Creating an Alt Hauler

Stuck in station, unable to purchase the items you need?
Looking at hauling as a means to running trade routes?

Hauling can be a great way to earn ISK doing profitable trade runs. By reading this guide, you will learn how to create the quickest, most efficient hauler. This guide can be considered a current, text version of the Alt Hauling 101 audio class.

A large change has been made with the June 2013 Odyssey expansion lowering the requirement to train to Racial Industrial V to Racial Industrial II and raising the requirement to train to Advanced Spaceship Command V instead on ASC I. This means that the first Racial Freighter will take a bit more time to train, but that it will take around 19 hours to train each addition Racial Freighter I skill. It also reduced the requirement for an Iteron V to Gallente Industrial I from V. The same applies to the Mammoth and Badger Mark II Changes have been made to this guide, but keep this in mind in case something was missed.

Our goal is to be able to haul the greatest volume of cargo (measured in m³) in the least amount of training time from a new character's perspective. This guide shows you some basic skill training plans that you can customize using a program such as EVEMon.

Note: You cannot train the skills for any of the Industrial ships on Trial accounts.

Hauler Table

Here is a table of suggested haulers, showing their cargo capacity in m³ and approximate training time. Firstly with all low slots filled with Expanded Cargohold IIs, and then with both Cargohold Expander IIs and Medium Cargohold Optimisation I rigs (these modules increase a ship's cargo capacity) Training times assume the bare minimum skills needed to fly the ship and fit the modules, when trained from a new character whose race matches that the ship.

		With Expanded Cargohold IIs		With both Cargohold Expander IIs and Medium Cargohold Optimisation I rigs
Ship	Race	Cargo m3	Estimated Training Time (With out Remap)	Cargo m3	Estimated Training Time (With out Remap)
Bestower	Amarr	13,319	~2h 7m	20,257	~15h 4m
Badger Mark II	Caldari	12,514	~2h 7m	19,032	~15h 4m
Mammoth	Minmatar	17,838	~2h 7m	27,129	~15h 4m
Iteron Mark V	Gallente	25,270	~2h 7m	32,284	~15h 4m

Weighing Training Time Against How Much You Want to Haul

A major concern when choosing which race and ship to go for, will be how much extra time is required, to train additional levels of the racial Industrial skill, needed to unlock access to each ship.

Up to the Odyssey expansion, the Amarr Bestower was the hauler of choice up to Racial Industrial III. As of June 2013, that changed to the Gallente Iteron V since it is now flyable at Gallente Industrial I. If you truly want to maximise your cargo capacity while minimising training, then the Iteron V is the Industrial ship to go for, at all skill levels, as at those levels of training it has the highest possible m³ for all the industrials. At level 1, with about 18 hours

If you don't mind spending the time to train an industrial skill to level IV, then the Mammoth will give you the highest capacity at that training level, and if you don't mind the long train to get a racial industrial skill to V, then the Iteron V will have the highest capacity with that training level. The Iteron V is also a good choice if you want to use the tech 1 industrial with the highest possible capacity in the game, when not using your freighter.

(See also eveonline wiki for Industrial ships)

Preparing for Training

It is important to read this section as it will save you a lot of time and frustrations. Before you even create a character, there are many things to consider: The race of your character, whether you have other characters in the account and if you want to do a neural remap.

Racial Characters

Following the Odyssey expansion, the choice of Race, bloodline and ancestry has no effect on the training time. Racial Frigate III is no longer a requirement for Racial Industrial I. A character of any race can train to Amarr Industrial III and get a Bestower. Then proceed to training Spaceship Command I-V and Advanced Spaceship Command I-V to get an Amarr Freighter. Or with less than 18 hours of additional training that character can then train into another racial freighter.

Creating an Alt on an Existing Account

If you are creating an alt on an account with other characters, it is important to note that only one character can be training skills at a time unless you are willing to pay for Dual Character Training. Attempting to add skills to the training queue will result in an error, so you will need to pause training on your currently training character.

Dual Character Training, introduced in the June 2013 Odyssey expansion, allows a player to train two characters on the same account for one month for the cost of an additional PLEX.

Neural Remaps

You can decrease the training time required by remapping your attributes. You get 3 remaps total in your first year, so you can afford to remap Int (27)/Mem (21) and train any core skills you need followed by a remap to Per (27)/Will (21) to train the spaceship command skills to fly your ship.

Creating a Bestower Pilot

Prior to the June 2013 Odyssey expansion, the best route to take was to create an Amarr character to fly the Bestower, which can haul over 13,000 m³ with a minimally trained set of skills. The Iteron V and every other T1 industrial can now be trained in the same amount of time because Racial Frigate III was removed as a prerequisite.

