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| + | #redirect [[Careers]] |
| − | [[Category:Guides]]
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| − | [[Category:Careers]]
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| − | ==Welcome to EVE: Now get a job!==
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| − | So, you've joined the wonderful world of EVE Online - congratulations! It doesn't take long for new players to realize that EVE does not present you with the keys to survival on a silver platter. After giving them a noob ship, a short tutorial, and some helpful starter missions, EVE kicks players into the harsh environment of space to fend for themselves. This is one of the aspects of the EVE sandbox that is both thrilling and frightening, at the same time.
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| − | One of the first lessons that every EVE pilot learns is: InterStellar Kredits (ISK) run the universe. Without money, you cannot buy ships, equipment, trade goods, and just about everything else one needs to thrive - or survive. In EVE, perhaps more than any other online multiplayer game, TANSTAAFL [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_ain%27t_no_such_thing_as_a_free_lunch] ("There ain't no such thing as a free lunch").
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| − | So, one of the first questions that every new EVE player asks is: how do I make ISK? After some experience and education, that question generally becomes: how do I make the most ISK with the least effort in the shortest time?
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| − | Fortunately, there are many ways to earn ISK in EVE. This brief guide intends to describe some of the typical options that many EVE players pursue, and to provide some helpful guidance about which ISK-earning careers might be the best fit for your personality and playing style.
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| − | ==Starting Character Skills and Attributes==
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| − | Few new EVE players consider the potential career implications of their racial, bloodline and ancestry selections when establishing their first character. Generally, they select what sounds like the most interesting or fun character background to play. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, however, as no in-game career choice is blocked to any racial faction(Amarr, Gallente, Minmatar or Caldari) or bloodline. Any character can learn any skill in the game.
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| − | ===Starting Skills===
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| − | All new characters start with the same essential skill set:
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| − | * Frigate II (starting racial faction dependent)
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| − | * Electronics III
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| − | * Engineering III
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| − | * Gunnery II
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| − | * Mechanic II
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| − | * Mining II
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| − | * Navigation III
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| − | * Science III
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| − | * Shield Operation II
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| − | * Small Energy Turret III
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| − | * Small Hybrid Turret III
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| − | * Small Projectile Turret III
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| − | * Spaceship Command III
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| − | ===Starting Attributes===
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| − | However, starting attributes (Charisma, Intelligence, Memory, Willpower and Perception) are slightly different, based on racial faction, bloodline and ancestry choices, and this will affect the rate at which skills are learned. But even attributes can be remapped [http://www.eve-ivy.com/wiki/index.php?title=New_Player_Fast_Track_Guide#Remap_your_attributes], so even this does not present a significant obstacle to optimizing your character for different careers.
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| − | {| cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" border="1"
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| − | ! Race !! Bloodline !! Ancestry !! !! Charisma !! Intelligence !! Memory !! Perception !! Willpower
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| − | | '''Caldari''' || Deteis || Merchandisers || || 7 || 8 || 12 || 6 || 6
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| − | | '''Caldari''' || Deteis || Scientists || || 7 || 11 || 8 || 7 || 6
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| − | |-
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| − | | '''Caldari''' || Deteis || Tube Child || || 7 || 8 || 8 || 6 || 10
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| − | | '''Caldari''' || Civire || Entrepreneurs || || 7 || 6 || 9 || 10 || 7
