_race_are_you/ has a shorthand version to help you.
Your school station changes based on what bloodline and what education you chose.
More details : https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/NPC_corporations
Newbie ships
Note, each of the different factions have different ships you fly, you will eventualy learn of the factions. The Career Agents give you free stuff, so complete it to get that free stuff. These are the smallest ships you can start with, and you can do the ENTIRE Career agents in just your corvette and the venture they give you. :)
The Corvette can do most of the career agents. It's also known as a rookie ship, starter ship, free forever ship under 'Board corvette'.
The starting combat Frigate, which is free thanks to some missions, is the best place to do some of the combat oriented career agents.
The starting mining ship, the Venture, is also free. I was able to do all the career agents in one of these and the corvette.
The starting destroyer, which will help you complete the Sisters of Eve Epic Arc, is a skill book you will get and have to train.
The starting hauler will help you with the 'moving day' section, and again, is a book that you have to train.
Empire Factions - Corvette - Free Ewar Frigate - Free combat Frigate - Free sand tarter Destroyer - Free starter Hauler
Amarr - Impairor corvette - Crucifier - Punisher - Coercer - Sigil
Caldari -Ibis corvette - Griffin - Merlin - Cormorant - Badger
Gallente - Velator corvette - Maulus - Incursus - Catalyst - Nereus
Minmatar - Reaper corvette - Vigil - Rifter - Thrasher - Wreathe
There are 400+ ships to choose from and Ships are great in every factions. But again, you're not limited by your initial faction choice.
Must Do
I recommend you do *all* of these actions. I have details on all of them embeded as well below with the buttons.
You *MUST* complete the tutorial. You basically go till Aura stops talking. And if she bugs out, there's often no way to recover, but at least try.
The Career agents teach you the game in general, I recommend completing them all. I recommend doing Industrials, then Exploration, then Enforcer, then finally last Soldier of Fortune. Can do multiples at the same time.
The AIR Career Program gives you rewards of expert systems, which makes you GREAT at the starting skills with Expert systems. (Don't claim expert systems immediately) These are highly recommended because the rewards are so great. Even for vets, it can get you extra SP that you can apply to other characters. This is a spreadsheet going through all the options, along with shortcuts you can take.
I recommend the following order on Career agents:
Industry, both of them at same time
Explorer
Enforcer
Last, Soldier of Fortune.
Work on the Career Agents using the Agent Missions Info panel on the left after you find them. Note, the meatball menu (three vertical dots) has taken over the ? icon. Read the guide on Career Agents if you are lost.
Using the Inventory/Market/Fitting
Did you finish the career agents? Oh, want to buy things?
Day one players can struggle in buying things. This is a key part of eve, and you should learn this! You can find a graphic tutorial in game under: Agency | Help Section | Industrialist | Trading
There are two places to store items:
Ship Hangars - Every Station has a place for your ships. These are either repackaged (new in box!) with a number, or are assembled and are unique, with a name.
Item Hangars - Every Station has places to store items safely inside them. When you buy something off market, this is where they get moved into.
Cargo Hangars - These go inside your ship and have a chance to drop when you die. Anything inside a Cargo hangar is at risk when you undock.
You can drag items between your Item Hangars
Use the 'show info' on modules to see 'Used With' to see what to buy/use. Right click on something like 'Antimatter S', View Market, make sure to sort by price to be lowest for sale, and highest for buy. See Trading 101 for details on trading.
Need ammo for your guns? Use the above tip, buy enough to last you awhile. See more details in Meta Modules for how that works.
Not sure what ammo? Check out Ammo section.
Get lost and don't know how to find your stuff? Hit alt-t to open your asset inventory, and will show you all the stations you have left stuff in your ship hangars and item hangers.
To fit things onto your ship, drag them to the middle of the ship in the fitting screen. Ship fitting has more suggestions on this topic.
A Warning: Jita and Amarr split
There is currently a new mechanic called Insurgencies that allows players to influence system security status. I'll explaining system security status first. BTW, Pirates is what we call Player pirates, while rats is what we call NPC piRATes.
