Howdy,
Don’t want to read the details and just want the quick version? Read this TLDR - otherwise continue reading below.
TLDR;
Do:
- the Project Discovery “thing” (for money),
- the first part of the Easter Egg Hunt event (for Dscan lessons) and
- the Triglavian Reputation “Trick” (for thrills, maybe loot and bypassing evil AI that will take everything you own with no explanation).
Long version;
If you, like me, are a new player to EvE that feel lost and often get the advice from current players that, while well-meaning, basically boils down to “do the tutorials”, “do the Sisters of Eve Epic Arc” and “do what you want to do” - here’s some advice that might help you out as it did me.
You probably should do all those things the friendly community suggest but the problem I found is that EvE is this sandbox game and cool youtube videos and stories from current players pulled me in and made me want to do cool stuff - but the tutorial taught me to push a blue button that does (almost) everything for me, taking the learning experience away from me.
The Sisters of EvE epic arc was a pretty dull affair that, sure it gave me some money, but again the blue button was helpful but also took away a lot of the learnings.
The end of the arc also scales unevenly and pits you against a situation that is difficult for all the wrong reasons and once you figure it out / read the solution it is a tedious event that had me browse youtube for other people having fun playing EvE while I wasn’t.
So - I want to share some advice that helped me do the equivalent of taking my first steps in New Eden.
Note: You will have to use your Google Fu skills and find tutorials for stuff - it’s the best lesson. I assume you will fill in the blanks from the below yourself. You can do it, we believe in you!
- Money
Getting money in EvE isn’t necessarily hard, but it is confusing if you are new. There’s this thing called “Project Discovery” and is some sort of cooperation with Covid research scientists:
“New players will go through character creation and the EVE Online tutorial. When they’ve finished learning the ropes, they can access Project Discovery through the Neocom menu and participate by clicking on the double helix logo.”
Basically, it gives you money for making simple polygons around colorful dots and you can do some of these every day while sitting in your station. And you help science - awesome deal!
- How to use Dscan
While the tutorials will show you some very basic things, it often does so by having you click a big blue button at the top left of your screen. It will initiate conversations, set destinations, warp you to places etc. You won’t learn how to do it yourself and while you should probably go through it, it will leave you scratching your head as you didn’t get to do anything yourself really.
It also won’t teach you Dscanning to any extent really, which is a shame.
During easter, there is an event called “The Hunt” and it will pop up a notice about easter egg hunting on the left of your screen.
You want to do the very first part of that as it will have you use Dscan to locate tiny capsules in the vastness of space. It’s tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it (and you will) you actually learn something useful!
I found it great because here’s what you need:
- A ship - any ship - probably a frigate (since we don’t have a lot of skills yet).
- A festival launcher and some fireworks ammunition (you can find this at a market, the bigger hubs are easier. Search for “Fireworks Package”).
- An AfterBurner (“AB”) or a MicroWarpDrive (“MWD”) that fits your chosen ship.
- Whatever cheap weapon your ship has a bonus to (read the ship Description to know which category then pick the cheapest weapon available with compatible ammo).
Fit everything to your ship, Insure the ship with the platinum insurance and then undock.
I’ve found that Dscan is easy to use, hard to master. You can set a search distance (1AU to 14AU) and search angle (360 degrees to 5 degrees). Basically what you want to do is set it to max distance, max angle and then scan until you find a capsule called “Mysterious [color] capsule”.
There are pink, blue, green etc versions of the capsules. Fly around between planets, moons, asteroid belts by warping in at 100kms and use Dscan. Once what you are looking for shows up, lower the distance on Dscan to find out roughly how far away it is, then start using the angle to narrow down a direction.
There are great guides on how to do this properly. But eventually you’ll find a capsule. Target it, shoot some fireworks at it when in range and then shoot it to destroy and loot it.
Note: Some players will try to name themselves as these capsules to make you shoot them. It’s ok, we’re new and worth basically nothing and dying is gonna happen sooner or later anyway. From what I know you can tell by targeting the capsule and if you see a portrait of a face in the targeting screen - it’s a player. You can also tell via the Dscan results but you’ll get there.
Note: Careful about doing anything else on the Hunt event, as it’s in no way new player friendly. Unless you have friends but then again, they are doing the event while you are tagging along - up to you if it is worth it. I take no responsibility for anything that happens, good or bad.
- Applying your knowledge by getting reputation with the Triglavians and Edencom
So what is a Triglavian and Edencom?
Have you ever played a game where there are NPC guards outside a place and as soon as they see you then run up and kill you? Well, think of the Triglavians and Edencom as these guards.
They are new factions added to EvE recently and they pop up in space to kill everything with no real warning. This happens in high sec and so, you could die to this with no chance of fighting back.
The Triglavians are the real headaches as players start the game with them as enemies and they will shoot you on sight.
But there is a solution to it and it involves utilizing the dscan and basic fitting we’ve learned from doing the Easter Egg Hunt. It’s also pretty scary, fun and in some cases lucrative.
Here’s what you will need:
- A ship that isn’t expensive to you (Never fly something you cannot replace 2-3 times over), so probably a frigate.
- A speed of at least 2100m/s (probably means a MicroWarpDrive).
- A targeting range of 70+ km.
- A way of damaging the thing you targeted at 70+ km (I suggest drones) and EM damage.
- Something called “Filaments” for an area called “Pochven” (this is where the Triglavians live, everything wants to kill you and you can’t use warp gates so expect a one-way trip unless you get lucky). You will need at least 1 for going into Pochven but the ones to get back out aren’t expensive so worth a try.
- You need to kill a specific enemy which will give you a little bit of standing with the Triglavians and Edencom, making them friendly to you.
Here’s a good guide [How to Get Dual Standings with Edencom and the Triglavians](Shipwreck Jones Dual Standings Guide)
I recommend creating your own fit though, ideally using Pyfa, but it’s up to you if you want to learn the hard way or the slow way. It won’t be good, but you’ll feel a nice sense of accomplishment.
Result:
So, after this long winded post here’s what I found out doing the above.
I learned how to do basic ship fitting, how to do basic Dscanning, how scary space can be which is actually quite fun, how to use bookmarks to avoid dying horribly, basic understanding of the market, basic understanding of forming a fleet, got to experience some sneaky sides to players, earned some isk and more.
This is stuff that the tutorials won’t really show you.
In the end, I got lucky and on my first plunge into Pochven I barely managed to get out of a fight and fled to a nearby location where I found wrecks full of loot. It was around 17 mil isk which basically doubled my net worth, paid for the trip and ship and absolutely made me think positively about this whole thing. I luckily had a filament to let me get back to “normal space” and managed to, on the edge of my seat, make the 27 jump travel back to my home system.
I’m not a veteran or expert player. There’s a lot I don’t know. But I do know that CCP accidentally made these things that created a better tutorial than the tutorials they have now and I recommend you as a new player to try this out, even if you die and come out empty handed.
Fly safe o7