Quick guide to EVE Online

A short simple guide to help beginning your journey in New Eden.

★ About

This is a quick guide to EVE Online for new players. It is as short as possible while still being as informative as it can be. It is just your reference to learn the absolute basics and serve as your first step on your path to knowledge and wisdom about the game.

🔹 Last major update: 7 Nov 2022 🔹

★ Guidelines

The golden rule: “Never fly what you can’t afford to lose.”

Even in high security space you are open to Player versus Player (PvP) interaction thus always at risk of losing your ship or other possessions.

You always have to be mindful of the risks involved no matter where you are and what you do, make judgement calls based on careful considerations, be prepared to encounter losses and deal with them when they occur.

If you play according to this rule and plan ahead you will never face a situation that you can not solve over time as setbacks are part of the game but failure is not.

The ultimate lesson: To learn and be able to do your own research.

As EVE is complex and is constantly changing, learning and doing your own research are key and continuous parts of the experience and are required for success.

Hopefully this quick guide will start you on that journey and serve as your first step.

Forge your own path.

As EVE is an open world sandbox the only goals there exist are the ones you set for yourself.

This can be both intimidating and create a sense of being lost, therefore it is best to set clear and well defined goals for yourself that you seek to accomplish even if they are common goals of the group you are a part of.

I also encourage you to seek out new playstyles and experiences from time to time to see what EVE has to offer beyond what you currently are doing and familiar with. There are always new opportunities and fun activities to partake in.

Losing your ship (or pod) is part of the game, learn from it and carry on.

Losses are part of the experience, this is an inevitable truth of EVE. Almost anything you do will put your ship or possessions at risk and eventually almost guaranteed that you will lose your ship or other property sooner or later.

There is no reason to worry however as this is all natural. Losing ships and other possessions does not mean you failed, worst case it means maybe you made a mistake, which happens to everyone, learn from it and try to avoid it in the future.

You only fail if you give up and quit, that is the only way to fail. You can quit due to lack of time or lack of interest but that is not failure. Maybe take a rest or even a short break if needed but don’t let a ship loss (or any other kind) discourage you from playing.

Best is to keep in mind that anything you own in-game are just a bunch of space pixels and not get personally attached to them in a way it would make you feel bad losing any of them.

Trust no one. Beware of scammers, thieves, gankers and people who try to bait you into a fight or lure you into a trap.

As EVE is a game where the players are not limited to the usual “good guy” tropes it is also allowed to be a space pirate or white-collar criminal (within the game rules) thus deception is part of the game.

Don’t blindly trust anyone and always keep the potential risks in mind regardless who the other person is and since how long you play together with them as even after a long time they can choose to betray you.

This of course does not have to ruin your fun or prevent you from having friendly relations but don’t get shocked nor upset if someone betrays you, most cases it is just part of the game, usually in good fun.

Of course there are antisocial people living their toxic fantasies out in EVE (just as in any other game and on the internet in general) but most simply play the game as intended when they betray you and usually it is nothing personal.

Remember you can be friends with the person you compete with or engage in sports or other activities with and despite you do all you can within the game’s rules to win (and in EVE’s case to make them lose) it does not mean hate needs to be involved.

If someone is a hater or troll just treat them accordingly and move on. Don’t let bad people turn you away from the fun of the game and don’t let competition and betrayal automatically turn you against people who are just playing the game as intended. A good story usually has both its heroes and villains and anything in-between, they all add to the experience.

Due to this unique feature of EVE, being trustworthy has real meaning and value which provides such a one of a kind experience that is rare to see in any other game. As the game rules will not prevent double-crossing someone, friendship and loyalty is only a matter of choice based on one’s free will alone, making such choice invaluable and special.

Play for fun, when a game becomes a second job it is no longer a game.

It is best to play for fun than to grind for ISK (in-game currency) or PLEX (in-game premium currency), do what you enjoy.

If you enjoy grinding then do it, if you enjoy mining do it, but don’t do it just to earn ISK because the tedious grind or mining will suck out every last ounce of fun from your gaming experience.

