Beginner activities
Accessible Beginner Content
tldr: Try the eve epic arc, go do exploration, run some low end missions, join a corporation to do null sec ratting, or gas huffing, or faction warfare.
Harder content can make more. Risk == Isk. Abyssal PVE content is great money but very hard. Incursions are easy but boring.
Don't do industry, trading, or high sec mining, it doesn't pay. And don't try to pay for the game by playing as a new character.
Xy's Beginner's Guide
This is a document that 'xy' wrote for the Eve Online Discord back in 2022 Q2. He has since given me permission to fold this into the site. Thank you!
I have my recommended income methods on my Newbie page.
https://learningtoeve.wordpress.com/2017/11/21/tips-eve-online-isk-per-hour-estimates/ has an estimate per hour.
https://english.eve-guides.fr/index.php?article=133 has a list of ALL the things to do in the game, per 2016.
https://forums.eveonline.com/t/revised-eve-career-chart-project-work-in-progress/298585 has a modernized version being worked on.
Otherwise, read, and figure out what content is right for you!
Accessible High sec activities
Most of these are doable solo or with an easy to join group. They require few skill points to get started, but do require study to do. Some get hard!
Space: High Sec (1.0-0.9)
Profit 2/10 - 12 m cash, + lot of ships
Difficulty 1/10 - easy
Consistency 2/10 - Once per 12 agents
Cost of Entry 1/10 - Start with Corvette
Career agents are REQUIRED
This is the tutorial. Do the tutorial. Yes, all of them. I don't care if they're boring, you're just learning mechanics. :D
Only run once, and re-run if you take a break.
Career Agents have their own section.
Space: High Sec (1.0-0.5)
Profit 3/10 - 17m cash +extras
Difficulty 2/10 - 3 difficult missions
Consistency 1/10 - once every 3 months
Cost of Entry 1/10 - Starter destroyer
The SoE arc is a series of 51 missions of very low difficulty meant to be an extended combat tutorial for newbies. It involves a lot of travel around highsec, very easy missions where you sit still and shoot at red things, and 3 particularly troublesome missions where a lot of newbies experience their first real loss. As an Epic Arc it is only repeatable every 3 months and offers a lot of standings rewards relevant for missioners. Completion of this Arc is required for one of the AIR Career Programs which reward you with bonus skillpoints, so even if you have no interest in missioning you should consider completing it. Do note that all other epic arcs are not for beginners!
This is reportedly: 118 jumps, 15.7-16.3m in rewards+bonuses, and 0.7m+ in bounties. Newbie page has how to fit a ship.
Space: High Sec (1.0-0.7)
Profit 2/10 - low but enough
Difficulty 3/10 - very well documented
Consistency 10/10 - endless!
Cost of Entry 4/10 - Destroyer L1 Cruiser L2
Level 1 and 2 Security agents offer basic combat content that offers low but consistent pay. Agents never run out of missions and the sites are extensively documented, meaning if you are prepared for what’s to come there is practically no risk or uncertainty. The low difficulty also suits people who want a chill content. Ultimately, security agent missioning progresses into L4s; They are Omega only and generally require a battleship, but still have all the pros and cons of L1s and L2s. Note, need omega to run level 4 missions.
Have details on Missions
Highsec anoms & Low-level DED complexes
Space: High Sec (1.0-0.5)
Profit 5/10 - inconsistent but potentially good
Difficulty 5/10 - Harder than missions
Consistency 4/10 - Random luck
Cost of Entry 5/10 - Need Cruiser +T2 Tank
Although the combat anomalies (green sites) in highsec offer very little rewards, it has a rare chance to “Escalate” into a DED rated complex. Run the DED site for a chance at a rare Deadspace module that may or may not be expensive. Alternatively, scan down signatures (red sites) in highsec to hope that you find a DED rated complex. Lots of randomness present, but given enough time running sites the profits tend to average out to be much higher than security agents.
Space: High Sec (1.0-0.5)
Profit 7/10 - 20-25 mil an hour
Difficulty 7/10 - Pretty difficult!
Consistency 7/10 - Sites always available
Cost of Entry 4/10 - Tech 2 ship, 20-30m max
Abyssal Deadspace is an instanced (private) PvE dungeon where you must conquer 3 areas full of enemies and get out alive with the loot within the time limit of 20 minutes. It has 7 tiers (t0~t6) of difficulty and can be done alone or with a fleet of 2 or 3 people. The Abyss is a highly dynamic environment with semi-randomly generated enemies and layout. While it is more profitable than similar types of PvE content, it is also harder. You will not survive unless you have a good understanding of combat mechanics and 3D maneuvering, which you can practice by doing easier PvE activities. In addition, good support skills are crucial for meeting the minimum DPS and tank requirements. The recommended setup for a newbie trying out Abyssals is either a combat frigate running Tier 1, or a combat cruiser running Tier 2. Tier 0 is perfect for practicing but not good for profit. Make sure to consult experienced players if you are unsure about your combat capabilities.
