Clone states

There are two different ways of playing EVE:

• You can play for free (i.e. without paying a monthly subscription fee), but you will be limited in which skills your character can train. This is referred to as "Alpha".
• Paying a monthly subscription to play the game, which allows your character to learn every skill in the game. This is referred to as "Omega".

In-game this system is referred to as Clone States. Characters on Alpha accounts are referred to as "Alpha clones", and characters on Omega accounts are referred to as "Omega clones". If you pay for a subscription (paid for with time cards, monthly payments, PLEX...), your account (and all the characters on that account) receive "Omega" status until your subscription runs out (or you cancel it), at which point they revert back to "Alpha" status. There is no way to tell an Alpha from an Omega clone in-game. The conversion from Alpha to Omega is immediate, while the conversion from Omega to Alpha will always happen when you next log into the game.

If an Omega clone is downgraded to an Alpha clone (because the account's subscription has run out), any skills that character has trained which are not part of the Alpha skill set are locked and become inactive, i.e. they cannot be used, but the invested skill points will not be lost. Any items or ships which require the locked skill become inactive and cannot be used, and the skill training queue will be paused (but can be resumed by logging into the game). If the account's subscription is renewed, then the character is automatically upgraded back to an Omega clone and can once again use all the skills they have previously trained.

Alpha or Omega status is tied to your game account. If you have multiple accounts, then you can choose to pay for a subscription for some, all or none of them, and each account (and the characters on that account) will have the corresponding Alpha or Omega state.

Alpha clones are welcome to join EVE University

Alpha clone

Compared with Omega characters, Alpha characters are limited in the following ways:

• They may only train certain skills
• They may train for free up to a maximum of 5 million skill points.
• They may add skill points to skills in the Alpha set up to 20.5 million skill points with skill injectors.
• They take twice as long to train skills
• They pay an additional 2% tax on any industry job (e.g. manufacturing or research)
• They cannot accept any Level 4 or Level 5 missions from agents.
• If you are logged into the game with an Alpha character you may not log in simultaneously (multibox) with any other character (on any account)

Arms Race Clone Skill Training

Skills available to Alphas

The set of skills that Alpha characters may train limits them to:

• Combat ships up to battleship size, as well as basic haulers.
• Most Tech 2 modules are usable but not all.
• "Navy" ships of Battleship size and below are usable, but not Tier 2 variants.
• Battleship weapons, EWAR, most remote assistance modules, drones, harvesting modules, scanning modules and some others are limited to T1 and meta.

Expand the table below to see which skills you can train as an Alpha, and to what maximum level. For a list of skills you start the game with, see starting skills.

Alpha skill point accumulation

Alpha clones can train up to 5 million skill points for free using the Skill Queue, as long as the skills are in the set outlined above. Beyond this 5M limit, they can continue gaining new skills from the Alpha set, but must do so by directly applying "Unallocated SP". In this way Alphas can gain up to 20 million SP worth of skills, which would mean training every Alpha skill to it's maximum rank.

It's important to note that "Unallocated SP" count toward the 5 million limit for free training. This means that if an Alpha clone has 4M SP already trained in skills, and 500K SP of "Unallocated SP", they can only look forward to 500K more SP worth of free training, not 1M. This is vital to keep in mind if your goal is to get as many SP as possible into your Alpha for free.

If you wish to maximize the total amount of SP an Alpha can train for free, you should avoid any SP going into "Unallocated SP" until after you have already trained to the 5M limit. Specifically, this means that any non-expiring SP in your Redeem window or the AIR Career Program should be left there while you are training towards 5M. Redeeming them early means they eat into your free 5M, while redeeming them after will mean they contribute to your maximum potential of 20M SP as a free Alpha.

The same logic of course applies to Daily Alpha Injectors and any other form of skill injection. Because injectors apply points directly to "Unallocated SP", you should wait to reach your 5M limit of free training before using such items.

Gameplay

While they are well suited for getting introduced to EVE Online, Alpha characters should be seen more as an "indefinite trial" rather than as a "free-to-play" option.

Combat

Alpha characters are perfectly viable in low-level PvP and PvE, and in support roles in larger-scale PvP (such as EWAR or tackle for a fleet). However, their performance will not be on par with Omega characters once the latter has trained the skills to start using Tech 2 modules and ships.

Industry

Alpha characters can mine (ore or gas) in a Venture (but not use more advanced mining ships), and can perform basic (only Tech 1, no invention) manufacturing. While they will not be as efficient as an Omega character (who have access to more advanced ships and skills which improve mining and manufacturing efficiency, and are not subject to the addition 2% tax levied on Alpha characters), they can nonetheless participate in basic industry. They can salvage wrecks, but they cannot, however, do Planetary Industry.

Alpha characters can trade, but they will pay higher taxes on their transactions and have fewer options at their disposal (e.g. they can only sell items located within 5 jumps, whereas an Omega character has the option to train skills allowing them to sell items anywhere in the current region). Alphas can have 1 active contract at a time (i.e. they can create 1 contract, but have to wait for it to be fulfilled before creating another), but they can accept contracts.

Basic hauling is an option for Alpha characters as they have access to haulers.

Exploration

Alpha characters can do basic exploration.

Choice of race

Alpha clones can train into any race's ship or weapon skills; they are not limited to training their own race's skills. In fact, Alpha clones of all races can train into the same Alpha skill set. However, the Alpha's starting racial skills count toward the free training skill limit while in Alpha clone state.

Omega clone

Omega clones may use any skill, ship and item in the game. Additionally, you may log into the game with more than one account at a time (multiboxing), but only as long as all the accounts being logged in have Omega status.

External links

• Dev Blog: Introducing Clone States (August 2016)
• Dev Blog: Clone States - Post CSM Summit Roundup (October 2016)
• Patch Notes for the Ascension expansion (November 2016)
• Forum Post: [December] Defender Missiles (November 2016)
• EVE Support page for Alpha and Omega clones
• EVE Support page for Alpha Clones and Omega Clone lapsing - Quick Facts
• Dev Blog: Clone States - The Next Steps (December 2017)