Yes sometimes you may need to grind or mine some but don’t let the quest for ISK undertake your mindset. You can earn ISK no matter what you are doing, of course not as efficiently as otherwise but for example if you enjoy PvE combat you can do exploration, missions or ratting in general and earn ISK, at the least some ISK while doing what you enjoy, which is light-years better than doing something that though earns you more ISK but which you don’t enjoy or outright hate to do.

If you always hear in your head “ticktock ticktock ISK per hour” then you are not enjoying the game, you are having a second job earning ISK, that is no fun for most people if anyone at all.

There are plenty of things to do in EVE so you always have something else you can do. Try new things from time to time just to see if you like something, there are always new things to discover.

This is especially prevalent when it comes to the concept of grinding for ISK to play the game for free while also having Omega (subscribed) status. Don’t get me wrong it is doable but most cases just results in a soul crushing experience that you don’t enjoy.

If anything if you want to grind do it in real-life, take a few hours of a spare job or extra work-hours at your current one each month which should be enough to pay for a subscription (or to buy PLEX for real-life money to sell for in-game ISK).

It is much better ISK per hour to spend a few extra hours on grinding in real-life and play as Omega that way instead of wasting countless hours a month in-game to earn that Omega status which you may not even achieve.

Have fun! 😉

Alts are invaluable

You can have different characters for different roles, can log in to distant areas of New Eden without having to travel there and can avoid standings issues or being targeted by faction and corp war targets, just to name a few uses.

Also you can train multiple characters at the same time by having multiple accounts (each can have up to three characters) even on the same email address and can subscribe them later or keep them as free to play Alpha as you desire.

★ What to do in EVE

🔗 https://eve-guides.fr/images/wtd.jpg

The player created “what to do in EVE” graph showcases a lot of the career options and opportunities a player can choose to participate in thus is very helpful to find new activities to try or plan your first set of activities.

Although it is a bit outdated it still showcases a good chunk of possibilities EVE has to offer. Note that a new updated version is in the works but has not been finished yet as of writing this so it might be worth checking out if the new one has been completed yet.

★ First steps

As I wrote earlier it is you who can decide what direction to take and forge your own path.

That said if you are new and don’t have a plan yet or just want to start learning the game and its mechanics it is advised to take a few common steps early in your career and while doing so looking up related resources to can progress through these steps which will help you learn some of the basics of the game.

Tutorial

Although you can skip it, if you are new it is advised to complete the tutorial for obvious reason.

Career agents

🔗 http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Career_Agents

If you are new to EVE then it is also recommended that you complete all the career agent missions.

Sisters of EVE Epic Arc

🔗 http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/The_Blood-Stained_Stars

The SoE Epic Arc is a series of Level 1 (L1) missions aimed to introduce new players into New Eden, mission running, the story and lore and the various places of Empire Space.

It is a good learning exercise and a perfect opportunity to practice your knowledge and abilities and to learn and practice how to fly your ship, use your ship’s systems, how to combat NPCs and how to navigate in space and travel to various star systems of interest.

Some missions pose a challenge but even those are possible solo by doing some research and buying the proper gear and using the proper ship if you aren’t already flying one that is capable of completing those specific missions. Though by design such missions are encouraging you to fly with friends or ask for help from other players.

You can repeat the SoE Epic Arc every 3 months so the sooner you complete it the sooner you can repeat it. Aside of the experience, it gives fairly good rewards for new players and also faction standings boost to a chosen Empire faction as well which is also useful for established players so even veterans may find benefit in completing it.

★ Useful resources

Search online

Online web search using your preferred search engine. This might seem trivial but searching for an answer often brings up the best answers without even having to know where to look for them.

Personally I never had issue finding what I was looking for using internet search even if I knew where to look for the specific answer, thus from personal experience can confirm that there’s barely any EVE related question (if any at all) that is not answered by searching online.

