Careers

Once players have completed the Tutorial, they need to find their own way in New Eden. EVE is a sandbox, and players will soon find they need to make their own entertainment and income. This guide briefly describes some typical options that many players pursue, together with likely incomes from them where estimates are possible.

	EVE University offers a class on:
EVE Careers 101

Combat careers

Combat is something that is unavoidable in EVE Online. Many players thrive on honing their combat skills, either against other players or against NPCs.

Mission running

Main article: Missions

Missions are one-time jobs offered to players by NPC agents. There are various types of basic missions, including combat, mining, and courier tasks. There are also more advanced missions called COSMOS missions, Epic Arc missions, and Anomic missions.

Completing a mission is rewarded with ISK, Loyalty Points and standings with the agent and NPC corporation involved. Some missions also give a time bonus and some give items (particularly the Career Agents missions).

There are various levels of mission, which are increasingly more difficult to complete. Level 1 missions are easy for Alpha Clones or very new players to complete, but the rewards are low. In contrast, Level 5 missions only appear in low security space, and can normally only be done as part of a fleet. Players will need high standing with agents to be able to request higher level missions.

Mission-running is a popular activity for EVE University members at the Hi Sec Campus; mission-running is also possible at the nullsec.

Average Income:

• Level 1 missions: 1M per hour
• Level 2 missions: 2-4 M ISK per hour
• Level 3 missions: 5-10 M ISK per hour
• Level 4 missions: 30 - 200 M ISK per hour (very dependent on skills, fit, type of missions, LP conversion)

Ratting

As well as other players, New Eden is full of hostile NPCs which are nicknamed "rats" by players. These spawn at asteroid belts, in cosmic anomalies and at stargates. Destroying rats earns direct ISK payments as bounty, as well as loot and salvage from their wrecks. Some rats drop items known as Security tags which can be valuable. Blowing rats up is called "ratting".

The rewards vary depending on the security level of the system. In lowsec and even more so in highsec, the income is normally not high enough to justify ratting as a primary way to earn ISK. Efficient ratting in nullsec systems can be lucrative, if monotonous. Wormholes contain challenging rats who yield valuable loot, and offer a chance to combine exploration and combat skills.

EVE University members at the nullsec often make some of their money by ratting.

Average Income:

• In High sec: 1-3 M ISK per hour
• In Low sec: 10-20 M ISK per hour
• In Null sec: 25+ M ISK per hour
• In Wormhole space:
  • C1 holes: 20-50 M ISK/hour
  • C2 holes: 20-50 M ISK/hour
  • C3 holes: 60-200 M ISK/hour
  • C4 holes: <no data>
  • C5 holes: 180-250 M ISK/hour
  • C6 holes: <no data>

Incursions

Main article: Incursions

Incursions are high-end PvE content, in which fleets of players repelling NPC invaders. Incursions appear in various systems around New Eden, so incursion runners tend to be nomadic, moving from system to system following incursion areas. Incursions are rewarded with ISK and Loyalty Points, though payouts are only made to a limited number of people on grid at the same time. For this reason, it is particularly important that each member of the fleet is effective in their role, and so they tend to fly battleships and T2 logistics ships.

For EVE University members, our EVE University Incursion Community always needs players to act as scouts or pickets, and this role does not require any specific skills or experience. In return for keeping the incursion fleet safe, they will provide tips, which can be a very lucrative income for a new player. However, note that this is specific to our community, and not a role that all incursion communities use.

Average Income:

• Vanguards: 60 - 120 M ISK/hour
• Headquarters: 150 - 300 M ISK/hour (heavily influenced by fleet composition and CONCORD LP-conversion)
• Scouting or picketing: 30 - 60 M ISK/hour

PvP

PvP is a fundamental part of EVE Online. Players can attack or be attacked by anyone at any time. Many players make PvP their main profession, and spend their time preparing and hunting for fights.

PVP can be done in large fleets, in small gangs, or solo. It encompasses everything from frigate brawls to apocalyptic clashes between Supercarriers and Titans. Depending on a fleet's composition and purpose, players can fill many roles, including tackler, damage dealer, scout, bait, stealth bomber, EWAR, repairing other ships, and fleet command. To thrive in PvP, players benefit from a good tactical mind and a solid knowledge of game mechanics, but it is cheap and easy to make first steps in PvP; given the right tools and tactics, Alpha Clones and very new players can fight successfully.

The act of fighting itself tends to cost more ISK than it generates in loot. However, money can be made via PvP indirectly. Rank-and-file pilots flying with large, organised sovereign alliances in player-owned nullsec space often have their losses and costs covered by their alliance. Some players fight for pay as mercenaries: mercenary groups in New Eden range in type from small teams of pilots specialized in disrupting target corporations and settling small scores in highsec, to larger groups hired to add their weight to nullsec wars.

