Careers
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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 brief guide intends to describe some of the typical options that many EVE players pursue, together with the likely income from them.
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Industrial careers
Industrial careers are focused on gathering resources and creating ships and items. This is often referred to in other games as "crafting".
Mining and refining
- Main article: Mining
Asteroid belts spawn throughout New Eden and can be mined to extract ores. In addition to ores, players can use specialised equipment to mine ice from ice belts and harvest gas from gas clouds. The 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. Mining has a low entry barrier, though 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 specialised 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. However, miners are always vulnerable to attacks by other players as well as can flippers, so it can be a risky profession, particularly in lower security areas.
Planetary interaction
- Main article: Planetary Interaction
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 interaction has a low entry barrier, although through training skills players can increase the number of planets and the efficiency of their colony. Planetary interaction does not normally require much active management once the colony is established, and most players will use it as a passive supplement to their other income.
Manufacturing
- Main article: Manufacturing
Almost everything in New Eden is created by players. 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 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 also. It 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.
Business careers
Business careers focus on moving and selling goods to make a profit. They make use of New Eden's player to player market.
Trading
- Main article: Trading
EVE Online has a complex player-driven market, which is studied by students of economics. By investing their ISK correctly, players can make a profit from buying and selling goods. This requires some starting capital and a good grasp of supply and demand. Some traders focus on buying and selling goods in the same station, while some will buy items with a view to selling them elsewhere for a higher price. Trading can be very competitive, especially in high traffic areas such as Trade Hubs, which can drive down profits. However, if a player finds a suitable niche it can yield a high income.
Hauling
- Main article: Hauling
Logistics is vital in EVE Online, and haulers move items from point A to point B. It can be profitable to buy items cheaply in one place and sell them elsewhere, where there is greater demand. Other players will also often pay well for the service of moving their items through 'courier contracts'. 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. Players can train to fly a range of specialised hauling ships to carry bigger loads or to haul in lower security space. There are entire corporations dedicated to fulfilling courier contracts for a price.
Exploration careers
New Eden is vast and contains many secret sites with hidden valuables. Exploration is about tracking down those sites.
Exploration and hacking
- Main article: Exploration
Players can use their on board scanner together with a probe launcher to scan down Cosmic Anomalies and Cosmic Signatures. These will contain either groups of pirate NPCs, resources like gas clouds or asteroid belts, hackable containers with loot or wormholes.
Searching wormholes and hidden space for valuable sites, then selling the relics and information you discover, can be a very productive way to generate ISK - and a lot of fun, too. To become an explorer, players must invest in several specialty skills (Astrometrics, Archeology and Hacking), some dedicated equipment (probe launcher, codebreaker modules) and a suitable ship with bonuses for astrometric modules. You must also become an expert at probing.
Salvaging
- Main article: Salvaging
EVE Online is a place of constant combat, and as a result, there are a lot of wrecked ships left behind after every battle. Finding, collecting and selling items from wrecks can be a great way for players to earn ISK. Many items collected from wrecks are used to produce specialized rigs for ships, and so there is always a strong demand for these items. To become a successful salvager, players must develop salvaging skills (of course), and also sufficient command, electronics and engineering skills to use tractor beams and the salvager module. It is also useful to acquire a destroyer ship and convert it into a dedicated salvage vessel - with their large number of high slots and fairly large cargo bay, destroyers are perfect for this task. You can peruse asteroid belts for wrecks, of course, but the best way to earn a salvage income is to join a mission team and clean up any resulting wrecks, then split the resulting revenue with your teammates.
Combat careers
Combat specialists earn their income from becoming very, very good at one thing: blowing stuff up. Since EVE Online is a universe populated by players interested in developing their power and influence, there is always a demand for military might.
Mission running
- Main article: Missions
One of the first ways that every player makes ISK in EVE is by executing assigned missions assigned by agents in non-player corporations, or by running through deadspace complexes. Mission running is worthy of an extensive guide all by itself, so we won't belabor all aspects of this career option here. Suffice it to say that to earn real ISK as a mission-runner, players must invest in larger ships and develop the skills to fly them, so that they can earn access to higher level agents, higher level missions and the much higher levels of rewards that come with them. There are also non-repeatable COSMOS missions, that give you modules worth hundreds of millions of ISK, but beware, they are harder than your average missions!
Ratting
Hunting and killing NPC pirates (a.k.a. "rats") can earn some ISK. But frankly, this is not the most lucrative way to earn money in EVE. Still, as a supplemental source of income, ratting can be fun, and a great way to refine some combat skills. To be a ratter, players only need to develop some combat skills and have a suitably outfitted fighting ship. High-sec rats are relatively easy to kill, and they spawn most frequently in asteroid belts - low-sec rats are a little tougher, but ratting in low-sec space is riskier because real-player pirates, who are infinitely more dangerous, also lurk there. Player beware!
