Accounts
- This page is about EVE game accounts. For EVE University forum/wiki accounts, see Applying to EVE University.
In order to play EVE you must have an Account, which links your real-world identity (e.g. e-mail address, payment information) to your in-game characters. You can have up to three characters per account. Your account name is never used in-game; it is only used for out-of-game interactions (e.g. logging into the game, paying for a game subscription, submitting support tickets, etc).
Creating an account
You can create an account on the EVE Online website. If you were invited to EVE by a friend (i.e. have a referral link), use it when creating your account, as you will get some free skill points (equivalent to about 1-2 weeks' training time). Additionally, your friend will receive free game time or a PLEX if you subscribe to the game.
Starter packs
Starting to play EVE is free (there is no cost to "buying a box", and expansions to the game are also free), but you can subsequently choose to pay for a recurring subscription. Additionally, you can buy "starter packs", which give you additional items or temporary in-game boosts. These can only be used when first creating an account (i.e. they cannot be applied to an existing account), and are intended to give new players a boost when starting out.
In reality, many of the items (such as ships, ship SKINs, modules, and clothing) included in these starter packs are of very limited value, as they can be bought on the in-game market for modest quantities of ISK. The only significantly valuable items included are:
- Cerebral accelerators, which temporarily (usually for around 2-4 weeks) increase the speed at which a character learns skills (by boosting their attributes)
- PLEX, used to pay for game time, in-game services (such as character remodelling and transfer), or can be sold for a large quantity of ISK
- Aurum, used to buy items (including cosmetic items for your character, ship SKINs, and skill extractors) from the New Eden Store
- Game time (usually 30 days)
There are a number of starter packs available, the contents of which vary. When deciding whether a starter pack is worth it, compare its cost to the cost of its components (game time and PLEX are sold directly, while PLEX can be converted to Aurum at a rate of 3500 AUR per PLEX), ignoring everything that isn't on the list above. Usually, the starter packs are not worth buying, unless they are significantly discounted. Packs are sold by CCP as well as authorised third-party retailers, and include:
- Commissioned Officer Edition: 30 days of game time and a Standard Cerebral Accelerator (about 15% faster training speed for 30 days).
- Core Starter Pack: 30 days of game time and a Prototype Cerebral Accelerator (about 45% faster training speed for 15 days). Additionally, a few ships, modules, blueprints, and clothes.
- Explorer/Colonist/Industrialist/Skirmisher Content Packs: 750 AUR. Additionally, a few ships, modules, blueprints, clothes, and skillbooks.
- Premium Edition: Core Starter Pack, all four Content Packs (but without the AUR), 1 PLEX, and 750 AUR (usually - the contents of this pack appears to vary by seller). Additionally, a few ship SKINs.
Subscriptions
- See also: Clone States
While EVE can be played in a limited fashion for free, accessing all its gameplay aspects requires requires you to pay a recurring monthly subscription. The game subscription can be paid for in two ways:
- Buying game time for real-life money
- Buying PLEX with in-game money (ISK)
Game time can be bought either from CCP directly, or from an authorised third-party retailer. It can be paid as either a recurring payment, or by buying a "block" of game time (e.g. 6 months) in advance, which is usually cheaper on a per-month basis. Depending on your local currency it may be worth shopping around to get the best deal on game time.
Subscriptions are paid for per account (not per character); any character on an account with an active subscription are considered to have Omega status. If your subscription runs out, you can continue to play the game (with the limitations of Alpha status), or renew your subscription to regain Omega status.
PLEX
The "30 Day Pilot's License Extension" (PLEX) is an in-game item with a variety of uses:
- Add 30 days of (Omega) game time
- Exchange for 3500 Aurum
- Add 30 days of Multiple Character Training time
- Transfer a character to a different account (costs 2 PLEX)
- Sell it to another player for ISK
Just like all other player-traded items on the market, the price of PLEX fluctuates with supply and demand.
Acquiring PLEX
PLEX can be:
- Bought from another player for ISK
- Bought for real-life money from CCP (or an authorised third-party retailer)
This allows players with disposable real-world income to easily acquire large quantities of ISK, and, conversely, players with large quantities of ISK to pay for their game subscriptions with ISK instead of real-world money. It's also possible to buy PLEX with real-world money and use it to pay for game time; however, it's almost always cheaper to buy game time (with real-world money) directly instead of buying PLEX (PLEX is more versatile and therefore tends to be more expensive than straight-up game time).
Using PLEX
While PLEX bought in-game is a normal in-game item, PLEX bought from out-of-game sources appear in your redeeming window, and must first be redeemed (i.e. transferred) to one of the characters on that account, where it will appear as an item at that character's location (in the station's item hangar or the ship's cargo bay). It can then be moved, transported, and sold like any other in-game item. It's highly recommended that you only redeem PLEX when your character is either at a trade hub or if you intend to use it immediately (see below).
Once redeemed, you can right-click on the PLEX item to add 30 days of game time, exchange it for Aurum, etc - note that these actions consume the PLEX.
Alternatively, you can sell the PLEX to another player via the market (or contracts). PLEX tends to be traded almost exclusively in large trade hubs. Additionally, keep in mind that you need to have some liquid ISK to sell your PLEX, as you are charged broker fees (3%, can be lowered with skills) for setting up a market sell order - given that PLEX is worth around 1B ISK, you will have to pay an upfront broker fee of around 30M ISK.
