EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hello,

I've started EVE a few weeks ago and I've been holding on to my money tightly since I have little understanding of the game still.

What should I be investing in right at the start? I'm currently working on skills for a Mackinaw from this page (https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Mackinaw) since I've read about the term "Mack" in various places and it seems to go well with a mining build.

I have also heard about spending my money on implants, are there any that are a must have right from the start?

Thanks for any help provided!

My biggest piece of advice is to put that isk somewhere where you can't touch it for about three months. Getting a feel for what isk is actually worth is important, and will keep you from having hilarious loss mails. If you are really interested in mining (as in this is what you want to do in eve, not just a way to finance future endeavors), then grab a venture and get to it. Check out gas mining in wormholes, along with low/null sec mining corps. Do dangerous stuff in the venture, its a great ship for getting blown up. Just have some fun.


After two weeks or so, you will be ready to move into a mining barge. You will be able to fly it before then if training straight towards it, but an extra week spent training some tank and fitting skills will make you a little safer. I recommend getting a procurer as your first mining barge. A retriever may have higher profit margins, but a procurer is a much much safer ship. Also, for the love of god, tank your ship. Have a damage control in the lows, and some tanky rigs. Trimark armor pumps can probably work for this. Other low slots can have mining bonused modules. The reason for all of this is that even if you are in high sec, you can still be attacked. The corp I'm in along with others would love to watch the fireworks as your first barge turns to ash. Procurers are extremely expensive to gank if properly fit, and are great ships for mining in 0.5 and 0.6 security space (high sec with longer concord response times).

When moving up to an exhumer (probably about 2 months in), look at a skiff or mackinaw. The skiff is again tanky enough to require a large number of gankers to take down. A mackinaw only requires 2-3. At this point you should know how to use local and d-scan to keep yourself safe, so I'll let you make the choice.

Finally, whatever you do, don't AFK mine. If you must go AFK, dock up to keep your ship safe. Watch local and use your directional scanner. Finally, figure out which characters are scouts for people that want to kill you, and start moving if you see them near by.

EDIT: The poster above me mentioned fleets. Mining is best done as a group activity, but don't just jump into a corp. Do your research and learn which corps actually protect their members.

You Sabriz? I can't imagine you ever doing something as mean as destroying someone's mining ship. I abhor the thought!

The highlighted can't be stressed enough.

Match your spending habit with your actual income...A massive cash injection is not classed as income.

^^ Know thy enemy and all that. Knowing what tools and mechanics can be used to kill you, and how to counteract them is a good start to surviving the attentions of the various rapscallions in highsec. Especially if you're mining.

Contact Erotica. One of the best financial advisors in EVE.

If you have a bil and you're aspiring to be a miner than you have kinda a weird paradox going on.

1.Most people mine because they want to make isk and it has a low barrier of cost for entry.
2.If I had started out with 1 bil isk, I would be inclined to find a lowsec area to look for fights. Using under 2 million isk fitted frigates.

Thanks for all the help so far!

To add a little after making some notes on the posts:

1. I currently have 2 accounts, I want to make some good money for future combat funding I think. I heard 5+ accounts but I don't have the money for that kind of subscription unfortunately and I hope 2 accounts will be decent.

2. Everyone here is pretty much saying hold on to my money so that's what I will do for the next month or two.

3. On top of mining I want to get into industry, what would be good implants for that? Since I'm seeing that mining is a good way to start getting money, but not viable when in the financial position I'm in, is industry a good secondary profession?

4. I'll definitely work on a good defensive barge/exhumer. So Procurer, but a Skiff would be better due to its price from what I hear.

Some final questions:

What are suicide ganks? How can I learn more about them first hand? What ships do they use?

And to answer the main tips from all of you I have been doing the tutorial missing extensively. I need to start the Sister Of Eve quest line now.

The 5+ accounts was a bit tongue-in-cheek. (Although if you want to make serious ISK from mining that's indeed what is needed, otherwise mining isn't a very well paid profession.)

1. One billion ISK is plenty for combat funding, so you might not need to multiply it.
If you like PvP, it'll buy you 100-200 T1 frigates or around 50 T1 cruisers, which should be enough for a while.
If you like to PvE, that'll buy you a partly pimped Battleship. (A basic PvE battleship with fittings is ~300M ISK, but you can easily spend several billions if you want to have the best possible modules.) And you shouldn't lose ships that often in PvE, once you know what you are doing. (So expect to lose the first one.)

3. Industry doesn't really requires implants, unless you want refine stuff in null-sec stations.
There are several types of implants. The most important ones when starting are attribute implants which slightly increase the speed at which you learn skills. Stick with +3s or +4s early on, don't rush into +5. Leave other implants for later.

As for Industry as a good secondary profession ... Industry can make you tons of ISK, however:
a) It's not simple to make ISK with it. Everyone can produce things, so to make ISK you have to truly understand the market, anticipate what will be needed where and find your own niche that nobody else had though about.
b) While T1 production doesn't require much skill points (train Material Efficiency 5 and you're good to go), T2 production and invention requires a lot more skill points and those skills aren't useful at all in combat.
c) Industry is a totally different game - it's a lot of spreadsheets and market observation and it involves far more time spend outside of the EVE client than within the client. There are people who love it, but if all you really want to do is fly spaceships then you might get bored rather quickly by it.

4. Even though a Skiff is slightly better than a Procurer, a Procurer is usually plenty. But then again, why do you want to mine? If you enjoy it, go for it, but don't do it just to earn ISK. Solo, you'll earn less than 10 million ISK / h and you can easily get more than that with lvl 4 security missions. Even lvl 3 missions start to pay more than mining.

5. Suicide ganks: High-sec is patrolled by CONCORD. This means that CONCORD will destroy anyone who illegally attacks you. However, they don't show up immediately and it is possible that your aggressor will kill you before CONCORD arrives. He will still lose his ship, but you also lost yours. This is called a suicide-gank.

In general, the ganker will have an alt on grid who will loot your wreck. If the loot is worth more than the ship(s) that the ganker lost, he makes a profit.

The vast majority of suicide ganks are committed with cheaply fit Catalysts. More rarely, other ships are used too (usually Thrasher, Thorax, Talos, Tornado).

*if* all you are trying to do is make money for combat, rather than funding a second account for mining, I'd just sell the plex each month instead.

Boom, 600M ISK/month, no mining or grinding missions, about the same cost.