Basic skills

These are basic skill recommendations. None of these skills have prerequisites above level III, and are thus easily accessible to new players. They will provide a solid foundation upon which to develop more advanced skills.

The skills have been grouped to help players find skills relevant to their interests. The Learning & Implants category is recommended for all pilots. The basic learning skills should be trained up to level III within the first two or three days of play. They are quick to train, and will soon pay off in saved training time. Training them up to IV within the first week or two is recommended. For characters that do not specialize in Trade Skills, Social Skills, or Leadership Skills, Charisma is not useful. Thus for many pilots, Empathy can be trained up to III only for the benefit to some advanced learning skills and basic missioning social skills. Cybernetics can be trained up to level I only, as that gives access up to +3 attribute implants which is sufficient for a new pilot's early career.

Some of the skills below are useful in your early days only to use some basic modules, others will increase your ship's performance directly and should be trained up to level II or III relatively fast. Take a look at the skill descriptions to see how they would help you, and use a program like EFT that lets you see how a ship's attributes are affected by skills. EveMon is another popular program that will let you plan skill training for your character. These and other useful programs and websites are linked in the 3rd Party Tools article.

Read more on Support Skills in our wiki article, which also describes many advanced skills not listed in the basic recommendations below.

Recommended Skills

Armor Tanking

• Hull Upgrades : 5% bonus to armor hit points per skill level.
• Mechanic : 5% bonus to structure hit points per skill level.
• Repair Systems : 5% reduction in repair systems duration per skill level.

Drones

• Combat Drone Operation : 5% Bonus to drone damage of light and medium drones per level.
• Drones : Can operate 1 drone per skill level.
• Scout Drone Operation : Drone control range increased by 5000 meters per skill level.

Electronic Warfare

• Electronics Upgrades : 5% reduction of sensor upgrade CPU needs per skill level.
• Electronic Warfare (Caldari) : 5% less capacitor need for ECM and ECM Burst systems per skill level.
• Frequency Modulation : 10% bonus to falloff for ECM, Remote Sensor Dampeners, Tracking Disruptors and Target Painters per skill level.
• Long Distance Jamming : 10% bonus to optimal range of ECM, Remote Sensor Dampers, Tracking Disruptors and Target Painters per skill level.
• Sensor Linking (Gallente) : 5% less capacitor need for sensor link per skill level.
• Target Painting (Minmatar) : 5% less capacitor need for target painters per skill level.
• Weapon Disruption (Amarr) : 5% less capacitor need for weapon disruptors per skill level.

Exploration

• Archaeology : 5% increase in chance of archaeological find per level.
• Astrometrics : Allows one additional probe in space per level.
• Astrometric Pinpointing : Reduces maximum scan deviation by 10% per level.
• Electronics Upgrades : 5% reduction of sensor upgrade CPU needs per skill level.
• Hacking : 5% increase in chance of data retrieval per level.
• Salvaging : 5% increase in chance of salvage retrieval per level.
• Survey : 5% improvement per level in the scan speeds of those module types.

Fitting

• Capacitor
  • Energy Management : 5% bonus to capacitor capacity per skill level.
  • Energy Systems Operation : 5% reduction in capacitor recharge time per skill level.

• CPU
  • Electronics : 5% Bonus to ship CPU output per skill level.
  • Electronics Upgrades : 5% reduction of sensor upgrade CPU needs per skill level.
  • Energy Grid Upgrades : 5% reduction in CPU needs of modules requiring Energy Grid Upgrades per skill level.

• PowerGrid
  • Engineering : 5% Bonus to ship's PowerGrid output per skill level.

Gunnery

• Controlled Bursts (unnecessary for projectile weapons) : 5% reduction in capacitor need of weapon turrets per skill level.
• Gunnery : 2% Bonus to weapon turrets' rate of fire per skill level.
• Motion Prediction : 5% bonus per skill level to weapon turret tracking speeds.
• Small Energy Turret (Amarr) : 5% Bonus to small energy turret damage per level.
• Small Hybrid Turret (Caldari and Gallente) : 5% Bonus to small hybrid turret damage per level.
• Small Projectile Turret (Minmatar) : 5% Bonus to small projectile turret damage per level.
• Rapid Firing : 4% bonus per skill level to weapon turret rate of fire.
• Sharpshooter : 5% bonus to weapon turret optimal range per skill level.
• Weapon Upgrades (also applies to missile launchers) : 5% reduction per skill level in the CPU needs of weapon turrets, launchers and smartbombs.