Uniquely, PLEX can also be "reverse redeemed", i.e. moved back into the redeeming queue. This is only necessary if you want to transfer a character to another account. If you've moved a PLEX back into the redeeming queue you can only redeem it again at the location where you originally reverse-redeemed it, i.e. you cannot use this as a trick for safely moving PLEX around.
PLEX safety
- See also: Tips for New Players
As PLEX (once redeemed) is an in-game item like any other, it can be transported in ships and traded via contracts. Since it's so valuable, it's worth being extra careful with it.
You should NEVER haul PLEX, as every suicide ganker in New Eden will be trying to destroy your ship in the hope that they can retrieve the PLEX from your ship's wreck (like any other item, there is a 50% chance that the PLEX will be destroyed when your ship is blown up). You should never need to haul PLEX - only buy, sell, or redeem it at trade hubs, and if necessary you can use it to add game time (or any of its other uses) remotely from anywhere in the universe through the Assets window.
Additionally, since PLEX is both valuable and fairly commonly used (compared with other items of comparable value), it is often used in contract scams. If you want to be safe only buy PLEX from the market, or be extra-careful when reading the terms for contracts involving PLEX (note that the vast majority of contracts involving PLEX, especially those advertised in the Local chat window, are scams).
Characters
You can have up to three characters per account. When you log into the game you can play one of the existing characters, or click on an empty portrait to create a new character.
Alts and multiboxing
- Main article: Alternate characters
While everyone starts out by playing only one character, many EVE players find it useful to create additional characters (also called "alternate characters", or "alts") to fulfill specific roles in the game.
If you have several accounts (you can have as many EVE accounts as you like) then you can play the game simultaneously with two (or more) characters, but only if:
- The characters are on separate accounts (you can never play with two characters on the same account simultaneously), and
- All the accounts involved have an active subscription (i.e. Omega status)
Multiple Character Training
Even if you have multiple characters on an account, only one of those characters can have a skill actively training; all the other characters' skill queues are paused. Therefore, if you want to train skills on an alt, you have to pause training on your main character.
When starting out with alts this is a perfectly acceptable thing to do (as you can still play all your characters even while their skill training is paused), and it continues to be a valid strategy if you only plan to have your alts training for a limited time. However, if you foresee training your alt(s) for a longer time period, and/or if you are impatient and don't want to pause training on your main character, you can train two characters (on the same account) simultaneously by buying "Multiple Character Training".
Buying Multiple Character Training
Multiple Character Training can be bought with PLEX (right-click on a PLEX item in your inventory) or by paying real-life money (through the EVE Account Management website). Multiple Character Training is account-based (not bound to an individual character), so you can buy it on any character on the account, and is bought in 30-day increments.
How Multiple Character Training works
Activating Multiple Character Training (MCT) opens up an additional character skill training queue for 30 days; if you want a longer period or a third training queue you have to buy multiple instances of MCT.
It doesn't matter which characters are training simultaneously, as long as the simultaneous limit is not reached. For example, you could have 3 characters named Anna, Bob and Charlie on the same account. If you have one MCT queue active on that account, you can train any combination of two characters (Anna and Bob, Anna and Charlie, or Bob and Charlie) at the same time time for a period of 30 days. This provides extra flexibility if you want to train up several alternate characters. If you would like to train all three characters at once, you would have to buy an additional MCT queue.
The 30 days of MCT starts ticking from the moment you buy/activate it; you have to manually log into each additional character and start their training queues. Should their training queues run out or be paused, MCT will continue to tick down, irrespective of whether your characters are actively training or not; there is no way to "pause" MCT once it's been activated. Once the MCT queue runs out, the skill training for the character with the lowest number of skill points will be paused.
You can check how much time is remaining on your MCT queue on the EVE Account Management website.
Biomassing
You can permanently delete a character (this is referred to as "biomassing") from the character selection screen. When you first select a character for biomassing, you then have to wait 10 hours (this "biomassing queue" is to prevent you from deleting the wrong character by accident). Note that you cannot biomass a character who is the CEO of a corporation - the CEO must first resign or otherwise close the corporation before they can be added to the biomassing queue. Once the 10 hours are up, you can then biomass the character (accompanied by some mechanical sounds and an appropriate scream), deleting it permanently from the game.
If the character was a member of a player-run corporation, the following will happen:
- All assets (ships, modules, etc) owned by the pilot, including their capsule, are transferred to their corporation and moved to the corporation's first hangar division. If the corporation does not have any offices, then the assets are destroyed.
- Any ISK in the pilot's wallet is transferred to the corporation (into the first wallet division). This is listed in the corporation wallet journal as "Inheritance".
- All members of the corporation receive an EVE-mail message, notifying them of the character's "permanent death".
For characters in an NPC corporation, all their assets and ISK are destroyed when they are biomassed.
While it's possible for CCP to recover biomassed characters, it is unlikely they would be able to recover or return any lost/transferred assets. If a character is "reanimated" in this way, it occasionally leaves anomalies in the character's employment history (such as showing that they left a corporation and joined it again immediately without being in another corporation, which is not possible under normal conditions).