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| − | | '''Caldari''' || Civire || Mercs || || 7 || 6 || 5 || 10 || 11
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| − | | '''Caldari''' || Civire || Dissenters || || 9 || 6 || 5 || 10 || 9
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| − | | '''Caldari''' || Achura || Inventors || || 4 || 13 || 7 || 8 || 7
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| − | | '''Caldari''' || Achura || Monks || || 4 || 9 || 7 || 10 || 9
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| − | | '''Caldari''' || Achura || Stargazers || || 4 || 9 || 10 || 9 || 7
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| − | | '''Minmitar''' || Sebiestor || Tinkerers || || 7 || 12 || 7 || 6 || 7
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| − | | '''Minmitar''' || Sebiestor || Traders || || 11 || 8 || 7 || 6 || 7
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| − | | '''Minmitar''' || Sebiestor || Rebels || || 7 || 8 || 7 || 9 || 8
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| − | | '''Minmitar''' || Brutor || Workers || || 7 || 5 || 9 || 10 || 8
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| − | | '''Minmitar''' || Brutor || Tribal Traditionalists || || 8 || 5 || 5 || 10 || 11
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| − | |-
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| − | | '''Minmitar''' || Brutor || Slave Child || || 7 || 5 || 5 || 12 || 10
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| − | | '''Minmitar''' || Vherokior || Drifters || || 9 || 10 || 9 || 7 || 4
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| − | | '''Minmitar''' || Vherokior || Mystics || || 9 || 9 || 9 || 5 || 7
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| − | | '''Minmitar''' || Vherokior || Retailers || || 10 || 8 || 12 || 5 || 4
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| − | | '''Amarr''' || Amarr || Liberal Holders || || 7 || 8 || 7 || 5 || 12
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| − | | '''Amarr''' || Amarr || Wealthy Commoners || || 5 || 8 || 10 || 5 || 11
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| − | | '''Amarr''' || Amarr || Religious Reclaimers || || 4 || 8 || 7 || 5 || 15
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| − | | '''Amarr''' || Ni-Kunni || Free Merchants || || 13 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 5
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| − | | '''Amarr''' || Ni-Kunni || Border Runners || || 9 || 7 || 7 || 11 || 5
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| − | | '''Amarr''' || Ni-Kunni || Navy Veterans || || 9 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9
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| − | | '''Amarr''' || Khanid || Cyber Knights || || 6 || 7 || 5 || 12 || 9
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| − | | '''Amarr''' || Khanid || Unionists || || 8 || 8 || 5 || 9 || 9
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| − | | '''Amarr''' || Khanid || Zealots || || 6 || 6 || 7 || 9 || 11
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| − | | '''Gallente''' || Gallente || Activists || || 13 || 7 || 5 || 9 || 5
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| − | | '''Gallente''' || Gallente || Miners || || 9 || 7 || 9 || 9 || 5
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| − | | '''Gallente''' || Gallente || Immigrants || || 9 || 7 || 5 || 11 || 7
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| − | | '''Gallente''' || Intaki || Artists || || 9 || 9 || 8 || 6 || 7
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| − | | '''Gallente''' || Intaki || Diplomats || || 11 || 9 || 8 || 4 || 7
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| − | | '''Gallente''' || Intaki || Reborn || || 7 || 9 || 12 || 4 || 7
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| − | | '''Gallente''' || Jim-Mei || Sang Do Caste || || 9 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 11
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| − | | '''Gallente''' || Jim-Mei || Saan Go Caste || || 8 || 8 || 8 || 7 || 8
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| − | | '''Gallente''' || Jim-Mei || Jing Ko Caste || || 8 || 6 || 6 || 11 || 8
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| − | |}
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| − | ===Optimizing Skill and Attribute Development===
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| − | After playing EVE for a while, many players establish an alternative character (generally known as an "alt" in game parlance), either as one of the three available characters for any account, or as a new account. There are many advantages to having an alt character, or several alts, which we will explore further later.
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| − | A great utility for experimenting with different starting character races and bloodlines is EVEHQ [http://www.evehq.net/], which contains a very useful Character Creation Tool. With EVEHQ, you can model your starting character, and then develop optimal skill training and/or attribute remapping plans, thus enabling your character to use the equipment or perform the tasks needed for your desired ISK-making activities in the shortest time.