Abyssals has their own page.
Accessible Low Sec Activities
Lowsec Clone soldier tag farming
Space: Low Sec (0.4-0.1)
Profit 6/10 - Lower low sec makes more!
Difficulty 7/10 - lots of dodging players, higher skill level soldiers can get tough.
Consistency 4/10 - unpredictible due to pvp.
Cost of Entry 3/10 - Need 3 Destroyers ready!
In Lowsec space, Clone Soldiers rarely spawn in asteroid belts. Hunt them down for their dog tags which can be used to bribe your security status, or can be sold to others who are looking to do the same. Higher tier soldiers only spawn in lower security lowsec space and are much harder to beat - your game plan is to take a disposable destroyer with a lot of damage and hope you can evade enough damage to kill them before they kill you. Obviously this carries a real risk of getting hunted by players as you’ll be in Lowsec; this is even worse than Nullsec because the accessibility of Lowsec space means LOTS of casual PvPers roam around looking for fights.
Lowsec Gas Harvesting
Space: Low Sec (0.4-0.1)
Profit 5/10 - Hard to find sites
Difficulty 6/10 - Dodge pvpers
Consistency 5/10 - Rare in Lowsec
Cost of Entry 5/10 - 30 mil for book but cheap
Gas sites are cosmic signatures containing harvestable gas clouds. K-space (regular known space) gas is used to produce performance enhancing drugs. A Venture with gas harvesters can “huff” them for a very little investment, except for a hefty cost of 30 million for the gas harvesting skillbook. While lowsec is chaotic and dangerous, and the gas sites rare, the ability to see the list of players in the system via the Local Chat allows you to play it safe. Keeping an eye on D-scan and Local should give you ample time to warp away at the earliest sign of danger. K-space Gas sites have no NPC enemies, but the gas cloud itself will periodically damage you. Your venture should be fit with basic shield tanking modules.
Gas Mining has it's own section.
Accessible Wormhole Activities
Wormhole gas harvesting
Space: Null Sec (0.0) or Wormholes
Profit 6/10 - Varies on gas sites!
Difficulty 7/10 - Dodge PVPers
Consistency 5/10 - Easy to find, hard to clear
Cost of Entry 5/10 - 30 mil for book but cheap
Unlike gas sites in K-space, Wormhole gas sites tend to be very common in J-space (wormhole space not listed on the map). They contain a variety of fullerene gas used for Tech 3 manufacturing. A humble Venture can tap into the treasures, but your time is limited - after 10~20 minutes of someone warping into a wormhole gas site, Sleeper drone reinforcements will arrive and they are extremely lethal. Changing ships to kill them takes too much time, so most people elect to abandon the site when the sleepers arrive. Being conducted in Wormhole space, this operation obviously carries the risk of a player ambushing you, and there’s no Local chat to forewarn you: You must rely on quick reflexes and D-scan. You will have to eat a loss from time to time, but a gas harvesting Venture is cheap and each successful trip will be substantial.
Gas Mining has it's own section.
Space: Wormholes
Profit 7/10 - Lucky hauls of hundreds of mils!
Difficulty 9/10 - Dodge PVPers
Consistency 2/10 - Very random
Cost of Entry 2/10 - 2 mil-10 mil heron cheap!
Exploration is where you scan down cosmic signatures (red sites) and hope to find a data or relic site. Once those sites are found you warp to them and hack the loot containers. If you succeed in the hack you can loot the treasures within. Wormhole space is unpredictable and dangerous with lots of things to scan (mostly junk) but it is accessible. All players you meet in wormholes should be considered hostile and you will be hunted & killed. Exploration thus teaches you valuable survival skills that are used throughout your EVE career.
Exploration has it's own section.
C2 Wormhole daytripping
Space: Null Sec (0.0) or Wormholes
Profit 6/10 - ~60 mil an hour, skill based
Difficulty 6/10 - PVP and difficult sites
Consistency 4/10 - Very random sites
Cost of Entry 7/10 - Battlecruiser not cheap
Combat anomalies native to Class 2 Wormhole space have the right mix of difficulty and profit for someone dipping their toes into wormhole PvE. Common battlecruisers such as Drake, Myrmidon and Gnosis can clear them easily. Daytripping is the practice in which you scan your own farming hole for the day and run sites before returning back home in K-Space, as opposed to just living in wormhole space. Daytripping can be dangerous in many ways - There is always a possibility of a player ambushing you at any point in Wormhole space. Also, if a wormhole connection back home closes, you must scan a new way out, and potentially end up far far away from home. However, a successful trip can be very profitable, and the prospect of the unknown can be an exciting appeal for some people.
