Tips for New Players

Welcome to EVE Online, a game as complex as it is beautiful. EVE Online has a notoriously difficult learning curve and this page sets out some useful tips for new players to make the most out of their time in game.

Important rules to bear in mind

Don't fly anything you can't afford to lose (replace)

This is often referred to as the number one rule of EVE Online. When you undock a ship in EVE Online there is always a chance that you will lose it, even in High Security space. So do not fly any ships which would be too expensive for you to lose. Ideally, make sure you can afford to replace the ship several times over.

You can insure your ship which will allow you to recover some of the ISK, but do not entirely rely on this. Insurance only covers on the loss of the hull, and not on any modules, rigs, or cargo; and as such if you are flying in a ship with expensive modules, insurance will not go very far. (Furthermore, as insurance payouts are based on the mineral cost of the hull, Faction and Tech 2 ships do not give very good insurance payouts.)

It's usually healthiest to think of your ship as a piece of expendable equipment, like a very large drone or missile. Don't treat it like your life's one true love; it'll very likely turn into a pretty explosion one day.

As a general rule, an uninsured hull will pay out around 40% of the hull's value, and an insured loss will pay out that 40%, plus twice whatever you paid into the insurance. So if you're placing yourself into a high-risk environment, it's always worth insuring it to recover some of the cost of the ship you're probably about to lose. Insurance in EVE is not a system to fully replace losses, but a return on banking that your ship will be lost.

The positive flip-side of always flying things you can afford to lose (replace) is that it frees you to take more risk in pursuit of fun. You can, for instance, find ships that are cheap (relative to your ISK income) and experiment with PvP in them, blissfully unconcerned about the cost of losses.

High Security space doesn't mean "Safe space"

The best thing you can do for yourself is to lose the idea that "High Security" space means you should be safe. "High Security" doesn't mean "secure". The moment you undock your ship you are exposing yourself to the possibility of PvP.

The only thing High Security space provides you, as a potential target, is that your attacker has more challenges to account for should they decide to attack you (unless you're already a legitimate target to them, in other words, you're "flashy" to them). CONCORD exists to punish the attacker in High Sec, not to protect capsuleers. Your protection is completely up to you, your fit, where and when you do certain activities, and what precautions you take. Many losses that occur happen simply due to the lack of taking some basic precautions or exercising some basic practices to minimize the risk. Learn these things, and put them into practice.

Scamming, stealing and unethical behaviour are allowed

Unlike many games, there are no rules built into EVE Online itself to prevent people from scamming, stealing, lying and so on. If someone steals from you CCP will not intervene. In fact, such behaviour is sometimes encouraged and rewarded by game mechanics. It is worth learning about common scams.

EVE University members should, though, remember that the University rules require them to be honest and to keep their word.

All players should remember that harassment and real-life threats are not permitted and certainly can be reported to CCP.

Support skills are important

Even when you have the minimum skills to sit in a ship, this doesn't automatically mean you should fly it right away, and it doesn't mean that you can fly it well yet. Support skills are important skills that will improve your ability to fly various ships, and they should not be overlooked. Take the time to train into them properly.

A common error among new players is thinking that moving onto the next size hull is something to do quickly. Bigger isn't better in EVE Online. It can take exponentially more time to become trained up and effective in a higher size/grade hull, and the smaller, more basic T1 ships are more forgiving and effective in the hands of low-skill characters. Be patient and learn why and how the various hulls are used.

Small, cheap ships can sometimes destroy big, expensive ships, and even new players can make a big difference in PvP: a tiny and cheap Griffin can, with luck, switch off a battleship's damage-dealing, for instance, and massed frigates using drones can destroy a player-owned space station.

Fourteen key support skills which improve every ship you fly are listed in the wiki's page on The Magic 14.

Don't judge a book by its cover

Just because a character is newly created doesn't mean the player is new. Many players have alts, and some will use a new character to lull others into a false sense of security. Some will even go to the effort of making their new character look trustworthy, for example by joining EVE University or another new player-friendly corp to give them added credibility.

The reverse is also true: just because a character was created long ago doesn't mean the player is experienced. They might have taken a long break from the game since they created the character, or have purchased the character on the Character Bazaar.

Using Skill Extraction and Injection, it's quite possible--for a price--for a new-appearing character to have a surprisingly high number of skill points.

Tips for moving your stuff

There are special hauling ships that you can use to move large amounts of items, or even ships. These are very useful but always be careful when using them.

