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Any tips for an EVE beginner who's just about to start out?

I'm downloading the software, but haven't set up an account yet.

Depends on what you want to do. However, the advice you'll hear most is to train learning skills. I'll say the same thing, but slightly modified: alternate training your learning skills with the skills you'll need to actually have, you know, fun. There are 11 learning skills: 5 basic skills, 5 advanced skills, and Learning itself. The basic and advanced skills each increase an attribute by one point, and your attributes determine how fast you train skills (incidentally, they have no effect on anything besides training speed; better Perception won't give you, say, a longer targeting range or something).

Each skill in the game is affected by two character attributes; the learning skills are no exception. The higher your Memory and Intelligence, the faster they'll train. So, this is the order you should train your learning skills:

Instant Recall (+1 to memory)
Analytical Mind (+1 to intelligence)
Learning (2% boost to training speed)
Instant Recall
Analytical Mind
Et cetera, until you've got Analytical Mind, INstant Recall, and Learning to 4. Then train the other basic learning skills. Charisma is the one stat you can leave alone; there aren't many long skills you'll need that use Charisma for a while.

Once all your basic skills have gone to 4, then you can work on getting your advanced learning skills to 3. But advanced learning skillbooks cost...somewhere between 2 and 4 million apiece, if I recall correctly, so you might not be able to afford them right away.

Like I said, don't just rush learning skills. You don't really need them until later in the game, when you're training long skills. Alternate your learning skills with whatever other skills you need to play the game. They won't save you enough time to justify puttering around in a rookie ship for two weeks.

Other basics that apply to everyone: the rookie ships are mostly worthless. Spend the money to get into a real frigate.

Caldari are best at PVE. The Kestrel is a great Level I mission runner.

In the long run, you'll be best served by picking a ship you want to fly for a long time, and then focusing on getting good at it, rather than spreading your skill points all over the place.

For long term skills planning, download EVEMon. For playing with ship fits (and figuring out the skills you'll need to properly fly the boat you've been drooling over), get EVE Fit.

Just because you can undock something, doesn't mean you're actually any good at flying it. Don't rush to battleships unless you're excited about the idea of throwing away a hundred million ISK. Stick to T1 frigates and cruisers until you get a better feel for the game and better core skills.

When in doubt, train a skill that will make all your ships better. You will want Electronics V and Engineering V, and you'll want them sooner than you think. Any skill that increases all armor hit points, shield hit points, shield recharge, hull hit points, or reduces power grid or CPU usage for weapons, you'll want those. Ditto for skills that make you faster or more agile. They all make your ships perform better before you install a single module. [Racial] [Shiptype] IV is also good to have for whatever ship you're flying, since every ship gets some kind of bonus per skill level. V usually isn't worth it for those unless you plan to fly a T2 variant ([Racial] Frigate V for Stealth Bombers, for example).

That's all I can think of at the moment. This is really generalized advice; once you've decided what you want to do, people can give you more specific tips.

PM Mr. Coffee. If he isn't all butthurt still, he can tell you about all the scams and shit to avoid, plus I think he plays quite a bit and takes it sorta seriously* so he should usually be there to play with.

*This is just a wild guess on my part.

I see Coffee online here and there, but hell if I know what he does; I'm a trader on the other side of the galaxy. To J Miles; try starting as a Caldari.

I spent a long while based out of the Uitra system and it served nicely; a calm system with close access to really cheap marketplaces. Unless you have balls of iron and want to immediately strike it out for the wilderness, mind you. I actually did all of the basic career tutorial advisory missions out of Uitra's single station back in February and ended up with at least one of all of the basic frigates, a destroyer and a cargo transport, plus a pile of skills and basic equipment as the quest rewards, and enough starting cash to get off the ground.

It doesn't take long to do said missions and the payoff is incredibly high.

Definitely do the starter missions. They'll help familiarize you with the user interface and they pay a ton of loot.

Jita is the Wal-Mart of EVE--if it can be bought on the market, you can find it there, and often for cheaper than anywhere else.

Lowsec is full of pirates and nullsec is run by heavily-armed, paranoid maniacs. I actually encourage you to go out there and see what there is to see, but do it in a rookie ship and make sure your clone is updated.

I don't play EVE anymore, but the most important piece of information simply is:
Never fly anything you can not affort to loose.