Videos

Tutorial and other videos and streams. A vast amount of player created and official videos and streams exist that explain EVE and its countless gameplay features so it is worth searching for such content.

Crimewatch

🔗 http://support.eveonline.com/hc/en-us/sections/201141682-Crimewatch

These official support articles explain how the high security space related game mechanics work and what to expect in this area of New Eden, thus are well worth your time reading so you can familiarize yourself with the dangers and workings of this area.

How standings work

🔗 http://support.eveonline.com/hc/en-us/articles/203217152-Standings

It is important to understand the positive and negative consequences of interacting with non-player characters (NPCs), organizations and factions, which this support article explain in some detail though further research into the subject is advised.

All gameplay related support articles

🔗 http://support.eveonline.com/hc/en-us/categories/200527101-Gameplay-Features

Although do not cover everything and not necessarily in full detail, the support articles are one important source of information regarding game mechanics and features.

Trade hubs

🔗 http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Trade_Hubs

May you just plan to buy items, sell some loot and salvage you’ve gathered, be a small or part time trader, buy resources to manufacture or sell goods you’ve produced or outright plan to form a trade empire it is useful to know where the trade hubs are located and what to expect of each.

EVE University Wiki

🔗 http://wiki.eveuniversity.org

The players maintained UniWiki is the most comprehensive source of information when it comes to EVE Online, which often has the answer you might be looking for so worth checking out first.

EVE-Survival

🔗 http://eve-survival.org

A great source of information about missions, exploration sites and more with not just static data about the subjects but with player submitted comments about them as well providing invaluable insights by players with first hand experience.

Forums, subreddit and help chat

🔗 http://forums.eveonline.com and https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve

The official EVE Online forums and the unofficial subreddit along with the in-game help channels provide both official info and player provided assistance.

Ship fittings

🔗 https://www.eveworkbench.com

In need of some inspiration how to fit your “internet space ship” or want to see how your enemies might fit theirs? You’ll find a vast number of fits in this database among some useful tools as well.

★ Out of game tools

These tools are invaluable as you can use them without having to sign into the game and also parallel to running and playing the game.

Dotlan EVE maps

🔗 http://evemaps.dotlan.net

Vector based EVE maps with detailed up to date statistics including ship destruction in the past hour and past 24 hours, info about stations, celestials, asteroid belts, sovereignty, factional warfare data and so on. It also includes a route planner and even more.

Market browsers

🔗 https://market.fuzzwork.co.uk and https://evemarketer.com

These market browsers provide all regions price check without having to visit the corresponding regions as in the game only the current region and its market offers are visible but not ones in other regions.

EVEmail

🔗 https://evemail.fuzzwork.co.uk

Provides the ability to read and write EVEmails without signing in to the game or to do the same on other characters without switching characters or accounts in-game.

EVE Online status updates

🔗 https://twitter.com/eve_status

The official twitter account for EVE Online server status related updates where anyone can check if for some reason the servers are temporarily down or disrupted.

EVE Online status monitor

🔗 https://eve-offline.net

A third-party EVE Online servers and services status monitoring website that displays up to date information that is refreshed every couple of minutes.

zKillboard

🔗 https://zkillboard.com

A place where PvP prowess is showcased and which can also be useful as a valuable intel tool (e.g. when and where specific people, groups and corps are active), statistical tool (e.g. how active and what kind of activity specific star systems have) and as a source to learn what fits other people use (both good and bad) and so on. However note that not every kill is submitted to it.

Also naturally you can also submit your own killmails (and your opponents usually submit your lossmails) as well to can brag about your achievements or just to have a journal of your accomplishments.

Pyfa

🔗 https://github.com/pyfa-org/Pyfa/releases

The python fitting assistant (software) is a fitting tool to create and test ship fittings and their statistics outside the game.

Evepraisal

🔗 https://evepraisal.com

Bulk item price checker that can be used to see the estimated value of scanned ship cargo, containers, hangars and list of items intended to buy or sell in general and to share such lists with other players through a single link as well.