Skill Books

Now, your new avatar will start out flat broke. Therefore, you will need to send the alt some ISK to buy the following skillbooks in the starting station:

• Amarr Industrial (300,000)
• Hull Upgrades (60,000)
• Jury Rigging (60,000) (optional)
• Astronautics Rigging (20,000) (optional)
  • Total: 360,000 (with optional: 440,000) ISK

Training Plan for Bestower

Following Odyssey, it now takes less than 2 hours to train a Bestower pilot to level 1 with expanded cargohold IIs.

1. (Optional) Remap Int/Mem
2. Hull Upgrades I (13m with remap)
3. Hull Upgrades II (1h 2m)
4. (Optional) Remap Per/Will
5. Amarr Industrial I (26m)

When it is done, you will be able to pilot a Bestower that can fit Expanded Cargohold IIs for 13000m3 of cargo space.

Training Plan for Rigged Bestower

Without a remap, you should be able to pilot a rigged Bestower around 22 hours 24 minutes. With remaps, it is around 17 hours 55 minutes.

1. (Optional) Remap Int/Mem
2. Hull Upgrades I (13m with remap)
3. Hull Upgrades II (1h 2m)
4. Mechanics III (2h 55m)
5. Jury Rigging I (13m)
6. Jury Rigging II (1h 2m)
7. Jury Rigging III (5h 51m)
8. Astronautics Rigging I (20m)
9. (Optional) Remap Per/Will
10. Amarr Industrial I (26m)

When this is done, you will be able to pilot a Bestower that can fit Expanded Cargohold IIs and Cargohold Optimisation rigs for 20000m3 of cargo space. With another 2 hours of training you could reach Amarr Industrial II and be able to carry 7 Giant Secure Containers which would allow you to haul an entire Jetcan.

Creating a Mammoth Pilot

Although Bestower is a great hauler with a short training plan, its cargo capacity falls far short of fitting a full jetcan of ore. Meaning that it requires additional trips, therefore wasting time when you could do other things. This is where the Mammoth comes in, with just rigs and Expanded Cargohold IIs, it has around 27,000m³ cargo capacity. Although it is a few hundred m³ fall short of a full jetcan, you can easily exceed that with GSCs. However for the same amount of training time, a Gallente Industrial I Iteron V can now be trained and can carry 32,284 m³.

Skill Books

Now, your new avatar will start out flat broke. You will need to send the alt some ISK to buy the following skillbooks in the starting station:

• Minmatar Industrial (300,000)
• Hull Upgrades (60,000)
• Jury Rigging (60,000) (optional)
• Astronautics Rigging (20,000) (optional)
  • Total: 360,000 (with optional: 440,000) ISK

Training Plan for Mammoth

Following Odyssey, it now takes less than 2 hours to train a Mammoth pilot to level 1 with expanded cargohold IIs.

1. Hull Upgrades I (13m)
2. Hull Upgrades II (1h 2m)
3. Minmatar Industrial I (26m)

When it is done, you will be able to pilot a Mammoth that can fit Expanded Cargohold IIs.

Creating an Iteron Mark V Pilot

As you can see in the Hauler table Iteron Mark V has the largest cargohold of all industrials. Since the June 2013 Odyssey expansion, it can now be flown immediately having only to train Gallente Industrial I. With hull upgrades II and rigging skills, it can easily carry a full jetcan for mining operations, even with only 2 medium cargohold optimization rigs. However, if you are into piloting the biggest, most spacious T1 industrial ship and don't mind the longer training queue, Gallente Industrial V Iteron V is the ship for you. Otherwise there is no need to train beyond Gallente Industrial III while working towards a freighter.

Skill Books

Now, your new avatar will start out flat broke. You will need to send the alt some ISK to buy the following skillbooks in the starting station:

• Gallente Industrial (300,000)
• Hull Upgrades (60,000)
• Cybernetics (75,000) (optional)
• Jury Rigging (60,000) (optional)
• Astronautics Rigging (20,000) (optional)
  • Total: 360,000 (including optional: 515,000) ISK

Training Plan for Iteron Mark V

Following Odyssey, it now takes less than 2 hours to train a Iteron Mark V pilot to level 1 with expanded cargohold IIs.

1. Hull Upgrades I (16m)
2. Hull Upgrades II (1h 17m)
3. Gallente Industrial I (33m)

When it is done, you will be able to pilot a Iteron Mark V that can fit Expanded Cargohold IIs.

