I know it might sound stupid to some people but I want to grind up the required billions to afford omega for 3-4 months so that I may passsively train into and fly a fully fitted orca for a little (I know it will cost billions ontop of billions) and I want to get all the ISK for the plex, skill-books and the actual fit ingame and want to know the best isk per hour method for an alpha.
please don’t respond with one of the following:
“just work 1-2 hours irl and buy plex” can a man not be allowed to have a grind dream no matter how painful
it will be?
“eve is about fun per hour not the little number on your screen” - I personally do find grinding fun and take satisfaction from how much ISK i have acquired
tl;dr I want to make as much isk per hour possible without buying plex or a sub
I spent years ratting in null and barely stayed even when the game was brand new. 15 years later you want me to draw you a “map to your success”? Try that in the business world. I’m sure people will be knocking each other over to tell you their secrets.
Actually it doesn’t sound stupid to many people. A lot of us have grinded to get everything we have, whether it be orcas, capships, etc. This applies to me both in real-life and in-game.
Either way, there is some pretty good ISK/hour chart floating around on the internet somewhere - just google around.
You didn’t say whether you were living in highsec, nullsec, etc. nor what you have access to in terms of equipment and skills. However stuff like Rorquals, Supercarrier ratting, and ratting with Dreads in C5 and C6 wormholes are at the top of the list. Well… let me correct that. I think sitting in Jita trading all day - if you are good at it and if you have the capital and the skills - is the best. Then what I listed above.
Beyond that, if you are in highsec, I’d say level 4 burner mission blitzing, and incursions will offer the best ISK, or close to it.
If you are starting out with low skills and not much money, do exploration in wormholes (relic/data sites). That’s the most ISK I made when I was a low skill character, and the ships and fits are cheap so you basically risk nothing.
Every thing that you can do to grind isk - exploration, ratting, mining - will be better if you do it in low sec.
Null sec I have no experience of, so cannot comment. I do know what the limits are for mining however and also that the skills / capital for industry / trade are not really available to you as alpha. That just leaves the “primary professions” as noted above. (The other option is mission running.)
You cannot mine ice as an alpha and you cannot get into a mining barge. That limits you to a venture. The two best options you can do in a venture are wormhole gas and low sec ninja mining for rare and exceptional moon ores.
Max you can do in a venture is about 4 m3/sec per laser. (Don’t know if you can get there on alpha skills; probably?). On an exceptional ore you can pull in around 50 mil isk/hour with that spec. True, you have to find the moons. True, they have to be mining. True, you have to be able to stay in space for a full hour to get that yield. But, that gives you a rough / max benchmark against other options.
Others can give you a realistic idea of what gas could give you.
The key with all of these would be length of time you can actively grind vs return. Soooo, mining in 0.5 moon belts and pulling down orca boosts (they love the little guy) might just be the meat & potatoes, because the length of time you can do that unmolested could more than outweigh what you could make in low sec - if you weren’t running away / hiding so much.
Otherwise, if you can skill up to running level 4 missions, I expect most people would recommend that as your “only” option.
The important question has already been asked, what security level of space are you in?
As for Null:
Benefits within a Null Corp
Enemies are identified in Null, most areas operate on NBSI [Not Blue Shoot It] you know when you will be shot at.
Miners boosted by Rorquals is common place nearly doubling your yields.
High probability your Null Org moon mines and pays you well to mine and sell to Corp
With Engineering Complexes manufacturing is very profitable
Ratting options Anomalies, Escalations, Sigs and now Abyssal Space All pay steady bounty.
So, the real secret to your success is to Team Up. Its a proven fact that teams increase individual income they don’t divide whatever the available opportunity is. Missions, Ratting, Mining, WH Diving and even CCP Events are more productive to individuals in teams rather than lone wolfing it.
Well, good then…'cause you’re going to get plenty of it. You’re in for more grinding than a stripper in a flour mill.
What do you want with an orca?
Maybe do a search on the New Players Q&A section of these forums for ways alpha clones can make isk. Perhaps consider joining one of the 0.0 space groups that take alphas.
I mainly live in high sec but make day trips into wh space with an imicus and farm relic sites and I’ve been looking at trying high sec combat anoms with a vexor and thats pretty much it
OK. If you are happy with HS then simply add mining. You have everything else pretty much covered already. Just do whichever option feels right at the time.
Your ore of choice in HS, for isk / m3 mined, should be gneiss. This is available in 0.5 sec moon ore belts. The number one spot for price will move around eg with some of the HS moon goo / AB(C) ores but these are only available in 0.5 anyway, plus it is always marginal. Stick with gneiss.
Best you can do is get a miasmos, jet can with your venture so you can mine continuously, then pick up the cans with your hauler once every hour. Together with Orca boosts, that’s the max you can squeeze from HS mining as an alpha.
Many of the options listed above are not really suitable for an alpha. In this game, making good ISK usually requires requires a sub, and a serious ISK investment. (Dread ratting in C5, to give an example.)
As an alpha I would absolutely not advise mining, the venture is just plain horrible. Even as an omega, solo mining in high sec is just plain bad. (and terribly boring if you ask me.)
The best options for an solo alpha would probably be:
Exploration, either
Relic sites in wormholes
The easier combat sites in low sec (DED 3/10 and 4/10 are quite common, can be quite valuable, and are runnable in a t1 cruiser.) Combat sites in high sec however, will mostly result in better skills players blitzing past you while you’re trying to clear the site.
Trading… if you’re good at that sort of thing
Scamming… if you’re good at that sort of thing
In a group, some more options open up. Everything in EVE can be done by alphas if you’re in a large enough group, but I’m not sure what would then be the best ISK/hr after dividing it over the group.
Trading only works if you already have a lot of ISKs to start with unfortunately. So it’s not a method for a player who is just now trying to make ISKs. You need to have ISKs in order to make more ISKs.
Alphas cannot flying mining barges or exhumers.
@FraznoFire Get into an Incursion fleet for alphas.
There is a requirement: Lacking a conscience, or being able to ignore it.
Not everyone can do this. Some feel really bad about making people believe they’re friends. Though it depends, because when the people are assholes there is no need to feel bad about it anyway.