EVE Online Reference

🔗 https://everef.net

A website through which the in-game database can be accessed. As it pulls the data right from the game servers it provides accurate up to date information regarding items (including ships and many more) and their statistics, attributes and other details.

Eve Who

🔗 https://evewho.com

A sort of directory of player characters, corporations and alliances where such can be looked up to see related data such as member count and how much it changed over the past day, list of present, joined and left members and which corporations a player character has joined and left and when so far in their career.

Though it is important to note that the data is not always up to date but still it usually is and as such it is a very useful source of information.

Adam4EVE

🔗 https://www.adam4eve.eu

The A4E site provides statistical data related to the in-game markets, industries and in general as well.

EVE Tycoon

🔗 https://evetycoon.com

Through EVE Tycoon traders and industrialists can track their profits and manage their related activities, among other useful features.

★ Some random quick tips

Never autopilot (even in hisec) unless you fly an expendable ship or don’t mind losing your ship (and pod).

The reason for this is that the autopilot warps to ~12 km from the next object (stargate, station, etc.) and flies (slowboats) to the object at sub-warp speed from there thus your ship will spend a lot of time in space while it can be scanned (to reveal the fitted systems or cargo or both) and shot at or even tackled (prevented from warping and slowed down to be an even easier target) thus if someone wants to destroy your ship they have all the time and opportunity to do so while you are autopiloting.

Make bookmarking a habit and before you warp off recall your drones and recover your deployables.

Don't leave those poor drones behind... in their sadness they may become rogue! 😉

People often leave their drones and MTUs (Mobile Tractor Units) behind when warping off because they forget to recall or scoop them. Such can happen when exiting a combat site, jumping through a stargate, docking up in a station or under other circumstances (even more so in the heat of combat though in such case they may deliberately do so).

If you have no bookmark to the location all you can do is scan your drones or deployables down which requires combat scan probes and proper skills and also that nobody else do it before you.

For this reason it is best practice to always bookmark every location you visit making it a useful habit to drop a bookmark the moment you land somewhere that you can’t visit without a bookmark.

This practice is also useful in case you later want to go back to salvage any wrecks and grab loot that you might had not enough cargo space for in your ship at the time.

Before you enter a wormhole bookmark its location, then once you’ve entered the wh bookmark it from the inside as well.

The reason for the first is once you enter the wh your scanned down cosmic signatures might be lost for example if you disconnect. Also if you share your bookmarks this is necessary for your fellow pilots or alts to can follow you.

Once you enter a wh and warp away from the wh exit/entry point you will not be able to warp back to it unless you have a bookmark to it or if you scan it down with probes which takes time and might call attention to your presence (or at least sooner than necessary) in case someone else is in the wh as well.

In flight right click empty space to access bookmarks (if any available in the star system) and other options.

A very efficient way of accessing bookmarks, stargates, stations and structures, planets and moons, asteroid belts, cosmic anomalies and so on available in the local system.

You can access the usual options for them as well like warping to them, warping to distance and others, thus can even be used efficiently in the heat of combat as well.

★ Free Skill Points for new sign ups

In case you decide to play EVE on a new account it is advised to use a referral link for signing up which grants around 20 days worth of skill training in the form of 1 million unallocated Skill Points (SPs) which is very useful to kick-start your EVE career.

You can find such links on the official forums where there is a thread with “Buddy Invites” in its title created for every quarter of the year (and the previous thread being locked) by the moderators where people can post their referral links.

Some people offer additional benefits as well so it is recommended to check all the offers before choosing one to see which one seems the best.

★ Closing words

Hopefully you’ve found this useful. If you like the content and wish to support the creation of more or just express your gratitude then you can consider signing up for one of my Patreon[www.patreon.com] tiers that you find suitable and join our Community while doing so. Any kind of support is appreciated.

This guide is also available on my blog at:

💠 https://gremmerzblog.wordpress.com/2022/11/03/quick-guide-to-eve-online

...alongside other content you may find interesting.