Some players choose to become pirates, and hunt down their victims to either pillage their goods or demand a ransom for their ship or pod. Hunting nullsec ratters who use expensively-fitted ships and "gatecamping" chokepoints on trade routes can be particularly lucrative

EVE University's rules of engagement permit members flying anywhere outside highsec space to engage anyone not allied with the University at will (so-called "Not Blue, Shoot It" rules). University pilots must uphold honesty and respect for others before, during, and after battle, but are welcome to learn PvP by doing. PvP opportunities are part of daily life at the nullsec, wormhole, and lowsec campuses, with fleet doctrines designed to make even characters with few skillpoints effective, and more-experienced pilots on hand to guide newcomers. Many types of ship loss in University fleets are covered by the University's Ship Replacement Program, suitable ships are available nearly for free for new pilots, and for strategic operations the University provides free, pre-fitted ships.

Average Income:

<no data>

Faction Warfare

Main article: Faction Warfare

In EVE lore there are four factions: Amarr, Caldari, Gallente and Minmatar. These factions are perpetually engaged in a struggle for power, and fight for control over certain areas of low security space. Players can join one of the factions and fight players from opposing factions in order to earn Loyalty Points and standings with their faction.

Participating in faction warfare means that players can be attacked by members of their opposing faction anywhere, so it is a dedicated profession. Players are not restricted on which faction they join and can even join a different faction to their character's race, provided they have sufficient standings with that faction. There are many dedicated faction warfare corporations.

Some aspects of faction warfare involve complexes which are limited to specific small ships, making it a slightly more approachable way to experiment with PvP for new players.

EVE University does not participate in faction warfare as a corporation, though members are free to participate with their alts. The Low-Sec Campus is based in faction warfare space.

Average Income:

<no data>

Exploration careers

New Eden is vast and contains many secret sites with hidden valuables, as well as wormholes. Explorers probe out such sites and wormholes and hunt through them for valuables.

Scanning

Main article: Exploration

Players can use their onboard scanner together with a probe launcher to scan down cosmic anomalies and signatures. These will contain either groups of pirate NPCs, resources such as gas clouds or asteroid belts which can be mined, secure containers or ruins with loot in them, or wormholes.

Ruins and secure containers can be opened using archaeology and hacking skills in a hacking minigame. Lower-security areas tend to yield the most valuable loot and resources.

Exploration is easy to begin, requiring little ISK investment and only basic skills. There is an element of random chance in the contents of each site, but exploration sites can be a good source of income, especially for a new player. Exploring in dangerous systems or in wormholes teaches useful situational awareness skills, and the probing techniques used to scan sites down are transferable into combat probing for PvP. Seasoned explorers might want to try living permanently in wormhole space.

Eve University members can practise exploration at any of the university's campuses. Exploration will be more lucrative, but potentially also more dangerous, at the Low-Sec Campus and the Null-Sec Campus. The Wormhole Campus revolves around long-term, advanced exploration-driven PvE and PvP.

Average Income:

• In high-sec and low-sec: up-to 1M per site
• In null-sec: Up-to 25M per site
• Wormhole sites:
  • C1 holes: 20-50 M ISK/hour
  • C2 holes: 30-60 M ISK/hour
  • C3 holes: 100-200 M ISK/hour
  • C4 holes: <no data>
  • C5 holes: 50-150 M ISK/hour (Server Bank site only)
  • C6 holes: <no data>
• Ghost sites: 30-60 M ISK per site, reported cases with up to a few hundred million ISK per site

Salvaging

Main article: Salvaging

Each time a player or NPC ship explodes, it leaves a wreck. The wreck sometimes contains loot, but the wreck itself can also be salvaged for useful parts. Salvaging enable a player to collect those parts, with a view to either selling them or processing them into rigs for ships.

Salvaging can be a profitable early side career, normally alongside either mission running and/or PvP (to create wrecks) and/or industry (to use the salvaged parts). New players can also tag along with mission fleets to help with salvaging. The salvage is normally split between the fleet members, so it can be a good income for relatively little effort, with low character skill requirements.

Players can use tractor beams to pull wrecks towards them for faster salvaging, and there a is even a specialised salvaging ship, the Noctis. Alternatively, players can use a Mobile Tractor Unit which collects the wrecks in one place.

Average Income:

<no data>

Industrial careers

Industrial careers are focused on gathering resources and creating ships and items (in some other MMORPGs equivalent activities are called "crafting"). As almost all of New Eden's economy is player-driven, many of the ships, items of equipment, and space stations used by players have to be made by someone.

Industrial careers can be pursued alongside many other activities, but they can synergize well with trading.