Systems Security
In high sec, if you are shot, a group called 'CONCORD' protects you. It is the easiest space to afk in, but also the lowest source of income in the game. There is no real security actually, only retribution. If you fly something too expensive, someone can use a 2 mil ship to destroy your ship and cargo, aka the reason we advise against Auto pilot. If your security status drops below -2.0 or empire standings drops below -5.0, ships will even shoot you.
In low sec, if you are shot on a gate, gate guns can shoot back at the person who shot you, but they often know that mechanic. They can easily kill your ship with weapons or smart bombs. It can be very easy to kill you for experienced pilots. They do losec security status, but the experienced pirates don't really care.
In null sec, if you are shot anywhere, nothing happens. They can also put up warp disruption bubbles which stop you landing on gates, making you even easier to kill. This is where players control everything. Wormhole space and Pochven also act like this type of space, along with parts of Zarzakh.
Enter Insurgencies
These were added as new content to let capsuleers reshape the map while doing Faction Warfare. This allows players to change high sec to low sec, and low sec to null sec.
These routes SOMETIMES cut across the Amarr to Jita route, aka the Silk Road. If you are flying to jita from amarr space or vice versa, and a low/null sec system is in between, you have a very good chance of getting killed. It will show the security status in the 'route' section on the left hand side. Anything that flies through this system could be easily lost.
https://eve-gatecheck.space/eve/ can give you a hint if a camp is there, but you could also just be the first target of the day.
So if you see an insurgency in between you and your target system, change your route or ask a more experienced player how to overcome this. They show up as diamonds in the route guide. The color system is very transparent when you have a route set like this. Can hover over the colors to show the dangers of each system type.
Moving Day!
Did you finish the career agents? Congrats, time to move to a trade hub! Don't know your trade hub, see below!
Jita 4-4 Cal Navy in Caldari space, Jita 4-4 means the system Jita, the planet 4, Moon 4 station, called Caldari Navy, you can go to search for jita and find station easy.
Amarr 8 Emp Fam in Amarr space,
Dodixie 9-20 fed navy in Galente space,
Rens 6-8 Bru Trib or Hek 8-12 Boundless for Minmatar space (In general order though rens is more popular than dodixie.)
It's a good idea to take your ships to the nearest grade hub and sell most of them.
First, repackage all your ships that don't have rigs on them. It will throw a warning if you have rigs on it.
I'd recommend you take the hauler you were given. It will use the Racial Hauling skill. You put on MAX cargo expanders on it. If you're short, buy one off market. Open up the market, sort by price, and find one in the same station or close by. It will fit around 8k to 10k depending on skills.
Next, you pick ships you want to take with you. I'd recommend you take the exploration ship, maybe a venture, maybe your destroyer. Your destroyer will be the most valuable one for the next step, the Sisters of Eve Epic Arc.
You then fill the rest of your hauler with the random modules. Focus on those first. Then put in the ammo. then the other stuff, like minerals. Ore and minerals are often more valuable to sell locally.
Next, you find your local trade hub, which will be around 3-8 jumps away. See the names under the 'Picking your Faction' section. Go to the one with a TON of things for sale.
Get there, unpack your stuff. Can consider death cloning back and using the other hauler you were given to move even more stuff. Or you can fly back and pick it up after emptying. You could also buy more cargo expanders for the other hauler, fly back in a corvette, and pick up the rest of the stuff.
Note, you will be tempted to use Auto Pilot. Do NOT use Auto Pilot! People can predict where you will warp to and have plenty of time to kill you if you want, along with it taking a lot longer. Instead, set destination, click the yellow gate, hit jump on the selected items. Repeat till you arrive, way way faster.
Done moving? Onto the next step!
Sisters of Eve Epic Arc
Sisters of Eve Epic Arc - fly around a LOT, learn not to use autopilot, fit your ship PRECISELY how we lay out, and you'll be fine.
The SOE Epic Arc is 118 jumps, and around 16 million isk. It is best to go to your trade hub first because it's easier to restock your stuff. It will take you around 3-6 hours as a new player, a vet completed it in 3 hours in a nergel.
(CANNOT be in a faction warfare corporation when running these, have reports of unexpected losses.)