Be safe! 👋

…or in case of EVE:

Fly safe! o/

★ Appendix

About the author

Marcusson en Chasteaux

EVE player since 17th Jan. 2017.

By now having alts from all races in every empire faction, though for now mainly fly as Gallente.

Casual Alpha

I sign in when I have time and in the mood and do whatever I currently feel like doing. Not worthwhile for me to subscribe due to randomly signing in and usually for short sessions only, which is the reason not joining a player corp either. I enjoy the freedom of being a lone wolf.

Activities

Exploration (mostly hisec and wh), mission running, ratting (usually anomalies), mining (very occasionally), gas harvesting (wh), faction warfare (on alt), travel (landmarks, sites/places of interest), manufacturing, blueprint copying, trading, corp CEO (on alt).

🢡 EVE screenshots
🢡 Steam community profile

Another EVE related guide from the same author

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1171488505

Kherub Angels initiative

Corp, guides, giveaways, public Steam group

🢡 https://steamcommunity.com/groups/kherub

The Kherub Angels Steam Group is the official website of the in-game corporation of the same name and also is a public group for EVE Online and EVE Valkyrie players and fans in general.

In general Kherub Angels (both the corp and Steam group) is about helping out and assisting new, returning and veteran players alike and aims to generate and support EVE related community activity and awareness.

Also there is a dedicated EVE blog maintained by the Kherub Angels:

🢡 https://kherub.wordpress.com

Feel free to support this guide, it's free

If you wish to support this guide you can consider the following possibilities, none of which cost you anything but a few moments of your time:

★ You can rate this guide positively at the top of this page if you find it useful. You may also add it as a favorite if you feel it deserves it. A convenient share button is also available as well.

★ You can like our related thread on the official EVE forums. You may also post a comment if you so choose so. The thread is located at https://forums.eveonline.com/t/guides-and-giveaways/10982

★ You can let others (friends or even strangers, on Steam, in in-game local and/or corp chat, or elsewhere on the internet) know about the guide. Word of mouth can go a long way in making people aware of its existence so they can take advantage of it.

Obviously you are not limited to a single one of the above options.

Thanks for any support that helps reach more capsuleers who may benefit from these efforts. o7

 

[Gremmerz police officer™]

Glad you've found it useful. Good luck on your journey and fly safe! o/

[Δ]

Just starting the game right now and found your guide through a Dev pinned post in their official Steam forums. This is great info. Thanks!

[Gremmerz police officer™]

EVE Online's learning curve compared to other MMOs: https://global.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/original/2X/9/9a395dad41a3cccfecd1346e6bc4aa48beb14442.jpg

[Lite Titan]

I'm giving EVE a go for the very first time (downloading as we speak...type). It looks like a game with a very steep learning curve?

[Gremmerz police officer™]

Yes EVE is not for everyone. What matters is find a game that you enjoy playing and have fun. Although I personally would give EVE a go still as you might still find it manageable, you never know until you actually try it. Either way good luck finding a game that you have fun with! o/

[Avendale]

Short guide - close.uninstall.forgot

[Gremmerz police officer™]

Well if you had fun in the past then it was time well spent I think. If not then yeah would have been better to realize it early on. Either way at least now you know what's up and can find something else you can enjoy and have fun with.

[Remy]

idk whyi got this but am no longer interested in eve. my only regret is for it taking so long to realize it's no good.

[Gremmerz police officer™]

This game is surely not for everyone (no game is for that matter) although the devs are watering it down month by month but there is considerable amount of research and learning involved with it nevertheless.

So if that is not your thing then you will not likely to have fun with EVE but such appeals to many so if you want to deep dive into a complex game and see how you manage the depth then this game is definitely something you should try out.

Just don't feel pressured to keep going if you find out you don't like the game, not every game is for everyone and it is not failure to stop playing a game you don't enjoy.

In case you give it a try good luck and fly safe o/

[Remy]

I have a faster guide. save your time and sanity and don't play it.