This is especially true for low- and 0-sec space. It's somewhat less important for high-sec space (0.5-1.0) in PvP missions, since thos are pretty predictable.
Either way - if you can't get the worth of your ship back within a couple of hours, don't fly it.

The above advice is all sound, but first you need to decide what you want to do in Eve.

Mission runner? Pvp'er? Production Mogul? Research Bitch? Miner?

They all have skills they need trained to be effective so you have to decide what you intend to do before you start training anything. If you are just starting, I would personally recommend mission running to start with to get used to them. Similar to PVP, you are going to want to pick a specific ship to train upto and then get all the support skills to go with it.

The recommendation to go Caldari is a good one. I would also recommend getting the skills to fly a drake as soon as you can. The Drake is basically the Caldari's tanking brick and it can run every mission below level 5's fine.

Once you pick a career path, you need to locate the skills needed and train them solely for a few months to get them up to an appropriate level - Focus, don't try to Jack-of-all trades because it will take you a good deal longer to become effective at anything.

Incidentally, once you create your account and log in, let me know your character name and I'll spot you twenty million as a 'welcome to eve' bundle. It ought to get you started in the big wide world of Eve.

Also, you need friends. I've still not joined a corp four months in, and that's fine for me because I'm just playing a game of small-business trader while training an endless parade of skills, but when I eventually want to get out to 0.0 for reasons other than to drop off a Sigil full of ammunition in a blind panic and run screaming for Empire space, it will be flatly impossible without backup.

When in doubt, right-click.

For god's sake, don't trust anyone in that game.

That nice man offering you free stuff? Yeah, he just wants you to open his can so he can have kill rights on you. That way he can blow you out of space and not get blown up by the space police.

Joining a corp? Keep all your stuff to yourself for the first month or so. Don't trust any corps you join until you're very familiar with them. If you're asked to particapate in any corp events (mining, pvp, etc.), fly only what you can afford to lose. When you're fleeted with someone, they can blow you out of space without getting the space police mad.

Oh, and stay away from the goons.

Yeah, don't open yellow cans, especially ones that have been left outside stations or near jump gates. Those are traps for noobs set by griefers. White and blue are fine; white are owned by you and blue have been abandoned.

If you join a corp, voice comms are essential; typing just isn't fast enough to relay orders and intel in combat. At the very least, listen; unless you're a scout or FC, you usually don't need to talk (in fact, FCs appreciate quiet comms when things get hot), but you do need to be able to hear orders. Plus, it's a good way to bond with corpmates and have fun when you're doing something boring. Teamspeak and Ventrillo are the most common voice comms, and both are free to download. Not many people use EVE voice, because it contributes to lag.

As far as Goons go, they're great to have on your side. I've flown with them and they're a lot of fun, and they're not shy about risking their ships. If you're not blue to them, though, they're trouble.

The goons would be awesome if they'd stick to fucking with people instead of just fucking people. They're hilarious and pretty cool when they're not being douchehats.

As for early stuff, get yourself Cybernetics I. It'll take you approximately no time at all, and it'll let you use up to +3 attribute implants as you get your hands on them. You'll occasionally pick up implants as mission rewards, and for a tiny skill investment they can have a huge impact on your skill training speed. Beyond that, run the tutorials. All of them. They'll teach you some things, they'll expose you to a variety of aspects of EVE to see if anything tweaks your fancy, and you'll get some kit out of them. After that, you'll have a better idea of what you want to do in EVE, or at least what you don't want to do.

Then let us know and we can give targeted advice.

Oh, I'll fully agree that the Goons can be an okay bunch of guys. I find a lot of stuff they do to be quite funny.

But you have to remember that I'm giving this advice to an EVE newbie. What do you think their response would be if they ran across him just as he was starting out? At the very least, they would try their recruitment scam.

Actually, one of the really neat things about the Goons is that they really like actual newbies. People who should know better they're awful to, but by and large, they do really cool shit to genuine newbies. That, in fact, is the entire story behind Dreddit, and a damned hilarious one at that.

White Haven wrote:Actually, one of the really neat things about the Goons is that they really like actual newbies. People who should know better they're awful to, but by and large, they do really cool shit to genuine newbies. That, in fact, is the entire story behind Dreddit, and a damned hilarious one at that.

What is that story? I know Dreddit and the Goons are connected somehow, but I don't know the details (other than Dreddit trolls the forums like Goons and fly Rifter swarms like Goons).

PS Dreddit is a pretty cool guy.

