Returning player bamboozled by ISK options

PvE Gameplay Center Missions
#1

Hey,

I’ve been back in the game for about a month after being out for 5-6-7-8 years (not sure how long).

I’m delighted to see that there are so many ISK making opportunies now but I wanted a little more ‘specific’ advice and hoped that I could get some help here. To be honest I just don’t know where to start with all of the options.

Essentially I have returned to Eve to PvP (lowsec) and need to fund that. To be fair, sometimes I do simply enjoy missioning too and my main (Barrak here) is a very high SP pilot that is practically L5’s on all Battleship stuff down on all races and circa L4 in specialised weaponary for the relevant races (but certainly L5 on non spec)

In short he is a carebear’s wet dream. 117,000,000 in combat skills. Not boasting as I know this is pitiful against other long term players.

My secondary pilot (other account) is circa 100,000,000. Similar sort of setup but a bit more in fleet support and scanning.

I want to know what the best source of ISK for me will be.

I’ve been running anoms/comabt sites in a reasonably expensive Vedmak but the drops are incredibly sporadic. Thus anom/cs are not ticking my box. I can play for 2/3 hours and end up with a few mill from killing rats… just not worth it.

My play times are equally sporadic so what I’m looking for is something that delivers more of a 'Play for X and get Y" where X is time and Y is reward.

  • Given my skill set; combat seems the right answer rather than data etc but happy to consider it.
  • Ideally solo play so I can put no.2 into lowsec and not drag him around but if dual boxing is best I can do that (when my new monitor arrives). This’ll be ISK efficiency. If it’s worth dragging him out of lowsec for 2/3 days of PvE then that’s fine.
  • Happy to do my own research once I know ‘what’ I should be researching but a few tips here would be amazing.

I’ve been looking at some Abyssal videos but they’re quite old and don’t really go into how much you can make per hour. And many of them are geared towards newer players where perhaps my SP may dramatically change what I should be doing.

I’ve got enough ISK to purchase something reasonably special to start my new endevour (and can sell the vedmak)

Barrak:
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No.2:
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#2

Try abyssal pve. You need good skills and to understand what you are doing. But apart from that, they can be run literally from jita, although doing it 2-3 jumps out of jita is safer. I suggest you try it first on the test server before jumping into the abyss on the live server.

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#3

Thanks AM.

A couple (it’s more but if i say ‘a couple’ you’re more likely to read them :grinning:) of following up questions

  • I’ve never been on the test server. Is that something I need to download or is it available from the launch windows?
  • Does your suggestion mean that you think Abyssal is the best for my setup?
  • I was watching solo Abyssal videos this morning. If solo’ing is the Gila the best setup for my stats?
  • How do I even get into them? Do I need to purchase the ‘things’ that open space?

On a side note I think I’ve seen you in Guristas space in Anom/Combat sites.

Thanks for the speedy response!

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#4

Yeah, you need fillaments. I will leave a discord link for abyssal runners discord. Abyssal Lurkers. They are a great community that will surely help a lot. Other resources are https://abyss.eve-nt.uk. On that second one you will see the most popular ships to run abyssals with and you can even find fits.

The test server can be accessed from the eve launcher, bottom right theres an arrow next to where it says tranquility. Select singularity. Know that singularity has tons of down times.

If you think you are a big boy and you are good at multi-boxing, then this is the dream. Eve Online - T6 Abyssal Retributions 900M/hour in 200m setup (Electrical) - YouTube and Eve Online - T6 Dark Frigates - Bomber in the Abyss 1B/hour in 120M setup - YouTube.
Gilas are basically the king of cruiser abyssals. Just don’t do dark filaments with a gila.

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#5

Thanks very much for the reply.

I’ll check out the discord and get those videos on asap!

This looks really promising. My main is generally L4/5s in ewar (paiters inc) and L4 spec torps.

Only issuing being… am I a big boy? :dizzy_face:

#6

All that stuff sounds incredibly balanced.

#7

Didn’t notice the tripple boxing… sadly beyond me.

However I will continue to explore the Abyssals and look for dual setup and see if I can make that work

#8

Just wanted to note, if you changed your password since oct 21 2020, you can’t access the test server unless you use your old password

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#9

IMO no need in any special prepping for abyssal, why bother with test server, whatever. Calm (level 1) run can be easily done in T1 cruiser (myself used Stabber going into the Abyss for the first time today), just shoot the red rats as usual destroy and loot the trig “caches” - they are visible, level 1 loot unimpressive in my experience but I skipped some of them because of the need to watch the 20-min timer (visible, too) as it runs out pretty fast and some of their weird structures can cause trouble but they are visible too and sit aside. With your skills and ships your can start higher than level one, unlikely to have any trouble.