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| − | ==Developing a career plan: What will you be when you grow up?==
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| − | ===Do the starter career mission tracks===
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| − | Once you've established your character or alt, you should play all five of the starter career mission tracks offered: industry, military, exploration, business, and advanced military. These career introduction missions dish out numerous additional skills for free, and each is nicely explained in practice - sometimes with special "civilian" versions of the necessary module so you can try out the mechanic before training the skill needed for the real version of the module in question.
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| − | To access these career mission tracks, press the F12 key, then select "Show Career Agents". These introductory missions are entirely optional, but highly recommended because they provide essential skillbooks, ships, and some initial capital, with a relatively minor investment in time. The starter missions also teach you the basics of the principal career options for making money in EVE.
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| − | *'''Industry''' missions cover the basics of mining, refining and manufacturing of goods. Industrial tycoons can create enormous wealth in the EVE universe, but not without a lot of strong competition. Mining is a popular way to make money, too. But manufacturing tends not to generate any real profits until you have learned some highly advanced skills and invested heavily in blueprints.
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| − | *'''Business''' missions introduce players to EVE's open and comprehensive market system. With good trading skills, EVE players can earn substantial ISK without ever undocking from a station. You can also earn a good income from hauling goods between trade hubs, buying low in one location and then selling high in another. The business missions reward you with a basic industrial ship for free, and the starter systems offer a potential market opportunity for many goods that are in demand for new characters.
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| − | *'''Military''' missions cover the most obvious way of playing EVE - shooting stuff for loot and salvage. Initially, you have the skills to fly a frigate of your race.
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| − | *'''Exploration''' missions cover the discovery of valuable sites in EVE space - wormholes, deadspace pockets, and undiscovered archeology sites, among others. These missions show you how to use the scanner and probes, and how to identify and exploit the sites you discover.
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| − | *'''Advanced Military''' missions will introduce you to the finer details of EVE combat. These missions are more difficult than those of in the Military career track, and as a result, these should be taken after the other track is completed. This more advanced track will teach you how to assist others in order to overcome a threat, as well as the effects of the various weapon damage types. Once finished, you will have all the basic knowledge required to dive head first into the ever raging war between the factions of EVE Online.
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| − | After the five career introductions, each consisting of ten missions, you will be pointed towards the first epic mission arc of EVE, "The Blood-Stained Stars". While a definite challenge for a new player, this 50-mission arc provides some substantial rewards, and is worth finishing. The arc takes you all over the safe empire space and you can freely branch off to do other things, returning to the arc later as you choose. If you decide to pursue this arc, you should read the handy mission guide from Keith Neilson [http://keithneilson.co.uk/eve-epic-mission-arc-part-1/].
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| − | ===Develop a career plan===
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| − | Once you've been introduced to some of the basics of EVE, and have sampled the starter career mission tracks, you now know enough to begin optimizing your character for one or more ISK-making specialties. It's generally best, at least initially, to get very good at one kind of ISK-generating activity, rather than be not-so-great at a lot of different money-earning ventures. The essential steps for developing your ISK-earning career plan are as follows:
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| − | 1. Create a concept in your mind of what you want to do in EVE. Don't limit yourself. Make this anything you can imagine, no matter how unlikely or outlandish.
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| − | 2. Do some Level 1 (and later, more advanced level) missions until you have enough resources to begin doing what you thought of in Step 1.
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| − | 3. Begin to execute your idea from Step 1.
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| − | 4. If the idea isn't profitable enough by itself to '''sustain''' itself initially, supplement with occasional mission running.
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| − | 5. Keep developing your idea, evolve it, and figure out ways to make it self-sustaining.
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| − | 6. If your idea is ultimately ''not'' self-sustaining, think of a different concept, and go to Step 2.
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| − | Though this approach seems obvious, very few EVE players actually plan their character's career development in this way. Instead, they try everything that comes by, as it becomes available to them, which provides a lot of variety but not any development of expertise (except in a very long run). Or, they get in a rut and start doing the same thing over and over, and eventually lose interest. If mining isn't your thing, don't do it just to earn ISK - try something else. But first, '''think''', develop a plan, start executing the plan, refine the plan as necessary, and then either build on the plan or start over. This approach will produce the best results - in EVE, or in real life!