I used to buy gold or credits or whatever with actual money. I suited me, because, as it turned out, all I really wanted to do was customize my ships.

Hey, how is that now? Are there lots more cool options?

Havok wrote:I used to buy gold or credits or whatever with actual money. I suited me, because, as it turned out, all I really wanted to do was customize my ships.

Hey, how is that now? Are there lots more cool options?

I don't think there have been any new modules introduced in a while. They added small and medium rigs, and as a result it's now economical to rig T1 frigates, cruisers, and battlecruisers, so that's nice. I don't know when was the last time you played, so they may or may not have added more T2 ships. The biggest new addition are the strategic cruisers, which are T3 ships that can be customized with "subsystems" as well as modules and rigs. The hull and fittings will run close to a billion ISK for one ship, though, so if you want to buy the ISK, you'd better be prepared to spend at least 45 dollars.

I'm playing EVE since January now, so I'm far from a "pro" with a puny 7,6 million skillpoints and never having lived in 0.0 and all But here's some advice from a fellow almost-noob:

- Don't bother with mining as an ISK source until you can fly a "real" mining vessel. You can get far more ISK from running missions and salvaging them than from mining unless you're in a big mining operation with fleet boosts. (Mining and especially ice mining are fine as an "afk playstyle" though if you can find a nice quiet system to happily mine away in while you do other stuff in RL.) Also consider that mining is mind-crushingly boring.

- As soon as you have a rough idea about how EVE works, what ships you will want to fly and how you will want to fit them, get the EVE fitting tool, build a ship you want, and then export the needed skills into EVEMon. It really pays off to have a rough plan to stick to, because it is pretty easy to get sidetracked and start training stuff aimlessly. It's always better to be able to do one thing competently instead of several things half-assed. Oh and yeah, get the learning skills rather sooner than later, because they're boring to train and you'll be glad forever once they're on 5 for basics and 4 for advanced. (No skill plan I ever built in EVEmon suggested to get the advanced ones to 5, so they're really not necessary.)

- Be careful about shipping stuff around on autopilot. Travelling in high sec in a shuttle or frigate on auto is usually fine, but there are people scanning passer-bys for valuables and then ganking them for loot (or just for lolz). If you travel in something you'd rather not lose, always warp to zero on gates.


But above all else, yeah, do the tutorial missions and try not to get scared off by the clunky UI and the gazillion of features you don't understand yet

Starting playing this myself about a week ago so keep the tips coming guys

Here are some things I've learnt:

1. Don't buy that shiny new peice of equipment for your ship without checking the skills needed, I'd often buy a new type of gun for my job only to realise I need a few days skilling up before i can use it. As others have recommended the fitting tool is useful for this but also right click show info for any item in the marketplace for the skill requirements. Also some skills themselves need skills learnt before you can use them so check everything.

2. Auto-pilot is slooow, if you are in hurry, set the destination but warp to 0m to each gate, then dock once you are out of warp. Rinse and repeat until u get where you want to be

3. Google is your friend, and the game even has an in built browser so no need to minimise it.

4. Make sure you set up the auto-pilot so if you do set a destination you can tell it which security status to avoid, i.e A to B but only in 0.5 or higher is safest. The options in the map screen, auto-pilot tab I think from memory.

5. If someone offers you something which is too good to be true, don't accept it. From what I hear scamming is commonplace. For example I've seen someone post a contract, i.e WTS which advertised x number of rigs and a hulk for a bargin price, if you opened the contract up, the ship was missing from it.

These are your "core" skills that will make every ship you fly better. Even if you fly Caldari, you should still train the armor skills because there are armor tanked Caldari fits. Likewise, even if you fly Amarr, train the shield skills because there are some good shield fits for Amarr (plus, even if you PVP in Amarr, Gallente, or Minmatar, a properly-fitted mission Drake is a license to print money).
---------
Hull Upgrades 5 - max armour hp
Mechanic 5 - max structure hp
Energy Management 5 - max cap capacity
Energy Sys Op 5 - max natural cap recharge
Engineering 5 - max powergrid
Electronics 5 - max cpu
Shield Management 5 - max shield hp
Shield Operation 5 - max natural shield recharge
Spaceship Command 5 - maneuverability
Evasive Maneuvering 5 - maneuverability
Navigation 5 - max natural speed
Acceleration Control 4 - more speed with AB/MWD
Warp Drive Operation 4 - convenience on long distance warps
Drones 5 - max launchable drones
Weapon Upgrades 5 - less cpu usage of weapons
Adv Weapon Upgrades 4 - less power usage of weapons
Repair Sys Op 5 - faster armour repair

Engineering and Electronics V are highlighted because they're the most important skills on this list. It doesn't matter how good your other skills are if you can't properly fit your ships.

