EVE Online Rookie Guide – A Beginner’s Guide to EVE

EVE Online has a reputation for having a steep learning curve, and this reputation is well earned. While newer, more detailed tutorials have made easing into the enormous world of EVE less frightening, the sheer volume of information contained in these tutorials can bewilder even the savviest capsuleer. Without a proper introduction, many rookies make mistakes that can slow their progress or frustrate them into quitting. This guide aims not to replace the information contained in those tutorials, but to outline thse common mistakes, point out important bits of information that may seem obvious but are often overlooked, and to help rookie players start their path to riches and greatness with as much smoothness as possible.

Character creation in EVE Online can be daunting. There are a lot of choices and not many explanations. Don’t be alarmed. This has less bearing on your future in EVE than you would think, and is largely for flavor and feel. Your faction may have some bearing on the future of your career – for example, the Caldari have access to good miners earlier than the other factions and some minerals can only be found in Amarr space – but nothing is set in stone. Your best bet is to listen to the short introduction for each race, read the descriptions of the bloodlines, and choose what appeals to you most, either as a career path or for roleplay. Another important note is that while people can see your character portrait, more often they will see your ship, which you never exit, so don’t stress overmuch over your appearance.

After character creation, you will find yourself in a shiny new ship near a station deep within the territory of the faction that you chose. You will soon be taken through a simple to tutorial that will explain to you most of what you need to know to pilot your new ship – however, there are some things that will help you through these first few missions. The most important thing that you should know starting out is that the right button is your best friend. Right clicking is space will bring up a menu of options including all of the stations, planets, asteroid belts and stargates in the system. This menu will also contain any locations for whatever mission you are currently on and allows you to place bookmarks if you need to return somewhere quickly. Right-clicking on an object will allow you to target, orbit, approach and lock on to whatever you have clicked on. Though the left button is useful, if you are ever in doubt, use the right one. In addition to this, make sure that you click and familiarize yourself with everything on your HUD. The tutorial will take you through this, but it is important to emphasize this – you will want to know where your cargo, scanner, shields and fittings are.

After completing the initial tutorial, you will be given the option of completing a number of career tutorials. The agents for these tutorials can be contacted at any time through the help page on your sidebar. They will take you through the basics of combat, mining, production, salvaging and trade – the most important advice that anyone can give you is to do all of these tutorials. They will provide you will skills, isk and important information. You will also not want to buy a new ship, though you may be tempted to. Though your instinct is to upgrade, these tutorials will provide you with several new ships, up to and including destroyer and industrial class vessels. If you exercise patience, you will find yourself quite a bit richer at the end. The order in which you do the tutorials is unimportant, and feel free to jump around if a mission is too difficult. By the end of these tutorials you should have a couple million isk, a large number of skills and skill books and several ships to choose from

The end of the career tutorials – which should take you no more than a day or two to complete, if that – marks the end of the truly necessary beginner missions. There are more missions to be done for various factions: working for the Sisters of Eve can be very profitable, or you can begin to earn loyalty points by doing missions for a certain faction. You are also free to begin mining, trading, producing or pirating, though it may be some time before you are effective at any of these professions. Some general tips for what happens next:

Avoid low-sec and null-sec space at first. These are systems that are marked 0.0-0.4. You can be attacked by others players in PvP here and they will not be forgiving merely because you are new. Wait until you have a stronger or faster (or more expendable) ship and until you are aware of the risks.

Join a corporation. There are many corporations (similar to guilds) that will be willing and even happy to help new players get started and may provide you with money, skills, ships and assistance. It is also through a corporation that you will do most of your long-term advancement in EVE.

That's all there is to starting out in EVE Online. Though it has a reputation for being difficult, most of this is because of the openess of the world - there is no set path to follow. Once you've got your bearings, however, there is a great deal to do! Hopefully this guide has helped you on your way to becoming the next great captain of industry or fleet commander. Good luck!