To do it, you need to use the destroyer you were given. You open the fitting window with alt-f. You then go to the Wrench Icon on the left hand side, go to hulls, and find SOE and search. It will return several destroyers, including the free one you were given.
You then can buy all the parts for the ship in the trade hub. Note, some guns might be too expensive for you, so you can do cheaper guns if you want, explained under the Meta Modules. I'd recommend the following instead of the ones on the fits, if you so desire. You can EASILY find replacement guns by doing 'simulate' on the ship, right clicking on the module, and picking to 'Find Type'.
Amarr - Go with the Small Focused Anode Pulse Particle Stream I. This is a short range gun.
Caldari - Go with the 125mm Compressed Coil Gun I. If it has a small extender, consider a medium if it fits. Can use Blasters under Gallente.
Gallente - Go with the Anode Light Electron Particle Cannon I, these are blasters that are included on the fit. Can use railguns under Caldari.
Minmatar - Go with the 250mm Light Prototype Siege Cannon. Note, some people recommend the 200mm Light Prototype Automatic Cannon which have MUCH shorter range.
Click the button to the left of your guns to GROUP your guns. So you press a single button.
Next, make sure you have the correct ammo. Go to the weapon in question, show info, and 'used with'. It will show you all the ammo. These are round numbers.
Amarr - Fit in game is correct, use Multifreqency S aka multifreq. Short range, high damage.
Gallente and Caldari - Buy 5,000 or 10,000 Antimatter Charge S.
Minmatar - Buy an extra 960 EMP S, 960 Phased Plasma S, and 320 Depleted Uranium S aka depu. EMP is your short range one, and DepU is a long range tracking one.
The entire ship will cost you under 3 mil, I believe. You should have enough isk to get this done.
Finally, you're ready for the Sisters of Eve Epic Arc. You should find this under Agency, Epic Arcs. Enjoy the story, and when in doubt:
Start it by going to 'Arnon' and finding 'Sister Alitura'. If you get confused, go to Neocomm (E in the top left) | Activities | Agency | Agents & Missions | Epic Arcs | The Blood-Stained Stars.
Read the mission text again.
No, seriously, read it, it explains it!
Warp out when you get low in repairing.
Shoot the small things first.
Orbit closer! Hold down W and click on something to orbit it!
Don't run your repairer constantly, only when you need to.
Move things to the top row to make it easier to help.
Finally, when you are done, you kinda know eve. :D I'd recommend Exploration in the next step.
Beginner Activities
There is a list of advised Beginner activities. Note, ones that are easy like mining and industry but are not worth doing solo. Anything that is easy is easy to do for everyone so doesn't pay well. If it's risky, it pays better. If it's risky and hard, it pays well. I usually advise new players to consider trying:
Level 1 thrugh 4 Agent Missions - to learn the PVE game, read Eve Survival for ideas. Level 4 missions are locked to omega.
Exploration - Find Data/Relic sites and make great money, with very low barrier for entry, full write up available. BEST OPTION FOR NEW PLAYERS!
Null sec ratting - Super easy to do, requires a corporation, Vexor works nearly everywhere, but VERY dependant on the rats you'll face!
Faction Warfare - Learn PVP cheaply, requires a corporation to do right, hard to get into initially, LP conversion sometimes tough but can be worthwhile with current release
Gas harvesting -Can complement exploration. Good money in wormhole space. Requires some experimentation and an expensive skill book, currently 35 mil.
More advanced play is:
Abyssals - Have to watch a LOT of youtube. It's really hard for brand new players. Try some of the other things first, have a good bankroll. There are a variety of guides, some up to date, and others not. Doing the T0 Electrical (buy 3 Calm Electrical Filaments) in a punisher (See the in game HateLesS Day 1 electrical Abyss in fitting window in game) is easy once you feel more comfortable in game. RIP HateLesS.
Incursions - Initially overwhelming for new players, becomes mind numbing boring because it's the exact same mission each time. Because it takes effort, but pays extremely well.
A reminder, if you are alpha and trying to pay for the game by playing, you will be VERY stressed to pay for it. It is somewhere between 40 to 120 hours to pay for your account as a new player. The only thing that is worth buying is Omega, which gives you access to more ships and game play styles.
