Hey.
I am new to the game and I’m quite enjoying the experience. However, how do you effectively make ISK in this game? Everything costs money and it’s not so clear what is an effective way to make money.
I did the tutorial and then after asking around I ended up joining faction warfare. However, I got my ship blown up and I am just flying around with not much to do.
What would be an effective way for new players to make ISK?
Thank you
Q#1: How do you want to make ISK?
Combat
Market
Mining
Hauling
PvE Missions
Exploring
etc…
HINT: Do something you WANT to do…then figure out how to make ISK doing that. Don’t make ISK the reason, make it the reward for doing it well.
The issue, I think, is that I don’t know what to do. I am in an exploration phase at the moment, and it takes money to ‘explore’.
I tried fw as I have been told that it is accessible. You can join fleet and be given ships. While that is true, you kinda have to wait around for a fleet to run…
I wanna try exploration but that takes some money to buy an exploration ship.
There is no direction really.
Ok so then take that route. You can start with a cheap Heron and T1 gear for under 1M. If you don’t have that then just run a few simple missions first. Hauling is VERY easy to get a bit of cash quick.
For a new player, I don’t recommend FW until a bit later. You need ISK for that.
For exploring, check YouTube first too…
EDIT: If you want a little ISK injection I’ll gladly give you a bit to bypass the missions
Try that
How does hauling work?
Get contract from NPC, pick-up, drop off. Pay is tiny but you get LP rewards that can then be traded in for good which then can be traded for ISK.
Don’t expect good of ISK though until LvL4 missions. But it’s easy, cheap and safe…ships are cheap too.
Edit: this is the basic NPC hauling but there are other options for players with a bit more time in
ps…dinner, back in a bit
yeah I think I will try exploration.
Thx a lot for all the help.
Post an answer regarding ISK and I’ll take care of that when I return later…
Fly safe,
I remember the feeling - pootling around scrabbling bits of income together to buy a bigger ship.
Options. There are always options and it really depends on what you enjoy and want to do long term.
Mining: slow steady income. Time consuming. Reasonably peaceful in a “watch the rocks zen” sort of way. I mine to relax rather than income.
Mission running. At the Level 1, level 2 point it’s not a huge earner. Loot and salvage wrecks for a bit more income. Trade off your LP for additional income.
It starts to work for you when you are doing higher (3&4) missions. You can team up with others to run more difficult missions as a new player.
Exploration. Can be profitable. Especially if you are willing to take a risk. High risk, potentially good profit. But remember to pay attention - hunters will also like the contents of your cargo hold (and your scalp). Wormholes often have good loot, but it’s dangerous in there. Pay attention and learn how to scan and watch d-scan as well. Don’t push your luck too hard. That nice shiny is only worth ISK if you can get it to the market.
Trade: profitable if you know what’s what, but can require some capital to start.
Manufacturing: profitable, but again knowledge of what is worthwhile. T1 manufacturing can make you some income - it’s where I started - the real money is in the more complex stuff.
Some of the PvE activities are steady earners - Abyssal runs - a modest T1 cruiser can do the Tier 1 Abysses - and you can make 3-4m ISK from one run.
There are groups that run the more complex content, killing FOBs and so forth.
Emerging Conduits will require you to joing a fleet and sharing the (quite reasonable) loot and rewards.
A bit of piracy…
Ratting - killing NPCs for their bounties.
Join a corporation. They can often help either with support for ships or by helping with ISK earning activities. Don’t join just for the income, join for the friendship. Friends help.
I would love some free money 
ofc
After the Tutorial you should have been directed to a Career Agent. There’s 5 different Career Agents that offer about 10 missions each, rewards are various ships, equipment and ISK.
you can fit a t1 explorer ship quite cheaply, you will need to invest a few skills in order to hack the cans more effectively and from best to worse try doing it in the following locations wormhole > null > low sec > high sec… anything other than high sec is dangerous, especially WH so read up before delving in.
Steal stuff in Jita and/or elsewhere. You only risk a cheap frigate at most. Just make sure you learn the crimewatch mechanics and get used to escaping sticky situations… and also dying in the process. Worst case you lose a couple of frigates but learn valuable lessons quick, best case you grab a good amount of ISK worth of loot, or something in between. 
steal from whom?
In Jita people get ganked, people fight eachother and so on, you can grab their loot if you are vigilant, quick and lucky and might even escape safely with some practice.
Just sent you a little seed money. It’s not a lot but at you stage of the game that’s enough.
You want to earn your keep in EVE…this is just a little helping hand past some of the boring T1 missions.
GL!
ps. Tip #2: Read and watch as much as you can BEFORE you commit to something bigger
There are a LOT of abandoned drones in lowsec. You can scoop those up in anything, even a free corvette.
You can make about 6m isk per hour (with zero investment/risk) by doing project discovery.
Hauling missions, even up to Level 4 really don’t pay much more than peanuts… if you do get an interest in hauling, you can talk to a couple of the hauling corps like pushX or red frog.