Manufacturing

Main article: Manufacturing

Blueprints can be used to produce items from minerals, which can either be refined or bought from the market. Manufacturers may create items for personal use, or to sell on the market for a profit. Although the basic skills required to manufacture items can be trained quickly, increased skills will greatly improve efficiency.

Players need a base to start manufacturing, which could be an NPC station or a friendly player-owned structure such as an Engineering Complex. Manufacturing can yield a good income, but some items cost more to manufacture than they are worth, so it is possible to make a loss too: industrialists must stay alert to the market. Industry can also be highly competitive, driving down profits in high traffic areas.

In addition to manufacturing, players can carry out invention to create more valuable T2 items, and conduct research to improve the efficiency of blueprints, making them more valuable. Players can work with dedicated research agents to obtain datacores, which can then be used in invention.

Average Income:

<no data>

Mining and refining

Main article: Mining

Asteroid belts spawn throughout New Eden, and they must be mined to feed Eve's player economy. In addition to asteroids, players can use specialised equipment to mine ice from ice belts and harvest gas from gas clouds.

The mined ore, ice and gas can either be sold in its raw form, or refined into minerals. In general, rarer and more valuable resources are found in lower security space, with very valuable mining possible in nullsec and wormholes. Miners exploiting resources in low- or null-security space and in wormholes either use cunning to avoid detection (sometimes called "ninja-mining"), or either join or make arrangements with the player groups who own most of nullsec and who live in some wormholes.

Mining has a low entry barrier, but mining efficiency can be substantially improved by training the right skills and implants, and using more advanced equipment and ships. Alpha clones can mine, although the only specialized mining ship they can use is the Venture. Players can mine either alone or as part of a mining fleet, and can produce a stable income stream doing an undemanding activity which is usually calm. However, miners are always vulnerable to attacks by other players as well as, in high-sec space, can flippers, so it can be a risky profession.

For EVE University members, the Amarr Mining Campus specialises in mining. Members also mine at the Null-Sec Campus and the Hi Sec Campus. Some people mine at the Wormhole Campus, though they chiefly harvest gas and sometimes ice.

Average Income:

• Mining Ore:
  • solo mining (no boosts): <no data>
  • fleet mining (with boosts) <no data>
• Harvesting Ice: <no data>
• Harvesting Gas in known-space: <no data>
• Harvesting Gas in wormholes:
  • low level gas sites (Barren, Minor, Ordinary, Sizeable, Token): 15-20 M ISK/hour
  • mid-level gas sites (Vital and Bountiful): up-to 30-40 M ISK/hour
  • high-level gas sites (Instrumental and Vital): up-to 50-70 M ISK/hour

Planetary Industry

Main article: Planetary Industry

New Eden has thousands of planets, and players can establish a colony on a planet in order to produce resources. The resources (or 'commodities') which are produced can either be sold in their raw form, or combined with other commodities to make more complex products. Ultimately these can be used to make fuel and parts for structures, boosters and components.

Planets in lower-security areas tend to yield more valuable commodities. Planetary Industry has a low entry barrier, although through training skills players can increase the number of planets and the efficiency of their colony. Planetary Industry does not normally require much active management once the colony is established, though it might require some hauling, and most players will use it as a passive supplement to their other income.

Average Income:

• High-sec planet: <no data>
• Low-sec planet: <no data>
• Null-sec planet: <no data>
• Wormhole planet: 4-6M per planet per day with daily monitoring

Business careers

Business careers focus on moving and/or selling goods to make a profit. They make use of New Eden's player-to-player economy, which is large and complex enough that it has been studied by academic economists.

Hauling

Main article: Hauling

Almost every ship and item in EVE Online must be physically moved around New Eden in a cargohold: individual pilots cannot magic their assets around at will. This creates a reliable demand for haulers to move items from point A to point B. Other players will often pay well for the service of moving their items through courier contracts. Hauling is an activity which can synergize well with trading.

The skills required to fly a basic industrial ship are low, but the amount of cargo it can carry is fairly small and it is vulnerable to attack, particularly in lower security areas. Haulers usually begin their careers running courier contracts in high security space. In the medium and long term, players can train to fly a range of specialised hauling ships to carry bigger loads, or to haul in lower security space. The most advanced hauling ships can carry titanic loads, or travel while stealth-cloaked, or teleport across vast distances from one region to another rather than using the usual network of stargates.

There are entire corporations dedicated to fulfilling courier contracts for a price and able to link members up with profitable work. Any large-scale alliance will also need specialized freighter pilots. Hauling is much more than clicking "warp to gate at 0" repeatedly: experienced haulers understand safe and dangerous routes, can judge profitability precisely, and maintain tight secrecy around their favoured staging systems to keep their precious cargo secure.