Just play and enjoy the game, a few play styles are locked behind omega, but you'll see if you like the game or not.
xy has a Starting Skill plan though I prefer the Horde 14-day, 35-day, 135 day plan.
xy also wrote Beginner Acitivity guide that shows you how to make money.
Eve Areas
Eve is broken up into 2 types of space, known and unknown space. Known space is visible in mapping systems like DotLAN. Unknown space is composed of a couple groups of space, the best resource being Anoik.is that helps identify these unknown systems and connections.
Known space is where around 90% of people are. It's important to realize that escaping high sec is important!
Trade Hubs - Where to sell things. I put these separately because it is important to know where your nearest is. Buy and sell everything here. When you move to more dangerous areas, use shipping services instead.
High sec - Where you start. Think of it as punching trees in Minecraft and travelling over the surface. Near zero money here because it's so safe, such as High sec mining, Missions, Trading 101, Industry. Incursions pay well but suck. You can get ganked here, especially in 0.5 systems.
Low Sec - Much more dangerous space, with some valuable resources. Lots more fighting. Gas Mining can be good here. Faction Warfare is your best money maker here. Need to Join a Corporation. Stay out of Tama and Rancer!
Null sec - 15% of the population and 95% of all the big fights happen here. Exploration is the best for new players as a solo. Easy money here, join a corporation to get out here safely. Null sec ratting is how most people make money out here.
Unknown space has multiple groups as well, and has the remaining 10% of players. These don't have local so can be a bit spooky. Have to rely on dscan.
Wormholes - Lots of money, some danger. New players will want to do Exploration and Gas Mining is good in here. It has Wormhole PVE and Wormhole Navigation, Need to Join a Corporation for long term success.
Thera - Station in wormhole space with 20 exit holes. Eve Scout has links to all systems in and out of thera, leading to easy transit around the universe!
Drifter holes - These are 5 systems with 50 wormholes that link all others together, can make it easy to get to precise spots using Wormhole Navigation.
Pochven - A triangle of space with a lot of combat. operates like wormhole space and null sec combined. Map explaining mechanics. You can mine here, but it's pretty dangerous. Great for exfil loot back to known space, check Exploration page for detail.
You will want to leave high sec soon so you can make money!
Join a corporation
Because the way this game works, it is HIGHLY recommend you join a corporation. I have written a guide on joining a corporation because this game is terrible alone. :D
Golden Rules
The Golden Rules go into more details, but I'll do my top ones here
Don't trust anyone you cannot physically touch. Anyone in eve can scam.
Fly what you can afford to lose. Don't put yourself in a position that you only have one possibility. Ships are items that you will use while playing the game.
Button pushing is more important than Isk or Skill points. You are training for a war, work on getting better!
Bigger is often worse. Small ships suited for the task almost always out perform. Stop trying to get into a big ship and get into a capable ship!
In game details are always more accurate than guides or out of date wikis. Text is easiest to update.
Don't fight fair. Don't let others fight fair. This is terrible single player, great multiplayer, and only 6k player game in the world.
Try. Die. Repeat. And again. You learn more from mistakes than successes.
This is a slow game. 90% of the time, it's kind of boring. 9%, it's pretty okay. 1% is pure excitement. The adrenaline you get from when things goes nuts, is insane.
Persistence is key. Eve rewards prepared players. Untrained players or rush players should be taken advantage of.
Don't compare yourself. People exaggerate, they have insane skill points or ships or button pushing. Only by trying something can you see if it's right for you!
In Game Rules
Eve is often called Pay to Lose. This is because legal pay to win methods exist using https://secure.eveonline.com/. You can buy Plex for money, which you can then sell in Jita for isk. This is not advisable for new players due to how badly it can go for them. The Don't SP Inject guide explains why this is a bad idea.
The EULA (End User License Agreement) and the TOS (Terms of Service) of Eve has some 'ground rules' what is legal or not. A quick summary:
EULA -
One person per account at at time for free to play (Alpha). To run two (or 30) accounts, you need to be paid accounts (aka Making Omega) to play those at the same time. You can go to logoff screen to switch between unlimited alpha accounts though. These can be on the same email address too.
