EDIT: I want to keep a running “career tech tree” edited at the top of this post as a quick-reference for new players. Credit to all contributions in replies below. This is what I got so far with partial credit to: Wyk Bathana
Get Scanner ship, basic outfit, should cost about 700k isk.
Scan sites, earn isk through data/relics.
Get comfortable exploring wormholes 1-hop deep.
Get Venture and gas mining.
“The isk must flow.”
Not really the end-all-be-all but it is the easiest way to increase your playability! So, what’s the best way to grab all that cheddah?
Small shameless self-promotion here: I do want to develop BETTER tutorials for how to quickly become an advanced scanner. Because I think hands down it’s the best career for newbs.
I watched a lot of videos for how much isk-per-hour could be made doing certain things, I confirmed in game that scanning for sites definitely reaches ~10mil/hr for sure.
Pros:
~10mil/hr income
Capital costs very low, I got that income in a 680,000 isk Imicus.
No risk. If my 680,000 isk Imicus blows-up, well I paid for about 9 in an hour.
Cons:
None because virtually no risk.
Now, for newbs, what do you think is the best source of isk and why?
yes you are right, explo is a good way to earn isks for new players
i would also suggest
salvaging wrecks after more experimented players have killed npcs
ninja mining gas in wormholes, as it only requires a venture and the skill for gas mining
Industry, and trading require some investment, and, imo, are good for older players with some isks in the wallet
but i would strongly suggest to all new players to think differently. If you focus on the isk/h ratio, eve becomes a job. The best activity in eve is the activity you LIKE the most, which gives you the largest fun. You like trading? do it, even if you earn less isks than with explo or ratting. You like mining? do it. Etc
Or you willget bored and stop playing
Finally, remember that in eve everything is situational, and there is no “best” thing: best ship, best fit, best way to earn isks, because the answer is “IT DEPENDS”’.
If you are a new player you can still join a null sec alliance, or a FW corp, or live in hi-sec, or a wormhole corp etc. So “BEST” way to earn isks will depend on that.You live in null sec? people ratting in carrier will let you salvage their sites and you will earn 30M/h. etc
data/relics are more or less consistent with their payout. Combat anoms/signatures can lead to an escalation where you have a chance for faction/deadspace loot so payout depends on luck.
I see a bunch of combat sites though, but pass them over because I am in an unarmed boat. Not sure, should we add to the career path above that once you are capitalized, you can go Ninja gas, or you can go Combat anoms/sigs?
Exploration (data/relic) and combat exploration are two different things.
What MS Steak said. With data/relic you get general idea about your profit while combat exploration is pure gamble and rng. Sometimes you find nothing sometimes you get few hundreds of millions in one lucky spawn. What I like about this type of exploration is that reward is not consistent. You don’t get that feeling you are grinding for best isk/h since you cant calculate it. You log in in your free time, scan few systems, finish escalations and sometimes you are rich sometimes not. You just enjoy your time in game not grind isk.
My daily routine is to do trip of 10-15 systems clearing all sites, anomalies that can have commander spawn or escalation. On next day I go for escalations in hisec for previous day also scanning every system between escalations. If I cant do all of them in my game time I finish other escalations next day until chain ends or I get bored.
Anyway, for 3-4h per day in about 2-3 days I get minimum 500 mil of isk when really unlucky. But generally I end few day trip with bilion or more.
Also know about competition. People steal sites, commanders, loot etc. So you must be person that wont rage quit when someone just take all your loot in last second when you spend 30 mins in complex.
Give some specific questions if want to know something more. It’s hard for me to explain everything “just like that”.
You can do almost anomaly in hisec (hideaways, burrows, refuges, dens) with destroyer you get from career agents. Just fit it with meta guns, good tank. With some flying experience (knowledge how avoid damage, control agro) you can farm them for few days. If lucky you get commander spawn with nice loot (several dozens of isk at least) for you start in new eden.
Ninja gas needs 30 mil isk for skillbook, understanding how survive in wh etc. not so great for rookie if you ask me.
Industry is nice for semi passive income when you start easily manage your logistics. But T1 production give no profit (thanks everyone who think that minerals he mine are free/don’t have value). Expect some T1 rigs. T2 production is where you get isk and avoid building ships. They are really hard to trade. Also, pure “cooking” stuff is half of your income. You must understand trading in eve to get maximum from industry.
About trade… This two videos can explain you a lot about station trading and trading in general video 1video 2. From that, google is your best friend for other guides. I will send you small bonus in private message.
Oh, I almost forgot. PI (planetary interactions) is one of best passive income in EVE. I don’t have much experience here so someone else must explain more.
