Now that you have created your character and you think you’re ready to jump into action - hang on!

EVE is not like most games in which you can skip the tutorial. The tutorial is essential for your success and will guide you through the basic processes of mining and refining ore, interacting with corporate agents, and acquiring your first safe and supervised taste of ship-to-ship combat. You will also learn how to utilize the interstellar market, purchase and install ship upgrades, and perhaps most importantly, earn enough money to upgrade your vessel.

Step 1: In-Space Tutorial

The in-space tutorial is supervised by an insurance teaching drone, which will orbit your ship. To start the tutorial, press the ” Next ” link on the welcome screen. Please be polite and refrain from shooting down the teaching drone.

The tutorial drone will help you learn basic ship operations. The insurance company is concerned about you and wants to make sure you know how to fly before buying insurance for it!

Follow the given steps. When you have completed one step, the next one will appear in tutorial window. Press the “next” button in that window to continue the tutorial. Just before you dock, be sure to read any “evemails” (in-game messages) you’ve received!

Step 2: In-Station Tutorial

•  The in-station tutorial picks up when you first dock, as instructed by the tutorial drone. It introduces you to various station services such as the market, ship fitting, reprocessing, and so on.

•  The tutorial also introduces you to a friendly corporate agent who is in need of courier pilots to handle some small errands and get you started on making money. We recommend you finish all the missions you are offered, so that you’ll be able to continue your mission career.

•  Do not attack other players while in a system rated between 1.0 and 0.5. If you do, you will be shot down by CONCORD (the EVE NPC police force). On the other hand, you can always shoot at wanted NPC pirates (non-playing character pirates), no matter where you are.

Step 3: Storyline Missions

Once you have completed all the tutorial missions, your agent will refer you to another one. You will then be given a chance at the storyline missions. They will give you better insight into EVE and possibly a handsome reward. You should already have all the knowledge you need to complete those missions.

The Storyline Missions are intended to be used to get familiar with EVE, so they are not the most exciting missions EVE has to offer.

Step 4: Off you go

While still a rookie, you have progressed to a stage where you are ready to go out on your own. But before doing so, here are some pointers for a fun time in EVE.

Skills

One of the first things you should do is purchase and trains the basic “Learning” skills. They help lower the total amount of time it takes to learn a new skill by increasing your attributes (Intelligence, Willpower, etc.). This is a very good thing to do early on, as the sooner you do this, the more skill points you will have in about two months’ time.

Since there is no effective maximum of the amount of skill points you can have in EVE, you always want to have a skill in training. You should always set a skill to train when you log off as your skill training progresses in real time. Get your learning skills and “learn to learn” as soon as you can afford it - it will all pay off in the long run no matter what. Getting the learning skills and training them will also familiarize you with the general skill training process.

For more information about skills please refer to Chapter 7.

Ships

Every player seeks a better ship and configuration. Early on in EVE, you will find that you can fly the largest frigate class ship with the corresponding frigate skill (Gallente Frigate, Caldari Frigate, etc.) at level three. This level of frigate skill can be reached quite quickly, but level four is a prerequisite for training cruiser skills. When you have the skill to get a new frigate class ship and leave the rookie ship, do so as soon as possible. The new player ship is very weak and is given out freely upon destruction. Even a small frigate which requires only a level two frigate skill is vastly superior to the new player ship.

•  Train your frigate skill and get a good ship soon as possible, but don’t risk ships or modules (ship equipment) you cannot afford to replace.

For a complete list of all ships and their capabilities you should check out the following fan sites, which maintain excellent ship databases:

•  http://www.eve-db.com/database

•  http://www.zond3.net/

Making Money

Many players initially wonder how they should make money. As explained earlier there are many ways you can earn ISK. Early on, mining and agent missions are best as you don’t have many skills, much world knowledge, or faction standing. Both are quite profitable in the beginning.

Mining

There are many forms of mining, ranging from solo prospecting to large scale strip mining by industrial corporations. The latter requires considerable planning and coordination, but solo mining does not require much skill or knowledge. That sounds like a perfect job for you! Don’t worry; every dashing space hero and galactic corporate mogul had to start somewhere. Who knows, maybe you’re flying the starter frigate one of them sold during their first upgrade.

Agent missions

Missions from NPC corporation agents can be very profitable, especially at the higher levels. Agent missions can net substantial profits, but can also be very time consuming.

Bounty Hunting

The combat pilot can try his hand at bounty hunting. You can hunt for NPC pirates, all of which have a bounty on their head, or player-pirates, whose bounties are limited only by their victims’ hatred and the cash they’re willing to put up for revenge.

•  You are not allowed to freely attack other players unless their security rating is below -5.0.

Research Agents

Research agents allow you to form an NPC research team to develop new technologies. Should your team be successful, you will be offered a new blueprint at the next technology level from the common pool. These can be sold for large sums; there are players that have made substantial fortunes from selling blueprint originals on the market. For more information, see Chapter 11.

Production

Sometimes overlooked, it is possible to turn a profit by acquiring blueprints and the relevant resources to start a small production business. Sell where you have little competition and enough resources to continue construction.

Trading

Trading is mostly done by experienced players as it requires good knowledge of trade routes and market prices. There are trading-only corporations in the EVE Universe which are very wealthy and powerful.

Inter-regional trading is time-consuming and often dangerous, but can prove very profitable.

Corporations

One of the best things you can do is apply for membership in a player corporation that is active and of a decent size. Larger corporations are not necessarily better, as you will be one of many, while smaller corporations are often very active and ambitious. Choose a corporation that has the same goals and game style as yours, and be certain to ask before joining what they focus on and what role you will have. Corporation activities may include mining, fighting, trading, manufacturing, and many more. Most corporations combine some of the above and might be a good start for you until you have decided which path you want to follow, but you can always change corporations, too. Corporations can offer protection, friends, resource sharing, and much more.

Map

It helps to understand how the map works and how to use the scanner. Both are part of efficient navigation through the world of EVE. See chapter six for more information.

Explore

Explore EVE! There are 5000+ systems and thousands of people out there. We wish we could tell you exactly what to do early on in detail but that’s what EVE is all about: exploration, corporations, money, greed, friendships. the list continues. If we told you exactly where to go and what to do, it wouldn’t be your destiny anymore, would it?

Explore Eve with caution. The residents, both players and NPCs, of the various systems can be dangerous.