EVE New Citizens Q&A

This is an MMO, and like all MMO's, it's designed so you "progress through" your skillpoints and money. There are ways to scam, steal, or luck out and get something worth a fortune, but you have to know what you're doing, and it's still very rare that everything happens right and you get rich.

So, if you're absolutely set on not doing missions and not FW (both major sources of steady income), my recommendation would be to spend $20 and get a PLEX, sell it for 700 million ISK on the market, and you'll be set for a while. Spend 50-100 million on getting all the skillbooks you need, and the rest can be your capital for trading on the market. You need money to make money with trading, and you also need time and knowledge about what to do.

Note that in order to sell the PLEX, you'll need to pay the market taxes and broker fees, so you'll need to gather about 16 million. You can do the career agent missions (which will dump that amount on you via cash, skills, and ships), or you can mine for a couple hours and sell the ore.

EDIT: Combat sites are doable, but in high-sec they are like level 1 - 2 missions: everyone tries to do them, and the rewards aren't THAT great.

Last time I played I did just way too many missions to remember it fondly, and for FW I am going to need some ISK reserves to replace my inevitable ship losses as I am learning.

I guess I will do a few missions and progress up to level 3's shipwise and then make a move to FW.

You don't need much to make money in FW. The actual lucrative part of money making in FW isn't shooting other players, it's another form of PVE, with a high RISK of PVP. You need to orbit a "button" for a set amount of time, or do special FW missions for the militia you've joined. I haven't been in FW myself, so this is second hand knowledge from friends, but your starting capital requirements are not that high.

If you can stomach it, redo the tutorials, and some or all of the Sisters Arc for some ships and money. Then either join a FW player corp, or the militia NPC corp. Make sure you talk to people however, make it known you're new and would like some help "learning to fish" (Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime...). And of course don't forget to join fleets and go lose ships, that's where the real fun is. I wouldn't worry too much about making ISK in FW, it's supposedly very easy.

Bear in mind, there are some drawbacks to FW, you will tank your standing with the opposing factions and lose the ability to dock in their stations at some point. This can of course be fixed down the line, but it is a negative to keep in mind. FW however seems to be exactly what you want and need IMO. It will be a good fit.

What exactly happened to your old account? If you open a petition CCP may be able to restore your character even if you biomassed it. It's in their best interest to keep returning customers happy. In any case, there's no harm in trying.

There is one way to make money in EVE that hasn't been covered yet.

*ahem*
[deep jazzy voice]

Drop dem britches son... imma show how ta make some reuuul gud munny.

[/deep jazzy voice]


In a seriousness... you make money doing almost anything in EVE. It doesn't even have to be strictly through in-game things. I once knew a guy who made lots of ISK designing propaganda for various corporations.

one of my corpmates makes the ships he uses to flip mission runners out of the crap he salvaged off carebear wrecks and tears.

Hey! I'm new too so while it is perhaps not the right thing to give advice, I'll share what I did to make a few isk. Bear in mind though, I was just discovering Eve, making a lot of mistakes, looking to have fun way more than looking to make money, and I'm pretty sure there are faster ways of making ISK:

1. SOE Arc - decent cash when you are just starting out. Enough for a few low-fit executioners.
2. I did do missions, but I did them in an inappropriate ship, which made it actually a lot of fun.
3. FW: Perhaps the easiest way for newbies to get cash. Cheap frigate, LP, PvP action now and then if you want it, and very decent cash: 40M an hour isn't half hard. And you can probably do a lot more if you don't go around testing how d-scan works, how probe-scan works, how to steal loot from right under the noses of a gate camp (okay, I was very, very lucky but it was 30M!!!), or spend your time wondering what's in the next system. Plus, don't worry about getting blown off. People are incredibly nice on most occasions, and after every loss, I've taken to talking to the guy who beat me looking for information, better fits, etc. Not only did they give me info, but some also returned stuff they took from my ship. It is also a great way to meet new people and make eve more fun. Also, helps you get settled money wise even if plex farming is probably going against the spirit of eve.
4. Trading. I haven't really trained my character for it and it can get a little boring. But I tried it and it is good money at the lower end of the scale as long as you chose your products well (if there are already 3-4 people 0.01 isking it, leave it alone in my opinion. Just look for 15%+ sales). Also, sometimes, you can pick up bargains (like someone selling drones really cheap 5 jumps away, which you can then sell on a bigger hub for some profit).
5. Salvaging L4 mission runners (I joined a corps for this) and it is great money. You can make a lot of money rather quickly.
6. Belt Ratting: this is harder and more uncertain. Once, running away from the Minamatar militia ships, I ran into an uninhabited low-sec system, found 3 different 1M bounty rats in the first three belts I hit, and they dropped nearly 10M in loot between them. It was also fun taking them out with my executioner. But since then, I've never seen another 1M bounty rat, nor have they dropped great loot, even though I'm in a much lower sec system. The usual PvP threat is there, especially here it comes from cruisers and battlecruisers and what not, but again, it teaches a lot on how to use your scanners.
7. Anomaly ratting: this is more money, perhaps less uncertain, but I can't handle it in a T1 frigate in low sec. Besides, I think if you really want to make money ratting, you have to do it in a ship that deals way more damage to monetize your time. I just do it for fun and learning to be careful in low-sec systems.
8. DED sites: again, good money, but not in smaller ships (to which I'm sticking for a while).

I still have to try exploration and nullsec though. From what I've heard, that's where real money is. And wormholes. Though I don't know how long a frigate can survive the rats in those environments. I mean even a Blood battleship is hard in a low-fit executioner, especially when it is accompanied by a couple of cruisers. (Not hard as in your are in danger of losing your ship, just hard as in hard to kill because you don't deal enough damage).

Facepalm!!!!!! I clear a system, move to the next one, clear it, move to the next one. Almost like exploring! Then make a dessie run to pick up the loot I left in the stations.

I read about this too, and thought it only applied to null-sec systems where you have sovereignity, etc (with upgrades, et al, concepts which I don't really understand for the moment). I didn't know it applied to lowsec too.

I certainly have more experience doing this in upgraded null sec systems but I've also done it in high sec and seen it work. Also even just miners in the belt killing rats and the hauler toons warping in and out of the belt will help jack up the spawn rate.

Lots of good advice here. The only thing I will add is that the decision I made, early on, to move to lowsec, was the second best decision I made in EVE. The first was to move to wh space from lowsec. I would suggest getting out of highsec (provided you are still there) as soon as possible.