It may not be advisable to haul with a character directly in EVE University, as the university is subject to intermittent highsec wars. For those who wish to try hauling as a career, we recommend trying it out by Creating an Alt Hauler.

Average Income:

• Courier contracts: Approx 50 - 70 M ISK/hour
• Hauling goods for sale: <no data>

Trading

Main article: Trading

EVE Online has a complex player-driven market. By investing their ISK correctly, players can make a profit from buying and selling goods. This requires nothing more than a little starting capital, a head for figures, and a grasp of supply and demand,

Many players dabble in trade, if only to sell manufactured goods or loot from PvE and PvP combat more profitably, but some make it their profession. Some traders focus on buying and selling goods in the same station; in extreme cases, a character might make significant profits without ever undocking. Other traders will buy items with a view to selling them elsewhere for a higher price, combining the work with hauling.

Trading can be very competitive, especially in high traffic areas such as trade hubs, which can drive down profits. However, if a player identifies a suitable niche, it can yield a high income. Experienced traders are alert to the changing political and industrial currents which affect New Eden's economy, and manage hundreds of buy and sell orders. A specialized sub-group of traders sustain markets in parts of New Eden remote from normal trade hubs, earning significant profit margins in the process.

Average Income:

<no data, but skilled traders are very wealthy>

Skill Farming

Main article: Skill Farming

Skill farming is a career in EVE Online that uses a character to train skills solely to extract and sell their skill points, creating a passive income stream.

Potential Income:

After initial preparations are completed, skill farming has the potential to return 3,044,511,048.17 ISK every 30 days (or 4,228,487.57 ISK per hour) on an investment of 1 day of game time.

Outlaw Careers

Unlike many other games, being a criminal is a viable career option in EVE Online, and not against the EULA. Many players find that crime does pay, quite handsomely.

Can Flipping

Main article: Can flipping

Players can jettison items into space, creating a jetcan which can be opened not just by the player who created it, but by anyone. A common reason for players to do this is when they are mining, to store their ore for later retrieval. Some players use this as an opportunity to steal the ore inside the jetcan, which is known as 'can flipping'. Sometimes this is done purely for the goods inside, but it is often done to provoke the miner into trying to attack the person stealing their ore. This will set off a combat timer, allowing the 'can flipper' to switch into another ship and shoot the miner with no retaliation from CONCORD (since they are technically acting in self-defense from the point of view of the game).

Can flipping is prohibited for EVE University members under the EVE University Rules.

Average Income:

<no data>

Scamming or theft

Scamming others out of their ISK or luring them into traps can be an exciting way for some people to play the game. Such scams take many forms. Some of the most common are misleading contracts, selling goods for much more than they are worth, "ISK doubling" scams, making players an offer that is too good to be true for the purpose of leading them into an ambush, requesting ISK in return for joining a corporation, infiltrating a corporation for the purposes of emptying their corporate resources. It will suit a certain kind of player who thrives on the chase and has the confidence and personal skills to pull it off. The income can potentially be huge, there have been some very high profile corporation thefts of many billions.

Scamming and theft are prohibited for EVE University members under the EVE University Rules.

Average Income:

Nothing all the way up to many billions for a high profile corporation theft.

Administrative and Meta Careers

These careers involve either organising players or providing services for other players to assist them in playing the game.

Corporate Executive

Main article: Forming a Corporation

Corporations often need a lot of manpower to run successfully. People are need to advertise the corporation, recruit members, set policies, conduct diplomacy with other corporations, arrange logistics and ensure that everything runs smoothly. Available roles will depend on your corporation and their needs. Players can even start their own corporation, although this is often suited to more experienced players who are able to use their experience in game to build a successful corporation. Starting a corporation often requires a large amount of starting capital - more so if the corporation will own structures like Citadels or Engineering Complexes.

EVE University members should see Helping EVE University for ways they can start to help out.

Average Income:

There is no such thing as an average income as it varies so widely depending on the size of the corporation and the taxes/fees charged

CSM member

EVE Online has a player-elected council known as the Council of Stellar Management (CSM), who provide feedback to CCP about the game and raises any concerns players have. New CSM members are elected once per year and attend meetings with CCP in Iceland as well as participating in online discussions about the direction of the game. They are required to sign a legal 'Non Disclosure Agreement' before they start their term as a CSM member.

Average Income:

CSM members are unpaid, but their real life expenses are reimbursed (e.g. travel expenses).

EVE journalist

There are many third party sites and podcasts dedicated to EVE Online. Many of them accept submissions and guest slots by players. This would particularly suit a player with good communication skills who has a unique perspective on the game. CCP also sometimes needs players to act as presenters for official events such as the Alliance Tournament and Fanfest.

Average Income:

Most of these opportunities will be unpaid.

See also

Eve University's CORE class on careers and the associated slide deck.