I've heard conflicting advice about Adv Weapon Upgrades 5; it's necessary for a lot of high-end fits, but the training time is long--about a month for me with 5/4 learning skills and +3 implants. Droneboat pilots are going to want Drone Interfacing to at least 4 (20% bonus to drone damage per level; honestly, it's probably worth training for anyone, since most ships have drone bays). As I said above, for whatever ship you're flying, you want [Racial] [Shiptype] 4, 5 if you plan on flying the T2 variants (or, in the case of [Racial] Battleships V, flying that race's capital ships).

I very briefly tried EVE a few months ago, but when I'll have more free time I might start again. Is it a good idea to just jump to cruisers as fast as possible (while in high-sec space)? I remember getting myself one (and bare bones skills to pilot it) in four days, but the fitting I could use/afford was really limited; should I stuck to frigates for more time?

There's no need to make a run for cruisers. Frigs are viable in pvp and as a total noob you won't have access to level 2 or 3 missions, so you don't need a cruiser ASAP for pve either. With skills not up to it, you're more likely to lose that shiny cruiser, too - and in the beginning a couple million ISK for a cruiser can really hurt your wallet.

It's better to work on some core skills - like the ones Red lined out - plus racial weapon and weapon support skills first. It's also better to jump into a destroyer first, destroyers absolutely butcher level 1 missions and they're good for salvaging or high sec exploration, too.

Only when you can comfortably fit frigs and destroyers, cruisers are the next logical step.

Oh, and I'd also suggest doing the Sisters of Eve epic arc the game nudges you towards after the tutorial missions. I've learned a lot about fitting ships and pve combat doing that arc. There are two or three pretty hard nuts to crack - npc wise - in those missions, and trying different fits and tactics when fighting them was a lot of fun. Also, it pays off rather nicely when just starting out, ISK-wise.

Never rush to a bigger ship. Get good at the one you're flying, and then move up. Remember that the only skills specific to larger ships are the weapons skills and the [Racial] [Shiptype] skills. Everything else you train will benefit the ship you're flying (assuming they tank the same way). So boost your core skills and tanking skills, and then the larger weapon type, and then finally the ship. There's no point in buying it if you can't fly it.

charlemagne wrote:There's no need to make a run for cruisers. Frigs are viable in pvp and as a total noob you won't have access to level 2 or 3 missions, so you don't need a cruiser ASAP for pve either. With skills not up to it, you're more likely to lose that shiny cruiser, too - and in the beginning a couple million ISK for a cruiser can really hurt your wallet.

It's better to work on some core skills - like the ones Red lined out - plus racial weapon and weapon support skills first. It's also better to jump into a destroyer first, destroyers absolutely butcher level 1 missions and they're good for salvaging or high sec exploration, too.

Only when you can comfortably fit frigs and destroyers, cruisers are the next logical step.

I felt uneasy about wasting time with "frigate only" skills, but I see the point. Since the main newbie occupation seems to be farming ISK, a destroyer is faster in doing level 1 missions and so better; how can a cruiser improve your income, even when it's not too costly to risk?

charlemagne wrote:Oh, and I'd also suggest doing the Sisters of Eve epic arc the game nudges you towards after the tutorial missions. I've learned a lot about fitting ships and pve combat doing that arc. There are two or three pretty hard nuts to crack - npc wise - in those missions, and trying different fits and tactics when fighting them was a lot of fun. Also, it pays off rather nicely when just starting out, ISK-wise.

Did that. I really minmaxed that four days (to the point of breaking out the iterative calculation to ensure the fastest mix of starting skills and learning skills)

Melchior wrote:how can a cruiser improve your income, even when it's not too costly to risk?

Well, for level 1 missions for example, it can't in most cases. Bigger ships get slower and less agile, and bigger guns have problems hitting small stuff, like the frigs you're facing in those low-level missions.

EVE is not a game of linear progression where smaller/cheaper stuff gets totally worthless once you get the skills to fly bigger/more expensive stuff. Most ships have their niche and remain useful.