Wormhole PVE has it's own section.
Accessible Null Sec Activities
Space: Null Sec (0.0)
Profit 7/10 - Lucky hauls of hundreds of mils!
Difficulty 9/10 - Dodging PVPers
Consistency 2/10 - Very random
Cost of Entry 2/10 - 2 mil-10 mil heron cheap!
Compared to Wormhole exploration Nullsec can be more dangerous, but aiming for the right regions (any with Sansha or Guristas pirate occupancy; such as Stain and Venal) you can average higher isk per hour than WH explo where the sites are random. Additionally you can use filaments to teleport around which is very convenient.
Exploration has it's own section.
Space: Null Sec (0.0) or Wormholes
Profit 4/10 - 30 Mil an hour low end
Difficulty 3/10 - Dodge PVPers
Consistency 8/10 - Easy to find, hard to clear
Cost of Entry 3/10 - 30 mil for vexor
Nullsec ratting is a very basic, easy, and low-maintenance income source only available if you have joined a nullsec corp/alliance. Common combat anomalies such as Havens and Sanctums can be easily (albeit slowly) done in a low-to-medium skilled Vexor, and the profit per hour only becomes better as your skills and equipment improve. The bounty payout is paid straight to your wallet, which is convenient. The low difficulty and high security of Nullsec ratting is partially created by the relatively safe space created by being part of a large Nullsec group. Be sure to request specific fits from your corp/alliance because the fits change based on the local pirate faction occupancy.
Null sec ratting has it's own section
Space: Null Sec (0.0) or Wormholes
Profit 4/10 - Easy to start out
Difficulty 2/10 - Lock rock, warp out on dscan
Consistency 6/10 - Good ore is rarer
Cost of Entry 1/10 - Venture cheap
Join a corporation and get out there and mine in dangerous areas! Simply locate an asteroid in asteroid belts and use a mining laser on it. Free-to-play Alpha accounts are designed to suck at mining because we don’t want free account bots flooding the economy with ores. Even if you upgrade to Omega and train into a mining barge, mining won’t be good until you can start horizontally scaling (aka multiboxing - where you run multiple accounts at once). Getting boosts and compression in a fleet is what makes this good and easy.
High sec mining has details on mining in general.
Medium Term Activities
These ones require a bit of knowledge, quite a bit of a bankroll, and some skill points. They often require support from other people too.
Space: High Sec (1.0-0.5)
Profit 10/10 - Hundreds of mil per hour.
Difficulty 8/10 - Follow FC, mess and die.
Consistency 7/10 - Always running, but travelling between sites takes time.
Cost of Entry 13/10 - High SP requirement, plus battleship requirement, hundreds of mils.
Incursions are fleet-based high-end PvE content where players resist an invasion of Sansha’s Nation enemies. The Fleet Commander, an experienced player, will orchestrate the fleet towards a safe and efficient completion of the site. Assuming that no one screws up, Incursions are usually very safe and reliable. Incursions are technically not newbie-friendly, however it is a good 1~2 month goal to work towards if you are interested in a stable highsec income source. There are several major Incursion-focused groups that gather people to run the sites together. For a newbie, look into Eve Rookies Incursions or Warp To Me Incursions. Eve Rookies in particular offers a fast-track course into incursions with a minimally-skilled Praxis fit and a ship loan program. They also offer side-positions such as Scouts which might be of interest. [Ed. note: The most boring content in the entire game.]
Incursions has it's own section.
Space: Low Sec (0.4-0.1)
Profit 5/10 - Highly variable on playstyle, region activity, faction, luck, and LP prices
Difficulty 9/10 - Need Solid PVP knowledge
Consistency 6/10 - PVP is unpredictable.
Cost of Entry 7/10 - Each ship is cheap, but you will need to supply a lot of them.
Faction Warfare is an entry level PvP content that takes place in Lowsec. You may enlist to fight for any of the four empires (your race does not matter). Once you do so, your goal is to find and capture FW Complexes in lowsec space. During the time it takes for you to capture a complex, an enemy player of the opposing militia may arrive to defend the complex, leading to a PvP fight. If you successfully capture, you are rewarded with Loyalty Points which can be exchanged for goods to be sold on the market.
