EVE New Citizens Q&A

Got a lot of miner related questions here :/

1.What are the best/or recommended skills for a person starting out with the basic ores in the starting hi-sec systems? and also, should I level combat skills(durability) skills for a mining ship if I ever decide to venture to low-sec?


2. Since I will be able to afford a mining barge(retriever) soon, is it recommended to jump ships inmediatly or should I make a little bit more money in the case I get blown up in hi-sec with a expensive ship?

3.Is it a good idea for me to venture into low-sec to start mining or is it still a little bit too soon for me to do so?

4.Are mining drones a good idea or should I add some crappy combat drones in the case I should run into combat in hi-sec?

5.Why is there a use for survey scanners if I already know the contents of said asteroid? Well at least for the basic asteroids belts... Are they required for a mining barge or a basic ship like the venture?.

6.Should I even attempt to refine? I'm training some refining related skills but the yield I am getting does seem to generate less ISK than selling the ore as it is.

7. I picked a npc station as a headquarters, should I move out to a player station for refining or is it a good idea for me to stay here? because the mining locations are quite close to the npc base

I would also be very grateful if someone can point out the skills required for maximum yield while mining.

Thanks a lot for the answers. :)

Hi, this is where I'm supposed to tell you about permits and stuff, but since this is newbie help.....

You can die in highsec, to other players. Yes, you are worth killing. No, they won't stop just because you are new.

The best tip I can give you...you are prey. I'm not saying that to be mean, or ePeen gloat. A mining barge is a big, squishy ship with no guns.

Think of how prey animals act. Always cautious, paying attention, and ready to run. You be the same way, and you won't get exploded.

As for defending yourself...You don't have to be the fastest zebra in the herd. You only have to be faster than the slowest. Doing anything to make yourself a more difficult target means you'll likely get passed over by a gank squad.

That's enough animal metaphors today (yes, I'm watching animal planet). Fly safe, rock gobbler!

Adding to Elena

2. It's a good idea to buy a Procurer as your first barge. It costs only about 10 millions (vs 30 millions for a Retriever) and is much much less likely to get blown up by gankers. You might switch to a Retriever when you want to profit from the larger ore hold and are ok with losing it from time to time.

6. Once you get a 100% refining yield, you should make money by refining. It takes a few days to train to that level.

7. There are POS in high-sec, but in any case refining at a POS is bad and only done when there's no other choice. You want to use an NPC station where you have 6.67 standing with the corp so that you don't pay taxes. The Connections skill can help with that.

1.) Every ship needs a tank, just because you mine doesn't mean you should forget about skills that make your defense better.

2.) Rule 1 - Don't fly what you can't afford to lose. Understand and obey it at all times.

3.) There is no too Soon™ in EVE, everybody does what ever he/she wants to do, so if you want to go to low-sec after 1 hour, you can...it's up to you to do it and make sure you survive there etc.

But keep in mind regarding mining, the risk vs reward of low vs high-sec is not really balanced, there is much more risk in low and the reward is just a little bit more.

4.) Combat drones will not save your ship in PvP but they are needed to kill the belt rats (PvE) in a mining ship.

5.) You don't know HOW much there is in an asteroid from the overview, you just know WHAT is in it. The survey scanner tells you the first thing, how much ore there is left in an asteroid and thus how many cycles you cna put your laser on it.

6.) At start, sell ores or stock them up till you have your refining skill high enough to make more ISK on minerals.

7.) The only Player stations are in SOV null-sec, and with a very few exceptions, you can't even dock in them. Given that, most of them also have worse refining rates then the NPC stations in high-sec.

A. Don't be scared with that New Order guy, I know loads of people who mine and never ever encountered them. They are just Epeen people, nothing more, nothing less. They however do a good job in that they create content in EVE and also weed out the risk adverse people / bots etc.


B. We advice a Procurer over a retriever for that same exact reason. TANK. Your retriever has a big hold, yes you don't have to fly back to the station much, but it's tanked with tissue paper and how good is your retriever after someone suicide ganked it....it's useless.

A procurer can fit such a tank that 99.9% of the gankers won't even consider you as a target. So in the end, it's more cost efficient as you don't have to replace it ever so often.


C. POS doesn't have taxes, but they have low base refining yields.

retriever is lovely though because you get that huge hold.

to add to what people have said, if you get caught AFK and die you don't want to get podded and lose your implants if you have any. if the gankers are using -10 security sec alts already then there's really no reason for them not to.

otherwise they pay for themselves so quickly the loss isn't too great. just be careful of your first one!

personally i'm in a tanky skiff with tanky orca support. efficiency is overrated.

Much thanks for the tips, I will consider the joining you guys part (haven't subbed yet, still on the fence with 1 day left)

1. You should level combat/durability skills for mining anywhere. Hull Upgrades 5, Mechanics 5, Shield Management&Operation 5, Capacitor Management/Operation 4, Drones 5, Evasive Maneuvering 5. Start with those. In HighSec you need to be able to survive a gank, so durability is a MUST. I'd recomend that you do not venture into lowsec unless you have good protection. If you must mine solo in Low, use a Venture. They're agile and cheap.

2. Keep your venture in your hanger, but upgrade to a Retriever once you've trained up some of the above skills, not to L5, but to at least L3. You'll make more money, and the Venture will be there in case you lose the Retriever and can't replace it yet.

3. You should NEVER mine in Lowsec without protection. The increase in income is only about 20%, while the increase in risk is exponential. If you're protected by a competent group of combat pilots, then go ahead. But otherwise, stick to HighSec where you won't lose a ship everytime someone comes into your system.

4. I personally hate mining drones. But that may be because of how I like to mine. I find a spot where I can reach all the rocks without moving. The ONLY time I would say go ahead and use mining drones is if you're sitting on top of the rocks. Mining drones are very slow moving. If you're 15km from the rock, and belt rats or gankers show up, you have to wait a VERY long time before they return and you can spit out combat drones. (could abandon them and spit out combats right away tho). I'd say no, but that's my personal preference.

5. A survey scanner tells you how many units or ore are left in the rock. If you pull in 100 units of ore per cycle, and the survey scanner tells you there's only 50 units left, end your cycle at 51% and you'll get all 50 units. This allows you to save half a cycle's worth of time from being wasted.

6. You should not refine until you have the proper skills&standings to do so, you will lose isk otherwise. Skills required are: Refinery Efficiency 3, Ore Specific Processing 2, a 50% base refine station, and 6.68 standings with NPC station owner.

7. By player station, I assume you mean a POS and not an outpost (in 0.0). A refining array in a POS has a minimum of 25% waste, so you should ALWAYS refine in a station. You'll have to work on the skills and standings before getting zero waste.


Maximum Mining Yield Skills:
Mining Frigate 5/Mining 5 (for the Venture)
Mining Barge 5 (for barge&exhumer)
Astrogeology 5
Exhumers 5 (only applies to exhumers)
Ore Specific Processing 4 (Tech 2 mining crystals) NEVER use T2 strip miners without a crystal.

Any ship can be blown up. But the procurer is harder to kill.

That said, your best defense is to learn how not to be picked as a target or not to be there, when the gankers hit the belt. It's a learning process and you will lose ships. Just make sure, you can afford to replace them.