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#10

With that many skillpoints you likely have skills you wish you could get rid of - you can now, extract them and sell them. Instant isk.

  • Buy yourself some skill extractors, fill them up, sell the skill injectors that they then become.
  • You now have made several billion isk and didn’t have to grind at all, go do what you want.
  • Now that you’re brimming with easy isk, send me some for saving you so much grinding time.
    07
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#11

lv4 burner missions or abyssal pve seem like great options. both are great with frigate to cruiser skills. Frigate/cruiser 5s, and t2 small/med guns are great.

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#12

Don’t extract your skill dude.

Some PvE activities include the abyss, incursions, mission running (follow a blitzing guide or don’t bother), and exploration. Do note that you’re not going to make a lot from running combat anoms in HS. Faction spawns are rare, and usually don’t drop much. However the escalations can be lucrative. Of course, they’re also rare (and you have to run the right anoms to even be able to get them). Thus, a better choice might be to scan down ded sites directly.

Anyway, there are a ton of tutorial videos on youtube. so check them out for more details.

#13

Why not?
A character that old has probably trained skills they no longer want. Those skills are just sitting there and won’t be used. i.e. Old mining skills one trained at one time but are very unlikely to use again seem to be popular to extract.

#14

It’s not going to be a sustainable source of income for him, he’s not sure what he wants to do, and he’s been away from the game for a while, so he might discover that his ship preferences have changed. I think all of this increases the chance that he’ll suffer remorse from extracting.

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#15

@Xuxe_Xu I’ll have a little look on some of my alts but my characters tend to be very specifiic. I calculated this previously and I think Barrak here was something like 98.7% combat skills… though there may be a few I can eek out.

@Chainsaw_Plankton I’ll take a closer look at Burner missions. Q.Are those the same as the ‘old’ missions?. Essentially that was what Barrak was created for. Hence the high carebear count (missiles). I was reading that Torps are amazing now and I’m L4 Specialised in them.

@Shipwreck_Jones I’m following guides on youtube where I run a limited amount of ones that already appear on the scanning (not sure on terminology).

Some of those are highlighted to escalate better. Though I am looking for the ones that I have to scan.

Though this is what I refer to in my earlier message. It’s just to hit and miss. I’m sure on ‘average’ it works but I want some sort of satisfaction when I turn Eve off on an evening. They’re also crowded. I created a route that took me a little further away from the main hubs and need to test that.

Last thing… I feel like I’m on youtube more than I’m in game at the moment just trying to work out whats going to get my interest.

Thanks for the feedback so far.

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#16

Yeah, some people like unpredictability and getting those big paydays, other prefer knowing exactly what you’re going to get. And I feel you on the videos. Hopefully you’ll figure out something that works for you, so you can spend more time playing, and less time researching. Of course, you can always learn through experience. Might not be the most efficient way to learn, but it’s often a lot more fun.

#17

Might I interest you in some Abyssals? No need to go full bore right off the bat, grab a frig and do some t1s solo to get a taste for it. If you like it you might find yourself running T5s or T6s in no time.

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#18

@John_Solas Thanks for the offer on this.

I did try 4 last night. I got to talk to two really helpful players; Relentless Thiesant and Zuul Achura (who tops some of the leaderboards). I took out a buffer Ishtar (never flown one before so that was interesting). It was a slow boater (no prop) so could only really collect the main stash apart from the last room.

Not sure how random these things are but in 4 x T2’s I took just 25Mill. The extra cans I did pull in at the end of each room were between 500k and 1m so I don’t think dragging them all in would make a difference.

Given my SP (not mentioning anything about acutal skills here) I think the higher Teirs will be where I need to aim.

Going to try the same Ishtar but with a Prop (AB/MWD) and see how that goes. I’m sure I can drop some buffer for speed which will then work better on the transversals.

When I’m on I’ll be in the Abyssal Lurkers channel. Can I find you there?

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#19

Yeah I’m usually hanging around that channel though it’s getting late for me. I’ve mostly been focused on soloing T2 abyssals in assault frigs and trying out the different HACs for higher tiers. Came back to the game recently myself and I’m still getting used to the drones pulling so much aggro but despite that the Gila and Ishtar are really great. If you’ve got the skills for a Vagabond or Sacrilege they are also viable options at higher tiers. The loot at T2 in a cruiser is going to be pretty horrible so dont let that dissuade you from abyssals in general before punching up some.

#20

You say “… loot at T2 in a cruiser is going to be pretty horrible…” Would the loot be better if I was in a Frigate?