Following a recent update, Faction warfare has gained significant attention, with many major groups participating in the warzone. With a bit of effort, you should be able to find a relatively good newbie-friendly faction warfare corporation which would support your ship losses and teach you the basics of PvP. (ask experienced players for corp recommendations) It is generally not recommended to enlist in the militia alone.
Faction Warfare has it's own section.
Burner Missions
Space: High, Low, Null (Null pays best)
Profit 9/10 - Highly variable on playstyle, region activity, faction, luck, and LP prices
Difficulty 9/10 - Need Solid PVP knowledge
Consistency 9/10 - PVP is unpredictable.
Cost of Entry 9/10 - Need large number of characters and grind standings.
Burner missions are level 4 missions on steroids. It tends to use pirate frigates or small teams of Assault frigates to complete. Because they can be chained together by multiple characters, you can quickly build up a group of sites to run all at once.
You can blitz through ten or more in an hour if you have them pre-bookmarked. However, they are extremely dangerous— there are fits and strategies that will work 100% of the time, but a single misclick or accidentally entering a site with the wrong fit will mean certain death. Also, you’ll need some very high skills and a pretty decent initial investment to get into it (though implants can substitute for the former).
Pirate factions are the best LP though, and these numbers reflect that.
Burner Missions has it's own section.
Discouraged Activities
Space: High Sec (1.0-0.5)
Profit 0/10 - 1-5 mil per hour as alpha
Difficulty 0/10 - Lock rock, die to gankers
Consistency 9/10 - Ore is everywhere
Cost of Entry 1/10 - Venture cheap
Both the easiest & the worst-paying job for new players. Simply locate an asteroid in asteroid belts and use a mining laser on it. Free-to-play Alpha accounts are designed to suck at mining because we don’t want free account bots flooding the economy with ores. Even if you upgrade to Omega and train into a mining barge, mining won’t be good until you can start horizontally scaling (aka multiboxing - where you run multiple accounts at once). Industry is best left alone for the big players who know what they’re doing.
High sec mining has details on mining in general.
Space: High Sec (1.0-0.5)
Profit 0/10 - Negative isk as beginner
Difficulty 9/10 - Very complex, lots of study
Consistency 5/10 - Find one item, maybe!
Cost of Entry 10/10 - Lots of science, indy, market skills, 500m+ start up capital required.
Many people get into EVE dreaming of becoming an industrial magnate. Unfortunately, industry is extremely out of reach for both new players and free-to-play alpha accounts. Not only do you need a starting capital of hundreds of mils (preferably at least 1b) to invest into materials, blueprints and such, you also need a dedicated industry character(s) with lots of skills, a good player-built citadel with lots of industrial upgrades, and most importantly critical information regarding where to source your materials, what to build, and how to sell them. Always remember that ore you mine yourself are not free, and it’s both cheaper & easier to buy things off the market instead of DIYing it.
Industry has it's own section.
Space: High Sec (1.0-0.5)
Profit 1/10 - Little money, might get scammed
Difficulty 2/10 - Tedious, don't fall asleep
Consistency 2/10 - Few legit public contracts
Cost of Entry 3/10 - T1 haulers easy to gank, but they are very cheap to buy and run.
Similar to industry, space trucking can be a dream of some but is unfortunately hard to reach. Trading NPC commodities have negligible margins, so your only option is either arbitrage (buy low sell high) or courier contracts. For arbitrage to work you need to have a starting capital of billion(s) since you make more money per haul if you buy and sell bigger volumes. Plus you need a big tanky hauler to haul everything which Alphas do not have access to. Courier contracts have a similar problem; instead of investment money you need to have billions at hand to pay the collateral fee (you will lose this if you fail to deliver the client’s shipment; upon completion of delivery you get the collateral back) plus a big tanky hauler to haul big bulky packages. Most public courier contracts are a scam, and to be protected you should work for a shipping agency such as PushX or Red Frog; They will ask you to be a competent delivery agent already trained into Freighters, T2 Transport ships and such.
Shipping has it's own section.
Space: High Sec (1.0-0.5)
Profit 1/10 - Poor income and faction
Difficulty 2/10 - Tedious, don't fall asleep
Consistency 8/10 - Agents never run out, but can take you to low sec which you have to skip
Cost of Entry 2/10 - T1 ships are cheap
In addition to Security, missions are also available as Distribution and Mining agents. They are only slightly better, or no better than, regular mining or trading though. This is to say that they suck. An experienced missioner looking for a quick way of farming standings may use these missions for it, but you are neither experienced nor looking to be a missioner (I assume).
Missions has it's own section.