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| − | ===Picking an ISK-earning specialty (or a few)===
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| − | So, what are some ideas for making ISK in EVE? The huge sandbox of EVE provides many, many options here. In summary, some of the most common career options include:
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| − | ====Industrial Careers====
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| − | *'''Miner/Refiner''' – perhaps the easiest and lowest risk way to make an honest wage in EVE, mining is simply extracting and selling ore or refined minerals. To be a miner, you only need some basic ship piloting skills, mining skills, refining skills, a suitable ship, and some mining lasers. Travel to one of the many asteroid belts in a system, point your lasers at a 'roid, gather ore, bring it to a station, refine it, sell it - then repeat. The upside to mining is that it produces a fairly predictable income stream, with little (but not zero) risk, especially in high security (0.5 and above) space. The main disadvantage is that mining can be highly repetitive and boring, as asteroids generally do not fight back! You also have to be on guard for can flippers and gankers - players that prey on miners, especially those that have gone "AFK" (away from keyboard). The career path for a mining specialist is long - highly advanced miners using Tech 2 ships can easily generate 5-10 million in ISK for just a few hours of effort. Well organized mining teams, with Orca support and skilled mining foremen, can produce even higher returns. Two absolutely essential guides for miners are Halada's Mining Guide[http://www.eveonline.com/iNgameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=434899], and the EVE University Co-Operative Mining manual[http://dl.eve-files.com/media/0704/Eve_Uni_Co-Op_Mining_Guide.pdf].
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| − | *'''Hauler''' – Also a relatively low-risk way to earn ISK, haulers buy low in one location, and sell high in another. To become a hauler, you only need an industrial ship and suitable command skills. Moving goods around in high security space is fairly safe, but hauling in low sec or 0.0 can be extremely risky - and also extremely rewarding. Haulers can also execute player courier contracts on the open market. A low-risk hauler moving non-player corporation goods can earn about 3-5 million in ISK per hour [http://www.eve-ivy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Using_EVE-Central_to_haul_profitably] - executing courier contracts or moving goods in low-sec or null sec are potentially an order of magnitude more lucrative, if you don't lose your ship. The career for a hauler can be fairly long, starting with simple industrial ships, then eventually moving to blockade runners and huge freighters. A useful introductory guide for aspiring haulers can be found here:[http://www.eve-wiki.net/index.php?title=Hauling_Guide].
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| − | *'''Manufacturer''' – Almost everything in the EVE universe - ships, modules, ammo, etc. - is created by players, for their own use, or more frequently, for sale to other players. Building items and charging for the value-add can be a very lucrative way to generate ISK. Unfortunately, this career option is one of the hardest to generate large amounts of ISK from, as it is extremely competitive. In addition, many miner/manufacturers undercharge because they do not include the value of the minerals they collected - they tend to think of ore they minded as "free" - so many common items have very low profit margins, if any at all. However, for those who develop a high degree of manufacturing skills, and who can amass sufficient capital to purchase blueprint originals (BPOs) for high-demand items, this can be a lucrative second career.[http://www.eve-wiki.net/index.php?title=Manufacturing]
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| − | *'''Researcher/Inventor''' – All advanced items in EVE, of the Tech 2 variety, are made possible by the efforts of players who conduct invention[http://www.eve-wiki.net/index.php?title=Invention] on lower-tech items. The capabilities of Tech 2 items keep them in high demand, so invention can be a rewarding source of ISK. Through research, players can also improve the efficiency of blueprints. Because they improve production time and reduce manufacturing time, blueprints with higher efficiency are valuable to manufacturers - and therefore are another potential source of income.[http://www.eve-wiki.net/index.php?title=Research] Players can also work with dedicated research agents to "farm" valuable datacores, used in invention - a form of passive income that can produce a reasonable stream of ISK over time.[http://www.eve-wiki.net/index.php?title=Research_Agent] To become a scientist/researcher/inventor, players must invest in science and related skills, and have access to a research facility.