Because they sell stuff below production costs. They don’t take into account materials price need for construction and think everything they produce from mined minerals is profit. No mater of price of final product. (I’m really bad at explaining things)
You get blueprint, use it in industry window, bring needed materials and click start. I bet you can find some tutorials on YT.
You can. But its not best idea especially if you just starting. Remember: EVE is your sanbox, play it like you want.
Cooking means producing. Many industry people say that something is “in cooker”. When under production.
15 years ago, i joined eve, i came here form another game. I did not like pve, i was not ready to pvp. What hooked me and seriously opened so many opportunities was mining. Its a great profession to play with.
I had a friend who joined eve and got really into pvp quickly.
The best first profession in eve is whatever lets YOU have the most fun. Remember, eve is a game, looking at as a way to get the most money possible as fast as possible, unless you find that fun, you will most likely have a bad time.
The advice about salvaging can actually work with very little investment:
How to salvage efficiently as part of a nullsec block:
You join a big nullsec block, get a destroyer or exploration frigate (they get a bonus for salvaging modules), fit it for salvaging and put 2-3 MTUs in it’s hold. Then go to their ratting systems. Nullsec blocks often have dedicated channels where the people in the big ships post the anomaly they currently clear. They do that to avoid warping into each other, which only costs time and may even result in unwanted bumping.
You join that channel, and sit on the undock of a citadel and bookmark the anomalies as soon as they get posted, either from within your probe window or from the sensor overlay directly in space. The advantage of that is that you can dscan the anomaly with a 5° angle and see when the ratting-ship leaves the site. (set dscan to 5°, hold down your dscan-button and double click at the anomaly in the probe scanner window to scan in it’s direction, the site has to be in range of your scanner.)
When the ratting ship leaves the site, it usually despawns shortly after - that is why you need to bookmark them beforehand. When a site has despawned you can still warp to your bookmark where the wrecks should still be around for you to salvage. Depending on how active the ratters are, you may have multiple despawned sites you could clear. In that case it’s a good idea to drop multiple MTUs at those locations. The MTUs will collect all the wrecks in one spot while you are working in a different salvage-field.
Usually the people in the big ships won’t mind if you go for the salvage as a new player. It’s still a good idea to ask in the ratting channel if you can salvage their wrecks.
Worth mentioning:
Nullsec entities often offer a buyback program for salvage, so if don’t want or have a market you can sell the salvage to, you could sell it directly to your corp/alliance.
A thing to keep in mind: Wrecks despawn after 1 hour. Usually that’s enough time to get them.
Don’t forget to pick up your MTUs afterwards. You can scan them down again with combat probes, but it’s still a hussle you can avoid with clever bookmark management.
If people are ratting in Titans - never warp to a site when you see one on dscan - they use a “BOSON” doomsday, which is an area of effect weapong that does not know friend or foe, it just deals massive damage to everything within it’s reach - including you if you would happen to land there.
P.S.: You may not get access to ratting-channels right from the start. After all, those channels make it pretty easy to awox people - awoxing descripes the act of killing people in your own alliance, corporation or coalition (people that are “blue” to you).
But if you know hot to dscan, you don’t really need these channels anyway and can find the ratters directly in space.
P.P.S.: DaReaper has good point there: I would also not recommend to just go for the activity and grind that results in the most ISK - at least not if you don’t have fun doing so. At least I play a computer game to have fun while doing it, not to have “second job” - but that’s why salvaging in t1 ships can be so attractive. You spend maybe 10-20 million it and are ready to go. After a couple of sites you should have earned back your investment.
as several people said to you in this thread: focusing on isk/h ratio is not a good thing. Focus on fun/h
eve is not a job
Do explo if you like it, and at the end of the day you will be happy. We don’t care if you get 20M/h or 10M or what you want. After a while (not for new players), all non-pvp activities are, ON AVERAGE, grosso modo equivalent. For me in null, ratting, mining, explo etc => 100M/h (on average ). I love explo, maybe i could earn more doing something else (for example ratting in a supercarrier), but i would get bored after one hour
Furthermore, explo is very sensitive to luck/RNG, and you can sometimes hack a site with 100M inside, and after that nothing for two hours. So if you are searching for a steady income, you will get frustrated when you don’t find anything whereas you have scanned 150 cosmic sigs in 15 whs… So do it for fun, not for isks
Understanding trading can give you more income. Producing and selling in Jita wont give you great margins. But if you find customer who will pay more for your product (pvp hubs, incursions, null corps etc.) you can make much more form industry.