Isk Making in General
This is your eve tip of the day on isk making. Okay so "how do I earn more money" question. That we get every day. It is the wrong question. You cannot pay for an account as a new player without a lot of work and approximately a six months of omega. Focus instead what is fun.
Just focus on one thing. Learn that thing. Figure out how fast you can do that one thing with your skills and your budget. And your alpha/omega level. Learn what you find fun and what is boring to you. Stop comparing yourself to these imaginary figures of what other people say they make and focus on what you personally can see.
From most money to least, bolded my favorites: (This is from Oct 2021)
Best money in the game is credit card. Plex/$ is cheap.
Trading is second best.
Abyssals are third, but it is not a new player activity really and depends a lot on amazing button pressing to make it worth your while. Can do solo but also need to learn this on your own.
Incursions is great money but is it a lot of income and time and planning and is boring. "I want to do one career agents missions for the rest of my life" is the equivalent. Need to join a formal or informal group.
Null sec ratting is easy and regular income, but you need to join a null sec group to do it.
Exploration is hardish but easy cost of entry and teaches you the game. And has a huge amount of variation.
Gas mining can compliment exploration easily. A corp helps a lot but not required.
Faction warfare can have income but it's future is uncertain right now must join a group.
High sec missions are very easy but you have to start out at level 2 securities and work your way up the ladder. Can do solo.
Ore Mining can make you money, but only as part of a group with boosts
Everything else makes minor amounts of money or require skills you don't have.
But to make most of these things you need a corporation you join or a fuck load of research and practice and failure with isk buffer.
Stop changing your mind every 10 minutes and just focus on learning one thing. That is how you make zero isk long term because you keep spending it on random shit. And valuable skill points time on random skills
Focus. Join a corporation already. Do the things they do to make money. Don't like it? Find another corporation.
But my best advice: join a fight. Pick a role in that fight. Don't like it? Change roles. With a shit or boring group? Join another one. Join a mega block, a wormhole corp, a high sec corp, a pvp low sec group, whatevs.
Every person out there will tell you 'oh just do xyz, it's simple and i made 3 bil' etc.
**Never compare your income to anyone else in eve.**
I did make 3 bil in looting last month. But it was a LOT of effort. A lot of times I didn't die. A lot of times I cloaked or ran instead of engaging. A lot of convincing others to go into scary situations. You cannot compare yourself to me because we have different skills sets.
Take everyone's 'just do this because it's easy' with a grain of salt. You don't hear them mention you need:
1. 50 mil SP
2. a 3 bil ship
3. 6 bil pod
4. 2,000 hours behind the keyboard pressing buttons
5. a spy not watching you right then
6. 3 alt accounts that 'no big deal just start another account' that people just bandy about for no reason. heh
If it was super easy with no skill points or button pressing skills, everyone would do it and there would be no money in it.
A remember, this for the newbeans channel for a reason, don't see your way of making money? well, congrats, you might not be new player ready. :smile:
How to start making Isk
Eve is a hard game. I've said this before, but I'll repeat myself. You can only do what you can do, and there is nobody in this entire game that is amazing at absolutely every thing. Focusing helps, but don't compare yourself to these specialists in their field.
You cannot compare yourself to the people who have been playing for years and years. You can take their suggestions and incorporate them into your thinking.
If you are looking to get into a thing in eve, like ratting, like PI, like ewar, like capitals, you can do smart things to help yourself.
1. Start small. If you have never mined, maybe start mining, don't start by injecting 11 rorqual pilots. Maybe start with a pair of ventures or procurers. This will make you less likely to burn out. Once you start to succeed on the small scale, scale up a bit at a time.
2. Test options. Eve is always rock-scissors-paper. There are trade offs in nearly everything. Try alternatives, maybe the lower cost ones first time around.
3. Take it to sisi. Your first capital, go rat to learn how fighters work. I have reports Abyssals are 'the same', but have had multiple complain that the random luck they got on sisi was a lot easier for them, but either helps you to push buttons.
4. Ask lots of opinions. If I'm telling you I make 300 mil a tick doing something crazy, there are a LOT of gap between what you're going to make because your skills and experiences are different. But don't assume you'll make that right away.
5. Research. Google sheets is great for making spreadsheets. make them. 😄
6. Be persistent. You will lose nearly every ship class you fly, basically, at some point. The good pilots get back in and get back out there.
Have questions? ask us.
Doing eve like your job daily is stressful. Remember to change around what you do from time to time. Mining too much? On a roaming fleet. Too much pvp? Rat a little. Too much ratting? Ship your stuff to jita and sell stuff.
Mix it up. Maybe go outside. Maybe kiss a girl or boy or three.