Training Plan for Obelisk from Iteron Mark V

If you continue to train to Obelisk from Iteron Mark V, following the Odyssey expansion, you must now train to Advanced Spaceship Command V instead of Racial Industrial V. Do note that a freighter is very expensive (1.2 billion+). But if you choose to train further to be able to pilot the Obelisk, you will need the following skillbooks:

• Advanced Spaceship Command (50,000,000)
• Gallente Freighter (75,000,000)
  • Total: 125,000,000 ISK

1. Spaceship Command IV (20h 41m)
2. Spaceship Command V (4d 21h)
3. Advanced Spaceship Command I (41m)
4. Advanced Spaceship Command II (3h 14m)
5. Advanced Spaceship Command III (18h 17m)
6. Advanced Spaceship Command IV (4d 7h)
7. Advanced Spaceship Command V (24d 9h)
8. Gallente Industrial II (2h 35m)
9. Gallente Industrial III (14h 38m)
10. Gallente Freighter I (1h 23m)

When it is done, you will be able to pilot an Obelisk.

Creating a Badger Mark II Pilot

The Badger Mark II is somewhat overlooked out of all of the racial haulers. Mainly because it requires more training and has a smaller cargo capacity than a Bestower and Iteron V. After the Odyssey expansion, it is now possible to fly a Badger Mark II with only Caldari Industrial I.

Skill Books

Now, your new avatar will start out flat broke. Therefore, you will need to send the alt some ISK to buy the following skillbooks in the starting station:

• Caldari Industrial (300,000)
• Hull Upgrades (60,000)
• Jury Rigging (60,000) (optional)
• Astronautics Rigging (20,000) (optional)
  • Total: 360,000 (optional: 440,000) ISK

Training Plan for Badger Mark II

Following Odyssey, it now takes less than 2 hours to train a Badger Mark II pilot to level 1 with expanded cargohold IIs.

1. Hull Upgrades I (16m)
2. Hull Upgrades II (1h 17m)
3. Caldari Industrial I (13m)

When it is done, you will be able to pilot a Badger Mark II that can fit Expanded Cargohold IIs.

Optional Training: Rigging

You can increase the carrying capacity of your hauler significantly by fitting it with three Medium Cargohold Optimization I rigs.

It is important to note that you do not need rigging skills to use rigs that are already installed in a ship. You only require rigging skills to install rigs on ships. Therefore, you can either train the skills yourself or give the ship and rigs to someone you trust with the required skills to install the rigs for you. If you choose to train the required skills then you will need to train the following skills:

• Mechanic III
• Jury Rigging III
• Astronautics Rigging I

Fitting Haulers

Haulers are relatively straightforward to fit.For ore hauling, you will want to have maximum cargo capacity, meaning you want to fit Expanded Cargoholds in low slots and Cargohold Optimization in rigs.

For courier missions, you might want to have faster align and warp speed, so you might want to fit Nanofiber Internal Structures and Inertia Stabilizers in low slots and Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer in rigs.

If you wish, you can train skills to equip shield mods such as Shield Extenders and Invulnerability Fields in the mid slots to tank belt rats for a short time. It is also worth while to train skills for these modules to give some basic protection against high-sec ganking.

Optimize with Giant Secure Containers

There are items called Giant Secure Containers (GSC) which take up 3,000 m³ in your cargo hold. The interesting thing is that you can actually put 3,900 m³ of stuff in a GSC - which means you get a 30% space bonus.

With rigs and cargo expanders, that brings a Bestower total close to 25,400 m³, Mammoth up to 35,100 m³, and the Iteron Mark V with 12 GSCs up to a whopping 49,233m³.

Note: To use these, you do not need to train the skill Anchoring, unless you plan to place ("anchor") them in space. This skill has no prerequisites but is a 3x skill, so it will probably take about half an hour to train if you do plan to anchor your GSCs. However not having them anchored (in space) will enable other people to flip the can and even scoop the entire GSC to their cargo hold.

Note : Giant Secure Cans are great but with a minor limitation, they cannot store some goods like frozen food, livestock. So keep this in mind if you are using these containers to haul goods.

Advanced Hauling and earning ISK via Hauling

The next step after mastering industrial hauling (especially the Iteron Mark V) are Freighters and Transports. This section will discuss training toward flying these sorts of ships, including how fastest to train toward them.

You can use outside databases, such as EVE-Central, to find profitable trade routes.

To take the first steps in making ISK with your new hauler, you might consider playing the market or running Level 4 Cargo Missions.

Credits

• Raddick Tseng for suggesting this, and giving some interesting statistics.