Running wormhole sites
- Main article: Wormholes
Wormholes are an environment which is difficult to inhabit, and yet which many players call home. Players can live in wormholes by establishing citadels or POSes, or alternatively players may choose to "day trip"i.e. visit a wormhole temporarily. Wormholes have 'sites' which can be very lucrative. The difficulty of the site (and the payout) depends on the class of wormhole. Most wormhole sites require tanky ships or a group of people to run, so they are normally suited to more experienced players.
Incursions
- Main article: Incursions
Incursions are high-end PvE content and are done are part of a fleet. They involve repelling NPC invaders and can be a reliable method of earning a high amount of ISK. Payouts are made to a limited number of people within the fleet, which means that each member of the fleet needs to be effective in their role - you cannot compensate for inexperience and low skills with lots of people! For this reason incursion runners normally fly battleships or more advanced ships, with logistics support. For EVE University members, our EVE University Incursion Community always need 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.
Factional Warfare
- Main article: Factional Warfare
Factional warfare allows players to fight for one of the main four factions (Amarr, Caldari, Gallente, Minmatar) for control over certain areas of low-sec space. Players fight players from opposing factions in an attempt to gain control of the system, and are rewarded with Loyalty Points.
Mercenary
If you can develop very high levels of combat skills, you can make a decent living by hiring your guns out to corporations that can use you for fighting pirates or war targets. Mercenaries are typically hired by large corporations who want something done without their name being all over it. A mercenary could also be a hired guard for miners, an extra hand in a full scale war, or an escort through low sec areas, among other duties. If you are serious about being a mercenary, joining a dedicated mercenary corporation is a good idea, as the one thing you need more than anything else as a "merc" is contacts. Be wary of courier assignments ending in low sec areas - they may actually be an ambush set up by a crafty pirate.
Bounty Hunter
- Main article: Bounty Hunting System
Many players that pursue outlaw careers (more on this later) have bounties assigned to them. Players can hunt down these characters using locator agents and intelligence gathered from other players, and collect the bounties. While this sounds like an exciting career, it is really very difficult to execute. You must have extremely high combat skills, a powerful ship, and a lot of luck - you must also have the element of surprise. The rewards are also fairly minimal. For this reason, bounty hunting, when it occurs, is usually a venture of opportunity, rather than of planning.
Outlaw Careers
In the EVE sandbox, there are people who play nice and pursue honorable careers - and then there are those who do not. Both styles of play are allowed. In fact, EVE Online is one place where crime does indeed pay - and pretty well, too.
Can Flipping
- Main article: Can flipping
Perhaps the easiest entry-level way to get into a life of crime in EVE is to simply steal from miners who are "jetcanning", where miners jettison their collected ore into unsecured cargo containers for later retrieval. Can flippers only have to get within 2,500 meters of a jetcan, then grab the contents. Miners are generally in weaker ships, with poor defenses and few weapons, and there is usually little they can do to stop this theft. Further, if the miner fights back, then the can flipper may simply destroy the miner, and then loot the poor victim. Note that can flipping is not allowed whilst a member of EVE University, under the EVE University Rules.
Piracy
Pirates specialize in player-versus-player (PvP) skills, so that they can attack and pillage players (mostly haulers) in low security space, or capture them and ransom their ship or pod for money. Successful pirates must also have good scanning and probing skills, and the best ones hunt in packs. Joining a piracy corporation is therefore an attractive option for the aspiring space buccaneer.
Scamming or theft
If you have ever fantasized about being a high-stakes confidence man, EVE provides you with lots of options for becoming a professional scammer - tricking players into giving you ISK or luring them into traps for profit. Some of these scams are simple - mislabeling contracts on the market and selling items for far more then they are worth, for example. But some are far more elaborate and dangerous - issuing an attractive courier contract into low-sec or null-sec space, for example, for the sole purpose of tricking a hauler into an ambush. Another form of scam is the corporate raider, who gains entry into a corporation, earns a director level position, and then uses that position to steal everything - including the corporation itself! Note that scamming and theft are not allowed whilst a member of EVE University, under the EVE University Rules.
Suicide Ganking
- Main article: Suicide ganking
If you initiate an unprovoked attack on a ship in high-security space (0.5 or higher), then CONCORD will destroy your ship. But losing a ship might be a small price to pay if you pick the right target - a nice fat freighter or a faction ship laden with high priced modules, for example. By working with teammates, who can loot the victim after your suicide attack, you can earn enormous rewards. This comes at a cost to your security status and grants kill rights though, which may severely impact your ability to operate in highsec. A judicious ganker should be able to easily afford security tags, while an indiscriminate one may have to rat or live with the consequences.
Drug Dealing
There are illegal substance abusers in the EVE universe - and this includes many pilots. Booster drugs can temporarily increase certain capabilities, and though illegal in Empire space, they are in demand. And where there are buyers, there is a market - one that a disreputable drug dealer can fill, and for decent profit, at moderate risk.
Corporate Executive
- Main article: Forming a Corporation
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 citadel or POS to host valuable research facilities and a market, or you could join an alliance and negotiate to build 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.
