New Player
This page offers some pointers on starting out life in New Eden, with a particular focus on topics useful to new EVE University members.
Where to start as a new player
EVE Online is an overwhelming place. EVE University is here to help: you can consider applying to join--and if you've just joined, welcome to EVE University, it’s great to have you here.
All the information on this wiki is available to the whole EVE community, and players don't need to join EVE University to benefit from it: even if you don't see yourself joining the University, please feel welcome to use these resources.
Activities / Careers
Find an activity that you enjoy doing. If it doesn't generate much ISK, find a second activity that will pay for it.
If you are not sure what is there to do, start with the Tutorial and Career Agent Missions. Career Agent Missions will introduce you to many different activities, ships and modules. After you are done with the Career Agents try doing the The Blood-Stained Stars Epic Arc. It will earn you around 15 million ISK and introduce you to doing missions for Security Agents.
Choose an activity you enjoy rather then an activity which earns you the most ISK. EVE Online offers many activities. Don't be afraid to try doing something else when the opportunity presents itself. Equally, don't try to master everything at once!
Following on this, the AIR Career Program is an amazing resource for encouraging new players to try out activities that they may not have otherwise considered. By completing goals for the four main career paths (Industry, Exploration, PvE and PvP), new players can earn a generous amount of skill points, ISK, SKINs, various ships, modules and skillbooks, and other miscellaneous rewards. See Guide to AIR Career Programme for a step-by-step guide on how to efficiently complete it.
Most activities are available to both a 
Alpha clone and 
Omega clone, but some are restricted only to Omega Clones.
| Activity | Alpha Clone Restrictions |
|---|---|
| Exploration | No Cloaking |
| Mining | No advanced ships, no ice mining |
| Missions | No Level 4 or 5 Agents |
| PvP | No hard limitations, though advanced ships/fits will be unavailable |
| Manufacturing | No Inventing, most Tier 2 Manufacturing is locked behind inaccessible Science skills, and Alpha clones pay an additional 2% tax on all jobs |
| Trading | Limited number of skills |
| Planetary Industry | Unavailable |
| Hauling | Cannot fly advanced ships, and only one contract can be taken out at any given time |
Think about what you want to do in the long run. Do you enjoy doing missions? Take a look at Incursions: they use similar skills, pay more and are a group activity which will help you make connections. If you like industry, you could expand into T2 Invention and Production. Exploration could lead you to living in wormhole space. There are lots of possibilities out there.
If you are doing an activity you like, don't listen to those that criticize your ISK/h efficiency. The amount of ISK you earn will increase over time as your skills improve.
Don't be in a rush to do everything! Take it step by step. Be cautious about using Skill Injectors or buying Plex to get ahead. These are legitimate options, but part of the fun is learning and making your own ISK—and jumping too quickly into expensive ships with demanding skills can set you up for expensive losses.
Ships
Don't be afraid of losing ships, but try not to make too many expensive mistakes that teach you nothing. EVE Online has a simple rule: "Never fly what you can't afford to lose".
EVE Online is not a safe place, not even in High Security systems. CONCORD's job isn't to protect you, but to punish criminals. This wiki has articles covering various rules, tips and tricks that may help you survive.
The flipside of this rule is that if you can afford to lose a ship, you should feel free to take risks with it in the cause of having fun. It is best to think of ships as being a bit like ammunition.
EVE University is often at war which means that, for players working in highsec space, there are some ships that are best flown on an Alt to avoid being killed. At war, Trade hubs often harbour hostile war targets. Use an OOC Hauler and read about Hauling to reduce the risk of being killed. You should also consider using the EVE University Hauling Service and the Buyback.
To help you with ships and modules EVE University offers Corporation Hangars with a selection of free fitted ships at each campus. If you don't have the Student title, ask someone who has to get a ship for you. If you lose a ship during a EVE University combat fleet you will usually be entitled to use the Ship Replacement Program.
Skills
As you learn skills, it's worth remembering that training skills to level IV and (especially) V becomes increasingly time consuming for only minor gains. An important thing to remember is the 80/20 Rule of skill training, where training a skill to level IV will give you 80% of the benefit of the skill, while only requiring 20% of the time, compared to training the skill to level V.
EVE University has two sets of skill plans that will help you get a good foundation of skills.
- The Short Skill Plan can put you in a PvP-ready, battle-effective Tech 1 frigate within six hours, and a battle-effective Tech 1 cruiser in less than 5 days.
- (These times will be roughly doubled for alpha clones.)
- The Pyramid Skill Plan is a good guide to longer-term training for whatever your goals are.
Note also the "Magic 14", 14 skills which benefit any ship you undock.
To help you start your training, EVE University offers the Skillbook Program and The +3 Implants Program.