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| − | ====Business Careers====
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| − | *'''Trader''' – The dynamic and comprehensive player-driven market in EVE provides multiple opportunities for players to earn ISK, without even owning a ship or leaving a station! By investing in trade skills, and with a bit of starting capital, players can purchase goods on the market, and then sell them at higher prices. By providing liquidity to the markets, traders can make a good return, although this requires some investigation of market opportunities and vigilance in monitoring your market orders. If you've ever fantasized about making it big as a Wall Street speculator, becoming an EVE trader might be for you. There are several good recorded classes on this topic in the UNI library.[http://classes.eve-ivy.com/]
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| − | *'''Corporate Executive''' – Become your own CEO! By developing Corporate Management skills, players can found their own corporations, recruit other players, and earn ISK from a salary drawn from taxes and fees. At a more advanced level, you can also create a player owned structure (POS) to host valuable research facilities, or you could join an alliance and negotiate for implementing a lucrative moon mining POS. Being a corporate CEO requires some very advanced skills, and a great amount of capital - either yours or someone else's - and so, this career option usually comes later in most players' EVE experience, if ever. But the entry requirements for starting an EVE corporation are quite low, and since non-player corporations (NPCs) now charge an 11% tax on bounties and mission rewards, starting a small corp of your own might be an attractive option.
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| − | *'''Recruiter''' - The lifeblood of corporations is literally the in people who join, but many corporations do a poor job finding the kinds of players they need to thrive as a group. For this reason, you can rent yourself out as a 1-man recruiting agency, and search and pre-qualify potential candidates. To do this requires no in-game skills at all, but you do need to know where to look and how to approach possible candidates. If you routinely peruse the various EVE online forums, or have developed a large network of in-game relationships, becoming a corporate recruiter might become a good source of ISK for you.
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| − | *'''Standings Pusher''' - Do you have high standings with a faction corporation? Those standings are valuable to player corporations, many of which will pay you for them. Mining corporations need high NPC standings for tax-free "perfect" refining, for example. All corporations need some high standings for access to jump clone manufacturing. By focusing your mission-running on selected corporations and developing your social skills, you can then market your standings to the highest bidder.
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| − | ====Exploration Careers====
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| − | *Explorer/Hacker– searching wormhole and hidden space, selling relics and information
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| − | *Salvager – finding, collecting and selling items from wrecks [http://www.eve-mag.com/wordpress/archives/newbies-generating-isk-it-doesn%e2%80%99t-have-to-be-mining]; ninja salvaging
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| − | *Mission Runner – executing assigned missions, solo or in groups, deadspace complexes
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| − | *Ratter – hunting and killing NPC pirates
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| − | ====Military Careers====
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| − | *Mercenary – gun for hire
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| − | *Bounty Hunter – executing contracts on player characters for pay
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| − | ====Outlaw Careers====
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| − | *Pirate – attack and pillage players (mostly haulers) in lo-sec, or ransom them for money
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| − | *Scammer/Thief – tricking players into giving you ISK or luring them into traps; corporate raider
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| − | *Can Flipper
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| − | *Assassin/Suicide Ganker (You have good concord standings from whoring agents all day, you can suicide gank people for money. Not sure if this is possible anymore as they have buffed concord alot.)
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| − | *Drug Dealer - Make boosters (drugs, yes you can be a drug dealer.)
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| − | ====Metagame Careers====
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| − | Most MMOs frown on providing out-of-game services for in-game payment. Allowing any exceptions is seen as a slippery slope that ends with real money trading of in-game currency. EVE Online broke this convention by allowing players to exchange a very specific list of things for ISK. These include forum signature art, graphic and website design, website hosting and teamspeak server rental. If you have graphic artist talent, or technical support ability, you can earn ISK for your EVE characters by providing these services to other EVE players.
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