It’s hard to tell because people talk in the terms of ISK per hour. Are they talking about non-stop or something? I just mined some gas from a cloud in lowsec that was estimated at 27 million ISK, then it took 15+ jumps to get to the trade up to sell it.
Is that considered good money? I often hear people speak of making billions per hour using fleets of carriers in Nullsec, so I wonder if that what I’m making is considered good money or peanuts?
Its a tricky question. Because ppl tend to tell only part of the truth to look like they are better, than other players. Server usually updates your wallet each 20 minutes. Some players call it a ‘tick’. The bigger is the difference in your wallet after update, the more effective your way to ISK is.
Let me give some examples: normal ratting in null (plain orbiting rats in Vexor navy Issue with oversized prop mode ) will upgrade the wallet content somewhere in between 15 and 20 milions per tick. So - 45-60 milions per hour unless you start looting / salvaging. But looting and salvaging takes time.
Ratting in carrier can give you more (people boasting about 250 milions per hour) but there is a trick - you need special type of sides, you will pay for fuel and lost fighters, your time between press ‘undock’ and start appling damage is … large. So reality is, that ‘null 1337 ratter’, who payed with real cash to get into carrier (skill injector and ship itself), will shoot the site , that will give him 30 milions, in 10 minutes. That means 30 * 6 = 180 milions per hour. Awesome. Now other 5 minutes to align/warp/dock/undock/scope fighters etc… Plus strontium calrates or whatever fuel they need to make that thing move … Plus another 10 minutes wait till more sites like that become available. So you are back on 80-100 milions per hour. If you are good. But he will still boast about 180 milions per hour to justify that he spent real money on game, that can be played for free (I do not mean suscription - its another story).
Very similar it is with L4 security mission blitzers, who rush through couple of very effective missions , that gave them good money, but then spend hours to get their standings back. That rush they count, hours to grind standings are not counted.
In reality you are good if you make 100 milions Isk per hour with all trips / dodging gankers etc…
It can be (hardly) achieved in high sec (L4 missions, incursions) , pretty simple in null sec (after you get your carrier right and find empty space where all rats are yours) and very simple in WH (C3 and higher, but you will be ambushed a lot). Null and WH space ratting are ticket to pod way too often, low sec is not for making ISK - it is for PvP fun. Exploration is a gamble. You fly months for low profit, than you get jackpot and make a bilion in 5 minutes.
Only solid source of stable high income is trading, but for me it is boring as nothing else and IMHO not proper way how to play this pew - pew game. But totaly legit and very effective, so if you are not against playing “excel sheets online” instead of “eve online” - feel free to enjoy 0.01 ISK PvP in trade hubs.
Yes, thats what I meant, when people say ISK per hour they mean after the setup in an ideal situation with no gankers or the logistics to and from. It seems a bit silly to make it isk per hour.
Wouldn’t you just rank the activities? Like HS this is better than LS this, but LS is competitive with HS this? And Null this is better than both?
It seems needlessly complicated.
With respect to the need of dodging hostilities in the space, solo activity will give you in:
High sec:
Minig = 20 milions per hour
Security missions = 40-100 milions per hour
Incursions = 100-200 milions per hour (but you need to wait for a fleet to form, so - can be 0 Isk)
Low sec:
Not for solo ISK making. You can do missions, hunt solgers tags NPC or ran combat anomalies but low sec is the place to spend ISK, not to generate them. FW is a very special case, but you can do about 100 millions per hour if you are good in running FW missions, even with occasional ship los to instalock gate camps. But usually, constant disturbance by nomading agressors make low sec unattractive for most of players. You would want to PvE , when you are in the mood for PvE and PvP when you are in the mood to PvP. Of cause you can not avoid PvP from the moment you press ‘undock’, but low sec means you have less ISK for more risk, than anywhere else.
Null sec:
mining - up to 35 milions per hour
ratting - up to 200 milions per hour
C3 WH:
up to 300 milions per hour, but you will spend over an hour to scan / roll / secure the entrance.
I think you get it wrong. Best activity is not ISK per hour but fun per hour. Some players enjoy reach social live of professional miner - no problem with that. You can move to WH with C3 static to get 300 milions per hour but you will suffer every single moment of your PvE in it. Because you will lose the ship and you know that. Becasue you are all alone and sites are very much the same over and over agains (even L4 high sec missions will give you some entertament in random loot tables)
I don’t consider making good money per hour. or per tick. I draw the line at the end of the day. Anything with 10 digits is good money for me, but for someone else it could be different. Up to what you aim I guess.
It’s not impossible to be a merchant and still play fair. There’s much to learn about prices, supply and demand. It’s always a nice feeling when you log in and see some of your offers were accepted by some random players. Even trading can be fun 
My general rule is that I’m making good money if, within a day or two’s time, I’ve made enough with my ship to replace that ship several times over. I fon’t feel the need to min/max my income.
My advice for money is:
But people like to accumulate ISK, it’s just human nature, so ultimately the definition for what’s enough depends on each person.
The game does have one threshold, and that’s 1.6? billion per month, enough to PLEX the account and thus play Omega “for free.” Initially it’s a huge grind and time requirement to achieve this, but some of the money-making activities in-game don’t depend (as much) on time; for example market trading profits are a function of how much is invested (and luck), and the “luck” stuff (theft, scamming, suicide-ganking a shuttle full of PLEX) is based on luck, obv… So, some people set their wealth labels based on that.
As far as capital ships, capitals and supers are intended to be used in fleets that are supported by an alliance, and most alliances have ship replacement programs (SRP’s) to cover the losses during war. Because the ship costs in the billions, and the fittings cost billions, and a lot of the skills have to be maxed out in order to squeeze the last 5% bonuses out of them, required for such expensive ships. So, those who risk these ships flying solo, and lose them, well, that’s their fault.
For ranking the activities, we use ISK per hour because efficiency does increase with skills trained and better ships. “Mining in high-sec” for example, can go from 5 mil / hr to 20-25 mil / hr, depending on the ore mined, the ship used, bookmarks used to minimize travel time, etc. So that’s why people brag with the actual numbers. And yes, per hour is supposed to include travel time, but a lot of us accumulate junk in stations until the weekend, at which point we do some sales / cleaning up, so the “per hour” doesn’t include the whole Saturday wasted hauling stuff to Jita avoiding the gate camps.
This is very true, when I was single, I used to mine in my down time. Lonely… I wasn’t having much fun solo mining as when I was fleeting with others and chatting.
So when no one no one was around, I pull out my scan frig and cruisers and start working sites to pass the time. Before I knew it I had a billion in change.
As long as you having fun.
Where I live good money is around $20 an hour. 15 will get you by if you have a side hustle.
Grinding sucks and should be avoided if possible. If you have enough to lose a few ships and not worry you’re ok for money.
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