Suicide ganking

A suicide ganker is someone who blows up ships in high sec in the knowledge that CONCORD will destroy their ship, expecting to make more than the cost of replacing their ship from looting their victims.

Always assume that anyone around you knows what you are hauling. Modules called ship scanners enable other people to scan your ship's contents, sometimes without you knowing. This is especially important if you are going to a trade hub, as some groups will scan ships routinely a few systems out from hubs so they know which ships are carrying expensive loot.

If the contents of your cargo hold are worth more than the loss of their ship, it is profitable for them to attack you. If they are in high security space they will be destroyed by CONCORD but they will have an alt or a friend nearby to scoop up the loot.

Remember that CONCORD exists to punish, not to protect. CONCORD response time varies with system security status, but they won't come in time to stop someone from destroying your ship.

Never haul PLEX

On a related note, never haul PLEX. This is an item that can be purchased with real life money and is valuable in-game item, so it is a very tempting target for gankers.

There is absolutely no reason for you to need to haul PLEX, as--unlike almost all other items in the game--it can be manipulated remotely. You can move it to your PLEX Vault, travel to your destination, and at destination, you can move it from your vault to your hangar again. Note that you can also remotely move PLEX to your PLEX vault.

Moving expensive stuff

If you want to move a lot of items, or high value items, then there are several ways to do it. Depending on the method you use it will take some time or cost you ISK, but this is better than losing everything.

• You can do several runs with a low value cargo hold which will discourage suicide gankers because they will not make as much profit.
• You can ask a trusted friend or a corpmate with a freighter to haul it for you. Freighters have a good tank and are expensive to gank so they are safer to haul items of a larger value. Remember there is always a chance your "friend" or corpmate could steal your items, or get ganked themselves.
• You can sell your stuff and rebuy it at your destination, provided this isn't too expensive (check the prices first!)
• You can set up a courier contract with a freight service such as Red Frog Freight or Push Industries. When you set up a courier contract you will set a 'collateral' which covers the cost of your items in the event that they are ganked, so they bear the loss rather than you.
• Many player corps and alliances maintain freighting services for their members as well, often at a much lower cost, and better access, than the "public" services.

Tips for using jetcans

Can baiting

This is when someone puts out a can in space advertising "free items". If the can is yellow then if you take the items you will be flagged as a suspect and they will be entitled to shoot you without intervention from CONCORD.

This is a common trick to bait people into engagement in high security space. If it sounds too good to be true, assume that it is!

Ninja Looting and Can Flipping

This is when someone takes from cans that are someone else's. For example, if you are jetcan mining or doing missions you may have cans in space. There is nothing to stop people from taking the contents of the cans (unless they are password protected), so you should not assume it is safe until you have taken it to a station.

Sometimes this is not just theft but a way of using the game mechanics to trick you into attacking someone (can flipping). The person will deliberately take something from your can which will flag them as a suspect and encourage you to attack them. As soon as you engage them they will be entitled to attack you back, and he will be more prepared than you are. They may have an unexpectedly powerful fit on a weak-seeming ship, may return in a bigger ship, or may call in friends.

Travel tips

Don't use autopilot

Autopilot is the action you take to follow a planned route without manually flying it. It takes a lot longer to complete the route than by manually flying it. It can be useful to fly your ship to your selected destination without your input, but this can be very dangerous.

When you are flying with autopilot you will not land at zero on the outbound gate, but rather 15 km away from the gate. From there, you will slowly move towards the gate (known as slow-boating).

This makes it very obvious to anyone that you are probably not at your keyboard to defend yourself. It also makes you travel much more slowly than you would if you were actively warping gate to gate at zero, so it gives any gankers plenty of time to attack you.

The best way to use your route is to select your waypoints and destination, but then manually fly your ship along the suggested route. If you insist on flying on autopilot, then at least only use it when your route isn't along common routes or into and out of trade hubs, and when you are carrying nothing valuable.

Using Autopilot will also land you 15 km from your destination station, and you'll slow-boat into the docking ring and then dock up. Again, this is potentially very dangerous.

The only time to use Autopilot is when you have set up an insta-docking bookmark for the station that's your destination or a waypoint on your route. Once you're in your destination system you'll want to select warp-to to your insta-dock bookmark. Once you begin warping then turn on your Autopilot. You'll land at your insta-dock point and the Autopilot will then dock you automatically.

Do use your autopilot avoid list

Autopilot also has an "avoid list" which enables you to avoid certain systems. Dangerous systems are trade hubs and choke points that have a lot of traffic, like Uedema and Rancer. You can read more about the autopilot avoidance system here.