Each person owns their account soley and can transfer their characters by paying CCP some money. Account sharing is against the rules. If you want a new character, you can use the Character Bazaar.
Parents must give consent for any children to play.
Cannot alter the game or cannot do things that allows you to overload the system
Cannot RMT (Real Money Trading). Selling isk or items or characters or accounts is illegal and can get you banned. They will catch you and give you a negative balance.
TOS -
You cannot harass or threaten people, including abusive language, even under the guise of role playing.
Cannot impersonate anyone in the game, like calling yourself an alt. Especially CCP (people who make hte game) or GM (game masters) or ISD (CCP Volunteeer). This can get you perm banned.
Cannot use Bots, including macros or anything automated, including things like warp to zero bots, market bots, ratting bots, etc. These are easy for CCP to catch and permaban you for.
Cannot have more than one action happen through a single key press.
Cannot dox people.
Anything else that is 'unfair' will be banned under the TOS.
However, there are a lot of approved game play:
Install software to help with multi-accounting, such as Eve-O Preview, allowing you switch between accounts. But cannot use the multi-press play banned in the TOS by programs like ISBoxer
War decs and 'griefing' game play. While harassing in newbie zones is forbidden, griefing outside it is approved and almost encouraged. You will get war dec'd (if you allow them to) and they WILL kill your ship, at any point.
Spying is encouraged. People will take advantage of you. See #1 of Rule 1 of the Golden Rules.
There is always a bigger fish. If you fly something big, other players will group together and kill you, because you're bigger. :)
Overall View
I have a couple platitudes that I repeatedly espouse. This is a super cut of those.
The usuals: Don't trust anyone you can't punch. Don't fly what you can't afford to lose. There is a risk vs reward in eve. Experience matters more than SP or Isk. Eve based on assymetric warfare, so having friends helps more than anything else. Your ship is dead as soon as it undocks. Bigger isn't always better.
And then my specials.
Eve is 90% boring, 9% okay, 1% pure excitement. This might true of a lot of things, but eve doubly so. You have to play to find that 1%. You never quite know when you're going to find it, but I personally find that more often in the major fleet fights, just because no other game in the world has the 4000 person combat aspect.
Eve rewards those who are prepared. If you read a bit more than you need to, watch a couple youtube videos, Try things out on a small scale first (ie less expensive), and try things out on sisi for the expensive things, you're going to have a better time. If you just yolo or ignore advice, you will pay the ultimate price, ie everything you had. If you ring a dinner bell, the wolves will descend to take advantage.
Focus on doing one things well. If your ship is a tackler, be the best tackler, don't worry about DPS. If you're DPS, fit the ship as designated by the FC, You are a smart person but the FC needs your ship to operate in an exact way. If you are doing jamming, focus on that jamming and being effective, everything else is secondary. Once you figure out your passion, do just that thing that brings you joy. 😄 it costs WAY less SP to focus than spread it out.
Eve is a PVP Game. And you are competing against people with more knowledge, better button pushing, isk, and skill points. And that's ranked in the order of importance. All of thes benefit from better ships, strategies, better modules, better skills, more isk.
You compete against industrialists. With near infinite wallets, better helper tools, perfect tax reduction, better markets, better refining.
You compete against them in finding sites. With covops and great speed in button pressing.
You compete against them ratting faster. With better button pushing and skills taking the lead here.
You compete against them mining. With Omega, in better areas. Or AFK miners which suck all profit out of anything easy.
Need help? Ask. We're here to help.
Opening gif
I'm work shopping an opening gif with math problems.
All Career Agents = Tutorial
Air Career Program == Skill points!
Alpha == Fun
Earning Omega as Alpha == Burnout
Playtime + Having fun == Isk
Risk == Isk
Easy == No Isk
Trade Hubs == Cheap modules
Faction Cruisers (60m) > Battleships (400m)
1 Pilot + 1 Your friend == 2.5x damage
Support > DPS Ships
Corporations == Life long friends.
Every Ship == Dead on undock
Theory < Practice < Making Mistakes
Joining a Corp == Read their Rules!
Join a discord == check the pins!