Learning & Implants

• Analytical Mind : 1 point bonus to your Intelligence attribute per skill level.
• Cybernetics : Allows the use of cybernetic implants.
• Empathy : 1 point bonus to your Charisma attribute per skill level.
• Instant Recall : 1 point bonus to your Memory attribute per skill level.
• Iron Will : 1 point bonus to your Willpower attribute per skill level.
• Learning : 2% bonus per level to all attributes resulting in a overall faster skill training time.
• Spatial Awareness : 1 point bonus to your Perception attribute per skill level.

Mining

• Mining : 5% bonus to mining turret yield per skill level.
• Mining Upgrades : 5% reduction per skill level in CPU penalty of mining upgrade modules.
• Refining : 2% reduction in refinery waste per skill level.

Missiles

• Missile Bombardment : 10% bonus to all missiles' maximum flight time per level.
• Missile Launcher Operation : 2% Bonus to missile launcher rate of fire per skill level.
• Missile Projection : 10% bonus to all missiles' maximum velocity per level.
• Rapid Launch : 3% bonus to missile launcher rate of fire per level.
• Standard Missiles : 5% Bonus to light missile damage per skill level.
• Rockets : 5% bonus to rocket damage per skill level.
• Target Navigation Prediction : 10% decrease per level in factor of target's velocity for all missiles.

Missioning

• Connections : 4% Modifier to effective standing from friendly NPC Corporations and Factions per level.
• Social : 5% bonus per level to NPC agent, corporation and faction standing increase.

Navigation

• Acceleration Control : 5% Bonus to Afterburner and MicroWarpdrive speed boost per skill level.
• Afterburner : 10% bonus to Afterburner duration per skill level.
• Evasive Maneuvering : 5% improved ship agility for all ships per skill level.
• Fuel Conservation : 10% reduction in afterburner capacitor needs per skill level.
• High Speed Maneuvering : 5% reduction in MicroWarpdrive capacitor usage per skill level.
• Navigation : 5% bonus to sub-warp ship velocity per skill level.
• Warp Drive Operation : Each skill level reduces the capacitor need of initiating warp by 10%.

Production

• Industry : 4% reduction in manufacturing time per skill level.
• Mass Production : Ability to run 1 additional manufacturing job per level.
• Production Efficiency : 4% reduction per skill level to the material requirements needed for production.

Shield Tanking

• Shield Management : 5% bonus to shield capacity per skill level.
• Shield Operation : 5% reduction in shield recharge time per skill level.
• Shield Upgrades : 5% reduction in shield upgrade powergrid needs.
• Tactical Shield Manipulation : Reduces the chance of damage penetrating the shield when it falls below 25% by 5% per skill level.

Ship Command

• Amarr Frigate
• Amarr Industrial
• Caldari Frigate
• Caldari Industrial
• Destroyers
• Gallente Frigate
• Gallente Industrial
• Minmatar Frigate
• Minmatar Industrial

Tackling

• Propulsion Jamming : 5% reduction to warp scrambler and stasis web capacitor need per skill level.

Targeting

• Long Range Targeting : 5% bonus to targeting range per skill level.
• Signature Analysis : 5% improved targeting speed per skill level.
• Targeting : +1 extra target per skill level, up to the ship's maximum allowed number of targets locked.

Trading

• Broker Relations : 5% reduction in the costs associated with setting up a market order per skill level.
• Contracting : For each level of this skill the number of outstanding contracts is increased by four.
• Marketing : Each level increases the range from the seller to the item being sold.
• Procurement : Level 1 allows for the placement of orders within the same solar system, Level 2 extends that range to systems within 5 jumps, and each subsequent level then doubles it.
• Retail : Each level raises the limit of active orders by 8.
• Trade : Active buy/sell order limit increased by 4 per level of skill.